Hello

The truth is I love my area. But it’s kind of boring. So when Monday comes around I don’t really know what to write about. Like nothing crazy happens like when I was with Hna Lopez. Huehue is just a little bit more crazy and here is really relaxed. It’s beautiful. But I feel like my letters are just a little bit more boring. So sorry about that. 

But hey…something crazy did happen this week, but not to us, but to the other sisters. We were going to practice the song for their baptism and they weren’t at the church and we didn’t know why. So we called them and they said it’s because there is a ton of policemen out by their house. And it was true. There was a ton. We had no idea what was happening. But we found out the next day in the newspaper that their neighbors are drug dealers and they had like 147 piezas of crack and a ton of guns and a ton of money. Also that day the water at the Hna’s was coming out green. So I told them your neighbors put their marijuana in your water tank. jajaja. Anyways but thankfully nothing happened to them and they caught their neighbors. 

So we had a lesson with Ingrid and her mom and it turns out Ingrid has permission to be baptized. But now that she has the permission she doesn’t want to get baptized. That was really hard. She says she can’t because she has a bad attitude and is an angry person. So we don’t really know what to do anymore with her. We tried to explain that the church will help her and I felt like I could promise her if she read the Book of Mormon every day and prayed she would be blessed and her attitude would change. But I don’t know if she is actually willing to do it. But we will see what happens.

One of our other investigators that we had a date for baptism with ran away to Guatemala City. She came back though for some stuff and she is going back today I think. But we told her she needs to think about and pray about what she is doing. I hope she will decide to stay because me and my companion feel like she is ready to accept the gospel. 

Saturday an investigator that was a Jehovah Witness finally got baptized after like a year of missionaries teaching him, he finally got baptized and finally felt it was true. The baptism was really cool. Our mission leader almost ruined it for me and my companion but thank goodness everything worked out. My mission leader is crazy, pretty sure he is untreated adhd and bi polar type 1. But it’s fine. 

On Wednesday was the birthday of Hna Cornejo. We celebrated that at a member’s house…it was fun…I ate a lot. Oh this week I don’t remember what day. Our visits fell through and we passed by a members house that is my favorite. And the Hna told my companion that she needs to pluck her eyebrows. The ppl here are so direct but the way they say things aren’t rude. So we plucked the eyebrows and did the makeup on my companion and she looked so good. 

We also contacted a new family that is pretty positive. We taught them the plan of salvation and celebrated the birthday of her twins. It was great. The plan of salvation is my favorite to teach. They want to come to church...which rocks. So hopefully something wonderful will happen with them! 

Well that’s about it. Thanks for your prayers…love you all. Have a wonderful week. That fireside with Elder Holland sounded amazing! I’m kind of jealous jaja 

Love you all 

Hna Anderson 

The Conference with Elder Cook was awesome

Saturday we had the conference with Elder Cook. The whole mission was together. It was so good to see everyone. When I saw Hna McGill we ran together and started crying.  Man I love that girl so much. She has been such a great help to me! I also got to see Hna Lopez. I always love seeing her. And after the conference we got to talk a lot and it was like we were companions again for a little bit…which was awesome. But about the conference. The president of the mission was so worried he was pacing around. When we were in the chapel we weren’t allowed to speak to bring in the spirit. Then Elder Cook came and his wife as well as Elder Duncan and his wife. He is part of the seventy and is in charge of Central America. All of their messages were amazing! Their messages were exactly what I needed…especially from Elder Cook. I felt like he knew me and everything I was feeling. It was amazing… it gave me the umph I needed. We all got to shake his hand. At the end of his talk he left us with a blessing and his testimony.  The spirit was SO strong! sooo strong!!! He knows the savior. It was an incredible conference.

The baptism date fell with Ingrid. Her dad said no. Her dad is the guy that drinks a lot and we were trying to help but he doesn’t want her to be baptized and he doesn’t want to talk to her. So we are going to try to find him this week and talk to him or the mom at least. Also two of the families we thought were positive now aren’t. That was really hard. Yesterday we went with the family of 11 and shared the restoration. The mom is crazy and yeah they definitely aren’t going to accept. It was just a horrible lesson and just a blow. All I wanted to do was to leave and when we were about to leave she brought out a hot drink for all of us.  I was a little bit scared she put poison in it. She also went through the temple before it was dedicated and she didn’t feel anything there. And she told us that her church isn’t church it’s a temple and sometimes she has the habit of saying church but it is a temple and that it’s the same as our temple. ugh ppl. The other family that really isn’t positive anymore was the sisters we found in the store. The littlest of the family is super positive. She asked if she could come to church with us. And when we stop by for her she was like, just a moment…I need to get my Book of Mormon. I almost cried when I heard that it was just so sweet. And she loved church!! I hope she can be the example for her family.

