Hey Family

Well another Christmas has come and gone and I find myself wondering
where the time went. I was thinking a lot about what Christmas means
to me as I was here in Argentina with a new companion I don´t know
really well in an area I hardly know and thinking how Christmas isn´t
about anything temporal. I realized all of this as I talked with you
on yesterday. I was thinking about how excited I was to be able to
talk to you all and just how that was really the only thing that I
really wanted. So interesting how when we are away from the things we
love we really begin to understand what is important. I think that
that is why we had to come to earth. We lived with Heavenly Father and
all of us as Brother and Sisters probably just lived a normal life but
as we come down to earth we are away from our Father and many of our
loved ones and I like to think that this is why so many of us feel
that emptiness that the Gospel of Jesus Christ fills. As we are here
we start to understand that really it is family that matters. The
Gospel focuses on the Family and how we can live forever. It doesn´t
matter how many gifts we receive or how many holidays we go on. It is
just about the family. That is why Christ gave His life for all of us
so that we could live with our families forever. That is true
happiness. I  love you all so much and to be on the mission I think I
understand even more how much each of you mean to me. To think about
how little time we had to talk to each other and how its just so hard
to say goodbye. I think that maybe that is how our prayers should be
to Heavenly Father.....as we pray it should be hard to say goodbye to
him and to go on with life. Obviously it is something all of us have
to do but just an interesting thought I had. Christmas is such a
wonderful time of year a time for us to really just focus on what is
really important. I love this season and there is such a special
spirit to it. It was cool because Hermana Haskell and I had the
opportunity to go to the hospital on Christmas eve and sing some
Christmas songs to some of the people there. As we were there singing
to a man and a woman that were along on this sacred night probably
concerned with what would happen in their future we sang songs of
peace and joy. The first noel....silent night songs that bring
feelings of the spirit and calm our spirits and help us to feel that
all is well. As we asked them after if they had ever heard these songs
they said no. I thought how stranged it must be to grow up not knowing
songs etc. that were so much a part of my life. The spirit entered the
room as we sang to them and their hearts were opened to accept to hear
the gospel message. We are going to back and teach them this week and
I am excited to see how that goes. Something that was kinda funny
about this weekend was definitely how they all light off fireworks on
Christmas Eve at about 12 at night. It doesn´t matter if your 6 or 60
I saw kids grandmas and middle aged people all out in the streets
lighting off fireworks. As Hermana Haskell and I ran to get into our
pench (we had permission to be out late) We felt like world war 3 had
started and that we were dodging bullets and small land mines! It was
so funny. I have a video of it. But we both were sort of shook up and
laughed about it later. The ward here in Maipú is awesome and I am
really excited to get working in this area. We were able to meet with
the bishop when I first got here and he is solid. Ready to work and
see miracles. So we are going to have lots of success in this area. We
have lots of desire to work hard and just loose ourselves in the work
so I am excited to see that results of our labor. It was good to talk
to all of you and Scotty too. The kids are getting so big and I had to
laugh when Allie started counting and just started throwing in random
numbers. She is so cute. I hope you all enjoy this last week of 2011
and spend it well remembering that Christmas is something that should
be in our heart everyday of the year. Have a Happy New Year make sure
you party hard and we will see if I am alive for the next PDay email
time. They light off even more fireworks for the new year! :) I think
Scott prepared me to be a missionary here in Argentina all his pyro
skills I have learned how to successfully avoid disaster! Thank
goodness he isn´s serving here or he would be out in the streets with
them! haha.

