Another Week In Virginia

Hola amigos! :)

This week has gone by so fast. We found some new people to teach which is super awesome because the whole mission is struggling with that right now. We found this lady, her name is Lorena and she is so awesome. She immediately invited us into her house and told us how much she loves the bible. We were talking about why we are here and all that stuff so we shared some scriptures with her from the Book of Mormon which she accepted as the word of God so that was awesome! She is super family oriented and so we are excited to keep meeting withe her. :)

We had a lesson with a lady named Nancy. I can't remember if I told y'all about her or not. But she is Christian, doesn't drink, or smoke and is super open to the Book of Mormon. Anyways, we had a lesson with her and she hadn't started the Book of Mormon yet but she had read the entire restoration pamphlet. So we read the introduction with her and the testimony of the witnesses and she was so interested ans said she wanted to keep reading that afternoon!

We went on exchanges with the sister training leaders this week and it was so much fun! I love them. We went tracting and I had to speak in spanish to some people without Hermana Coleman which is terrfying. But I did it and they understood me! But we didn't find anyone. Combined, both companionships knocked on around 55-60 doors and we did not find any hispanic people to teach. But its okay because the next day we found two more people!! We found a guy, Carlos who opened up to us and cried a little bit about how he is missing God and is looking for a way back to him. So that was a really cool experience!

We drive a chevy cruz but I don't drive because I am not the designated driver..
We leave our house around 1 or 1:30  and we have to be back by 9 if we don't have a lesson but if  we are in a lesson or meeting by 9:30.

We got a new branch coordinator and he is so awesome. I am so excited to work with him. He has so many goals and we are going to really work with less actives because we have so many. I did not realize how mission oriented wards and branches are suppose to be. that is the goal of this church and I guess I just thought of myself so much at home that I didn't realize how much missionary work we are supposed to be doing all the time. :)

We went to the capital today for zone pday:):) it was super awesome!!

7 Investigators at Church But We Were No Where to be Found...

Hola friends!

Mom, I got your letter and  your package. Thank you so much for everything. I appreciate the breakfast drinks. the food. the popcorn. Everything. I love the jacket. Thanks for the stamps. I love your letters and how cute they are. Thank you so much. I am going to write more letters.
I am so sorry about all the deaths. That is terrible but I am glad you got to reconnect with your friend. I have met her once. She is the one with Mr. Bodily in her ward. :) I am so thankful for the knowledge we have about the plan of salvation. I love the pictures of Beckett. He is the cutest baby in the entire world. I love him. And his picture he drew  me was is so precious.

This email may be kind of long so if you don't read it all, I understand. Except you mom, but I know you will read it all :) 7 of our investigators came to church.... but we weren't there... I'll explain more later... (skip to Sunday if you only want to ready about that)

On Wednesday we had interviews with President Smith. He is such a cool dude. I cried to him about missing home and we talked about how much of a blessing it is that I miss home. Because that means that I have a family and a bunch of friends that love and care about me. So that is how I am trying to think right now and it is really working. He says the only way I am going to get over the home sickness is to love the people and get to work. And he is 100% right. We also talked about how I had a lack of faith of finding people. Sometimes it is really hard for me to think that there really are people who want to hear our message, but people really are being prepared. I promise... and now comes the classic missionary story....

So President Smith told both Hermana Coleman and I that we needed more faith in finding. So we decided that we were going to go find someone that day. So we prayed about where we should go and we were led to a neighborhood. Which is super not normal because Hispanics are normally in townhouses, apartments or trailer parks. So we knocked on a few houses, talked to a super creepy old guy and decided we were in the wrong circle so we walked to a different part of the neighborhood and found a lady outside her house. We started talking to her but she wasn't interested but we asked her where Hispanics are in this neighborhood and she pointed us back in the direction of our car. We went over there and talked to this guy whose wife is a less active and he said some Hispanics live across the street. Right where our car was parked. So we knocked and talked to this guy, Nelson. He is super cool and didn't seem interested at first but eventually promised us that he would read the introduction to the Book of Mormon and pray about it. It was super cool and I know we found him because we decided to have faith and just trust in God and his timing.

