Week #62 in Panama!

Hi!!

I hope you all had a fantastic halloween! I cant wait to be in the states for it again next year. =) Although, we made the best of it here! Luis Remice was baptized on Halloween night, so that was a great way to spend the evening! His parents have really come back into full activity and just have a wonderful spirit about them. We are so grateful to have been a part of their reactivation and to also have been able to teach Luis and see him get baptized. The baptism was beautiful. We made banana bread for it! Everyone LOVED it. I told them all that it is my nanas recepie! =) Well I said abuela because nana is like nanny in spanish. It was fun. That morning while we made the banana bread, we also made pumpkin pancakes and today we made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. I love having a gringa comp who understands the need for pumpkin at this time of year! hahaa

Yesterday Angel and Abigail came to church together again. They loved it. Then we taught them last night and they said they want their 3 year old Angeli to serve a mission. They arent even baptized yet and they are already talking about her mission! They are the best.

We are still in a trio, but we are enjoying it. Lots of work, but so much fun. Vale la pena!!

I love you all and I hope you have a great week!!!

Week #61 in Panama!

Hi! I hope you all had a great week!

I am currently in my first trio since the MTC. Its Hna McCormick, me, and another hermana from our zone named Hna Garcia. Shes from Guatemala. Shes with us because her companion went home for health reasons and they havent been able to find her a mini missionary yet, and since the mission has 59 hermanas, theres no other trio in the mission. But we are having lots of fun and secretly hoping that she stays with us all change. =) It works out great too because I sleep in my hammock so we have the extra bed. Its a little bit more work because we are covering both our area and hers, so we do one day here, one day there and divisions with members when we can. Yesterday for church I stayed in our ward with a member and the two of them went to the Los Altos branch, which is Hna Garcias area. It worked out well except I have been battling a nasty cold and yesterday was a rough day with that. Im also not a fan of not being with my companion, especially at church haha. But it worked out because I was able to be there for our investigators that came to church and they were able to be there for hers, which is whats important. Roberto came to church, which made his 3rd assistencia. We are going to keep his fecha for the 14th of November, though, because he needs some more time with the lessons than we would normally take with investigators because he sometimes struggles remembering what we taught. But he will get there! Luisito will be getting baptized on Satuday! =D He is a little boy of a menos activo family who have reactivated and we have been teaching him so that he could be baptized and its finally happening! We are going to have a baptism on Halloween! Woohoo! Angel and Abigail didnt come to church yesterday, but Abigail called after church to let us know why, so that was good. They didnt just not go to not go at least! This is definitely going to be a BUSY change! Especially if we do end up staying in the trio. Im loving it.

Well I hope you all have a GREAT week! I love and miss you all tons!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN this saturday! I hope you all have so much fun. Halloween is THE BEST! Ill look forward to pics on Monday. =)

Hna Anderson

Week #60 in Panama!

Hi!!

So this past week has been incredible. My new comp is Hna McCormick. Shes from Washington DC. She has 14 months in the mish. She actually flew to Panama with us because she was in the MTC with us. But she was only there for two weeks since she knew some spanish before, which is why she has less time in the mish. Shes great though, so obedient and so excited about the work. We are going to be super successful together.

This past week we have really seen a ton of progress with Angel and Abigail. They are our golden family. There was an activity at the church on Saturday night for couples in the ward. It was like a dance. They both went and had a ton of fun and got to know so many members. It was soo great that they went. And then the both bailed on work on Sunday to be able to go to church and they LOVED it and all of the members were SO welcoming to them. Roberto also came to church along with Luis and his family. Luis is a 9 year old little boy of a menos activo family who is also our investigator. It was a great day at church for us. The members are sooo excited for the work recently and are helping us with visits and giving us references. Its amazing. We had 3 members go with us to Angel and Abigails house last night and we had a GREAT lesson. The next step with them is to get them married because they want to be baptized ASAP so the wedding will be next and then the baptism! =)

I am so incredibly happy and so excited to see everything that this change brings. I love you all and I hope you have a great week!!

