La Legua Peru, July 29, 2013 (20)

Hola! Como estan? Last week for P day we ate Chilean hot dogs and played futbol with Hermana Seclen´s zone. It was super fun! I love getting together with other missionaries. Today for P day we went shopping at a big mall and bought enough groceries to last us for another two cambios probably. Not very exciting ha, but we bought gelato which made me happy!

Well this week was pretty good for Hna Rodriguez y yo. I´ve been thinking a lot about what makes a successful missionary. We had lessons this week where I felt the spirit so strong, and I just knew that what I was teaching was true. There was just no doubt in my mind! I felt Heavenly Father´s love for me so many times this week and could just feel that his Spirit was with us. But then yesterday at church we only had one investigator come to church. We were pretty discouraged yesterday, because now we have to postpone Rosa´s baptism again. We realized though that if Rosa doesn´t come to church on her own of her own free will, she´s not going to come regularly after her baptism. We want to have baptisms of people who are going to be faithful members of the church! We´ve been a little discouraged because we don´t know how to help people keep their commitments. We´ve been studying Preach My Gospel a lot and are still learning how to apply the principles that it teaches. I have to keep reminding myself that Hna. Rodriguez and I are still young in the mission. We are still learning how to use our time efficiently, especially with working with the members. I also learned that people still have their agency, and we can´t force them to change! If we´re being obedient and teaching with the Spirit, then we´re doing our part as missionaries. We have to trust that the Spirit will touch our investigators in his own time. The Lord´s time is different than ours! So, even though this week was a little bit discouraging, we´re not discouraged! I know that the Lord is in the work and that he didn´t send us here to fail. We´ve just got to keep working and learning. I´m so grateful for everything I´m learning and that my own testimony is growing.

I forgot to tell you dad, I saw Hermana Buzan at transfers last week! We talked for a bit and she´s super nice! Did you guys start reading the Book of Mormon looking for when it mentions Christ? I love reading the Book of Mormon as a missionary! It truly testifies of Christ, and I feel like it talks about missionaries a ton. I know that the Book of Mormon is true, and that through Joseph Smith God restored his true church on the earth. I love my mission! I love you all and hope you´re doing well. Thanks for all your letters! How is McCall doing?? Could you forward me her emails? What is her email? Love you guys! I learned some Quechua this week... ewaya! (means Adios) 

Con amor, Hermana Anderson

La Legua Peru, July 22, 2013 (19)

Buenos Dias! Como estan todos? The work here in Peru has been pretty good this week! Last week for Pday we went to a museum about the history of Peru and there was even an earthquake simulation! It was pretty cool ha. Today we´re heading to Larcomar, the big mall that we went to a couple weeks ago. We´re going to play futbol with Hermana Seclen´s zone, so I´m excited!

Ok, so it´s time to tell you about the loco bandera. That literally means crazy flag in Spanish. The loco bandera is a loco that lives here in Carmen de la legua (there are more than one ha). Word on the street between missionaries is that the loco bandera is a loco that´s been around forever. He claims that he´s immortal and that he owns a bunch of land that he wants to give to the church. He wants to talk to the gringo missionaries because he thinks that they have all the power in the church... so whenever he sees me he starts following us and really wants to talk to me, but it freaks me out! The other day after church he was outside our apartment talking to the door, waiting for us to come out. We had to call the son of our pensionista to come make him leave, but before he came the loco bandera had left. We are being super extra careful, so don´t worry! I just thought it was a funny story to share ha.

We had transfers on Tuesday and they were great! President Borg challenged all of us to read the Book of Mormon in two months, going through and marking all the time it mentions Christ. I´ve only been reading about a week now, but i can already tell that the Book of Mormon truly testifies of Christ! It´s amazing how many times he´s mentioned. It´s made me realize even more that it´s not our words that the people need to believe in! All we need to do is teach in a way that makes people want to read the Book of Mormon, because it´s the words that are written that people need to believe. I love reading the Book of Mormon as a missionary, I feel like I´m reading it for the first time! I´ve found things that I´ve never found before, it´s pretty cool. I challenge you guys to read the Book of Mormon this way too! Go through and mark all the times it mentions Christ or any of his names. I promise that you can find new things in the Book of Mormon that you´ve never found before.

Well that´s about it for this week. Hermana Rodriguez and I are loving that we get to be together for another transfer! We feel like we have the basics down and now need to work on technics. It´s just like in sports right? First the basics, then technics. Have a great week everyone! I love you all! Thank you for the letters and support! Cuidense!

