#boliviabound

Hey everyone!

My last P day from  the CCM! so crazy! looking back the time has actually flown but i am SO excited to get to Bolivia! i should be flying through the night on Monday and get there sometime on Tuesday!

These past two weeks have been crazy with the latina comp and district!! I forgot to knock on wood when i said i hope my comp speaks slow.. she talks so fast and so quiet the latinos usually dont even understand her! the first few days i was constantly telling her to slow down because i have no idea what she is saying... now i still usually have no idea what she is saying but i continue the conversation anyways and just say whatever comes to mind hahah usually we both end up super confused but it keeps me from getting frustrated! but she is super sweet and has only been a member for less than 2 years and has the strongest testimony which is awesome!

yesterday we got to proselyte again! the people this time were super super harsh and cared more about telling us why we are wrong than listening to our message which was sooo frustrating. plus we got so lost in the city and it started pouring rain! so circumstances werent exactly ideal but such is mission life right?!

my spanish is coming along eh... hahah it feels so slow. i can usually be understood but definitely dont speak correctly because theres so many different conjugations that are freakin hard! but my vocab grows everyday which im grateful for! ive had to learn the hard way not to mix up some of the super close words. for example the word `paso`which means step and the word ``peso`` which is their money.. this week i taught a whole lesson on the money required in this life obtain eternal life hahah my companion was so confused she didnt even know how to correct me #oops. also learned the hear way is the mix up of ``pecado´` which is sin with ``pescado`` which means fish. ``Jesus died for your fish`` or better ``through the atonement our fish can be forgiven`` hahaha ah its a good thing we havent had any real investigators yet! i cant wait until the language just comes naturally!

we got a new ccm pres this week! they are from taylorsville and when they got here i wanted to hug them and never let go because it was like hugging a little piece of home! haha i miss america so much! 

i hope everyone is doing good!! i love and miss you all so much! im so grateful for all the support and prayers :)

I want to share my favortive quote from this week ``the more value it has, the more it costs`` one of my maestros taught me this when i was having a hard day and i think it applies to every aspect of life! when times are hard keep pushing through becuase good things are in store :)

love, 

hermana andersen

Jan 13, 2015

Hey everyone!!

This morning we said bye to group #2! I thought for sure this time was gonna be easier but i was 100% wrong. its seriously the most heart wrenching emotional-but so exciting experience. i told my companion that if this is any indication of how the next 17 months is gonna go im not gonna have any of my own heart left when i get home because i already feel like i have sent so much of it with these sweet latinos all over south america! its crazy to think that we are up next. im starting to realize how precious the time here is. i feel so lucky to be here in this country with these people learning so much and im trying to soak in every second because i know this is a once in a lifetime oppurtunity!

Today we got to go on a tour of Colombia because we hit 4 weeks! It was amazing we rode this gondola thing up the mountain to a Catholic montesary that was BEAUTIFUL! then we went to a way sweet gold museum! plus we got to wear normal clothes and be normal tourists! it was so fun and pretty much like a normal family vacation - except without the fam haha :( but it was such a good get away and so fun to explore!

Tomorrow i will get a latino companion and be put in a latino district with teachers that dont speak a lick of english... haha pray for me. i'm hoping i get someone super patient and talks really slow!! im super sad our district is seperating! weve grown super close over the past 4 weeks as we`ve supported each other through all the crazy feelings none of us had any idea we were getting into!

this week we were at gym playing volleyball while some of the elders were playing basketball around our volleyball game because our gym is pretty small and our district leader jumped up to slam dunk it and we heard this huge crack and the whole glass backboard shattered into a million pieces and it was raining glass for what felt like minutes! haha thankfully everyone was okay! he thought for sure he was getting sent home because President Dyer loves basketball! we`re still all a little scared for the next meeting hahah. this place isnt built for `grengos` ;) 

i love and miss you all and am so grateful for all the support and emails! have a good week! :)

Half Way!!!

Hola amigos y familia!

I hope you all had a good new years!! this week started out super rough but is ending super good! yesterday we got to go proselyte in bogota which i was super nervous for because our spanish is definielty still very rocky and they took us in a bus to the heart of bogota and told us to come back in 4 hours with at least 8 references and no book of mormons or pamphlets left. it was seriously terrifying, but turned out to be the BEST experience! the first lady we approached was holding a book that said ¨teachings og the bible¨ and she told us she was trying to figure out what to believe - does it get more perfect?! we taught her a little bit about the book of mormon and she was sooo interested in the church, told us to come back as soon as possible! the next man was leaning against his car and really didnt look in the mood to talk to us, but as we approached him and started talking to him he told us that he was super sad because he was supposed to be going somewhere with his grandson but his car just died - once again, PERFECT! haha we pushed his car for about a block (im sure it looked hilarious) and then it randomly just started going again! he was so happy and told us that he knows now that mormons are good people! the whole 4 hours was just miracle after miracle of people like that who needed us and were so ready - two of them told us they wanted to be taught more tomorrow! i wish so badly we could be the ones to teach them and see their progress but i know there will be people in cochabamba with just the same situation! it was the perfect confidence booster at the perfect time and it made me so excited to get out there! 

