I'm Twenty today!

Twenty doesn´t feel much different from nineteen, but it´s been fun celebrating my birthday here in Guadalajara. Between the birthday package from mom and two very creative companions, it´s been a day to remember. My lovely companions dragged me out of bed today, blindfolded me, and surprised me with a Princess decorated house. We ate strawberry cake for breakfast and then enjoyed our morning in one of the many Guadalajara malls. And thanks everyone for the birthday emails too :)

I have a feeling this last week will be my last week here in Cruz del Sur...just cause that´s how it seems to go with me here in the mission haha but we´ll see. These weeks have just flown by. And I´ve loved every minute with Hna Zapata and Hna Kinikini. We´ve seen miracle after miracle in Cruz del Sur and I sure hope I can leave this area at least a little better than I found it. This last week I was excited to see many of our new investigators start to progress. It´s a wonderful, beautiful thing when someone prays or reads the Book of Mormon for the first time. We as missionaries don´t do anything to convert these people. We just give them the tools and the help they need to receive their own conversion, to pray, to read and to receive their own answers. When we went to visit Karla this last week she told us she had had some doubts about being baptized and wasn´t sure if she wanted to keep taking the discussions. We asked her one simply question, ¨Do you know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God?¨ She firmly responded with a yes. We spent the next couple minutes reading the Book of Mormon with her, and at the end she told us that she knew she needed to be baptized, that it wouldn´t be easy, but it was what God wanted. THE SPIRIT IS THE BEST TEACHER! We didn´t even say anything. We just read the Book of Mormon, and from this inspired scripture, Karla was able to recognize exactly what the Spirit was teaching her. That´s something I learned from the world-wide missionary training session we had this last week, we as missionaries are just instruments to bring the Spirit to the hearts of these people, but it is their decision to open their hearts, to feel and understand it. Karla was able to attend church again yesterday and she will be baptized within the next couple weeks. 

I love this work so much. I´m pretty sure I say that every week, but it´s cause it´s true! I feel so blessed to wake up every morning with this opportunity to put all my energy into spreading this message to all these people that are waiting for us. Es una obra grande y maravillosa :)

Les amo,

Hermana Anderson

Las Hermanas de Prados Verdes

Just spending the day searching the 700 addresses of all the members here

La bella 

with my little Flor

a photo of my princess party :)

he birthday cake

with Hna Kinikini

Hna Kinikini and I

A Short Summary

Here´s a quick summary of the week (cause I don´t have a ton of time)

We spent the majority of our time searching addresses from the list of the 700 members in the ward and in the process found more than 10 new investigators. 

We had divisions in Prados Verdes (my old area) and that was super fun to see some of my converts and the members. It also got down to 4 degrees celsius while we were there. And unfortunately my clothes aren´t very cold-proof but, yeah, we survived. 

Today was a zone activity that my companions and I planned. We did a rally race thing with flour and oreos and lots of fun things and then we played basketball for like 3 hours straight. 

Wow, shortest email in the history of missionary emails. Just know that everything is fantastic and the work is steadily progressing here in Mexico. I´m enjoying every moment and there are miracles all along the way. 

I love you all and you´re always in my prayers.

Hermana Anderson

Bonito Benito. We´re basically best friends.

Zona activity- Bugambilias

La obra de milagros

This week was filled with meetings, counsels, divisions, and other fun things that come with the responsibility of leadership. But it was super fun! I love working one on one with the sisters and helping them to become better while I get to learn from them as well. It´s amazing to me that when the sisters are struggling, when there´s some kind of problem in their companionship or when they have a question, the Spirit helps me to know exactly what to say and do. This work without the Spirit would be impossible. 

The work is quickly hastening here in my beloved Cruz del Sur. We started working  this week with some lists the bishop gave us and searching and walking to find all these addresses of less active members. While knocking on the doors from these lists, we honestly saw a ton of miracles. For example, when we knocked on the door of one less active, he wasn´t home, but his wife was. We asked to share something with her and she invited us in. She´s not a member and as we taught the restoration the Spirit was strong. She accepted our message, our invitations (including baptism), and another visit this next week. Her name´s Sara, and honestly, I couldn´t help but feel over and over again that I had promised her in the Pre-Earth life that I would find her, teach her and help her and her family to receive the Gospel. 
Yesterday at church, I was a little disappointed cause some of our investigators were unable to come last minute, but then I turned around to see 7 of our less active members in the sacrament meeting and my heart was filled with joy. Afterwards, one family in particular, the Uscanga family, shared with us that after 3 years inactive, they had come to church because they could feel of our genuine love for them and through our love and testimonies, they were able to remember their own testimonies and that had rekindled their desire to actively attend church. They have the goal to attend church every sunday and prepare their 18 year old son to leave on a mission before the end of the year.

