What Have You Done With My Name?

     Saludos! I can´t believe we are at the end of another transfer here. Wow. We will hear of the changes this afternoon, and it´s more likely that I´ll have a transfer than that I´ll stay. I have 4 transfers here, or 6 months. I am ready for whatever adventure the Lord has in store for me in these next few months of my mission. I have learned so much here in Las Brisas and am excited for more!

    This week the Lord has taught me a few things I´ve been lacking lately. But first, bulletin news:

• Nilo received a calling as secretary of the elders quorum. He was just beaming yesterday he was so happy! It´s great to see the excitement he has to serve
• Rodrigo, who was baptized in November, passed the sacrament yesterday in church. It was cool to receive the sacrament from someone that I taught and realize that he is a worthy priesthood holder
• We were walking down the street on Tuesday when a man stepped out in front of us and asked, Elders? He said his name was Julio and that he had just moved here. He had been hearing the lessons from Elders in another province, but wanted to take up the lessons again. Yesterday Julio came to church all on his own and we have an appt. to teach him tonight! More proof that the Lord prepares his children!                                                   

I learned a few good lessons this week that have been with me these past few days.

1. First of all, I was reading in Our Heritage, one of the books in the missionary library about the history of the church. I love reading about Joseph Smith and the early saints, and a little about all the modern day prophets. An experience from the life of George Albert Smith really stood out to me: ¨During a difficult time in his life, George had a dream in which he saw his grandfather, George A. Smith, coming toward him. George hurried forward, but as his grandfather drew near, he stopped and said, I would like to know what you have done with my name. A panorama of his life passed before George´s mind, and he humbly replied, I have never done anything with your name of which you need be ashamed.¨ I thought a lot about this story and it made me think, after my misson, or at the end of my life, when the Savior comes to me and says, I would like to know what you´ve done with my name, will I be able to say the same thing as President Smith? This week I´ve been trying harder to be more obedient, more faithful, so that I can say I was always a worthy representative of the Lord´s name.
2. The second thing I´ve learned this week is that spiritual knowledge doesn´t come from how many positions we´ve held in the church or how many years we have as a member. We receive our testimonio from the spirit, and it´s the only way to have a strong testimonio. We visited a less active member last night that had held various positions in the church including a full time missionary and first counselor in the bishopric, but he had let wordly knowledge and materials get in the way of his testimony. I love the scripture in Matthew where Christ says to Peter about his testimony, ¨Blessed art thou Simon Bar-jona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto you, but my Father which art in heaven.¨ We should study the scriptures, not so that we can ¨know more,¨ but so that the spirit can confirm to us that what we are reading is true.
3. I´ve also learned a lot about gratitude this week. How blessed are we to have born in the gospel, to have such a strong family and to live where we live! I hope you count your blessings each day for what the Lord has given us.                                            

I am excited to find out what the Lord has in store for me this next transfer. If I stay here one more transfer I will make the most of my time and strive to learn what the Lord wants me to learn. I love you guys so much!!! Thanks for everything you do for me. Have a great week! Chaufa!

Love, Hermana Anderson

PS The thing that I used to send pictures just fell apart in my hands, so... sorry there won´t be pictures this week! ha

I've Been Away a Year and a Day

Happy St. Patrick´s Day!! Hermana Brudnicki just reminded me that today is st. Patrick´s day, or I would have forgotten. We had a great week! We had lots of new things going on this week.

Starting with Monday, we went to a zoo called parque de las leyendas as a zone. I´ve been there before but now they have a new section that´s built like the north of Peru in the amazon, so that was pretty cool to walk around in.

On Tuesday Angel de Jesus was baptized!! It was a happy but stressful day. Stressful because the bishop almost didn´t let Angel be baptized, because Angel doesn´t technically live in this ward. He works here but actually lives about half hour away. We had already talked to President for his permission, explaining that Angel was going to move here permanately to study. Well long story short, in the end we got the bishop´s permission, explaining that it was all approved by President Borg. When we got to the church to fill the baptismal font, we had brought the wrong keys and didn´t have the key to the font! We had to literally SPRINT over to the house of the first counselor for different keys and ran back to be able to fill up the font in time. In the end... todo salio bien! Everything worked out. Angel came with his mom, who was super excited to see how many members had come to support him. It was a beautiful baptism service, and the bishop actually baptized Angel. He will be a strong member, but is still new in the way things work, so he´ll need a little help getting started.

