Sometimes you gotta laugh from keeping yourself from crying

Well first of all another surprise I didn’t see coming. One Monday night the elders called Hna Arroyo and Hna Stephen the other Hna’s in my area and told Hna Arroyo that she has changes, but Hna Arroyo only has 3 weeks left on the mission and she was like you are really going to do changes when I’m about to done with my mission? So elders were like…oh you are about to finish?   Then 2 mins later called back and said that Hna Stephens has changes. So all of us on Wednesday went to the office and guess who is in place of Hna Stephens? Hna Lopez! So crazy right?! Anyways Hna Cordova went to HueHue and is opening and area with her new companion. And Hna Stephens is in HueHue with Hna McGill.

But now it’s just me and Hna Gonzalez and it has been so fun with her. She is really great. And speaks a lot of English so during lessons when we don’t know what we should share or if we change our minds we can talk in English and nobody understands. It’s great.

So Saturday was a crazy day! So crazy. It went great lesson wise, but every other part was ridiculous. So it all started in the morning. We were going to an investigators house and we used a shortcut and out of nowhere two dogs started to attack us. Thankfully they didn’t bite us but we fought them off with our back packs. Then we made it to the house of the investigator and they didn’t have water and she had a ton of dishes to wash.  She had enough water to wash the dishes so we helped her. I was rinsing while my companion was washing. It wasn’t in the kitchen sink. It’s the pila like where I wash my clothes. My companion was like hold on…there is something in your hair. She tried to get it out and she said it was like a lice egg or something.  In that very moment a cough attack came out of NOWHERE and I went to get my water out of my bag and I bent over and I threw up it was ridiculous. It was just a little bit though. But still I threw up and in the house of an investigator. I was so embarrassed. Here they have a day were you throw eggs that are filled with confetti at ppl as well as flour and water. It’s in March I think. But they are selling the eggs that are full of confetti right now so my companion and I bought some and we wanted to play a prank on one of the members who is always joking around with us but he wasn’t home. We both had our eggs ready to crack, but because he wasn’t there I pretended to crack it on my companion but she actually did it to me. So we had an egg confetti fight. That was really fun. But for the rest of the day something was in the air. The men were worse than ever whistling and shouting at me. I almost yelled at one of them to shut up. Then when my companion and I were walking to our last visit a man on a bike passed by and smacked my companion on the butt…she was about ready to kill him. But at the end of the day we were waiting for a member to go on visits with us when a man came up to us and started talking to us. In his class at the university there is a Mormon and they are friends. He went to church once and a YSA dance. We talked to him and he went to church yesterday. He can speak English and he wants to learn more. One of the elders was kind of annoyed because he invited him to church once and he said no, but to us he said yes. Hahaha power of women.

Also on Saturday we went to a visit and this family belongs to a church that thinks Sunday is the Sabbath day. I don’t remember what they are called in English. She was telling us why we can’t dance and how it is a sin to dance when I gave her this scripture in the bible.

    "A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance".

And she had a look of shock on her face. And was like well you guys use a different bible and we explained to her that we don’t.  We asked her to search for one of her favorite verses in the bible to see if it is the same. And it was. That was kind of fun.

I’m just so happy that I have the truth in my life. One thing I have found here is just how much ppl twist the word of God. I know this church really is the only and true living church on the earth and I feel so blessed to be part of it and to be part of the work to help bring others to the same understanding.

I love you all and hope that you have a great week. Thanks for your love and support!

Con cariño ( care/love)

Hna Anderson

Another Surprise

So we had an activity with the zone today and at the end of it the zone leaders told Hna Cordova that she has changes tomorrow. It sucks and I don’t want her to go. She is really sad. She has almost 8 months in her first area and to be taken out through emergency changes is the worst. We will see what Heavenly Father has in store for her as well as Hna Gonzalez and me. I thought Hna Cordova would be here until changes again but nope! 

