7 months

HOLY COW I seriously cant believe Christmas already passed, and that 2015 starts in like 3 days!! This year has gone by so fast and has been such a good one! :)

But this week was also one of the best EVER!!! Monday we got to go sing with some elderly people and it was SOOOOO FUN! They are the cutest things. One of them slapped my companion hahaha and also I got interviewed and was on TV!!!! People have passed me on the street and said hey saw you on the news! And i was like what?! so i have no idea how you could find it, but apparently i am famous in Guatemala WOOP!;) Then tuesday we just contacted LOTS cause so many people werent available.. and we also visited Americo and Victoria I LOVE them and their daughter, durning the prayer she like kissed my cheek haha it was so cute. Also after we left their house we literally walked and contacted ALL DAY so we sat down for a second and this lady comes out of nowhere and is like Ohh let me give you guys a hug, it was sooo funny i think she thought we were sad or something, it was sweet. Then wednesday we had district meeting, it was about the book of Mormon and really good then we helped people make tamales, and we visited a RC named Vilma holy cow I love her!!!! This Christmas was one of the best and so humbling, the people here dont celebrate with huge gifts or anything, but its sooo amazing, the love we can feel from our Savior not only this day but every day and that's what its all about :) On Christmas we ate MORE TAMALES for breakfast and lunch and then I GOT TO TALK TO MY FAMILY :) best moment ever! Cant wait til may ;) Friday we were in the house most of the day actually ALL day cause my comp got sick :( super sad so i literally read and wrote letters like all day. Saturday we attempted to go to an aldea, and we walked for what felt like forever and we asked this lady if we were close and she said NO its still like a half hour in a bus... WHAT!!! our area is giant here but we need to go to all ends of the earth right?? oh also i dont know if you remember me talkin about Cesar from Trebol?? the guy who stopped drinking coffee!! I heard he GOT BAPTIZED the other day!! so that was cool he is so awesome. and yeah thats this week. :) Hope you all have a WONDERFUL new year!!!!!!! 2015!!!!
Love you guys!
hna andersen

                               Christmas Eve with our tree and PJs

                                              Duck Tamales!!

Merry Christmas!

So I really have like no time but I just wanted to say MERRY CHRISTMAS!  The highlight of my week was watching frozen in spanish... I think it is a little better in english but thats alright I was just happy to get to watch it :) super fun!!!! We are working extra hard in this new area and spending so much time looking for the ones who are ready... :) Its an adventure! LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH and remember this Christmas that Jesus is the gift, I love the initiative the church is taking!!:) so grateful for our Heavenly Father and our Savior! love you all have a great week!!!:) CANT WAIT TO TALK TO YOU FAMILY:):):):)
                                                             New Companion :)

Hey all. So this week was SO good! It began Monday night, saying goodbye to everyone in San Benito was a little stinky, but the highlight was this super cute grandpa that LOVES the missionaries gave me a surprise kiss on the cheek HAHAHA super awkward, but yeah he is like 90 something and sweet. Tuesday we got all packed to go to Coban and had a 6 hour bus ride that was super great....... we got to Coban, and I was so excited to see all my old comps!! Hna martinez, hna gomez, I was sooooo happy to see them! It was a little reunion of my companions! Then I also saw hna weicks FINALLY! She has like 4 months in the mish and I finally found her!:) It was fun to see her. Then we got on another bus for 45 minutes to our area, and when we got here we were greeted by the lady we live with! HOLY COW! I dont even know how to explain her. Her name is Ingrid, she is the funniest and sweetest thing on this planet! I love her. My new area is SOOOOO COLD! I literally wear like 3 jakcets every day and gloves, I mean I was asking for a little change from the heat in Peten but not this much!;) But its so great, there are a lot of mountains so I just really like it, its super Guatemala-ish!! Also, EVERYONE and their dog in this area speaks a language called Po´qom. Its freaking crazy and half the peaople dont even speak spanish either so its tough to communicate with them but we try!:) We have some super awesome investigators here, theres a sweet family that we visit, the problem is that the guy is married to some girl in Canada but he's starting his divorce papers so we will see what happens there. We had district meeting thursday and we made pancakes, my new district leader is from Montana, I thought of Bruce when I met him. Also my ZL is from Morgan and another elder in my district is too, they both know the Marsdens!! Also, i dont know why I am the luckiest missionary in the world when it comes to worms... BUT I FOUND ANOTHER IN MY FOOD THIS WEEK! yum. sooo gross hahah. Also we have this girl here who got baptized in like septmeber and i just love her, her name is Vilma. I LOVE HER: I also saw a redneck sauna this week and thought of you dad, its built in like a stove thing hahha super funny. Then yeah thats about my week! Loving my new areal, and my comp Hna Rivas she is from peru and has 21 years and she is sooo sweet. we have the same amount of time in the mission so we will be leaving together. pretty sweet!!!:) Thats all, but have a great week and I LOVE YOU ALL :) 

