The Cosmes Family...

Let me tell you a little bit about the Cosmes family... when I first got here to Prados Verdes, they didn´t want anything to do with us. We´d knock and they´d sometimes hide or make up excuse for why they couldn´t let us in. On the rare occasion that they did let us in, you could feel the tension between everyone in the family. They almost never smiled. It´s been a process of 6 months, but with the help of the members of the ward, church activities, family home evenings, lots of prayer and scripture study, this family has completely changed. I love them so much. They now come every Sunday without fail. The mom has a calling as one of the relief society teachers, the dad is a worthy melchezidek Priestood holder, the kids excitedly get themselves ready to go to church, they´re happy and they have a home full of love. I feel so blessed to have gotten to know this wonderful family, and to have been a part of their conversion process. Their oldest daughter, Sofi, got baptized on Saturday. It was beautiful. 

We also had the opportunity to go to Guadalajara this last week to participate in a training meeting for all the new missionaries. I always love seeing the enthusiasm of the new missionaries, it always reminds me of when I first got here. Something that feels like just yesterday. 

Well, everything is going well. I don´t necessarily have any stories to tell you from this week cause we spent the majority of the time traveling, but I just want you to know that everything is great. I don´t even know how it´s possible, but I´m coming to love my companions and these people more and more everyday. The time is going by way too fast, but I also realize there are great things to come when I get home.

Thanks for your love and support in every step along the way.

I love you all.

Hasta luego,

Hermana Anderson  

Family Home Evening in Jovita´s house

Hna Lagarda and I in the 12 weeks training meeting

Quick Letter

Sorry, it´s going to be a quick letter today. But considering I´ll be seeing you all in a month, I don´t think a super detailed letter is too necessary anyway. Well, the good and surprising news is we´ll be staying in trio until the end of my mission. That´s right...my 4th trio in the mission. But we´re pretty pumped. We all speak spanish and english so they´re helping me adapt to english again...but it´s more spanglish than anything. We´ve been working super hard. This week we were focused in finding more investigators and wow did the Lord bless us. Yesterday we were leaving a lesson and had an impression to go see if one of the references we had received was home. While walking, it started to rain...but really rain. By the time we got to the house of the reference, we were soaked from head to toe and covered in mud. But it was a blessing because when they saw us, wet and everything, they quickly let us in. Thanks to the rain, they hadn´t left like they were planning and we were able to teach a lesson. It´s another family of 5. And wow are they prepared. The husband has had lots of problems with alcohol, but he hasn´t drank for 4 months and he´s ready to leave it for good. The wife lost her mom and brother to an accident a couple weeks ago and has been praying to know if she´ll see them again. Their questions and everything were perfect. And tonight they´re going to go with us to a Family Home Evening. It should be super great. This week Sofi is going to be baptized. I remember when I first got here, her family didn´t even receive us in their home. But with lots of persistence, and thanks to the help of a loving Heavenly Father, I have seen this family change 100%. Alejandra (Sofi´s mom) was called as a Relief Society teacher and taught an awesome class this last week about temples. They´re also going to the Family Home Evening tonight. I just love these people so much and I hope that I can continue to be an instrument in the Lord´s hand to help as many people as possible in the little time that I have left. 

So I´ll keep sloshing through the mud and doing all I can to help the Lord in this marvelous work. 

con amor,

Hermana Anderson

The three musketeers

Making every second count.

Everyone keeps reminding me how little time left I have in the mission. But it`s okay cause it helps me to remember to make every second count. The mission is honestly the best opportunity to learn and grow in such a short amount of time. It amazes me at the end of every day when I write in my journal, or every week as I write to you guys, and I start to analyze all the things that have happened and all the things that I have learned. This week was a grand adventure of trips between Guadalajara, Morelia, and Uruapan along with interviews and meetings along the way. President surprised us the other day with the news that we`re going to be in trio this week! So we went to pick up Hna Aguilar from Uruapan yesterday and we`ve been enjoying our P-Day together. We made tacos and visited el mercado de los dulces. Good stuff. 

This last week we`ve been really focused in finding new people to teach and it`s been a blast. The other day, we were in divisions with some young women from the ward. I was with Mari and all of our appointments fell through, so we decided to knock on a door. I told Mari to pick a door and we went.

A man answered the door and we began to introduce ourselves. Before we could even finish saying the whole name of the church, his whole face lit up and he started telling us that he has a friend from our church and he`s been wanting to learn more. Sure enough, his friend is a faithful brother from the ward, and we were able to teach a the first lesson with him and his family. Sometimes I wish all the members of the church could recognize what a great influence their example has. Had it not been for the example of this brother, I`m not so sure this man would have let us into his home. And just like that we`ve been finding lots of people prepared to hear our message. I`m not gonna lie, sometimes it takes hours of walking and talking with hundreds of people, but there are people prepared and waiting for us to find them. 

I love this work with all my heart. It`s not easy, and I`m pretty much exhausted all the time, but I love it. It makes me happy to make others happy through the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is His Church and this is His work. I know it without a shadow of a doubt.

Les amo,

Hermana Kirsten Anderson

Kickball in the rain

Selfie with my awesome companion

A Family Home Evening we had with the Cosmes Family and others from La Colonia Eduardo Ruiz

My cute companion and I

Hermana Eva from Salvatierra. Saw her in a stake meeting on Sunday! Love her. 

Here`s a photo eating homemade tacos today with Hna Aguilar

Where do I even start?

Where do I even start? So many experiences this week. I think one of my favorites was a man that tried to contend with us in the street. He started asking us questions about the church, but before we could even answer he was yelling about how Joseph Smith was a liar and we´ve been brainwashed our entire lives. We kindly listened for about 10 minutes and then the only thing we could do was invite him to read the scriptures and pray about it for himself. We crossed the street and a man selling coconuts on the other side stopped us to tell us that he admired the way we had handled the situation. We invited him to listen to the lessons. He agreed, and now the elders are currently teaching him. It makes me laugh cause the people that think they can tear us down with words just help us to strengthen our testimony and even help us to find those who are ready to hear the gospel! No man can frustrate the ways of God. 

We´re working hard, and while our ward isn´t perfect, and we might not have hundreds of investigators like we´d like, we´re doing all we can to build up the kingdom of God in this little part of the world. That often includes walking for hours on end, having doors shut in our face, having to accept rejection and disappointments, but if that´s what it takes to at least help one person come unto Christ, it´s so worth it...even if that one person is me. The mission has converted me, and I still have things to learn in these last couple months. 

Oh, remember the lady from last week that said we were really pretty? Well she´s one of our new investigators. So interesting how Heavenly Father helps introduce us to so many people. This week we took the wrong bus... but it turned out that on the bus was a young man that had been praying to run into us. He had listened to the missionaries before, but his family told the missionaries to never come back, even though the young man still had a desire to learn. Well, we started teaching him, and he came to church this last week! I see a lot of potential in him. 

Well, other then that, I just want you to all know that I love you!! Stay strong, read your scripture and say your prayers. This gospel is the only road to true happiness.

con muchisisisisimo amor,

Hermana Anderson

In a FHE we used sundaes to explain the importance of making your ¨Sunday¨ a delight

See that house way there in the distance...at the top of that giant hill? Yeah, we walked there :)

I took Hna Yañez to the zoo today!

My companion made me lunch to celebrate my 16 months in the mission