But that’s about all I can think of. That at least is kind of interesting. I’m basically better from my cold now. I took this really good cough medicine and it cleared up all the phelm in my chest. I will send pics!

Thanks for everything I love you guys so much!! Thanks for your prayers.

con mucho amor

Hna Anderson

This country is so sketchy its wonderful

Today we went to la Laguna here in our zone. There was 13 of us piled in the back of a pickup going up the mountain. We thought we were going to die. But I’m alive and it was so fun! We ducked from trees and got thrown around a little bit. It was like the Indiana Jones ride…but real. The Laguna was beautiful. It took like 500 stairs to go down to the water but it was sweet…but tiring.   I have a cold so I was kind of dying a little bit. But there was no way I was going to miss out on today. Going back up was a lot harder.  We were all dying from going up all the stairs and its stairs in Guatemala so let’s be real…it’s a little harder than it would have been in the USA. 

This week was a little rough. But that’s ok. It’s a new week…new opportunities. We have found a lot of families. But the thing is getting them to church and getting visits with them. But these families are amazing and it’s awesome to be teaching them. One of our investigators was kind of progressing but at the same time wasn’t but we finally got to the bottom of what is going on with him. And now he has accepted to go to church.  He just has to figure out how to do it without his crazy family knowing. He wants to change and it has been so great to finally get to the bottom of what was going on with him. 

This week Elder Cook is coming. I’m really excited about that! The whole mission with be together and it will also be great to see some people. This is on Saturday and I’m freaking out a little because I don’t know what to wear hahaha. 

So here Hna Stephens and I are holding English classes. It was her idea. I was a little hesitant about it because I didn’t have that much success it my other area. But it went really great and we had a lot of people show up. So that was awesome. 

I finally met the investigator that can like read people. She went to church once but doesn’t like it because there are a ton of people and she can feel and read them and it’s too many at the same time, so she gets overwhelmed. She is highly intelligent and I’m excited what she has to say to me the next visit. She reminds me of someone but I can’t quite figure it out. 

We are praying our guts out to have a baptism this week with Gercelita. I hope and pray she will accept. She hasn’t said no but she hasn’t said yes. She is praying about it still. The young men are the only ones that are willing and ready to work with us. And this little dude named Mateo or Matthew went with us. He got baptized like two months ago. But he seems like a member for years and he wants to go on a mission. He went with us to Gercelita’s and shared his awesome testimony

Oh yeah…people told me that Antonia is progressing like crazy. She gave a talk in church already. And they said that she was like a member for 10 years and the spirit was really strong. Yes Hna Sanchez and her companion may have baptized her but I’m so happy to know that I found her and I taught her. It still hurts a little I couldn’t have baptized her but I’m praying every day to get over that. But that’s ok, there are people here that need my help to find the true church. And that is amazing to be part of.

That’s about all. Hope all is well. I will send pícs. Love you all thanks for your prayers and support!

Hna Anderson 

FELIZ AÑO NUEVO! 2014

I can’t believe it’s 2014. It fact I’m a little bit sad about it to tell you the truth.  It means this year I’m coming home, which makes me want to cry. But I’m going to enjoy every single minute of my mission that I have left. My year mark is in four months. How sad is that? Well at least it is for me. On New Year’s Eve after we finished the day we went back to the house and slept until 12. We woke up right at twelve. Let me tell you nothing is moooore beautiful than New Year’s here in Guatemala. They set off fireworks so me and my companion went to the roof to see the fireworks and nothing is so absolutely breath taking. From as far as they eye can see fireworks filled the sky. I never wanted it to end. It was so wonderful. I just wished all of you could have been here. And pictures wouldn’t have captured the awesomeness. I didn’t have my camera on me and there was no way in the world I was going to miss one minute of it. So beautiful. I want to be here next year just to see that again. 

