La Legua Peru, Oct 7, 2013 (30)

     Hola familia! Well to start things out... I have transfers this week!! We found out Saturday night and I did not see a change coming at all! I was surprised and a little sad, but I am also excited to know a new area. It will be weird to have a new ward, new zone, new leaders, new companion... but something I´m learning a lot here is that we can never grow in a comfort zone. We have to be tried and tested, because when we are comfortable or complacent, we cannot grow to our full potencial! I am pretty bummed that I only got to be with Hermana Callister for one change, but she just keeps saying that it was too good to be true. I learned a lot from her and I know we will always be good friends. She is going to BYU after the mission, along with like half my mission ha, so I know we will still see each other after. Today I will have to say goodbye to all my friends here in my ward, and I know it will be hard, but I know that they will be in good hands. I love the people here so much that I can´t even explain why, it´s just crazy how fast we come to leave these people we´re teaching and the people we serve with. I won´t know until tomorrow where I´m going or who I´ll be with, it will definitely be an adventure! Everyone keeps saying that I will be with someone younger than me for about a change or two, and then I will train after that! Whatever happens, I know that the Lord is in this work and he will help me complete any call he gives me.

     Well this week we had a few service projects that were pretty fun. We are pretty good friends with one menos activo that has just started to get reinvolved with the church. Her name is Celia, I think I´ve written about her before. She works in a pharmacy and the other day we went and helped her clean all the shelves and stuff in her store. She is great and always has good advice for us. I will miss her! We also cleaned up a field with artificial grass (turf?) after a championship soccer game, because the mom of one of our investigators works there. We spent almost an hour cleaning up confetti out of the fake grass. It reminded me a bit of my softball days! Service is pretty rare here so I love even the small acts of service that we get to do. 

     It will be hard to leave behind all the people here that I´ve been teaching for so long. I think that I will get to come back for their baptisms, so I´m excited for that! We had to push back the date for Ana Maria, and when she found out she was still going to be baptized, she picked me up off my feet in a bear hug and spun me around!! This lady is like 50 something and she picked me up off my feet she was so happy! Hopefully I will get to come back for her baptism.

     I feel like I could write about what I liked about conference for pages and pages! It was so great! I had so many questions answered, and I just felt like the Lord knew what I needed to hear. I especially liked Elder Holland´s talk and President Monson´s talk. The point of our trials is that we can become better than what we were before. Trials are not a flaw in God´s plan, but an indispensible part of the plan. I am so excited for the Liahona to come out next week so I can read all the talks! We also had 6 investigators come to conference and a few more menos activos, so that was also awesome!

     Welp I love you guys and hope you´re doing well! Sounds like Colton had a good football season this year, and I loved seeing pictures of Court at homecoming. You are beautiful baby sis! Keep practicing Spanish Colton! I love you guys so so so much!! Cuidese todos!!

Con amor, Hna. Anderson

Pics. There was a parade in our area that we stalked so we could take pictures. One of our investigators was in the parade and we were on our way to teach her, so she yelled at us, I won´t be able to make it to the lesson today! It was pretty funny ha. 

2nd picture is with two menos activos that I taught. The abuelita is named Teofila, and the girl is named Ana. She sang Adele´s Rolling in the Deep for me in english. I love them!!

Hola!

     Hello! I can´t believe it´s been another week, time is flying! We´ve seen more progress in our area this week, so it´s been great here. This week we put baptismal dates with three of our investigators, and they´re all wonderful people! We are going to do everything we can to get them to conference this weekend, because we know it will be a great experience for them. I hope that Court had a great birthday! I still can´t believe that she is eighteen. And happy birthday this week dad!! Ojala que su dia sea lo maximo!!

