Week #34 in Panama!

Hi!

So we had an AWESOME week last week. It was exhausting, but in the
most wonderful way. So It was our first full week in our área of the
entire change, and we took advantage of that. We worked hard all day
every day and found 12 new investigators and a ton of menos activos!
We also saw four baptisms on Saturday, one who was a Little girl whos
grown up in the church and just turned 8 and the other three were
convert baptisms. The baptisms were absolutley beautiful on the beach.
I hope I can send pictures so you guys can see! It was amazing. The
three convert baptisms were a child and two cousins of a menos activo
couple. They had just began teaching them right before I got here.
They are soo cute and so excited about the góspel! We are also working
on reactivating the entire family, which is great. So we were
preparing for the baptisms all week because the baptismal clothes we
had all had rust stains on them so after scrubbing and bleaching them
for two hours we realized we wouldnt be able to get them out. So we
asked our ZLs if we could cut the stains out and patch the holes with
White material. They said that would be fine so we spent a lot of time
sewing on patches at night after we got home from working. It was
pretty fun actually, I enjoy sewing. Then right after the baptisms we
had to immediately come home and wash all of the clothes again so they
wouldnt get ruined from the ocean wáter. We have to take care of a lot
more of the minor details out here haha. So that was all really cool.

Our other family of four who are Golden investigators continue to
progress. We taught them the plan of salvation on Friday night and had
a really awesome lesson with them. The mom had sooo many questions and
they were really good questions. There were a few that my comp and I
had to look up after the lesson because we didnt even know! Shes great
though and right now the only thing holding her back, she says, is
that she wants her daughter who lives in Panama to be here for their
baptisms. The last time she told us that, though, was a couple of
weeks ago so when we teach her again on Thursday we are going to ask
about that again. We are thinking that once her understanding of the
real purpose and importance of baptism grows, she wont want to put it
off, because the next time her daughter would be able to come out
would be in January and thats a really long time to wait. Prayers
would be appreciated for her and her family!

Those are the big points that I wanted to share with you guys from
this week. OH also, we had 68 people at church yesterday! Thats like
unheard of on Blas. It was great!!

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

Hna Anderson

Week #33 in Panama!

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a great week.

So Ill give you an overview of what I can remember of this last week.
Its seriously soo good that I keep a journal because I forget what
happened so quickly!

We started out with a pretty normal week. Well for Tuesday haha. We
had a normal work day that day and then on Wednesday we left at 5 in
the morning to go to another island for zone meeting. I swear Ive
spent half this change on a boat. But we arent planning on doing any
more traveling until may so thatll be great! So since we are the
farthest island we got on first and then stopped at all of the islands
along the way picking up missionaries. it was pretty fun haha. So we
had zone meeting and then werent able to travel the next day like we
had planned, (if you wanna know why ask whit haha), so we didnt get
back to our island until Friday. We were glad to get back though.

So on Saturday we had a very busy and very full work day.We had citas
with new investigators, menos activos, and investigators that we have
been working with so we were really busy. It was great! We worked like
that every day in the city, so with all of the traveling since ive
been out here ive really missed working like that!

Yesterday was a full and busy day too. Church went REALLY well. We had
fast and testimony meeting and I wasnt sure what to expect but it was
great. SO many people got up and shared their testimonies, it was
awesome. Then afterwards we were able to have ALL of the classes.
Sunday school, RS, primary, priesthood, YW. The only one we had to
teach was RS but we were happy to do it because its been so long since
theyve had it since the president has been in the city. This branch is
incredible to be doing what they are doing. Im so blessed to be
serving here. Then after church and lunch, we went out to work and
were able to have some really good lessons. At one point, towards the
end of the day, we were walking by this really nice house, it had
windows and everything, and I commented on how nice it was and then my
comp asked if we should contact it. So we did and we found R. R. is
75 year old man who is actually a member of the church. He was
baptized in the city in the early 90s but because of health reasons
and other things, hes never attended church here on the island or even
talked to missionaries. He kept asking how we knew to come to his
house because hes been praying for a way to get back into the church.
It was an amazing miracle and we are really excited to help him find
his way back.

