Hey family!

That kinda made me sick seeing Ethan like that. That makes me so sad. I will pray for him and I know he will get better. Thats a terrible accident! I was able to give a blessing to a lady this week and so I know the priesthood is definatly real and we just have to trust in the Lord and his will will always be brought forth as we are mindful of him. I have updates on the rat. so it climbed up the back of the fridge and jumped on the counter and ate through the back of our loaf of bread like 5 pieces. This thing is such a beast! Also I witnessed a car accident this week that was about 25 feet in front of me! Luckily no one was hurt so that was good. I honestly dont even know what to say I am kinda just in shock about ethan. It makes me so sad to see things like that happen to children. Being out in the mission field has just changed everything about me and how I think. I dunno I know you that have been on missions understand what I am talking about. It just makes me so sad seeing that happen. I will pray hard. I dont really know what else to write. this week has been good. We had alot of rejection one day and a couple of guys told me and my comp straight up they want nothing to do with Jesus Christ and it just makes you sad knowing what they are turning down. The gospel is true though and this is a trial that we will have to go through together, everything will be alright though. I know just because Becca and I are out in the field that ethan and all of our family will be blessed so have faith and be patient and in time it will fully heal. I love you all. 

Love Elder Anderson.

I am so sorry to hear about baby Ethan....That is so crazy!! I will keep him in my prayers. This week has been really great and really hard as well. We started off the week really strong with some great success and tapered off later in the week. That is the way it goes here. Since we have been whitewashing this area its been tough. We don´t have anyone progressing because no one is coming to church. Also our investigator Ana fell through and we haven´t been able to see her or get a hold of her for a little while now. So that is kinda a bummer but we are trying to stay positive. We had an apt. this week with these two women who are great I love teaching them. We have been able to see them twice now but we will see. They just have to come to church....story of the mission right? It was so funny we were walking down the street this one day and we were just knocking doors and we always get men cat calling us here, but this one man drove by on a bike and we get ppl  trying to talk to us in english all the time. So I hear this ¨Hey , hello how are you!¨ This is in english with a spanish accent. Yep two words came into my mind right then.....Nacho Libre. hahahaha. I loved it!!!! Oh it was so funny lasy week we were at a lunch apt. and this little boy asked his mom...¨Mom where do eggs come from? she was like....¨Well......the chicken has a lot of strength and then.....an egg......¨hahahahaha. I dunno if I told you that one last week but I crack up over it all the time now. We had lunch with a member this week and she was so awesome. First off she fed us pasta with meat and tomato sauce. She grabbed our plates and started serving us and my eyes got bigger with every scoop of past she put on my plate like 7 scoops later and then lets just add like 5 scoops of meat sauce and then half a block of cheese! I somehow ate it all and all I could think was just hold on till you leave you can barf in the asequia!!! Well needless to say I didn´t barf but I sure felt like I was going to. The meat here they cook with a lot of the fatty cuts so it was really crunchy with fat......yummy.....but hey I ate right!? Right. She really is awesome though, She was like I want to be sealed to my children and my family so bad! Her husband isn´t married.....I really felt for her. So we are working with her husband right now. Cross your fingers. I just wish people could see how important the gospel is to their salvation. Its like you go to the doctor and they tell you what to do to be saved if your dying and you are just like oh sorry I am just to busy or sorry I am taking vitamin C already or whatever the excuse is! This gospel litterally saves people!! I just wish I could help people see that but unfortunately I cannot speak this language very well so I just have to testify and let the spirit teach them.....its  frustrating. So we were doing our abrir la boca the other night and we talk to this man and I was like Hi we are missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, and he is just like no no no I don´t need religion. I walk with God......I am a prophet. So thanks and good luck. Now the best part of the story is that he was wearing like pink hippie pants and a pink head scarf with Beetles glasses.....oh it was priceless!! So in our ward we have this thing that we do and its called the 15 family something. And what it is, is the Relief Society and the Preist Quorum, and the High Priest I think each give 5 families that are less active and the missionaries go and work with them! It´s a great idea! So this week we have a Book of Mormon activity. We went around and are recording a bunch of our members testimonies about the Book of Mormon, then we are having all the member invite people to it on Friday we are having a member help us put it together into a movie and with the clip at General Conference with Elder Holland testifying about it. So it should be like an hour long activity we are really excited about it!  So we talk to the second counselor the the bishop on Friday and he is like oh by the way you are both speaking on Sunday about missionary work for 10 minutes each! I was like what!!!!  I can´t even barely teach part of a lesson!!!! Are you crazy!!! Well apparently they are crazy!!! So ya.....We spoke yesterday about missionary work. I spoke just under 10 minutes.....it was...good experience hahaha. So ya my biggest stress has been the language and well be for a while so ya. So today for P day we went to a military museum. It was pretty cool! Then we went out to lunch and just talked. It was the first time I have felt like a just one of the girls in what seems like a long time....haha. But next monday we have the sweetest thing planned we are going to go 5hrs. away and go to this cave and go through it. It called the cave of the witches I think. I am really excited!! We were going to go today but we wanted to plan it out better. So next week expect some epic pictures!  This is my last week with Hermana Pelton!!! What am I going to do without her!!! AHHH time has flown by and its time for transfers next week! I can´t belive it! Time is just so different here on the mission! I hit my 1 month mark in Argentina on the 17th!! And 3 months on the mission!! So we celebrated and made french toast with this tasty orange bread we found at the store and homemade syrup! It was sooo good. Other than that its been just another week in the mission! Next week will be good I have a good feeling!!! Thats all I can think of for this week! Oh ya we have this Kiosko man we always go see. His name is Clive and he learned English here but he learned it with an English accent! It is soooo funny! So its like a little taste of home for me!! Last all!

