"A God of Miracles"

     Hello family! Another week has flown by here in the Santa Cruz ward. Earlier in the week I got a call from the assistants giving me permission to head over to Carmen de la Legua (my first sector in Peru) for the baptism of one of my investigators I had been teaching almost a year ago! I was so surprised!! The hermana´s name is Diana, and my whole time in La Legua she was always at the top of our list in our weekly planning, always so close to baptism, but she never wanted to accept a date. La Legua was were I started my mission in Peru-- it´s where I was trained, where I first learned the language, where I struggled to learn and to grow... it was so weird going back to la Legua! I felt so many emotions come flooding back, but mostly I just felt love for the people and for the ward. The members there in the church were so friendly and most of them remembered me. They all wanted to know where I was serving and what companions I had had. It´s a very humble ward and I was impressed with their spirit and their love. Diana told me that her grandma had passed away and she felt that that was God telling her she needed to be baptized. After her baptism, when she came up out of the water, she was smiling so big and her face was just glowing! It was so great to see! The Lord has a plan for each one of his children, and in the mission we just need to be humble and work hard, and the Lord will do his part. He knows what each one of us needs to progress! Sometimes we need to take those ¨uncomfortable¨ steps to move forward and to change. It was a cool experience to go back to the La Legua and to see how much I´ve grown since I left. I learned a lot in the time I was there, and I could see how much I´ve learned in each one of my areas.

     Last night we went to visit one of the ward missionaries, an hermana that lends her house as a hostal for travelers ¨huespedes¨. She invited us in and in the kitchen we met two women visiting her from Thailand. After a little bit of small talk we explained to them that we were missionaries of Jesus Christ, and we explained a little about the church. They spoke a little broken English, and nothing of Spanish. They were both so cute! They told us they were Buddhists, and hadn´t read much of the Bible. We explained a little about the Book of Mormon and gave them a card with the website of the church. They thanked us by giving us packets of dried soy milk, which were actually really good! Santa Cruz is a pretty cool area, because we get to meet people from all over the world. I hope that someday there in Thailand those two women can talk with the missionaries.

     Yesterday at church in sacrament meeting I saw someone sitting a few rows in front of us that looked like he was from the states. At the start of our gospel principles class he came up to me and I realized he was one of my friends that I had worked with in the Marriott Center!! His name is Zach. I was just a little surprised ha. He told me he had served his mission in Paraguay, but was in Lima for three months for an internship. It was SO weird but way cool to see someone from home here in the ward. My roommate Krista also wrote me and told me that her dad (he works as a pilot) had landed in Lima for a few days and had assisted our ward. It was the day I had spoken in church and he was going to come talk to me but never had the chance. How crazy is that!! This ward must be pretty popular ha. 

     Well I love you guys!! Congrats court on your seminary graduation! And it sounds like Colton is still going good in baseball. Love you guys! Good luck with everything! Work hard til the end of school ok? Chau!!

love, Hermana Anderson

P.S. I´ve misplaced the thing to send pictures, so I´ll have to send them next week. Sorry!