hello hello! 

another week in good ole Bolivia! This week was full of random experiences and typical Bolivian culture that I'm not sure I will ever get fully used to haha! a couple stories of the week:

1. we found a teenager that was interested in the church on saturday and yesterday we invited him to come to church with us... he came and even stayed for the whole 3 hours! But last night as we were getting ready for bed we got a call from the Bishop saying ¨umm your new investigator that you brought to church today? he´s in the chapel drunk and we can't
get him to leave!¨ it turns out he went drinking after church and felt so at home he returned there to sleep and it literally took a whole army to get him out! haha not exactly what we were hoping for when we said ¨we hope you feel comfortable and welcome in the church¨ next lesson for him: word of wisdom! 

2. some of our investigators brought home 2 baby kittens that didn't have names, so Hna Fonseca and I named them after some food specialties (nasty) here in Bolivia and fell in love with the little things. so cute!! a couple days later we went back and Hna Fonseca walked through the door first and seriously started shrieking I thought for sure somebody had died - as I got closer I saw poor Chicharron beheaded and completely torn apart lying on the ground! it was seriously such a horrible sight but I couldn't help but laugh as I was trying to comfort my crying companion and just kept thinking ´´I'm so glad my sister isnt here´´ haha the poor cats dont stand a chance here with the crazy dogs. the worst part was that for the family it was completely normal hahah ew. 

I am doing great here in Bolivia and am so happy! I love seeing our investigators progress and being able to see them find true happiness in their lives brings me a happiness that I have never felt before! there are definitely hard days but I have learned that the hardest days in the mission are when you learn the most! 

I love you all and hope everyone is doing well at home!! see you all soon! :)

love, 

Hna Andersen

April 27, 2015

hey everyone!!

Brinley and her new companion Hermana Fonseca from Colombia!

this week has been awesome! Big news - I have a new comp!! My trainer went to Sucre and dropping her off at the airport was seriously the worst!! I was so so sad to see her go because I have learned so much from her and have been through so much together! But my new comp is super super great! She is colombian and is HILARIOUS! Haha seriously I am companions with Gloria from Modern Family. she is keeping me laughing seriously all the time but is a super good worker as well and have already learned so much from her! 

this area is finally picking up! we are starting to see so much progress in our investigators which is so exciting! last week we hiked a waterfall with the flia Crespo and it was a blast! The whole family is progressing sooo good and we are so happy because finding a whole family here in Bolivia that is interested is seriously like finding a pot of gold! 

A family Brinley and Hermana Callata have been teaching

Not much else going on here - just loving the mission life and trying to live everyday to the fullest! I am super happy here and love being able to see how this gospel can change lives! I hope everyone is doing well at home and everything is going good! I pray for you all everyday!! :)

love, 

Hermana Andersen :)

#ducksarefriendsnotfood‏

What a crazy week! This week we had a ton of service projects, I have learned that service projects here are no small task haha we have a family in the ward that lives on a duck farm and he asked us to come help him - oh boy we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into! we walked in to seriously like 500 quacking ducks and a HORRIBLE smell, walked a little further to see more ducks hanging upside down with their necks slit open, walked even further to see cholitas gathered around a bin of water plucking every single feather off of the bloody ducks. that is where we came in. hahah oh my gosh never in my life did I imagine that I would ever be doing anything like that. I was super disgusted but took myself back to my CNA days and went to my happy place. hahah the worst part was that when we finished they served us duck to eat and they told me literally 4 times while we were eating ¨we hope this doesn't make you sick¨ - hahah ohh sick was an understatement. I literally was 98% sure that I was going to die. But thanks to Priesthood blessings and American medicine I am finally on the up and up! One thing is for sure - you could not pay me enough money in the whole world to ever ever own a duck farm. 

Big news of the week - tomorrow I will have a new comp! I have learned that just when you are comfortable in the mish and everything seems to be going smooth, you will have a transfer. we are pretty bummed because we have so many investigators that are progressing so good right now, but hopefully I can keep that going with my new comp! Last night was a night of laughing and lots of crying as we talked about all the memories we have together her in Tiquipaya and all the amazing people we have found and miracles we have seen! The emotions of the mission are so crazy haha but I am super happy here and learning everyday! This pic is with our ¨family of gold¨ we are teaching the whole family and almost all of them have baptism dates for May and have been assisting every Sunday! They make us feel seriously part of their family - its seriously the best to be able to find ¨homes away from home¨ here! 

I hope everything is well at home! love and miss you all!! 

love, 

Hermana Andersen

April 13, 2015

hello everyone! 

Another week in the mission field! This week has been super super good - we have seen lots of progress in lots of our investigators and are so happy! 

Elsa (our blind investigator) called us Saturday night in tears because her husband came home super drunk and her 3 little kids were terrified - we talked to the bishop on Sunday and we are going to find her a room to live in and the church is going to help pay until we hear back from this institution

about when she can move in there. The even better news - after tuesday she wont be living with this man anymore which means she can get baptized and she is SO excited! we are planning for May 2nd and are so happy for her! 

We are also working with Rosmery and also her husband Juan and his whole family now! They are SO good to us and have serious desires to learn more and told us that they want to be baptized but just want to learn a little bit more first! This week we were sound asleep (we literally fall asleep the second our heads hit the pillows no matter how much noise there is outside) and we got a call from Rosmery - we answered like 80 year old grandmas so confused hahah and she was literally SO excited to tell us that her and Juan had just prayed and ¨felt something they never felt before¨ we were so happy the next day when we were actually awake and could really think about it haha! 

