La Legua Peru, Aug 26, 2013 (24)

     Hola familia! Wow I have so many things to write about this week! Tuesday we got to go to the temple and it was amazing. It was a nice sunny day and we got there early so we just walked around and enjoyed the sunshine for a while. I could really tell a difference just walking around the temple between everything going on outside... the temple is awesome and really is a special place. It was great to get a spiritual boost to be able to keep working hard for the rest of the week.

     On Wednesday we had a visit from Elder Quentin L. Cook! He flew in from Cusco for a devotional with our mission and it was amaaazing! We got there early so we had front row seats! We were all super anxious and excited for him to come, and then when he walked in the room the Spirit just flooded in. We all got to walk up and shake his hand. It was really cool! Elder C. Scott Growe, our seventy, also came and he talked first a lot about reactivating menos activos. I was kinda surprised at first at how much he talked about them, but he told us that if we want more baptisms we should work in reactivation. Elder Cook talked a lot about that too. He shared the scripture in DyC 31 verse 3 I think, where the Lord says that through his missionaries he will establish his church. Elder Cook talked about how establishing the church means having strong members, not just more members. And it´s so true! There are a lot of menos activos in our ward that we´re working with. Elder Cook also promised us with an apostolic blessing that our families would be taken care of. He said that we are doing more good here for our familes than we could be doing for them at home. He said we are blessing the lives of everybody we love. I thought that was pretty awesome! I learned a lot from hearing from Elder Cook and I know that he´s a servant of the Lord. 

     Tomorrow is cambios and I´ll be getting a new companion! I have loved so much my time with Hna. Rodriguez and have learned so much from her. I know that we´ll always be good friends! I´m excited to meet my new companion and to start a new adventure here. If things go as planned Soledad and Miguel will be baptized this cambio, and I know we can find more people who are ready to accept the gospel! 

     Welp, I love you guys so so much!! It´s so good to hear from you all and it sounds like you´re doing well. I love to hear that you´re all starting to read the Book of Mormon and mark it up! At the bottom of each page write how many times it mentions Christ. You can also mark how many times he directly says something in another color and mark it at the bottom of the page. My testimony of the libro de mormon grows everytime I read it. I know it´s true. Love you guys! Until next week!

Con amor, Hna. Anderson

Hna Anderson and Hna Rodriguez with stake president and his family

Hola!

Hola familia! This week was a really good one for us! We met some new people and had some really powerful lessons. Also, tomorrow we´re going to the temple and I´m so, so, so excited!!

Primero, Thursday we had a noche de hogar (family home evening) with Rosalinda in the house of a family that lives across the street from us. We´ve felt a little lost with Rosalinda because we don´t know exactly what it is that´s keeping her from baptism. In this noche de hogar she really opened up with the family and explained that her best friend was Mormon, but she passed away. She said that her friend was really important to her and she feels closer to her when she hears of the church. We watched the video of the Restoration and the Spirit filled the room when we watched the First vision. She said after that she could really feel it too! Rosalinda also came to our ward talent show that we had Friday night, but when Sunday morning came around, she didn´t show up at church. We are still working on how to help her come to church, but it will happen in the Lord´s time.

Our talent show Friday was a blast and lots of people came, but at first there were only a few members! Time is a little different here ha. At first the people who were supposed to do their talents didn´t come, so we started telling jokes, like stand up comedy. I only know a few jokes in Spanish and I ran out of all of them, so I started quoting Dane Cook haha. Don´t worry, it was clean missionary style! The people were laughing, so I think it went well ha. The night was fun and a few of our investigators came, so it was worth all the planning.

About two or three weeks ago we met a 16 year old boy named Miguel in the street, and he was really interested so we gave him a Book of Mormon. We went to his house later in the week and the next week, but no one ever answered. Yesterday we were by his house and we decided to knock some doors. We were about to knock a door when Miguel came out of his house across the street! He told us that he read 3 Nephi 11 and really liked it! He invited us in so that we could teach him more, and he was asking a lot of questions and was really interested. We started talking about baptism and he asked, ¨What do I need to do to be baptized?¨ We set a baptismal date for the 7 of September with him, and he accepted. I know that God is preparing people here who are ready for baptism, we just have to find them! 

One of the biggest things I´m learning here is patience, and that our time is different than the Lord´s time. Lots of times we don´t realize that we´ve already been blessed, because we´re impatient and we can´t see our blessings right away. I´m so grateful for everything I´m learning here. I´m learning to be thankful for every little thing and to be patient. It´s hard sometimes, but blessings come in the Lord´s time, not when we want them to.

