{1-27-2014}

Today at 8:36 AM

Hello Everyone! 

 

This week was pretty good! We visited the family we baptized last week, and they were so happy! They told us that they have a peace in their home that they have never had before. I love seeing how the Gospel changes lives. Hopefully I will get to see this family sealed in the temple, they are really excited. They were also able to attend our other baptism this weekend. Along with the baptism we had a civil wedding! The cute little family that we baptized have been waiting a long time for their baptism. The Husband got in a motorcycle accident and really hurt his leg. Due to his injury he has not been able to work. They have a young daughter under the age of 1, and they live in this tiny house. The wife goes out everyday and collects bottles and trash to earn a little bit of money. It is really sad, but they stay positive. They also can't read, so we have been trying to teach them how. But they love the Gospel, and they attend every week. It is the coolest thing seeing the wife with her baby in arms walking to church every Sunday. We have the only member with a car in our ward pick up the husband because he can not walk, but sometimes he can't. Sandra (The wife) walks regardless, and seeing this just makes me so happy. They are amazing and are trying so hard to become better people and follow the commandments. Any ways they were so excited for their wedding finally (we had to wait till the ward raised enough money), and everything worked out. After we had the baptism service and the best part was there was a ton of people that attended. I absolutely loved seeing their smiling faces after being baptized. It was a really good day. Oh and Sunday we had 5 conformations which took most of sacrament, but it was really neat. And we had 5 new investigators attend church! It is amazing seeing how fast the Lord is hastening his work! and how he prepares each and everyone of His children. I love being apart of this work, and I LOVE being a missionary. It is really hard almost everyday, but the most rewarding thing. I love you all, and miss you soo much! Hopefully I will get to tell you about our next 2 baptisms next week! Take care!

P.S. I believe you can Google earth this... Laurelty Capitial Paraguay. I think it is our town! 

P.S.S. I almost ate a fly that was cooked in our chicken last night... grosss...! Oh and I found a baby lizard in our house last night! and we had a huge toad try and come in our house last night as well. Luckily the smallest missionary in our house has no fear and smacked him out with a broom! Pretty funny! 

Another Week!

Jan 20 at 10:54 AM

Well I want to start off by telling you a scary story... It all happened last Monday... we were walking to an appointment on our river bed of a road and down yonder we see this man. Now this was no ordinary man, this was a great BIG man. A man with very dark skin and dreads that came past his shoulders. This is not all, he was covered with plants and dirt, not to mention barely had any clothes on. He came closer and closer and started speaking some language to me which I was not familiar with. I looked around and my companion had ran across the street and was a distance in front of me. I was really afraid and simply just said chao and walked faster. Then when I finally caught up to my companion we hid in a despensa until the scary Cain looking man went away. phew...

Okay I have another cool short story! There is this man that we have been visiting this week. He is a recent convert, and is about 75 years old. The best part is that he has over 34 kids... Don´t ask me how many wives. But he has the cutest old man laugh and absolutely loves the missionaries. He tells us that he needs to work all day long to live longer. I guess his mother lived to be 110 this way. What ever floats your boat right? 

This week I was kinda sick, which sucked. But there was one day when I could not get out of bed, and our sweet district leader decided to come by and see if I needed a blessing. Well they ended up ringing our doorbell like 30 times, but I was out like a rock and didn´t hear a thing. I am happy to say that I feel great now, unfortunately my companion was throwing up this morning. Must be some bug going around. 

Speaking of our district leader and his companion... well they think my sister is hot... yeah... and they want to write her. Curse her beauty, haha. But it is all cool, they are really good missionaries and they were able to BAPTIZE OUR INVESTIGATORS yesterday!!!!!! 

So yeah... We baptized a family yesterday! Due to some complexities we had a baptism on Sunday. But it was such an amazing baptism!!!! The family was so happy and the Spirit was so strong! I love being able to see the Gospel change peoples lives!!! We had a ton of members there, which was really cool too. We took lots of pictures and ate lots of food! Baptisms are my most favorite things, and this Saturday we have 2 more!!! and the weekend after 3 more!!! My companion and I have been so blessed and guided by the spirit! Heavenly Father really does love His children, and prepares them to hear this Gospel! I love it!!! Oh and p.s. Our district leaders promised to buy us ice cream and brownies if we baptize 6 people this change... I love ice cream and brownies. 