 

Mission San Benito... OVER

So first off we have changes! Both me and Hna Hernandez are leaving our area and heading for areas close to Coban and my comp will be Hna Rivas from Peru (I think). I am super excited, and we are both new to the area so it should be a big ADVENTURE to find our way around and investigators and stuff! I am a little nervous too... but more excited :) And I will be leaving the HEAT!! Bring on the cold I will be able to wear my sweaters finally!:) I didnt bring them for nothing hahahaha.
This week was a good and slow one! We found a PILAS investigator yesterday,and  had a super spiritual and awesome lesson with him, then to find out that we both have changes! Pretty sad. Also speaking of sad, the reason this week was slow is because the wife of one of the members of the presidency of the branch passed away. Super sad so we were at their house a lot this week helping and consoling, it was really sad. But the service they had for her in the church was SOOO beautiful! A guy spoke and said something super awesome, he said ¨´We are born to die, and we die to live¨ I LOVED that. That is something from this gospel that just makes me so happy. I really know that families can be eternal and I am sooo grateful we have that knowledge in the restored church :) Also we saw the biggest rainbow ever, that was really cool, i am going to try to send pics??? i took some!

Yesterday was testimony meeting and SUPER good!!! i love testimony meeting. And also yesterday was december 7th... which in Guatemala for the catholics is BURN A DEVIL OUT OF YOUR HOUSE day. Literally they put like scarecrow looking people outside their house with a lot of fireworks and they burn them and they look like devils! Its so weird. Also we watched the chirstmas devotional yesterday, I loved it :) and just so you know family i still look for George
everytime the motab sings. and i point it out to my comps. ;) hahahahhaah

LOVE YOU ALL AND HOPE YOU HAVE A FANTASTIC WEEK :)

hna andersen

I still love our house...

Buenooooo!

This week was great.  Monday night we did FHE with some of my FAVORITE people, karlita and marina. I seriously love them.  I taught them how to roast marshmallows! They loved it and after we shared our lesson and were roastin the mallows it started to rain SUPER hard. Seriously I am pretty sure that a lightning bolt hit the house because it was SOOOO LOUD. It has been a little colder this week so that was nice. :) We visited a cute family this week and they are SUPER evangelicos, he was scolding us for wearing earrings...  and it was just so funny like he told us they are sins and things like that i have no idea. We are still working with Maria as well. She is progressing but she didnt come to church this sunday, she went to the young women activities but not church so we will see what is going on tomorrow with her, its almost her birthday woohoo. Then we are also visiting a guy named Cesar hes been receiving the lessons for a long time, and has had problems with some things but we visited him this week and he told us he hasn't had coffee in 8 days!!!!! That was soooo cool and we are really hoping he can keep progressing cause he's super pilas. :) There was also a baptism on saturday and it was good we sang in the baptism and it was really pretty. But the crowning event of this week.... DRUM ROLL... RAT IN THE ROOF! So one night we got to the house and planned and everything and were getting ready for bed, when i looked on the top of my closet thing to grab something and saw something moving, i realized it was a worm, so i got a chair and looked closer and there were like 50 worms in my stuff!!!!! well they were MAGGOTS, like from dead things!! and they were just like dripping from the ceiling like rain and me and my comp freaked out cause it was like 1030 and we needed to sleep so we got a bucket and were trying to figure out to do when the POWER went out!! We were soooo mad hahahah but it was sooo funny. So the power came back on and we were trying to figure it out again and the power left AGAIN!!! So when it finally came back on  we  stuck a paper to the ceiling so that they wouldnt fall and then we went to bed. The next day we told the guy who is over the houses about it and they went up and found this HUGE RAT, dead. It was soooo gross and smelled AWFUL! But yeah that was pretty fun. Adventures in Guatemala right?? I am lovin that mission life. :)

