16 months down – 2 more to go

Well today I have 16 months on the mission. I totally forgot when our district leader sent us a message saying happy 16 months. I can’t believe how fast time goes! I really don’t feel like I have 16 months and I don’t really feel like I only have 2 months left but whatever. I will enjoy every minute of it. 

So this week was all about the temple, it was such a spiritually uplifting week. On Wednesday we had a multi-zone conference. It was so awesome. President Smith is so spiritual. I love listening to him. He talked about new goals that he has for the mission. He taught us that we need to focus on the end point which is our investigators.  Go to the temple because our purpose as missionaries is to invite ppl to come unto Christ but they can’t fully come unto him if they don’t go to the temple. They talked about a ton of awesome stuff. I was so spiritually uplifted and thought to myself why wasn’t President Smith my president when I started the mission. He will be such a great mission president for this mission and is. But I know he will help out the mission a lot. When I listen to him I feel like I’m listening to one of the 70’s or an apostle. He is great. 

On Friday we went to the temple!!!!!!!!!!!! Let me tell you it was the best and sooooo needed! We got a private bus for the whole zone which was so much better. Even though there where a ton of annoying gringos in my zone that wouldn’t shut up during the car ride. I went to the temple with some questions and got some answers. But one thing I wasn’t even thinking about and Heavenly Father gave me was peace about finishing my mission and He let me know that maybe my mission as a full time missionary is ending but when I get home a whole new mission is waiting for me. Which made me feel a lot better and a lot more at peace which was so great. 

Toto news- Yeni got married!! yay!!!! I’m so happy about that. It sounds like it was stressful planning it out but it all worked out ok. 

Yesterday was a good day at church I enjoyed it a lot. Especially Relief Society where a sister shared such a good lesson. It was fantastic and it was about the temple and missionary work, which was great. Also my companion and I went to the Women’s Conference. If you haven’t seen it go and watch it right now! It was so amazing and I felt like it was focusing on the temple. We are so unbelievably blessed to have temples. Especially because it helps us become closer to our Savior Jesus Christ. 

So this week we went and visited a recent convert. She is kind of nuts and kind of stresses me out because she is always stressing out. But we asked her what we could help her with and she was like fold my baby’s clothes. So I folded all of them and then I went into her baby’s room and she was like my baby’s closet is a mess.  Can you organize and fold all the clothes for me? Can I just tell you I HATE folding baby clothes? They are just so tiny and it’s so hard. But it kind of made me laugh because we helped fold baby clothes last week and I thought to myself I never want to fold them again and then this happened hahaha. Oops. 

Yesterday we made real Mexican tacos with a family. Can I just say they were the best tacos I have ever had in my life!!! while we were cooking though there was a ton of huge ants and the sister saw them and was like… oh there’s ants, find a few more and we will cook them up. Let me tell you I thought that was hilarious. In place of freaking out she was like yeah let’s eat them! Oh Guatemala. 

But anyways. Can I just say how much I love the temple? Let us never take them for granted. I know they truly are the house of the Lord and is the only way we can know and better understand the atonement of our savior Jesus Christ. 

But have a wonderful week and a wonderful general conference! I’m so excited for conference!!! woohoo!!!! Love you all 

Hermana Anderson 

Trying to get things going around here

So this week was really interesting... but something really sucky happened this morning.  I was washing my clothes and we don’t have a pila so I was washing them in the kitchen sink and I finished and hung them all up to dry when the clothes line fell and basically of my clothes were covered in dirt.  It was the worst. I was ticked. 

Another side note I asked my companion how to say barbwire in Spanish and it is ‘alambre de peas’ but it sounds like pooa** it made me laugh so hard. It’s like swearing without swearing. hahaha 

Also can’t believe I got my flight plans. I don’t really understand it. But I guess I’m going home pretty soon its nuts! 

So this week was supposed to be the baptism of Chris. And it turns out that president made a new rule that we aren’t allowed to go back to our old areas for baptisms. Chris wanted an elder to baptize him and wanted me there. But both of us weren’t able to come. It made him so sad and so deceived that he decided not to get baptized. That was very disappointing. After all the work we did with him. I couldn’t believe. I still don’t believe it. And now he doesn’t know if he wants anything with the church anymore which was pretty disappointing. I don’t know what to think about this. But we gotta keep on moving on. 

But I found a scripture in Acts:14:22 that is one of my favorites:

Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. 

I love it because it shows us that we need tribulations in order to return to live with our Heavenly Father and I know what happened to Chris is just another tribulation he needs to go through. I know when he gets baptized it will be a real conversion. And I know he will be such a great leader in this church. 