Love you all!
Hermana Anderson

Happy Christmas everyone!!! I can´t believe how fast this year has
flown by! I feel like just yesterday sometimes that I arrived in
Argentina almost a year ago and that I was in the MTC with Scotty last
Christmas! Wow. So this week has been an interesting one. I had to do
to Mendoza to renew some visa things and got that all figured out and
we stayed with some other Hermanas in the offices. Hermana Ricks and
Haskell. Hermana Ricks was training Hermana Haskell and My comp
Hermana John was Hermana Haskells comp in the MTC. So that was fun we
enjoyed visiting with them. Hermana Ricks is a hairdresser so she cut
my hair for me! I felt so pampered it had been so long. Dont worry
though I just got a trim so it was good. I am growing it out! haha. So
that was a fun break in the week and then we just got right back to
work when we got back. Its been sooooooo hot here this week seriously
and summer hasnt really hit yet so I am just sooooo excited for the
real summer to hit. I am somewhat bronzed for me hahaha not sickly
white right haha. No but I have a great farmers tan. Anyways we have
been working with this less active family here and they are all coming
to church now!!! So great and the Dad wants us to teach his son and
baptize him he is the only one not baptized. There are 8 in the family
so I feel like I am at home when I am there. So we went and visited
them yesterday and it was so great teaching a whole family and we had
a lot of fun together and I took some pics with them that I will try
to include. Anyways also we had the opportunity to go and visit and
member in our District leaders area that borders ours and visit with
her and the recent convert of them that lives with the memeber. She
had a reference for us but it fell through so we just visited and it
was great. She love Hermanas and she just loves us. So we sang some
Christmas songs with them before leaving and it left a really nice
spirit. I love the Christmas hymns. We have been carrying our Hymnals
everywhere lately because we love singing to the people and they love
it to and it just brings a great spirit and sometimes its a really
easy way to get into a house just to sing for people. So this week we
are going to utilize it. Anyways other than that a good week. We are
just really trying to get our invetigators progressing and sometimes
its just like pulling teeth so we are being patient and just trying to
go by the spirit.

So this weekend we planned to do a special Christmas Early! Because we
have transfer Wednesday right before Christmas so we wanted to
celebrate together so we all made raviolis Sunday night with a special
red sauce and white sauce and cheese it was soooooo good and some
sparkling pineapple juice stuff then we also had a ton of deserts and
stuff wicked good! We decorated the pench all up and we had all picked
eachothers names and stuff and so it was good because we did that this
morning. So last night we did more of a spiritual night and then this
morning we did the gifts it was so fun we woke up and just were all so
excited like little kids! More for eachother to open up and see what
we got them! haha. I love it. So we all opened out gifts and I LOVED
what I got. Hermana John got to fill my stocking so she filled it with
my favorite little candies here and then with some sweet pens and
marker pens and sticky notes which were well needed and also some
really good chocolate. She knitted a little touque for Rolloff the
monkey and I was laughing so hard!! I love it though. So then I got a
braceltet and earings from hermana Ponce and Hermana Dana got me an
thing for my hair and a sweet little wooden tree souvenir thing that I
LOVE!!!! I love trees and they is call El Arbol de la Vida  or the
Tree of Life! Thats what they call it here! Isn´t that so sweet!? So
it has lots of significance for me. Anyways we made a killer fruit
salad and it was so good and we ate that for breakfast so it was a
good Christmas.

Last night we got transfer calls and I am leaving. I am going to an
area called Maipu (pronouced my poo) hahahahahaha I know but for reals
thats how its pronouced. Anyways so Hermana Ricks is coming here to be
comps with Hermana John and I am going to be Hermana Haskells comp.
Kinda funny cause me and Hermana Ricks are just switching areas and
comps. We will be having the mission Christmas party after Christmas
the 26th and 27th I think or maybe 27th and 28th and we get to be with
San Rafael so I will see Hermanas John Ponce and Dana in like a week
again hahaha. I am stoked cause I will miss them all a lot. I have
been here for a long time and I love the members so much and all of
them wanted me to be able to stay for Christmas they were going to
call President it was pretty funny. I just laughed but I really will
miss it here. I love this area and the people here but I know the Lord
needs me in Maipu and that there are people there that I need to help.
Its always refreshing to go to a new area and have a new comp just
always helps us progress even more so that will be good for me I know.
I have 4 more tranfers in the mission. I know that these last 6 months
is really my time to shine I have a good handle on the language now (I
am still learning everyday) and I know what I need to do. So I am
excited to just go and give my all. Anyways I hope you all have a
merry Christmas and that you enjoy this season. Even though the best
members of the family aren´t there namely me and scotty. But don´t
worry next year we will be there and then you can truly enjoy the
Christmas season. :)

Anyways I love you all. Merry Christmas! ¡Feliz Navidad!

Hermana Anderson

WOW!