love you all have a great week I almost forgot it was Thanksgiving, Happy Thanksgiving!!

hna Andersen

 

So, apparently the cold has hit Peten... Yep Im still not feeling it haha. Still sweating everyday and enjoying the sun. ;) We ate some super cold watermelon the other day, and I feel like I am stuck in July for the rest of my life! But I love it. 

SO Tuesday we went to visit Diego cause he was sick, and we went there and that book of mormon he didnt want was sitting on the table RIGHT BY HIM.. so we have our suspicions that he may be reading it. We hope so at least!! Also we visited a guy that works in a store and he talked to us FOREVER about baptisms for the dead, he didnt agree with it at all!! SO we left him a pamphlet of the plan of salvation and are hoping to return and teach him more! Thursday we had reunion de distrito and it was all about the holy ghost. It was super good I always love district meetings, our DL is pretty awesome!! We are teaching a girl named Lupita and she is so darn cute she is 16 years old, and has these little cousins that are the cutest things too. AND she is keeping all her commitments!! Reading BOM, praying, we just need to get her to church with us but she likes what we teach so we will see :) Also the funny people we visited for the week were some evangelists or something but they asked us if we thought it was a sin to dance and we said well no theres limits but we can dance and they went on this rant of YOU CANT DANCE ITS OF THE WORLD AND ITS SIN and freaked out and then told us we dont have Jesus in our hearts... yeah that was pretty crazy encounter. Also we visited a family with hna and elder bake and it was an adventure, but all turned out well with the message :) we are still teaching efrain his wife is not listening anymore but he still is so we will see what happens with him. :) 

 

LOVE YOU GUYS WITH ALL MY HEART :)

have a great week.

hna andersen

We visited Maria this week, she is soo great and still has a baptismal date but she changes her mind like everytime we visit her so we will see when she will finally follow through. :) She wants to and knows it is true, she just really needs to have faith. This week we visited a referral  in a brand new part of our area thats literally ALL FIELDS,so we went and she is the bomb!!  She told us their family is looking for the truth... so we planned an appt with them and I am so excited. The only bad thing is the husband is only there at night and the area where they live is super dangerous at night so we have to go with a member who has a car and unfortunately there are only 1 or 2 members that have cars so we will have to rely on them.  Also we visited a less active member and he is like crazy against the church now, it's so sad to see a testimony has gone to that, he went through the temple with his wife and everything but we will do everything we can to help him. We also found a woman this week named Blanca. I LOVE HER. I am really hoping she can progress cause she is soo cool and my comp had a dream about her before the mission hahaha super crazy. That's all for this week I will try to be better at writing stuff down.. LOVE YOU ALL :)

                                                                    Birthday Cake

We have the same birthday!!

 

Some of my favorite investigators :)

This week was good. And it went by super fast, time seriously goes by so fast here!