This week I got a cold which is kind of a bummer. I’m so sick of colds. But I’m almost better thank goodness. Everything is going good here. We are trying our best to find more investigators to teach because we don’t have a lot right now. This area is a little different and I haven’t quite figured it out yet. So we will see what we can do. 

So we had a baptism for this coming Saturday with Roxana and Cecilia but they love changing the dates. Now they are going to get baptized in October so her little daughter can get her blessing on the same day they get confirmed. So hopefully they will get baptized in October! 

With every week I’m kind of running out of things to say. It’s been pretty hot here. And it rains at night but not a lot thank goodness. But anyways love you all! Have a wonderful week! 

Hna Anderson 

Happy Independence Day

Well today is the Independence Day in Guatemala its pretty boring well at least for us and they raised the bus prices but happy Independence Day!!!!! 

Well things are going pretty good here. My companion is unlike any of my other companions. But she cracks me up so much! She is very sarcastic but it’s hilarious. Sometimes I just burst into laughter for what she says. It’s pretty great. 

This week not a lot of things happened. We WALKED a ton! We come into the house pretty dang tired. 

But right now we are teaching Roxanna and Cecila, they are mom and daughter. All of the sons of Roxanna have gotten baptized. But Roxanna hasn’t made her decision yet. It has been so hard to find her but we ran into her in the street and she told us that she is for sure getting baptized this month, she just doesn’t know what day. So hopefully we will be having a baptism this Saturday. So we are pretty excited about that. 

On Thursday we had our zone meeting. And our zone is huge!!!!! So we had to go to a church building like an hour or hour and a half away. It made me so car sick but it was beautiful. I don’t know why I didn’t take a picture but the next time I will. There are 24 ppl in my zone. I made them the Oreo treats which was pretty fun. 

This week was weird because basically every single day the lights went out so we had to come in early and then for the parties on the weekend president decided we needed to come in early Saturday and Sunday night. We came in at 6pm. It felt like a sin. But we went to bed really early which rocked. 

Last Sunday we helped a little lady wash her clothes which she had to fill up her pila with well water and yesterday we went back and visited her. Her family is adorable. She has three little kids and they are the only kids I have ever met that aren’t badly behaved. They are such little helpers for their mom. It’s adorable. 

Also in my ward there are a TON of fake blondes. A ton. It’s hilarious because on Sunday they all stare at my hair. It cracks me up. And my companion kept saying things like look how jealous they are staring at your hair. It’s kind of funny. 

Well clearly I don’t have much to say because I feel like I’m trying to make things interesting that aren’t but hey whatever.  I will try to be more interesting next week. But thanks for your love and support! Have a wonderful week! 

Hna Anderson 

!!!! HUEHUE HUEHUE HUEHUE !!!!

I’m back in HueHue and I’m so happy to be back!!!! I always wanted to finish my mission in HueHue and I wanted to die in an area where we didn’t share the area and that’s what Heavenly Father gave me and I’m soooo excited. My new companion is Hermana Jose. She is from Mexico close to the border of Guatemala. She is an odd duck but is great. I get along with her really well. She isn’t a nut job like a lot of the other sisters. I have heard a lot of good things about her. So I’m excited to work with her. She works differently than my other companions but I know I have a lot to learn from her. 

Saying goodbye to Toto was pretty hard. I didn’t cry as much as I thought I would. I cried the hardest when I said goodbye to Yeni and Chris. But it all worked out ok. I know Hna Yriarte will be such a good little trainer. I hope I will be able to go back to Toto for the baptism of Chris. When we entered the house after saying goodbye to everyone a sister from the ward called us and visited us. It was such an amazing experience. We didn’t even visit her all that much. But she gave me a huge gift. It was a skirt, shirt, a bag, and bracelets. But more than that I couldn’t believe the love she had for me. She told me that she didn’t get to know me that well but that I and my companion are part of her family and that she will forever be grateful for us. And just a ton of things. I can’t believe all the love I receive from the ppl here. I will miss Toto but I’m excited for my new area here in HueHue. 

Tuesday was the day of changes. I got to the terminal and they told me my area but the dumb AP’s didn’t know who my companion was so I had to figure that out myself. I got to see some ppl I haven’t seen in a while. Then we said our goodbyes loaded the suitcases on the bus and off we went to HueHue.

We have a cute little apartment above the bishop’s house. It reminds me a lot of the house that I had in Xela. Here in the ward I actually know some ppl from when I was first in HueHue. But after lunch we went and visited a sister and I didn’t know this but it was the mom of Tati…a member that helped me out a TON in La Viña and Tati was at her mom’s house so I was able to see her and it was great. She is preggers and her son has grown so much. I got to know a lot of members this week. The members here like to help out a lot so that has been pretty great. 

