ULTIMO. CAMBIO.                                                                                                                    Wooow. That is weird. I am starting my last transfer of my mission today!!!! It's hard to wrap my head around, and usually I'd just rather not think about it. But everyone keeps telling me I have no time left and asking me how I feel. SO I have to confront it. I feel great. Happy, tired, sometimes really excited to go home, sometimes really sad. But I am just doing my best here with my lovely companion, working til the end!

We are staying here in Tolhuaca 2 together. And we are not getting a 3rd companion! Yay! It would have been interesting... But I thiiiiink I've had enough of ''interesting'' in my mission. Happy to just finish out strong with my great companion. We are busy and happy! Sadly we still don't have investigators progressing, going to church, preparing for baptism... But we have been finding and teaching a lot more which are the first steps to having people progressing and getting baptized. We are doing our best and praying for miracles!! We want so badly to help someone be baptized; to develop more faith in Jesus Christ and make covenants with Him. I especially would love to see another baptism before I go home! But we will see what the Lord has in store for us these next 6 weeks. We are just going to keep doing our very best and trust in Him. :) We'll help however we can.

We live behind a family, in our new house that we're in. And this family has a dog. Her name is Renata. She's pretty cute, we like her and everything. But lately, she has taken to following us. EVERYWHERE. In the mornings when we go running, when we go to teaching appointments, when we knock doors, everywhere. It was cute at first but now we're kinda annoyed! She's a pretty house dog and all the street dogs bark and follow her wherever she goes! And they are scary. And then we get stuck in the middle of them because she gets scared and hides behind us, basically putting us in front of the scary dogs. Soo, that's not so cool. She waits for us outside of houses while we're teaching and does not go home! She also likes to sit on the door step when we knock doors. Haha. It's ridiculous! We gotta get her to stay home. Crazy dog!

GENERAL CONFERENCE is next weekend!!! April 6th and 7th and I am so excited. I hope you all watch it!!!

This week I wanted to share about Charity and Love. Attributes that are hard to develop, but so very important. When asked which of all the commandments is the greatest, Christ replied ''Love the Lord God, and love thy neighbor'' (Matthew 22:37-39). I have learned so much about charity, which is the pure love of Christ. We should all try to develop this kind of love for others. For everyone, even people we don't like that much. In the Book of Mormon, there is a beautiful scripture that helps me a lot. It says: ''Cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail- But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him. Wherefore, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love'' (Moroni 7:46-48). I know that as we pray and ask for help, Heavenly Father will help us! He wants us to be better people, He wants us to love and serve those around us. I have found great happiness as I have tried to be better, love fully, serve selflessly. I know He loves us more than we can possibly imagine. And whether or not we recognize that love, we can make a difference in the lives of others by loving and serving them.

I love you all sooo much! Have a fabulous week!  :)                                                                               

  Hermana Anderton              me with some ducks on the side of the road in victoria. :)

    

                                   at the mission activity: the champion volleyball team. we won 4 times in a row!

                                        mi hija and i our first night in tolhuaca!          

Great week

Heyy!!

 

This was a goood week. The best we've had so far here in Tolhuaca. We have some investigators that have been progressing and are starting to feel organized and everything. We moved into our house last Monday night. We had to clean a LOT but now it is looking great. And the Elders from the office brought us spankin new mattresses, the other ones were killing us, I think they were more spring than cushion! We made a great map and put the names of members, less actives, investigators, recent converts, former investigators.. everyone so that way when we do our daily planning it's easy to see where we can go for backup plans and everything. So yep, finally we are all organized and are working well.

 

Today we are in TEMUCO!!!! We decided to explore a little. It is super weird being in my first sector again! I left Caupolican a YEAR ago. Suuuper weird. We aren't doing anything too exciting, we're just at the mall and enjoying a change of scenery. Next month, we will come back down and I will get to say bye to my converts here (Domitila and Dalila) and visit a couple of the members too. Super weird. But it will be awesome to get to do that.  :)

 

It is a small Mormon world, as we all know... This week, we found out that Hermana Ferrell knows Drew Starr and Cole Turner. They lived in the same apartment complex! Suuper weird. She like hung out with them sometimes too, and when she got her mission call apparently Drew was all excited because I'm here. So Drew, if you're reading this, I am training Morgan Ferrell haha. :)

She is great I love her. Transfers are already coming up! Next week. We are about 100% sure we're staying here together, it would just be so crazy if they changed us after opening a sector and training and only having a 4-week cambio to do it. Still, ya never know. The one thing that might happen is that they might give us a third companion.. another new one. Ie: another new one for me to train. And we would be a trio. THAT would be interesting! We shall see. We decided that if we get another one, we are making her run with us in the mornings.  ;)

 

So. Our investigators! We put a fecha with this lady named Rosa. She is a little older (well not THAT old, 66...) but she seems older. She is kinda sick and can't really leave the house that much because she has problems with her legs. But she believes completely in God and wants to do His will. She has always wondered why there are so many churches. We taught her about the Restoration and she says she wants to know if it is true, and that she will get baptized if she gets her answer. She has a fecha tentatively for April 13th. We were really excited but when we went back Saturday she said that her pastor came over and told her she didn't need to go to church beacuse ''she already has a church'' and she doesn't need to be going around to lots of different churches. It was really lame. We tried to help her see that she needs to go to our church if she wants to get to know it and get an answer that it is true. But she was really stubborn. :(  Darn it. We had a family from the Branch that was willing to pick her up for church in their car and everything...