Oh, this morning we had yet another lesson with Hermana McMullin. She says she loves teaching with us, and today the spirit was super strong. It is amazing to see how the Gospel is the same everywhere, and even though we are all from different places, speak different languages, and are different ages, the Gospel is the same. The best part is that with the guidance of the Spirit the lesson touches the hearts of who we are teaching specifically for them. I love this work, and I am so glad to be apart of it. And I am so blessed to have wonderful people in my life to be my examples and enjoy this blessing with me. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week. 

Love, Hermana Sanders

 

Aloha!

ALOHA! Just kidding...

Okay... so this week was pretty awesome! I got this new skirt from a member here and the ward, and it looks like a Hawaiian skirt, in fact I am wearing it right now. Anyways I was wearing it last week and the member who was feeding us lunch that day totally spilt juice all over me, it was pretty funny and refreshing! And yes it is still in the 100s everyday! 

Okay so I have a funny story to tell you guys, but first I need to explain something. Here EVERYONE kisses everybody on the cheeks. But the Hermanas are only allowed to give kisses to women, clearly. So everyday I get slobbery kisses from cute old grandmas, it is great... So one night we were contacting a reference and this little boy about 13 years old came up to me and tried to kiss my cheeks! My companion freaked out and told him that we were not allowed to kiss boys! Anyways I think he was really embarrassed and would not come listen to our message. 

This week we were also very blessed to study with Hermana McMullin!

 

They are starting a new thing where they want to study with the missionaries and see how their companionship studies are going. And for some reason she chose us to be the first ones. It was really good, and I absolutely love Hermana McMullin, she is the sweetest! And hopefully next Monday she will be able to accompany us again to her reference. 

Ooh... gross story now!!! One day we were at a members house, and usually this lady's food is pretty good. It started off with soup and mandioca... then bread... then what looked to me a sort of cinnamon roll pastry. Well it was not a pastry. Turns out it was pig skin (I would say maybe one forth of an inch thick), with an inch and a half of fat, and more shredded meat. It was disgusting. Lets just say that our tummies were not happy after that. And apparently people really like this? 

Oh on the 10 I hit my 3 months on the mission!!!! Wow! And this week I am happy to announce that we have 4 more baptisms and the week after 2 more! I love the people here, and their desire to change!!! I am really excited, and I absolutely love being a missionary!! Oh and one more experience that I want to share with you guys, the other day my comp. was having a really hard time and I really wanted to help her feel better. Well I remembered that my best friends had sent me some scriptures and a poem last week, and I decided to translate it to my comp. Well It was exactly what she needed. I know that Our Heavenly Father sends angles in our lives, and I am so blessed to have people in my life that is in tune with the Spirit who are able to help out people they don't even know. I love this Gospel! And I love my family and friends! Thank you all for the love and support! I hope you all have a great week, and I cant wait to hear from you. 

Love, Hermana Sanders

{1~06~2014}

 

Hmm... Lets see... We got 3 new missionaries here in our area! We got 2 more Elders, one from Arizona and one from Nevada. the elder from Arizona is our new district leader and he is only 18! It is kinda weird having a leader who is younger than I, but they are both great! Oh and the Elder from Nevada is Amazing at volleyball supposedly, so some time we have to test this out. the new hermana is from Ecuador. And all four of us sisters live in the house, which is kinda squishy. But for New years eve we all went to our investigators house, all 6 of us missionaries. It was really fun, but we all went home around 10:30, even though we were allowed to stay out till 11:30. to be honest I was afraid of all the drunk people, and out investigator was nice enough to drive us home. And that was pretty much our new years.

Oh we finally got AC in our house, and it feels great! I can finally sleep! Oh and it has been a lot cooler these past few days, such a blessing! Oh something awesome that is going to be happening today is... We get to teach with hermana McMullin today with her reference. It is a little strange, because we live some what far from Asuncion, but I am really excited! She is really awesome.

So we got to work in our new area this week, and we have a ton of new investigators, and if all things work out we might have 6 or more baptisms this month! But other than that everything is going great! Oh, and I want to tell you guys a hilarious joke that I heard in one of my district meetings.  okay... ready? there was this new Elder, and we was just a greenie, learning a new language and all. His trainer told him that it was his turn to share a thought with their investigators. the Elder  was really nervous, and flipped to a scripture about obedience. He wanted to read  1 Nephi 3: 7-8 (read now). He accidentally read 3 Nephi 3: 7-8 (read now). haha I am sure that the family and his trainer were either thinking he was crazy, or laughing their heads off!!!

Any ways I love you all, and I hope you have a great week! you are in my prayers!

Love, Hermana Sanders