Beso!

Hna. Anderson

HOLY COW!!! This week has been a whirlwind of things!!! Not even kidding!!

Okay so the begining of the week was good we were working hard and then we had divisions. So two Hermanas came from a different area in the mission to teach us and to go out and work with us. Hermana Burnett and Hermana Deem. They are both dying this transfer (that means they are going home. :)  So they came on Wednesday and it was good they taught us a lot about the importance of setting baptismal fetchas in the first lesson. That has really been the push in our mission. So they taught us about that and then we did a little practice and then we went out! So I went out with Hermana Burnett and Hermana Pelton went out with Hermana Deem. IT WAS AMAZING!!! I had to pull up my socks and lead for the first time since I have been here! I have never been so terrified in my whole life!!! So I took the map we made some quick plans and off we went! It was so strange not to be out with Hna. Pelton but Hna. Burnett is so great! She is one incredible missionary. We were just go go go 100% I was like woah okay! I didn´t even have time to think! So we went to out first apt. and taught this woman named Maria. she was a little bit crazy.....one of my favorite things that the people here do when they pray is they hold their hands out upwards to recieve the blessings from God. It cracks me right up. So then we finished with her and we just went out and knocked some doors and contacted some of our ABL´s. So we knock into this one door and Hna. Burnett is just like hey can we come in and share a message with you about God and Jesus Christ? This girl is like sure. So we go in and talk about AMAZING!! Their names are Grisel y Validia. They were so much fun. Validia is 27 and Grisel is 21. so it was really easy just to talk to both of them. We got talking and I was talking the most I have ever talked in a lesson. Then Hna. Burnett asked me to tell them why I came on a mission. So I told them about an experience I had and bore testimony to them. The spirit was really strong and I felt so comfortable with the spanish because they were helping me with the words etc. Oh FYI they don´t call it Espanol here they call it Castallana. I think thats how you spell it. Remember the ll has a shhh sound here in Argentina. Anyways so they were so amazing and we have these things called the preguntas de alma. The questions of the soul. So we had them look at the card and they were like ya! I have that question!! So they wanted us to mark it in the BOM for them and then they started looking up the scripts and marking them!!! Remember this is the first time we have met them! Talk about Golden! We were so stoked! So we finished up the lesson and commited them to be baptized if they prayed and found out our message was true. They said they would. So we left and Hna. Burnett and I were on air! We were soooo excited it was a sweet miracle from the Lord! So we gave a quick prayer of gratitude and went on working. For the first time in my mission I felt like a real missionary! It was so cool! So then we got back to the pench that night and talked with everyone and what not and that was good. The next day Hna. Pelton and I went out again and it was good. Then we had some more training in the afternoon. We were taught a lot about the importance of goal making. I learned so much! Goals are sooooo powerful if you set them with the Lord. That is the key. But also celebrating when you reach that goal. I really have a hard time with that one because I never feel like I acomplish goals well enough however the Hna´s made a great point. They said that Pres. said its so important to celebrate because is resets your mind spirit etc. to start again. It is SO true!! So for all you goal setters out there make sure you take the time to celebrate a little for the little goals and the big. Have some fun with it! The sky is the limit! So then that evening after we finished everything we went to my favortie place! The Plaza San Martin!!! And we celebrated!! All 6 of us Hermana´s We had Helado and dorritos (which tasted sooooo amazing I feel like I haven´t had anything like that in like 20 years!!) and some little Argentina cookie things! Also we were having this competition who could say the word baptism the most in a lesson......who won? Hermana Pelton and I of course! 45 times!!! WOOT! It was awesome! 