 

Next is Sigrid! Cute girl, weird name. She is 17 and we met her the other week. Went back to see her Friday and she didn't have much time but she let us in. She believes in God but doesn't go to any church. She doesn't like churches because they are all different and fight against each other and it is confusing. We taught her a bit about the Restoration, about how the church of Christ was lost but has been restored. She said, ''I believe that what you're telling me is the truth.'' I asked her why she believed that and she said, ''I don't know, I feel it.''  SOOOO that was great!!! We are going to see her Tuesday and it is gonna be awesome. :)

 

Well, those are the big noticias (news) here this past week. We are happy, working hard, running, laughing, and hopefully soon we will be baptizing. :)

 

I love this gospel. I know it is true, and I know that God loves us so much. He only wants us to be happy, now and forever, and through the sacrifice of His son Jesus Christ and through living the Gospel, that end can be achieved.  :)

 

Love you all, have a great week!!!

Hermanita Anderton :)

8

Hey!! Okay sorry, I don't have a lot of time!

This week was pretty good... We knocked too many doors. Like quite literally, the entire day Thursday and Friday. And we only got into one house in those two whole days!!! it was lame. There are sometimes when knocking is good and we find new investigators that way. But we know there is a better way to find people, and that is working with the members. We got a few members to go out with us this week and got some references from them too. References are people they know who might be interested in hearing about the Gospel. Soo we are going to work a lot more with them this week to have our work be more effective! 

I was sick this week, too, which was lame. After being so excited to go running every day! Ha! We ran one day and then I got sick. Just a cold, nothing serious, but it lasted a few days. I am better now and we are taking up the running again. :)

Soo, this sector, Tolhuaca 2. Lemme just give y'all the scoop on this poor sector. There was a cambio January 15th, right? So everything was normal and the Elders were here working. Until like 4 weeks into the cambio, when something happened with one of the Elders and he had to go home. So, his companion was left alone, so he worked in a trio with Elders in other sectors for like a week or so. Then, for the last week of the cambio, he came back here and got a new companion. They worked together for one week in the sector and then they both left, and that is where Hermana Ferrell and I come in. The Area Book is a disaster. There is like, no information on their recent converts that we are supposed to be visiting, they DON'T have a map, something they have been stressing so much in the mission the past like 5 months! It is all just crazy. We also divided the sector again.. There are 4 of us Hermanas here in the ward (branch) of Tolhuaca. They had it divided another way with the Elders before but Hermana Soldan who was here last cambio too said it wasn't divided well so we did it again. And now we have to re-organize a lot of things. SOO... we are doing the best we can (basically I am doing what I can, cause Hermana Ferrell is brand new and doesn't know what to do) to organize all of this nonsense to be able to work well and efficiently here. We just want to work and find the people who are searching for the gospel! Is that so much to ask? But I guess Heavenly Father thought that I could handle doing this while training a new missionary, so I hope to not let Him down. Good thing Hermana Ferrell is so great, if not, I think I would die!

I'm sorry this is so short, but I am out of time! Love you ALL, have a fabulous week!!!

Mucho amor,

Hermana Danielle Anderton

''Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the son of God. I have been called of Him to declare His word among His people, that they might have everlasting life.''  -3 Nephi 5:13.

I love being a missionary. :)

9

Heyyy!

So, not much has changed seeing as it's only been 3 days since I last wrote. But they've been a really good 3 days! Saturday we got to work all day, which was awesome haha it was my first time in like 2 months! How weird. But it was great. We did a lot of knocking doors and street contacts, we're in the process of trying to find new investigators. We found this AWESOME young family knocking! Nicolas, Isabel, and their 5 day old baby! We just got to know them a bit, talked about our purpose as missionaries, and testified of the Savior and His gospel- didn't even teach them that much but Isabel was totally CRYING she completely felt the Spirit! I asked her how she felt and she said peace, full, and happiness. It was awesome. We have an appointment with them Wednesday so we are super excited about that.  :)  

The people here in Victoria are way nice. Like,  noticeably nicer than they have been in I think any other sector in my mission. So that's fun. Makes life better for us! Also I love the water here. We haven't been running yet but tomorrow we are going to start! And no, they haven't cleaned the house up yet.  :(  Ugh. But we are okay in the other house with the Hermanas. It's kinda small for 4 but it's all good. I told Hermana Ferrell the other day, ''Sorry for not warning you, but the fact that you're my companion means that we're probably gonna have lots of inconveniences, because my whole mission seems to have been like that.'' Haha. So we are patiently (but anxiously) waiting for our casa and doing the best we can till then.