On Wednesday we met two boys named Julinho (you-lean-yo) and Giovanni. They are brothers who were references from two members here in our ward. They are so super prepared!! Julinho first got excited hearing from his friends about the mission, and asked what he needed to do to be baptized in order to serve the mission. We taught him the first lesson and invited him to be baptized. He accepted without hesitating!! His brother Giovanni came to church yesterday (Julinho couldn´t come cause he had traveled over the weekend). They are awesome and are more evidence to me that the Lord does prepare his children!

 On Thursday I had an exchange with Hermana Madsen, so we were able to complete our one year together! We started as companions one year ago and were able to complete one year as companions. We talked a lot about old MTC memories which was so fun!! We celebrated by eating reece´s and some saltine crackers that a member gave to us ja. We´ve both learned a lot we realized and have been through so much. The mission has been one of, if not the most important decisions of my life, and i don´t regret it one single bit. I have learned SO much here and have grown to have a stronger testimony in my savior Jesus Christ. And that is the most important thing to me.

On Saturday our stake had a noche blanca, which is a reunion where serveral people are baptized in the same night. President and Hermana Borg came with their daughter and her family who came to visit from Utah! We have a goal as a zone for 20 baptisms this month, and in the noche blanca 10 people were baptized, and with Angel on Tuesday we´ve reached 11 baptisms so far!! There are still two more weeks in March, so we´ll see what happens! it´s exciting what the Lord does for us when we are obedient and have faith in him.

That is it for this week! i love you all so much!! thanks for your letters! We´ll talk to you all next week! Les amo!!

Love, Hermana Anderson

Pics ·Parque de las leyendas

·parque de las leyendas. peru can be pretty sometimes

·Angel´s baptism! with his mama

Bring on the Rain

Hey family! Sounds like you all had a great week this week. I just want to start out wishing mom a FELIZ CUMPLEANOS!!! Tomorrow will be extra special because it's also Angel's baptism. He is so excited and ready. He's inviting his whole family and his friends from "the neighborhood." Angel has really changed a lot since we first met him. He's a lot calmer, humbler and teachable. He comes from a pretty rough upbringing... he used to be in a gang with drug and drinking problems, but has really changed his life for the better.

This week I went on an exchange with Hermana Zavala in a completely different zone, the zone Maranga. It reminded me a lot of my first area La Legua. It's a lot more humble than Las Brisas and there are lots of quintas, which are like long passages with about fifteen rooms just jam packed with families. It was fun to be with Hermana Zavala, she is from Honduras and has about 6 months in the mission. She is training for the first time so is nervous, but is doing just great. I love working with the hermanas!

Something pretty weird this week is that it rained for three days! OK not three days straight, just on and off, but one night it was pouring! I was surprised cause I heard that it never rains in Lima. Then again everyone told me I'd be eating guinea pig, but that hasn't happened yet. I did eat cow tongue though. I don't recomend it. Ha but Hna Rodriguez and I were running around in the night in the rain and it felt so good! It's been a year since I've felt rain coming down that hard.

This week I'll hit my one year mark in the mission. I can't believe it! I feel so privileged to be able to be a missionary in such an exciting time. I love love love my mission and am learning so much. I am grateful for the trials the Lord gives me here. I know I'm learning things now that will help me face future trials in my life. Thank you all for your letters, pictures, and words of advice and encouragement. You have helped me so much!!!!! Love you guys!! Have a great weekend in St. George! Cuidense!

Love, Hna Anderson

Pics:

*Happy Birthday mom!! This is with Diego and his family, and with Nilo. Love you!!