On Friday we had this meeting called "Return and Report". I assume you saw the pictures on Facebook... All the missionaries that came in at the same time as me and their trainers all gathered in downtown Richmond. This area is not a sister area and I am really thankful I won't ever have to serve there. It is a super cool place but definitely pretty sketchy. But we all go down there and try to street contact for like 2 hours. We went out with different companions and I went out with Hermana Davis and it was super cool. We gave out 3 Book of Mormons and a few restoration pamphlets. A super drunk guy stopped us and told us he wants to become a preacher but he is an alcoholic and he asked us if we think it would be okay if he still preached the good word while being an alcoholic. Somehow we changed the subject and gave him a restoration pamphlet and left but I just thought it was super cool that he trusted us enough to ask for our opinion. He recognized us as servants of God and that is a promise that we are promised in preach my gospel and I really saw it. It was really cool.

On Saturday we had some lessons that were super cool. We went and had a lesson with our investigators Humberto and Andrea who have been investigating since like July or August. its hard to communicate with them because they don't have a phone or a car.... but we finally taught them and we taught them for an hour and a half.... About like everything. The Spirit was so strong so we invited them to be baptized and they are hesitant but we think they are going to accept a baptismal date soon. I explained to them why we are here on missions and we are here because we know this is true. We know the Book of Mormon is true and we know we will one day live with our families for eternity in true happiness and that we want this for them. (yes I did that in Spanish....) After this we had a lesson with another investigator, Javier. He has come to church 15 times. But won't accept a baptismal date. He says he wants his kids to grow up in this church. He wants to bless his little girl but he won't get baptized. Its really frustrating but we are trying to be patient and figure out what it is that he needs so he understands how important baptism is.

STOP HERE IF YOU WANT TO READ ABOUT SUNDAY. Alright here is where it gets good. Sunday. We were studying when we got a call from our investigator Brenda. She told us that her sister had been in an accident and she needed us to translate at the hospital because she doesn't know anyone else that speaks English well enough to translate. So we got permission to go out of our area to downtown Richmond to the VCU hospital. We were expecting that she needed stitches or something and we get there and she had gotten out of a 10 hour surgery. She had broken several bones and had some bleeding in her brain. At this point she could not communicate with us because she had some tubes in her mouth and can't move very well. So we are talking with our investigator, Brenda, who doesn't know what happened because her sister can't tell her. so we had to call the police officer who told us it was a single vehicle accident and the car rolled several times off the road. She had to be flown in a helicopter to the hospital. It was super intense. We translated this phone call for Brenda. (I just had  the Spanish dictionary open and looked up words for Hermana Coleman) We had to call the towing company, the fire department and file an insurance claim and then translate all of this back to Brenda. and by we, I mean Hermana Coleman because my Spanish is not good enough yet. I can understand a lot but I can't think fast enough about what the said and then what to say back and how to say it correctly... So this is all happening during church and we get a text from the Elders that said we had 7 investigators at church. So that is super awesome but we felt bad that we couldn't be there with them. We eventually made it back and talked with our investigators and attended an English ward's sacrament so we could take the sacrament and it was much needed. We were so tired. That was probably the most emotionally extinguishing thing I have done on my mission. So we decided that we can't keep doing this so we found a member who is willing to translate for Brenda. Hermana Ainsa. She is awesome. We went to her house to explain what was happening and she made sure everything was okay with Brenda and stuff but then she looked at us and asked if we were okay. We were okay but so tired. We are just some 19 year old girls that don't speak Spanish fluently and don't know anything about insurance. She just acted like our mom for a second and made sure we were okay with everything. I am so so thankful for her.

