Wednesday, December 16, 2015

"hello baby" (December 14, 2015)

with the hnas of san nicolas
the bus driver now greets us with "hello baby" ðŸ˜¬
so wow another week down! and what a crazy week it was!
on monday we went to san nicolas centro to help out the sisters. one of them is super sick and hasnt been able to work so we went and had divisions. we got back on tuesday night. wednesday i got sick....and then we worked thursdayfriday, and on saturday we had a baptism!!! :) then sundayi got sick again haha
but yeah thats basically what happened. silvia and miguel have slowed down their progression. miguel says hes gotten his answer but silvia still hasnt. its been a while now and she even admits maybe shes gotten the answer but hasnt seen it...well we explained a little bit more on prayer and answers..(i cant even count how many times weve gone over that with her :( ) but this time my comp hna lopez (shes a boss) shares her experience in how she got her prayer answered! she said silvia would have to start living the gospel in order to get her answer. sometimes we forget what an important part this is in getting prayers answered. sometimes we just expect the answer to come and we dont change anything while we wait...but hna lopez shared that we need to repent and start living with more obedience to recieve our answers (see 1 nefi 15:11) so we felt the spirit really strong and so did silvia. so we will see where that goes!
 monica! shes the one whos house was a disaster than she read the book of mormon and felt super good and put her house in order? well we were walking in the park and ran into her and her kids. we sat down on a bench to chat and her kids were saying "we want to be mormon, can we be baptized?" and so did monica haha we told them well if you want to be baptized you have to come to church! well they slept in this week...but theres always next week. the good thing is they have the desire! so that was exciting! monica and i get along pretty well, she kind of has a rough around the edges personality (tessea, you can atest to that) haha but shes slowly opening up and softening her heart. she knows alot and is excited for her baptismal date she just has to come to church! haha
 other than that we didnt have the chance to see anyone else :(
the baptism

oh so the baptism! a 8 year old boy named boris was baptised and confirmed this weekend! his family is less active but theyve been coming weekly for 4 weeks now! they are paying their tithing and everything! so weve been visiting them and this week boris was baptized! sorry i didnt write about him earlier haha!

so funny thought! a few weeks ago hna nelson and i helped an old man weed his front sidewalk. he has mental incapabilities...well this week hna lopez and i ran into him 2 (twice)! the second time we saw him we chatted for a bit and he told me they he had fallen in love with me....soo we wont be stopping and chatting with him again ðŸ˜¶hahaha
spiritual...
well this week was crazy. a few things have happened and i needed to make a few big decisions. it was taking a long time to get a straight answer to my prayers and i was getting kind of frustrated and distressed...well this week i did alot of studying on prayer. there are three types of answers we could get, 1. the calm affirmative positive feelings or thoughts 2. a stupor of thought, confusion negative. or 3. nothing.. if you feel nothing it means that God trusts that you can make the decision. 
after church with hna lopez, and a girl named pia...
the little boy behind is named teo...
well i was feeling #3 for like 3 days and i was still wanting a concrete aswer. so i started praying harder but also making the decision. after i made it i felt #2. which means i needed to change my course. whats comforting is that God will always guide us when we trust in him. if we are looking for his counsel and are sincere in following the answer, he will never lead us astray. so i want everyone to ask themselves one question. "when was the last time i recieved an answer to my prayers?" think about it and i promise you will feel happy remembering when God spoke to you. if you cant remember the last time, i suggest you ask Him a simple yes or no answer and stay on your knees till you get the answer. He always answers prayers. it is just up to us how we recieve the answer. :)
well i love you all so much!😚 and i cant wait for CHRISTMAS. its gonna be great. love you all!
xoxoxo
hna sanders 
 
me in front of the capilla



Thursday, December 10, 2015

"explaining casseroles to latinas" and "mi boliviana" (December 7, 2015)

eating our first meal together
made by yours truly
so my new companion is hna lopez from bolivia! she just had a week in the mtc so she is brand new brand new but already such a wonderful missionary! she is a convert of 4 years. she joined when she turned 16. she truly is so cool and nice!
well i didnt have much time to work in my area this week becuase i was in san nicolas for so long then i picked up the newbie and we arrived wednesday at 10 pm! haha so its been crazy but here are a few new people weve recently found!
getting my new companion!
the first one is named carmen! we first met her knocking doors. she answered and she doesnt have an arm! she told us she was in an accident 7 years ago and lost her arm, well we testified of the restoration and the resurreccion and how thanks to jesucristo we will have perofect bodies in the resurrection. she felt the spirit and now is reading and praying. we just met her but she is really great!
a cool thing that happened this week is that we were on our way back from rosario, waiting in the bus terminal with everyone and we were just sitting...i noticed a lady sitting near by and we made eye contact she signaled to me to come over..then she started trying to communicate with me but she was deaf..so i started signing to her and we had a whole conversation in sign language!! i told her how we were missionaries and why we serve missions, i shared a little bit about the restoration and gave her a pamphlet! who knew that after 2 years of slacking off in sign language class that it would come in handy in argentina!! the lord was defintly helping me becuase i barely remember more than half the signs i used. she lives outside of the mission but i gave her number to the office elders to pass along to her! but wow wasnt that cool?
summer has started so it
means huge spiders.
 