*Pic from the roof of Hna. Zavala in the zone Maranga. They've got the beach in their sector

*I know you want to see a picture of my sweet tan lines ha. My toes are super white cause of the powder that mom sent me. #sistermissionarytanlines

Some Weeks are Better Than Others

     Buenos Dias! Well like it says in the title, some weeks are better than others... and this week was one of the better ones! I feel like this week stretched on forever, but it was good for me cause I learned a lot. The week was full of intercambios, hot and humid weather, multizone meeting, and lots of personal growth.

     First of all on Tuesday I stayed here on an intercambio with an Hermana Lopez from Buenos Aires. This last cambio about 7 hermanas came from Argentina, so we´ve got a few in our zone now. Hermana Lopez is from Buenos Aires and apparently people from Buenos Aires are famous for their strong character. Hna Lopez definitly has a little bit of a strong character, but we had fun talking about Evita, mate and alfajores. She refused to eat the food that our pensionista made for us which made me feel bad for our pensionista, but what can ya do. It turned out to be a fun day though. On Thursday an Hermana from Bolivia named Hna Antonio came here. I´ve had an intercambio with her before, she´s super cool and we get along really well! She´s got about 4 months in the mission but came prepared. I´m seeing a difference in the new hermanas.. some come prepared to face the challenges of the mission, but others come thinking that everything will be easy and that it´s just like living at home. But it´s not! The mission really helps you to grow up in the most positive of ways. 

     

     On Wednesday Hna Rodriguez and I were back together and had a pretty interesting experience with a reference that we received from a member. The reference is named Flor and the member told us that he had set up a meeting with her that night. So, we showed up at her house at the hour and sat down with Flor and two of her friends. Flor´s friends were two ladies of a different religion and they started out telling us that they had come to listen to our message. I thought, that´s great, the more the merrier! But as soon as we started talking one of the ladies started arguing with everything we said, especially about the book of mormon. The lady was pounding on the bible saying that it was the only book she needed, and that there was no way she was going to believe in the book of mormon. I started feeling mad cause the lady wouldn´t let us get two words in and she was saying all this stuff in front of Flor. While she went on arguing I looked down at the book of Mormon on the table in front of me and read the golden words, ¨El Libro de Mormon.¨ A feeling of peace came over me as the spirit bore testimony to me that the book of mormon was true. I felt in that moment that it didn´t matter what other people said, but that I had received an answer and I knew that the Book of Mormon was true. The lady finished talking and excused herself and her friend from the table. Once they had left, Flor apologized for their behavior. She said quitely, ¨But I believe that it´s ok to have two books about God.¨ We were able to explain to her about Joseph smith and the restoration, and the spirit was really strong. She invited us to come back the next week, so we´ll be going back to visit her this Wednesday. I´m grateful for the testimony and the peace that the spirit brought me from this experience.

     On Thursday we had a multizone conference with the zone callao. I saw Elder Larsen, he is still doing well, but I imagine he´ll be having a cambio sometime soon cause he´s been there since he started. We had a great training from President Borg and the assistants. We talked a lot about the power we have as missionaries and I also felt the spirit So strongly in the meeting. I know that we´re called of God and that we´re in his work!

     On Friday our zone leaders surprised us by calling a meeting and making us all banana pancakes! Well, they bought the ingredients and we hermanas made the pancakes ha. We also set goals for the months of March and April. We all got really excited and I think our zone will have a lot of success this month!

     Angel passed his baptismal interview so if everything goes well he will be baptized March 11. He loves to come with us to teach investigators, his testimony is really strong right now cause he´s seeing first hand the difference when we keep the commandments in our lives.

     Well I love you guys so so much!! Love hearing from you guys. Hope you´re doing well in work and school and that you´re doing stuff as a family. Talk to you next week! Chaufa!

Love, Hna Anderson

Pics   Making banana pancakes!

Setting up a fan in our room.. I think I´m too much like dad cause after 5 seconds I got frustrated and Hna Rodriguez set it up ha

view of Lima from Hna. Aguero and Hna Brudnicki´s apartment building