Miracles Left and Right

Dear MOM and DAD,

What a week!!!! There's lots on my mind so I hope i can express it all.... Here we go!

 

The weather has been amazing, it hasn't gotten above 100 degrees in almost a week and it's about 85 in the mornings. It makes me even more excited about the winters here (I think I will still miss snow though, there are places here you can buy snowballs.... really?)

 

I don't know if you've heard anything about the mormon.org media blitz but it's going to be so cool! The church has selected areas in the country to play 30 second, back to back, prime time, "I'm a Mormon" commericals on ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, etc. from October to March. There will also be ads on facebook, twitter, YouTube, billboards, and buses. The greater Phoenix area has been chosen to participate. We were told that 50% of LDS Adults and 100% of LDS Youth WILL be asked about why all the mormon media. It is such a great opportunity to do missionary work, that is one of the reasons they are doing it. The three reasons for the media blitz are 1) To dispel myths 2) Merge "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" (who people have a very positive view of) and "Mormons" (who people think is a cult) together 3) To Invite. So the question is do you have your mormon.org profile up yet? It's amazing how our mission president has been making changes and encouraging us to work with members and all of it has applied with the mormon.org stuff before we even knew  it was happening. It just increases my testimony of our Mission President and how inspired he is.

 

Last week we had a sister come on exchanges with us. Sister Hoyt is AMAZING!!! We went on splits and we got to be companions, she is headed home this transfer so she is super experienced and we had a lot of fun and success that night. After one of our lessons she said that she felt like we had been teaching together forever because we had such good teaching unity. That was a confidence booster!!!

 

So I have one none member friend (Doug) and I've been avoiding giving him as a referral because I was writing him and I didn't want to push him. Well this last week Sister Dyer challenged me to refer him and that he would accept and I would see miracles... so I did (mom that is why Sister Vause called, isn't she AMAZING?) and he accepted missionaries! I'm so excited for him to see how wonderful the gospel is and to see how it can improve his life. That was my biggest miracle this week, it was so neat to hear about the conversation Sister Vause and Doug had and how much the Spirit was involved in the whole thing.

 

Another miracle was that Christina's brother Ray told us he wants to take the lessons and get baptized!!!! Ray reminds me of Alex in that he has had a pretty sorted past but is now trying to correct his life and turn to Christ, he can't get baptized till March but he is so ready and would this week if he could! 

 

Alex is doing great he's just working toward getting the priesthood and is being a missionary himself. He brought a non-member to church with him last week. Christina is also doing well, she's slowing coming to Christ and is trying to do the things that will bring her there. She is set to get baptized next Saturday on the 24th. Evan's baptism has been moved back because we haven't seen him enough to plan his baptism, but after he saw Alex get baptized he decided it wasn't that scary and that he was okay with getting baptized.  Nicci is getting baptized this week and we are very excited for her! She's still a 9 year old girl and acts it sometimes but we know that the Holy Ghost will be such a blessing in her life and help her improve.

 

So our stake got dissolved and combined with two other stakes, so we now have wards in two different stakes. That is going to make transfers next week really interesting... we have no idea what they will do because both the stakes only had elders so our wards may just go to them, but we still don't know. Our sad little singles ward just got bigger because of all the change so that is exciting!!! It is kind of bitter-sweet because our area is exploding with work and I don't want to leave it but I'm also very ready for a change. I know that what ever happens is the Lords will and is what is best for all concerned.

 

The church IS true and we DO have a loving Heavenly Father who sent His only begotten son to suffer and die that we might live! How blessed are we! I love you both very much!

Miss you much, Love you more!!!! Ether 12:27 

 

Sister Anderson

(Check out this video, I cried!!!)

http://lds.org/media-library/video/mormon-messages-for-youth?lang=eng&query=dayton's+legs#2011-03-004-daytons-legs

 

This is an amazing story.  It is too bad that these types of stories can't be Headliners instead of what we get as head lines.  Colleen

 

Baptism

This is Sister Anderson's post of Sept 6.  We got busy with the Arts Festival and other things and then the internet went down for 3 days.  I will probably be posting again today or tomorrow.  MOM

 

Dear MOM and DAD,

Well most of this last week I've had a nasty head/chest cold but it has been a pretty good week otherwise.

