October 12, 2015

hola! 

its been a week of lots of ups and downs! we got to celebrate my companions birthday this week, so its been fun planning lots of little surprises and doing my best to make it feel like a ´´different´´ day, because in the mission days that at home are the best, are usually just normal days! but we have had lots of fun and eaten LOTS of american candy hahaha she told me ´´I think I´m going to have diabetes when I get home´´ #´merica

2 of the inactive families we have been working really closely with officially reactivated this week, and it has been so amazing to see the way their lives have changed as they have made the decision to come back to church and the blessings that come when we live the way we should be living. 

I have been thinking a lot this week about how blessed I really am. as we left a lesson with an hermana that is passing for an innumerable amount of trials and having a hard time understanding why, I told my companion ¨Isn´t it interesting that some of us are SO privileged that we never have to go through anything that even compares to even one of the many trials that some people are faced with?´´ she told me something that really got me thinking. she said ¨yeah but because we have been given so much and been blessed with so much, we have that much bigger of a responsibility to help the people that are down and that don´t have the things we have been blessed with, and we are going to be judge according to what we did with what we were given¨

We are seriously more blessed than we even realize and have the responsibility to share the blessings that we have with those that are passing through hard times. 

I love you all and am so grateful for all the prayers and love from home, especially in these last couple of weeks! 

oh one more thing, this week a spider had babies in our house!! ahh I hate bugs so much. hahaha every night we go on a hunt for all the baby spiders we can find, and every night in my prayers I pray that there aren't any in my bed, and that if there are I will never know. hahah ahh 

love you all! 

hermana andersen :)

Doing service - washing laundry by hand - for 4 hours!

Appendicitis in Bolivia

hello everyone!

thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for all the prayers this week! It was an experience that I will never forget and a pretty crazy week, but I have seen so many miracles and couldn't be more grateful! haha I've never had an appendicitis in America so I can't really compare it, but I can say that the whole thing seemed suuper relaxed here. haha the story goes like this:

 

Saturday night we watched the Women´s Conference in the mission home and they fed us Mexican food from heaven, but as we were leaving I told my companion ¨wow I think I'm finally used to Bolivian food because my stomach is not doing well with that food´´ - as the night went on the pain started getting more and more centralized and by morning I had pretty much diagnosed myself with an appendicitis. We went to the clinic and they took some tests to send to the lab but I think because I wasn't screaming and crying nobody really took me seriously. They told me they didn't have enough beds for me so I would have to wait in the waiting room for the results.. 4 AND A HALF HOURS LATER I told my companion ´´If I have to wait one more second in this waiting room chair I´m going to die right here´´  haha she went Blake Andersen mode for a sec, found the doctor, gave him a peace of her mind and thankfully that sped the process a bit. They brought my results and said ´´uh yeah.. we´re really sorry for the wait... it looks like were gonna have to operate but before we can do that you need an ultrasound and the ultrasound doctor is watching a soccer game so you're gonna have to wait a couple more hours...¨ haha literally all I could do was laugh because in my head I was saying ´´well I've lived a good life.¨

Thankfully President Hansen and my zone leaders got there to give me a blessing while we were waiting for the doctor to finish his soccer game which made the waiting bearable, the surgery went well, and I came out alive  its really been a miracle how fast I have healed, I got home from the hospital on Tuesday afternoon and by Tuesday night I was feeling good enough to get working again. 

I couldn't be more grateful for President and Sister Hansen, they were there from the second they found out until they knew I was okay and haven't stopped checking on me all week. It was a little bit of a scare but I knew the whole time that Heavenly Father was with me and that everything would work out fine. 

I love you all so much and am so grateful for the support system I have at home! I hope everyone got to watch conference - it really is so amazing that we have the people to give us direct insight into what Heavenly Father needs us to know in these times! 

love,

Hna Andersen :) 

September 21, 2015

hello everyone! 

first of all, thank you all SO much for all the sweet emails, letters and packages for my birthday! I feel so blessed to have so many amazing people in my life! it was a day pretty normal here in the mish, other than the fact that I was SO sick hahah my stomach just really hates certain foods here but I havent been able to figure out what exactly triggers it. But I was feeling better by the night and my sweet companion filled the ward in that it was my birthday (not sure how because we are together 24/7 and still dont have a cell phone) and they surprised me with a cake at ward council! overall it was a good day despite everything :)

Its true that I am officially over half way, that thought makes me smile and cry all at the same time! This time has gone by sooo fast for me and thinking about having to say bye to these people that have completely changed my life makes my heart serioulsy hurt! but I have a good amount of time to live up still and am grateful for everyday!  

we are in Watermelon HEAVEN here. the ´season´ officially started this week and you can just walk down the street and by these huge slices of watermelon! its serioulsy the best haha and sometimes we´ll buy them whole, cut it in half and each eat the whole half haha Im sure its not helping the stomach problems but its sooo delicious!

3 things I learned that have happened in America since I have been gone:

#1: Bruce Jenner is now a girl?!? hahaha whhhatt.

#2: Donald Trump said something racist about Latinos that made all Bolivans hate him

#3: Tswift has new music that is apparently super good!

hahah when I hear about things that have changed I feel like I am living in such a bubble! but its a good bubble and couldnt be more grateful to be here! this really is Heavenly Father´s work and everyday I am learning new things and loving the peopel more and more! 

love you all so much!! 

Love, 

Hermana Andersen

September 14, 2015

hey everyone!

It's been a crazy week with lots of ups and downs, but such is mission life! we are into HOT HOT days here. everyone tells us if we think this is bad we are in for a treat in October and November  seriously we melt everyday and have some pretty nasty farmers tans. my comp looks in the mirror everyday and says ¨Ah I don't know what to do, everyday I am blacker and blacker!¨ hahah she's really concerned about it and sometimes leaves the house into the burning sun with jackets and tights to avoid getting ¨blacker´´  all I can do is laugh hahah.