Monday we went to NDH with Leti and her husband Diego who is not a member... but he pays tithing goes to church and everything he's basically a member without the baptism. We visit them a lot and he told us Sunday that he needed to talk to us. So we went to the NDH Monday and we were so excited that he'd say he wants to baptize, but he told us he does not want the lessons anymore... WE WERE CRUSHED.  We went back and visited him again and he said we can still visit him. So we are going to see what happens with him but honestly that was super hard. We also visited Efrain and Heidi and we are hoping they'll progress, they are super awesome! Efrain went to the baptism with us the other day so we will see. My birthday didn't feel like a birthday in the mission we visited poeple and had our same routine, my comp bought a cake so that was very sweet :) She also poured this powder stuff on my head when i woke up hahah and i was like what is this and she said its powder for your feet and i thought oh my dad would be GAGGING right now hahahahah :) it was funny but I guess  its a latino tradition. So dad when i get home watch out. ;) We also visited a guy and we have a bapsitmal date with him his name is Cesar but he really likes his coffee so we will help him with that but he is pilas. :) This week we also had divisions and I stayed in my area with Hna Ball it was fun to be with her we had a good time visiting people and everyone saw us and thought we were crazy cause both of us are super white GRINGAS hahah :) also this week I taught an enlgish class and I loved it. It is starting to cool down a little so thats nice i can finally sleep with socks on :) something funny today at pizza hut my comp spilled grape soda ALL over my skirt that was great hahaha ;) loving the mission life!!! have a great week!!:)

5 months.... already?

TIME IS FLYING...........


 that's all i got to say haha. The mission is so amazing. We had like 50 family home evenings this week and they were all so much fun, we ate pizza hut and talked with the members.  It was so good. :) We also had the opportunity to do a lot of service this week and I love it when that happens. We helped a family really clean their house.. and there was a giant spider, literally, but thats okay it was still so much fun, and then we helped a family tortilla their tortillas... I have no idea how you say that in english. We are also  teaching a super special family they are awesome and I truly love them so much. Sorry, not much time so that is all this week :) love you all!!!

I love it here :)

Well this week was good, my compañion officially has 8 months in her mission and I almost have 5, weird. I cant believe that it is autumn back home it still feels like July here but i am loving it. This week we went to visit LOTS of people, it was really good. We are visitng a family that I love they are Efrain and Heidi I really hope they can progress. They have 1 daughter and shes like 5 years old and the cutest thing ever. Also this week we were walking to an appt and there was some guy and his car broke down.. and i said to my comp lets go help him and she said yeah we cant do anything and i said true... but we can ask he will probably say no anyways, well he didn't say no and we ended up helping him look for bolts in the POURING rain it was pretty funny haha BUT we left him a Book of Mormon and he told us that his sister served a mission so that was pretty cool. Oh also we are visiting a man named Diego he is sooo cool, he pays tithing and has a great testimony and everything he just doesnt want to baptize, who knows why?? We are going to continue working with him. It is so awesome here... wahoo!! love you all :)

Another week in TREBOL.

Monday night we had a FHE with a member and some of her non member friends... but they bailed... so we partied with the members and that was really fun. Tuesday we went and visited Maria, i think i forgot to mention her in my last email but she is 17 and loves when we visit her, she has a bapsitm date for this Saturday but has been super uneasy about the date, so we went and taught her Tuesday night and made a cake with her it was sooo fun and the cake was sooo good!! She lives with a member of the branch presidency cause she is their maid. I really love her so much!!! The other day we were walking with her from the church, and she totally gave someone a pamphlet and like contacted them and we were like what the freak but it was soooo cool and then after that she told us she wants to get baptized for sure but she only has 17 years so she has to get permission from her parents.. she went home today to ask them and is coming back tomorrow so we are crossing our fingers and saying our prayers. Also sad sad story, the cute family we teach with 10 kids, well their dad passed away and they have like nothing so i am sooo sad for them, we taught them the plan of salvation and the lesson was sooooo good but my heart is broken for them! Also we got to go to the house of the senior couple here with us, the Bakes and they literally are the BEST!!! I love having a missionary couple with us in Peten because we are so far from Coban so its such a blessing to have them here, and their house is sooooo nice i love it, it made me miss my sofas and carpeted floors a little..... hot showers not so much those are not needed here. :) Also we visited the member with her alcholic husband.... Thats such a tough story he really has had his drinking problem for like 45 years, super tough. This week we had zone conference and that was a blast! We ate food and were spiritually nourished too it was sooo good. We learened about charity.. and had activities and stuff it was super good. ummm i forgot to write everything down sooo  i dont have too much this week. but today we went to Yaxha and that was pretty awesome its like Tikal but smaller. and more bugs, but it was amazing and I will send pictures next week. Funny story this week... well there was a scary dog coming after us and I was not thinking and I basically threw my comp in front of me  hahaha i am a terrible companion but she was dying of laughter... its okay we both survived ;)... love you all so much!! oh and a really good scripture.... HELAMAN 5:12  this has really helped this week. :) love you guys so much!!