 

The MOST exciting news of the week was Alex's baptism. It was such a neat day and I even felt mostly okay for the morning during the service. He had so much support there, there were three different wards represented. Sister Dyer and I have been to several baptisms that she had helped teach, but it was really cool to see his progression and be involved in his conversion.  The next day he received the holy ghost and it was really good! Satan has been working on him so hard, the day before his baptism he got kicked out of his halfway house (conflict of interest) and he told us later that the police had found his missing aunt's body the morning he received the holy ghost. We had a lesson with him the next day and you could just see the light of Christ in his eyes, he really has changed so much and he can see how it has benefited his life. He had gone to his dad's house on Sunday night (in the "slums") and said he was so grateful that he wasn't at that place in his life anymore.

 

Christina is such an interesting puzzle, she is changing but not.... it's really weird, but she actually may be moving to Denver because they are struggling financially so we may not get to teach her anymore. Which is really sad because just the beginning of this week she had set a baptismal date. 

 

We have 4 investigators and all 4 have baptismal dates in September. Alex of course got baptized on the 3rd and Evan's is still the 17th, but now so is Christina's (if she stays) and Nicci's. That's 3 baptisms on the same day!!!!! Nicci is a 9 year old that just hasn't been baptized yet ("unbaptized member"). We've been working on her mother for a few weeks so it was really exciting when she called us and asked us to teach Nicci the lessons.

 

So as I mentioned before I've been sick for a few days, it started off as just a chest cold but progressed pretty fast to my head.  Sister White (the visitors' center Director's wife) took me to their house during one of our VC shifts and let me sleep on their couch. It was such a blessing (we had a ton of appointments that evening that we couldn't miss). I'm almost positive that my mission experience is nothing like the norm because of the Visitors' Center.

 

As you can see in one of my pictures I got my hair cut, it really needed it and now it doesn't take me as long to fix. The Other two are from Alex's baptism; Me, Alex, and Sister Dyer and Me and Emma Birch, she's like a littler sister and she's such a doll.

 

A kid came into the VC the other day needing tweezers... he was from Germany with his exchange family checking out the temple. He had never seen a cactus so he decided to touch one... yeah he knows now to never touch a cactus. It was really funny, I felt bad for him though.  He spoke 4 languages and when he goes home I bet he'll convert. The mom and I talked for a bit about introducing him to the church and she said he really like it (the government won't let them convert on exchange programs). 2 Nephi 5:27

 

Miss you much, Love you more!!!

Love Sister Anderson

 

Hair Cut Yeah!

Sis. Dyer, Alex, Sis. Anderson  Alex's Baptism!!!

 

 

 

Emma Birch  Sis. Anderson loves little sisters.

 

missionary letter

This may not be very long today. Not because I'm not okay but more because it's only been 5 days since my last email and I was hit in the head with a soccer ball this morning so my head still hurts...

Well Alex is still doing great! He has his baptism interview on Tuesday and we are pretty confident he will pass with flying colors. Evan is still a bit leery about getting baptized but we are going to have a lesson where the ward mission leader practices  baptizing with him so he won't be as scared anymore. The Visitor Center is great I'm growing and getting more comfortable with phones (just watch as soon as I have the hang of it President will send me full field...lol)

Lots of cool little miracles have happen this week, as usual,  but looking back I see more of how I've changed. I'm not as homesick anymore, the heat doesn't really bother me anymore, and I'm coming closer to my Savior. All are very good things. I'm learning more and more that what people think of me does not matter, if I am making the Savior my best friend then I'm doing what I should and that is all I need. I'm so grateful for our family I love you all so much. I was talking to a recent convert yesterday and I showed him a picture of our family and he said just what everyone says, that I have a very good looking/pretty/beautiful family. But he followed it with they have a neat spirit about them, and it clicked, our family is centered on Jesus Christ and that is why all your children are good and why people tell me how beautiful my family is. We have the light of Christ! Thank you Mom and Dad for teaching us to love our Savior and center our lives around Him!