Well that was about it this week. Im looking forward to this coming
week because we will have our first full week on our island! We are
also expecting to have 2 to 4 baptisms this Saturday, which will be
great! It should be a really good week for us. I hope you all have a
great week this week too! I love and miss you all tons!! Ill try to
send some pics, but if I cant Im sorry!

Hna Anderson


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Week #32 in Panama!

Hello!

I hope you all had a great week, Easter, and conference weekend! I sure did! 

So we got back from all of our traveling on Thursday. We were SOO happy to be back on our own island. We have to travel again on Wednesday for Zone Conference, but its only about a 2 hour boat ride, so not too terrible. We decided that our island is hands down the best haha. We definitely have the best living standards! Traveling definitely made us super grateful for Ustupu.

My birthday was a good day. I woke up to little children bringing balloons into the house that my comp was outside blowing up for them to take in. It was super cute and really sweet. She also wrote me a cute birthday card and gave me a super pretty mola, like the one I sent home to you guys, but a lot more detailed since she bought it here on the island. Then that night after we got home, she walked over to the neighbors house next door and sent the kids to me to call me over and when I got there they had surprised me with brownies and sang happy birthday. It was really great and a perfect mission birthday. Mom told me that Taesons birthday was great too! I love sharing a birthday with him!

Saturday was an interesting day. The internet company was supposed to speed up the internet for all of the islands this weekend so that everyone could watch it, but they forgot, so we werent able to show conference on Saturday or see it, which was a bummer and a bit frustrating for me. My comp was a lot more patient with it haha. But then yesterday, we got to the chapel two hours early to make sure everything was good to go and it was. The internet had been sped up and everything was good to go. So we were able to watch both sessions. We did watch them in Spanish, which was fine, but we downloaded the Saturday sessions in english yesterday in between the two sessions so we could hear them in English. Even though we understand it in Spanish, its a lot more powerful for us in our own language. Today we are downloading the sunday sessions in english to hear them again. We were also able to download saturdays sessions in Spanish and KUNA for the members here to watch this week, so they dont have to miss those messages. This is the first year that they are available in Dule Gaya (Kuna) and the people who recorded it our from our islands out here. It was super cool to play them back and hear their voices. 

Conference was amazing this year, as always. Did you all notice how much they talked about Adam and Eve and the creation? Super cool. Also, did you hear that Kim B. Clark, BYUI president got called to the 70? Will that mean the school will be getting a new president? Also, does anyone know why President Monson only spoke once? We are assuming its for his health, but werent sure. I loved the Saturday afternoon session, the only one Ive seen so far in English. The sunday sessions were amazing, too, and Im really excited to hear them in English. I loved David A Bednars talk on Fear and how Godly fear dispells all other fear. I learned SOO much about doctrine and the importance of only seeking Gods approval from Elder Christoffersons talk. Elder Wilford W Andersens talk was amazing. I loved the music analogies. It was so perfect and made a lot of sense to me. I also really really loved Elder Hollands talk. They were all soo amazing and I hope you all will have the opportunity to listen to them all again and again because theres so much to be learned from Conference. Its an incredible opportunity we have to hear directly from the Lord through His prophet and apostles. Conference is really something Ive come to cherish.

I love and miss you all so much and hope you have a fantastic week!

Hna Anderson

Week #31 in Panama!

Hellooooo.

So Im still in a pretty good state of shock, to be honest with you
all. I thought starting the mission was a dramatic life change, but
thats NOTHING compared to the change of moving to Ustupu (its Ustopu
is the indian dialect they speak here but Ustupu in Spanish, just to
avoid confusion). So Im going to try really hard to get some pictures
to send, but Im not sure how well itll work.

Its BEAUTIFUL out here. I literally live in the middle of the ocean.
On friday we were on a little boat, on the ocean, for five hours. It
was awesome. I loved it. And the sea was super calm so it was sooo
relaxing. It felt like a five hour boat ride on the lake. I kept
telling my comp I felt like I was going on vacation haha it was soo
weird. So we got here and I immediately fell in love with this place.