Another awesome thing was that Antonia got baptized on Saturday the 28th of Dec. I really wanted to go but I guess Hna Sanchez didn’t think she was going to get baptized and Antonia called and was like…hey I’m coming back from my parents house to get baptized because this is something I know I have to do. But the thing that made me mad was that Hna Sanchez didn’t invite any of the members to the baptism, which made me really mad. But that’s ok. We also had changes of zone leaders. So my old zone leader from HueHue is now here. He is so great. He did the interview and told me that Antonia told him that "Hna Anderson and Hna Lopez changed my life.  They found me when I needed them the most. I was about to take the wrong path. But they changed my life." Nothing is more wonderful to hear. Not that we exactly changed her life but the gospel did. It was an absolute pleasure and a blessing to teach her the truth and to watch her change and learn. It hurt a little bit I couldn’t see her baptized. But there is a reason for everything. I’m just grateful I had the chance to meet and get to know her. 

This week we fasted two times. For the New Year and for fast Sunday. And let me tell you we saw so many miracles this week because of that. We found so many new investigators that are really promising.  The first family was a reference from a member. The members here give so many references it’s so great. This family is a family of 11 people! The mom and dad and 9 kids and all the kids are single and don’t have girlfriends or boyfriends, which rocks. We had our first visit with part of the family and we played games and watched a short clip about the family. It was so awesome. The spirit was so strong. I’m praying that all 11 of them will accept the gospel in their life. 

We also found a family. We contacted them in one of the small stores because I was hungry and wanted something to eat. And we started talking to two girls in the store and asked them if we could visit them. They said yes. And it turns out their family is huge too…it’s like a family of 8. And we did a plan Duncan with them where we played games and stuff. They are awesome. So I’m hoping as well they will accept. 

One day we were walking to a visit and there was a lady who is pregnant and she was carrying a bucket and was with two little kids. I asked her if I could help and she said yes. And I carried the bucket. It weighed  a lot. We asked her where she lives and she explained to us. But I told Hna Cordova we need to go with her instead of the visit. I felt so strongly about that. Especially since the bucket weighed a ton and she is preggers. And she told us it was about 10 min walk but it was more like 30 mins. We never would have found her house. But we got to talk to her and get to know her. She is really positive. Turns out her brother got baptized 4 years ago. She is a sweetie pie. She also asked us how much does it cost to enter your church. We told her it doesn’t cost anything to enter. She was shocked and liked that idea. She couldn’t come to church yesterday but hopefully next week. 

My companion is a sweetheart…I love her. We don’t really talk much but we work so great together. We have three goals for baptisms this month. One is with Ingrid whose dad is the one that drinks. Which sucks because he was doing SO good and we stopped by, but he still started drinking again? It broke my heart. And it definitely broke the Ingrid’s heart.  I was hard to see her so sad, man I just wanted to bawl my eyes out. But we felt like we needed to play games with her instead of always teaching and she opened up so much. Afterwards we had a tiny lesson. We asked her how she can follow Christ and she said by being baptized, so we set the date for the 25th. She didn’t say yes but she didn’t say no but she did go to church the next day which rocked. She is a cutie pie. 

We also have one with Karla. But the thing we are waiting for is the permission from the mom. Which I’m praying for a miracle with this one. Her mom lives in the United States and I don’t think she will ever come back. So I hope that we can get permission from the grandma or the mom. 

We also have a date with Gercelita. She is the sister of one of the recent converts. She as well didn’t say yes but didn’t say no, but she also went to church. For some weird reason I have the HARDEST time understanding her Spanish. But nothing is like the district leader. My companion can’t even understand him. He makes nooo sense whatsoever. His accent is the weirdest thing in the world. 

Today we went to Paiz. Which has a lot of food from the United States. I bought pudding…you don’t even know how excited I am about that as well as whipped cream in the can. And chocolate covered raisins and 100 grand. There were toaster strudels but that is for the next month. But I spent a lot there.  Afterwards we went to the Dispensa which has cheaper food. So I bought more stuff. Then we walked home. I thought my fingers were going to fall off and felt like those people that walk home from Walmart with their groceries. Man that’s hard. Any ways that’s about all I can think of right now. 

Oh wait…one member speaks quiche. I’m really good at the pronunciation of it. But I have a hard time remembering it. But here is some quiche for ya 

In katguaj and miltiosh for everything have a great week!  Happy New Year!

con mucho amor

Guachlal Anderson