Well sorry again for it being so short but I'm really tired... Hope you get feeling better Mom, I pray for you always. Make sure you are taking it easy!!! How is school going for Dad?  Miss you much, Love you more!!!  1 Nephi 21:15-16

Love Sister Anderson 

Missionary Letter

Dear MOM and DAD

Well it's been a long but good week. It started off kind of rough but worked itself out.

 

VC Blessings- A couple came in last week and asked for a "Mormon Bible" so I gave them a Book of Mormon and then took them on a tour. They were so excited to learn more about the church and to meet with the missionaries (we call those top boxes, people who accept our offer to send missionaries to their home). It's really cool to see people who are prepared and want the blessing of the Gospel compared to those who we have to "convince" or those who get offended because we are offering them something amazing. These are the people who make a mission such a great thing. I also had several people accept missionaries over the phone and they are also the people who are ready to have the Gospel in their lives.

 

Alex (Investigator)- Alex is doing so good. We did have to push his baptism back to next week (Sept. 3) because he has to be off of smoking for 2 full weeks before he can be baptized. But he is still going strong and is progressing in the gospel and is stoked about his baptism. I always have the underlying fear that he will give in to temptation or will stop doing all the good things he's been doing to keep him strong. But he always proves me wrong. GO ALEX!!! The Lord has truly prepared him for the Gospel and has helped inspire us to keep him strong. We felt like we should have RJ fellowship him and it was the best decision we have made, they get along so well and RJ is a great influence on Alex. It also helps RJ keep that missionary fire and focus as he prepares to serve himself. Alex has been coming to church and reading his scriptures and praying without much encouragement from us and the ward has done a great job taking him in.

 

Christina (Investigator)- Christina is another investigator that is so prepared but her family is in the way of her fully committing. She feels the spirit when we have lessons and she is seeing the blessings of the Gospel already in her life, but her mother asked her not to get baptized... we told her that Heavenly Father would help her get through any trial if she made that commitment, but she has to make the decision, so we told her to pray and see what God wanted her to do (we all know the answer), now we just pray she will act on it. She is such an amazing girl with such a strong spirit. She has been through so much and it has brought her to the point that she is ready to receive the blessing God has for her, she just needs to reach out and take it. We pray for her a lot. She is coming to church and reading her scriptures, and the ward is so welcoming.

 

The YSA ward is really surprising us, all the amazingness that is happening in that ward is because we have the best Ward Mission Leader EVER!!!! Brad had been home for about a year and still has the missionary fire. We love Brad and it truly is because of him we have all this work in the ward.

 

Evan (Investigator)- Evan is doing good, they are still coming to church and the baptismal date is still on, so we'll just keep teaching him and getting him excited for his baptism.

 

Other- Well I met Elder Tremebling (picture), he worked with Kember before he came out. It was so fun to see someone who had seen Kember more recently than I had. 

 

Elder Tremebling and Me

We had a little drama here this last week. Sister Dyer had an anxiety attack and was struggling to breath, so I called Sister Ellsworth and she walked me through what needed to be done (my mom gene kicked in, of course) she was okay after we got her relaxed.   I learned that I need to manage my stress to stay healthy though.

 

I love you both more than words can say and pray for you always!!! Miss you much, love you more!!

Alma 56: 47-48 (My favorite)

 

Sister Anderson

Me and a Muffin

 

 

 

 

Sister Dyer, Sami, Sister Anderson, Robbi

 Robbie is a convert of a year who just baptized Sami a week ago. They have been coming in and watching all the movies at the VC and have gotten to know all the Sisters really well. We love them!!!

 

Whirlwind

Dear Mom and Dad,

This week has been such a whirl-wind of emotions and experiences that I couldn't even think of a title for the e-mail.

The most exciting news is that we now have 2 investigators with baptismal dates. 

The first is Evan (I've been spelling his name wrong the whole time... oops) his mom informed us that she had asked Evan's dad if he was okay with Evan getting baptized and he was so yesterday we invited him to be baptized. He was a bit hesitant because he was afraid of going under water backwards but still accepted the invitation, we think he won't be as scared once he sees someone get baptized. It was really cool to see his mom help us talk to him about being baptized. She has changed so much since we started teaching her, we can tell she is getting the Spirit back in her life and her countenance is changing. Jade, her 4 year old, told us yesterday that she was going to get married in the temple. They had had a lesson on it in primary, she was also really excited about getting baptized when she turns 8. That whole family has come so far and I'm so glad i got to be a part of it.

