Gypsy Hill Park is Our Best Friend

Hola amigos!

I LOVE THE LIVING CHRIST. My favorite part is the paragraph where it says "We solemnly testify that His life, which is central to all human history, neither began in Bethlehem nor concluded on Calvary". I can testify with those apostles that He lives. He is an eternal being and His life is central to all of mankind. It is very interesting that you say that it would be easy to give up. because it would. It would be really easy but so not worth it. Its hard to keep an enternal perspective but when we do we are able to see that it is better to stick to the rod and keep your head up.

This week we had zone conference and it was awesome. President Smith spoke to us about making spiritual goals for our mission and for our life. I was able to envision what I want to be at the end of my mission and where i want my life to be spiritually. We also got phones at zone conference so now we have a smart phone which makes it super nice to communicate with people because we can hotspot and use internet wherever.

On wednesday we were suppose to have a lesson with our investigator Arturo but his wife would not be able to sit in on the lesson so we could not go in and I was so mad about this specific rule. It was such a harmless situation and we don't have a lot of memebers that can come with us but we were obedient and rescheduled for the next day. Well we went finding and we came in contact with a less active that we didn't even know lived in our area and now we have contact with him and are going to start meeting with him! Then the next day we found some members to come with us to the lesson and we had a really good lesson and afterwards the members were so grateful and said they had been praying for a spiritual experience. So it all worked out. God works in His way and will bless us when we are obedient :)

On Friday we were finding and we tried a door that the english elders said they talked to and they were hispanic. A lady opened the door and when we said we were missionaries, she told us to come in and started telling us how she had been praying all day for help because she was going through a hard time and then we showed up. Coincidence? I think not :) She is from Puerto Rico and met with missionaries there! She also came to church with her daughter! So so awesome :)

On Saturday we went to this park Gypsy Hill Park to go finding. We spotted a hispanic man and worked up the courage to go talk to him. He has only been here for 3 months and does not speak any english so he was so suprised that we could speak spanish! It was awesome. He has also talked to missionaries in guatamala and was really willing to accept a Book of Mormon. We are going to start teaching him english in the park and teaching him the lessons :)

We also tried a different form of finding...Walmart finding. We were able to talk to a guy but he is a truck driver and was just staying the night in the  parking lot but we are excited to keep trying this form of finding :)

ok...So I have been talking to this guy on facebook for almsot 2 months. He came to Virginia 2 weeks ago and he wanted a Book of Mormon. So we met him in the park and gave him the Book of Mormon and he said that he is going to use it to stop smoking. He wants to read it when he feels like smoking :) So that is awesome!

sorry this is a long one! Love you all! have a great week!

Arturo = Arthur

Hola amigos!!!

I am so glad you had some fun lunch dates! Hermana Coleman's mom (Kris is her name right?) sounds awesome. I am excited to meet her! Hermana Coleman wants to meet you so you might want to expect that in like 4 months... haha! Also, super small world.

This week has been really great in Staunton. We found 5 new investigators! We met with one of the investigators from last Sunday. His name is Arturo. He is so cool and so willing to learn. He has a family and when we went to teach him his 14 year old daughter sat in on the lesson and then she took a Book of Mormon at the end of the lesson. He had a lot of questions about the Book of Mormon and our church and he said he would read 1 Nephi 1 so that he could ask us more questions! He also said that his wife would sit on the next lesson too!

Remember that Peruvian couple from like 3 weeks ago?? We met with them again and taught them the whole restoration! They really liked it and they said they want to read the Book of Mormon to know if it is true. We have an appointment with them this week! She also asked us what our purpose is as missionaries so we told her it is to help people come closer to Christ through baptism. Then she told us she wants us to keep coming. She also apparently took the lessons in Peru! :) So we are so excited to keep teaching them!!

This week I read President Nelson's talk when he announced the temple's in spanish and I had a super cool confirmation that He truly is the prophet on the earth. He is directing and guiding the Church of Jesus Christ and I know it with all of my heart.

 I hope yall have a great week! Love you!!

much love,
Hermana Anderson

subject line.. hahah our investigator's name is Arturo and we were randomly doing something and it hit me that his name is the hispanic version of Arthur... hahahah!