The people are amazing. The women all wear their specific clothing.
Its called Mola, which is clothes in kuna, their language. The shirts
have the same kind of sewing that I sent you guys home. That
butterfly, thats mola. Im already having my own made! My comp wears
hers every sunday to church. Its awesome. The language is going to be
interesting, I feel a little like Im starting the mission all over
again with the whole not knowing what anyone is saying thing. But we
are going to work SOO hard to learn it! We are determined. It will
open up sooo many more opportunities for us out here in the work.

We live in a very tiny house. Ill try to send pics. But its cute and
perfect. And its all "Anderson-ified" with all my pics so the Anderson
fam has made its mark on San Blas. =) Im literally camping. All day
everyday. I thought I was camping in Panama, but I was wrong. Now Im
REALLY camping. I sleep in a hammock, bathe in bucket water from the
river, drink river water that we have to boil first, and go to the
bathroom in a hole over the ocean. hahaaa Im not kidding. Its awesome
though. Panama totally prepped me though because it doesnt even really
phase me. Im just enjoying the ride. Can you believe it mom? I cant.
haha I never wouldve imagined this. and Ill more than likely be living
this life for a good 6 months or so.

So there is A TON of work to be done. For example. There are about
7000 people on the island, like the town of litch. about 1000 are
baptized. and about 40 or 50 come to church. The church isnt very well
established here, so thats what we are working on. We basically run
the church here, under the direction of our branch president and the
other two or three priesthood holders of course. We teach sunday
school and YW or RS, we speak, and we teach investigators. Church is
in Kuna, but we still do all of our lessons in spanish because most of
them know spanish. There are a lot of changes that need to be made, a
lot of reactivating and strengthening of members and helping the
church to be more organized, along with the normal proselyting that we
still do. We will be VERY busy. But my comp is a rockstar. We are a
lot alike in our thinking and we are going to make a really good team,
I know it. I am sooo excited for the work we are going to do out here
and I know that everything up to this point has been preparing me for
what we need to do here. It will be SOO hard in every single way, but
it will be amazing and all soo worth it.

We did a little island tour a couple of days ago because my comp only
has one change here, so she doesnt know much of the island either. Its
so stinking beautiful. More than one time as we were exploring I felt
like I was in Emerald Isle (North Carolina). Its crazy. I reallyyyy hope I can send
pics. Well thats about the gist of my life now. Im soo happy to be
here and to be a part of the wonderful mission of San Blas, because it
really is like a totally different mission. Our goal is to work to
become a stake by the end of the year, and we KNOW we can do it!!

I love you all sooo much and I hope you are doing great! Have a great
week!! Miss you all!!

Hna. Anderson

Week #30.5 in Panama!

Hello! 

Sooo my mid week email means that I got some big news yesterday. Im off to SAN BLAS!!! I will be living on an island for the next few months. Im soooo excited. Im also going to be sister training leader out there. My comp is Hna M., a gringa from Florida. Shes super cool and is finishing her mission not this change, but the next change so Ill more than likely <send> her <home>. Itll be great. I wanted to go and felt like I would, but I wasnt sure when, but I was super excited to hear that I would be going this change! My island is Ustupu. We do a lot of prep and buying things we will need beforehand so I wont actually be on the island until Friday. We went food shopping today and got A TON of really good food. We went to pricemart to stock up because for blas they buy a ton of food at the beginning of the change to last the entire 6 weeks since we dont come back into the city during the change. Super funny because Ill be eating a lot more american food on blas than I ate in Colon haha. It was sad to say goodbye to my family in Colon, but it was time! P. and H. are out there, like I told you guys, which Im super excited about because as STLs we will do divisions with them so thatll be really cool and lots of fun. So a couple of fun facts, I will be sleeping in a hammock my entire time out there. They dont have beds. I will be showering with bottled water. all the time. I will wear flip flops all the time because its like the beach with sand everywhere, from what Ive been told. And also I will be learning my third language. They speak an indian dialect out there, Kuna. So I will be doing my best to learn it! They speak spanish as well, but it will help the work a lot to learn kuna. Anyway, thats about all I have time to share right now, but know that I am SUPER excited and this change is VERY inspired!! I will share the story of how it all came about and how I know that this is truly what the Lord wants some day with you all =) Sometimes the computers are slow or have problems out there, so if I dont write one monday or something like that, dont worry, Ill probably write on Tuesday or as soon as I can. But that shouldnt be a problem, I should always be able to write on monday. LOVE YOU ALL and I hope you all are doing great!!!

