Miracles in Mèxico Week 2

Has it really already been another week?! I`m finally starting to know my way around, and people are starting to recognize me as that new American missionary that doesn`t really know Spanish but is always smiling (someone told that to my companion this week...little did he know, I could understand him). Haha I love this work and it is truly guided by The Lord. 

Did I tell you about our new investigador that`s our other investigator`s son? Well during our lesson about the Plan of Salvation, he got really frustrated and juts walked out on us...that was a little awkward and we didn`t really know what to do, BUT we called him that night and he let us come over the next day. That lesson the next day was the most amazing thing I have every experienced. We taught about the Atonement and I didn`t even have to think about the Spanish as I shared with him my own personal conversion process and how I have come to know Jesus Christ as my Savior and Redeemer. Since then, I have seen the light of Christ increase in him, and I can`t wait to see his continued progress.

Sooooo yesterday we went tracting FOREVER. And we were having no success. We had doors slammed in our faces, people tell us we were of the devil, and it was just kind of discouraging. But as we were walking, I felt pro.
mpted to stop and look at our list of references/contacts. As we evaluated our list, I noticed one name we had overlooked before. Gloria. It just so happened we were standing at the crossroad of the street she lives on and the one we had been walking along. We went and visited her. We were able to get to know her and taught her how to pray. I believe the Lord has prepared her and guided us to her. She excitedly invited us to visit her again this week.

I absolutely love love love Mèxico. Sure it`s hard, and I`m still adjusting to all the little cultural differences, but I wouldn`t change this experience for anything. 

I love you all so much! Thank you for your love, support, and prayers.

Hermana Anderson

My lovely Moroleòn and one of the 3 doors to our apartment..

A picture of my apartment just so mom doesn`t stress about where I`m living and think I`m living in a cardboard box.

Here`s a semenalmente selfie of me and my wonderful comp.

Cause I think it`s pretty.

Moroleòn

Español es muy dificil

Ahhhhhh I'm so excited to be writing and reading English!! Don`t get me wrong, I love Spanish, it`s just really hard when I've only been learning it for 7 weeks now and I have absolutely no other option than to speak it. But that`s why we have the gift of tongues. Okay, I want to share some of my experiences from this week. The mission is truly full of miracles and here`s a few of my own.

On day one, we traveled on a whole bunch of buses and waited in a whole bunch of stations to get here to Moroleòn. Toward the end of our 8 hour journey, I was feeling a bit discouraged. I felt my Spanish would never be adequate enough and that I would never be able to really make a difference in anyone`s life. I said a little prayer asking God to help me feel capable to do this work. Just then, two 70 year old Americans sat next to me. And yes, they spoke English. They were from New York, the man a composer performing concerts here in Mexico. They were Jewish and a joy to talk to. We had a whole lesson on the Plan of Salvation and then at the end my companion asked if we could sing As I Have Loved You...the only hymn she knows in English. We sang, and the sweet old woman cried. They didn't accept our message at that moment, but they felt the Spirit and we all came a little closer to Christ. Once they left, I was reading the scriptures and read Alma 26:27. I know this is where I`m supossed to be and the Lord will help me through it all.

Day two we taught a lesson to Hermana C. We taught about our purpose here on Earth. Toward the end, I felt prompted to invite her to baptism. Suddenly my Spanish was near perfect as I asked her to be baptized and shared with her my feelings about my baptism day. She will be baptized May 2. 

This week we were having a hard time meeting our goals for new investigadors. I said a very specific prayer that though Hermana T (one of our investigadors) we would find a new investigador. Our next lesson with Hermana T, her son and her son`s friend happened to be home. They listened to our lesson and agreed to let us teach them more. Hermana T and her son even came to church yesterday! 

This place is amazing. It`s a little frustrating sometimes when I have so much to say and can`t, but I`m learning, and my companion is very patient. My companion was a little shocked today when I told her I`d never used a washboard before... and that I didn`t bring clothespins with me. It`s definitely been a new experience learing how to wash clothes, disinfect my food with bleach, filter water, kiss strangers on the cheek, and lock and unlock three doors everytime we go in and out of the apartment...but I LOVE IT AND I LOVE YOU!

