October 14th, 2013

Good Morning!

 

Update from here in South Carolina! First embarassing/proud moment of mine:

As missionaries we teach lessons to everyone to be able to learn more about the gospel. So the other night, my compaion gets up in the middle of the night to use the restroom and she hears me teaching the Plan of Salvation (lesson two) in my sleep! She said that she wanted to testify of what I was saying (as missionaries we double testify) but that she was too tired and went to bed. When she told me in the morning I was a little embarassed for

sleep talking, but SO proud! I don't remember dreaming or even thinking about that lesson so it made me feel really good. This made me feel like I have made it in life as a missionary to have taught in my sleep!

 

Good News: We have 3 baptisms on Saturday! One is a 24 year old man named Tim who LOVES the gospel. The two others are siblings: Zach (16) and Jessica (19). Both of their parents were less active for 16 years but are now all very active. His Dad is even going to baptize them. It is so wonderful!

 

This week I was able to go to the Temple. It was so wondeful to be in the House of the Lord and feel peace there. For those of you who haven't gone to the Temple in a while, GO! Go this week! While there, our mission President, President Holm joined us. Shout out to the Hares and Brewers: Their daughter served a mission in Rochester, NY and is now getting married in two weeks!

 

Miracle Moment: As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we belive in the Word of Wisdom, which is a commandment that helps our body to stay healthy and clean so that the Spirit can dwell with us. One of our investigators, Pamela, gave us her coffee maker, tea, and all her coffee! One of the proudest moments of my mission! We didn't even have to ask for that. She gave it to us to show her committment to follow God and keep the word of wisdom which prohibits coffee and tea! We have been teaching her family for a little while now and she is going to be getting baptized next month! Love it! (I'll attach a photo later).

 

This week we had a day that was somewhat difficult. Everything, I mean everything started to fall apart, appointments, rides,  investigators, just everything. Somtimes in life this happens, things start to get hard or go bad, often all at once, but believe it or not these are some of my favorite days! I love hard days becuase I know that a miracle is going to happen right afterwards. I expect it. We learn in Ether 12:6 that we "receive no witness until after the trial of your (our) faith." I know that is true. When things get hard we just say, wow, Satan must be trying really hard right now because something good is about to happen! So I invite all yall to apply that to your life. View tough things as a trial and a blessing. Stay postive, rely on the Lord, and get through it. I promise you that if you do that then you will be blessed and see God's hand in your life.

 

Lastly, I would like to close with a story that was shared to us in Stake Conference by a memeber of the 70, Elder Johnson:He said that one day is daughter was shopping in the store for Christmas and found these beautiful music boxes, the kind that play music and have a ballerina dance. She knew that her two young daughters would just love them. She spent a while debating whether or not she should get the big ones or small ones. She finally decided to get two big ones, as she was about to check out, she realized that her neices birthday was about to come up and she needed a present, so she went back and got a small music box as well.

 

She came home and showed her 4 year old, Marcy, the small music box that they were going to give to her cousin. Upon seeing the box, Marcy started to cry. Her Mom, totally bewildered, asked Marcy what was wrong. She replied that the music box was just what she wanted and continued to cry more. Her Mom, smiling to herself, told Marcy that maybe she would get one for Christmas, a better one. Marcy then started to cry even more (for 30 minutes) stating that that wasn't possible becuause this was the most perfect on there ever could be and she wanted this one. Marcy was unable to comprehend that there could be something better in store for her.

 

This relates perfectly to us. God must smile knowing what he has in store for us. He see's the big picture, the end from the beggining. Often we state firmly that we want something now and we want just that, but he knows that there is something better in store for us if we can just wait. He has something much bigger and better than we could possibly imagine. He has the large music box when we think that we want the small.

 

I know that God, our Heavenly Father, just wants the best for us. While we have a limited perspective, he has an all knowing one. He knows what is best for us and that's what He wants to give us if we can just wait and trust Him. We all need to trust God a little more and believe that He does want the best for us and will give us the best if we can only follow and trust His word.