     So this week we now have three people with baptismal dates! Alicia is someone that we´ve been teaching ever since I got here, so at least four months or so. Everytime before when we invited her to baptism she said that it was too cold and that she wanted to wait til summer ha. She is about 60 or so, and she´s been to multiple baptisms in the church so she knows that the water is always freezing. We had a lesson with her the other night and brought a member. We invited her to baptism again and she accepted the date of October 19!! She still likes her coffee so that is a challenge, but we invited her to really pray if it´s something to keep her from baptism. We´re praying for her and are excited for her!!

     One of our other investigators with a date is named Ana Maria. She has had a hard life. I think I wrote about her the other week... she had been living in the street for the past few months and just recently moved into a friend´s house. She told us that she is not happy and wants to change her life. We gave her a book of mormon and taught her about how Christ came to the Americas, and she was just in heaven! It was great to see her so happy. She´s been sick the past couple days so we haven´t been able to teach her, but we are visiting everyday to try and see her. She has a friend that´s a member which really helps. We are also going to bring her to conference this weekend.

    Our other investigator with a date is named Isabel. She has a daughter with 14 years named Carla. Carla has some disablities, so Isabel always has to be at home with her. Plus her son was in a moto accident and has been bed ridden for almost 6 months. She said that her husband doesn´t support her and it´s been hard for her at home taking care of the kids and the house and everything. She said that she feels so much more hope when we come to teach her. We taught her the plan of salvation and the spirit was so strong! Isabel already has a strong testimony and is a great example to me. I´ve realized here all of the blessings I have at home and all the things that I took for granted. We are so blessed in the states!!!

     We´ve been working with our other investigators that we found last week but for now only a few are progressing. People move at different paces, but it´s amazing to see how the spirit works in people. We have a few different families that we´re teaching, but we are hoping to have more support from families in the ward to come visit them with us. As a zone and as a mission we are starting a new program called the work of salvation to get more members involved in the work. All of the stake presidents and bishops are getting a lot of training with president borg in how to animate members in the work. We can work so much efficiently when we have members! We are already improving, but we´re excited to see what more we can do!

     There´s a girl named Mireya who has 13 years in our area that is just amazing! She was baptized two years ago, but there wasn´t the hand off between the missionaries and the ward like there should be, so she went menos activo pretty quick. She´s the only member in her family, so it´s hard for her to walk to church by herself. We´ve been working with her and teaching her, and she has really taken the iniciate to reactivate. She´s invited her mom and her sister to listen to the missionary lessons, she now comes with us to church every week, and last week she went to do baptisms in the temple!! She is the cutest girl and she is such a great example to me! I learn SO much from the people here. 

     Well, that´s about it for this week. Oh! Our bishop´s wife told us that she´s going to Salt Lake this week, so I gave her dad´s number and the house number to call!! She only speaks Spanish, so I told her to call dad´s phone first ha. She will be landing Tuesday in the afternoon, so will probably call Tuesday night. Her name is Patricia and is super sweet and nice! I don´t know if she´ll have time, but maybe you can meet up for lunch or something? Just a thought! 

     Welp I love you all!!!! Hope you all have a great week! Get feeling better all of you! I love hearing from you all and look forward to your letters. I am in Mormon in el Libro de mormon and love everytime I get to read. Se que el libro de mormon es verdadero. Se que Cristo vive y que el es nuestro salvador y redentor. Es solamente por medio de el que podemos regresar a vivir con nuestro Padre Celestial. Love you!!

Con amor, Hna. Anderson

I found a Pinkberry here! It´s still the best hun cal fro yo!!

Hna Callister and I playing on the train tracks in our area

One more picture of villa, the neighborhood that makes up the biggest part of our area

Hola todos!

     First of all, FELIZ CUMPLEANOS Courtney!! 18 years!! I can´t even believe it. I hope you have an amazing day baby sis!! I love you so much!

     Welp familia, I can´t believe that another week has come and gone. This week was really great for us! This week we were looking and working like crazy, and we found 14 new investigators!! 14!! Hna. Callister said that she´s never had that many nuevos in a week in all of her mission. We´ve been pretty excited! I feel like we´ve got more animos now to work. I don´t know how to say animos in English, but it´s the only way to describe how I feel ha.