D&C 15:6
This work brings me so much joy.

Con mucho amor,
Hermana Anderson

President Luis F. Camarillo
Sister Alma Estudillo Camarillo

​Here`s a blurry selfie of me washing my clothes

The view from our roof a.k.a where we hang all our clothes on a clothesline.

New Adventures in Guadalajara

I made it to Guadalajara! It´s beautiful here!! My companion is Hermana Hernandez and she knows less English than I do Spanish so I should be fluent in no time! I shared a pass along card in the airport today and was able to teach nearly an entire lesson on the Plan of Salvation and eternal families while waiting in line to weigh our luggage! We also ran into a member from the 70. I just love love love this gospel, and while I´m sure this first week is going to be hard, I'm so grateful to be here in the service of my Lord. I LOVE YOU ALL!!
Until next week,
Hermana Anderson

Me, Hermana Hernandez, and our giant plant

Hermana Mortensen and I in the Mèxico City Aeropuerto

¡Adios CCM!

Exciting news...We got our flight plans today!! I´ll be leaving the CCM at 4 am Monday morning. I´m so excited!! My Spanish isn´t quite ready, but I sure am. There´s a bunch of Latinas in our casa going to the Guadalajara East Mission and then there´s one hermana from Guadalajara, so it´s been fun trying to talk to them and figure out what it´s like in real world Mexico. I´ll be sad to be leaving my district and companion, but at least some of us are in the same mission and will probably see eachother around. Crazy how close you get to someone when you´re with eachother litterally every second of every day for six weeks.

Soooo conference was AMAZING! Every single one of my questions were answered. What a unique opportunity it was to spend general conference here in the CCM where we got to focus every second of those two days on the messages and words of our Prophet and Apostles. When we weren´t watching conference we were dicussing our insights, reading the scriptures they mentioned, and studying past conference messages. While I missed the Easter Egg hunts, dinner, candy, and festivities, I could not have asked for a better way to spend Easter, focused on our Savior and what he did for us. 

My favorite talks included L. Tom Perry´s message on family, Elder Holland´s talk on the Atonement, and Elder Neil L. Andersen´s talk that mentioned missionary work. I feel like so much of conference was focused on family and it got me thinking of not only how grateful I am for my family, but how grateful I am for this opportunity I have to go out and teach families that they truly can be together forever. We live in a culture of temporary, but God´s plan, His message, His work and His glory, is one of eternity. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is unique in that we have the eternal perspective of the restored gospel. I was so happy to hear the 3 temples announced to be built in Haiti, Thailand, and Ivory Coast.  Temples are how families become forever. Temples are vital to this work, to the building up of His kingdom. Never ever take the temple for granted. 

These past 6 weeks have been an amazing experience. I have felt the Spirit in a whole new way. I have learned so many new things and I cannot wait to continue this experience in Guadalajara. I´m happier than I´ve ever been, and I know this is exactly where I´m supossed to be.

Thank you for all your support and love! 

Mucho Amor,

Hermana Kirsten Anderson

P.S. The first picture is of Hermana Ashley Haws, Elder Truman Davidson and I. They were in my ward at BYU during Fall Semester.

And the second one is just the list of everyone leaving the CCM this next week....the CCM is basically going to be empty next week. 

That´s all.

Hola, April 2, 2015

¡Hola! So after a month here at the CCM, we have to keep things interesting somehow. This week, our topics of conversation and most thrilling moments included a key in a tree, a monster spider, and the sad ending to the life of a bird. Also, we went to the Mexico City temple visitor´s center today. That was pretty rad.

Story number one:

Elder Jarrett was throwing his key high into the air to see just how high he could throw it without dropping it. We were walking under one of the palm trees and Hermana Mortensen warned: "Don´t throw your key or it will get stuck in the tree". And that´s exactly what happened. We finally got it out after 30 minutes of throwing rocks into the tree. I then made an entire children´s book about the incident entitled, "The Key to Obedience". Pretty sure that book is worthy of publishing. And then the next day Elder Jarrett broke the key. We no longer trust him to keep the mailbox key.