Hna Anderson

Week #30 in Panama!

Hi all! 

This week was an interesting week for us. Yesterday, especially. First Ill start out with a little bit of gross news. I have another infection, like the ones on my leg, except this one is in my armpit. Ive had it for about a week and have been treating it with the medicine I already had, but it didnt go away and just got worse, to the point where my whole arm hurt. So I went to the doctor this morning and the lady poked a needle in my already VERY painful infection to make it explode. It was terrible. But it worked, I think and Im taking an antibiotic so it should hopefully go away. Its about as round as a quarter and about half an inch tall. Super gross. and guess what else? I keep getting this from shaving. So I cant shave for the rest of my mission, unless I want to keep getting these. So Ill be using Nair for the next 9 months. Super fun! Stinkin Panama haha

So yesterday was quite the day. We went to go get an investigator in the morning before church. V. I dont know if I told you guys about her. Shes 88 and really sweet. But we went to go get her and as we were leaving the house, waiting at the fence is the same jehovas witness lady from last time. The first thing she said was, "Oh hna V., youve changed congregations?" and then shes like no im just going to do a visit. and the lady said to my comp, shes so confused, I understand for her age. We didnt say anything, just kept walking to the street and the lady started saying to V., "I was once confused just like you! But I need you to be honest, are you going to keep listening to these muchachas or to me? You have to decide." Poor V. didnt know what to say. It was really awkward. But then the Lord blessed us with a way out! haha I looked up and there was a taxi turning around at the end of the street so I flagged it down and we started to get in as the lady told V. that she wouldnt be coming by anymore. Super rude. It was soooo awkward, but the good thing was that V. came to church! =) Also, yesterday we were given mondongo, which is apparently something super nasty that people have been telling me not to eat since I was in the CCM. But one thing Ive learned on my mission is that theres ALWAYS a way to get out of eating something. So we threw it out the window and a dog ate it. Hahaa it was my comps first experience throwing out food so she thought it was so funny. It was, too.

We found a really positive couple to teach this week. M. and G. They are really great and we are excited to teach them again. We are still working with M., but she still has yet to come to church and she will only let us come teach her once a week which makes it tough to get her to keep up on her commitments, but we are going to try again this week to see if we can get a second cita in with her. We have really positive investigators, we just have to get them to church, like always! 

Im anxious to hear changes either tonight or tomorrow. Pretty nervous. Id like a change, but I feel like I might have another 6 weeks here, which would be tough but Id make the best of it! We will see what happens and Ill let you all know next week! Love and miss you all!

Hna Anderson

Week #29 in Panama!

Hello all!

I hope you all had a great week. We definitely had a better week this past week than the one before. As a companionship, we finally clicked a little more this past week which was really nice. We are still pretty different people, but we are getting to know each other better which always helps. We were able to find a lot of new people to teach and we also had really good lessons for the investigators that we already have. This week really flew by! We are teaching an 88 year old lady named V. She just lost her husband and is trying to find the truth. She told us that she wants to find a church where she can stay put and that she knows is true. She's really sweet, but we have to figure out how to get her to church because the church she goes to now gets out after ours starts. So we are going to work on that. Shes also listening to everyone and their brother haha. During the last lesson we taught her, a jehovas witness walked in. Talk about awkward haha. We had a good week, but I cant think of much else to share haha. Im going to send pics though! I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Hna Anderson