     

     Part of the reason we´ve been working with more animos is because we have a new ward mission leader. His name is Juan Carlos, and he is actually the son in law of our pensionista (land lord). At first I was worried that we had a new ward mission leader, because our first meeting with him he asked us exactly what was his calling. BUT, he´s really taken the iniciative to learn and to help us in the work. He wants to meet all of our investigators which is GREAT! That´s exactly what a ward mission leader should do. We had a couple awesome lessons with him yesterday with two different families. We finally found the parents of the familia Castilla and shared with them the proclamation to the world. The seemed to really like how we focus on families, and the dad really liked that we believe that God has a plan for us here. He said that it makes sense then that we´re here with families to help us progress and learn. He works for the police, so I told them that my dad works for the police too. He thought that was really cool ha. Juan Carlos also came with us to teach another new family. We met these two ladies in the street last week, because they called us over and started speaking to us in English! They speak English pretty well and wanted us to teach them. We visited them yesterday and shared the Book of Mormon with them. They were sohoho surprised when they heard that Christ came here to the Americas! It was actually kinda funny ha. We had a great lesson with them and the spirit was so strong when we testified of Christ. They both told us that they felt like God didn´t hear their prayers, but we assured them that he hears everyone´s prayers, because we´re all his children. It was a great lesson and I´m excited to teach them again.

     

     On Wednesday we started teaching an English class! We´ve been trying to organize a class ever since Hna. Callister got here, and we finally had it. About a dozen people came and we taught them the basics, like how to introduce yourself. A family of investigators came that we had never met before, so now we have another new family to teach!! We´re going to teach them at their house, but we haven´t been able to find them yet. We´ll keep looking this week! 

     This week we also had exchanges with our hermanas trainers. I went to San Miguel for the day with an Hna. Asay. She is from Provo and has two months left in her mission. We had a lot of fun together and I learned a lot from her! I stayed the night in San Miguel and in the morning we went to Miraflores because Hna Asay had an appointment with the skin doctor. Miraflores is the richest part of Peru, and it was supa supa weird!! I felt like I was in the states and I felt so out of place ha. It was nice to see a nicer part, but also weird.

     I hope you know that I love my mission and am learning a lot. There are hard days, but most of all I am happy here and love the people here. Yesterday when we were sitting in Sacrament meeting, I was a little bummed cause no one could come with us in the morning. Then I looked behind me, and three of our investigators showed up just in time! I´ve seen miracles here and am learning that the Lord´s time is different than our time. We just have to trust in him, and we will see miracles and blessings. I love you all so much!! Have a great week!! 

Con amor, Hna. Anderson

P.S. Photo is from the window of a restaurant in our area. Chevere!

Another week!

     Hola familia y amigos! Sorry that I didn´t write yesterday, we took a bus for about 2 hours down south to a beach called Mala for P day and I didn´t have time to write. We played volleyball on the beach and I actually got a little sunburnt, which is weird cause there wasn´t any sun ha. It´s still pretty chilly here most days but last week we had a few days of sun so that was nice. I think it´s gonna start warming up here pretty quick! I´m ready for spring!

     This week we had interviews with President Borg. Presidente Borg and Hermana Borg son lo maximo! That´s the phrase that everybody uses here to say that something is awesome ha. But really, I feel like they´re my family here! In my interview I told President Borg that I was a little bit frustrated that we haven´t seen the fruits of our labors as far as baptisms go. He said that as long as we´re working hard, we´re obedient, and we´re teaching with the spirit, then we´re having success. That made me feel a lot better. The mission is hard to explain because, I have to admit, it´s super hard, but it´s the greatest thing ever! There are some hard days, but all of those are just forgotten when we have a great lesson and I can feel the spirit and know that we´re helping someone come unto Christ. Even though we aren´t having baptisms right now, I know we´re helping people here in our ward. Baptisms will come as we just keep working! 