Transfers are next week and we are praying for one more transfer together because everything here is finally moving forward and we are working really hard with the ward here in good ol´ tiquipaya! I love this work and loving seeing how this gospel can change lives! I hope you are all doing well at home! I love you all and pray for you everyday! 

love, 

Hermana Andersen

April 6, 2015

Happy (late) Easter!!

Holidays in the mission are so different - definitely makes me think about how precious getting to spend them with the family is! But they are also super fun and unique because we know that we only get to experience them once or twice here! I showed my comp the american tradition of easter egg dying (thanks mom!) she LOVED it haha she said ´´you guys have the weirdest traditions but they are awesome!¨ The Bolivians are super lame with Easter, they don't do anything to really celebrate because all the Catholics here (pretty much everyone) celebrates on Friday, the day of Christ's death, with 12 plates of food!! We had an appointment right after lunch (full) and showed up just in time for them to start their 12 plates - oh my gosh we wanted to die. Luckily I had a plastic sack in my bag and every time they turned around we shoveled all the food we could into the sack because it is super offensive to turn down food and to not eat everything on your plate here. hahah we never wanted to touch another bite of food again in our lives by the time we got out of there.

Conference was the best! I got to watch the Saturday session in English with the other American missionaries which was awesome! Sunday we had to stay here in our area because it was "pedestrian day" and not a single car is allowed in all of Bolivia! Its actually a really cool day haha everyone is in the streets with their families and there is music and its like a big party in the street! So we took advantage of it and set up a kiosk between conference sessions and showed the little Easter clip that the church came out with and gave out free water! Super awesome turn out! Also it was so calm because we didn't have to worry about any cars - they stop for no one and nothing! Last week we were going into the city on pday to play soccer with the zone and watched a cholita get hit by a car and go flying! We were across like two lanes of freeway traffic and couldn't do anything but yell "call an ambulance!" but nobody wanted to call because whoever calls has to pay for it. Seriously so sad! Such is Bolivian life - things like that are just normal to them!

I'm so happy here and am loving everyday of this mission! I have learned more than I could have ever imagined and  am so grateful to be here in Bolivia! I pray for you all and hope you are all doing well at home!! Love you all!

Hermana Andersen :)

March 30, 2015

Hey everyone!!

Another week in Bolivia! so crazy how fast time flies here! This week has been really good - we have an investigator (Rosemary) who is 22 and we love teaching her because she is so close to our age and we can relate to her really well! but she has a super sad story - she was orphaned when she was really little and remembers nothing of her parents. she escaped the orphanage when she was a teenager, lived in the streets for awhile, and now has a husband and little 3 year old! her one life goal is to be able to find her parents. she just wants to talk to them and ask them what happened and why they abandoned her. she literally cried the whole hour telling us about our life and we left feeling so sad and wanting to help her but not know how - MIRACLE. at our pensionista there are two people eating with us only for this month who work with ID´s of bolivia!! they were able to take her information and find her uncle and she is hoping that through her uncle she can find her parents! holy cow it was so perfect and now she has even more of a desire to listen to us! the Lord works in crazy ways :) 

Saturday we got to go to the mission home to watch the womens conference! it was the best for 2 reasons - WE ATE MEXICAN FOOD and the americans got to watch the conference in english!! also we had a self defense class hahaha we learned a lot but it was seriously hilarious - me and my comp have been practicing at night hahah i think Im going to stick with running away. 

This week I have been studying a talk that I wanted to share - Its on how the small, daily things that we do in our lives (pray, go to church, read the scriptures) make such a big difference at the end of the day. Everyone knows they are important, so why doesn't everyone do them? because the consequences aren't effective immediately, just like not brushing your teeth once or twice isn't going to make your teeth fall out immediately. BUT, the consequences do come eventually! ´´start now. live a purposeful life. put the compounding power of daily disciplines in place in the important areas of your life. I promise you that in a year from now you will either be glad you started today, or you will wish you had.´´ I have learned the truthfulness of this here in Bolivia and know that the little things we do every day are so important!

HAPPY EASTER!! I hope you all have the best day - go on an easter egg hunt and eat all the american candy you possibly can! hahah the Bolivians think we are so crazy because we celebrate the resurrection of Christ with a bunny that brings eggs. Love you all!! 

love, 

Hermana Andersen

Loving Every Second!

Hola!!

This week has been super awesome and full of miracles as usual :) we've had some super great experiences and have some amazing investigators!

On Wednesday we visited our 14 year old investigator that told us the first time we visited her that she wanted to be baptized and she told us that her aunts and uncles who are super catholic have basically talked her out of every good feeling that she had before and that she was ´´just going to stay catholic for now´´. Holy cow we were SO devastated! We told her to just pray about it and the next day we fasted and prayed our hearts out - seriously harder than I've ever prayed for something in my life and on Friday when we went back she told us ´´I prayed and I felt even stronger than the first time that what you guys taught me is true and I need to keep learning no matter what my family says´´ MIRACLE.  So we are working really hard with her and just need to get her 3 assistances to church so we can baptize her! 

We also have some new investigators that are doing awesome! Getting new investigators that are super interested is the best and the worst - the best because they are actually interested, the worst because missionaries are actually therapists too and when people are interested they tell us their WHOLE life stories and the life stories here are seriously heartbreaking! Seriously every single person here has a background that makes me cry. Everything from abandonment to rape to starvation.. ah its so sad. but it makes me so grateful for the life that I have had and everything that I have been blessed with. the mission is seriously the best and I'm loving every second! :)