The second is Alex. Alex was the investigator that the Elders gave us. He is amazing, he's about my age but has been though so much. His mother is a recent convert and he asked her to hook him up with the missionaries. I can't even really express how amazing Alex is he has been drug free for over 60 days and stopped smoking the moment the Elders told him he should. He's reading and praying and that is when you know that they have a true desire, is when they do the little essentials. He's got a plan for his life and is working his hardest to get his son back. He's such an inspiration of a disciple of Jesus Christ.

I had the privilege of being a instrument in Heavenly Father's hand in rekindling a girl's, about my age, desire to go on a mission. It is so neat to think because of me the Spirit could remind her of that desire. It was fun to see her have her own "smack in the face" I recall God doing the same to me.

So even though I HATE making phone calls I've been working on being more diligent at it and this last week the I got to see a lady that was so ready for the missionaries accept them. And the man who referred her was so happy that I had followed the spirit he called in with another referral and specifically asked for me. I felt so honored!!!

That is so cool you got to hear from Sister Vance, we love that family SOOOO much. They have such an amazing spirit in their home. Brother Vance has Parkinson's and went in for surgery yesterday to get some probes put in his brain, we've been praying for him. It was defiantly a tender mercy for us to meet them.

I GET TO DRIVE again, I got approved to drive the car, it was alittle scary at first but I only hit one curb the first day! I missed driving so much. Speaking of driving am I correct in thinking Kember has learned to drive my car? If so that is awesome!!! Ryan said she lock the keys in my car and I only assume it's because she was driving it. Maybe now she understand how much fun a manual is.

Sister Dyer and I are working hard on still finding our balance as companions, our teaching is getting better and better, but we have a long way to go.

Pictures:

Me- Duh...

The car wash- we get our car washed every week and it always reminds me of the movie Catrinia, Catrinia (with Whoopi Goldberg) so I took a picture.

Me and the Vance's- that is the family I told you about, it was our last member lesson so it was kind of sad.

Me and a Lighthouse- Just for you mom!!!

My Zone from my 1st transfer- It was a really good zone!

Well I best be headed. Miss you MUCH, Love you MORE!!!

Love, Sister Anderson

News from Transfer Day

Dear MOM and DAD,

Well the news is in... Sister Dyer and I will still be together and we will still be in our area!

 

I got the package, thank you so much! I cried because it smelled like home! How was 17 Miracles? I've heard nothing but good about it, maybe the Mission President will let us watch it when it comes out on DVD... we'll see

 

Well the mall was fun last week, we went to the Disney Store (bad idea) it made me want to go to Disneyland real bad, so I plan on avoiding going back (to the store not the park c: we should take another family trip in 2013... hint, hint). I had to speak in District Meeting last week, about what it means to me to be a missionary. I used the Fourth Missionary talk, I think it went well. I also get to speak, again, in one of our wards this next Sunday. I have the feeling I will get over my fear of speaking in church before I come home... lol!

 

Last Thursday we had a full day. We had 6 appointments (member lessons) in 3 hours so we had to go on splits. I got to go with Sister Christina Allen, she was a missionary in my area over 6 months ago who is here visiting. She's amazing and it was cool to teach with her. It was alot easier teaching with her than with the girl I went with last night, we had never taught together before and she hadn't been on her mission in over 4 years, so it was a little rough. It definetly made me grateful for my companion and our unity in teaching. We are pretty good, or at least the Spirit is good at using us, at being able to just pick up where the other has left off.

 

Last Friday we TTI"D (Teach, Testify, and Invite) a guy in his front yard. He was a black Muslim and really cool to talk to. Most people just through the line at us "I'm (fill in religion) and that's all I need" but he was very respectful and asked us questions. Not that he was looking for anything new just curious... that's how it starts though He said we could come back and talk to his wife, so well see how that goes.

