August 31, 2015: Time Is Just Flying By!

Hola familia!! You all sound super great! It is hard to believe that school and football are on the go and that August has come to a close. Time is just flying by!!! Rumor has it that I will be coming home the 16th of December. Something about how the church doesn’t do travel the week of Christmas.....so I will be coming home a week early before the transfer is over, because it ends the 23rd. I feel so cheated ha-ha. When we went to go renew my green card, one of the assistants to the president told me that was my release date...it was weird to hear. I don’t know, I just never really thought about the fact that there really is a day in December that I do go home....it just seemed fuzzy to me. But anyways, you guys can feel excited about that.

Well, this week was interesting and included a lot of walking. We contacted a lot of people and had some pretty neat experiences. We found a new investigator named Leticia, she had a near death experience a few months ago. She was in a diabetic coma and wasn’t coming out of it. She loved the way we talked about Jesus Christ and has homework to read the Book of Mormon; she was super interested in that. She said she never thought about the ancient people here in America having communication with God. (Good gravy, can I just tell you guys how hard it is to write in English right now? I have to translate in my head from Spanish to English to tell you guys my stories. How awkward.) Anyways, then there was another woman in the park that we contacted yesterday with questions of the soul cards from mormon.org. We asked her to pick a question and then we answered it with the Book of Mormon. She really liked the answer. We asked her if she had ever heard of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints....she hadn’t. We talked a little more to her, and then she opened up a lot and told us the really sad story of her life. IT WAS HORRIBLE!! She said she was looking for a church like the one we have, and she looked at me and said, "I am a 26 year old single mother, with 2 young kids from different fathers, a dead husband who overdosed on drugs, and I live in a very dangerous neighborhood. (Don’t freak out, she lives like 30 miles from our area.) My life is way different than yours will ever be because you have this." (Referring to the Church and the Book of Mormon.) I thought about that a second and realized she was completely right. Seriously, we enjoy so many blessings. We know who we are, where we came from, where we are going, why we are here, that we have a loving Heavenly Father, and who we have the potential to become. We know how to find true happiness in this life by obeying the commandments and serving others. We know that families are forever. We know that the Atonement of Christ can not only clean us from our sins, but help us to overcome our weaknesses and support our trials. We know that there is always hope. Some people don’t know that. They really have no idea. I’m so glad I came on the mission to share this with the people here. I’ve been given so much that I almost feel bad about it, but the best way to show our gratitude for what we have is to share it with others. So to sum it up, here is one of my favorite hymns: (#219)

Because I have been given much
I too must give
Because of thy great bounty Lord
Each day I live
I shall divide thy gifts from thee
With every brother that see
Who has the need of help from me

Because I have been sheltered, fed
By thy good care
I cannot see another’s lack and I not share
My glowing fire, my loaf of bread,
my roofs safe shelter overhead
That he too may be comforted

Because I have been blessed by
Thy great love dear Lord
I’ll share thy love again
According to thy word
I shall give love to those in need
I’ll show that love by word and deed
Thus shall my thanks be thanks in deed

 

Anyways, I love you all so much!! Thanks so much for all the emails of love and support!! You are all the best! I have been blessed with an amazing family. I am doing fabulous here and hope that you all have a great week!!!!! #livingthedream XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO until next time...

Con Todo Mi Amor,

Hermana Anderton

New "Star Wars" hairdo....

Hermana's Estrada and Anderton