How I met Coach Gillette's sister. We were waiting for the English ward to start and she came up and was trying to see Hermana Coleman's tag and she asked me if she was Hermana Anderson. Probably because she is taller and looks like she plays basketball HAHAHA! But I told her she was looking for me and we talked for a little bit about Virginia and Coach Gillette. it was super cool! I also found Gwen Brockbank's sister in law... I don't know which boy she is married to. If I see her again I will ask :)

Facebook: at first it was communicating with our investigators and our members but I found a Hispanic Richmond Virginia group. So I changed my privacy settings so not just anyone can look at my friends. (trying to protect yall) and started messaging people "Hi! I am a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We have a message about Jesus Christ and we believe we can live with our families forever, even after this life. Do you want to learn more? and I have sent this message to around 60 people and only 2 have responded lol! but I am trying.

Our mission has also been chosen for a new pilot program. Only 5 missions in the world have been chosen for this so its pretty cool. If people google "questions of the soul" (where are we going, where do we come from, what is our purpose) mormon.org will show up and they can request to have someone come teach them. We haven't had any referrals from this yet but apparently in one day there were 30 referrals in the mission. So that is super cool and I am so excited for it!!

My Spanish is coming. I understand a lot and can teach some things. I can share my testimony. I share my testimony in all of our lessons and I can promise blessings. All the members are surprised that I can pray so well for only being out for less than a month. So there is that.

I love you all and thank you all for all you do!

Us documenting the hospital parking lot. 

Ice cream and juice night :)

my awkward missionary pic with Elder Bird at Return and Report 

 pretty sky in Virginia :)

2 Months.... Say What??

Hola amigos!

Mom, I got your snail mail and it made my day! I loved it so much. I have re read it a couple of times already. I also got grandma Larrabee's letter and wrote her back today! I am so thankful you guys took the time to write me. I know you were inspired to do so. I did a lot better this week with the homesickness. I still felt it a lot. Especially this morning for some reason but I do think I am settling into missionary life more and more. I know it will take some more time but it is happening.

We have had branch council once and branch coordination once since I have been here. They are super helpful meetings and I can't wait to have more. Right now we do not have a ward mission leader so that is tough but once we get one, we will meet with them every week. We just got new Presidents in Young Womens and Young Mens and primary. They are all younger people who are so ready to help the missionaries out with the work. And we are coming up with a program to have each member suggest names through Facebook that we can teach or share a message with. Missionaries are so involved in the branch here because the branch is so small. Members are so willing to come out with us though and be involved in missionary work. We have three sets of Spanish missionaries all in our branch.

This week was kind of tough when it comes to rejections and stuff. We got rejected a ton. We have some recent converts that are ignoring us and we had to drop an investigator that Hermana Coleman has  been teaching for 12 weeks. That was really hard on her. But it was what we needed to do.

On Friday, we went on exchanges with the sister training leaders. I went with Sister Perry for the day and we went and had lunch with lady for lunch. Her name is Peggy and she is like 71, single and at one point in time had 8 cats. She is so awesome. Sister Perry asked her about her conversion story and she told us about it and she talked about how the missionaries came and knocked on her door and told her about the first vision and right then she knew it was true. She knew it but was not sure if she wanted to be baptized because she wasn't sure if she wanted to change her lifestyle. Around 10 months later she chose to be baptized and has been a faithful member of the church for 35 years. It was so cool for me to hear this because I had been lacking in faith about finding people to teach. Then later that night we went to visit a recent convert, his name is Lloyd and he is one of the coolest people I have ever met. He was baptized less than a year ago and has an incredible testimony of Jospeh Smith. He was sharing his testimony about how he knows Joseph Smith is a prophet could not have done all of this without the help of God. It was so cool to hear his testimony. He is working to go through the temple soon and I am so happy for him. Hearing their conversion stories gave me some extra motivation to go knock on some doors and tell people about the gospel.