Story number two:

We were getting ready for bed. I opened the door to put some stuff in the hallway closet and this massive spider crawled across my foot. I screamed, backed into the wall and thus accidentally turned off the lights. This set the other girls screaming, thinking we had a serial killer in our room. Once they understood it was just a spider, they all screamed louder and climbed on top of the chairs and bunk beds. Luckily, Hermana Hale was brave enough to hunt down the giant spider and kill it. That´s all.

Story number three:

The CCM is basically a bird sanctuary, and none of the birds are afraid of us. Unfortunately, this proved fatal for one friendly bird. We were walking and Hermana Hale suddenly screamed. I turned around to see the victim of Hermana Hale´s foot. One of the elders apparently buried it for us. 

As you can see from story two and three, Hermana Hale is a cold-hearted murderer. Just kidding. She´s honestly one of the sweetest people I´ve ever met. 

Last one:

Today we left the Happiest Prison on Earth to visit the TEMPLE! I cannot tell you how much I miss the temple. The Mexico City Temple is under renovation, so we were only able to go through the vistor´s center, but it was still amazing. They showed us this video on families and how the gospel and the temple blesses families...needless to say, I was a mess through the entire thing. AND THEN they made me and my companion stand in front of everyone and teach a short lesson on families...in Spanish. It´s really a good thing the gift of tongues is real. But honestly, I´m so grateful for the temple. It blesses not only our families here on Earth, but our ancestors who have passed on before, as well as those to come. Please, please, please do not take the temple for granted. 

While in the Visitor´s Center, we watched the Church´s Easter video. If you have not seen it, go watch it right now. I testify that He truly is here, He lives, and we must find Him. I´m so grateful for this Easter season and the opportunity we have to reflect on all that the Savior has done for us. He has overcome our sins and physical death. He knows us perfectly. He loves us unconditionally. We also have the amazing opportunity this Easter weekend to listen to CONFERENCE! We are so blessed to have a living prophet that is the literal mouthpiece of the Lord. As we prepare to listen to our living prophet and apostles, I would encourage all of you to write down a few questions you might have, pray to recognize and receive an answer, and then diligently watch and listen to the words of the prophet and apostles. I promise you will receive an answer. 

Have a wonderful week! 

Yours truly,

Hermana Kirsten Anderson

If you want...there´s the dearelder.com thing where you can send me letter things... and that would maybe make our mail time a little more exciting. The only person in our district that gets letters is Elder Tams...that one missionary we first met in the parking garage when you were dropping me off?  haha 

So here´s a picture of us in the post office to guilt trip you into sending us letters ;)

Halfway There...Living on a Prayer

Can you believe I´ve been out here for 3 weeks-- HALFWAY! 2 more P-days and I´m out in the real world Mexico!! That kind of really scares me because I´m not anywhere near fluent, but I´ve come so far since day 1 and I know the Lord will continue to help me as I work hard to do His will. 

Ready for a funny Spanish story? I was teaching a lesson and was trying to explain that living the commandments and following our Heavenly Father´s plan will help us have a better life. Now you must understand the word for ´better´ is mejor...the word for ´woman´ is mujer and for some reason I definitely get them mixed up sometimes. Sooooo I told this man that by living the commandments and following our Heavenly Father´s plan, he could become a woman. Yep, that was really funny and slightly awkward. 

Other events this week include: getting to watch ´Meet the Mormons´ for our Sunday night movie night, singing in the choir for our Tuesday night devotional, and having a fiesta today for Elder Begley cause it´s his birthday today! Meet the Mormons was really good and I´m pretty sure every missionary here shed at least one tear during the missionary-airport-drop-off scene. We sang A Child´s Prayer for choir this week and it was awesome! I love learning and singing songs in Spanish because even if I don´t know what every word means, the songs always invite such a strong Spirit. The Mexico Area President came and talked to us Tuesday night and it was awesome to hear from him. I can´t wait for General Conference! I just love hearing what God´s servants have to say and I´m always amazed at how the Spirit helps us to find personal messages in each talk that is given. God is aware of every single one of us, our struggles, our triumphs, our deepest sorrows, and greatest joys. I am so grateful to have a Father in Heaven that I can talk to at any point of the day in any situation. 

