Hey family!

Happy New YEAR!!! So crazy to think that 2011 is officially over and
we have just started a new year. I sometimes forget that time passes
on the mission. Sometimes it just seems like we are just in such a
pattern and habit that its just the same every day week and month. But
ya some great things happened this week we had some great sucess. I
love this area of Maipú there are some great people here. We were able
to teach this reference from a member she is 20 years old and is
great. We were just talking to her about the Book of Mormon which she
is reading right now and so thats great and we also taught her little
sisters as well. So we was really sweet cause we were able to just be
chill with them and be ourselves. Mom I was actually about to share
some things about your conversion story with them that you had told me
when I did that paper about you  in college. It really toched her
heart and I am glad I listened to the spirit and shared it with you.
Her and her two sisters have baptism fechas for the 21 so we are going
to try and do everything we can to get them prepared for it! We are
really excited about it. We are also teaching some other people that
are really great as well so just a matter of time. I am really excited
about the potential of this area. We had a great meeting with our ward
mission leader this week and it was the best one I have had in my
whole mission! So it was a great blessing. Also something cool we did
this week was we had our mission Christmas party! So I got to see
Hermana John, Dana and Ponce again and Hermana Thatcher! It was
awesome we all just ran up and hugged each other and when Hermana
Thatcher saw me she just freaked out and just came and gave me the
biggest hug I was so excited to see her! Its funny how the hermanas in
the mission become your best friends. So the Christmas party was fun I
got Grandma Browns letter tell her thank you for me please! We played
basketball ping pong and it was sweet because we played with
presidents wife Hermana Avila ping pong (around the world) So that was
pretty fun! haha. We had a big dinner and I ate cow tounge......well
for Christmas dinner it was definitely Argentine but thats okay it was
just part of the culture. We had a huge ice cream bar after and that
was way good. So something that is big here is the 3 wise men. They
have a holiday on the 6th on Jan where everyone puts there shoes out
and apparently the wise men come and fill them with candies etc. Kinda
like stockings at Christmas! Anyways I think its pretty sweet! I am
going to do it for my comp. or try to do it at least but I am
definitely incoporating it into my life when I get home. Its called
Dia de los Reyes Magos I think so its pretty sweet. Anyways other
things that happened this week.....welll its was so stinkin hot this
week that I wanted to die. Like 40 degrees. I have never sweat so much
in my life. Our pench is seriously like an oven it traps the heat and
so its sooooooo hot inside. We sleep and we are just sooooo hot We
have to take like cold showers before we go to bed to get soaked and
then we go to bed wet and I still wake up in the middle of the night
just so hot. Its just like stagnant air so its terrible. Makes me
grateful for the seasons that we have for sure. So New Years here is a
lot like Christmas everyone parties and gets drunk and they light off
tons of fireworks. Some members were telling us that sometimes because
they are so drunk the people like put firecrackers etc in their mouth
and there has been some deaths. But usually its just they people that
arent careful and they get burned. So now you are probably wondering
why the title of this email is so strange. Well let me expalin. This
morning we were walking to meet the elders at the church and on our
way we walk by this park and there were a bunch of police out walking
around and there were a bunch of people standing there watching etc.
So we go and ask this one guy whats going on and he tells us that this
woman was walking in the park and just walked by this guys laying face
down in the grass and started screaming and ran away. Anyways the
police were called and it just so happen that this man is dead laying
under some trees in the park. Probably got murdered or something so we
are just watching the police rope off around his body and then we just
walked away so weird!!!!! So after me and Hermana Haskell were just
like hmm.....thats so sad and we were a little shook up just because
its so common here. In our area here the members sometimes tell us
¨´there was a dead body in the street yesterday just down the block
etc´so its a little wierd for us to just walk and talk to everyone. I
think I have realized more than ever how protected we are as
missionaries. God really watches out for us and sometimes I think that
when people that want to rob us or worse see us that maybe they see
angels with us protecting us because let me tell you there have been
many instances where we have been protected. Nothing will hinder the
work of God. Anyways I love you all hope you had a great new years the
ginger bread houses are rocking! I loved them all As fo the winner I
would say the Native Tipi but if we are going for the one that was so
funny!! Definitely Nacho Libres tribute! hahahaha.

I love you all!!
Hermana Anderson