Okay so then the Hermana´s left Friday morning and I was sad to see them go. They taught me so much! But thats how the mish is unfortunately. So Friday we went out and worked and we had the SWEETEST night! It was the Vindimia (spl?) and its when they pick the princess for the harvest and they were having a parade down our street! So we finished up our ABL and we went to Belen this delicious bakery place and got some empenadas and some facturas! Sooooo good! And we went and watched the parade! So one thing you have to know about Argentina is their parades they don´t really hand out candy...well for this parade because it was the harvest parade thing. They handed out fruit!!!! It was sooo cool another blessing from the Lord because I am always starving here and that fruit saved me cause I was running out of food! hahaha. So that was really cool. It started raining and all the people on the street went under the business awning and there are us 4 little Hna´s just standing in the rain smiling huge loving every minute of it! haha. So that was seriously so sweet! I loved all the traditional dress and the culture of it! So great! 

So then Saturday and Sunday were seriously like dead! Aaaand so was I. I felt sooo exhausted and felt like I had no energy for anything.....gosh its tough when that happens as a missionary.....really tough. But we pushed through that. So today was P-day..oh ya so good. we went to this place called Valle Grande. Its this huge resavior like an hour away. So we hired a traffic and they came and picked up our zone. It was really fun and we got some great pictures. I got a great sunburn yes! I also bought some sweet leaf earings! So be excited for those in my future pics.....they are currently the only earings I own....hahaha. Bueno. So ya its been really great and this next week Hna. Pelton and I have some great plans and goals and some great celebrations planned when we achieve our goals! love it. 

So I have an announcement to make......ahem.....I will reach my 1 month mark in Argentina on the 17th next week!! Where did the time go!!!! Transfers are in two weeks!!! WOAH!!!!! I know time is seriously flying and yet it seems like time doesn´t exist. It´s just weird.....I hope you are all doing well! Thanks to everyone for the mail it made my day that much better!! I love you all and look forward to hearing from you all next week!!

Con Amor

Hermana Anderson

This week nothing too funny or interesting has happened. Well actually now that I think of it there were a couple Elder Carpenter and I were walking down the street and we stopped and contacted this lady and we were like hey can we give you a card from our Church? (This was all in spanish) She looks at us and was like I dont speak English and we looked at her and we were like we are speaking spanish... and shes like ok.. hahha so we gave her a card and then just laughed as we walked away it was super funny. We had a Baptism on Saturday so that was really awesome! Her name is Priscilla and she is 13! She has been taking the lessons for 3 years and we were able to get her to be baptised! It was relaly awesome! We were able to confirm her a member of the Church yesterday and that was really awesome! Also this week I assisted for the first time in a blessing in Spanish. I was able to do the annointing for a little girl who was sick that we gave a blessing too. It was cool but I was super nervous because my spanish still is struggling but coming along. I can understand alot more than I can speak but It'll come. Hope you all have a happy Valentines day. I got Hilarys card that you signed so that was nice to get a Valentines card. The only other one I received was from a 3 year old at Church yesterday that was a transformers one that said BEE my valentine hahah it made me smile. Everything is going good here though.  Nothing really else this week.. oh wait ya there is.... I got a flat tire on my bike so that was terrible. ok I think thats all. anyways. I love you all! Hope you have a good week! Things are starting to warm up here now that it has stopped raining! I cant wait for spring! We are just barely getting the buds on the trees so im excited! hope you like the pictures!

