Okay, lots to write about!! First things first.
1. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!
2. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNIE!!
3. HAPPY 9 MONTHS IN THE MISSION TO ME!!
I hope you guys have great birthdays, and I hope you get my letters soon. :)
I
can't believe I hit 9 months this week. CRAZY. It seriously goes so
fast. I love the mission. I have experienced and loved and learned and
changed so much, and I'm only half way! Excited to see what the next 9
1/2 months have in store. Woo! :)
cAmBiOs!! I am leaving Los Alamos. Finally. Haha.
No, I'm a little sad too. It's been a good 3 transfers here. I have
definitely grown a LOT here. I would say most of my change and growth as
a person has happened in my time here. From having baptismal dates and
them falling every week when our investigators didn't go to church, from
living through the trio and losing our house, moving into a new house
and the miracle baptism of Gustavo... 3rd cambio with Hermana Haycock
and everything that happened with her sickness... Traveling to
Concepcion 9 times this transfer and staying in the house all day every
day, serving in a branch with an average 30 people going... Loving,
laughing, serving, seeing myself change. And let's not forget the
absolute miracles that are Lorena and Alejandro. AND Daniela has a
baptismal date for August 25th. :) I won't be able to be here for it,
but I am so happy that the girl that reminds me so much of me is getting
baptized, and that I had the chance to teach her and her adorable
family. Oh, Los Alamos. It's been fun.
Now, for where I'm going! I am goinggg.. toooo!!!!
Villa Obispo in Los Angeles!!! I am OPENING an area with my friend
Hermana Shelton. Opening an area, for those who don't know, means there
were no missionaries there before and now there are. It can mean there
were none in the sector, or they both left, or in my case, there are
still 2 elders in the sector but we are now going to share it with them.
So we'll be in the same ward with the zone leaders. I have heard only
AMAZING things about Villa Obispo. First of all, President Martinez and
his family lived there. He was Bishop of this ward when he got called to
be mission president. So, he loves it a lot and the ward is all super
excited and loves missionary work. Yay!! Like literally 8 people have
told me how amazing this sector is. YES! After serving 3 cambios in Los
Alamos I think I'm going to be in heaven when I get to this ward. YES!
I'm a little nervous because I'm going to be senior companion and we
have to start from square one. We don't have any investigators, don't
know our way around, probably gonna have to move into a new house... But
it's okay! I like Hermana Shelton, I already know her. She's serving in
Concepcion right now and when we would travel up there for Hermana
Haycock's doctors visits sometimes we would stay the night with the
hermanas up there. I've actually done divisions (gone out and worked)
with her a few times. So I already know that she's a good missionary.
She is a good teacher and speaks Spanish well too. Yayyy. We are gonna
have a blast. OH, AND she's from California holllaaa!! And she will go
running with me. YES YES YES. Blessings all around, no? I am sure there
will be trials as well, there always are. But this cambio I feel so
blessed and I'm confident that it's gonna be awesome. :)
Hermana Haycock, for those who are concerned, still
is not feeling good. I frankly can't believe it, that she continues to
be in so much pain for so long. Well I mean, I believe her I know she's
not making it up. But it's just ridiculous. :( A doctor from Santiago
who is over all the missionaries in Chile has been in touch. He thought
it might be a parasite so she got meds for that. Well it was a 2 day
process with the meds, and the first day she felt better for a couple
hours. We were sooo happy, we thought that was it. But then by the night
time she was hurting again and the next day was the same, and now it's
just back to normal. So, really lame, looks like she doesn't have a
parasite EITHER. And get this... she is staying in Los Alamos, and she's
TRAINING a new missionary. Hahaha, oh my gosh. We don't understand it
at all. She can hardly go out and work and she is supposed to train.
Yeah, we don't know how or why. But President Martinez assured us that
he feels very strongly this is what she's supposed to do. So, the Lord
has something planned here. We shall see.
Today for P-day the zone came here to Los Alamos and
we hung out in the chapel. We played soccer!! Yaayyy I loved it! I am
getting better, I scored like 6 goals :) Playing with Elders. Yup. It
was fun. One Elder from Peru and another from Santiago were also
teaching me how to juggle and do cool things with the soccer ball.
After, we did this workout video called Insanity. Have you ever heard of
it? It's 40 minutes and.. well, they call it insanity for a reason. It
was killer. But I feel super good now. I haven't had such a good work
out in awhile, and it was so fun to play soccer outside in the sun. :)
I've been thinking alot lately about one of my favorite scriptures, and I'll close with this:
''The
Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent has wrought a mighty change in us, or in
our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil but to do good
continually.'' Mosiah 5:2
I love this scripture. President Martinez shared this in the
conference we had last week, about a personal change of heart. I really
feel like I am experiencing this right now. That I am changing, I am
becoming better. Truly my desires and dispositions and character have
changed. Don't worry, I'm still Danielle (well, Hermana Anderton). Just
better. :) I testify that the Lord can make more out of our lives than
we ever could. That as we trust in Him and follow His plan, the Spirit
will work in our hearts and make us better.
I love this Gospel. I know it is the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. He is our perfect example, Savior, Redeemer, and Friend. I
testify that He lives, and that He loves us. I love being a missionary. I
miss you, family and friends, truly I do. But I am so happy that I
still have 9 more months to serve here.
Pray for me this week, that I do okay opening a sector! And keep praying for my companion and great friend, Hermana Haycock.
Love you all. Have a great week.
Love and hugs,
Hermana Anderton
No comments:
Post a Comment