So I wasn’t going to write but a lot of things have happen

So right now I feel suuuuuuper stressed because tomorrow Guatemala is going to protest and when there are protests it’s impossible to go to Xela so I have to go there tonight! We have soooooo many things to do and so little time. I’m not even all the way packed yet! Yikes, but I will only have my big blue suitcase and the little one. The gray one is broken and I decided to give away basically all my stuff anyways because ppl here need the things waaaaaaaaaay more than I do. 

But other than the stress of today this week was probably one of the greatest weeks of my mission! It was so full of miracles. And it makes me not want to go home even more! But as mom said in the email she sent me that my spirit is strong and I could do this forever but my body cannot. But the biggest miracle was Yeison got baptized! It was crazy how everything happened! We so felt like he was ready to be baptized but this last week we weren’t able to see him at all! But on Friday this week we had a visit with him. The spirit was SO STRONG! You could have cut it. He has always wanted to get baptized but he was scared of what his mom would say because she is super catholic and didn’t want him to get baptized. So my companion invited him to ask him to pray and ask God to reaffirm his feelings and to give him the answer that he needs. So he got down and prayed and I seriously have never felt the spirit so strong in my life. And we asked him how he felt and he said he got his answer and he felt happy. And the spirit told me and my companion that we needed to ask him to be baptized for the next day. And he accepted but later he said it would be better Sunday morning. Afterwards the fear of his mom starting sinking in and he decided the next week would be better. We couldn’t believe what was happening and we felt he needed to be baptized on Sunday. He had his interview on Saturday and leaving the interview he said, well my baptism is going to be tomorrow. So we filled up the baptism font and got everything going. He talked to his mom and she got mad but told him he could do what he wanted. The baptism was at 7am before church at 8am. We were so worried that the ward wasn’t going to support us and him, but a ton of ppl showed up. It was miracle after miracle. Seriously words cannot describe how wonderful it was. I feel so blessed that I was able to be a part of it. Yeison is such a great kid and I KNOW he will help many ppl come unto Christ and that he will be a great leader someday. Now we only need the wards help since he doesn’t have much support from his family. But seriously best thing ever! 

My companion is going to have changes too. She will be a new sister leader. I totally knew it. But I’m going to miss Hna Jose sooooo stinking much. I love that girl. I have learned and grown so much during the time we had together. We had our rough patches like every companion. But I love her guts.

Truth be told I DO NOT WANT TO GO HOME AT ALL!!!! But I just got to accept it. I’m going to miss this country and the ppl that I have learned to love here. I’m leaving my heart here too. I’m so grateful that Heavenly Father sent me on a mission. It has been so hard but so incredible. I don’t understand a lot of things that happened on the mission, but I do know it has helped me grown so close to my Savior and that is the most important thing. I will never doubt that this is the true church and I will never leave it. Doesn’t matter if the times get tough. I will see you all soon. So I will tell you more about the week when I get home. See you in 3 days. Thanks for all the love and the support for the last 18 months. Even though how I WISH they weren’t coming to an end ;(. But anyways... see you soon

Hna Anderson 

I feel so super overwhelmed

Truth be told..... I DON’T WANT TO GO HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m excited to see you all and all that jazz. But I’m going to miss this crazy country and all the wonderful people I met. Being able to get up every day to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. To learn more about the atonement of Christ and the effect it has in lives of others. I will never doubt that the church is true! I can say now that the best convert I have is myself. The atonement has changed my life forever and I have such a great relationship with my Savior, better than it ever has been before. 

This week has been a good week. We have more ppl to teach and more investigators that are progressing and some that want to be baptized, but that will be the work of the other missionaries that come. But we are still hoping that Yeison will be baptized this Saturday. We will see what happens! 

Today I went and said goodbye to the ppl in the Viña. I got to see my converts. Rony has gotten huge! He is so tall! And my Maryliza, I missed that girl so much. When I saw her she said why did you leave me. It broke my heart. And it breaks my heart that I’m leaving leaving. I don’t want to go. It’s such a mix of feelings. 

But I’m probably not going to write a letter next week. Maybe some photos or something. But just some heads up. I’m going to be weird. Not just weird but super weird. This that are going to be weird for me.

·         walking in the house without sandals on

·         showering without sandals

·         putting the toilet paper in the toilet

·         talking in English

·         not talking to everyone about the gospel

·         not eating tortillas with the meals

·         basically everything that is normal for you guys

This I will not miss... eating tamales made of rice and chicken and rice. But seriously I want to cry my eyes out thinking about going home. But thanks to all for your love and support! It has meant so much to me! I will see you all soon

Love,

Hna Anderson 

Pictures of my last area

The weather is bipolar like me!

