Tender Mercy

Hola, ¿cómo están? 

Tengo mucho flojera ahorita, y no quiero pensar tanto para escribir en Ingles, entonces todo va a ser en español. Sale Bale.

Just kidding, I won't do that to you guys. That would be rude. I promise the rest of this email will be in English. (Unless I accidentally write in Spanish. In that case, sorry.)

 

Highlights:

-Well, for the first time in a really long time, I bought hair ties

Not very missionary-related or uplifting, but for the vain little me that loves my pixie cut this is a big deal.

-Fun things happen after district meetings. Like when your district leader thinks that everyone has left so he locks up the church … and you and your companion and another companionship are still inside. Good thing we saw him locking the outside gate so we could call him before he got too far. I died.

-Sometimes your companion talks about food she likes and it sounds wonderful and delicious and you just want to try it. Other times she tells you that she likes beets with mayo and you never want to let her make breakfast again.

-I like the sunsets here.

-There's a really cool family here where the dad and some of the kids are professional boxers, but they all know how to box. Their youngest daughter is 16 and really tall and pretty. The other day, after we ate with their family, she told me "Hermana, when you go home, I'm going to come with you, and we'll become models and we'll be famous. Then afterwards I'll teach you how to box." My companion and I got a kick out of trying to imagine me as a boxing model. Then just before we left she said "Don't forget; we made a deal." I guess I don't have to wonder anymore about what I'll do after my mission.

-Things that get on my nerves: When after a long day I'm working with the area book and I find that one of the former sisters here decided to stop writing numbers and started using runes instead. 

-You know, just sitting on a wall, waiting for the bus, and promoting a clean environment. Doin’my thang.

 

Ok, there are two other big things I want to tell you. First, Conozca a los Mormones (Meet the Mormons) was a huge success opening weekend. A sister told us that the theaters were absolutely packed and the ticket lines were huge. It felt so good to hear. We have been contacting like crazy to get the word out. I even helped contact a bus. That means we get on a bus and talk to everyone at the same time. Fortunately, Elder Rodriguez talked and I just had to hand out cards. We're still going to be working like crazy, but it's so nice to see our efforts amount to something.

 

Other big thing: This week, my baby sister, Grace, turns 8! Which is wonderful, because she's going to be baptized soon, but sad because I won't be there for it. But, Heavenly Father takes good care of his missionaries, and sometimes sends them tender mercies to make up for all the things we sacrifice. This week, the daughter of one of the ladies in our ward, who takes really good care of the sister missionaries, was baptized. Her name is Prissy and she's a total doll. Not only did she invite us to her baptism but she asked me to talk on the Holy Ghost. While I won't share everything I felt (some things are just between me and my diary, ya know) I will tell you that I felt an incredibly beautiful spirit while giving my little talk. Most of it was improvised, but they were words of love. And I really feel like it was a way to "make up" for missing not only the last baptism in my family, but of all the Anderson grandchildren.

 

I know my Savior lives, that He knows me, He cares for me, and that while I am incredibly imperfect, He loves me perfectly. 

Until next week, 

Hermana Anderson