Elder Anderson

ok snap so I was looking at my picts! I went to the aquarium here this week! I knew I had done more this week! I got to pet a shark and a manta ray! It was sweet! I saw penguins and the biggest fish in the world. I cant remember the name right now but its a type of whale? maybe a whale shark? i cant remember! anyways enjoy! Also its the biggest aquarium in the world  Ithink.. yeah its legit.

So this week has been so very very bad......hahaha. No in all seriousness. Okay I have a little story for you here we go.
      Once upon a time there were 2 amazing Hermana´s in San Rafael. They went to Church on Sunday and the Stake Prez. told all the members how blessed they would be if they would feed the missionaries. So we get like a apt. everyday right after that right? Your all thinking SWEET!! Well good for you. You won´t be in a moment. So we go to two great families and things are great with get fed pasta that is delicous and extrememly filling. I just feel like I want to barf because I ate so much. (out of neccesity) So things are good and we have a new bishop that just got called so she wanted to have lunch with us on Wednesday and so we said sure! So she came and picked us up from the Capilla. (Chapel) and drove us way out to her house. Let me just add that Hna. Pelton and I were fasting this day because the zone was all fasting for success with our baptismal dates etc. So first of all we are starving. Try tracting in the heat with you have no food in your stomach. Ya NOT fun. One thing to add is that we are allowed to drink water when we fast because otherwise we would probably like of dehydration or something. So don´t worry mom. :) So we get to her house at 1:30 and then are like great okay we can eat now. Oh no......the food all has to be cooked. And what are we having? Meatloaf. Ya thats what I thought! How much more American can you get right? So I was like cool okay. So an hour later the meatloaf is ready so we have meatloaf and salad (salad to the Argentines is lettuce drenched in oil and salt) ya.....So we are eating and this meatloaf isn´t like normal meatloaf oh no...There are eggs and ham inside. WEIRD!! But I was starving so I ate it and it tasted good. So we eat all this then they are like what do you want for dessert. So we said WATERMELON!! I can´t remember the spanish word for it. But they gave me like half the watermelon.....it was so good! I was so thirsty so it was perfect. So they then go to take us home and right before we leave they gave us a bottle of homemade durazno (peach) jam and some homemade honey! YUM!!! So we were stoked. So we get home and we are so hot and tired so we rested for a bit and revamped to go out for the evening. Then that evening things are going fine and then Hna. Pelton starts feeling kinda sick. She is like man I am really not feeling good! So we though she was just like dehydrated or something so we went and got a few grocceries and then went home. She went to go to bed early and I came like 10 min after her and was feeling great. So we go to bed. Now you may be thinking where is this story going Hna. Anderson.....This is where is gets crazy.
  So I wake up in the night with extremely painful stomach cramps! I am like what the freak but then I notice that Hna. Pelton is also awake and that she is running a fever and is not doing so well. So I get up and try to help her cool down and so we are out in the hall (I think it was like 1 or 2 in the morning at this point.) And I am trying to help her between cramps. Not so fun. Finally we both go back to bed. Not for long. I wake up again at like 4 or 5 and she is up again. And this time I am really not feeling good. I get up to go to the bathroom and I almost pass out. I am crawling to the bathroom and I start throwing up. I hold it is luckily and make it to the toilet. Not fun. If you have ever had like the flu and were in a place that is hot.....ya thats what it was like. Cooling down is not so easy. So I feel a little better now and I clumsily crawl back to my bed. Hna. Pelton and I are both  running a fever and are both feeling like crap. So we did not go out Friday obviously and we called the nurse and she talked to Hna. Pelton and then asked to talk to me. First thing she says is....Welcome to Argentina!! I was like ohhhh..... So it turns out that we think we got food poisoning from the meatloaf.....yes even writing that word right now is making my stomach churn. We didn´t go out till Saturday night and even then we were both still not feeling great. Even today my stomach is still tender and queasy but I am okay! Dont´worry. So the work this week....yup. Actaully the Lord really did bless us with 5 news on Satuday we needed 4 and he gave us 5! It was great. 

