Rain, rain, don't go away and come back tomorrow I guess - Lilburn, Georgia

Rainiest week of my LIFEEEEE!

Pros to rain: FROGS AND I LIVE IN THE RAINFOREST EEEE🐸

Cons to rain: I can't see while I'm driving and holy freaking humidity. I feel sticky. Worth it though tbh my skin has never felt better.

This week was a rollercoaster of emotions but I got to see how cool it can be to find people whose hearts are actually ready to hear your message!!!

MY WEEK: 

Monday: Finally got to tell my parents all about Georgia!!! I played egyptian rat screw (I thought of you Whit and Josh <3) with the district and then we had an amazing member meal with the Davises. We love them so bad. Also I love that we pray before and after literally EVERYTHING.

Tuesday: I fell asleep during my morning prayers. Adjusting to eastern time has not been easy for me! We had interviews with president (I cried because we had just gotten some sad news about one of the friends we're teaching and I'm worried about her!!). The elders' washer exploded all over their apartment so they were cleaning it up with a VACUUM 😭😭😭. We went to do service at the co-op where we sorted clothes and hung them up all nice. Cutest little thrift ever and Beanie (who works there full-time) is so silly I love her. I played my violin at home!! I missed it. A worker at panda express gave us fortune cookies and told us in broken english that he was a member from riverside!! Sister Balls and I made cookies for our friends who are struggling and we made a mess hehe

Wednesday: 🌈🌈🌈 BEST DAY EVER! HAPPY TEARS!! We had the GANM devo in the morning then went to stop by one of our friends' houses. While we were praying in the car before going outside I stopped mid-sentence to say "Is that a beaver???" because I literally thought I saw a beaver cross the road. We still don't know what it was, but we were both crying laughing so hard lol. STORYTIME! We were going to a referral's house one last time to see if they actually wanted to be taught or if they were just high when they submitted a request (It happens a lot). We pulled up to the house and we see a woman and a little boy standing outside taking pictures of the sky. It had been raining all day. When we got out of the car, they both went inside so we thought they didn't want to talk to us. We knocked on the door and the woman came right out and said "You guys are the missionaries right?!" and we were like yeah we are! She told us how she had been trying to get closer to God and that the missionaries kept coming back to her place so she guessed it was a sign. She invited us in and we were able to teach her all about our purpose and Jesus Christ! They also said they wanted to be baptized right then and there. Holy moly. They told us they were outside looking for a rainbow because of the rain. After we left them with a plate of cookies and a chapter in the Book of Mormon to read, we made the connection that in the scriptures, a rainbow represents a covenant. They were outside looking for a covenant to make with GOD! THEN (the day keeps getting better) we had an amazing lesson with our friends Ashley and Yi Ming where we invited Ashley to be baptized and she said YES! She knows it's what God wants her to do so she's doing it. Ugh I love being a missionary. 

Thursday: We started the day with DC and then lunch at cookout! I had a yummy cajun chicken sandwich and hush puppies. I love it here. We have the best district in the whole ganm. Then, Sister Balls and I went to a McDonalds for comp study and got stuck there because it started raining and Sister Balls can't get her dang boot wet! Doctor's orders! We were there for so long that these people from crunch fitness started coming up to us with Ipads and trying to get us to join their nondenominational megagym. It finally stopped raining and we could go out and knock some yellow dots [people who had expressed interest]. Hallelujah. Apparently Sister Balls knows spanish! We had a great lesson with a struggling member. She was given a blessing at the end!

Friday: We weekly planned and that always drains me!!! It takes like four hours lol but I know it's important for our friends. It was dumping rain all day. We ended the day with a member meal with Sister Alarcon! She's the sweetest little peruvian lady with three sons that she worries so much about. After dinner we dropped off some more cookies we made the night before at two houses. We were going to knock this one house but the second we got there the spirit left so fast. We said a prayer and felt even worse so we left because we didn't feel safe at allllll