This week was so great! :)

So basically I absolutely love my new area, with the exception of the giant spiders that live in our house... it's pretty disgusting and my comp makes me kill them sometimes hahaha sooo gross!! I hate spiders. The roads in this area are all dirt so my shoes look like i have had them for 50 years, but i love it,  it makes me feel more like a missionary everyday and my tanlines are horrible. ;)  This area is much bigger than my last so we do even more walking. We got rained out one day this week, that was crazy!! There was sooo much rain so we waited for a little then left the house!! My comp is the best I dont know if its because i am not training anymore or what but she's amazing i love her we are always laughing and teasing each other  and with the people here as well, I am still trying to meet everyone and get to know them but they are all so humble and sweet. We visited a familty this week with 10 kids they are the absolute cutest things ever!! We brought a wonderful woman and her kids to gerenal conference. wahoo!!! By the way conference was sooooo good ;) i loved it, its was different to be a missionary and watch it but so amazing.  I got to watch part of it in english with the other gringo missionaries so that was fun!! I wish I had time for more but we are so busy I love you guys!! :)

4MONTHS whaaaaat

Wow I really cant believe its been 4 months. :) Time is going by super fast! Especially this last cambio!

This week one of the grandduaghters of an investigator asked me if she could take a picture with me and I said oh yeah of course and she told me she wanted to show her friends and teach them about the Book of Mormon!  I thought that was soo cute and cool and it made me so happy. :)  We had divisions this week with the Hermana Leaders and I stayed in my area but went with a hermana named Hna Hernandez from Mexico she is sooo sweet! We vsited the less active hermana named Nancy and she was sooo awesome, she always is. Then we also visited Luis who is preparing for his baptism on the 11 of Octuber :) He is super cool! A miracle we had this week... We visited a family who literally has like nothing and they are soooo ready to hear the message. We taught them and they were really receptive and came to the womens general conference with us and liked it and also came to church! They really like everything and really need this gospel in their lives :) They all have dates as well for baptism, sooo excited for them,  :) A funny story we were knocking doors this week and we talked to these people for a couple minutes left a pamphlet and yeah went to the next door... IT WAS THE SAME HOUSE. hahah we were so embarassed cause the people were not very receptive so that was pretty funny. :) This week also while knocking we were teaching and the husband of the lady came out and started like preaching to us it was sooooo funny just stuff about Jesus Christ but like trying to get in a fight with us?? i dont know it was weird.  We watched the conference this week it was sooooo good i loved Uchtdorfs  talk (when they announced he was talking i was literally jumping in my seat) but i loved how he said the commandments are divine consejos?? i dont know this word in english like teachings or something like that. Oh also I have a CAMBIO!! I am now in Trebol  which is like 5 minutes from my old area and my companion is Hermana Hernandez from Nicaragua, I already love her. I am super excited to start working this week in this new area!!!! love you alll so much :):):)

 

This week :)