I was going to send a few pictures, buuutt I forgot my camera at home. Darn it. NEXT week I will send some so you can see my lovely daughter and all the other fun things I've been up to!

I got lots of emails from friends and family today, and I just want to thank everyone! I love you all so much and it means a lot to me to hear from you. Makes me happy.  :) 

Well, that's about it for this week. Told you there wasn't too much to write about. We already have a few members that are going to come out to work with us this week so that should be great. Love you all tons! Be good! ;)

Hermana Danielle Anderton

PS. I hate pulgas.

    180   degrees                                                                                                                                                                                              Wellllll hello. Wow. So much has changed in the past almost 2 weeks. Don't even know where to start.

1. Hermana Zapata went home Monday. The last week was absolutely horrible. Her sickness went from bad to way worse. We went to the emergency room all day Friday when she passed out and started having convulsions. Passed out Thursday night too. At the clinic, they did a CAT scan and blood tests, and everything was normal. She had convulsions and loss of consciousness about 3 or 4 times Friday. Friday night in the middle of the night she passed out again, was seeing people, Saturday had I'm not kidding, convulsions 12 times and yes it was traumatic. President Martinez came Saturday and picked us up. We had about 30 minutes to pack all our stuff, both of us. We both left Independencia. We stayed at the mission home Saturday-Monday and Hermana Zapata went home Mon. It was awful. The past 2 months have just been... So hard. So, so hard. Sunday I ended up making myself sick with a migraine and stomach ache that wouldn't go away with any meds or food or sleep. Monday I felt sick too but am doing better now. They are attributing everything with Hermana Zapata's sickness to anxiety. She just missed home too much, the mission wasn't what she expected it to be, and as much as she tried she just couldn't get accustomed here. :( It breaks my heart but I know I did all I could. One nice thing was that I got to be with Hermana Barbosa her last night (Monday night) and got to take her to the airport Tuesday with the Asistants because she finished her mission!! So that was a little blessing to be able to be with her and feel peace and relax a little after everything.

2. I left Independencia and now I am in Tolhuaca in the little town of Victoria. In the south!! I am so happy, that's what I was hoping for. I am also training again. So, that means I am opening the area AND training this time. In Tolhuaca, there were 2 Hermanas and 2 Elders. But we kicked out the Elders so now we're 4 Hermanas. :) My hija is Hermana Ferrell, from Utah. She is really great. She is one of the first sister missionaries to start the mission at 19!! She's 20 now, she had her birthday in the MTC. But she is awesome. She has wanted to serve a mission her whole life and so she put in her mission papers 48 hours after the Prophet made the announcement that girls can leave at 19 haha. She is full of energy and faith and has just a great Spirit and attitude. She is ready to work and to give her whole heart to the Lord and these people here. We haven't been able to work too much just yet, but tomorrow we will and it is going to be a great day. :) Another great thing about her- the day I picked her up, I asked her what she liked to do for exercise. And she said, ''Everything. The more the better.'' I was like ohhhhh I love you!!! So, we are going to run every day. :) That makes me VERY happy, you have no idea. :D We have a couple issues here in the sector (like the part where we don't have a house) but we are working on it and it's all gonna be fine.

I feel kind of a lot of pressure right now. With the things that are required of me... And with comments people have been making, it seems they have high hopes/expectations of me. Sometimes I worry that I will dissappoint. But I am trying to remember that I can't do anything alone, so if they are hoping for miracles from me, they're gonna be dissappointed. HOWEVER, if I trust in God, we can work miracles in the lives of His children here in Tolhuaca. So I am doing my best to remember that He has it all in control, even if I don't feel like I do. :)

Last week, in my scripture study, I found something really great. Talking about the life of the Savior, ''And he received not of the fulness at first, but continued from grace to grace, until he received a fulness; and thus he was called the Son of God, because he received not of the fulness at the first... If you keep my commandments you shall receive of His fulness, and be glorified in me as I am in the Father; therefore, I say unto you, you shall receive grace for grace'' (Doctrine and Covenants 93:13-14, 20). I loved this because it teaches us that even Jesus Christ, the only perfect person to ever walk the earth, didn't understand or know the fulness of all things at first. Additionally, it says that his not having a fulness at first qualified Him to be called the Son of God. WE are all children of God, and a part of being children of God means that we don't know everything at first but that we progress! If we keep the commandments of God, He will bless us so much. He will bless us to be able to grow and improve in every way in our lives. I read an African proverb today. It says simply, ''Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.'' I can testify of that. I know that we need trials in our lives to be able to improve. And as we trust in God, He will help us. I am grateful for the trials and experiences I have been given. I know that I have grown so much, and am grateful for that and for the experiences I will yet have.

I know God lives, and that He loves us! Have a great weekend, I'll be writing again on Monday. :)

Love y'all.

Hermana Anderton