So that is the epicness Lots of other funny things happened like the woman is our ward named Ana Rosa I love her she is our doctrine principles teacher and a little eccentric. Lets just say I told her and she understood that I did not understand Spanish but did that stop her from talking my ear off? Nope! So I just kept smiling and nodding and saying oh bueno! SI! hahahaha. I guess it worked. 
Okay so they have this really cool thing here every year when they harvest the grapes they pick a princess and these are like girls that are like 16 or something and so we were out last night tracting and on our way home we pass this street and its closed off. They are doing this comp. with the princesses!! They would have them go up on stage and step into they big vats and crush the grapes with their feet!! The men were all dressed in their traditional clothes etc. It was really cool! I couldn´t help but think of the movie a walk in the clouds!! Also one thing that is so tasty here in Argentina are facturas! They are like a croissant with sweet glaze stuff on them.....oh man....So Today for P-Day we went to a BODEGA!! A winery! It was so cool! We took a taxi out there and they gave us a tour through the factory and told us all how it was made. This is all in spanish of course so my comp. would trans. for me. It was really really cool and they had samples after of the white wine with tasted like martenellies!! HAHA Ya right!! Don´t worry I didn´t drink any of it mom...... :) Promise! Thats about it for this week. Sorry so dull.....being sick is no fun thats for sure! Anyways this week is going to be good I have a good feeling!

Con Amor!

Hermana Anderson

So I have one of the funniest stories in the whole world. This week we were waiting to pull into our apartment and their was this guy in the middle of the road who ran across but his cigarettes fell out of his jacket and he noticed it when he hit the sidewalk. So he turns around and then a ton of oncoming cars come by and just run them over and blow them over more or less like leaves under a car and his cigarettes just go everywhere! It was so so funny! He was like going to run out infront of the cars but they were too close!! hahaha He like motioned to go and evreything! So then he like just has this frown on his face and turns around and starts swearing and walks off! hahahahaha It was probalby one of the funniest things I have ever seen!! But anyways more on the spiritual experiences this week. We were going to visit a less active and we were wondering what video we should share with him. So we prayed and told the Lord the videos we were thinking about and pretty much immediatly when we started to do so I just had the thought "The Testaments" it was cool so after the prayer I asked Elder Carpenter which movie he thought and he said the testaments. It was sweet. I love the power of prayer. The more specific in what we ask for if it is for righteous purposes the Lord will bless us with our answer. We have to show our effort though, like we choose a couple and presented them and then he told us which one. The funny thing is though this guy didn't even have a DVD player so we uused it for the lesson after and it was super strong. The Lord knew we needed it for the other lesson. It was a awesome experience. The other experience I had this week was with a 13 year old girl name Priscilla. She has been taking the lessons for about 3 years. Her dad and mom are divorced and her dad lives in Texas and is a preacher but her mom is a memeber so she was getting pressured from both sides and didn't really have a testimony yet for herself. So this week we showed the Joseph Smith video and the spirit was super strong. I asked her before when she felt it to ask the questions she needs answers too. "Is Joseph Smith a prophet, Is the Book of Mormon true, Do I need to be baptized?" Anyways at the end of the video I asked her and she was like oh I forgot.. I was like come on!! Elder Carpenter was like well how about we pray right now. hahah so shes like uhh.. ok.. so we knelt down adn she asks "God, Is Joseph Smith a prophet?" It was silent for about 30 seconds.. long 30 seconds of my life! haha But inside we were praying super hard that she would get her answer and then shes like"Thankyou for my answer" and closed. So she knows hes a prophet now and we were like so you know the BoM is true now then. We were like what does that mean. "I need to get baptized." YA!! so we have a baptism for the 12th Iam super excited and yesterday we fasted that everything would go through and we are going to meet with her to make sure everything goes well this week because satan is going to really try to give her feelings of doubt and such Im sure. So anyways thats about all thats happened this week. No mouse yet :( I wanna kill that sick thing. Today we might go to Coke World or somthing in Atlanta so that should be fun! I'll here from ya next week! Love ya!

Elder Anderson

Elder Anderson

Missionaries with Elder Anderson

Are you ready?!!

ARGENTINA!

Gross Goodies in the toilet!