Saturday: We gave a church tour to a woman who was just curious about our faith because she helps run a nondom megachurch where they do backflips and such. She said our church didn't feel welcoming 😭. Afterward, we had a great lesson with our friend Aria about how the Book of Mormon came to be! Our ward boundaries are literally huge. They're 30 minutes across! In UT they're all like 30 seconds across. Walking. It was raining so so so much and that was making it hard to find people. Sister Balls' dang boot! We ended the day with a meal with the Stallings family. They have a dinosaur-ADORING son named James. He loves to walk and sound like a T-rex. Every 30 seconds we'd hear in the background: "ROOOOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR" and I was laughing probably too much. Magnolia trees are officially my fav!!!! (The flowers are bigger than my head)

Sunday: We went to church and had a couple of our friends show up! Yay! We sang with the ward choir and then went to young women's for second hour! After church we did some finding and stopped by a couple members' houses to drop off dishes they had lent us when we had leftovers to take home. One of which was Sister Burke who had been in a car accident that week. She talked to us for an hour and a half. We just sat there and listened about the car wreck, her daughter, granddaughter, conversion story, mission, time as a nurse, time in germany, and so forth. Then, it was time for dinner with the Sisters Sisters! (Literal sisters doing a senior mission together because one of them is divorced and the other a widow) They are the cutest things I ever did lay my eyes on. They don't proselyte so they asked us a bajillion and one questions about our daily schedule. After dinner, we went outside and it was raining cats and dogs per usual and I caught a frog but then it hopped out of my hand and into a bush!

You made it to the end of my essay of an email! I love you, the Lord loves you! God bless!

<3/Sister Anderson

Photos!

Sister Balls

Cookies for Friends

Magnolia Flower

so sweaty

Lilburn District with President & Sister Judd

Roadkill and Maurice the Beast 😛⭐ - Lilburn, Georgia

Hello from GEORGIA!

It's been what feels like forever since I wrote an email. It's only been 9 days. SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED! Let's get into it!

Saturday-Monday (of last week) highlights:

-Volleyball with the MTC district

-Mosiah ch 14. Go read it (ty elder smith)

-THE ELDERS PICKED US UP AT OUR DOOR WITH FLOWERS (I about died I love them so bad)

-District goodbyes were so terribly hard. Some of the hardest goodbyes of my life because I don't know for sure if I'll ever see them again!

-Elder Delatori gave me a crumbl cookie

-Ba-a-a-a-a elder

-Cuddle puddle!

-Waking up at the crack of dawn to see our district off

-It smells like upelder in here

OKAY TIME FOR MY FIRST WEEK IN GEORGIA!

We woke up at 3:30am to travel to GA on tuesday. I arrived in GA on the 23rd day of my mission!! Iykyk. Dale G. Renlund walked by us at the airport apparently but I didn't see him so that could be a lie tbh. We arrived in GA around 2pm eastern! We met President and Sister Judd and they took us to the mission office. IT. IS. SO. GREEN. HERE! Holy actual smokes I have never seen so many trees in one place before. We had dinner at the mission home and were put up in a hotel for the night. 

The next morning, we had biscuits and gravy with grits at the mission office for breakfast. Delishhhhh. THEN I GOT TO MEET MY AWESOME TRAINER SISTER BALLS <3<3<3 I already love her with all of my heart. She is the cutest most Jesus-loving most sprained foot person I've ever met. I mentioned her foot because she can't drive all the time with it so I got my Tiwi (driving priveledges) a transfer early! It feels nice to be able to drive again after the MTC. The rest of the day I got a little acquainted with the Lilburn area (about 30 minutes north of atlanta) and then had my first member meal ever with the sweetest lady named Jackie. She fed me my first ever wings while talking about her battle with breast cancer. She is so amazing. Pray for Jackie!

Friday I woke up and decided I'm going to bawl by eyes out when I leave this place someday. It's so incredibly beautiful and literally everyone is so nice!!!!!!! Southern hospitality is real yall. Holy freaking ROADKILL!! We saw a deer actively getting hit on the way to something. Then I started making a list. Dead opossum, squirrel, black bird, rat, etc. Anyway we had dinner with the Figueroas for the best tacos EVER. Guh I dream of them. Then we did a couple check-ins on our friends. One is a new mom who lost her phone and her bible. We thought she died because her phone is dead somewhere. We also stopped by a convert's house to share a sweet message to help her remember her baptism. She has the brightest soul and the biggest love for Jesus!

