Change is hard, but good!! - Buena Park, California

The past couple weeks have been WILD 

As a zone, we got a little nativity set from our mission and then picked a family in our stake who is going through a really hard time and delivered the pieces to them leading up to Christmas. We each got a piece and a day to drop it off anonymously, and then we went and caroled to them all together on Christmas Eve! It was such a special way to serve them:)

Christmas was bittersweet. We got transfer news (on Christmas Eve, of all days) and found out that both Sister Langi and I had to leave the area:((( It was pretty much the last thing we were expecting- we were so shocked. I genuinely love the MSA ward and Sister Langi so much and so many good things were happening in our area. We stopped by our friend Britt on Christmas morning and brought her and her son a little present. They came to church (yay!) but we had to tell them we were leaving and say goodbye (). It's one of those things that you always hear about, but until you experience leaving people behind like that yourself, you don't really understand just how hard it is. They're in good hands with the new sisters, it was just heartbreaking to have to leave all our awesome friends and members behind :( 

I'm now in the Cypress Zone in Buena Park (I live right down the street from Knott's Berry Farm ) with Sister Jones, who is also from Arizona! We're on bike, but this time with real bikes and not beach cruisers with baby seats haha. Biking has been kinda hard for me so far. My first night, it was pouring and we got soaked all the way through. Plus I had been up all night packing and cleaning and was already so exhausted. It was a challenge, but we made it work and it's already getting better. With the Lord all things are possible! We are sharing a ward with a companionship of elders, which has been so fun because we go to dinner appointments and stuff together all the time!

This week I've been studying in 1 Nephi, specifically about what Nephi and Lehi did to receive revelation. Some things I loved are that they 1. Asked questions and received answers 2. Acted on the revelation they received and then received more, and 3. Trusted in the Lord when they couldn't see the whole picture. I loved seeing these principles in action in their story and thinking about how I can be more like them!

Happy new year!! Love you all

 Sister Anderson 

Pictures!!

- this cute pedestrian sign we drove past all the time 

- saying bye to the best ward members:(

- accidental Christmas colors!

- HB zone on Christmas 

Milagros!! - Huntington Beach, California

So most of our lessons actually fell through this week, and a lot of our friends are being fake and not getting back to us. BUT as always, we still saw some miracles. 

This week we had exchanges, so I got to lead the area and work with Hermana Amèzquita for the day (SO hype). We had a lesson with our friend Britt and her son Noah. We taught her the restoration and then PUT HER ON DATE FOR BAPTISM!!!! I can't describe the joy that is felt in moments like that as a missionary. It's just so happy watching people commit to doing something that brings you personally so much joy, and you know it will bless them. We are also planning on extending a baptismal date to our friend Jessica this week. We've been working with her for a while and we finally feel like she's ready! She has come so far and is basically already there, she just has a hard time committing, so everyone please pray for her! 

We have been sharing special Christmas messages with a ton of people, and most of the time, we share this video that depicts the birth of Christ. I've seen it so many times but I still love it so much. And a new part stands out to me every time, so I feel like I've come to know this story on a way deeper level because of it. If you haven't seen this video, or if you have, take 18 minutes out of your day to watch it. I promise you will feel the Spirit:) AND for bonus points, you can share it/watch it with a friend!

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media/video/2019-09-0050-the-christ-child?lang=eng&alang=eng

Being a missionary during Christmas is the coolest thing ever. Hearts are softened and opened to us that normally wouldn't be and its so amazing to see the Lord's hand orchestrating everything <3 

Also, here is my address for letters. I know missionaries addresses usually change all the time, but our mail here gets sent to the mission office first, so it will always be the same! 

2500 N Bristol St Santa Ana, CA 92706 

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Sister Anderson 

Holiday Miracles - Huntington Beach, California

 The past couple weeks have been so great! We have had this Christmas festival called the Crèche going on at our church building all weekend and its been a lot of fun to help out with that!

I've been called as my zone's family history rep, which is ironic because I had no idea how to do family history two weeks ago. BUT my testimony of it and love for it have grown so much as I've learned how to do different things and learned more about my family! It's truly an incredible tool and we're so lucky to have it. I encourage you all to go look at your family tree and see if you can learn something new about your ancestors! (I promise you'll find something interesting in 3 minutes, it's that easy) 

We got to go to the LA temple to see the Christmas lights with our ward! It is such a huge and beautiful temple I can't wait to go inside someday! 

Story time!