Our ward mission leader is nuts but a good guy. He has been the ward mission leader for 25 years so I guess he knows what he is doing. He kind of sells the gospel. He uses a lot of selling methods in teaching methods. It was really weird visiting with him. But one thing that does ROCK here is that every Sunday the bishop and the mission leaders take turns helping us bring investigators and converts and less actives to church. The have a huge van and we go pick everyone up. The bus was pretty full this Sunday and that rocked. 

Sunday was fast and testimony meeting and they made me share my testimony which I didn’t expect. Maybe it’s because I met the 1st counselor last year when I was in the Viña. He is a weird dude. But anyways our church building is tiny and adorable. I love it but there are more members in this ward than in Toto. 

Right now we are teaching a mom and a daughter whose names are Roxanna and Cecilia. The sons of Roxanna got baptized already but she hasn’t made her decision yet. She told us that she was thinking about the 17th of September or maybe a little sooner so hopefully they will get baptized. They are members just dry. Also we are teaching a young man that I actually met too last year in the Viña. He went to the other ward that we shared the building with. He wasn’t able to get baptized because is mom is a CRAZY. We met her the other day and she is so brainwashed by the Catholic Church. She told us that Jesus got baptized when he was older because there wasn’t anyone to baptize him when he was a child. But anyways Jason the young man is now 18 so he can get baptized if he wants too. But we gotta teach him away from his house. 

Well I feel like a lot happened this week but I feel like at the same time I don’t have a lot to say. But I’m really sad, well not sad but I can’t believe that I got my plan telling me when I’m going home and the info they need in order to send me home. I can’t believe how fast time goes by! I don’t want to go home at all. Maybe I will extend my mission for 2 years. How great that would be. But anyways. Have a wonderful week! Love you all! 

New Pictures

Hna Anderson 

I’m going to be a grandma!!!!!

My daughter is going to train. So that means I have changes! They called Thursday night and told Hna Yriarte that she is going to train. So we were almost sure that I would have changes and yesterday it was confirmed. I’m all packed and nervous to see where I’m going. It has been such a wonderful experience being with Hna Yriarte. She is one of the best missionaries here on the mission and it was such a privilege to serve with her. I’m going to miss her so much. But I know she is going to be such a great little trainer, better than I could have ever been. She has made so much progress since I have been with her and she is such a powerful little missionary. I will miss her like crazy! 

So here is what happened when we found out Hna Yriarte was going to train. On Wednesday the elders called us and asked us if we had three beds. And then at lunch told us that we are going to need three beds because we were going to be in a trio. Then they didn’t tell us anything else. So we were freaking out about it all day long. So my companion can impersonate one of the APS voice to a T. 

So we called the elders as a prank. My companion called saying she was the AP and that they needed to call us and tell us what is going on. But they saw through our little prank. But that night this same A.P. called. We freaked out because we thought he was going to tell us off for the prank but it just turned out he was calling to tell us that Hna Yriarte is going to train. So that was funny. 

On Thursday we had an awesome experience. All the ppl in the morning that we went to visit weren’t home. And we walked past a public pila. Which are places were ppl can wash their clothes if they don’t have a pila in their house. And I had a feeling that we should go and help them if we could wash their clothes. I told Hna Yriarte that and we went and asked the ladies that were washing their clothes if we could help and they started to laugh and didn’t believe that we could wash.  One of them finally let us wash their clothes and because of our service a ton of ppl starting asking us what are we doing here and if we could visit them. 

So we got a ton of new investigators this day.  It was awesome. 

And Saturday we had dinner with the Puac family. It was so awesome to be with them. I love them so much. The next day all of them came to church and it was so great to see them all at church! 

More than writing about this week I just want to write about how great my time was here in Toto. I’m not going to lie I didn’t ever want to go to Toto and I never thought I was going to go there. But Heavenly Father gave me a little surprise and sent me here. It has been such a blessing to be here. I have had so much personal growth and I have learned so much. I’m so grateful I was able to have the baptism of Yeni. She is a real convert and loves the church. As well I am so happy I was able to be part of the progression of Chris. It was such an amazing experience to train Hna Yriarte there too. She has taught me so much. Yes, it was kind of rough at first but it has been such a blessing to be here and I will miss Toto sooooo much! But I know Heavenly Father has something else in store for me now. But I will let you all know where I will be going in the next week’s letter. Love you all. Have a great week 

Hna Anderson