Monday, June 12, 2017

IT'S RAINING IT'S RAINING I'M TRAINING


Hey folks well.......I write you today from the capilla but in about
an hour and a half I'm headed to the bus station to catch a bus to
MÁLAGA!! Why? Well I'll tell y'all in a minute.

So this week has been great. Hna Johnson and I did an English fast
this week and what that means is we speak straight Spanish 24/7. All
of our goals throughout the transfer led up to this last week of full
Spanish. We did it so that poco a poco, we spoke more and more Spanish
every week so it would be less hard to go all the time......we'll it
wasn't. It was hard. But we started and ended it with a fast. So
Sunday after lunch, we started a food fast as well as an English fast
and fasted for the strength to complete our goal. Deciding to do this
goal wasn't easy but during weekly planning we said a comp prayer to
ask if it was a reasonable goal and if it would be good to set it. We
both got the confirmation that it was what we needed to do so our food
fast was to receive the strength to do our English fast. Well.....we
got it and we learned a lot. We were a lot more focused (hah go
figure), improved our grammar, and had fun. We had a really hard day
on Tuesday and we discussed the goal and I asked Hna Johnson if she
wanted to change it and she looked me in the eye and said, "No. I want
to finish it. It's going to be hard but I want to finish it." I was so
proud of her. And we did. We finished it. And it was awesome.

I'm trying to remember what else happened this week and I just can't.
Everyday has just been one day closer to transfer calls so that's
crazy. Really don't even know where this transfer went. Flew by. But
on Saturday, we went to a cita around 4 o'clock with one of our menos
activas who is a straight máquina. So we are sitting in there, sharing
a message, feeling the spirit, when the phone which was in my pocket
starts to vibrate. So I pull it out to silence it and I see caller ID
and it says, "Pdte. Andersen".......and then the freak out began. But
I calmly (on the outside not the inside) silenced it and put it back
in my pocket and kept listening to the lesson all while having a flip
out moment in my mind and body. Then the phone of our member rings and
I look at Hna Johnson and say under my breath, "President Andersen."
And she just smiled and is like, "it's for you! Calm down." So when we
got out of the cita (ended up getting two references in that cita so
that was awesome) I called him back and....,NO ANSWER! But he sent us
a text saying he couldn't talk right then. We told him sorry and that
we were in a cita and he says, "Never apologize for that.....I will
call later tonight. You may want to talk to me!" Well yes that helped
the nerves. So we just left it until later.

So after this, we went to Smöoey which is a FroYo place where our
investigator works. We haven't been able to get ahold of her this week
so, like the creeps we are, we thought we would go to her work. (Keep
in mind this is Saturday.....in the afternoon......and we had just
started our fast a few hours before) So our plan was to casually go
buy some frozen yogurt bc we knew she would be working and that would
give us a chance to talk to her. So we walk by and see her working,
and couldn't commit so we just walked past from a distance. Then far
away, Hermana Johnson turns to me and goes, "Ok, rock-paper-scissors.
You win, you decide if we go or not; I win, I decide." (Because it's
not Not weird to show up to your investigators work) Me: "Soooo the
goal here is to lose?" Hna Johnson: "Yes." So we duel. 1x: Hna
Johnson's paper beats my rock. Hna Johnson: "Best two out of three"
2x: Her paper beats my rock AGAIN!! So.....we went. And we bought ice
cream. And came out with a cita with our investigator. WIN.
But.....then we had a conundrum. We are fasting. And we have a big
thing of ice cream in our hand.
Hna Johnson: "Should we just eat it? Home is 10-15 minute walk."
Me: "No that feels like sinning."
So what do we do? Walk home. And what does the ice cream do? Melt bc
it's hot outside. And who ended up holding it? Me. So we got a lot of
weird looks and I was holding this cup of icrecream that was dripping
all over my hands and leaving, not a trail of breadcrumbs, but of
melted ice cream all the way home. People looked at us like, "Stupid
Americans you're supposed to EAT the ice cream." So that was the
adventure of the night. Advice: Make sure to creep on your ice cream
making investigator when you're NOT fasting. But this just goes to
show the sacrifices we make for the Lord and helping the people we
teach.

So that night, we saw some other miracles. Followed the spirit back to
the house of a menos activa who we had already passed by that day when
she wasn't home and when we went back we got to teach her. But long
shory stort, we waited up until 11:30 (bedtime) for a phone call from
president......and it never came......the Lord has been teaching me a
lot of patience this week.

But the next morning, when all of us (including president) still have
sleep in our voices, we got a call. Hna Johnson is headed off to
Torremolinos and then I will be going to Malaga today to pick up my
new little missionary tomorrow. That's right, IM TRAINING!! I'm
nervous because I don't want to mess up that poor Hermana right off
the bat, but I'm excited to help build the foundation of her mission
with her and see her grow in ways she won't even notice. So the next
three days will be crazy but it'll be an adventure.

I'm incredibly humbled by this calling and so excited really. I was
nervous about it yesterday when I was doing my studies and had a
feeling to read in General Conference talks and I had been reading in
the April 1985 talks so I went back to the list and the first talk I
saw said, "Prepared To Serve" so I read it. It's by M. Russell Ballard
and oh my.....SO FUERTE. It was directed to the priesthood and I
wondered how it would help me as a trainer when I came across this
quote, "Of all the training I have received in my Church assignments,
none has been more important to me than the training I received as a
nineteen-year-old elder serving a full-time mission in the British
Isles. As I look back now, I can see that no training in my life was
more important for what I am now doing in the Church than the training
I received as a full-time missionary." It made me realize the weight
of this calling but I also realized that my entire mission, I've been
in training. Training for my life. I firmly believe, that God has been
putting me in certain areas to learn very different, very specific
things to prepare and TRAIN me for very specific experiences I will
have later in life. I'm grateful for my Heavenly Father for constantly
stretching me further and further so I can reach the potential that He
sees in me. I love this work and this gospel and I'm excited to share
that love with my new companion.

Thanks all for the support!! Have a great week!!

Kia Kaha

Hermana Twede

We have cool graffiti in our area


Daryel......he's crazy

Sunsets here never get old


CHORIZO!!! I made her try it. She didn't like it. SPAIN

Turtle park in our area

We made fried rice. She had been asking for it forever so she was ahappy camper

My little Guapi giving me a manicure





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