     Something else about this week is that on Sunday we had stake conference and watched a broadcast from Salt Lake. I´m pretty sure it was stake conference for all the stakes in Peru. We got to hear from Elder Bednar and Elder Scott. It was really great! Elder Bednar talked about repentance and how Christ is the great doctor. The guilt that we feel when we sin can be replaced with happiness and joy when we repent and use the Atonement. Christ can heal our spiritual wounds. Elder Scott talked about how woman is the most beautiful of all of God´s creations. I was a little surprised at first when he started talking about that topic, but then I realized that it was super great for all the women here to hear! Lots of the women we teach are single moms and don´t realize their self worth. I´m so grateful that Elder Scott talked about our self worth as women. I also love every time he talks about his wife Jeanine, it´s so cute! I just want every husband to talk about his wife like he does. Every women deserves that!

     I think that one of the biggest things I´m learning in the mission is how God must feel when we don´t keep his commandments. I find myself getting disappointed when our investigators don´t keep their commitments, and I can only imagine how our Heavenly Father must feel! I don´t know, it just must be really hard for Him to see when someone doesn´t want to hear about his gospel, or hear about what his son did for them. I appreciate so much now growing up with the gospel and don´t think I realized the importance of it in my life. I can see the difference in people´s lives when they don´t have it, and it´s really sad to be honest! I know I´m here to bring the happiness and light of Christ´s gospel in people´s lives. 

     Hna. Callister and I are still getting along great! We have a lot in common and are learning a lot from each other. Colton, your email made me laugh ha. I´m glad you are liking your Spanish class! Keep practicing with dad! And I´m sorry you lost in football. All you can do is just keep getting better right? I´m SO happy to hear that you´re all still reading the book of mormon. Ustedes son lo maximo! Thanks for all the updates about home. Glad to hear you´re all doing well. I love you all so much!!! Talk to you next week. Cuidense!

Con amor, Hna. Anderson

P.S. I can´t believe I´ve got 6 months in the mission. Crazy!! Pictures are of us in Mala on the beach.

Time is flying!

     Saludos a todos! I can't believe another week has come and gone. We had some pretty great lessons with some pretty great people this week. I feel like we're finally finding some new investigators and gaining some new ground with the ones we have. I'm learning a TON from Hna. Callister. We are just having a blast together! We get lots of people calling at us with lots of different names, but what can you do...

     Well the beginning of this week was honestly pretty slow. I felt like a bunch of our appointments were falling through and nobody was at home. We just kept going to our backup plans and praying for inspiration to know where we should go. We had a lesson with an hermana who told us that her daughter was in the hospital because she had to have some kind of operation, and she was praying for help in the hospital. She told us that she prayed that God would send her someone to help her in this time, and then we showed up less than a week later! She said that she thinks we're the answer to her prayers. We had a great lesson with her and invited her to come to church, but she said she needs permission of her husband first. We are going to try and teach him too. 

     We also had a lesson this week with a family that we found last week named the Familia Castilla. The mom is a member but hasn't asisted church in years. We went to their house to visit them but only their three daughters were home, named Avigail, Milagros and Eleana. The oldest daughter, Avigail, told us that she is a Jehova's witness, but that she has some questions about our church. We taught them about the Book of Mormon and are going to go back later this week! These three girls are sooo cute and I feel like they're my sisters already! I'm excited to teach them as a family.

     A couple days ago we received a reference from a member named Hna. Celia. The reference's name is Ana Maria. We taught her a couple nights ago and she told us that she's been living in the street for the past couple months, without friends and without work. Now she's working for Hna. Celia, cooking and selling hamburgers. When we were teaching her, she told us, I don't know if God really knows me... I'm just a normal person working at a cart. I felt so much love for her and just wanted to give her a big hug and tell her that everything will be okay. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and testified that God does know her and loves her. We are going to teach her in the house of Hna. Celia tomorrow. Sometimes people are humbled so that they are more prepared to hear the gospel. I know that the gospel can help every single person, and that's why I'm here in the mission, is to help people like Ana Maria. 