Welp I love you guys and hope you´re all doing well! Say hello to the whole family for me. Keep reading the Book of Mormon, cause it´s amazing! Love you guys! Chaufa!

Hna. Anderson

Hna Anderson and Hna Rodriguez

Talent show

Hola familia!

Hola familia! This morning for Pday we went on a tour of the Palacio gobierno of Peru. It was pretty cool! I felt like I was in London again, because there was a cathedral and more white people than I've seen in a long time ha. The palacio is in the plaza de armas, which I think is the most touristy place in Peru, besides Machu Pichu of course. I'll send some pics!

This last week we had a multizone conference with President and Hermana Borg. They're both fantastic! Hna Borg talked to us about our patriarchal blessings, and how they can be an extra guide and strength for us. Hna Borg gave us an assignment I guess you could say to read our blessing and go through and mark specific things, like our talents and specific warnings. I took a picture of the paper she gave us so that you can all do it to! I'm excited to go through and read my blessing more carefully. My patriarchal blessing has given me comfort and strength so many times in the mission!

I want to share our experience about last Fast Sunday because I didn't have the chance last week. We were fasting so that we could have more people come to church on Sunday, and last week we had more people come to church than we have in a long time! I know that there is a real power behind fasting, and that Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers.

The other day Hna Rodriguez and I were walking in the street and we saw an older lady carrying a table, so we went over to help her. When we got to her house we met another older lady named Mercedes, who said we could come back later in the week to teach her. Later in the week when we went to visit her we also met her granddaughter Rosa and her brother Eduardo. Rosa is about 15 and Eduardo 12. We gave them both a Libro de Mormon and Edaurdo went straight into his room and starting reading it! If anything I learned that service is always a good thing, and that it brings blessings!

Hermana Rodriguez and I are working hard to help our investigators to baptism, and even though we can't see the fruits of our labors right now, I know that if we're obedient and faithful then Heavenly Father will bless us. We've just gotta keep working! Even though there are some hard days, I love the mission and I'm learning a lot, especially to be patient! I think I'm learning some things that I couldn't learn at home. Thank you all for your support and encouragement! I LOVE to hear from you all! I love you guys SO much and hope you're all doing well. Cuidense!

Love, Hermana Anderson

Zone bbq

Plaza de armas

Plaza de armas

Hola!

Hola! We´re writing a little later in the day today because we were playing volleyball together with the zone and didn´t have time to write earlier. We played a game called jailbreak that I used to play with my friends in high school all the time. It was soo fun to play again! We also had a barbaque and cooked meat on the grill. It was super good and fun!

So this week was a pretty good one! We are still working with Soledad and teaching her for her baptism the 24th of this month. She hasn´t come to church yet for lots of different reasons, so that´s something that could hold her back. We are going to work this whole week with her to make sure she can come to church this next Sunday. Soledad lives across the street from Abdul, remember the little ten year old that was baptized my first day here? Soledad told us that the taxi of Abdul´s dad was completely wrecked and that all the windows were smashed. His dad was kicked out of his room and he took Abdul and his brother with him. Hna Rodriguez and I thought that they had left for good and that we were never gonna see Abdul again! But we were walking in another part of our sector and ended up in the street of Abdul´s cousin, where we found him and his dad. When we knocked on the door Abdul opened the door and was standing there in his little footy pajamas and said I knew it, like he knew we´d find him. It was really a miracle. God works in mysterious ways!

We met a woman named Karen this last week (she was a reference) and she´s really interested in the Book of Mormon and has family that are members. I´m excited to keep teaching her!

I ate soup with a chicken foot two times this last week. The second time I tried the meat on the foot, but it wasn´t very good ha. I´ve also eaten cow lung, but I didn´t realize what I was eating. It wasn´t too bad though!

Hna Nunez y Hna De Las Nieves moved out of our room into their new room this week. I felt like they were moving away for good! I´m not super excited for transfers, because I´m pretty sure Hna Rodriguez and Hna Nunez are going to change, because they´ll have both been here for 6 months. I feel like I´ve become best friends with the hermanas here and it will be hard to change! I´m so grateful that I got to be here with them!

Well that´s it for this week. I love you all sooo much! Thanks for all your letters! Keep writing and take care. I know that there´s nothing better I could be doing with my life right now. I love being a missionary! Chau!

Hna. Anderson