So this new transfer I have been asked to train and lets just say the past few days have been the craziest time out here in the mission. I love it though. I feel so involved in the work and I am just super tired all the time. I feel like all of the load is on me and its really helped me learn alot in the past few days. My greenie is from Ogden Utah and his name is E. Montgomery. He is a cool guy and we get along great. I dont really know what else to say other than I am loving it out here. We are having some cool experience and just this week we found out one of the members isn't a member because the church cant fiind any of her records so we have to teach her again and we are going to baptize her on saturday! Cool eh? Also her 8 year old daughter is getting baptized! The cool thing is her husband just got baptized like 2 or 3 months ago and he is going to baptize the daughter and she wants me to baptize her. That was really nice! Other than that alot of our investigators are doing better. Some we haven't been able to contact lately but we are really excited for those who are progressing and we have just seen how living the gospel influences choices made in ones life. We saw how people changed from hating eating kind of to wanting to get married and are doing so much better because of the principles that the gospel teaches. I just love being a missionary so much right now. Training has just opened my eyes so much wider to how the gospel works and just I dunno I feel like 1000 times happier and I just know I am doing everything possible to do what the lord wants me to do! Anyways sorry this is so short today but I jsut am doing awesome and I love you all! Keep being awesome!

E. Anderson

Hola Familia!

Pues hoy quiero escribirles solamente en espanol. Yo no se porque, solo quiero hacerlo. Tal vez ustedes puedan entender. Si puedan, cuentame. hahahahaha

Well I decided that I should be nice and let you understand what I am saying. So this week we had some cool things happen. We knocked on doors alot this week trying to find someone that would want to listen to us but we had no luck. It was cool though. I think its hilarious when people answer the doors and just all the reactions I get. Usually people just are like no thanks I have my Jesus and I know him very well and pretty much wont let you talk at all so we would be like ok. Well have an awesome day and can we give you this card? hahaha My favorite is when we give our door approach and ask if we can share the message and then they are like ok. hahaha not that its bad but when they just dont invite us in and sometimes we are shocked they said yes because we had the past 20 say no we are like uhh..  what do we do. hahaha no its super fun though and we were able to share our message a few times this week to people who spoke english so that was cool. We gave them over to the english missionaries though so we will have to see what happens. I remember this particular door though that as soon as I knocked on it I knew I shouldn't have and so we were about to leave and this lady opened up the door and just said some stuff and it was ridiculous. It just really makes me laugh sometimes the way people act. It was a good experience overall because I learned a little bit more about how to follow the spirit. The spirit wont lead us to those people if we are following it exactly and trying to discern it. Another one was when we went to this lady who is a less active and we were just talking to her and this guy was there. So after we opened with a prayer and we started to share the part in the Book of Mormon where Jesus comes to the Americas and institutes the sacrament, unfortunatly she had to help a customer that came to her house because she sells perfume and stuff like that and while she was doing so this guy totally tried to start bashing with us. It was so ridiculous. He was like oh dont you guys ever share anything from the Bible, do you even use the bible? It was super funny because we had just shared stuff from the Bible and the house before and we were like yeah and I pulled mine out and I was like yeah of course see I have it right here. Then he was trying to say stuff about the book of mormon and we were just like the reason we use both is because they both testify of Jesus Christ and contain his gospel and he was like no they dont. They dont teach the same things. I wont go into the whole thing but pretty much all throughout the lesson he kept trying to bring stuff up about our religion and it was just ridiculous. I dont understand how people cant accept that the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ. It drives me crazy. No one and I mean no one can read the Book of Mormon and not gain a testimony of him. He talks about him everywhere! I think its just silly that people who haven't read it or done an honest effort to actually see for themselves what it says try to say that it says one thing when it doesn't. Thats one thing I have learned on my mission is I can't use opinion as fact. hahaha Its sad because alot of people miss out on great opportunities, like reading the Book of Mormon just because they are stubborn and wont see for themselves what it contains. If I want to talk about the Bible I obviously have to read it. It I want to be able to talk about anything I have to study it. anyways. this is getting ridiculously long and I dont like writing alot hahaha Basically what I am saying is I love you guys. Your the best. I know this email kinda wasn't the best but I still have 11 months left to write more.

Love ya!