I´m pretty sure that there´s nothing better in this world than seeing this change in others and helping them to come unto Christ. This is the best time of my life. There´s not a moment that goes by where I´m not smiling, I just can´t contain all this happiness. 

Good news, tomorrow I have divisions in PRADOS VERDES! So pumped to go see the wonderful members and my converts there. The work of the Lord is moving forward.

Les amo,

Hermana Anderson

Hna Zapata used a blowdryer to heat up Hna Kinikini´s head.... we have to get creative ya know

Our house is soooooo cold. You´d think we´re in Russia or something...

Pizza Picnic with the gang

con Hna Martinez en Del Valle

Happy New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! We spent New Year´s Eve locked up in our cute little house making tacos. It was quite enjoyable really. We all fell asleep in the living room before it was even 10:30, so we missed out on the whole 12 o´clock countdown thing, but it´s all good, we needed the sleep. It was really a great and busy week this week. Monday we had all the new missionaries in our house for a training meeting thing, and then as soon as they left on Tuesday, all the Sister Training Leaders came for the Leadership Counsel, and then a bunch of them stayed to be able to go to the temple the next day and then we were left with an empty house for New Year´s Eve and New year´s day. The Leadership Counsel was super great. We have some amazing leaders in this mission and President Egginton is so inspired. I think it was one of the most inspiring meetings I´ve ever been to. It was only 8 and a half hours long. Haha but really I didn´t even want it to end. There´s so many great things happening in this mission and the work is hastening on. 

Due to the holidays this week, a lot of people weren´t home and we ended up knocking on a lot of unopened doors, but in the end it´s all worth it! For example, there was one day we had been searching for many hours and we were tired and somewhat frustrated. I prayed in that moment that we would at least find someone that would accept us. As we walked down the stairs of an apartment, I felt prompted to knock on a door. Before I even got to the door, Hermana Zapata was in front of me and turned around to ask, ¨should we knock on this door?¨ Well that was enough confirmation that we needed to knock, so we did, and a young mother with her three kids answered. She was getting ready to leave, but we were able to share a 5 minute lesson of the Restauration before setting another appointment to come back. She was so receptivive and excited for us to return. I know that God answers our prayers and sometimes we just have to show our faith by knocking doors for a couple hours before Heavenly Father leads us to the perfect door.

We´ve also been working a ton with the less active members. There are some missionaries that feel it´s pointless to work with the less-actives, but I´ve really been able to see the fruits of working with them. There´s just such a great joy that comes when you see someone enter the chapel that hasn´t been there for a long time. And sometimes in those moments, I feel like the dad of the Prodigal son watching his son finally come home. Right now we´re working with an entire family, of more than 10 people, including less actives, investigators, and recent converts. We´ve been inviting them and inviting them and doing everything possible to help them to come to church and finally this week they all came. So happy. 

Well, that´s all I really have for this week. Thanks for all your love and prayers! I hope you all enjoyed your holiday festivities and I wish you all un prospero año 

Les amo,

Hermana Anderson

I was able to do some Family names in the temple this last week with my companions :)

Me encanto ver el templo

ice cream and oreos with the best companions in the world 

Photo of my awesome ugly Christmas Sweater that I found for 20 pesos :) 

Here´s a photo of Presidente y Hermana Egginton, Hna. Zapata and I

Prompting

So this morning I felt prompted to come early and check our emails. We came and it turns out my companion (hna. Zapata) had received some bad news from her family. Her brother had been murdered. Luckily President was in a meeting in our chapel right next to our house and we were able to go visit with him after his meeting. Hna. Zapata took it all really well and was able to talk to her mom for a while. While President had a ton of things to do, he took the time to take us out to lunch and give Hna. Zapata the comfort and love she needed. I was so touched by his incredible love for us. And the timing of everything just seemed to work out. I don´t know, I´ve just realized today, more than ever, that the Lord has a plan. There´s no coincidences. It´s not a coincidence that we studied the Plan of Salvation in companionship study, that we checked our email this morning, or that President was near by. The love of God is so great. I would appreciate your prayers for my companion and her family. I just want you to know I´m so grateful for you and I loved talking to you on Christmas. You are all the best!