Then we had conference. We watched the morning sessions on both days in spanish so I can't wait until they come out on gospel library so I can actually understand what was said! I got some things and I know the Spirit helped me understand what I needed to hear in those two sessions.  It is so sad about Elder Hales but I know he is going to do some serious work on the other side. The other two sessions were so awesome. I loved Elder Andersen's and Elder Nelson's talks. They were incredible. Also, Elder Callister's talk about Joseph Smith was the ultimate talk that I want every person who denies Joseph Smith as a prophet to read. 6 of our investigators said they were going to come to the church to watch conference with us and only one came. One. So that was super discouraging but we are going to talk to them this week and ask them what is up. One of them watched a couple of the sessions at home though so that is awesome!! :)

Since I was feeling motivated to knock on doors, we went on sunday to this apartment complex and knocked on like 6 doors before dinner and every single one of them said "not interested". Just like that. Some opened the door and didn't even let us speak. One didn't even open the door, just yelled through and then locked the door. so that was kind of sad but I know we will find someone who is ready.

I want you all to know that I know this is the true church. I know God is aware of us and wants us to return to him. He has given us the Book of Mormon to do so. I know Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon. I know that Joseph Smith was called by God to restore the true gospel to this earth. He was persecuted until death because he knew the truth. This gospel is amazing and we are so blessed to have it on the earth today.

our awkward pics with the sister training leaders :)

Twins!

Us with the sister training leaders at the Amancer eating papayas!

Zone pday where I got to play real basketball and we played oompa.... Ultimate Frisbee basketball with a football. Its super intense

2nd Week in Virginia!!

Hola amigos!

This week we had zone conference where Facebook was introduced! We are 1 of 86 missions in the church using Facebook. It is going to be very interesting trying to find people using Facebook. As of right now our mission president wants us to spend 2 hours a day on Facebook, using it to teach and find people. We are definitely learning as we go along.

The weather here is really nice right now. It hasn't rained since I've been here. Its humid but not too bad.

So this week was full of watching Facebook videos and learning how to use Facebook for missionary purposes. Mom,  I am not gonna lie, it's super hard to not look up what you guys are doing or posting. This first transfer I can read emails through the week so I would love to hear what you have to say. I try not to look all the time but I do look if I am really missing you all. Just know that I really love you guys and miss you.

Right now we don't tract a lot because we have a lot of investigators to teach but right now none of them are really progressing so we are going to really start to find new people to teach. We have 11 or 12 investigators and only one came to church. So that was super lame. But we taught him after church and had a really powerful lesson with some members and I was so excited to invite him to be baptized because I was so sure he would say yes...so I invited him and he said he couldn't say yes. He says he isn't sure if he can really commit. He said he is really going to pray constantly and with his whole heart to see if this is true and what he should really do. So that is exciting!

On Saturday our stake had a day of service where they had a station to give blood, index, tie quilts, put humanitarian kits together, make cards, and some other stuff! It was super cool. Not a ton of Hispanic people came but it was fun to see so many people wanting to serve.

Saturday was also women's conference. It was awesome. We watched it English because none of our members or investigators came to the church. A little weird to watch it at 8:00 at night but super cool. I loved the first talk so much too. Watching the women's conference as a missionary was a little different because I didn't realize how much the talks apply to me as a missionary and my life before I was a missionary. Ya Know?? I also loved President Uchtdorf's talk. I can't wait to go back and read them.

 There are so many trees here. So many. You'll be driving on the freeway and not even realize you are in the middle of the city because there are so many trees. 

We got Chick-Fil-A this week

Here are two of our investigators at a party for one of their birthdays! 

First Week in Virginia!!!

Hola Family and Friends!!!

My new address::

2322 Long Boat Court
Henrico Virginia 23294

So I made it to Virginia.... it was a little rough because we flew from SLC to Atlanta and landing was definitely a little sketchy. If any of you know me and my history of motion sickness you know how that ended... HAHA!! It was a sad time but its super funny now so just laugh about it!