it was a tesimony to me that the lord has wisdom in all things. he used the tiny knowledge i had of ASL and used it to help this lady learn about the gospel!
also a fun story! yesturday we were waiting for the bus to go to church. we were sitting on the curb when a moto with 3 chicos drove by..they turned around and stopped to talk to us (in my mind i was praying they would just turn away because sunday mornings are when all the drunk people are returning home from the clubs.) well they stopped and started talking to us. in these situations ive learned its just better to share the gospel and not ignore them...when theres no control in the situation of course. well i told them we were missionaries (my poor newbie was just sitting there feeling super awkward poor thing) well these chicos proceeded to say all kinds of things and i handed one of them a pamphlet of the gospel of jesus christ...this boy then apologized to us and said sorry for the disrespect, put the pamphlet in a safe place and then apologized for his freinds. he said he would read and thank you! hahaha so thats nice too! who knows maybe in the future he'll take the missionary lessons!
bolivian food!
(our lives revolve around food)
that just shows the importance of talking to everyone about the gospel. in super awkward situations like that it could either be a disaster or something that changes a life. who knows whatll happen but at least now he has a pamphlet and said sorry for being disrespetful.
spiritualthought!
this week ive been studing a ton about prayer. theres a talk by richard g. scott called the supernal gift of prayer. you should all read it but it talks about how we should pray and how to receive answers! basically we should prepare ourselves for the communication we are about to have with god. and then express our thoughts and feelings. we should pray to know the will of god and do it. there is a quote i read one time that said when you pray, dont be afraid to change. so lets do that this week. ask god how we can improve our lives, and do it!
love you all so much!
also the title is because i tried explaining what a casserole was to my new compy and it took like 8 times to explain it hahaha. i tried explaining tater tot casserole, the breakfast casserole mom makes and etc, haha
so far training is super fun! especailly when your comp is a boss like hna lopez!! haha well till next week! i love you all and i hope you have a great week!!
xoxoxo
hna sanders


Thursday, December 3, 2015

"ol St. Nick" (December 1, 2015)

well ill be in the zone san nicolas for christmas! how appropriate!! haha
so here are a few things that have happened this week.

saying bye to hna nelson!
my beloved companion hna nelson finished the mission and is now currently on the plane ride back to the USA. we had one of the best transfers so its kind of sad but this next transfer ill be training! tomorrow ill be picking up the newbie! so youll get pictures next week! itll be super fun!
so happy late thanksgiving everyone! for our thanksgiving we made deviled eggs! and ate flan for our dessert! we also made lemon pie and the sisters from centro were here so they shared it with us! thanks mom for sending me the recipe! its hit! haha
well not much happened this weeks in terms of the work because we had to travel again!! 
but we did find a lot of new people to teach! monica and silvia and miguel are good, neither came to church this week so we need to start looking for news. but i love contacting its always fun knocking on doors and meeting new people. you never know whos gonna answer!

my mission president is the one on the ground! hahaha
well one cool thing that happened was on friday the whole zone went to the mission home to have a special pday! we played volleyball, basketball (speed), balloon popping game, and then we made lunch, (chorizos) and after we ate we played relay races and to finish it up we played tug of war!! it was so fun! president zanni was getting so into it and when we played he like, grabbed the grass and pulled his whole team to victory!! hes such a boss. hahaha well after all the fun and games we showered and watched ephraims rescue which is a movie about a guy who has the gift of healing! his whole life prepared him to help the martin handcart company when they were crossing the plains and got stuck in the snow! well it was super wonderful! and a nice relaxing day!
so heres a cool story ill share. hna nelson and i were visiting a less active and she was going through alot of hard things! we didnt really know what to share with her so we asked her what her favorite song was. we sang "el amor de dios" which talks about the love of god. its page 57 in the spanish hymnbook. well after that we shared 1 nefi 21:16 which talks about how we are engraven in the lords palms. turns out it was page 57 in the spanish scriptures! little things like that are just little miracles to me. its crazy how god is so mindful of everyone. and he truly knows and loves us. i know he misses each one of us and longs for us to return to live with him. well i wish i could share more but theres a baby screaming bloody mary in this ciber and i cant even hear my own thoughts! haha poor thing. anyways, i hope you all have a great week and look for little miracles that god always gives us! love you all!

xoxo
hna sanders

san nicolas during siesta. they have cobblestone streets here!
its a beautiful city!
in san nicolas centro with the hnas bushman and cabrera