Les amo,

Hermana Anderson 

Christmas adventures

I don´t have a ton of time to write due to some crazy adventures with President today (including lunch at McDonald´s with him and his wife), but I´ll try to explain briefly my wonderful week. Christmas was absolutely fantastic!! I think I ate more food than I have ever eaten in my life. Everyone just wanted to feed the missionaries! We ate posole, pig head and feet, tortas ahogadas, egyptian food and an array of other things. My favorite was probably on Christmas Eve when we went to eat with a recent convert family. The moms of our two recent converts were there and we were able to share with them the Christmas initiative videos and talk a little bit about the Gospel. At the end of the night we were able to give them their own Books of Mormon as a Christmas gift. They both came to church on Sunday and said they were interested in learning more. Neither of them live in Guadalajara, but we´ll be sending the missionaries to their houses soon. 

We also have a whole family that we were able to teach Christmas Eve. It a family that has some less-active members, recent converts, and now investigators too. We watched the Christmas videos with them as well and did some fun Christmas activities and shared stories. The Spirit was so strong and while they didn´t have any Christmas presents, or much to buy a big Christmas dinner, they recognized the real meaning of Christmas and we could feel that there with them. And then they all came to Church yesterday :) Did I mention I just love Christmas and the mission? 

Well, I´ll try to attach some photos to show some of the other highlights of my week!

I love you all and thank you for your support, love and prayers.

HAPPY NEW YEAR :)

con amor,

Hermana Anderson

With the Hermana Anderson and Elder Anderson

Cutting sugar cane to make Ponche (a Mexican Christmas drink)

Missionaries on Christmas Eve with the Contreras family

Christmas Eve with the comps

The Anderson family photo

Elder y Hna. Anderson--The Anderson family in Guadalajara

¡Feliz Navidad!

I cannot believe it´s Christmas this week!! It´s been an absolutely crazy and wonderful week all at the same time. We had our ward Christmas party, a Christmas district activity, and now this upcoming week is going to be filled with even more food and celebrations! We´ve  just been trying to spread lots of Christmas cheer all week long. I already love Guadalajara and all the people here. My favorite was when we went to one of the main malls here in Guadalajara with our district and a bunch of members to sing Christmas hymns and hand out the Christmas cards of ¨A Savior is born¨. Santa even came to help us out! I just love this time of year so much as we all join together in the celebration of our Savior Jesus Christ and His birth . And it´s been super fun to learn a little bit more of the Mexican Culture and how they celebrate Christmas. And the best part is that I can now understand all the words to the song ¨Feliz Navidad¨. 

Exciting news: I´m going to be in a trio...again! Hermana Kinikini´s companion had to go home today due to health problems and now she will be joining Hermana Zapata and I until she gets a new companion. Everyone always told me I´d probably never have an American companion, but Hna. Kinikini is #3! Haha What a unique mission I´ve had so far...a little over halfway with 10 companions and 5 areas. I´m just hoping the second half of my mission will at least be a little more stable...but wherever the Lord sends me is where I will go. 

This last week there were some instances where I felt like I´m definitely not prepared enough to fulfill my new assignment as sister training leader, but then I remembered the Lord qualifies those He calls, and He sure enough gave me the words to say and the strength to do all the I was asked to do. Being the only American STL, and with more than 15 new American sister missionaries, I received lots of calls from the new sisters when they felt frustrated or just weren´t able to communicate their feelings to their companions. It made me think back to my first three months in the mission field and helped me to see just how much the Lord has helped me grow and how much I have learned in such a small amount of time. The mission is incredible and helps a person grow in so many different ways. 

How grateful I am for this amazing opportunity to serve the Lord with all I am, and receive countless blessings in return. While I´m missing the snow, the Christmas gifts, family get togethers and such, there is no where else I would want to be during this spectacular time of year. I know this is where the Lord wants me. I hope you all have a very merry Christmas and I hope you´ll take some time to remember the real meaning of Christmas.

Alégrate, ha nacido un Salvador

FELIZ NAVIDAD

Les amo,

Hermana Anderson 

Hna Kinikini and I chillin´ in the airport

It wouldn´t be Christmas Caroling if we didn´t have awesome Christmas hats