huaca, huaca

     Greetings loved ones! Wow thanks for sending pictures of the family
Halloween party-- it looks like you all had a lot of fun. I laughed out loud that you dressed up as duck dynasty! I´ve only seen that show a couple times but it´s hilarious. Ah makes me miss all you guys! I am so excited to read all the cousin´s letters! And Colton, sorry you got sick ha.

     Well we had a great and pretty interesting week this week! I want to tell you first what we did yesterday morning for P day. We had a P day personal so hermana Hernandez and I were just walking around our sector looking for something to do. It´s pretty cool cause in our sector we have a lot of old Incan ruins called huacas. I told hermana hernandez that I wanted a picture with one, so we went to a really big huaca that had guards and stuff outside the walls. We asked if we could go in a take a picture, and then this guy with a pony tail came out and offered us a private tour! He told us this huaca was called Mateo salado and it´s not even open to the public till mid November! We walked to the top of what he said was the temple, and he told us that that they´ve found where the people lived and had school. It was sweet! We talked to him about the book of mormon and he thought it was interesting, but then he told us he was atheist. We gave him a pamphlet of the resteration and are going to go back to give him a book of Mormon. It was really cool!

     Saturday was the day of Diego´s baptism, but I woke up Saturday morning with the stomach flu, so hermana Hernandez called some hermanas in the ward to come stay with me while she went with another hermana to Diego´s baptism. I felt bad that I missed his baptism, but I felt a little bit better in the night so we were able to go to my old sector to see the baptism of Ana Maria! She didn´t know I was gonna come so she was so surprised and started crying when she saw me. It was a special experience for me.

     Hermano Quesada (the investigator who´s 82) has a baptismal date for this Saturday. He passed his interview so he´s so excited! I am seeing lots of miracles here and learning a lot about the power of the priesthood. I´m also gaining a much stronger testimony of Joseph Smith. 

     We don´t celebrate Halloween here in Peru, but I think I´m okay with that this year. Hope you have a fun day Thursday!! I lov you guys so much!! Until next week!

Love, Hermana Anderson 

Pictures!  

With Diego and his aunt (yes his aunt) Meche who we´re also teaching

On top of the huaca

Miskita Quyaiki

     Greetings loved ones! We just got back from the Parque de las Leyendas, a big zoo that´s close to my old area. It was fun to do something different, and my zone is awesome. What I love is getting to know so many different people from different countries... Mexico, Peru, Salvador, Chile, Argentina... and everyone has different likes and hobbies. I¨ve learned how to fix cars, how to speak a little qechua, history, science, marine biology... It´s pretty cool all the experiences you get to have in the mission!

   

     This week was a good one for Hermana Hernandez and me, but we also passed through a couple rough days. Right now we have four investigators with baptismal dates! One of our investigators, named Diego, has a date for this Saturday. He IS 14 and is a cool kid with a strong testimony. He´s really turned his life around since he started hearing the lessons and wants to serve a mission someday! He´s a great example for me. Gustavo, Wilfredo and Rodrigo are the other three with baptismal dates. Gustavo is about 25 and really loved when we taught the Plan of Salvation. He told us that he really wants to have a family of us his own, and knows that it wouldn´t make sense to not be with our families forever! Wilfredo is 82 and his wife passed away about a month ago. He told us that he promised his wife that he´d be sealed in the temple to her, and he told us, ¨Hermanitas, I´m not going to leave this earth until I´ve fulfilled my promise.¨ He´s so cute! Rodrigo is 13 and has had a hard life. He leaves with his dad, cause his mom left them when he was really little. It made him grow up fast, he doesn´t act like he´s 13, more like he´s 20 years old. He said he´s a lot happier now that he has friends in the church who are good examples for him. 

     I am SO grateful that I grew up in the gospel! I realize everyday how much I took for granted having the gospel in our home! Even the little things, like how we always spend time as a family, how we eat together, just that we have unity as a family. We are teaching a family who has so many problems in their home, and I just keep thinking, if only they lived the gospel in their home they could avoid so many of these problems!! We don´t realize our blessings until we don´t have them! I love you guys and am so glad that we get to be together forever! Please be examples for everyone that you can. Share the gospel with your friends, even your friends that are members, cause they need to be reminded sometimes too. 

