One more month and I will be talking to you all

I can’t believe that I will be talking to you all in one month. So crazy. I can’t believe how fast time passes. It’s crazy. Also I will have been out six months this week. One year left. Man time goes fast. I don’t like the thought of the one year left. I want more time! This time next year I will be home!  What the heck!? 

So this week has been a little bit of a struggle with Hna. But I’m getting there slowly but surely. I learned that on a mission I can’t go run whenever I want. To help with the feeling of annoyance…I clean. So the house is really clean right now and all my clothes, so that’s a plus. But I love my area and the people so much. The only good thing about Hna Lopez leaving is I realized how much Spanish I really do know and how well I do know the area. 

This week was stake conference. Saturday night we went to a session. The president of the stake said there is going to be three stakes in HueHue. Chills ran through my body when I heard that. Guatemala is such a beautiful country with even more beautiful people. Yesterday the conference was a satellite broadcast. The seventy from Guatemala spoke as well as the primary president. Elder Scott spoke Spanish…it wasn’t translated for him and Elder Eyring spoke. It was really good session. It was only for the people in Guatemala. Which is cool!

This week I thought we were going to have a baptism for Hna Tomasa. We had such a spiritual experience with her. We were all crying but she didn’t accept, but hopefully for this Saturday. Pray for a miracle that it will happen please!  She needs this gospel so badly. 

Yesterday a member invited us over for hot chocolate and a super delish treat that were kind of like pancake puppies from Denny’s. It’s the sister in law of the president of the stake and we talked with them and got to know them a bit better…it was cool. I love that family! It’s always great to share with them. 

This week was kind of boring not a lot happened. But I hope all is well with you all. Pray for me to have more love. I am so blessed to be serving my mission. I love it so much. Probably the best thing that happened to me. 

Oh yeah mom I have a picture of you and me in my Book of Mormon and I showed it to various people in the ward. And all the ladies said wooooooow your mom is YOUNG! How old is she? I always ask them how old they think you are? They say 42 or 43.  And when I say your age they all don’t believe me and ask, what is your secret? One person said your mom looks more like your sister. Everyone things you are absolutely beautiful. I told you mom.  And now I have everyone in HueHue and in La Viña think so too. If you need evidence. jajaja love you all 

con amor y cariño (with love and affection),

Hna lindsie Anderson 

For thanksgiving the guy that owns Zumba the restaurant where I wrote my name on the wall is a member and he lived in Utah.  He is going to make Thanksgiving lunch for all of us. That will rock. The weather here is so nice and warm it doesn’t feel like its Thanksgiving this week.

Oh yeah this week we had another rat in the pila. It was a lot smaller. Now we have something to cover the water so no more rats in the water.... 

This week was good but sucked really bad at the same time

So yeah. I have a new companion. She is really good and wants to work but oh my heck it has been HARD! My companions name is Hna Sanchez. She is really nice but is a little bit of a princess. I feel like she was sent to HueHue to toughen her up a little bit. We took a taxi all the way from Xela to HueHue.  A la gran (oh great) I couldn’t believe it when she told me that. She said she would pay for it, but guess who ended up paying for it?...yup me. She paid for his gas but it ended up being around 200 Quetz…20 something bucks. And it took forever! I never thought I would actually want to be in an autobus. We were in a trio just for the ride over to bring Hna Dominquez to her new companions. We had a big confusion with her companions but everything turned out ok. My companion is from Peru and she was in Xela for six months. She left the CCM the day before I entered, so we basically came out about the same time. Her trainer was the nurse that made my appointment for the dentist that I didn’t end up having. This nurse has problems with listening and it turns out my companion is a lot like her.  My companion went to the president’s house last Monday and asked him not to be changed or moved. All she wants is to return to her first area. So she is sad basically…aaaaaaaaaalllll the time, which is hard. I’m trying to put my best foot forward trying to be happy and at the same time trying to serve her. But it’s hard especially since I miss Hna Lopez like crazy bad! But it’s ok. I’m doing ok. I’m just trying to work. When I’m working I’m not sad. But Wednesday the day after changes I forgot in the morning that we had changes and I almost yelled GOOD MORNING HNA LOPEZ (what day is it today?) que dia es hoy? vamos a correr. And that is when my heart broke when I realized it wasn’t Hna Lopez. That was probably one of the worst moments on my mission. Yes I had hard times with Hna Lopez but she is absolutely amazing. Without her I realized how much I learned from her and how great of an example she was for me. One good thing is without Hna Lopez I realized I really do understand a lot of Spanish and I do know a lot of things I didn’t think I knew so that’s been good. So I’m just trying to chug along trying to work when I work it’s all good.