This week was great other than we didnt have water for 3 days in our house. So we showered at the house of other hermanas until we finally had water hahaha. :) Funny story this week, we were leaving the house of an investigator and I was walking and talking with my comp and I realized she was not talking back and I turned around and she was like 20 feet behind me petting a duck with her FACE haha I love that girl.. One day we were walking and we were as far from our house as we possibly could be, and it started to rain a little bit (and we do not have an umbrella) so we were just walñking then all of a sudden BOOM it started pouring soooo hard and as luck would have it all our appts fell through so we walked allll the way back to our house in the downpour, It was great. and crazy! On Wednesday we had interviews with President Curtiss his wife! They were so super good. MNI 7:2 talks about our callings and how they are gifts and I loved that. Also we talked about Enos and his prayers how much faith he had, you guys should read Enos this week its so short but its one of my favorite stories in the BOM :) We visited a MA this week her name is NANCY haha but she is so sweet and her daughter is so cute, her husband has a really bad drinking problem so we are seeing what we can to do help her but she is amazing and we had a super good lesson with her this week :) We are also visiting a woman named Guisela and I LOVE HER and her two daughters theyre so cute too and she really likes the church but her husband is not a fan. This week we also visited Maria Mileisha and Fabian and Dulce. I always love them with my whole heart. They really want to be baptized but Maria wokrs sundays and they cant come to church becuase of it. Also this week one of my investiagors taught me how to make toritlla de corn!! I stink at it but  it was still way fun to learn. Also our two dates for baptisms are doing good they are suoer pilas. Jose Alberto is till on track be getting baptized the 1 of November :) and Luis the 11 of October! They are awesome. Also Lisette a MA came to church yesterday! I love her and she liked it so i hope she will continue to come cause its important she hasnt been in a long time. There was a baptism Saturday and we went it was supposed to start at 6 but it didnt til 7!! Latinos are super late for everything and i have no idea why but its crazy! My comp also talked in church and did really good ( i didnt have to HAHAHA)  another really great scripture i found that I love this week is in John 20:31 about why we need the Bible AND BOM. its really good so you should all read it :) love you bunches!

Well this week was super good! We worked really hard this week and taught 28 lessons. We are finding people.. Just trying to find the ones who are ready! :) I made fried plantanes this week and they were super yummy. I was pretty proud of that. A lady in our ward also had her baby, He's like a week old today he is soooo little and soo cute! This week I have studied english with my comp she really wants to learn, but its super funny. I love talking english with her she literally understands nothing so i made her teach me in english it was awesome she is starting to catch on! ;) We found a woman who is named Telma and she was super sweet, she was really curious about eternal families so we talked to her about that for awhile and she really liked what she heard. :) We always visit this older lady and her even older mom on Wednesdays and fold their laundry their names are Susie and Crispula they love us and we love them and  we love to go fold their laundry and visit :) Oh something pretty cool this week as well. We got rejected pretty hard core by this man he was literally sitting doing nothing and we walked up to his door and he said "We dont want anything and we are busy goodbye" and slammed the door in our faces, hahah funny thing the next day in my personal study I was studying Alma when the people reject him.,... and the lord commands him to return and he does to find Amulek!! So.... we went back and nothing happened still. We did leave a pamphlet and are looking forward to returning again this week. :) cross your fingers for us! Also, we finally got Jose Alberto to agree to a baptimal date that is not next year, he will be getting baptized the 1 of November :) yay! he has such a strong testimony I am really excited for him. Also we visited a MA this weekand her husband has really bad drinking problems its super sad so we are going to see what we can do. We have been praying super hard and this week was great. :) I love it here! Hope your all enjoying school and work love you guys lots :):):):)

Sorry the internet is being soooo slow today but this week was good. Miracles we saw..... we have found like 6 menos activos that are not on the ward list anymore, so crazy but exciting and they want to change their lives so thats super cool, they are all awesome. :) One of them has a drinking problem, another couple the husband has a drinking problem, i think one of them just needs a little motivation, and the other works sundays... but they all say they want to change so we have hope. :) It has rained really hard this week which has been a little mircale as well ;) i love the rain! We taught Maria and Fabian this week. I love them soooo much they want to baptize but Maria can't really get work off so we are working with her on this. We also found a cute family of 4 that we are teaching and they have a 7 year old and a 2 month old. SOOO cute! Also we found a couple and the girl is 23 and the guy is 56, wow but they have such a cute kid too. I will keep you updated on all of them. This was a great week and the work gets better every day.  We went to Tikal today... it was AMAZING and so cool to think that maybe the Lamanites lived there or something... SUPER COOL :) I LOVE GUATEMALA and the beautiful people here so much and am so grateful to our Heavenly Father for blessing me with this opportunity to share His gospel. LOVE YOU ALL :)

No big email from Hermana Andersen this week. Unfortunately her companion was bit by a dog, she is doing great now but they flew them down to Guatemala City for treatment. They were there for almost the whole week. She was able to go out with the sisters there and said it was a neat experience but she is very happy to be home. :)