Saturday, January 31, 2015

Last Names No One Can Remember


Hello everyone!

Can you believe that January is nearly over? Neither can I.

Highlights:

-I have learned over the last few weeks that scented toilet paper weirds me out. I have no explanation; it just does.

-I killed my first cockroach of the year! And it was really big -.- I don’t want winter to go away, because in winter there are hardly any bugs.

-Speaking of bugs! The other day while we were teaching, a dragonfly landed on my scriptures! I didn’t have my camera, but it made me think of back in August when I got that butterfly on my finger. I also felt very movie-like with the dragonfly.

-While writing in my journal, in English, about an inactive sister, instead of writing "she went inactive" I wrote "she went inactivated." English is fun.

-Somebody stole the lightbulb from our front porch this week. It doesn’t really matter because we never use it, but I just have to wonder why. A lightbulb costs five pesos. Weirdos.

-One day that was cold and cloudy (‘twas lovely) we were talking with the four-year old granddaughter of an investigator and asked her what the pieces of Styrofoam on the ground were. She said it was snow. The little cutie.

-Ward meetings during the third hour of church are good and bad. Good because the people in my ward need to go to the temple. Bad because I can't go until I get home and I really, really miss it.

-We're teaching a woman named Elena and sometimes also her son, Chewy (yes, it's pronounced like the Wookie from Star Wars). We haven’t seen him for a few weeks so we had him say the closing prayer. Well, Anderson is a hard last name, and so he said, "Thank you that Hermana Siza and Hermana Elsa could come."

-I was talking with my district leader, Elder Wight, while he was in our ward for exchanges and last names came up. In Mexico and other Latin countries people have two last names; one from their dad and one from their mom. So Elder Wight asked what my last name would be, and I told him 'Anderson Wickman' (that's just so beyond masculine I don’t know what to do with myself). A few minutes later he said "Wait, what was it? Anderson Witwicky? No, wait, that's not right … that's from Transformers!"

 

This week we had exchanges with our Sister Training Leaders and I stayed in Del Valle and worked with Hna Sanchez. We had some really neat experiences, I learned a ton, but there was one lesson that just made me feel like, well, a missionary. That night, a bunch of plans fell through – people not home, investigators going to celebrate their birthdays, things like that. So we went to visit a less-active member named Paloma. Paloma is great. She's 23 years old with two kids and is only less-active because her husband works a ridiculous number of hours, so she'd have to handle two very busy kids at church on her own. But she's seriously a rock star. Well, we arrived and I honestly had no idea what we were going to teach. After the prayer, I got an idea but before I could say anything, Paloma said "Sisters, I'm so glad you're here because I really need your help!" She then shared some of the difficulties she has been having, which, to be honest, I have never dealt with and I had no idea what to say. At one point, even, while Paloma was distracted by her two-year old daughter, I said to my companion, "How can we help her? What are you thinking?" But then after Paloma had expressed herself we just started talking. Hna Sanchez shared a scripture and expounded on it, and while she did that, three different scriptures came to me in this order: Alma 32:27, 41, Ether 12:27, D&C 50:40-42. As I read and talked about each one of these scriptures I felt the Spirit working in me, telling me what to say and how to say it. I can’t even begin to describe how it felt teaching that lesson. At the end, Paloma felt a lot better and said she knew what she needed to do. She thanked us over and over for coming and said that she knew that Heavenly Father had sent us to her in that exact moment to help her as no one else could.

Well, as a member and missionary I've heard lots of stories like this. Lots. But never have I ever felt so much like an instrument in the hands of the Lord. I wish I had words to express how it felt as we left that lesson. Some words that come close are humbled, dumbfounded, happy, and peaceful. Mix all those together and make a word and that's what I felt. And with that I testify that God can use any person, no matter how weak, to do His work. Even me.

Love you all, and have a wonderful week :) 

Hermana Anderson

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Yay For Modern Medicine!


January 19, 2015

 

Buenas tardes/días/noches (depending on when you're reading this)

The title comes from the fact that dramatic medical things keep happening to me and my companion. The other week I got a stomach infection, and this week my companion woke up with really bad back pain. But never you worry; Mexican meds (as sketchy as they may sound) are really great. Except my poor companion had to buy a shot (you can buy shots here, and then your friend, neighbor, or someone who knows how, gives you the injection. Crazy, right?) for her back and the shot really hurt. But now her back feels better! But the bad news is that she needs two more shots to finish the treatment. Guess who's going to start doing yoga and stretching so that she doesn’t have to get shots like her companion.

Highlights:

-One of the members in the ward has an emergency bathroom. There's the regular bathroom, which is all nice with the shower and everything – just a regular bathroom. But then she has this other closet-like thing with another toilet. Just in case. Guess who got to use the emergency bathroom. And it was only a little scary to use it, with a bunch of tools all close to me.

-One day we went down a street to find people to contact until our next appointment. And there was nobody around. So we took a couple pics.


Don't you worry. I'm still me.

-Another morning all of our plans fell through and there was (once again) nobody around to contact. So we took a few more pics.


We tried like six times to get one of me smiling but I kept closing my eyes. Then I got distracted and this is what we ended up with.


I think it's funny to see a corn field and palm trees together.


I saw this tree and it felt important. Don’t ask, I'm just telling you.

-I for sure will not be getting scurvy (because I know you were all really worried about that) because for some reason I have eaten a lot of oranges this week. Just thought you all should know.

-Walking along one day I saw something familiar. Then I remembered that it was almost the Super Bowl and I felt homesick. But then I also remembered that I don’t actually care about American football and felt better.


-It's starting to get hot again. Not like before, obviously, but it's starting. Brace yourselves for my whining. And perhaps requests for sunscreen....

Love you all. Talk to you soon!

Hermana Anderson