This week we were eating lunch and the pensionista´s son left for school and took all the keys with him.. the doors lock from the inside here too hahah so we were locked inside and had some super important appointments to get to.. we had to break OUT of the house and jump from the window. hahah the pensionista was freaking out and I was dying laughing, something I don't think you would ever seen in America with normal doors. 

Super cool experience this week! Saturday we were having a killer day.. every single appointment fell through and we were having no luck contacting or knocking doors. we passed by the church and I told my comp ¨lets go in and go to the bathroom and get out of the sun for a few minutes.¨ as we were locking up to leave a man came running up to us and said ¨sisters! I cant believe I found you!´´ we were a little bit scared hahah and just kinda stood there like ¨uh.. who are you?´ he told us that he is a member that has been inactive for more than 20 years and has been thinking lately about coming back to church. he said that he told himself he would drive by the church and if he found someone to help him that would be his answer that he needs to get back. He came to church for the first time in 20 years yesterday and is more than prepared to reactivate! Its so awesome to see the miracles that happen everyday and the way that Heavenly Father works through us! 

I love this work and these people and couldn't be happier to be here! have the best week! :)

love,

Hermana Andersen :)

September 7, 2015

hello everyone!! 

woah where to start.. its like everytime I get in front of the computer the whole week becomes a blur haha! 

yesterday was ¨Pedestrian day¨ again
.. Its a killer day for us because nobody is in their houses but its a super fun day to be in the street because everyone is out playing in the middle of the road! 

we have been busy this week planning an activity to help one our investigators (Arturo) raise enough money to get married! we just reactivated his wife and he really wants to get married but because they have to get married first which is super expensive for them because they are from Peru.. so lots of prayers that the activity will go good! 

Its been a stressful week because our cellular got robbed.. it was my companions first day with the phone and she seriously did not want to have it hahah but I told her ¨you have to learn at some point!¨ I forgot to mention that you to treat things like that like gold here haha the thieves are SO good and it doesn't matter how ghetto the phone is, they´ll take it! haha she felt soo bad so I couldn't be too upset but its super inconvenient haha! 

I am doing super great here and couldn't be happier, we are finding amazing people and I love seeing the miracles that happen every single day!! Happy Labor Day!! :) 

love, 

Hermana Andersen 

photos:

#1 - our catch from our hunting exhibition last P-day.. hahah jk just a random cow head we found in the road! we spelt it wayyy before we saw it

#2 - taking advantage of being able to be in the middle of the road on pedestrian day! red lights do not mean ¨stop¨ here, so when you see a gap ya just gotta say a prayer in your heart and run for it! (and yes I know I am a giant next to my tiny little comp)

August 31. 2015

Hello everyone!

New transfer, new comp, and lots of new findings! My ´´daughter´´ is Hna Rosillo, she is from Peru and is the sweetest thing! haha I love her because she is super calm but super direct and has awesome ideas and we are working great together! Its been fun to see the things that are different for her about Bolivia because everything that was once ¨weird´´ for me has just become normal! Yesterday we had ward conference and the Bishop was the closing speaker and he got up and before saying anything he whips out a harmoncia and plays a whole song on his harmonica before starting hahah my comp looked at me with wide eyes and said ¨´the weirdest things happen here!¨ I just laughed and told her ´´welcome to Bolivia¨´ also she loves to cook and since we dont have a pensionista for dinner in this area we usually get home so tired at the end of the day and I make myself a nice bowl of cereal but this week I have tried all kinds of Peruvian food and its been super fun! 

I love you all and am so grateful for all the love and support! Congrats to all the Mr. and Mrs. that have gotten married this month! I love wedding pics and wish I could be there with all of you but know this is exactly where I need to be right now! 

love,

Hermana Andersen 

Crazy Week

WOW. 

That one word pretty much sums up this week.. haha I could write pages and pages literally about these past few days but I will save all the details for 10 months from now and tell you the big things.

#1: We got to have a conference with Elder Bednar!! me and my comp were on the 2nd row and it was the most amazing experience I think I have ever had. with him was the presiding bishop of the church, our area 70, area president, and all of their wives! He told us ¨you guys will never have an oppurtunity to be with this many authorities and their wives again so take it in!´´ His son served in this mission 15 years ago so he came too!  It was awesome because he didnt just talk, he asked us questions and interacted with us and let us ask questions too! we talked a lot about prayers, and how prayer isnt just something that we should do and then wait and wait for an answer. we have to pray and then we have to act and Heavenly Father will guide us as we start moving. for example we always say in church ¨help everyone that couldnt be here this week that they can come next week¨ and then we dont do anything about it.. when in reality if that prayer was sincere we would go out and GET those people and bring them to church. also about the Isrealite children when they were promised that the River Jordan would part and they would be able to cross, but it didnt start to part until AFTER their feet were wet. we have to act and start moving to be able to see answers!  

#2. Valeria got baptized!! her whole family came and her older brother is super interested in the church and we will be teaching his family this week! #miracles

#3: Transfers!! I will be training! I am super nervous but super excited for the oppurtunity! she comes in on wednesday so until then I will pretty much be ¨sister hopping¨ - haha I have been doing that since thursday and its basically like whatever member or sisters I can find I stick with, it sounds simple but its actually been real complicated and I think I will need a massage by Wednesday ;) 

well thats just a real small part of this week, its been an adventure to say the least but they are memories that I will never forget and am so grateful for! I love you all and am so grateful for the support! Cuídense! :)

love, 

Hermana andersen