Mission Letter 25 "Way too happy"

Carmen got baptized! It was such a beautiful, sweet experience for us
and for her and I am so happy for her. Sunday she got confirmed a
member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was
given the gift of the constant companionship of the Holy Spirit. As
her sweet husband Roger was pronouncing the blessing I thought about
something Hermana Farias would sometimes say when we would take
pictures. "I look way too happy," she'd say. In my last letter to her,
I told her that she had left me way too happy, and as I sat in church
on Sunday and thought of sweet Carmen and the joy I have felt from and
with her I couldn't help but think, "God, you've left me way too
happy." :)

Many prayers were also answered this week that helped 23 year-old
Mayra to be able to prepare to enter the temple, and just in time
because in two weeks the Spanish branch is offering temple preparation
classes during Sunday school! The Lord's timing is so perfect :)

I also learned a great lesson this week in an experience we had with Nancy.
These past two weeks I started this habit of writing a question on a
sticky note every time I go to study the Book of Mormon. And EVERY
TIME, my question is answered as I read. One day I was praying about
the question I should ask and felt like I should ask, "How can I be
better at overcoming discouragement?"
I thought it was funny because the work was good and I was happy. But
that day the work was slow and everything just kind of was falling out
of place so that by the time we neared
dinner we hadn't taught any lessons and I was feeling like I just
wanted to curl in a ball and take a nap. In my morning study I had
read Alma 34 and found the answer: pray for strength, pray for others,
and serve. It was almost dinner time and we had dinner alone that
night.
I said a prayer, got up, and said to my companion, "We need to go see someone."
"Who?" She asked.
"I don't know," I said. Luckily, she was on board, and we started
driving. I still wasn't sure where to go but had the vague idea that
we should visit Pamela. Except that it came to the street I should
have turned down and I passed it. Already, I was on a route I wouldn't
normally take. We passed by some apartments and, remembering a less
active, Nancy, I decided to stop.
We had been asked by someone earlier in the week to visit her and
could never find her home. She and her daughters welcomed us in and we
had a beautiful lesson. The timing could not have been more perfect
and I left with spirits lifted.

I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon and the individual revelation
we can receive as we read. I am grateful for the Holy Spirit that can
comfort and strengthen us and guide us to those who we in turn can
strengthen and serve. I am soo excited for General Conference this
coming Saturday and Sunday!! (You can find it on LDS.org) Get excited
people, it's gonna be awesome!

With love and affection,
sister Anderson

Mission Letter 24 "6,840 hours and counting!"

6,840. That's how many hours I have been on my mission! I can't
believe how fast time flies.
This week I had exchanges with our sister training leader, Sister
McMaster, and she asked me what I had learned so far on my 9 months in
the mission. I gave her the top three I could think of, but there has
been so much, including but not limited to: the gift of tongues,
patience, faith, diligence, communication, how to leave a good
voicemail, how to make good pancakes when your are missing a third of
the ingredients, how to drive with my knees, the power of prayer, that
God knows his children, a more powerful conviction and testimony of
the truthfulness of the restored gospel, gratitude for my family and
that I can be with them forever, and how to not be bothered by the
little things (something you learn from being with someone 24/7 for 6
weeks or more :). But the first three that came to mind, and I believe
the most impactful lessons i have learned are these:

1. Joy comes in and from Christ
2. I am Superior to no one (maybe learned a little humility and a lot
more love :)
3. The atonement of Christ is not only to allow us to be forgiven, but
to allow us to change, expand, and improve

I am so grateful for those 6,840 hours and all that I have learned.
This Saturday is the baptism of Carmen Morse and I am so excited for
her. She just radiates with her burning testimony of the restored
gospel and the joy it has brought her and I cannot wait to witness her
follow the example of Jesus Christ is being baptized in just 5 days!