Hna Anderson

La Legua Peru, July 15, 2013 (18)

     Hola familia! Tomorrow we have cambios, which means that I just finished my first full cambio in the mission. Crazy! Hna. Rodriguez and I are both staying here, and we are excited to be together again. This last week we set baptismal dates with two of our investigators. We set a date with Rosa for the 27th, but she didn't come to church yesterday so we might have to postpone her baptism a week. Tambien we set a date with Antony, the 14 year old that we just met a couple weeks ago. But we found out that he is going to be out of town for about a week, so probably now his baptism won't be until August. We are also still teaching Emily, but when we taught her the Ley de Castidad she told us that she doesn't believe in marriage. A belief in marriage is kind of important if you're going to keep the law of chastity! I was thinking that the reason we know that marriage is so important and that it strengthens the family is from modern revelations from the prophets and apostles. But the only way for someone to believe in the words of the modern day prophets and apostles is if they have a testimony of the Libro de Mormon, because all of our beliefs rely on the Restoration and the Book of Mormon! Entonces, we are working with ella so that she can have a stronger testimony del Libro de Mormon. I know that this church is the true restored church, and that the Book of Mormon is true. Se que los profetas son llamados por Dios, y si nosotros escuchamos sus palabras, vamos a ser bendecidas.

     Yesterday we were in a little store when a woman came up to me and asked me to speak some English. Hna. Bennett told me something funny that she always tells people when they ask for some English: I have a baby unicorn stuck in my belly button. So, when this hermana asked me to speak English that's what I told her. Then she said back to me, "Que linda habla," which means basically how beautiful you speak. Haha! Hna. Rodriguez started laughing, because I told her what that means. Also, yesterday there was a procession in the street for the Virgen Mary. All afternoon they were walking around the streets with incense burning and a band playing. Our area is pretty small, so pretty much everywhere we were we could hear the band playing and it was hard to teach a lesson. What can you do ha.

Thanks Spencer and Eric.  This shirt is a hoot!

Peruvian museum

School parade

Parade

Peruvian kids at the parade in traditional clothing

La Legua Peru, July 8, 2013 (17)

     Buenos Dias! We are in Lima today, I´m not sure exactly where, but we were supposed to go to a place called Canta. We heard that Canta was up in the mountains and there was fishing, horses, lots of open fields... basically lots of summer stuff, but then we found out this morning that it was three hours away and that it was too expensive to travel. So instead we are here in Lima just cruising around and seeing what there is to see. I was excited to go to Canta and have a change of scenery, but maybe we can go next cambio. Cambios are next Tuesday so I probably won´t email til Tuesday. I´m pretty sure Hna Rodriguez and I will be together at least one more cambio, which I´m super happy about! We get along really well and I think we teach well together too.

     Sounds like the 4th of July was fun for you guys! We hear fireworks most every night outside our room, so I just pretended that it was for the 4th. I feel so patriotic here! It´s so true that you don´t realize what you have til you don´t have it anymore. I am learning to love the ways of Peru though. It´s a lot different, but I love it. I officially ate papa la huancaína the other day and me encanta! It´s kind of like nacho cheese on a baked potato. Oh, and THANKS FOR THE PACKAGE!!! Sarah is super nice and I loved seeing the video of you!! It was a fun surprise. It´s great to have peanut butter and oreos! Haha and mom, tell Spence and Erik thanks for all the stuff. It was kind of hard to explain to the hermanas why they sent me the most random stuff, but it made my day. And I love the clothes you sent!! You read my mind about the scarf, I forgot to tell you to send it. It´s still pretty cold here, I had to buy some gloves the other day too. I think that Callao is a little colder because there´s factories nearby so there´s smog in the air, plus humidity from the ocean. It doesn´t exactly rain here, but it kind of mists, especially in the morning. People call it ¨llovisnando.¨ It´s like you´re continually being sprayed in the face with a water bottle ha.

     Hna Rodriguez and I have been going through our ward directory and looking up inactive members. Lots of them have moved, but it´s actually a great way to find new people to teach, because we can talk to the new people that live there. And when we do find the inactive members they usually have kids or other family members that are not members for us to teach. We were with an inactive member yesterday actually, and as I was saying the opening prayer she was whispering and repeating all the words after I said them. Haha it was pretty funny. We found two new investigators this week! Antony is 14 and his grandparents are members, so we taught him in their house. For being only 14 he has a strong desire to come closer to Christ, and he really liked hearing about the Book of Mormon. Soledad is our other new investigator. We found her in a tienda when we were buying cookies ha. She is abou 24 and said that she´s been looking for the right church but has never been able to find it. She really liked hearing about the Book of Mormon too. I know that the Book of Mormon is true, and that the spirit really bears testimony to people that it´s true if they have a real desire to know. The spirit is so important in the work! I almost think it´s a blessing that I´m teaching in another language, because I can tell when I´m trying to say something that I want to say, versus something that the spirit prompts me to say. I stumble over my words and don´t make any sense when it´s something that I want to say, but when I am teaching with the Spirit I can talk just fine. 