 

Funny Moment: We biked a good amount this week! We were biking in some slight rain and ran into an older gentleman on his bike. He said " Ya'll better be get going, you know, sugar melts in the rain!" It made us laugh!

 

Love Ya'll,

 

Sister Anderson

 

 

October 7th, 2013

Hello Everyone!

Time for an update from the South! This week was General Conference! For all of you who don't know what that is, I am going to tell you! We have a prophet on the earth today and he has 12 apostles, just like in Jesus' time. Twice a year they speak to the whole world in a conference that is broadcasted into 52 languages. They teach us about things that God would have us do. I LOVE General Conference! Go watch it! www.lds.org then click "General Conference."

One of my favorite talks from General Conference was given by our prophet, President Thomas S. Monson. He spoke about enduring to the end, finishing strong. He said that when we are tested to our limits we are aloud to change and become better than we were before. I love that! I know that stress can greatly increase our growth. Then he continued saying that "During the best of times or the worst of times He (God) is with us. He has promised this will never change." I know that God is always with us and is always aware of us. We are His children. He loves us! Like any good Father he wants the best for us and wants us to grow, that is why he allows hard things to happen. Another quote by President Monson that was given to the women of the Church last weekend said " He has assured us that He will be there to help us if we just ask." So when times get hard, when times are good, when times are in between, turn to God, your Heavenly Father, and pray! He will be there to help you!

STORY: About two or three weeks ago I was walking through a neighborhood, knocking on doors, when I saw an older lady outside scrubbing green stuff off of her white picket fence. My companion and I walked over and started to talk to her and offered to help, she refused saying that she was only doing on section of the fence and was almost done. She insisted that she was having someone else do it tomorrow or something and then went inside. About twenty minutes later we drove past the house and saw her scrubbing her fence! I told my companion that we needed to go and help, my companion agreed but it was awkward because the lady did not want our help or even company before.

So we got out of the car, crossed the street, and started towards the lady. She was surprised to see us and looked a little uneasy. We offered to help her again, then we begged her to let us help. I told her that we are missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and that we strive to represent our Savior Jesus Christ. This means that we try to do good and do the things that He would have done. Then I told her that I know that the Savior would have helped her clean off her fence. (Five minutes later)  We promised to not preach to her if she would let us help. She let us help!

She then told us that she used old rags with bleach to scrub off the fence. (As I am wearing a black dress. Bleach + black = disaster!) I insisted that it did not matter that we wear clothes that we don't mind getting dirty because we are on missions to serve people! (It didn't matter one bit about our clothes!) We were able to help clean and scrub her fence. It was such an amazing experience as she slowly opened up to us. We became good friends and we met her disabled grandson who she cares for and raises by herself. We became his friend too; he was 14 and loved airplanes! We were able to learn about her life. True to our word we didn't bring up the gospel although she asked some questions and we slipped good old family values in. We helped her scrub the green slim for a while and then left.

The whole point of this story is that to share the gospel we don't have to talk about scriptures, about the first vision, or church. All we have to do is serve and follow the example of our Savior Jesus Christ. Sometimes we don't preach with words but with actions. One of my favorite quotes it "Preach the gospel and if necessary use words." I love that because I believe that sometimes the Savior would just simply serve other, lighten their day, lift their load without teaching a sermon. I love being a missionary. I love being able to serve others and do it in the name of our Savior.

Will you all find one way to serve another this week? Just a random act of kindness. Open a door. Ask someone how they are doing. Give a compliment. I promise you that as you do this you will be uplifted yourself as your follow the example of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Love Always!

Sister Susan Anderson

Exciting new!

This week I get to go to the Temple! I am so excited! Also, last weekend I went to a mission conference in Irmo (a suburb of Columbia) and I got to stay in the mission home! It was so great!