Week Four

Hola!

The weeks seriously FLY by here. The days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days... Really. It's crazy. At least for me. Maybe it seems longer for you. But the weeks are the shortest ever! This week was another good one. Thanksgiving! It was soo fun. We got the day "off," so to speak. On a normal day we have 6 hours of class, an hour of personal study, an hour of language study, and another hour of TALL which is computer study to help with spanish. The times change around but that is more or less what it's like. Plus 45 minutes 3 times a day for meals, and 50 minutes for gym. And 0 minutes to get ready. Hah. Well we actually get 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes after gym. But really that is nothing. So anyway for Thanksgiving we didn't have class or any of that stuff. We had a devotional and Elder Russell M. Nelson (one of the 12 apostles) came and spoke to us. It was awesome. (Last Tuesday, D. Todd Christofferson, another of the 12, came! He was soo good). So we went to that devotional and then we had a huge turkey Thanksgiving lunch. Dad, I brought the turkey napkins you sent me and they were a hit!!! I had enough for almost my whole zone, and everyone tucked them in their shirt collars while we ate lunch. Haha, it was the best. The other missionaries were jealous, for sure. Thanks for the package! I love the healthy snacks for between meals. Yummy. So also on T-day, we did a service project! Before the project though we had another devotional thing, and the guy who is in charge of the humanitarian program for the Church spoke to us. It was sooo neat to see how active the Church is in helping people around the world, cause that's not something we hear about often. He told us that since 1985, the Church has spent $1.4 billion in humanitarian aid around the world, in 178 different countries! LDS, non-LDS, helping with clean water, sanitation, neo-natal care, and natural disasters, just to name a few. What we did for our project was assemble some 8,000 first aid kits that will be sent to South Sudan. It was great to get to help out. We saw videos of some of the projects the church has done recently, like with the earthquake in Concepcion where I'm going! And also Hurricane Katrina. Some guy who lived there who wasn't LDS was interviewed and he said that everyone was flying over them in helicopters, but no one was actually down helping them. Except for...you guessed it, the Mormons! Yay! They said the clean-up is almost done in Concepcion but hopefully I still have some opportunites to help.

I am sad I missed Black Friday!! First one in 4 years I think :( Mom I'm glad you had fun haha! What hours did you work? See any crazies? Annie I sure hope you went without me this year. Okay so anyway, something cool I learned this week was that last year there were 52,000 missionaries in the world. And they expected it to be about the same for awhile. But as of January 2012, there will be 56,000!! Up by 4,000!! Woo hoo! I love it. ALSO we found out on Sunday that right now in the MTC there are 480 sister missionaries, the most the MTC has ever had at one time! Yeah girl power I love it! Haha. Oh. So in Relief Society here, we have it combined with all the Sisters at the MTC. And the MTC president's wife, Sister Brown, is the RS President. Well they have a convert spotlight every Sunday during RS and guess who's sharing her conversion story next Sunday, December 11th? Yep, me! We had a little interview to talk about my story yesterday, and she is going to have me share it with everyone next week :) I'm excited. And also a little nervous, I think 500 people will be the biggest crowd I've spoken in front of? I'm sure it'll be fine though. Mom, I will try to speak slowly :)

So I think I've mentioned, Hermana McKay is an opera major? She's soo good. And she can play piano super well too. She can play any hymn and can even accompany herself with any song she wants to sing. She inspires me. And also makes me jealous. I WISH I STAYED WITH PIANO! I am so bummed. Parents, make me take lessons when I get home. Seriously. I want to be able to play, so bad.

Oh so every Sunday in Sacrament meeting, which is just our zone (so about 30 missionaries plus the branch presidency and their wives, which is like the bishopric), we have two surprise talks by the missionaries. In Espanol. And seeing as there's lots of missionaries that were here before me, and who still haven't given their talks, I assumed I wouldn't be called on and therefore didn't prepare very much. Well, as soon as they started announcing the program, before they said who was speaking, I knew it was going to be me. And dang it, it was. Ha! Good thing I do okay with Spanish... I was able to sort of wing it. The talk was on Jesus Christ and I study Him every now and then :P So I was able to do okay. It is just a lesson though, to always be prepared!

I met a teacher here who's from Concepcion!!! I asked him about it and he said it's awesome. And I asked him about the people and they said they were good-looking. I was like oh yeah, cause as a missionary that's my first concern. Haha. It was funny. But he said the South mission is mostly country. Soooo yep, country here I come. I'm so excited. It still doesn't feel real that I'm going, but I'm so excited. The other Elders in my district that are going there too said the plane flight is like 18 hours. Oh please no. Mom if you wanna double check on that for me? That would be great. I probably won't get my flight plans until mid- December. But I'll let you know as soon as I do.

Okay so yes, I mentioned the sock bun last time. It is seriously the best thing EVER. I don't understand. It's a SOCK!! How, when i roll my hair up in it and sleep on it, can it possibly look like I spent 30 minutes curling my hair with a curling iron?? I do not understand. But I love it. It's especially great here cause like I said, I have no time. I just take a curling iron in the morning and fix a few pieces and voila! So that's awesome. Thanks to Michelle North who told me about it! Okay so Amber Harper! Thank you for writing me!!! I was wondering when I might hear from you. I'm glad you're doing great and can't wait to see you here soon!!!! I will write you back next Pday, okay? Also Brooke Carpenter, if you read this I am reminding you that you told me you were going to send me a dear elder every day. I haven't gotten any from you so far, missy. You owe me :) Scotty, write me. And if anyone can get me Cody Harder's mission home address, that would be awesome. I don't have it in my little address book. So, sad story, I love these twistable crayola colored pencils for marking my scriptures, and just before I left my red one was almost gone. Well, Ashleigh Moore, being led by the Spirit I'm sure, got me a brand new red one for my farewell! I swear she must have been inspired. Well my second week here an Elder wanted to borrow it so I tossed it to him and he didn't catch it and it broke!!! Soooo sad. So if Mom or anyone finds another one like it... That would make me so stoked for Christmas or something :) Just sayin.

Okay well I only have a minute left and I have to share a scripture with you! It is so great about missionary work, and here it is:

And now, these are the words of Ammon to his brethren, which say thus: My brothers and my brethren, how great reason have we to rejoice; for could we have supposed when we started from the land of Zarahemla that God would have granted unto us such great blessings? And now, I ask, what great blessings has he bestowed upon us? Can ye tell? Behold, I answer for you; for our brethren, the Lamanites, were in darkness, yea, even in the darkest abyss, but behold, how many of them are brought to behold the marvelous light of God! And this is the blessing which hath been bestowed upon us, that we have been made instruments in the hands of God to bring about this great work. Behold, thousands of them do rejoice, and have been brought into the fold of God. -Alma 26:1-4.

I testify that it is SUCH a blessing to be used to bring the Lord's gospel to the world! I am so grateful He would trust me with this.

And my time is up on the computer, love you all!!!!

xoxox
Hermana Danielle Anderton