I started this practice of writing down on my calendar at the end of
every day a miracle we saw that day, and it is beautiful and humbling
to see how the Lord is able to work through us to accomplish his work.
At the end of the month, I'll write out all the miracles and send 'me
out, because it is so neat to look back and see what the Lord has done
for his children. :)

Love,
sister Anderson

P.S. Sorry, no pics :( I'll make up for it next week :)

Sent from my iPad

Mission Letter 23 "Halfway!"

Carrol: She has been reading her Book of Mormon almost every night and
is almost to Alma! She has quit drinking coffee and loves attending
church. She is excited to be baptized on March 25th and already has
plans to attend the temple with her husband and friend, Sister
Skinner, after her baptism to participate in confirmations.

Karma: She really wants to know whether she is pursuing the right
course and whether she should become a member of our church. She is
praying often and tells us of the sweet spirit she has experienced.
She loves the plan of salvation and the idea that she will live again
with God and with her family after this life. Because of trouble with
her vision, she has not been able to read the Book of Mormon, so we
showed her how to find the audio version online and she is eager to
listen to it.

Penny: Her little girl, Michelle, can't read yet but loves the Book of
Mormon and asks Penny to read it to her. Penny doesn't always
understand it and says Michelle will ask her all the time what it means
and she will have to say, "I don't know yet." And Michelle will tell her,
"That's okay mommy. You will." And I know she will, too. She loves
going to church and is really coming to understand a lot about her
Savior. She is nervous and excited for her baptism on April 8th.

Tobia: The missionaries taught her and her boyfriend, Brian, some
time ago and Brian wanted to be baptized. Since all baptism
candidates have to be living in accordance with God's law of Chastity,
which prohibits sexual relations outside of marriage, Brian's
options were to move out of the house with Tobia or get married, but
Tobia wasn't ready yet because she was still fantasizing about the big
extravagant wedding that neither of them could yet afford. We felt the
other night that we should stop by Tobiay's place and talked to her
about the temple and how there we can be sealed to our spouse for
eternity. We talked to her about the option of having a small wedding
and getting their marriage license so they can get baptized and then
having a larger celebration later when they are sealed in the temple
for time and all eternity. We are eager to see what she and Brian
decide.

Last week I reached the halfway point of my mission--I can't believe I
have been out for 9 months already! Time flies and I love it here. It
is crazy to think I will be coming home this year! I have learned so
much during these nine months. I have come to see how the atonement of
Jesus Christ can not only allow us to be forgiven, but also help us to
change and improve. I have seen God's hand in our work leading us to
those who are prepared to learn of him and accept his gospel. I know
this gospel is true and I love it so much!

Love,
Sister Anderson

Pics: Last Monday was our last day all together before Elder Dodson
and Hermana Farias left for Tucson, so we went to the Chiricahuas and
had a wonderful time.
Second to last pic: Not included for Privacy reasons
Last pic: Taken just before Hermana Farias left. My new companion is
hermana Hinojosa. She is from Washington and still learning Spanish
and a wonderful missionary.

Mission Letter 22 "Happily Ever After . . . Almost"

Tomorrow morning Hermana Farias leaves for Tucson, and I will be
getting Hermana Hinojosa. Don't be deceived by the name--she is still
learning Spanish. Willcox will be her second area in the mission, so
she is still fairly fresh :) and President Passey told me that one of
the reasons he assigned her with me is so that she can benefit from my
focused studies of the language. I'm excited for us to improve
together. I will sure miss Hermana Farias though. Yesterday, we
achieved comp unity to a T when we discovered that our laughs are now
exactly identical. We just laugh too much :)

Pics:
#1 Not Included for Privacy reasons: My companion, Hermana Farias, and Karma. Karma was a referral
from her neighbors. She was taught quite a while ago and
wasn't really interested. A month or so ago, some tough trials brought
her back to church and she has been coming regularly since. We started
teaching her again only about two weeks ago and she is a joy to teach.
Yesterday at church we were talking in class about the Holy Ghost and
she told us that after our last lesson on the plan of salvation she
had felt so happy and peaceful. She said she felt like there was this
invisible light that only she could see. It has been incredible to see
the joy the gospel has brought her!