     We are still working hard and trying to be better teachers everyday. I feel like I'm learning so much every single day!! I love being with Hna. Callister and love my area. I love you all so much and hope that everything's good at home. Keep reading the Book of Mormon! Good luck with school and work and everything. Oh, and here is my address if you want to write me a real letter:

Sister Jaden Anderson

Peru Lima Central Mission

Av. Jorge Basadre 592, Oficina 604 B

Edificio Torre Azul

San Isidro, Lima 27

PERU

Our room

My new companion Hna Callister from California

Cooking french toast

Well hey!

     Hey there! Welp theres been a lot of changes around here to tell you about! First of all, you are not going to believe this, but my companion is another gringa!! Her name is Hna. Callister and she is from California!! Ha we both cannot believe it still. We have basically been floating on cloud 9 this whole week that were together... thats an expression right? Hna. Callister was studying at BYU Provo for three years before her mission. She was studying business, did ballroom dancing, and ran cross country for BYU. Dont worry, weve already started going running in the morning! She also went on a study abroad to Europe so we talk about our experiences there a lot. Shes awesome! So there are four sister missionaries in our ward including us. In the other companionship is Hna. De Las Nieves and her new companion Hna. Brudnicki, who is from Wisconsin. So last transfer I was the only gringa here, but now there are three of us! We are loving life! Hna. Callister has 10 months in the mission so her Spanish is pretty good. Were still learning a lot together and just laugh when people cant understand us, or when we cant understand them ha. The new hermana Hna. Brudnicki is having a hard time with the language, but I think its good that were here to help her. This transfer we had so many hermanas from the states come in. Its amazing how many sister missionaries are coming! Our mission is really young cause theres so many more people coming than going. Its exciting!

     I was a little worried that our investigators and everyone would take a little time to get used to Hna Callister, but theyve all just opened right up for her! Shes so great with people so theyve just basically spilled out their whole life story to her. I feel like I know more about our investigators and their needs in one week with Hna Callister than the three months Ive been here! Shes really taught me the importance of teaching people, not lessons. Shes got some great ideas for our area, so Im excited to see what we can do together!

     Last night we were teaching Mireya, a member who is about 13 years old, and she told us that her mom really liked coming to church and that she wanted to keep coming. We were like, thats great, she should keep coming to renew her baptismal covenants with the Santa Cena and everything, and Mireya was so confused. She was like, but my moms not a member. Hna Callister and I just looked at each other and we both had this huge grin! Hna Rodriguez and I thought this whole time that her mom was a member! Que barbaridad! So now we have another investigator who is progressing and wants to keep coming to church! Ha it was great. We were pretty excited to find that out.

     Another experience we had was a few days ago. Hna Callister felt like we should knock this random door, so we knocked and found a family whos mom has been inactive for a good number of years. We had no idea she was living there! Her name is Marriot and she has a husband and four hijas who we are going to teach! A new familia! It was a moment when we were really just 100% led by the Spirit! Its pretty cool to realize that we have the guide of the Spirit.

     Well this week has been a great one and I am loving the work here. I love my new companion and Im excited to see the progress in our area this transfer! Were still working with Soledad and are trying to find Miguel again, because weve been having trouble finding him lately. BUT, we are going to keep looking! Good luck with school! I hope everythings going great at home. I cant tell you how happy it makes me to hear that youre reading the Book of Mormon together! Seriously, thats so great! I love that youre learning together. Thanks for being such good examples for me. I hope that BYU has better luck (for lack of a better word) in the upcoming games. Sounds like Coltons team is doing great too! Welp I love you all so much! Thanks sooo much for writing! Cuidense!!

Carinos, Hna Anderson

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