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
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