#2 Not Included for Privacy reasons: Us and Carrol. Carrol was also a referral from a
member, Sister Skinner. She is set to be baptized this Saturday, but
after she missed church this Sunday because she was sick, the bishop
of her ward talked to us and wants to push back her baptismal date a
couple weeks to be sure she is in the habit of coming to church
regularly and so that the members can get to know her better. That was
really hard to hear, especially because both my companion and I feel
that she is ready and we don't know how to tell her that her baptism
will be pushed back, nor if it is really the best thing for her. She
has such faith and courage. She has a glowing testimony of the Book of
Mormon and the prophet Joseph Smith, who she calls her angel. When we
told her she would have to give up her coffee she told us, "I know
that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that this is what God wants me to
do." She also knew that her family wouldn't be happy with her baptism,
but she told them all as soon as we had set the date and invited them
to her baptism and all her kids are coming! We invited the bishop to
our lesson with her this Tuesday evening and I guess we will just see
what happens. In the meantime, we are losing sleep.

#3 Not Included for Privacy reasons: Me and Carrol

#4 Not Included for Privacy reasons: Us, Carrol, and Sister Skinner

#5 My companion with the Cuevas family. Our bishopric is made up of
two white guys and then brother Cuevas. We call them Peter, James, and
Juan :). The Cuevas family are all converts and they know just about
everyone we are teaching. They just know everyone, really. And they
are great at giving us referrals.

#6 Brother Crocket, our branch mission leader.

#7 Whetten Family. This family is really the anchor of missionary work
in the branch. Sister Whetten speaks Spanish and English fluently and
is always ready and eager to come with us to lessons or to pick up
investigators for church and is always asking how she can help.

Mission Letter 21 "Pics"

Sorry no group email this week. I'll catch you up next week :)

Pics:
The Chastains, a sweet couple in our ward, and my companion
The Allred children and their pet goats :)
Some women from the Spanish branch at the class on prayer we taught
Saturday at the women's conference

Mission Letter 20 "Finding the Prepared"

Sorry for the novel, but this story was just way to neat to leave anything out ;)

Last week we made it a goal to ask less actives and investigators for referrals. We prayed and prayed to know which less actives and which members to visit. We, admittedly, didn't recognize it then as an answer to our prayer when we later decided to see the Davis family, a family that converted four years ago and hadn't been to church in a long time. They asked how we were doing and I felt like I should elaborate on the progress of our investigators. Seeming to suddenly remember, Sister Davis said, "I got a text lat week from a friend of ours wanting to know what time our church started." We got her name, Jillian, and a rough description of where she lived and told them we would stop by her place.
Later that week, Thursday, we had a couple minutes before we had to meet our mission president's wife who was coming down to teach a lesson with us, and we both had the thought that we should go try to find Jillian. We pulled up and there was a woman standing outside apartment #6. We shared with her a restoration pamphlet and told her a little about our church. Her name was Penny. She was really nice and smiley, but I couldn't really tell if she was interested. As we were about to leave I remembered to ask, "Do you know where Jillian lives?"
"Yeah, she lives here," Penny responded.
We told her how we were friends of the Davis family and how they told us that Jillian had texted them asking when church started.
"Actually," Penny said, "that was me who wanted to know the church time. Jillian is my mother in law and was neighbors with the Davis family before we both moved."
We were ecstatic! We told her we could get her a ride with the Davis family and she said she would be ready and waiting for them.
We got back in the car and immediately texted the Davis family, who told us they would be in contact with Jillian and Penny.

Later that week we decided to stop by Cynthia. As usually happens with such visits, her twelve-year-old daughter Hana answered and said that her mother was busy. Usually, when that happens we ask if we can talk to her mother or when we could come back, but this time we asked if we could share a message with Hana. We had shared with her the message of the Restoration some months previous and she had read the introduction of the Book of Mormon. Her older siblings were baptized Mormon and her mom had attended church with them, but they had since stopped attending for many years. We talked with her about the Book of Mormon and invited her to church. "My mom will be working, but I can go," she told us.

