It’s my companions fault that...

.... I’m going to train! So on Tuesday we were ready to go to bed. I was lying in my bed talking to Hna Castillo when the zone leaders called saying I’m going to be a trainer. I was hoping that president was going to forget about me and that I could have another change with Hna Castillo - but nope. On Wednesday we went to Xela AGAIN for the trainers meeting. And as we were walking down to a member’s house who gave us a ride my companion was like I need to confess something. I told president that you should train or be the new leader. So now I’m going to train. This new group of missionaries is huge. A ton of new missionaries are coming. I have no idea if I will have a Gringa or Latina. But I’m not going to lie, I’m freaking out! It’s a huge responsibility. And I know that training is really hard to go through. It just is. But anyways I will be relying a lot on Heavenly Father and will try my hardest to help the new missionary to feel happy and learn how to be a good missionary. 

Also like usual they changed their mind about p-day. I thought p-day was going to be on Thursday but they changed it back to Monday for the ppl in Xela and Toto. And tomorrow for the ppl in HueHue and Quiche because the conference is today for them. 

So Yeni was supposed to get baptized on Saturday but she didn’t want to get married. She had a fight with her husband because he got all drunk which stinks. Then we also found out she doesn’t have the best understanding about the restoration so we are explaining everything more slowly. But is so hard to teach when she has six kids that always want attention. Yesterday we taught her so she could get a good feeling about who Joseph Smith was and we watched the Joseph Smith movie. Let me tell you Satan hates him and hates it when we teach someone about him. Because the kids were more hyper than usual. We had a problem with the video and when we finished the kids put the TV back on and what was on the TV? Anti-Mormon stuff. I couldn’t believe it! So we told them to change the channel in a nice way. And they did thank goodness. But I couldn’t believe it! 

Also the baptism for Emily should have happened but she let us know that she is engaged and is getting married next month. Her boyfriend asked her through a text message then on Facebook then called her and then finally asked her face to face. If someone did that to me I would dump him immediately. But she is really happy. The problem is her boyfriend’s family are evangelicals and her family is Catholics. But she had a dream saying that this is the only true church. She is just being a little bit indecisive. She first told us that she didn’t have her mom’s support but she does. So we will have to work more with her and figure out what’s going on. 

We are also working with an 18 year old. His whole family got baptized but him. He is struggling with knowing his answers. But Hna Castillo has taught everything to this kid and we are trying everything. He is very shy and a little closed off but has been opening up a lot. So we are praying he will get his answer. 

We are also working with Andrea. She is so smart!  She gets all of it and has so many questions. She has a goal to get baptized the 17th of May. The thing that will be hard is changing her traditions because her family and her are super Catholics as well. But through the spirit those that are ready will change. I have seen it happen and know it’s true. 

But I got sick AGAIN. I couldn’t believe it. And because I’m going to train I don’t want to be like death. So on Thursday it was raining and raining a lot so we didn’t leave until it stopped raining. And on Friday I felt like death so we didn’t leave for the whole day. And thanks to resting I’m feeling a heck of a lot better. But during those days I got to know Hna Castillo really well. Love her guts I’m going to miss her a lot! But she is definitely another friend for life. But she is also getting better with the medicine. So that is absolutely wonderful! She feels like it’s killing the bacteria. So hopefully all will be well with her in her new area! 

That’s all folks. Love you all. Always so grateful for your love and support. Have a wonderful week!

Love

Hna Anderson 

Semana Santa -- what a weird week

Well this week was semana santa or as you guys know it as Easter. TOTALLY DIFFERENT than in the USA. TOTALLY DIFFERENT. And because they celebrate the whole week nooooooooooooobooooooooody was in their houses. So we basically taught and visited the same people for the whole week. So here they have a thing called running of the Jews. People dress up like Jews and go running about looking for clues to find Jesus. And they fight and all this stuff. I don’t really understand it. And on Thursday and Friday they act out the crucifixion of Jesus. But it’s like the biggest joke in the world. One member explained it to us. The actors are drunk, including the Jesus and their Spanish is horrible and they modify what the bible says. Like the thief that is on the side of Jesus on the cross last year said I will see you later in paradise. They have a statue or a big doll of Jesus and they carry him around on a wooden float that weighs a ton. And everyone follows behind and there is music and all that jazz. But the poor people carry around the statue of Jesus Christ that weighs A TON. It represents our sins. They also make carpets from colorful wood shavings. I don’t know…I don’t quite get it all. Let’s just say I miss the Easter bunny with the chocolates and then the good messages about Christ. 

But anyway we had to go to Xela on Thursday because my companion had an interview because our zone leader complained about my companion to the president about her health. So we went to Xela and the president told her the next call or complaint we get about your health you’re going home. So we are trying to do everything possible so that doesn’t happen! Then we came back and ate lunch with a member that we are good friends with. And one horrible thing about this time of the year, especially for semana santa is that the people here eat DRIED FISH covered in eggs and fried. It’s disgusting. I never want to eat any type of fish again in my life. Especially since on Sunday we ate sardines. I was sick to my stomach and almost threw up yesterday. But anyways. 