So I forgot my agenda and it’s basically my brain, so I don’t remember a lot right now. But we had an awesome lesson with a young family we are teaching. She was sick, so we asked a member to give her a blessing and she felt better and everything so we explained about the restoration.  She had a lot of questions for us because one time she was on the bus and a pastor came on and starting saying a bunch of lies about our church. Like we don’t believe in God and a whole bunch of stuff. So we answered all of her questions and gave her a Book of Mormon that she was so excited to learn about. But her husband isn’t making good decisions and they went through something so horrible and I hope all will be ok with them. They are so ready for this church. They aren’t part of any church which makes it so much better. 

Yesterday church was super spiritual but we didn’t have any investigators at church, which was so hard because we call them the day before and the next day drop by for them and there is always excuses.  Getting people to church is the hardest. But two brothers are leaving for their mission this week. Their older brother got home like 4 days ago and they leave tomorrow. They only have farewell testimonies…no talks…and they shared their testimony. The spirit was so strong. But am going to miss them…they are so great. Oh yeah, yesterday at 7:30am we went to a members house because she wanted me to curl her hair. This sister is great but crazy and when we got there she needed to shower still. I was so stressed out but everything worked and her curls looked really pretty. 

Oh, Happy Valentine’s Day. It was kind of a fun. We celebrated a little bit and wore red. I was craving red velvet cupcakes buuuuuuuut last p-day we went to Xela so Hna Gonzalez could print pictures. It took like two hours because the comps hated us. It was a huge joke. And while we were waiting for the pics to be printed we weighed ourselves. And I almost cried. I gained 15 pounds!  So this week I have been waking up at 6am and doing exercises.  No more treats for me. Figuring I’m almost half way through my mission and I’m not returning fat. That is not ok with me. 

Anyways…sorry this email is boring. Oh yeah, after the activity of the zone there is an elder in our zone from Hawaii and he is hilarious. We all took the bus together and he helped the assist on the bus by yelling SAN JUAN so people knew where the bus is going. It was hilarious. I have always wanted to do that but never was brave enough. So I applaud him for having the guts to do what I wanted to do. 

But yeah that’s about all. Have a wonderful week. Thanks for all your support. Miss you guys. 

Hna Anderson

The mission REALLY IS FULL OF SURPRISES!

So last week I was talking about how the mission throws you a curve ball. Well here is another one. I’m in a trio with Hna Gonzalez who I was in a trio with when I first came out and was with Hna Lopez. Crazy right? Tuesday the day of cambios (transfers) Hna lopez calls me and is like did you guys know you need to be at the terminal because you companion has changes? I was like what?!?!?!  Then I talked to one of the AP’s and he was like…hey you guys need to be here right now, your companion has changes and needs to be here at 10:30 for changes. It was 10:00. I was super annoyed and stressed out and called the gringo AP and he told me no…your companion doesn’t have changes…you are going to be in a trio for a little bit. So now Hna Gonzalez is here. I was really mad at first. But now things are fine and we are working well together. It helps I know the language now. So there will be a little less back talking I hope. But we have had a good time and have been getting a long great so far. 

But on Saturday was the birthday of Hna Gonzalez and Sunday was the birthday of Hna Cordova. Let me tell you…I have never eaten soooooo much cake and food in my life. Oh my heck! Especially yesterday. I was on the verge of throwing up basically the whole day. Today I’m a little hungry but I really don’t want to eat. 

On Saturday we did a surprise party for Hna Gonzalez.  Elder Stephen’s birthday was on Saturday as well, and we celebrated Hna Cordova birthday which was going to be Sunday. It was like the most depressing party of my life. Like seriously. Elder Stephens was trunky and my companion (not sure which one) was crying. Which to this day I don’t know why? She wouldn’t tell me. So it was kind of lame in that aspect. But I decided to have fun anyways. A member put a whole lot of cream from the cake on my face. I put a lot on his face too but he got me worse. Sorry my English sucks. Someone gave Hna Gonzalez a little cake and when she opened the box I took a big bite out of it. It was delish! She was like here…take another bite and shoves the cake in my face. It was hilarious. I will send pics. 