This week was also my companion’s birthday.  I made her breakfast and bought her two cakes, a baby one for the morning and a bigger one for the night. It went pretty well. I think it was kind of hard for her though, which I felt bad about. I really have been trying my hardest to make her feel good. But there isn’t a whole lot I can do. She has to decide to be happy as well.

This week was also the birthday of Emanuel the son of Hna Adela the recent convert. We bought him a cake and went over to visit. We went to the kitchen to eat the cake. And here the tradition is to smash the cake in the face right? Anyways he was joking around with the cake and had it in his hands like he was going to smash it in his face. In this split moment I decided to help him and smashed the cake in his face, it was SO FUNNY!!!!!! We were all dying of laughter. It was so great. He wasn’t mad, he thought it was hilarious and got me back a little bit and put frosty on my face. But it was fun to share with them.

Yesterday we stop teaching Sandra and Leonel. They are leaving for their home in San Marcos and don’t return until January. Which stinks. We had a date for baptism but obviously that’s not going to happen. It hurt. Especially after all the amazing lessons we had with them and how good of friends we all are. Especially since they know this church is true. They know it…they just don’t want to be baptized yet.

One thing that rocked was Tati was here visiting. I love her so much!!!! She made my week so much better. She is the member that helped us with Dorita and because of her Dora was baptized. Tati is an absolute doll. I love her so much! She comes back to HueHue on the 20th of December.  But who knows if I will be here since changes are on the 10th of December.  We will see.

But that’s about all. Sorry my letter is so humdrum. It was a bit of a rough week. But I love the people here and I love this work. I’m so grateful to be here. And I’m so grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ. I don’t know what I would do without it. Because I’m nowhere close to perfect and he understands us exactly. I know this church is true and I know there is always light at the end of the tunnel. Sometimes life is hard but it always turns out fine in the end. Hope all is well with you all thanks for your prayers.

Miss you,

Hna Anderson

p.s.  Just so you know. the weather here is like the middle of august. its a little chilly at night but oh my heck the weather is BEAUTIFUL!   I'm loving it!

Today is a super sad day

Yesterday we found out who has changes. I had a feeling this whole week we were going to have changes. And I felt the whole week it was going to be me or both of us. I did not want it to be my companion and me left here in my area without my companion. There were lots of reasons I didn’t want this to happen, but guess what happen?  My companion has changes and I am going to get a new companion tomorrow. All day today and yesterday I have been on the verge of crying or crying. Like right now I’m trying not to bawl my eyes out. Seriously my companion is an amazing person. And we will always be such great friends. Yes we had our bad moments, but all the great moments are faaaar better than the bad and I learned so much from her. We are so close and so close with the members as a companionship. So everything isn’t going to be the same here.  And I don’t know what going to happen.  The truth is I’m really sad and my heart is broken. When the District leader told us yesterday he started off with a "joke" and then said we both have changes and then said joking…only your companion, which ticked me off so bad. I was sad that we were both leaving, but felt better about that.  But then when I found out it was only my companion, man that just plain sucked. Oh and my dear Hna Lopez has so many clothes but we don’t have too much left to pack. I know the ward will be heartbroken has well. This is tough!  Yesterday I had to give the lesson for principles of the gospel. And I didn’t know that until 5 minutes before. But I gave it on faith and it was totally inspired from Heavenly Father and not my words. And I think He needed me to give the lesson for my benefit.  I know this is a trial of my faith and that all will work out.  It’s just hard to feel happy right now. I just hope my new companion is a good one. And I guess I still have more to learn in the area La Viña, my baby little area.