So on Thanksgiving, we were supposed to go to this members house to eat. We talked to him at church, he said there would be a ton of people there, and he told us to come at 2 pm. So we show up at 2 pm, and he lets us in! Then he starts asking us if we have a place to eat and invites us to eat with him and his two family members that were home. We thought he was kidding. We started teaching his inactive son and 45 minutes later when the dinner was ready, we finally realized that we were at the wrong house 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ we mixed up these two old geezers in our bishopric and I still can't get over how embarrassing it was hahahah. They were both so nice about it but it was pretty unfortunate and funny

We had a sisters devotional this week and someone mentioned looking for little "love notes from God" every day to see how much He is aware of you. I love that idea! If you ever need a reminder of how much God loves you, just look for those little moments everyday, they're there I promise :) 

No time this week but lots of fun pictures! Have a great week everyone! 

❤️Sister Anderson 

#champions - Mormon Battalion Historic Site

Hello everyone! It has been a fun couple of weeks for me here!! Being in the trio has been so much fun because even though we're not always out going to fun places, we have tons of fun just hanging out with each other at home. Giving trio tours has a bit of a different dynamic, so it took a little while to figure out haha but it's honestly the best. I'm learning a lot from sister sedgwick and sister yin and becoming great friends with both of them!! 

We've been giving some extra food we made to our apartment's maintenance guy, he's a hard worker and he's super nice, but he always seems a little hesitant when we talk to him because he doesn't know much English. But now that we have a Spanish sister with us, we can communicate with him easier! 

The Allens took us out to mission bay to fly their kites! They have bougee two-string kites and it was fun to figure out how to fly them. The weather here is so perfect for fun outdoor things like that

We had a flag day celebration at the Mobat this week and we helped set up and take down the stage and chairs and everything, which was actually pretty fun. We got out there with shovels and dug out space for a ramp, raked up pine needles, and carried these big heavy stage panels to put together. It sounds weird, but I feel more like a missionary when I'm working hard like that, so it was awesome. We didn't get to be a part of the celebration because we ended up being on shift giving tours, but it looked really cool! 

I started learning some Spanish on duolingo a few weeks ago just for fun, and being with a comp who's fluent in Spanish has been so good in helping me learn it. She's probably so sick of us asking her how to say random things lol but we have fun with it

I think that's about it for now! San Diego is a beautiful place to be and I'm definitely blessed to be spending part of my mission here :) I hope you all have a great week! 

Love, Sister Anderson:)

Kites with the Allens 

Las chicas poderosas take on church

Tried Handel's ice cream 

The view from our balcony 

We got to meet Sister Sedgwick's mom on our temple
shift because she was there for a family wedding!

Cinco de Mayo in Old Town San Diego! - Mormon Battalion Historic Site

Hey everyone! This was a super fast week but it was pretty good 

On Thursday we had a temple shift, basically where we sit outside the San Diego temple and talk to people on the grounds and offer to take their picture. The San Diego temple has a lot of visitors who have no idea what it is, because it's just so grand and interesting from the outside. The temple was actually closed that day and they had some pretty loud construction going on, but we were still able to talk to some really cool people! One younger guy from Brazil came and we ended up setting him up with the missionaries in his area, as well as helping him download the book of mormon app and hopefully instilling in him a desire to read it. We gave out 3 other books of Mormon that afternoon! That's a lot considering how many people we actually got to talk to hahaha. That evening, the Allens (a senior couple here) invited us over for dinner. We played games and they took us up to Mount Soledad, which has a pretty cool lookout over the San Diego Valley! 

On Saturday and Sunday there was a Cinco de Mayo celebration going on in Old Town San Diego and some of the living history missionaries in the area put up a fun family area with lots of little games and crafts for kids and we got to help out down there when we weren't on shift. It made the days feel longer but it was really fun and we got to tell tons of new people about the Mobat! 