Saturday, we had district council! I stole Elder Bennett's racecar track analogy about rules and guidelines for the PMG thought I had to give. Thanks Elder :) They ate it up. We did some contacts at burger king and checked in on a couple friends before heading to dinner with the Britos! Sister Brito has the brightest freaking aura ever. She's from Africa and is also fluent in spanish so they took us to a hispanic grocery store/food court called Talpa. Dad, if you're reading this, it's basically H-mart but instead of asian it's hispanic. Sister Brito told us all about how prominently she feels the hand of God in her life even when things aren't going her way because she knows God has and will always make it right! AMEN! We ate the best tacos I think ever (sorry figueroas) and then got DUBAI ICE CREAM. Guys if you know me you know I was peeing my pants with joy. After dinner we stopped for gas at a QT. We met a Jehova's witness named Maurice (this wasn't sister balls' first encounter with maurice the beast) He's from britain and said he's had missionaries at his door since he was 10 (he's around 60-70 now) but he's a jehova's witness so he never listened to them. We told him all the truths we knew and of course he asked about polygamy and when we told him we don't do that he was lowkey shocked lol. Anyway he shared his beliefs too and then we exchanged cards so he could learn more and we could scrapbook it lollll 

SUNDAY! YAY NEW WARD!

We greeted people as they came into church and then during sacrament meeting I could. not. keep. my. eyes. open. The bread was homemade (holy smokes the best sourdough I've EVER tasted). Two of our friends Ashley and Yi Ming came to sacrament!!!!!! Yay! We had a linger longer at the pavillion outside where I got to meet a bunch of the ward. We're ward sharing with the elders which is so nice but also sad because we have to split the meal calendar. We aren't allowed to have both sisters and elders at meals :(  After the linger longer we headed to sister burke's little apartment where there isn't any furniture except two really tall stools. We used a bin and pillows as a table and chairs "japanese style" as she calls it :) Yummiest japanese style southern food I've ever eaten lol! Then we headed to Ashley and Yi Ming's place for a lesson! They are one interesting couple. She's Vietnamese but speaks a little english. He's Mandarin but also speaks a little english. So, they got married in the Lilburn relief society room last transfer and only speak english to each other lol. Ashley had lots of questions about repentance and how we can keep being forgiven if we keep making the same mistake over and over. We taught her about the gift of the holy ghost and how it can help her to stop making those same mistakes! She loves the book of mormon and thinks it's so interesting. Then we had a zoom lesson with our friend Aria joined by our member friend Naomi Davis! Aria is really interested in baptism and loves the atonement. Then we ate some sketchy chicken bowtie pasta and headed to zone focus! We surprised the seminary grads by running in singing called to serve! It was so special and people cried. Then we ate cake! Yummy! 

Anyway that's all for this week!!! I love you the Lord loves you! God bless!

<3/Sister Anderson

Sister Anderson & Sister Balls

The Britos

Jackie

Arrival in Atlanta, Georgia

 

President & Sister Judd
from Bakersfield, California

Check out how greeeeeennnnn

Welcome to the Georgia Atlanta North Mission!

with Trainer Sister Balls!

kidney stones and tanning (not burning) - Missionary Training Center, Provo Utah

 Hello Everyone! 

I'm so emo we leave the mtc this week  I don't want to leave my district ugh!!! I keep telling myself that we're going to make so many new friends in the field but I'm sure going to miss them :( Sister Lord and I will be in Georgia by wednesday so my next email will be from there ahhhh!! I'm so nervous but more excited. Let's get into my week! 

Saturday: The day started out good because we got to do sealings at the TEMPLE! We started a fast after lunch so we could do a 24 hour fast for Sunday the next day. In class, I started crying because they forgot to warn us that we'd be teaching the plan of salvation that day and I embarassed myself so badddd!!! Turns out I wasn't the only one having a rough day because basically our whole district started crying later. Anyway then we all hugged it out (except for the elders that's illegal) and cried as we said goodnight to the elders. Then, people started throwing up willy nilly. Sister Lord said "tomorrow will be such a good day!" 