Fast forward to Saturday night. We still hadn't found anyone to take Hana to church. We tried calling five people and no one answered, except for Sister Judd who would be going to church early and we didn't think Hana would be ready by then. I thought of calling the Bryant's, but their phone usually doesn't work and they are really hard to get a hold of.
Sunday morning we still didn't have a ride for Hana. "Let's try the Bryant's," Sister Farias said. We called her and she told us she had to pick up one other person at some other apartments near us so we told her we would meet her there.
She called us while we were in the Spanish branch to tell us that the other person she had to pick up couldn't come so she wasn't sure where to meet us, but we didnt get the message until we were already at the apartments. Unable to find Sister Bryant's car, we pulled around to park by the playground and saw that Penny's husband was outside. As soon as we pulled up he went in and then Penny came out and began walking toward our car. "Oh good, I'm so glad you came," she said as she climbed in. (We later learned the Davis's had not in fact been in contact with her, but that she was still expecting the ride from them. We were glad we had come!)
We aren't supposed to drive investigators, but we weren't about to say no either.
We then drove over to pick up Hana. She wasnt home, but her little brother asked if he could come. So we broke some rules bringing them both to church, but I think God can forgive us for that.

It's amazing to me to think of how everything had to line up for Penny to get to church. We were impressed to see the Davis's just after she had texted them. We were impressed to go find her on a day that she was standing outside her apartment. And then Hana's wanting to come to church caused us to need to call a member to pick her up and the fact that we had called the Bryant's, who would be picking someone up from the same apartment complex as Penny's . . . The Lord is truly guiding this work.

Penny loved church. She told us in Gospel Principles that she had been a meth addict and wanted to turn her life around when she had her two little girls. She has been clean for 2 years. One of the speakers got up and told us he felt prompted to change his message. He told us a story of a convert he worked with who had gotten drunk at age 15, woke up on the floor of his friend's house with a hangover and decided there must be more to life and he wanted to find out what. Just then he saw a Book of Mormon on his friend's shelf. Some missionaries had given it to his friend's mom years back and she had politely taken it but never read it. He said the moment he opened it he felt a power and a sweet peace that told him he had found his answer. He read it all that morning, quit drinking, and was baptized a month later.
Penny told us the message was for her, which is neat because another investigator we had brought, Marry, said that the message in Sacrament meeting about the Book of Mormon was also just for her, but they had both gotten something different from the message. I am so thankful for the spirit and the personalized revelation we can receive.

This past week my companion and I had been praying that we would be lead to the prepared and that they would be lead to us. With Penny, the Lord accomplished both.
SHE asked US to teach her, and I am excited to begin teaching her this Tuesday.

I know the Book of Mormon is true and I am so grateful for it's influence in my life. I have learned more about the life and influence of my Savior, Jesus Christ, experienced more joy, more peace, and encountered in it's pages the answers to my most pressing questions. If you haven't read it ever, read it. If you haven't read it today, pick it up. If you don't have a copy, that's okay! It's online :) (LDS.org)

Crotcheting with Linda
P-day naps at our ward mission leader's house
Taking part in all the strange stuff you see walking around "downtown" Willcox
Gumbo (because Hermana Farias has never had it before) after our shift
at the museum.

Mission Letter 19 "Elephants and Baby Otters"

Highlights:

Mayra, the younger less active we took out with us last week to a
lesson asked us what she has to do to get a temple recommend and is
meeting with the bishop next week!

Karen Reif, a neighbor of one of our members, wanted to come to church
again! This is her third week in a row! Missionaries started teaching
her a while ago but she wasn't interested--just goes to show that the
Lord helps everything happen in its own time. Now, she is soaking it
all in. We aren't teaching her regularly yet, but hope to soon.

We were hoping to set a baptismal date with the Guerras family, which
sadly didn't happen. But we were able to discover some of his concerns
and had a wonderful lesson about temples and eternal families. He had
lots of questions and was willing to say the closing prayer. We hope
to have family night with them this week at the house of our ward
mission leader.