Another great thing that happened this week was I discovered I had piojos! or in English LICE. I wanted to die. Yeni the investigator that is going to get baptized this week has six kids and all of them have lice. They are full of lice. I always put my hair up when I went in their house but I got it anyways and I don’t know when I got it. But on Saturday my companion woke up freaked out…she had lice. So she went and combed out her hair which scared me so I went and checked out my hair and what did I find?  A giant lice crawling around. I caught it drowned it and stuck it in tape and ran to Hna Castillo about crying and yelled I have lice. I wanted to die!!!!!!!!! I called Hna Gonzalez because one of her companions had lice and I asked her what I should get. She told me and we went and got it. Then my companion searched my head and killed a ton of eggs and found four adults. Then we applied the treatment. It was horrible. But I am now lice free. Let’s just say I’m never wearing my hair down ever again especially here in Toto. Only up in a bun or braids. ay no. 

Also a horrible thing happened. Our kitten got stolen!!!!!!!! She is getting big and more adventurous. So she left to explore and the neighbors stole her!!!!! Her mom is freaking out and crying and looking for her baby. We found out she was with our neighbor behind our house today. And the mom went over and tried to bring her back but she couldn’t and she kept on going over there and they got annoyed and sprayed her with water. We called our landlords and they are going to get our baby kitten back! I was so mad and miss the little kitten. It’s so weird without her. 

Let’s just say I’m excited for a new week and that it’s not semana santa and hopefully we can get back to working!!! Anyways that’s about all for this week. Hope all is well with you guys. Thanks for your love and support! 

Lots of love

Hermana Anderson 

The biggest joke in the world

So like I said I had a cold and it just wasn’t going away. Sorry for this description but I was just super congested and had a lot of thick green snot.  I knew it was an infection but I didn’t know what medicine to take so I called the mission nurses. Baaad mistake. They ended up making a doctor’s appointment for the next day. I told them I know I have an infection, what antibiotic can I take? But no - I needed to go to the doctors and the doctor is in Xela and it takes like an hour to an hour and a half to get there. We were a little bit late and went rushing to the appointment and ended up waiting for an hour and a half. Then I told the doctor what I had. He checked me out.  He said I had an ear infection in my right ear. And then he pushed on my forehead and my nose with all his strengthen and then asks does that hurt? Well of course it does and because I said it hurt a little he told me it’s possible that I have sinusitis or something and that I needed to get an x ray of my sinuses. The nurses phones weren’t working and they weren’t in the office so I couldn’t ask them what I should do. So we went and got lunch because it was around 1 at this time and the appointment was supposed to be around 10:30am. Finally we got a hold of the nurses who called the doctor who is a gringo in the capital. He said I didn’t need the x-ray. And guess what they ended up giving me?  A flipping antibiotic. Let’s just say I’m never calling the nurses again unless I’m dying. 

We ended up returning to Toto at 4pm. 

On Saturday we had a really cool activity. Which I didn’t think would turn out good but it rocked. We didn’t even know about the activity because we didn’t go to the zone meeting due to my doctor’s appointment. It was a mini ccm (mission training) for the primary kids. We had a group of 4 primary girls and we went and contacted people in the park. Every set of missionaries in the stake had little kids to go with. But speaking for my group they rocked and weren’t scared at all! They were contacting the whole world and shared the pamphlets with tons of people. 12 people in total. They are going to be such amazing missionaries in the future. Especially because contacting sometimes still scares me! But it was an amazing experience and it just shows how amazing primary kids are and how much they understand. Before we started we taught them the three lessons and they knew them all. But at the end of the activity we all joined together again and a child from every group shared their testimonies. The last child shared his testimony and said I tried to give a pamphlet to someone but they wouldn’t take it. The people are hard persons and it made me feel bad. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen. It was so funny but so cute. Poor little guy. 

We also had noche de hermanamiento. Where the members get together and share a message. And we shared the message about Jesus because its Easter week or semana santa or scared week this week. There is a thing called Jesus Christ the reason. I don’t know if it is in English but it’s an awesome story that makes you think about the sacrifice Jesus did for us. The spirit was so strong. I know this week will be a little hard because nobody will be in their houses, but it’s such an amazing time of the year to remember the great sacrifice Jesus did for us. May we never take that for granted. 

Oh yeah one more story. We visited a cute young family. It’s a husband and wife and their little son. Ian is the name of the son he is two years old and adorable. He has a turtle named Lucho. My companion was teasing him with the turtle and made him look a different direction and took the turtle out of the water and when he looked back my companion was like – Where is your turtle? He was like Lucho! Where are you! And Hna Castillo said your dad ate him. He told his dad to open his mouth and then pointed to the water to put him back in the water. It was so cute. He thought his dad ate the turtle. Then my companion put the turtle back in the water and he was so happy. Maybe it’s just cute because I was there. 