This week I continued to add new little parts every time we gave a tour and on Saturday I did all of Sister 2, the other half of the script! So I was able to practice just doing that part for a couple of days and then yesterday Sister Kirkman pushed me to do a solo tour where I say both parts all by myself! She's a really good trainer and she knew I was ready even though I didn't think I was haha. It ended up being a really fun group of kids that came in so it was perfect for my first solo tour and even though it was kind of stressful, it was a good tour and I'm proud of myself! I have never ever been good at remembering or memorizing and so I can say with confidence that the Lord is answering my many prayers and making my weak things strong :) 

On Saturday, Sister Kirkman and I taught the Come, Follow Me lesson for our mission (we get to meet together as a mission like three times a week it's so awesome) and it was super interesting to read the chapters of Exodus for this week. A lot of the Come, Follow Me lessons for this year so far have been stories I've always heard but never read and I've really enjoyed actually reading them. I think another way I've been blessed as a missionary is being able to understand scriptures I absolutely never would have understood before haha. We didn't get to talk about a lot of the things we had planned because everyone had so many good comments about the first slide we just ran out of time lol. But one of my favorite parts of this story with the Israelites making the golden calf is when Moses asks in Exodus 32:26, "Who is on the Lord's side?" And then in verse 29 he tells those who answered to "consecrate yourselves today to the Lord". I love the idea that consecration is dedicating what you have to the Lord and His purposes, and that what you have and bring to the table is special and has value to God. Consecration doesn't mean to give anything up, but to put it to use for the Lord's work. And everyone's unique personalities and experiences are needed to really progress His work. I encourage you to answer this call and to find ways that you can further consecrate yourself to the Lord today. 

This Sunday we went to a Spanish ward! No I do not speak any Spanish haha  but one of the sisters we share a car with does and she wanted to go so we just went with her lol. I didn't understand anything anyone said but everyone there was so kind and welcoming and happy :)

Anyways that's about it for my week but I hope you all have had a great week and give your moms all some big hugs :)

 Sister Anderson 

Celebratory picture after my first solo tour!!

Views from Mount Soledad (you can see the beach
and the temple in the same picture it's awesome!)

Day with the Allens 

Spanish ward (the Hermana in the middle is the
only Spanish speaker and our translator lol)

Dancing down at the Cinco de Mayo celebration 

Just enlisted in the US army of the west! - Mormon Battalion Historic Site

I made it!! This weekend has felt crazy long but only a few big things really happened lol 

First of all, I got to go to temple square on Saturday! All of the historic site sisters got to take the train down to Salt Lake and shadow some sisters there. It was super fun and I learned a lot from my awesome companion for the day, Sister Mortensen (I asked, she doesn't have any relatives in AZ lol). We had assignments on the roof of the conference center, in the tabernacle, and outside around temple square to just go up to people and make conversation. When they said they talk to everyone they see, they weren't joking haha. I'm super impressed with the sisters there, especially because they get a lot of people that come to argue with them and they have to know how to handle it cooly and be steadfast in their testimony. I have so much respect for all the Sisters that serve in that mission because I don't think I could do it haha. It was fun to get a "day in the life" of what it's like to be at a visitors center and I'm super glad I got to finally go to the conference center and feel the spirit that's in that room, even though there's no conference going on. There was a noticeable difference between the spirit we can constantly feel in the MTC and in holy places like the conference room, versus out in the real world. 

On Sunday we got to watch Lamb of God by Rob Gardner! A local choir came and performed the oratorio for us and it was beautiful. What a great way to celebrate Easter!! I forgot to say this last week but we also got to have a concert by BYU vocal point at the MTC that was super cool as well! 

Yesterday, we left the MTC at about 4 in the morning and flew from Salt Lake to Dallas (don't ask me why) and then finally to San Diego! After almost a full day of traveling, we finally landed with palm trees and the ocean in view. It was kind of a surreal feeling, but I love this place and I'm so excited that I get to live here! President and Sister Top and our STLs were waiting for us right away to give us all hugs :,) Everyone here is so sweet and fun and I'm so excited to get to know them all! My MTC comp Sister Newman and I were split up :,( but my trainer, Sister Kirkman is super nice and I'm excited to learn from her! I picked out my pioneer dresses and did my first tour tonight!! I only know a few lines right now but luckily I didn't forget anything in the moment so I feel good about it! My comp is super awesome and has everything down so she made up for where I lacked hahah. 

Being in the field after being in the mtc for so long is definitely an adjustment but I know the Lord is on my side and I'll feel right at home in a week or two. Love you all, have a good week! 

Pretty Utah mountains 

Temple square! The temple is under so much construction,
I didn't recognize it at first honestly but I learned
a lot of cool facts about what they're doing to it! 

Being out in the real world again ~ spooky

Ran into Elder Mortensen a few times at the Provo mtc!
Everyone pray for his visa to come before he leaves for England 

Leaving the sisters in my district was the worst but they'll do amazing things 

Pretty Utah mountains 

Arriving at the Mobat!!
President and Sister Top

My cute dress!! 

Sister Kirkman and I