All in all, everything is still going well here at the CCM. The days keep going by faster and faster. I love my companion and my entire district. It´s not always easy, but nothing worthwhile is ever very easy. I know this is where I´m supposed to be, and as long as I´m where the Lord wants me to be, doing what He wants me to do, I know He will provide a way in all things (even learning Spanish). I love you all and I´m so grateful for you wonderful support and love!

Let us all press on in the work of the Lord.

With lots of love,

Hermana Kirsten Anderson

Hermana Kelsie Shuler and I (a friend from High School)

I've a feeling we're not in Utah anymore.

¡Hola mi familia y amigos!

I´ve reached that point where I can´t speak English or Spanish, which means my acting skills have gotten increasingly better. And I´m the happiest Spanglish speaking, constant word charade seeking, missionary ever. Time is such a strange thing here...I feel like I´ve been here my entire life and just arrived yesterday all the same. I love all my teachers and am so grateful for their incessant patience and constant love. We have 6 different teachers that we spend nearly all our time with. My favorite lesson from this past week had to be our "Stress Management" lesson. We got to run around outside and eat cookies off of desks without our hands and scream as loud as we wanted. I guess that´s what they have to do here to keep us sane ;) 

I also really enjoy our gym time everyday. Hermana Mortensen and I always do a CrossFit workout (that´s right Mom and Dad) and then our district plays some sort of sport together. In the past two weeks I´ve discovered I´m surprisingly okay at ping pong, really bad at beach volleyball, don´t stand a chance against the Latinos in futból, and will forever and always love basketball. I´ve also relearned the importance of sunscreen for white people like me. 

So every week we all have the amazing opportunity to do a service project. My district just so happened to be blessed with the assignment of welcoming all the new missionaries every Wednesday. I guess my missionary greeting skills from the Provo MTC are paying off. But honestly, it´s the highlight of my week. The Lord has prepared this generation to hasten His work and you can just see the light in their eyes as each new missionary begins this new adventure. We are truly as the Army of Helaman, and I feel so blessed to be a part of this great work.

Today we got to go on a grand adventure. We had to go to immigration something or other and got to drive 4 hours on a bus! I loved it! Really. We got to see so many different parts of Mexico City. It´s BEAUTIFUL. We even got to walk around for a while and had REAL Tacos for lunch. My favorite though was all the stares. 30 young Americans, walking around in suits and skirts, speaking Spanish...well Spanglish. While we waiting in different lines for stuff, we got to talk to a bunch of different people. My favorite was an Argentinian man I talked to who was moving here to play professional futból. He was so nice and super curious about our church! In my broken Spanish, I was a least able to tell him a little bit about what The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is about. I really can´t wait to be out in the field teaching people like him everyday. 

I guess I´ll finish by sharing a Spiritual experience I had last night:

Last night we had TRC, which no one knows what it actually stands for, but in essence, it´s teaching real people, most of whom are recent converts. (And, no, it doesn´t stand for 'Teaching Recent Converts'...that would make too much sense. I asked.) Anyway, my companion and I taught the sweetest lady. We asked her what she wanted to learn about and she said faith. We gave a little lesson on faith and then I was prompted to share Mosiah 4:6 with her. As she read, you could feel the Spirit fill the room. She looked up with tears in her eyes as she said, "That is what I needed". While we may not always know the needs of every person, God does and as we follow the prompting of the Holy Ghost, He will allow us to be instruments in His hands and ultimately be answers to other´s prayers. I would also suggest you all go read Mosiah Chapter 4... it´s great. 

I love you all so much! 

Hermana Anderson

Good news, there´s CrossFit in Mexico!! I found this today on our trip to immigration. I may have even screamed, "wait! I need a picture of that for my parents!" Thanks to the awful traffic, we were going slow enough I was able to capture this gem.