i am learning so much here, my brain constantly feels like its about to explode. especially with the spanish. i can understand most things if they talk slowly but speaking is a whole different story because they do such weird things to their sentences that dont work in english at all and that i definietly never learned in my 7th grade spanish class. the girls have to do squats and the boys push ups everytime we speak engligh - the good news is im gonna have some killer legs by the time i get out of here! but i am happy and know that this is exactly where im supposed to be right now!

i love hearing from you all and am so grateful for all of you! I hope all is well at home!!

love always, 

hermana andersen

Two weeks down!!!!

Hey everyone!!

I can't believe I'm a third of the way done here! its gone super fast but so slow at the same time! I don't know how thats possible but the days are sooo long but the weeks are super fast! today has been a really hard day because this morning we had to get up at 3 in the morning to send off our sweet Latinos which was sooo hard. i never imagined i could love so many people so much in such a short time! they have taught me so much in these past two weeks and they are the most genuine, kind, loving, patient people i have ever met!! the CCM feels so empty and quiet without them here! 

but on a brighter note we got to go to the temple again today which is such a good get away! 

I'm starting to get used to the food here... sorta.  I've eaten 5x the rice in the past two weeks than I've eaten in my whole life combined and that is not an exaggeration. every way shape and form you can imagine rice and anything and everything you can imagine in it! and the latinos tell us that the food in Boliva is terrible soo... I think this is my time to enjoy! haha I just want some pizza and a hamburger and fries.

The bad part about living in a prison is that when one person gets sick everyone is bound to get sick... ive had a killer head cold and sore throat the last few days but there is a strict TNDO rule here so we are pushing through! im just glad its not anything worse! (knock on wood)

Church here is hunger games style... we all have to write a talk every week (and I thought writing a talk in english was hard) and then sunday they just randomly call people up to read their talks. its actually really terrifying. hahah this week i wrote mine and before sacrament and had one of the Latinos proof read it.. she looked at it, laughed, fixed what she could, and said ´¨lets just hope you don't get called up¨´. hahah luckily I didn't. 

The language is coming along slowly... I get super frustrated when I don't understand something our "investigator" or the Lations say, but I just keep reminding myself that it will come with time!

This sunday we had a lesson from Hermana Dyer and she asked who was the only member of their family and had no support from home and seriously pretty much every latino raised their hand! it broke my heart like I couldn't stop crying for hours. They are such examples to me and it made me so grateful for all the love and support I feel from all of you back at home! I couldn't be here if it weren't for all of you so THANK YOU for all your sweet words of encouragement and for all the prayers! I definitely feel them! I love and miss you all!!

Safe and Sound

Hey everyone!!

 I made it to the ccm safe and sound! It has been such an adventure already! Our flight was delayed from Atlanta to Colombia and we got stuck in customs because they wanted to search all of our books... which we obviously have a lot of! so we got out of the airport around 12 and our ride was nowhere to be found. there were 6 of us and I knew the most Spanish out of all of us... which tells you how much trouble we were in! we divided and literally searched the whole airport, called every number we had, talked to everyone we possibly could with our broken english, and found nothing! so after a couple of hours we said a prayer and decided we would just have to take a taxi and pray that it got us here! we definitely got ripped off on that taxi but we were just so happy to see the ccm we probably wouldve given him everything we had! hahah but there is a gate fence all the way around so we had to stand outside and bang on the gate until a security guard came and let us in... he was so confused! but he opened up the kitchen to us and let us eat whatever we want. Then we got a quick three hours of sleep haha so I am exhausted but I am having so much fun!

There are only 6 sisters here and only 3 of us speak english! so its basically a constant game of charades and its actually quite hilarious most of the time! the latinos are so sweet to us and they are doing everything they can to try to help us learn the language faster. most of our meetings have been in spanish so far.. so I honestly have no idea whats really going on here but you can feel the spirit even when you cant understand the language! 

We had to turn in basically everything we have that could be considered valuable this morning.. I felt like i was in jail or something but they have to do that to keep our stuff safe! ive already been asked for money a couple of times which breaks my heart because it just shows what kind of living conditions they are coming from!

Ive learned a lot already and this place is so beautiful! I love and miss you all and am so grateful for the love and support!