We were also hoping to invite the Chanez family to be baptized. And,
well, that didn't happen either. The parents weren't available, so we
taught their twin ten-year-old daughters, Yajaira and Jaira, on the
trampoline in the front yard. They both love reading from the Book of
Mormon so we read third Nephi 11 and had a wonderful short lesson on
baptism, and this Sunday Jaira came with us to church!

Annie has been out of town and busy but we ran into her last night and
she gave us her work schedule so we could set up a time when her
daughter can watch the kids so we can have a more focused lesson.

We were hoping to invite Carmen, a friend of a member in the other
ward, to be baptized as well but she had to cancel the lesson on
Thursday because she wasn't feeling good. However, she said the
closing prayer for our lesson on Tuesday and expressed desires to join
the church but that she was afraid there was so much to learn. She has
been reading her scriptures and soaks up the lessons and we are eager
to see her continued progress. Next week the mission president's wife
will be joining us for one of our lessons with her!

Some weeks ago while we were an hour and a half outside of Willcox in
San Simon a train of events lead us to a less active, Julia Johnson,
who was very grateful for the visit and came to church again this
Sunday. She has been warmly welcomed back into the ward and expressed
to us her desires to keep attending.

Pictures:
Our cute zone
The Douglas Sisters. The one on the right was my second mission companion.
A picture from our exchange last week with the sisters from New
Mexico, (the one on the left was my third mission companion and I just
loved spending the day with her)
So this one needs a little more explanation. Usually, for
companionship inventory every Friday we give each other ten
compliments, but after so long together I guess there's just nothing
good left to say . . . No, but it does get harder, so last week we
went with gen funny questions and this week we decided we would just
draw each other's favorite animal and call it good. My favorite, in
case you missed it, is an elephant. Hers is a baby otter (but my
drawing didn't look much like an otter and has since been deleted). I
think it was our best companionship inventory yet ;)

Mission Letter 18 "Feeling Inspired" "I Look Too Happy"

Wednesday morning really had me stressing. Tuesday I spent some of our service hours at the museum calling all the people in our ward directory to see who we could bring with us to lessons. I thought to call Sister Lamb, a really fun older lady in the ward who is in the Relief Society. We set up to take her out with us Wednesday at 6:00. Later that night we got in touch with a spanish referral who asked if they could meet us Wednesday at 6:00. Hoping we could find a spanish sister to take with us so that we could split up and go to both lessons, we said yes. 

The plan was that Sister Farias would go with Sister Lamb to a visit, and I would go with a lady from the spanish branch to the referral. Wednesday rolled around and we still hadn't found a spanish speaker to take with us. We called everyone we could think of. Three hours before the lesson we still had no one. I said a prayer and thought of someone we hadn't tried yet--a young less active woman about my age, Mayra, that we had met with only once. We stopped by and she said she could come with us. It was truly inspired. 

The lesson with the referral fell through and so we ended up trying potentials and knocking. We say a prayer before each door and at one point, as Mayra was praying, she stopped and said, "Sorry, I don't usually do this." I assumed she meant that she doesn't usually pray in English, and so asked her, "Do you usually pray in Spanish?" And her response, "No. I don't usually pray."

We tried about twenty houses and no one wanted to listen, so at 7:30 we returned to the church to wait for Sister Farias and Sister Lamb, and while we waited we talked. Mayra said she had no idea how hard missionary work was but told me she was grateful for the chance to pray so much with me and that she would ask her friends if we could teach them. 

Sunday, Mayra came to church and bore a powerful testimony on prayer and the spirit we can feel at church. She told us of her desire to come back to church and feel the spirit more and thanked us for inviting her to go out with us and letting her experience that spirit. It was a powerful testimony that confirmed to me that God inspires this work and cares about each of his children. 

The less active that Sister Farias and Sister Lamb visited came to church for the first time in 14 years and enjoyed it and Sister Lamb loved so much coming with us and getting to know the less actives we are working with that she asked to come out with us again! 