But other than that this week was really good. We visited with Antonia and Jesus. I am so fascinated by these people! They speak Popti (The Jakaltek /hɑːkəlˈtɛk/ language, also called Popti, is a Mayan language of Guatemala spoken by 9,000 Jakaltek people in the department of Huehuetenango). It’s so cool. Try to look it up on the internet. They taught me and my companion some words and sayings. Antonia went to church with us. On Saturday she said please bring me to church…I want to go. She is so amazing. We also met her sister this week and taught her the plan of salvation too. Antonia wanted us to teach her sister which was awesome. They really are a special family.

Also this week we had a lesson with a lady name Teresa. She is this tiny little thing that has two cute little kids. She also speaks a Mayan dialect as well as her family. So you know you’re in a cool country when you are teaching in the language you are assigned to teach and they don’t understand you or your companion because they don’t speak that much Spanish. What the heck?!    Many times in the day I ask myself where am I? Also it has been a little hard and that is why I am I so blessed? So many people have nothing and I have so much. I just want to give people everything I have. But there is a reason I was born in Utah and born with so many blessings. But I’m just so grateful for the opportunity to be here and to meet such amazing AMAZING people.

Also don’t worry about the drunk lady. We were safe. And I know we shouldn’t have done that, but it turned out to be so funny! She is wasting her life away and the amount that she drinks she might drink herself to death. We were really just trying to help her. She said she wanted the help but her love for the alcohol is so much stronger than the desire to change. Also it breaks my heart when before we would try to visit her and her daughters would say no because she is drinking again. Seriously the saddest thing in the world. But I hope you enjoyed the story anyways. hahaha

We had a ward activity this week…a basketball game with the other wards. Nobody showed up at first but it turned out really fun! One thing that was bad was Maicky the brother of Froley had his graduation party the same night and everyone is HueHue basically knows this family. There were probably 400-600 people at this party. So that is one reason we didn’t have a lot of turn out at the basketball activity…but it was really fun. We also helped Hna Loly…the mom of Maicky and Froley…make tamales and wrap them.  It was fun and I wanted to learn how, even though I don’t like tamales all that much. The mother in law of Hna Loly turned blind about a year ago and she was helping us wrap the tamales. Basically there whole family was there helping to get ready for the party…it was awesome.

Rat story number 3:

This story isn’t as exciting as the others but here we go. The other day my companion went to the pila to wash clothes…and what did she find? A drowned rat. It was disgusting and all the fleas were floating around the head of the rat. It was so nasty and neither of us wanted to take it out. But thankfully a silent prayer was answered and Hna Vicky the owner of the house was up in the area where we wash our clothes and she took it out and washed it. Blessings!!!

Anyways that’s about all this week. I love you all so much thanks for all your prayers and support! Have a wonderful week. Pictures to follow

Much Love

Hna Anderson

Well, Hello There

So this week was crazy just like every week. I have the crazy story. Don’t judge me for what happen in this story my companion and I didn’t have much time to think and so this is what happened. So drinking is a huge problem here. Drinking has destroyed so many people’s life and brains. Seriously some people are nearly impossible to talk to because the alcohol has ruined their brain. Anyways one reference is from one of our members and is basically the town drunk. She is always drunk and we always try to give a spiritual filled lesson and then ask her not to drink for 24 hours. But she is usually a little bit drunk when we teach her so it’s a little hard, but when she isn’t drunk she won’t talk to us. So on Tuesday we told her not to drink for 24 hours and we will return the next day to see how it she is doing. And she agreed to it. Later that day we were talking to a member who lives down the street from her. And we saw her and knew exactly what she was up to. Yup go buy some alcohol. We tried to get her to go back to her house but she wouldn’t, so we walked all the way with her to the liquor store. Thinking she wouldn’t buy it with us there. We asked her, “what about your husband?” (He died and she just wants to be with him again, but she has four children that aren’t super young) anyways so we told her, “do you want to live with your husband again?” You are better than this. You are better than a liquid. But she bought it anyways. So we walked back with her. And she had it in a bag and filled a water bottle with the alcohol. She bought some bread for her family and she was carrying her shopping bags. My companion said can I help you with your bags. And so she gave my companion all the bags including the one with alcohol. We couldn’t believe it. And the whole way back we were praying for the opportunity to get the alcohol away from her. Anyways we entered the house and my companion was like…I need air and left the house with the alcohol. I followed and then we ran for it. The lady was in another room so she didn’t see us leave. We booked it to the church building because I had classes de English. We dumped out the alcohol. The church has a giant gate and the front of it was locked, but the back of the building wasn’t. So we turned to go to the front gate and she was there. Man…did she book it. We put my water in place of the alcohol. My companion and I walked towards her and acted like normal. Then my companion said, “Here is your bottle, I forgot to leave it”. She took it and left, but at the last moment decided to smell what was in it and found it was water. Man…she was mad. At first I was a little stressed about what happened with her, but it was really hilarious the next day. My companion asked, did we break a mission rule? And I said, not that I know of. But then I asked, did we break a law? and she said nope in Guatemala its fine. (hahaha) Anyways we do crazy things to try to better the life of people. Don’t judge. Just laugh. Laugh with me. (We did give her the money it cost for her to buy the alcohol) 

