How lovely it was to see your faces

It was so unbelievably great to talk to you guys on Christmas!!!! But time went by soooooooooo fast talking to you. It felt like a half an hour. But seriously that was probably the greatest gift of all. 

This week wasn’t very productive. Which is hard. When the days aren’t productive that is when the mission is harder. So I’m so glad to be working harder this week and especially the 2^nd week in January. 

But here they celebrate Christmas on the 24^th, so we visited all the neighbors and ate a ton of tamales and ponche which is an absolutely delish drink here. It’s like pineapple papaya sometimes grapes or apples or coconut and its hot and probably one of my favorite things here. I will learn how to make it and we will drink it when I get back. Sooooooooooooooooooo gooood. It really was a wonderful day. 

The 25^th was the best talking to you guys though. Afterwards we helped the Hermana’s move into their new house and then all the missionaries in this area went to eat at the bishop’s house, which takes like 30 minutes to walk to. But it was a delish lunch. We had turkey and stuffing and mash potatoes…the works. Puro norte americano almuerzo. The bishop’s son shared stories about his mission.  He had some crazy stories. Like an Hna packed up in the middle of the night and left her companion to go to the airport to go home. Then after that there wasn’t much to do with the day so we finished helping the other Hna’s unpack then visited more members and stuff. 

But the awesome thing about this week was on Friday we went to the TEMPLE!!!! It was so awesome. I put all your names in. The temple here is gorgeous. I saw the new film… it was in Spanish but I understood it all. The new film is cool. When you actually have to talk in the temple…that part was a little hard in Spanish (Because Lindsie hasn’t been through enough to remember it). But the film I understood perfectly. It was sooooooooo soooooo good to go to the temple. So so so good. The temple here is gorgeous. It’s shorter than most temples so the Moroni on top is HUGE. 

The next day we had a multizona. It was basically the president telling us to repent and do better this year, which we all needed and it was uplifting and helped me a lot. But he really did tell us to repent hahaha. So this new year I have a lot to work on. But the AWESOME thing about the multizona was I got to see my Madre Hna Lopez. Man I love her guts and miss her like crazy. She isn’t doing too well with her companion. Her companion is crazy. But seriously it was so good to see her. We are both huehue-sick and miss it like crazy. I think right now she misses it a little more than me. But oh my goodness it was soooooooooooo good to see her. 

This week we had a very very interesting lesson on Saturday night. We passed by an investigator that I have never met yet because they are impossible to find at home but we finally did. She is like 16 years old. A cute shy little thing. But her family has had a lot of problems. Her dad drinks a ton. Seriously alcohol is ruining this country and ruining so many lives here. I have seen it in so many families. I hate it. But her dad came in and joined us. And told us he wants to change. He doesn’t want to drink anymore and wants to find God in his life. So we are stopping by every day to make sure he doesn’t drink. He has made it 24hrs…lets pray and hope he can do it. This family has so many problems it breaks my heart. But I think that all is going to change soon. So keep them in your prayers.

I’m not going to lie…I’m still not the biggest fan of Sundays on the mission. But we got one investigator to church. It’s a little girl named Karla. Her mom basically abandoned her and her two brothers here. And her dad got killed. So they live with their aunt and grandma. But she is the cutest little thing and brought her little Book of Mormon to church. I can’t handle how cute she is. She is 8 years old. And a member passed by so we took a ride in the back of the truck which is always so fun. But the best part of yesterday was we passed by an investigators house and they were finally home! But they were on their roof collecting their corn. Everything has corn on the roofs or in the houses drying to make tortillas. So I climb up the ladder and started to help. And my companion was scared of their ladder so she helped the investigators sister who lives next door on their roof. So we could still see each other. But seriously I was feeling a little down that day. And taking the corn off the cob was so relaxing the night was gorgeous and I got to know the investigators. I felt so at peace afterwards. 

But that was my weird not very productive week missionary wise. But thanks for everything. And for the packages and for your support. May we all have a very good New Year - 2014! And try more than anything to put the savior first. Because that is when everything works out just fine. Love you all 

Hna Anderson