Hna Anderson

Week #59 in Panama!

Hi everyone! I hope that you have all had a great week applying what you learned in General Conference! =)

We had a GREAT week. We were able to teach Angel and Abigail 2 different times with our mission leader and his wife and both were fantastic lessons. They accepted a fecha for december 3rd. We had to give them a little more time since they have to get married first. They are so great and are so stinkin prepared. I love it and feel so blessed that the Lord has enough confidence in us to have let us find them. 

Im running out of time, but changes are this week! So I will more than likely have a new comp when I write again next week. Please pray that the adjustment will be a good one! Im pretty anxious to see what happens. =)

I love you all and I hope you have a great week!

Hna Anderson

Week #58 in Panama!

Hi everyone!!

I hope you all enjoyed conference! I absolutely loved it! It was amazing and I received so many answers to so many questions that I had. I hope that you all received inspiration that you were seeking as well. I just wanted to share a few things that really stood out to me with the little bit of time that I have left. 

I absolutely loved the talk given by Elder Hales on Saturday (I hope I remember who gave what talk correctly, because I forgot my notes at home haha). It really helped me set some good goals of how to keep up with the habits that Ive made on my mission when I get home. It was a really perfect talk for me to hear at this particular time. It was so great for all youth and young adults!! Such an inspiring talk. 

I also loved Elder Hollands talk on mothers. It was SO beautiful and made me think so much about my own mama, the other mothers in my life, and what kind of mother I want to be. If any of you mamas havent heard it yet, I encourage you to go listen to it! Not just mamas, actually, everyone, so that everyone can know just how amazing moms really are!

President Monsons talk was beautiful as well. I loved it. I really liked what he said about doubt and faith not being able to exist in the same mind. Its so true! He is so wonderful and so truely inspired of God to be our prophet at this time!

I loved all of the testimonies given by the new apostles, but I specifically loved the one given by Elder Renlund. His story of Chad really touched me. I loved what he said about looking at everyone through the eyes of a parent because that will allow us to look at them through the eyes of our Heavenly Father. 

Elder Nelsons talk on women was also so good! I loved what he said about us needing to speak up and speak out in order to help move Gods work along. I also really loved the story of his wife comforting him and then telling him to get up and get back to work. 

In the Sunday afternoon session I really liked Devin Durrants talk about ponderizing one scripture every week. Im going to start doing that this week and I hope you all will take his advice and do the same because I know that it will bring so many blessings! It will also help each of us learn more from the scriptures.

Those are just a few of the talks that I really loved, although they were all great. I hope you all have a great week this week and if you missed any of the sessions that you will be able to listen to them at some point this week! I love and miss you all tons!!

Hermana Anderson

Week #57 in Panama!

Hi!!

I hope you all are as excited about General Conference this weekend as I am. Its going to be SO great! I cant wait. I especially cant wait to see who the new apostles are going to be. I hope you all can watch all of the sessions, each one is going to be amazing!

This past week has been a good one. We found Angel and Abigail and have a cita with them tomorrow night, so we are really excited about that. They said they have a whole list of questions for us, so that will be really great. We love the questions because it means they are truly interested in finding out the truth! We also had an investigator in Church yesterday named Roberto. We found him contacting. His wife and children and their spouses are all members, but inactive. Hes the only nonmember. So we are going to be working with the whole family! We were really excited to see him in church. We also spoke yesterday. I really like speaking, but Im excited to do it in English again haha. 

Womens Conference was SO amazing!! I hope that you all were able to watch it, and if not, that you will be able to watch it some time this week. I absolutely loved it and I received so many answers to prayers from it. 

Tomorrow we are headed to the temple which I am CRAZY excited for. The trip couldnt have landed in a better week than conference week. The perfect way to prepare.

