{Happy Week!!!}

 I LOVE TO SEE THE TEMPLE!!!

 

Apr 28 at 12:41 PM

Tuesday we went to the TEMPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If I could choose my most favorite place in the world it would definitely be the temple. Even though I am in a different country, every time I enter into a temple I feel as though I am at home. Well figures, because it is The House of the Lord, a mini heaven here on the earth. Right when you walk in a temple you just get hit with the Spirit. I was so happy and wishing it would never end. I am also proud to say that I understood everything in the temple Spanish wise. It is also true when people say you learn something new every time you enter in the temple. It made me so much more motivated to have all the people here in Paraguay feel the same joy and love that I feel in the temple. After our session we all had a testimony meeting where each of us had the chance to share our testimony. It was amazing. I am surrounded by amazing missionaries which such strong testimonies. It was probably THE MOST SPECIAL day on my mission.

 

Wednesday we went and taught a recent convert and her cousin who is investigating the church. They are 10 or 11. We were teaching about the restoration and we were sharing our testimonies. Lujan, who is the recent convert, asked us if she could bare her testimony as well. It was simple but powerful. I could not hold in a smile. I was probably smiling ear to ear as she told her cousin that she knew that Joseph Smith was a prophet. I can say this week was full of being spiritually fed by testimonies of others.

 

BOOK OF MORMON

We also taught our investigator Eleno this week. He is in 1 Nephi 5 as of last Wednesday. I started sharing parts of chapter 4 with him that I liked, and he ended up telling US the story! Wow! It is such a wonderful feeling when our investigators are progressing so well! I know that the feelings we feel are just a small sliver of how Our Heavenly Father feels when we are keeping His commandments. I am so blessed to be able to experience these feelings every day on my mission.

Sunday was also another great day. We had 15 less active people in sacrament, which consisted of 4 families! I love seeing all the families sitting together in church! The best part was our investigator Sergio came with all his family! My companion was so excited when she saw them enter she started whacking my arm to death! It was pretty exciting!

Last but not least, I have some exciting news! I will be able to Skype my mama between the dates of May 5 to May 11!!!! YAY!!!! So I will get to see your beautiful faces soon! I LOVE YOU ALL!!! Thank you for the prayers and support. Have a wonderful week!

Love, Hermana Sanders

{Holy Week}

Dear Loved Ones,

This week has been amazing!!!! So I got 2 huge packages from the BEST MOM IN THE WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD!!!! It made my whole day! I got all these ADORABLE clothes, and unfortunately some extra unwanted attention, haha. I still have the best mom ever.

This week we got to teach this 15 year old boy who's Mom is inactive. I believe I mentioned him last week. Well, we absolutely love teaching him. He was reading the Book of Mormon before we even taught him. He just gets everything, and loves learning more. He also is a really good artist, so we asked him if he would draw the scripture stories that he reads to verify if he is reading. We also put a baptism date on him today, and it so happens to fall on his birthday. To our surprise he was actually really excited to have a baptism on his birthday. He is such an amazing youth, who already has such a strong testimony. He  is a really good example and motivation for his mom to go back to church as well.

{Sister Dunagan's Birthday}

Speaking of birthdays, Thursday was my companions birthday. Well I was really excited and told all of our investigators and members earlier in the week. It also happened to be on the last supper here in Paraguay, soooo.... we ate a lot of food! All of the members made the day super special for her, and we even ate 2 cakes!!! Well we ended up bringing home 2 cakes. I have not eaten so much food in a long time... we all went home feeling sick! But it was really neat to see the love the people have for my companion!

Friday we had divisions with the sister leader trainers. It was amazing. I love going on divisions and coming out a better missionary. I learned how to further my language and also be a better trainer. I love being pushed to become better, and I always feel more motivated after. Not to mention how awesome the sister leader trainers make you feel. 

Overall this week was really good. I hope everyone had a good Easter, and enjoyed time with their families. I was definitely thinking of mine this week, and all the blessings we have being members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I know that Our Savior lives, and that he will return again. I know that through Him all things are possible, and we can feel a love that we have never felt before. I am so grateful for this knowledge and the opportunity to reflect on the Resurrection of Our Salvador this weekend. I love you all!