Sunday: Sister Lord jinxed herself. Long story short, Sister Lord woke up at 4am in agonizing pain and took meds to sleep again. She woke up feeling fine and then suddenly felt like she was dying. She got a blessing from the elders and we cried the whole blessing because she looked like she was suffering so much. They transported me and Sister Lord to the ER and they told her she had a kidney stone. How awful is that? They drugged her up and sent us away and then we ended up back at the ER because she could. not. stop. throwing. up. I'm talking every ten seconds. I felt useless because I couldn't help her!!! All I could do was hold her hand and scratch her back while she was absolutely helpless.  Sister Mitton (branch pres wife) came to our room to see how we were doing but she actually ended up staying with us the rest of the day!! She's so sweet!!! We ended up back at the ER because the MTC doctor told us to get her an IV for fluids because she couldn't hold any water down. We found out she has TWO kidney stones. We ended up being away from our district from 9am-9pm. It was so sad and we had horrible fomo. When we got back to the MTC, we saw our district running toward us with open arms  a few of them were crying it was the sweetest thing ever. We prayed as a district and finally went to bed. I'm so grateful for modern medicine and my cute district. 

Monday: Much better day than sunday. I had a bagel for breakfast (if you know me you know that's my favorite thing for breakfast in the whole world) and then I fell asleep sitting on a bench with my comp. We got jumpscared awake by Elder Spencer (from england, we call him elder england) who was asking how Sister Lord was feeling. After that we played volleyball yay! Later in class Sister Lord was feeling sick again so we left early. Poor thing!!! Ugh! Then during our second class of the night, we had someone else stay with Sister Lord and watch over zoom so I could be there in person. It was so nice! 

Tuesday:Temple day! The timpanogos temple is so prettyyyy! Can you guess what I ate for breakfast? (It was a bagel) We did baptisms and Initiatories! It was cold outside which was buns for our wet hair but whatevs. Mom, if you're reading this, look on missionary mamas cause there was a lady who took a pic of our district at the temple hehe! Then we had a devotional at night and it was great! We had W. Mark Bassett and his wife come! 

Wednesday:Temple AGAIN! (bagel) Class was so fun today we were laughing our heads off. They had creamery ice cream at dinner and it made my day better lowkey. My teaching in the second class of the day was actually on fire I can see my improvement! Then after class when we were holding pinkies with our district, Elder England came and joined us for district prayer after spotting sister Lord. Then we went to the vending machines and I got a lunchable. Long live the MTC vending machines. 

Thursday:I might be an idiot lowkey but when I was pondering life today I had an epiphany. The words inside and outside came from somewhere. The IN side of something is called the inside and the OUT side of something is called the outside. The more you know. Moving on, Elder english was lowk flirting with Sister Lord today saying "you have beautiful eyes." Elder you're not locked. After that we had to serve lunch and it was boring as freak and then we got to eat. Mid food per usual. Class went by so fast and then we ate dinner and then we had a sub for our second class. Elder Tommy Watts. IYKYK. They were cutting the grass and blowing around the dusty leaves all day today so sister Allen and my allergies were horrible today. HAPPY P-DAY EVE!

Friday (today): HAPPY P-DAY! Today we woke up and had a workshop about entering the mission field because we're leaving soon! We all either fly out tuesday or wednesday. Sister Lord and I will get to georgia sometime around 2pm on wednesday. AHHHHHHH! Then we went to lunch and then out to the field to play sand volleyball and spikeball in our matching stripling warriors shirts (look at my google photos if you want to see)!! I was staring straight into the sun but it was so fun lol and we all got tan or burned. (dw mom i didn't burn) Anyway now I'm in the computer lab in T2 writing this silly little email! Bye bye my loves!

I love you! The Lord loves you! 

Sister Anderson

Photos!

Timapanogas Temple

Sister Anderson & Sister Lord

kidney stones :(

Wiped out after the hospital

Thank you for the cookie, Thatchers!

MTC Classroom

Cannon's grad announcement!