Sunday, May 24, 2015

Week 10

Well if you havent heard im going to brazil in a week exactly!:) my visa came through and we are headed to brasil!:) this week was awesome! i had a ton of wonderful experiences including my visa coming:) this week we were trying really hard to get members present and we had a lot of help from the ward and they came out with us and tried helping us but all the people we were meeting were busy so we werent able to have anyone come with us in lessons but we did meet a couple new people who are awesome! first ill start with Jr. hes my favorite! hes like 20. he and his dad were painting a house and we rode our bikes and talked to him a little and he acted a little interested but when we asked for his information his dad told us that he knew who we were and that he had mormon friend in malad idaho and that he already went to church and stuff and didnt give us his address or anything. then we rode our bikes away and as we were leaving we realized we forgot to ask him if he knew anyone that could use this message or a visit from the missionaries ( we have to ask everyone we talk to that question or we are busted ) so we were turning around and we meet another lady named mary who seemed interested. we shared a message with her and she said we could come back and she is super sweet. anyways so we finally made it back to Jr and his dad and we asked if there was anyone they knew that we could share our message with and the dad said us we could use a message. i was like what. ok cool! and then Jr continued on to tell us how that day he had told his dad he was changing his life around and that he was dedicating his life to God and then we showed up and started talking to him about it. and how he knew that we were a blessing! its so crazy!!! :) he was telling us how hard of life he has had and how he has done a lot of bad things in his life but how he wants to be better and how he wants to promise god that hell be better! so we told him that we make covenants with god and the first is baptism and he said yes i want to be baptized i want to come to church and i want to be better! it was fantastic!:) the lord answers prayers i promise you that! i knew that, while we were talking to him, we werent able to have those members with us at other lessons because we were supposed to be on our bikes at that exact place at that exact time and that president makes us ask those questions for a good reason! so Jr lives in paris a town outside of our area but we were able to contact the other missionaries and they got him a ride to church and hes on date to be baptized!:) wow the lord had definitely prepared him for the missionaries. he also wants us to visit his mom and his dad too. they seems so interested.  so that was cool. then we met with adrian. hes 17 ans is very willing to learn more and listen to us and has a lot of questions. he doesnt know if there is a god and wants to know more! the only thing is, is he missed church and doesnt read or pray so its hard for him to have that personal revelation when hes not really trying to find out i guess. i think hell come around though:) we met with a less active family and they were so happy we were there and the daughter gave us 10 referrals!! some were just not interested at all but one family i think is very interested but only speak spanish so we gave them to the hermanas! but yeah it was a good week!!!!:) we did cross fit with president today! man im out of shape!:) it is ok though. :) we had a couple investigators at church so that was awesome!:) yeah it was a grand week!:) i hope you are having as good of week as me!:) i love you all!!:) im going to miss cali but brazil will be awesome!:) 
-sister anderson 

WEEK 9!(:

This week was so awesome! mothers day was fantastic! it was good to talk to my family! this week we did a lot of finding.. we walked around a place called swan lake a lot and we received 3 new investigators this week. they are all under 18 and all girls. i hope things work out. we have met with a lady named doree a couple of times and she seems very interested. we have taught her about the restoration a little and she is super nice and when we met with her the second time she said oh i have been looking for you girls all the time! i sit outside and watch for you to ride your bikes past my house! haha she said shed be interested in taking the lessons so we'll see where that goes. we got a new fridge in our home share so that was exciting and we have the best water! its hard to find good water here especially with the drought.. but its good.  we also have been meeting with a man named mike st jaques. his wife is a member and wants to go to the temple with him but he is lagging behind a ways. he says he has an issue with tithing but we have addressed that many times and he understands and we asked him about baptism the other day and he said hes a lot farther away than we think he is but hes told us before that he has a testimony and he believes all the things we have taught him so we are praying extra hard for the gift of discernment to help him come closer to christ. i think hes a lot closer than he gives himself credit but if you could all pray for him to overcome the trial that is blocking him from baptism thatd be much appreciated!:) thank you!:) i cant believe i have already have been away for 2 months today! thats crazy how fast time flies!!!! it blows me away!  it is also so fun when we are out bike contacting and start talking to people about jesus how they just tell us everything they believe and they do all the talking. its fun to learn what they all believe and most of the time its very similar to what we do! its cool:) this week was kind of a slower one because we were doing a lot of finding and contacting referrals but it was still amazing! ive been reading in alma and it has really applied in my life! you should all go read alma 5!!!!! its so powerful! i know this church is true and i know that we can live with our families together again with god and christ but only through the atonement:) go read alma!:) i hopee you all have a great week and S/O to abby and cedar softball good luck at state!:) i love you all:)
-sister anderson