{Sister Missionary Clothes}

Before Sierra left on her mission, finding skirts and shirts for her to take was somewhat difficult. Fortunately though, we live in UTAH and are blessed to have great stores who sell modest clothing that that meets sister missionary standards & requirements.  

Sierra has been out 6 months now and some of her shirts and skirts are wearing out probably because she is washing everything by hand!  I found some cute shirts and skirts at DOWNEAST BASICS that I thought I would share to help any other sister missionary who might be interested and looking!!!  DOWNEAST also has a Sister Missionary package deal where if you buy a certain number of skirts and shirts, you basically get several free.  I think it ended up being 20% off of each item.  {something like that...be sure to ask about their sister missionary discount}  Currently DOWNEAST is having a spring sale right now 20% any order online or buy one get one 50% off in stores. 

I bought 3 shirts and 1 cardigan, 3 skirts, 1 extender slip, 2 cami's, and 2 undershirts.  I found 2 pairs of shoes at Walmart for $9.87 a pair {probably not the best quality but they were inexpensive and could not pass up the price}  I tried to get 3 different colors that would coordinate and match all together.  I have included pictures of  different combinations to coordinate several outfits! 

  

14 clothing items all for about 250.00

{3 shirts & 1 Cardigan}

{2 undershirts 2 Cami's}

{3 Skirts} Navy skirt has pockets:)

{shoes bought at walmart for 9.87/ pair}

{Easter Package}

{HAPPY EASTER PACKAGE}

 

For Easter, I decided to send Sierra and her 3 other hermana's  some Easter baskets, a Happy Easter Banner, and the bunnies.  I made all of these things with my Silhouette Cameo Machine  {I love my Cameo}  I found some Peanut butter Chocolate Easter Bunnies at Costco which had the name Sanders on them so I just had to get them.  I found some cute little clip boards at Walmart that have magnets on them that I thought a sister missionary Could probably use and gave each of them a little bag of Easter chocolates.  I also found this  Easter Subway Printable on pinterest that I thought was cute! 

 

 

Feliz Semana Santa! J/K {Happy Easter}



{Because of Him} 7 days till Easter FHE



Hello everyone!!!

So this week was pretty good. There was only one part which was somewhat terrifying and funny at the same time. My companion and I were walking down a dirt road and it ended up being a dead end. All the sudden, while we were discussing what we should do, these huge boxer dogs started running at us and barking like crazy. Well, at this moment I learned something new about my companion... If dogs ever run at her she will stand there and scream. I on the other hand, ran, grabbed a rock and threw it at them. I guess you can say that she has the "fight" and I have the "flight". Luckily we were alright, and laughed it all off afterwards.

So we found this cute little investigator this week, well I guess you could say that he found us. We were teaching one of our recent converts and her cousin came up and asked us if we could start teaching him. He wanted all the pamphlets and he wanted a Book of Mormon. It was so cute when he kept telling us he cant wait to read them with his mom and how he wanted to come to church. He kept telling us how grateful he was that we had come and taught him. Once again another example how the Lord prepares others to be taught.

Another amazing experience we had was while contacting in the streets we both felt like we should go clap at a door. While we were going to the house the lady who was in the yard earlier had entered her house. We both looked at each other and said, "Not important, let's go clap this house". The lady who lived there ended up being a member. We had a really good lesson, and at the end she ended up crying. We bore our testimonies and told her that the Lord had sent us here for a reason and that He wanted her to know how much He loved her. She told us that her son had been asking to go to church again, oh and by the way her son is not a member, and how she felt like Heavenly Father was answering her prayers and telling her to come back to church. It was really neat experience as well. Being instruments in the Lords hands is amazing, and helps strengthen my testimony everyday.

This week we also made some homemade peanut butter to celebrate my 6 months on my mission. We went to the super down the road to get some peanuts and while we were there a guard came up to us. He knew a little bit of English and told me that I was really beautiful.

And he ended up giving me his number... awkward. I just invited him to go to church because I didn't know how to respond. I said,"Very good English, so every Sunday at 9 in the morning..." yup. ha ha

This morning we went played volleyball at the "beach". We went with a big group of Elders and yes... we beat them pretty bad. Poor Elders.... And it was really pretty lake too, which was another plus.