Thursday we went knocking and we prayed to find new spanish speakign investigators. My companion felt like we should knock Bowie, and as soon as we got to the street I felt like we should turn right. The house there on the right-hand corner is the home of Karen Q, who is searching for peace and truth and asked us to come back and teach her more. The other street I felt like we should knock was Casas Lindas, and we found three spanish-speaking families who invited us back to teach them more. 

I love how the Lord inspires this work and so grateful that he works through us! 

I am constantly amazed at the power of prayer and at the beautiful relation we can have with our Heavenly Father. 

Con amor,

Hermana Anderson

Pics:

Practicing our crocheting skills while we wait for people to show up
at service. We decided a scarf takes way too long, so we would just
make dorky collars that, who knows?, may be in fashion one day ;)

Studying on the church lawn because it's finally feeling warmish

When we realized we didn't have a single picture in the car and we're
feeling really cool with our sunglasses (because it was finally warm
and sunny enough to wear them)

Feeling really Mexican making tácitos con frijoles y queso mexicano

All our favorite kids from the ward

What happens when we try to take a serious picture. It took so long to
get one where we both had straight faces. Most of them we were trying
so hard not to laugh that we just looked constipated

Mission Letter 17.5 "Pics"

Mission Letter 17 "Why Do You Pray?"

TRANSFERS!

And . . . God answeres prayers! Hermana Farias and I are both staying another transfer in Willcox!! 

So quick follow up . . . We haven't been able to get back in with the Peraltas (Oscar, Bertha, and Ramon), and Allan is never home when he says he will be. Rachel told us she couldn't meet anymore. And Alyssa and John asked us to stop coming (we later found out it was because Alyssa thought John was crushing on my companion--awkward).

BUT

We got to meet again with Annie and share with her the message of the Plan of Salvation and she loved it. She said she feels so at ease with us because there is such a sweet spirit as we talk with her. She is really looking for peace and answers and I am eager to help her find them. 

We also this week got in with Cynthia, Haley and Jessie's mom. We met Haley when she was outside playing and she loves to read the Book of Mormon, but her mom didn't seem to want anything to do with us, that is, until a couple days ago. We had a member with us, Brett, and had struck out on our first plans. The name of a kid we had tried my very first week in Wilcox came to mind: Nate, Haley's neighbor. When we got there though I knew we should try Haley first. We'd tried her dozens of times but this time Cynthia let us in and after talking with us for a while said she knows she should go to church and wants to come to church with us. 

Tuesday, all our appointments fell through, we had to take our car in, and then dinner was an hour away in San Simon. By the end of the day we just wanted to go home, but while we were in San Simon we thought we would try someone Hna Farias had tried before. We searched for over half an hour and couldn't find them. Hna Farias knew where the turn off should be, but . . . I don't know how else to explain it except that it wasn't there. A little discouraged, we decided to try one last person, Julia. She hasn't attended church in years. Despite the late hour, she let us in, and by the end of our discussion told us she wanted to come back. Sunday morning, she made the one hour drive, then stayed for all three hours of church and told us she loved it and would be back next week. 

Wednesday we got in with the Chanez family. Their twin girls, Jaira and Yajaira, have the most interest in the church. Jaira told us when she prayed to know if what we were telling her was true she felt this peaceful feeling. She described it as a wind that kind of rushed through her and she felt so powerful and peaceful. She loves to read the Book of Mormon and last week attended a baptism to see what it would be like. Her parents, though, and older sister don't seem as interested and her parents won't pray. We decided to read the Book of Mormon with them and the older sister, Ademaries, said, "I love when we read this together, it feels happy." And, for the first time, their mother prayed. 

We also got a call from a member from the other ward that she wants us to visit her friend, Carmen, with her. We had our second lesson with her yesterday and she, too, didn't want to say the closing prayer. She said she only ever said memorized prayers and had never prayed out loud. 

"Why do you pray?" I asked her.

"To feel at peace, to be touched," she said.

