Hey Family

Well this week I have decided to dedicate this letter to my one year mark in the mission that I hit on the 17th. A big day and so strange to think thats its been a year since I have come out.

How do you count a year of the mission. Do you count it by the days? Or do you count it by all the lives you´ve touched and the differences you´ve made.

I count it by the sunsets that light the sky on fire by the countless hours walking and feeling very tired. I´m going to make a list of whats whats made this year for me, the best year of my life so that all of you can see.

- Leaving home for the first time and living completely isolated from my family and friends but finding that you can find family and friends anywhere you go.
- Really learning how to study whether its the scriptures, language, or other people my mind has really been opened up.
- Learning how to be patient with the people, with my companions, with myself, and with God.
- Learning how to be humble...and continuing to be humbled everyday.
- Finding it really hard to adjust wearing a skirt every day and then finding that the days I go out without one on and feel like I am missing something.
- Arriving in a country where I had no clue what was going on and not being able to understand or communicate with anyone besides my companions and having to deal with it.
- Having to rely 100% on the spirit all the time and feeling the effects when I don´t.....
- Almost breaking my leg my first transfer coming down a mountain but after recieving a priesthood blessing being able to continue working....(to this day I really think I may have broken it or cracked it but that God healed me)
- Getting kissed by several Argentine men...enough said.
- Eating so much eggs oil and mayo that I wanted to barf and now finding that if some things dont have one of those main ingredients I am just not satisfied!! How disgusting.
- Getting fed so much by members that I seriously thought I was going to throw up. I think sometimes they forget that Hermanas cannot eat as much as elders.
- Playing games in the streets with my companions and having conversations that just seem to last all day....and finding sometimes that I have conversations with myself that last all day....I am not crazy I promise.
- Really learning when and how to lead and when and how to follow. There definately is a difference and a need for both for everyone.
- Learning how to listen and that God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason.
- Learning and appreciating that crying is normal and sometimes needed.
- Kneeling down at my bed some nights with so much joy in my heart that I can even express in words to God how I feel...and other nights kneeling down and begging for help and for answers and feeling completely alone. Praying with your whole soul is an art it takes a life time to develop and keep it up....
- How to take care of myself.....physically, spiritually, mentally......
- Finding that sometimes we feel like no one is there to pick us up when we are down but the Savior is always there with open hands to help us up we just have to reach up and take his hand.
- Laughing and the most simple of things.....
- Seeing the beauty in the simple things I think I have really come to see nature in a different light here. It is one of the biggest manifestations of Gods love and power for us. Whether its the perfect form of a tiny flower. The beauty of an aged tree, or the resonance of a thunder clap that rings in your chest as you see the sky light up with lighting.
- The days that have passed for me feeling so hot walking that I seriously thought I was getting sucked dry from the sun and other times when no matter how many clothes you have on your still cold.....Extremes in many cases...
- Having a surgery by a hairy chested man with a gold chain around his neck and being so concerned about the fact that he had a face mask on and not a chest mask! 
- Being pampered by the elders after my surgery and really feeling like a princess.
- Wanting to kill the elders at times as well.....I am always having to remind myself....they´re only 19....
- Finding that if you have desire you really can overcome anything with the lord....whether its painful or not.
- Feeling the spirit so strong that you cry and watching other people feel the spirit so strong you cry. Also being so disappointed and frustrated that you cry. Basically a lot of crying.....but not all at once. ;)
- Walking in the street half asleep and somehow still arriving at the place we had planned to go....
- First dreams in Spanish.....and talking in my sleep in Spanish....(well thats what my companions say)
- Finally being able to understand and speak in Spanish whether its giving directions, teaching a lesson, or just talking to kids....it feels good to be able to commmunicate.
- Seeing and living in the culture
- Walking in the country and looking out at the orchards and the fields with trees and the mountains with the sun just right and feeling like you get just a glimpse of what heaven must be like...
- Seeing people dressed in the traditional Argentine clothing.
- The Vindimia and watching the girls crush grapes with their feet and seeing them paraded around with their dresses and being called princesses.
- Eating my first grape off the vine. 
- Being so sick and not being able to function....
- Meeting and being companions with some of my best friends no matter where they are from.
- Seeing kids play in the streets and remembering my childhood.
- Finding that Satan really doesn´t like missionaries and will do anything to prevent us from having success.
- Having doors and windows slammed in your face, and having people say such mean things to you that you want start crying but then you remember how Christ must have felt and you keep on going.
- Seeing the change spiritual and physical that comes over people when they accept the gospel and just being awed at the perfection of the plan of God.
- I love walkig down the streets and seeing everyone drinking mate and playing with their family.....
- I also think its funny when people see us coming and take off running the other way or quickly get into their house and close the door so they just dont have to talk to us. 
- The fact that a birthday here is as about important as Christmas and you can comit anyone to do anything if they have a birthday to go to ....even if it is their second cousins friends daughter that is turning one.....Yes its that big of a deal here.
- I think that the amount of holidays here is wonderful.....almost every week we have one so I am going to start implementing that into my life when I get home...
- I love that as we walk down the streets we smell a range of smells from delicious panaderia smells to asado to asequia......hahah I love it.
- The fact that the members basically become your family here and to leave them is so hard.
- Receiving any type of mail in the mission is basically like opening a birthday gift. Its the best!
- Being blessed to have a great mission president who always is there to give me counsel when I need it. Also to have a great Mission Presidents wife who is like our mom here in the mission....but they can never really replace my real parents.....never.
- Finding that I look tireder and older every day and finding that my face might get stuck like that forever!! hahaha.
- Having some of the most embarrassing experiences in the mission and some of the most amazing...They seem to balance each other out and they all make for great stories!
- Finding that I have given one year of my life to the lord and still feel like it is never going to be enough because even though I sacrificed that one year, he has given me more blessings and blessed my family with more that I could ever have asked for....

This is how I count 1 year in the mission, even though there is so much more. Sometimes words just can´t describe the feeling and to be able to tell someone what you have been doing for the last year in a letter just doesn´t do it justice.....but I have tried to express just some of the things that have been highlights to this last year in my mission. I know that the next 6 months will have even more blessings, trials, and incredible experiences that I just feel so humbled and blessed to be here.
So heres to the next 6 months!! May they be as fruitful and exciting as the last year has been!

Love you all!
Hermana Anderson