When we got here President Smith picked us up and took us back to the mission home and we pretty much just went to bed because it was so late! Tuesday we had some training and learned how everything works in Virginia... There were 6 other missionaries that came from the Mexico MTC that are super awesome so Elder Bird (the Spanish speaking elder from Provo MTC) and I really bonded with them and got to know them!

On Wednesday we went to a church and met our trainers! My new companion is Hermana Coleman. She is from Riverton, Utah and has been on her mission for 7 months! She is seriously so awesome and I am so thankful for her. She speaks really solid Spanish and never has communication problems with anyone! Its awesome :) She likes to run and play basketball so we have gone running a couple of times and have done some other work outs. She likes to work hard and I love her a ton. It's just her and I living in our apartment! After I met Hermana Coleman, we were on our way to the transfer meeting and I saw Allison and it was awesome. I was super excited and I cried a little because I was so excited. WE both definitely ran in the church but it was super exciting!!
Answers to some of your questions:::

My area is great! I have no idea what we really cover because Virginia is super confusing and there is not a straight street here at all!! Lots of diversity. I hardly see any white people! Its awesome. Also fun fact about Richmond: Downtown Richmond has more murders per capita than Chicago... but don't worry, its not a sister area!

We make lunch for ourselves but all the dinners are from members! We get fed so much food. I promise you I will not starve here. Anytime we go anywhere people try to feed us. One day I seriously thought I was going to throw up because I had eaten so much. So I promise there will not be any problems there! :)

Its super pretty here! There are so many trees, its insane. When you drive on the freeway all you see is trees. No buildings or houses or anything. Just trees. And they are huge trees.

I can feel the love from family for me. I can feel your prayers. I wouldn't be able to do this alone. There is no way. I don't know why its super hard at times because we aren't doing anything crazy but for some reason its pretty rough, but it's all good.

It's suggested that we don't read emails through the week... so there is that... I don't really have time to read a ton anyway...

On Wednesday we started going to people's houses and talking to investigators and stuff and I can understand a lot more Spanish than I expected. I know I am going to learn Spanish because there are a ton of Spanish speakers here!! Anyways, I can understand a ton of what is said.. most of the time. Some people from certain countries talk super fast and I have a hard time understanding but generally I can understand! However,, if I am not completely focused on what they are saying then I don't understand! Speaking is a little rough but I know I'll get there eventually. I know it will not come as fast as I want it to but I know it will come if I keep working.

We have a lot of investigators but sadly no one is really progressing. So we are trying to figure out ways to help their testimonies grow! Cool thing that happened though: We went to go teach a new investigator, Elkin. I had never met him but Hermana Coleman had taught him once before and said he is super cool and wants to learn a lot so we went to go teach him and his wife, (well we hope they are married, no one really is around here) came and sat down with us and had a ton of questions and was super interested! Then her son came and he's probably 22 and he started asking us a million questions and telling us how our church doesn't make sense and that Judaism makes way more sense and all this stuff. I really wanted to argue with him because he was speaking English - so I totally could have - but Hermana Coleman handled it like a boss and just told him that if he wanted to know he needed to read the Book of Mormon and all this stuff. I am learning so much from her and how to be a great missionary.  Anyways it was cool because Marta asked her son to leave because she wanted to keep reading in the Book of Mormon and he was not allowing us to do that!! So she wants to learn more and keep hearing from us, we have another lesson with  them this week and I'm so excited!!

On Saturday we had a fiesta of the nations at the church with all the members and it was so much fun!! Super loud Hispanic music and a ton of Hispanic food which is so good! I love the food here so much!! Church was pretty great! I could understand most of what was said. A talk was given in English by  the high councilman... that's not normal though haha!! Some of the members speak English so if someone really wanted to get to know me they would speak in English and Spanish so I could fully understand what they were saying!