I told her about a time when I hadn't really wanted to pray out loud either and my friend had asked me the same thing. My response: to be with heaven. My friend then told me that when we pray out loud with others we are letting them see our heaven--experience what our heaven feels like, and, for that moment, be there with us. I told that to Carmen, that when she prays out loud, we are all meeting together, counseling with, and being with heaven. 

She said the closing prayer. And it was one of the sweetest prayers I have ever heard. 

One of my very favorite parts of serving a mission is teaching others to pray and hearing them pray for the first time. True, it is beautiful to hear the prayers of those who have, their entire lives, been developing their relationship with heaven, but, for me, there is nothing so sweet and marvelous as when heavenly Father hears the prayer of one of His children for the very first time. 

Hermana Anderson

Pics:
Found this sign outside a park. We always wondered why he park was so
empty all the time . . . I guess that might be a little bit of a
deterrent.
We started excel isn't in the mornings with a less active, which means
waking up at 5:40. It also means beautiful sunrises.
Because we are always saying Lechuga (lettuce/let us) . . . She thinks
she's hilarious. I told Hna Farias I love her because I don't have to
feel like the only crazy one.
We drew each other while we were bored at service. We laugh because I
look again and she looks African.

Mission Letter 16 "Wonder of Wonder, Miracle of Miracles!"

Miracles up the wazoo!! Wow, where to begin?
In my last email I told about our experience praying to know what
streets to knock and about finding Oscar and his mother, Bertha.
We went back to visit them last week and found Oscar's Dad (Bertha's
husband), Ramon Peralta, at home. We were halfway through the lesson
with him when his wife came home and wanted to listen as well. They
soak everything up and are a wonderfully sweet family. We are eager to
see their continued progress in the gospel.

Saturday we had a really neat experience. We had planned to bring a
member with us to a lesson with Lionel at 1:00, but I had a feeling
Lionel wouldn't be home. In my morning prayers I was praying about the
lessons we planned to have that day and I thought of Allan, a man that
we had taught some weeks back but hadn't found at home since. We had
tried him soo many times. We had prayed countless times that he would
be home and that didn't work. We prayed that he would be home AND
answer his door and that didn't seem to make much difference. I
figured I had to be a little more specific--a little more creative. In
my morning prayer, I told God that we would probably get to Allan at
about 1:15 and asked him if, at that time, Allan could be in his car,
having just come home or about to head out. That way, at least, we
could talk to him. I also prayed that we could extend to him an
invitation to be baptized.

At 1:15 we drove up and found Allan out sitting in his car! He asked
us where we had been and we told him we had tried his house several
times. He apologized for not being home and pulled up some lawn
chairs. We had a wonderful lesson with him and he accepted a baptismal
date for February 18th! He is meeting with us twice a week now and
wants his wife to start meeting with us too!

We have had an incredible number of members willing to come with us to
lessons and they make a HUGE difference. The spirit of missionary work
is taking over the ward--I love how when our lessons fall through some
members will suggest people for us to go visit!!

Speaking of miracles and awesome members, we brought Sister Chaffey
with us one night and after our planned appointment fell through I
felt like we should go back and visit a lady we had knocked into
earlier in the week, Annie. She, at the time, had been watching her 10
grandkids but told us we could try her later.
Now let me back up. Earlier this week we were looking for a former
investigator, Tearsa, who had moved. Annie, it turns out, is Tearsa's
mother!
As soon as we pulled up, Annie came out to talk to us. She quickly
opened up to us about some struggles she's been facing and the death
of one of her daughters and asked us if we could tell her about where
her daughter is. Sister Chaffey testified to her about the Plan of
Salvation and how her daughter has returned to be with God and with
her family that has passed on and that she is resting and happy, free
from the cancer that dominated her last years on earth.
Annie seemed to glow hearing this and you could see a visible peace
wash over her. She asked us to return and teach her more and I cannot
wait.

Transfers are next week and both Hermana Farias and I are praying that
we stay in the promised land of Willcox :). Till next week,

Hermana Anderson