Hermana Anderson in Peru: "I Will Find You Dear Friend"

Hello all! This week was a growing one here for me in "The Breezes." It had its ups and downs, but mostly ups! First of all I want to mention our hilarious P day we had last week as a zone. Our zone leaders wanted to do something different, so we of course went to the biggest, oldest cemetery that there is in Peru! Yes, cemetery. It reminded me of the cemeteries in London and Paris cause the tombstones are pretty much all above ground, except that here it's just brown dirt while over there there were trees and vines and lots of green. Ok, but the funny part is that apparently we entered without paying the right amount, so the guards started chasing us and we had no idea why!! Our zone leaders just told us to run so we ran throughout the graveyard! It reminded me of when I was in Paris and we were also running around the graveyard at closing time at the guards were chasing us around haha. Good times! Everything turned okay though, we got all our money back.. so that's my testimony :)

We had our last exchange of the transfer this past week. Hna Rodriguez went to the zone Maranga while an Hna Sanjines came with me to our sector for the day. She is from Buenos Aires! Her accent is super super strong ha, but it's cool! She is 28 years old, one of the older missionaries in our mission, so she was really mature and easy to work with. She was really excited to find out that I had mate cocido and so we drank that for breakfast in the morning. I never thought I'd say this, but I think I'm actually starting to like it more! We also drink anis, manzanilla and other tea like stuff here in Lima, so that's probably why.

On Saturday Nilo was baptized and Sunday officially confirmed a member of the church. It was an amazing baptismal service! Nilo asked Elder Fankhauser to baptized him, which was cool since he was in the MTC with me. Our whole district ended up coming so it was a fun night! Nilo asked us missionaries to sing something, so we sang the primary song "Cuando yo me bautice," which I think is "When I Get Baptized." Also the young women sang a song called "I Will Find You Dear Friend," which says that in the pre earth life we made a promise to our friends that we would find them here on earth and bring them the message of the gospel of Christ. It is a really beautiful song and I feel like we made this promise to Nilo before. He was just glowing in his baptism and I could feel that he was a new person, born again in Christ. I am excited to see what Nilo can become and what he can do here in the church.

Yesterday at church we didn't have too many investigators come, but two less actives came that I wasn't expecting at all! One hermana named Hna. Marayahua came to church after a year of not attending. We've been teaching her and inviting her ever since I got to this sector, and she finally decided to just get up and go with her kids yesterday! That was a mirace in and of itself. Another Hno. named Hno. Padilla also came to church. He hasn't been to church for about 18 years, but told us that the news that his wife has cancer helped him realize that he needs and wants God back in his life. The hna. Padilla is also a member and they're both so amazing! They have so much desire to return to activity in the church. So I feel like this week we were blessed with new, progressing less actives :)

We have our transfer meeting as a mission tomorrow. I can't believe this transfer has already come and gone! I'm thinking that I'll have one more transfer here with Hna. Rodrgiguez as hermanas capacitadoras. She's still awesome and we get along so well. I know we'll be good friends for life. Well family that's about it! I love you so much! Thanks dad for doing all that stuff for BYU for me. It's weird to think about things at home. It sounds like you're all doing well! Thanks for always writing!! Hasta ver para siempre dios este con voz :)

Love, Hna. Anderson