    Sorry if my letters don´t make a ton of sense ha. There´s so much that happens in the week and I just try to get the most important stuff in. I love you guys SO much!! Sounds like you all had a fun UEA weekend. Enjoy the fall weather! We are having a few days of sun which is awesome! Love you! Hasta luego!

Love, Hermana Anderson

Transfers!

     Olo! I have been here in my new area for about a week now-- my area is called Las Brisas in the zone Magdalena. We are close to something called el cercado de Lima... whatever that means! I love, love, love my area here! Most of the houses here are actual painted houses with gates, whereas in my other area everything was brick apartments. It´s a lot nicer here-- there are lots of parks, lots of greenery, plants, flowers... it´s super pretty! Sometimes I actually feel like I´m in California ha. My companion is Hermana Hernandez. She is from Salvador and is going home after this tranfsfer, so I´ll be getting a new companion at the next change. Hermana Hernandez is super nice and just loves life. She loves to laugh and have fun, and the people here just love her. She´s teaching me a lot how to just enjoy every minute of the mission! My zone is really cool too. In my other zone we were just four hermanas, but here we have five companionships of hermanas and four companionships of elders. It´s a lot bigger with lots more hermanas! Hermana Nunez and Hna Seclen are here in this zone-- they were with me in my other zone, Bello Horizonte,so it´s fun to see them and be with them again! It was hard to say goodbye to everyone in La Legua, but I know I´m where the Lord wants me to be.

     Hermana Hernandez and I have had some awesome experiences this past week. I was reading in the bible for my study the other day and found a scripture that I really like found in Matthew 9 12-13. We´ve had some experiences that have made me think a lot about these verses. It says, 

    ¨They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. 

     But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.¨

The other night we were walking in a park when we walked past a man, limping and pushing his own wheelchair along. We offered to take him where he needed to go, and when we asked where he lived, he told us he lived right there in the park. He said he was on his way to the house of a friend who sometimes gives him something warm to drink when he gets cold. We starting pushing him along and talked to him about our purpose as missionaries and the church. He told us his named was Walter. He said he really wanted to come to our church, so we left him with some pamphlets to read and 2 soles to buy some bread. About 30 seconds after leaving him we both felt like we needed to go back and talk to him some more. He was surprised but happy to see us again. We took him to a bakery and bought him some fresh bread, but I think what he appreciated more was just some company, someone to talk to. When we finally said goodbye, he thanked us and told us that he would never forget us. That experience with Walter was really special and I don´t think I will ever forget him either! 

     We had a baptism of a cute little boy with 9 years named Jose yesterday, and it was so great to see how happy he was! One of our investigators named Rodrigo was also there, and he told us that he liked it so much that he wanted to be baptized too! Rodrigo has 13 years and reminds me a lot of Colton. We went to talk to his dad later that day to ask for permision. At first his dad was a little hesitant, because he said first he wanted to see a change in his son, that he was ready to accept this new responsibility. We read with him in Moroni 10 about how it´s as we come unto Christ that we´re perfected in him. We told his dad that through baptism we come unto Christ and we can become better people than who we were. The spirit was really strong, and his dad agreed to let Rodrigo be baptized! His baptism will probably be in two or three weeks! 

     Here in the mission I have been able to see what Matthew 9 really means. I am seeing that Christ and his gospel are for everyone, everyone of us! No one is excluded from receiving these blessings. I love my mission and am learning so much! I am so grateful for everything the Lord is teaching me. I finished reading the Book of Mormon and I just love that book! I hope you´re still reading! I love you guys so much and hope everything´s good at home!! Pajarin cama! (qechua for see you later). 

Love, Hermana Anderson 

Pics

Yo y hermana Hernandez at transfers! 

baptism of Jose!!

We went to the beach today for P day in Miraflores. It´s an actual nice, pretty beach!!

New companion hermana Hernandez

Beach in Miraflores

Saying goodbye in Le Legua.  I just love these kids.  They just flocked to us every time they saw us.

Baptism of Jose

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.