P-days are different here.. there is so much more to do! We have to clean our apartment and our car.  We don't email for too long but its all good! I like it :)

Keep praying for me!

Allison and I

My comp and I

My first time having papayas 

Last Week in the MTC

Hola amigos!

This week flew by!! On Tuesday we had a devotional with Elder Oaks which was absolutely incredible. He talked about a million things! He talked about how important the resurrection is and how important it is that we are teaching of the resurrection. Also he quoted from preach my gospel like the entire time, it really emphasized how important that book is. He talked about things we will need to change in order to become a missionary, like changing our habits. He emphasized being a FULL time missionary and how that is our choice. It takes a change of mindset to do that though. then our branch president talked to us after and told us it is our decision whether we be an alright missionary, a good missionary, or an excellent missionary. And we can decide right now what we will be.

We taught one of our teachers and he treated it like a door approach and that was really different. He didn't want to let us in and that was super rough but we got through. My gospel Spanish is pretty good and my conversational is just alright so it was hard to talk to him about other things!! So pray for me for when I go to the field!!

Yesterday was my final "real" day in the MTC and that was super weird! I have enjoyed the MTC and have learned so so much. I am not ready to stop going to class and having to learn Spanish with my teachers!! But I am so so excited to go to Virginia on Monday!! I love you all!!

Hermana Hathaway and I the morning she left for Argentina

My district with one of our teachers

One Month Down..... Seventeen to Go!

Hola amigos!

I LOVED THE PICTURES OF BECKETT. I showed everyone!! If he does say my name you have to record it and send it to me!!

This week has been so fast. I blinked and it was gone! On Sunday, we heard from Gary Crittenden the managing Director of the Missionary Department. It was really cool he told us that as of Sunday there were approximately 2,694 missionaries in the MTC. That alone is such a testimony builder for me. To run something like the MTC for 2700 people is insane. Meals are crazy but everyone gets fed and its just amazing how everything works here and runs relatively smoothly. He talked about three decisions we need to make on our missions that will help us  be successful:

• Take good care of your body on your mission. 
• Serve with all your heart,  might, mind and strength. 
• Live to be worthy of the Spirit. 

These things seem to be really simple but can really determine how your mission goes. Sometimes I struggle remembering to do some of these things but this was a really good reminder for me to take care of myself so I can take care of others.

Tuesday devotional we heard from Christopher Waddle, the second counselor int he Presiding Bishopric. He talked about some concerns some of the 12 have with missionaries right now. The main thing he discussed was the importance of the Book of Mormon. They feel like it is not getting stressed like it should. Which is insane because the Book of Mormon is the most important thing we have in our gospel. It changes lives. It should be our anchor.

We taught our investigator three times this week. She committed her to baptism and she said she would get baptized on the 9th of September. (She is already a member and not actually going to get baptized but there are some people that are not actually members that some people in our district taught.) She had so many questions about the translation process of the Book of Mormon. When she finally accepted the fact the Joseph Smith was uneducated and had to do it by the power of God she realized that he was a true prophet. The next lesson we talked about the commandments like chasity, the word of wisdom, and the law of tithing. She had a hard time accepting tithing and the fact that they "are so strict". But then we shared Mosiah 2:22-24 with her where it talks about if Christ gave up his life for us, and God has given us everything that we have, we can do what He commands. The Spirit was so strong and she cried and it was incredible. She decided that she could give up a little because she has been given so much. This was in our last lesson with her and it was just amazing.

On Friday we got our travel plans!!!!! I fly out on September 11th, at like 7 am but I have to report to the travel office at 3:30!! I am so excited but super nervous because I feel like I still don't know enough Spanish! But the Lord will be with me!!

Only 1 more week in the MTC!! It insane!! :)
I love you guys all so so much!!

We attempted to match lol but it didn't work too well

Our investigator, Adrianna! She really is a happy person even though she doesn't look too happy!!