So Halloween here is nothing like Halloween in the U.S. but they have the serenata. And it’s in our area so we passed by SUPER fast and it’s so awesome. There was marimba, singing and dancing and everyone who lived in HueHue was there. It was awesome. And then throughout the whole night bands walked around serenating girlfriends and wives. I didn’t hear anything during the night but it’s for the whole night. But it was cool and the first of November is dia de muertos or day of the dead. Nobody was out this day. Everyone is at the cemetery. Everything was closed. It was crazy and definitely not the best day for teaching but it turned out to be a pretty good day. 

Oh yeah, Halloween we ran into Atonia and Jesus, the awesome investigators from heaven. We talked to them for quite some time. They aren’t originally from HueHue and Spanish isn’t their original language. They learned Spanish when they were little but it’s not their first language. And they spoke it for us. It’s some Mayan dialect I think. I don’t remember what it was called. The spirit was so strong, just talking to them about regular stuff. I felt like I was talking to the descendants of Nephi. It was so awesome. 

You also know you are in an interesting country when during the middle of the lesson your companion tells you lift your foot to find you find a small cockroach underneath your foot. Your companion smashes, it but not hard enough and later its running in the middle of the room towards your pictures of the plan of salvation and then the little boy of the family smashes it and everyone is happy, then the little boys does a little laugh of victory. 

I also learned that lice are black here. Don’t worry I don’t have lice but I learned that because I caught a bug on me and drowned it before lunch at a members house. And we all were discussing what it was. Catching fleas and collecting them is kind of a hobby for me and my companion. I haven’t been eaten alive like usual and haven’t had too many flea bites recently. I think my blood is more chapina (Guatemalan) than American. 

Yesterday we had a reunion with all of the Hermana’s and the sister missionaries that are the leaders of the zone of sisters. It was really good and really spiritually uplifting and we learned a lot. I felt the spirit so strongly. Some of the sisters shared this awesome story about Jesus and the spirit was so so so strong. Also we had a meeting with all the leadership of the different groups in the church. Don’t remember what it called in English. And the stake president was there. He is an awesome dude. I’m kind of scared of him but I always learn so much. And he said this shouldn’t be about the activities we have. This is about the people we have. How we can get the inactive active? Who needs our help? Who needs a calling? How can we help the converts and the people investigating the church? It was so awesome. 

Also on the 1st and 2nd of the month of November everyone eats fiambre. It’s like a bunch of vegetables and random meat and cheese and beans it’s really good it’s a huge tradition here. 

Changes are next week. I don’t know what is going to happen but Heavenly Father knows how I feel and what I need. Also the changes are going to be weird so we will see what happens. Because they are on the 12th of Nov and again on the 10th of December so for four weeks. And then for 8 weeks in December. But I just am putting my total faith in the lord that he will put me and who we will put me with and when. Thanks for all of your prayers. I don’t know what I would do without all your help. You all are the best. Have a wonderful week. Pictures soon to follow some more from last week and from today. 
con amor, 
Hermana Anderson