I hope you all have a great week and that you enjoy conference! Remember to go into with questions in mind and a prayer in your heart, and I promise you that you will receive the help and quidance that you are looking for!!

I love and miss you all!!

Hermana Anderson

Week #56 in Panama!

So I have run out of time. Is that how you say that? My english is in bad shape haha. 

I just wanted to send a quick message! This past week was a little tough on my comp and I because we had to drop basically all of our investigators because they werent progressing and Angel and Abigail have disappeared. We havent been able to get a hold of them or find them in their house all week. That has been tough on us because they were so positive! But we wont give up. We will definitely keep trying with them! The good news is that we found lots of new investigators, so we are still chugging along! Missionary work is tough, but its such a rewarding experience. I hope you all are getting excited for General Conference. This Saturday (Nanas birthday!) is the Womens conference and I am counting down the minutes haha. Last Septembers Womens conference carried me through so many difficulties of starting the mission. Its so great and I hope that all of you women will be able to watch it! Know that Ill be watching it too all the way from Panama. =) I love you all so much and I hope you have a great week!!

Hermana Anderson

Week #55 in Panama!

Hey!

How are you all? I hope you all had a good week last week! We had a bit of a slower week this week. We are in a bit of a rut and have been for a couple of weeks now as far as the work goes, but have goals and plans to work ourselves right out of that rut this week! Haha. Yesterday was a bit of a bummer because none of our investigators came to church. But we will try again for this Sunday. We did have an inactive family come to church, though, for the first time in over a year which was really great. There are always tender mercies on the tougher days.

This past week we were able to teach Angel and Abigail again a couple of different times. They are really so great. And so prepared. They tell us that ever since we have been coming to their house and teaching them they have felt a peace that they had never felt before. Angel also told us that he is definitely planning on asking Abigail to marry him, but he told us that hes actually in the process of getting divorced so he has to do that first. The good news is that apparently this divorce has been a really long and difficult process, but now he is in the final stages of it and it should all be final very soon. Just another way that they have been prepared to accept the gospel at this specific time in their lives because with the divorce finalized, it will be a much quicker process for them to be able to get married and then baptized! They are great. Theyve not been in their house the past two days when we passed by, but we have planned to visit them again tomorrow and we are going to put a wedding and baptism date with them! Please keep them in their prayers that they might be able to overcome any obstacles that might come up before their baptisms!

I hope you all have a great week! Love and miss you all!

Hna Anderson

Week #54 in Panama!

Hi everyone!

I hope everyone had a great week last week and that you are all enjoying your labor day. Changes were really good for us because we found out that we are staying together for another change! We are super happy about that because we really work well together and have a lot of weddings and baptisms coming up, so we are hoping to see those together!

This past week we found a family that we KNOW is going to be baptized very soon. They are SO prepared and SO humble and willing to learn. Its a man, Angel, and woman, Abigail, and their three year old daughter, whos name also starts with an ¨a¨ but I dont remember it. We found them contacting in the street and taught them the Restoration on saturday. That lesson was easily the most incredible lesson I have been in my entire mission. The spirit was SO strong and my comp and I both knew that our words were not our own. It was amazing. At the end, Angel said an amazing and healtfelt prayer and right after he said amen, he said, so when can you come back again? We said whenever you guys want us to, and he said, okay tomorrow then! He is so great and Abigail is too! We teach them again on Wednesday, so we are really excited for that lesson. As we walked down the street after the lesson, my comp and I were all smiles and talked about how we could see them being sealed in the temple next year! Experiences like that make every single thing we do worth it. All it takes is one person to be prepared and to be placed in your path as a missionary, and you realize exactly WHY we do what we do every day. My testimony has definitely been strengthened of the fact that Heavenly Father knows and loves ALL of his children and is mindful of each and every one of them.

I hope you all have a great week this week! Love and miss you all lots!

P.S. General Conference is in LESS than a month! =D

Hna Anderson