     We were with the other hermanas the other day and with Titi, remember the member in the wheelchair? We were walking down the street and some guys yelled at me out of the car as they were driving by, ¨How are you baby?!¨ It happens a lot so I´m used to stuff like that, but then Titi said something back to them. Then he told us that he thought they were talking to him, since he´s like a baby in a stroller. Haha it was funny!

     Well that´s it for this week. I hope everything´s good at home. Sounds like you´re having a great summer! I love you guys so so much!! Cuidense!

La Legua Peru, July 1, 2013 (16)

Saludos a todos. Today for P day we went bowling and ate at Chilis in Miraflores. I cant put any exclamation marks on this computer, but it was way fun. It was nice to eat something other than rice, potatoes and chicken ha. 

On Wednesday I went to San Miguel on intercambios con an Hna. Quispe de Bolivia and Hna Bennett de Provo, UT. We all got along really well and it was a fun day. Hna Bennett is super funny. We are friends on facebook from before, she might have some pictures and a blog too.

When I got back to my apartment the other hermanas in our sector moved into our room, so now there are 4 of us living in our apartment. Its actually been pretty fun, except using the bathroom in the morning isnt so fun. We didnt have running water in La Legua from Saturday afternoon til Sunday afternoon. I just pretended like we were camping. We had some pots soaking in water, so I put that water in my filtered water bottle and used that to wash my hands and brush my teeth. I was all bunkered down and ready to not have water for a few days, but then it was only for one day ha. We have also had sol for the last two days, so thats been nice.

On Saturday we went to a big conference called Cien Estacas to celebrate that there are 100 stakes in Peru. I got to see a lot of my friends, including Hna Obrigawitch and Hna Ocampo that went to the other mission. For about an hour there were tradicional Peruvian dances that were way cool. I love the tradicional Peruvian clothes, the colors are super bright and awesome. After the dances, all of us missionaries at the conference walked across the stage and waved to everyone. We were in a big stadium, so I felt pretty famous for a bit. After that, Elder D. Todd Cristofferson talked to us for about 15 minutes about how we are building zion here in Peru. He blessed the country and all the people with an apostolic blessing. It was way cool. I want to tell all our investigators that an apostle blessed them ha.

When I was with Hna Quispe and Bennett we watched a video with Elder Holland and Presidente Erying that talks about the Atonement and missionary work. In the video, Elder Holland talks about why missionary work is, and has to be so hard. He says that its because Salvation is not easy, and never was. He says that it is so hard at times because it was never easy for Christ when he was on the earth preaching his gospel. Elder Holland says that missionary work is hard so that we can know at least a tiny tiny bit of what our Savior had to go through. The video really made me think, and remember again the reason that Im here. Christ was the perfect missionary, and I should always keep him in my thoughts and do what he would do. If its hard for me, I know theres someone whos felt all of that and more. Its the same for everyone, even if theyre not on a mission. Theres someone who knows what were going through, and we can always turn to him for help.

So a little bit about our investigators... Emily is 20 years old and already has a strong testimony of prayer and the Book of Mormon.She read Alma 22 and said she really related to the king, Lamonis father. She told us Quiero bautizarme, which is like the best thing in the world to hear ha. Shes awesome and hopefully within the next few weeks she can be baptized.

We are teaching a family, la familia Postigo, and want the dad, mom, and their 8 year old daughter to be baptized together. The dad isnt too interested in hearing us, but we are still working with him. The little girl is named Maria Jesus and is adorable. The little kids here are all adorable, well most of them ha.

Well thats it for this week. I love you guys sooo much. Everytime we watch a mormon message about families or sing families can be together forever I get all choked up, which is weird cause before I didnt usually cry all that much ha. I just realized what a blessing it is to be together forever as a family. I know that the gospel is for families, and that Christ can help families come together more than any other thing. Love you guys. Cuidense. Chaufa.

Con amor, Hermana Anderson

This is part of my zone that went bowling.  The Elder in front is from Uruguay the other Elders are from the states.

Beach in Miraflores.