The next day we celebrated the birthday for Hna Cordova. We had lunch with my favorite family in the ward. Familia Xicara. We had a huge lunch. Then she made a beautiful tres leche (three milk) cake with strawberries. Man it was good. The drink is a drink Hna Cordova taught her how to make. It’s like blueberries and pineapple and other delish stuff. I drank so much of it. When we left we all could barely walk and were walking like we were drunk. It was ridiculous. Then later we went to teach an investigator and she gave us tostadas and a drink. Theenn later that night the bishop invited us over to his house. We had FHE and afterwards ate MORE. I wanted to die. A sandwich, tostadas, Jell-O and cake. Man oh man alive. We were all dying. I felt like I could just roll down the street. 

Also I have a cold again. And during FHE with the bishop I had a cough attack.  I can’t even tell you how embarrassing that was. I wanted to die. 

But anyways more about the work. Hna Cordova and I contacted someone in the street and we contacted her this week. She is amazing. and accepted the goal to be baptized on the first lesson. She also went to a RS activity and loved it. She had to go to the capital this Sunday so she wasn’t able to go to church but she is going to go next week. 

Also we have an investigator that is a little crazy actually a lot of bit crazy. She has a little girl with a cleft lip and she went to church with us. The ward was so good to her and her daughter. But after church was a mess. We were going to walk her back to her house and she said no I’m not going back to my house. And we asked her why? She said her friend kicked her out. So we called her friend and she was really close to where we were at. She didn’t kick her out, they just fought a little bit. But our investigator got mad and left with her daughter and said she was going to go to a bar or a hotel and there was nothing we could do about it. It was so sad. And the stake president wants to help her with the surgery. I guess the investigator treats her daughter really badly which broke my heart. But hopefully we can find her again and help her change. 

Loving the mission. Working and having fun. We will see what Heavenly Father has in store for us this week. Thanks for your prayers and support. Love you all 

Hna Anderson 

Missions always have craaaaaazy surprises!

So I share an area right. There are 3 Hermana’s that are in a trio now, the Elders and us. The Hermana’s are leaders. On Tuesday they had a meeting with all the leaders in the mission. When they passed by the office of the president and the door was open enough to see the photos on the wall of our zone. Next to my companions pic was a little ‘c’ which means cambios or changes. The sisters told my companion that to give her time to say goodbye to everyone. She was all sad for the whole week especially since changes are tomorrow and her birthday is this Sunday. But what happened last night was the district leader called and she doesn’t have changes. How crazy and soooo unexpected. And then a ton of people that were going to have changes now don’t. And ppl that didn’t get called yesterday got called today about changes, including Hna Lopez. She is going back to HueHue. I told her I’m coming with her. hahah  I’m pretty sure she is going to the area that touches our old area to be the leader there with Hermana McGill. Hna McGill still is in her first area and doesn’t have changes either. So we will see what happens. Sorry if all of that didn’t make sense. But hey. Also the sister that is the terror of our mission is coming to our zone. You guys don’t even know how bad that is going to suck. And she is going to train. I put her new companion in my prayers for fast Sunday. 

So also on Tuesday we totally wanted to make another date with Ingrid to be baptized and she was happy to see us and everything and we were joking around. And we were going to bring her and her brother and his wife over to a member’s house. And they were joking with us saying they weren’t home. Then we heard them laughing. And their house is crazy and has a crap load of doors I don’t get how it works but there is another exit from the front door. So someone was knocking at the door and my companion thought it was the brother of Ingrid so she went to answer it and it was Ingrid’s dad. Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo drunk!!!!!! And he started saying we never passed by to help him. And a whole bunch of crazy things. He started scooting closer and closer to us and his voice was getting louder and louder. My companion said he peed his pants. soooo gross. But the spirit was like get out of there now. So we told him bye and left so quickly. When we shut the door we started running because we were freaked out and went to the member’s house. Man I guess I jinxed myself because last week I said nothing crazy happens here. 

So I guess this week my companion will be saying to everyone ‘surprise’ I actually don’t have changes. But she has a lot of time in her first area. almost 7 months. So she might have emergency changes like I had. 

Anyways that’s about all I can think of. The Seahawks won the super bowl then. That’s cool I guess jaja in truth I don’t really care. I will have to get pics from my companion and send them to you in a bit. But thanks for your prayers and support. Love you all a ton. 

Hna Anderson