Sister Anderson and her Companion

This week has been an interesting one. I almost died 3 times.. hahahaha mom stop freaking out I know your probably almost pooped your pants but I'll tell you about it later in the email it wasn't even bad. haha ok anyways for the funny good stuff. This week we found out we have a rat/mouse somthing anyways in our apartment. We woke up at 6 30 and we were out in our living room attempting to work out but our fatigued bodies were lying helplessly on the floor after trying to do pushups and whatnot. Anyways out of the corner of my eye I saw somthing about the size of a baseball or fist run by super fast and I was like what was that! Elder Wood saw it too and so we were like I think it was a rat or somthing so we looked everywhere and under one of our couches we found some poop. (Mouse or rat--not human just for whoever thought it was human when they read that) Anyways so we went to walmart and bought those glue boards that are super strong and we put them in a corner with chocolate on the opposite side so you had to cross them to get to it and then in the morning we come out and they were moved and have hair all over them. The sick beast went across and riped himself out and then still ate the chocolate and got away. Sick. So we have been trying to catch him for a couple days now so hopefully tomorrow morning is our day :) Oh and another gross thing. We were teaching this one family and there was like a cockroach on the couch crawling like a foot away from my head. sweet eh? thats how cool the mission is. Thats really the only wierd this that happened this week that I can think of right now anyway. So by now mom probalby has been to the bathroom so I can tell how I almost died. Me and my comp were waiting to cross the road on our bikes cuz we ride bikes here and it turns walk so we start going and this lady turning left thats coming towards us they have to yield right but ya she wasn't paying attention so she just zoomed past us and we were probalby like 6 feet away but the car behind her wasn't watching. He was doing somthing either on the phone or somthing but ya I was in the front and my comp was on the right of me so and a little back so I was going to get hit first but my comp just yells like HEY!! and the guy looks up and just swirves and probalby misses us by like 2 feet? I almost crapped my pants but now its a funny story! :) Georgia drivers are crazy down here. Ya and then we almost got hit 2 other times the next day but no big deal. So we went to this new convert house and we were teaching them and I cant really understand when people are talking super fast so they were talking while my comp and I were eating then we went to share a spiritual thought with them and my comp was like you do it so I was like ok so I just used a scripture mastery I know in english but I obviously read it in spanish and just bore my testimony about it. It was 2 Nephi 2:27 if you were wondering and then they were like were you listening to our convo and my comp explained I cant understand them and they were like we were just talking about agency and whatnot. I thought it was really cool how the spirit directs us even though we dont think or realize He does. That is pretty my the highlite of my week. Oh everything fell through our baptisms and our lessons. We were supposed to have like 8 in one day which is good and all but 2 fell through so its frustrating but you just have to keep going. Alot of the spanish people wont tell you to their face they arent interested they are really nice but just dont answer or purposely leave when we come back but hopefully this new week brings success. Carlos just hasn't been there but I think hes interested so we will just have to see :) It was actually really nice out a coupel days ago I mightve even got a little bit of a tan :) but its raining today so that kinda stinks. Anyways. I cant really thikn of what else to tell you. 

Elder Anderson

¿Como anda? So I was thinking I would tell you some funny things that happen here in Argentina! Some fun things are very similar to Scotts. We will knock on doors or it there is no door or if we aren´t close we will clap and they will come to the door. Sometimes they just come and say no thanks or sometimes they will see us and just go really quiet its really quite funny. Half the time we get half naked men coming to the door and thats always a treat let me tell you! haha. But something that we also do here is boil all our drinking water. So thats time consuming and annoying but I am greatful for clean water thats for sure. The ice cream here is so good. Oh ya so when people want to sell a car here they put an empty bottle like a pop bottle or a bleach bottle etc on top with a little water to keep it there and thats how people know. So me and my comp started like a slug bug thing where whenever we see one we give eachother a punch haha. Its pretty funny. So also we have both each talked to someone taught or ALB (Abrir la Boca) with some lady that was nursing a child. Yup pretty sick as scotty would say. They have these disturbing manequins all around too! You can´t really appreciate it till you see it so I will try to take a pic and send it this next week. Also Hna. Pelton´s mom sent her a package and some pjs for her comp. Who is her comp? Yep so I got some new pj bottoms that say I love sleep!! It is soooo true. I am tired always here haha. Mother send me some pics of the kids and the wedding etc please!! I think thats all I can think of right now....  BECCA