E. Anderson

Hey Family



This week has been fun. We had this really cool day this week where we
went to contact a reference and she lived way way out in the country
so basicaly Hermana John and I walked for like 6 kilometers……so funny.
But it was soooo beautiful we loved it. It was hot and we were just
looking at all the vineyards and the country and just talking and it
was just a really cool day. Before I forget mom I got the books and
one of the Christmas packages….so I will look for the other one. Those
came way fast! Thanks! I wont open it till Christmas don’t worry.
Well this week was good we worked a lot with two investigators that we
are trying to get baptized here in December, and one of them is
progressing well. She even came to a baptismal service of our district
leader this weekend it was really good she loved it. So then on
Saturday we went to one of our members house in the morning with one
of our investigators and taught her a little more about how to study
the Book of Mormon and I gave here that kid book you sent me mom she
loved it. So then we taught her and the members how to make Banana
pancakes and homemade syrup!! So good! They really liked it a lot! So
that was a lot of fun. We decorated a little for Christmas last night
and that was really good. We put up the three stockings we had and a
little tree hahahaha.  That’s all we have we are poor. Haha. So that
was fun and then today we went out and shopped and got Christmas
presents for eachother. It was fun we had to do divisions twice  so we
could be sneaky! Haha. Also I bought some yarn today and Hermana John
is teaching me how to knit. So that’s sweet I am going to knit some
sweet hand warmers for Hermana Dana I think for part of her gift and
then I am going to knit some slippers for my  future comp. for actual
Christmas Day. So that will be something to keep me busy…..Anyways
this week we had a huge storm and it hailed which is normal for this
time of year but man the sky was ugly I have a picture here but it
really doesn’t do it justice…..sorry. But the weather here is so
funny. It gets really really hot in the afternoon and you can just
feel when the storm is going to hit. It gets really humid and then
later in the afternoon it just pours.  So ya its kinda a funny climate
for me being so close to Christmas having such intense heat and rain
as opposed to snow and cold in Canada….But I love it here. I am
becoming Argentine….but I will always be Canadian don’t worry.
Anyways I cant think of anything else that would excite you all too
much, just a lot of walking and talking to people. You would think
people would be a lot more receptive to listening to a message about
Christ at this time hahaha but it seems not. But we are going to try
and do some new things this week. Presidente Avila is coming this week
so that will be good. We have interviews. Dun dun dun haha. No I love
interviews with him I always learn so much he is such an inspired man.
So we have a busy week ahead of us and I can´t believe how fast
Christmas is coming. We have transfers on the  20th. Right before
Christmas bummer. So I might be in a new area…Who knows what will
happen.  Also a piece of bad news……I just go t my trunky papers
today….they send us these papers when we only have 6 months left………
its gone so fast. This is my time to really shine and just work as
hard as I can and use everything I have learned in this last year and
see more miracles! Ya just email the phone numbers to me and I will
let you know when we get closer what we are going to do. Thanks!!!
You’re the best!!! Love you!!!!!
Love
Hermana Anderson

Hello brethren and sisters of the Anderson household. and friends.

As you can tell obviously this email will be alot more laid back then usual. For two reasons. One. I laugh when I email like this and I know you do too. Two. I feel happy today :)

First. I wanna give a shout out to my most frequent writer and oldest brother steve. I just wanna take this opportunity at the start of this Christmas season to wish you a Happy Noel.

Second I want to second that call to the rest of you by wishing you all a Happy Noel. For those of you who dont understand what that means I encourage you to ask my brother and he will give you a explanation far greater than any I could summon of myself.

 Ok ok I cant take myself seriously at all. This week has been pretty sweet! We have been able to visit a part-member familly and really develop a good relationship with them. Things like that are so crucial in missionary work. If families or people in general dont feel that trust or if they feel like you are way too serious and whatnot they have a hard time opening up to you. I have learned so much about peoples lives, and from their experiences I have learned alot about my own life that I didnt' recognize before. When two people can come together and feel trust between them and feel like they are helping and being helped, miracles happen. on the other hand when someone feels like they are just being told what to do all the time and dont fee like they have anythign to give, they just shut down and really dont wanna change or even be around that person that is telling them to change. For example. Who wants two 19-21 year olds to show up at their front door and tell them that they have a message about eternal families and living day prophets that can bless their lives because they have seen the blessings in their own lives, but when they teach they are just saying you need to do this and you have to give up this and then get mad when they dont come to chruch or keep any of the commitments that we invite them to keep? Wow that was a huge run on sentance.. But the point of the matter is, is when two people can come together and share life experiences and see the hope for themselves because of how someone else has changed, and that person believes in them and is going to be there to help them find that same happiness, that is when lives change, that is when happiness is found. Anyways. I love being out here so much. there is seriously no greater joy than losing yourself in the work to help others find happniness. when you put others happiness and priorities before yours, (with exceptions obviously) you find that when those you care about are happy that you will always be happy. Look at the saviors example. Especially in this season of Christmas. Lets try to give a little more and do a little more for those who cant give and do for themselves.

Love you all!

E. Anderson