Monday, May 11, 2015

Week * 8 is Great!!

     This week was really a good one! kind of slow compared to what i have been used to, but i think its kind of getting to be more normal. we did a lot of service this week! we painted a recent converts house and one wall is checkerboard. it looks so good. we had some really good lessons with people and really felt the spirit! on friday  i went into spanish land because we were on exchanges and i switched with a spanish sister so i got to go teach the gospel in spanish for a day! it was a lot the same to portuguese so i could understand what was going on for the most part! it was cool because i only know gospel words and so when we were teaching maura she was telling us how her son has to go to jail for 6-9 months and how she was really upset with him and stuff and i didnt know what she was saying but all the sudden i turned to my companion and said, tell her that christ knows what shes going through and that if shell pray hell comfort her. after i said that i was like whoa. i didnt even know i was saying it until after i had said it. so that was amazing! ive had 2 flat tires on my bike so far so that sucks and it takes up so much time to fix it but its ok were working through it.:)  we had stake conference this week and it was awesome! this stake is so cool! we had the opening prayer in spanish and a testimony born in chinese! there is so much diversity its amazing but i can still feel the spirit so strong even when i dont understand the words. we taught english class also this week! it was so fun!!! the chinese people are so cool!! they are trying so hard to learn and understand english! one guy was trying to know the difference between bottom button and bottle. and when he would say bottle it sounded like he was saying butt hole and i was laughing so hard! it was way funny:) they were doing really good though. the members are so sweet and have such strong testimonies and help the missionaries so much! i know this church is true and i know joseph smith was a prophet  and i know if we pray and ask for help to become stronger he will help us in so many ways!!!!! i know he loves each of us and wants the best for us! choose the right!:) i hope you all have a wonderful week!:) i love you all!:)

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Lucky Numba 7!

I'm doing really good i don't have a lot of time to email today but i live with a member couple their names are Heidi and Scott Jensen. they are sweet! we live in Norco but our area is in Eastvale and so we drive our 2014 car to our bike depot and then bike our area. the weather has been stormy since i got here and on Saturday we had our first baptism! it was so rainy!!!!!!!! but the lord blessed us! if we could baptize people hell give us water to fill the font! i'm glad the sisters before me were working hard so i could have a baptism so fast! it was cool! he is 12 his name is Matthew. So Tuesday was good. it was the longest day ever though. we woke up at 330 and flew to cali and met everyone and then went through all the rules and such and then went home. the rest of the week we were teaching people and serving people. we did a service project on saturday where we cleaned out a bunch of old yucky sheds and knocked them down. there were mice and black widows all over the place. dead rats and snakes. it was pretty gross.. but sunday was good! it nice to have something stay the same through allthis craziness. :) my trainer is sister cozzens (cousins) she is from north salt lake and is super fun and nice and sweet! she just got done with her training. so we are both new:) the bishop is way cool!! he served and lived in brazil so we can kinda talk in portuguese. we have had so many cool experiences i wish i had time to share them all with you. hopefully i can have time to write them to my mom and you can ask her about them. i love you all and i hope you have a wonderful week:) remember every member a missionary! the members really help a lot! ill try to send more california pics soon!