Wait one more story. So I have a boyfriend who is three years old. His name is Anderson Jovani. He is the son of Yeni (jenny) who is going to get baptized at the end of this month. We visited them last night. I was playing with Anderson and he was whispering something in my ear but I couldn’t understand it. And then finally he said it to me clearly, we are boyfriend and girlfriend. Then later he said vamos a besar or we are going to kiss. And I told him only on the cheek. He said yeah only on the cheek. Love that little kid so much! I will have to get a photo with him with week. 

Anyways that’s about all. I think its Easter there in the US this Sunday so I hope you all have a very happy Easter. And remember what miracles Jesus has done for you! Thanks for your love and support. 

Lots of love

Hna Anderson 

I guess the rains down in Africa

So I decided to put my subject as it is because…surprise…I had changes and now I’m in Toto or the full name Totonicapan. So on April 1st I went with my companions to the meeting of the leaders because they are leaders but I wasn’t.  I wasn’t with them for punishment. And at the end of the meeting the AP pulled me aside and said Hna Anderson I need to talk to you. And I had in my little tiny head that he was going to apologize for a rude comment he made. But nope. He was like Hna you have changes today and I said whatever elder that’s not funny. And he said no Hna I’m serious you have changes. After you guys finish eating you need to go to your house and pack your stuff you’re going to Toto and your new companion is Hna Castillo. I couldn’t believe it. So we ate fast and left. We ran into Hna Castillo and I was like hey were coming back don’t worry new companion and she gave me a weird look. Well it turns out she didn’t know either. They came to Xela for interviews. We ran back to the house and I just basically threw everything into my suitcase. But Hna Gonzalez was in a different area in Toto and knows a member who is always happy to help so he was going to bring my suitcases down. But when we were almost at the office. The AP called and said that the Hna that had changes doesn’t have her stuff so we all need to go to Toto. So the member took us all down in his pickup and the sister that had changes threw her stuff in and left. Thankfully she never unpacked so it was super-fast for her. She was only there for two weeks. But hey that’s the crazy thing that happened this week. We arrived at Toto at 7:30 at night. 

The thing about thing change was I didn’t have anytime to say goodbye to anyone. But I got permission to come today and I got to say goodbye to Noe and the Castillo family which I was suuuuper happy about.

But Toto is gorgeous. It’s like in the valley of a mountain. And there are lots of ups and downs which I love. And I think it’s one of the oldest cities here in Guatemala. My new companion rocks. She loves to work. I still feel a little lost because everything happened so fast and our area is huge. But it’s great. My companions name is Hna Castillo and she is from El Salvador. She understands English perfectly but doesn’t like to speak it. So if I need to I can tell her stuff in English. Our house is weird. It’s set up like a hotel.  Like to go to another room you have to go outside. But it’s big and we don’t have neighbors yet and it has a huge patio. The family that lived there before has their cat that still lives there. They brought the cat to their new house but the cat didn’t like it there so she came back. And she has a kitten they are so cute and I’m so glad they are there. They’re a comfort for me and I’m glad because they kill rats and I give them milk every day. 

Toto is a lot colder than Xela because it’s in the mountains. But it’s only cold at night but during the day it is fine. This week I got to know some members. There is a family of 13 and they freak me out a little just because they look like gringos.  They are tall and a lot of them have red hair but they’re from here and speak Spanish. But they are great. We had an activity and my companion taught us how to make pupusas. They are really good. It’s like tortillas filled with beans and cheese then with cabbage and carrots on top with a sauce. I will have to make it when I get back. 

Conference rocked!!!!  I got to see all of it in English which made it even better. I can’t really tell you right now which was my favorite. Because I loved them all and got so many answers I needed. BUT now I do expect that you guys write me every week with what you learn from preach my gospel. Speaking to everyone that reads this. Do missionary work. Like seriously it will bless your life in ways you can’t imagine and the lives of others. Stop thinking about doing it and DO IT. Year after year the prophets have called us to be missionaries. Sorry for my rant. But I say these things because I know they are true. Open up a door of wonderful blessings!!!! 

We have two baptism dates for this month. One is a girl that is 19 years old. She is awesome but the problem is mostly her family. But she wants to be baptized.  The other one is a mom of six kids. The oldest is 9 years old. Her husband works in the capital so she is basically a single mom of 6 crazy but adorable kids. She so wants to get baptized but she has to get married. So she will be getting married at the end of this month and then her baptism. She is a sweetheart. 

Also the cool thing about Toto as well is there are tuks tuks everywhere. it’s like a  go-cart type of a thing with three wheels and when we have somewhere far to go we take a tuktuk.  Anyway…that’s all for this week. Love you all so much. And always thanks for much for your prayers. Have a wonderful week. 

Hna Anderson