Oh so it is beginning to feel like winter here now, I guess. It was pretty cold in the morning and in the night. But during the day it was warm and sunny again. Crazy Paraguay.

 

Well love you all and have a great week! This week is Holy week, so sounds like we will be eating a lot of food. Let you know how that goes next week. LOVE YOU!!!!

Love,

Hermana Sanders

 

WHAT A WONDERFUL WEEKEND!!!!

My Companion Hermana Dunagan :)

Apr 7 at 1:31 PM

I have so much to write, so hopefully I will have enough time! This Tuesday was April fool's day and all of us sisters schemed up a plan for our district meeting. Half of our zone meets in our building so lets just say there are a lot of Elders. We decided to go with the classic toothpaste in the Oreo. We were really careful to make it look like it was never touched. Well at the end of our district meeting it is a tradition to sing a hymn or two together. Well, we set the trap and offered oreo cookies to the Elders, and boy was it funny to see their faces!! Half of them didn't know what holiday it was... poor Elders... It was pretty good though.

 

The beginning of this week was a little strange... we had members, investigators, and even random people telling us how dangerous our area is. There was one night this last week we were waiting for the bus to pass by... it was pretty late at night. All the sudden this huge man, with slicked back hair and rings all on his fingers, {and lets not forget the fanny pack,} came up to us. He told me that we needed to leave this area now and that it was super dangerous. He told us to go to the nearest despensa under the light and wait for a bus. He also said that people were wanting to rob and hurt us!!!  He then walked away. Well lets just say we went right away and followed his instructions. I ended up telling the other sisters about our experience and they told me that I should call President and tell him what happened.  We do live quite a bit aways from our area and the later it gets at night, the less frequent the buses pass by.  President ended up telling us that we were to change the time of our studies so that we can be home at night. It has been very effective number wise. There are just a whole lot more people willing to accept us in the morning, which has been such a great blessing.

Where do I even begin with CONFERENCE?! BEST WEEKEND EVER!!!! Every single one of the talks given applied to my life, my mission, or my family! As soon as I walked into the church there was such a strong spirit and I continued to feel it the whole time! I LOVE BEING A MEMBER OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS!!!!!! I love how they talked a lot about covenants and how we need to strive to make and keep these sacred covenants to be able to return to live with Our Heavenly Father. I felt as though every talk pertained to this. And how good was Elder Holland's talk about defending our faith? Wow. He hits me every time. I especially loved President Uchtdorf's talk about being grateful even in the times of distress. It really helped me to have a better outlook in everything that we experience in this life. I absolutely loved his phrase, "There are no endings, only everlasting beginnings." It is so true, how blessed are we to have this knowledge that we will live forever with Our Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and our families if we do everything in our power to constantly strive to do what is right and keep our covenants. And Elder Ballard, hilarious! I loved his story about following up and being persistent. I especially loved how we are to have a Preach My Gospel in every home and that we should study this wonderful book as well. I look forward to hearing from each and every one of you about what you are learning in PMG. And how powerful was Elder Christofferson's talk about the Lords ministry? And last but not least President Thomas S. Monson's talk about loving others and having love in our homes.  I can't even begin to describe my feelings and all that I learned. This has definitely been a memorable conference weekend and I hope you all learned as much as I did. I love conference.

We also had a neat experience last night as well that I would like to share. After conference we had a few hours that we could go out and work, and so we went out to our area as quickly as possible. After teaching our last lesson for the night we went to a near by despensa{BUS WAITING STATION} to wait for a collectivo.{BUS} I decided to ask the man in the despensa if a collectivo would pass by here, even though I have waited there previously. He told me that the last one left thirty minutes ago but if we were lucky one just might pass by. My companion and I prayed that a collectivo would pass, and shortly after that we heard the engine of a collectivo coming down the road. I know that we were blessed for going out to work, even if it was just a short amount of time. I know that the Heavenly Father is ever watchful over us and loves each and every one of us.

Thank you all for the emails and support! I love you and miss you!

Love,

Hermana Sanders