Well the weather here is nuts.. But hey at least there isn’t any snow! But one minute I’m dying of heat then the next minute its cold! It’s crazy. And that’s how I am. One minute I’m so stoked to be going home and the next minute I don’t ever want to leave. But I guess it doesn’t matter how I feel. I have to go home anyways. Two weeks folks. Its nuts I can’t believe it. 

Well this week was a great week! I stopped putting importance on what the dumb members say and focused on the work. We had such a good week and it was so needed! We are teaching a kid named Yeison (Jason). and he is so great and so positive. He went to church with us again yesterday and yesterday we taught him. The spirit was soooooo strong and so great! We are hoping he will get baptized the 22nd. We asked him why he likes to go to church with us and he was like, your church is so much different from all the other churches and I feel like it could be the true church. It was awesome! 

Also this week we went to find an investigator we haven’t seen for a while but she wasn’t home, only her kids. Her oldest kid is eight years old. There are three of them, a son and two daughters and they do everything for themselves. They make their own food, wash their own clothes and its hand washing the clothes.  In order to get the water they have to fetch it from a well, so we helped them fetch water. It was pretty fun. But on Sunday we stopped by and visited them and their mom was home. And it was so funny during the lesson there was a cow that was grazing the field and it went and ate their soap to wash the clothes. It made me feel like oh my goodness I’m going to miss this place. You’re in the middle of teaching and a cow eats your soap. When will that ever happen in the states? never!! 

But anyways that’s about it for the week! Thanks for all your love and support! 

Hna Anderson 

Boo

So this week was a pretty good week. I was feeling a little discouraged and on Thursday until we had interviews with president. That man is a mind reader! He told me everything I needed to hear. EVERYTHING! It’s like I just said a few words to him and he knew exactly what I needed to hear. Truth be told this area is super hard because of the members are very gossipy and make up a lot of rumors and it has been frustrating to deal with. But it’s fine because I only have three weeks left to deal with them. And it’s been helping me learn a lot and trust in the Lord. He knows our hearts and he knows the work my companion and I are doing. But seriously I was so amazed by my interview with the president. He is the best. 

So Halloween was a really fun day! Halloween really doesn’t exist here but it was a good day. There is a convert that took us to where her family lives. Her uncle one day was taking water out of his well and found a huge tooth in it. Turns out there were fossils of mammoths there. So we went to go see the remains and as well visit her family. We went with our bishop and his wife, but the family of the convert Hna Aura wasn’t home, so we went to explore the grounds a little bit. Then later we met her uncle. Every other Friday we eat with the bishop and his family, but because it was late we went to eat at a restaurant and we happened to run into the brother of Aura who was eating at the same restaurant, which was pretty sweet because we went to go visit him. But the ground where the mammoth was at was gorgeous! Also they sell the best cheese there. They call it mammoth cheese and its super famous here because its soooooo good!! 

Later that day we did a favor to help the bishops wife make tamales. Can I tell you, I never want to eat another tamale again in my life, they are disgusting. But afterwards we went and visited some more. The lights went out that day and a couple that are less active and lives together where going to get married on Friday. We got permission to go to their wedding. But when we got to the church building (that isn’t in our area) they weren’t there and the bishop of that ward told us they weren’t going to get married until 7:30 and the last bus to get back to our area is at 7pm so we had to go back which was kind of a bummer. That night there wasn’t much to do because our neighborhood threw a huge party. That night my companion and I made cookies in the microwave that turned out pretty good. It was a good day. 

The 1st of Nov is the day of the dead and hardly anyone is in their houses. But we had almuerzo with a sister named Evelyn. We are teaching her mom and her mom invited us to come and eat and she make cuchitos. I usually don’t like chuchitos but these were soooooooooooo good! And during this week we met the cutest old man. And on Saturday we ran into him and his son.  His daughter in law dyed his hair what was supposed to be black. But it didn’t turn out good so it ended being blue. Greatest ever. We took a pic with him. 

Sunday was fast and testimony meeting. I got up and bore my testimony and kind of gave the members a good one. I wanted to say more but the spirit was like noooo…Hna Anderson that’s not ok. But another member got up and machete the crap out of the ward. The ward planned a temple trip on the day of the dead and nobody went but him and some other ppl. He was like what are you guys doing in the cemetery? What is a bunch of flowers going to do for your dead? The best thing you can do is go to the temple on the day of the dead. Giving them flowers isn’t going to save them. But going to the temple will. It was sweet! I loved his testimony. That’s about it folks. Sorry for my rants about random stuff. My companion and I are working the best we can and we are always trying to help the other not feel discouraged. We will see what this week has in store for us. 

Thank you all for your love and support! Love you all 

Hna Anderson