We Found a Family

Hola amigos!
Transfers are this week but Hermana Ashcraft and I are both staying in Staunton :)

This week has been so great. On friday we had a day full of finding and we hadn't found any hispanics. We went back to this house that we had tried two times before but we decided to go at a different time a day and there was a car there! This guy from Cuba answered the door and we started talking to him and he knows someone that attends the english ward! We taught him the restoration and we used the dot analogy with the bible and the Book of Mormon.  (The bible is the center dot and there are a bunch of lines going through it and all the lines are different religions but then there is another dot that is the Book of Mormon and there is only one line that can connect the two dots and it is our church) He loved that analogy and was really excited about it. Well we were getting ready to leave and his family came home and they invited us in and we gave a Book of Mormon to his wife and daughter! Then Luis (the man) explained the dot thing to his wife! It was so awesome :) We have an appointment with them for  this saturday!

On Saturday we went on exchanges and Sister  Bate and I went and visited a less active, Cinthia. She hasn't been to church for about a year and while we were visiting she told us that she will be getting her drivers license this week so she will actually be able to come to church! It was so awesome :)

On Sunday, we had 4 people at church!!!! Arnulfo, Argelia, Jocelyn and Kimberly came! Argelia, Jocelyn, and Kimberly are investigators that have only come to church two times in the last 8 months. We didin't know if we were going to continue teaching them so we prayed and told Heavenly Father that if they don't come to church then we would stop teaching them... Well, I guess he didn't want us to stop teaching them.. haha! Then after church we went and tried 4 houses. 3 of them answered and we got 3 new investigators! They were all really interested in the Book of Mormon, 2 of them set a return appointment for wednesday and one for monday, yes the next day!!! It was so great. I can really feel God using us as instruments in His work!

Most of our success in this area is because of member missionary work. Its so important! Help out your missionaries! :)

I hope you have a great week:)

much love

The Lord is Hastening His Work in VA and the World World

Hola amigos!!

Wow this week (especially this weekend) has been one to remember. The temple announcements almost brought me to tears. I was sitting in a chapel with a bunch of missionaries and 3 elderly people (well over the age of 80). I think every one of them left the ground when they announced the temple in Richmond. The people in Virginia have been waiting for so long and i am so grateful that the faithful people here will have a temple in their state. I will cherish this memory forever. I am grateful the work is still hastening in Utah. Another temple is so exciting! Russia and India?!?! How awesome is that? I thought of the people I know that have served in Russia and how excited they must be! This truly is the Lord's work and I know that He is in charge. I am grateful that He has let me be apart of it.

To participate in a Solemn Assembly was just wow. I don't have words. It was so amazing. I recieved several confirmations through conference that Russell M. Nelson is a prophet of God and he has been called to direct The Church of Jesus Christ. The changes in the church are inspired. Bishop Gerald Causse said that this church is about people and I know that through these changes God is focusing on the people and their personal needs. I hope we all take theses changes and run with them so we can increase the building of the kingdom of God! I loved ever single one of the messages but I loved President Uchtdorf's message. I have been studying the life of Christ and have really been studying His last week. I loved the stress of President Uchtdorf saying that this event was the most important of all history because it truly was. I also loved that he said "The most important day in our lives is when we learn t Behold the Man and commit to follow him. May that be a day that occurs over and over in our lives." SO POWERFUL. This should be happening several times in our lives and I had this experience during conference. I commit to follow my risen Savior. I know He lives.

This week we had an interesting interaction with a Pentecostal woman. She had so many questions.. the first one being "are you Jehovah witnesses?" and they didnt want to hear from us. But once we told them we were from a different church they were a little more open but they didn't want to listen to us. We convinced them to watch the Prince of Peace and they really liked it. But they had so many questions like "why do you wear that and does everyone have to dress like that?" and "what are you rules?" It was terrifying because they were already so closed off and if we said something they didn't like then they would just stop listening but we eventually taught them the restoration and it was super powerful. The Spirit guided this conversation. I felt the gift of tongues working because I could understand everything they asked and I felt like words were being put into my mouth. Super cool.

Anyways! I hope you all had a great general conference! I am excited to re read all the talks!