 

We had another lesson with Kate and her kids, we want to ask Ivan if he will be baptized next lesson so Kate said she'll ask his dad if that is alright. They've been coming to church and we are really excited for them. Some Elders in our Zone gave us 2 new investigators this week (one with a baptism date already) and we will be meeting them soon. They are both YSA and we have the YSA ward so even though the ward is VERY small (it struggles because everyone around here just goes to their home wards) we have faith that if we start doing work in that ward, the ward will benefit from it.

 

We were at a member lesson the other day with the Shelley's and at the end of the lesson they were commenting on how much I've changed (because they met me my first day in the area, the day the power went out, not such a good day for me) I don't feel any different but people keep saying it, so it must be true!

 

I'm 8 pages away from finishing the Book of Mormon! I will finish sometime today meaning I will have met my goal to read the entire Book of Mormon in a transfer (6 weeks). Now I'm really excited to start over and use my studying journal. I just discovered the amazingness of a study journal, I always have all these thoughts running around in my head and I'm liking that I'm writing them down. I'm also really excited to start the Doctrine and Covenants when I finish and continue the New Testaments.

 

You are both amazing!!! Miss you much, LOVE you more!!!

 

Sister Anderson

Alma 36:3

Still Hot, Ice Cream and Service

Dear Mom and Dad... and Danielle

Yup it's still hot, but it's the norm for me now. I'm super excited for winter though. Sounds like last week was a rough one, "Mom I think you need a hug!!"  Tell Danielle to give you one for me. I hope you are doing better this week, how's the shoulder? Still "hanging" in there... lol? When did Dad get a touch screen phone? I don't remember asking for a white skirt, unless it was the DownEast one with the purple and green geographic print on it, if so that's the one I really wanted... but if you can't find it I'll be okay. Thank you again for sending me that stuff I haven't got it yet but I haven't got the mail yet today.

Now for the good stuff. Last week was crazy we had exchanges for three days straight, so I was in a trio for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Thursdays was the craziest because we had a full day of teaching member lessons, we were so tired by the time we got home, probably the best nights sleep I've had thus far on my mission. This next week we have a couple more days like that, we are going to have to go on splits because we have so many member lessons to teach.

Dad might be interested to know that in the 5 weeks I've been in Arizona I've eaten more Ice Cream than I have in the last 5 years of my life... still not a huge fan but it's cold so I'll take it.

For the last couple weeks we've been trying to have a lesson with a less-active member named Kate, she's a convert and has two children one is 9, Ivan, and the other is 4, Jade. We finally had a lesson with her last week and it was so good, she wants to come back to church and she wants her children to have the gospel. So we are going to start teaching Ivan because she wants him to be baptized, we are just waiting on Kate to ask Ivan's dad if he can be baptized (Lots of prayer and fingers crossed). They came to church last Sunday and it was awesome (It was also my first investigator at church), we are really excited for them!

My first transfer is next week... we will know by Saturday if either one of us is being transfired, it would be really sad if one of us was because we are just getting to build relationships with the members and it would be tough to start over. But the Lord knows what he is doing, so we will do whatever is asked.

This last week at the VC I confirmed 2 people over the phone to receive the missionaries, one of them was so ready. It's amazing all the miracles that happen at the visitor center. Just yesterday a man come in and said his girlfriend was a member and he knew she wanted to get married in the temple so he was there to find out what he needed to do to make that happen, he wanted to surprise her. And just the day before we had a German family come in and say 'We are Catholic, we want to learn about your church". Most of the time we don't get to see the result of all these miracles but it's so neat to see the beginning.

The member lessons have been going so well, I'm getting better at teaching and we are getting to know the members better, which is really fun. Yesterday I got to do my first service, we went to the Golding's (another amazing family) and helped them de-junk their house. Mom you know how I am, I warned her before we came that I was a stickler but she wanted us to come. We will have to go back next week but we got a good deal done and it was nice to get to organize for awhile, it's a major de-stresser for me.

Today we get to go to the mall, I'm in need of some perfume and Wal-mart isn't the best place to go. So it should be a fun day!

Miss you much, Love you more!!!!

Sister Anderson

Service at Sister Goldings
RJ Birch, Sister Anderson, Sister Golding, Sister Dyer,
Christina Allen (RM/Previous Companion of Sister Dyer visiting)

Another Dust Storm