Monday, January 26, 2015

Frozen Yogurt and Intercambios




Homemade Brownies





Cinthia's Baptism





Gotta Love The Cockroaches

Hey everyone! How´s it going? Another super quick week right? wow... and this week I hit my five month mark! Pretty insane.
So anyways, I am currently writing to ya´ll from the very center of Montevideo right now because I had to come here to sign my residency. It´s been such a good P day. I did that and then we ate at the ONLY place in all of Uruguay that has mexican food. California Burrito baby! Best day of my life. and there was frozen yogurt at this mall too so I feel super at home. On the down side of this day, I am also currrently writing to you guys with hair full of sandwich crap. The people here in the city aren´t QUITE as nice as the people in El Pinar... haha I got a sandwich thrown at me by some jerk in the street on my way here. I never thought I would actually have an experience like that in the mish haha but there ya go. I just laughed so it´s all good!
So yeah, for real I´ve had a super good week! we had another baptism on saturday!! Cinthia got baptized and it was a way special day. Also, (thanks mom for the recipe) I made homemade brownies for the baptism and they turned out so freaking good not gonna lie. Everyone loved them and wanted to know how to make them because brownies don´t exist here. so yeah that was really fun to do! I had to buy a lot of cooking supplies to make them though haha we have nothing in our house. 
And speaking of our amazing house, we still have an unbelievable amount of cockroaches and they are multiplying very rapidly hahaha and unfortunately, they started eating all of the electrical stuff so now we have no light in our bedroom... so we have to study and get ready in the morning and do everything in the kitchen. Oh yeah and a cockroach found it´s way into my water bottle the other day and made it´s way into my mouth. BEST EXPERIENCE EVER. I don´t even wanna know how many cockroaches I have eaten in these last few months. so yeah there´s that.
Other than that, we also had a super fun ward activity playing volleyball this week (I feel so uncoordinated now) and we also had zone intercambios! I went to the area of Hermana Leiva from Mexico. It was super fun. They live in a house of four so it was like a big sleepover. We roasted marshmallows over our stove and ate popcorn. Super fun! 
And all of the members are still worried about me being too skinny so I´ve had a lot and I mean A LOT of cakes and crap this week brought to me to make me fat. the best though was the other night, and hermana brought me a giant plate of pancakes drenched in chocolate syrup at like ten o clock at night... I wasn´t complaining. It was delicious but man I have felt so dang sick these days. Definitely gonna start getting super fat! maybe all of my clothes will start fitting me again though haha I had to buy a new skirt today because I´m getting sick of always wearing the same ones that fit me well. lol
so yeah, that´s it for this week! We have no new progressing investigators now that our baptisms are over, so this week will consist of a lot of HUNTING. bring it on.
love you guys! 
xoxoxoxo
amor,

Hermana Sanders

Monday, January 19, 2015

My Besties






Baptisms




Zone Activity









Zone Conference




Dying of Heat

HOLLLAAAAA!!!!!!
how´s everyone doin? Dying of heat like me? oh wait.... you guys have snow. Freaking lucky. Anyways, I hope everyone had an amazing week. My week was AMAZING! We had a multi zone conference earlier in the week and that was the best. Lots of missionaries and we got to hear a lot of good talks and hear from the president as well. They talked a lot about family history work and for real how dang important it is. And they told us some good news.... WE GET TO GO TO THE TEMPLE SOMETIME NEXT MONTH!!!! And they´re gonna let us do some of our own family history work to take our own name with us. Sooo that´s freakin cool. Man I´m so excited. They also talked about being a good steward and how our bodies are temples (Of God) and they don´t belong to us so we should be protecting them with all our might! Physically and spiritually. Also this week, the elders came over to our house to cut our grass. FINALLY! we literally were living in a forest. I´ll send pics haha. and it gave me an excuse to make cookies so yeah, they loved me for that! And then.... yes, we had a baptism!! Nilda was baptized on saturday and confirmed yesterday and she literally glows like an angel ever since! she is AMAZING holy cow. She´s gonna be one faithful member. Saturday was so cool though. I´ve never felt the spirit so strong. seriously. we had seven baptisms in our ward! the elders had a family of five, we had Nilda, and the other elders had another guy. So yeah, pretty cool experience. And after, we had a family home evening with the family that got baptized and I was in charge of the message and wow, the spirit was so strong in that house! It was an amazing day.
And guess what else?? we have another baptism this saturday!! Her name is Cinthia and she is 15 years old. Her cousins invited us over with her (Just how it happened with us and Alex) (Love you Alex!) and she´s been coming to church the past two weeks and she asked her parents for permission to get baptized and they said yes!!! She´s adorable and I´m so stoked for her to get baptized. Seriously I haven´t stopped smiling all week.
And then we started off this week right with a zone activity at the beach and played frisbee and took lots of pictures. That was super fun! We have the best zone. I don´t wanna leave!! but I´m about 99 percent sure I´ll have to leave this next change which is the 11th of February. So I don´t have much time left in this area... which is SO sad! I love the members so much. And apparently they love me too, I don´t know why, but I have received so many random little gifts from the members this week. I´m not complaining but it´s weird! The ward here is seriously thee best. ALMOST as good as ya´ll at home;)
Anyways, that´s it for this week.
I do want to invite you guys to read Alma 26 because one, it´s my favorite chapter in the BOM as a missionary, and two, I know we all become discouraged sometimes and I love Ammon´s example of how to overcome discouragement and to keep going. Patience is Key!
Love you all so much!
Besos,

Hermana Sanders

Monday, January 12, 2015

Open House "capilla abierta"












What a great week!

Hey hey! What a great week right? And fast? Or is that just me? haha but anyways, how was everyones week? Everyone off to a good start with the new year? It´s great to have goals to be working towards and trying to be better each and every day. Not a whole lot happened this week as far as big events other than the church open house in our ward, but we had A LOT of miracles! The open house or ¨capilla abierta¨ was such a cool experience. We did a huge presentation for the people that came in and explained all of the basic principles of the gospel as missionaries (I´ve never talked so much and so fast in my entire life) and then each organization had their own presentations in other rooms with lots of food and stuff like that. It was sooo cool! I´ve never done that before and it was really fun. And it was great that it was our chapel because we got a ton of new investigators and references because of that. One of them is named Alfredo just throwing that out there haha everytime we talk about him I get hungry lololol. But yeah, it was super cool and like I said we got some amazing new investigators. One girl named Cynthia, and then another girl named Tamara, they both are 15 years old. But Tamara is in the elders area... it´s an awkward situation because her aunt is in our ward and wants that us sisters teach her. So we will be teaching her even though she´s technically the elders´investigator. And guess what? I told you about Nilda last week right? How she came to church the day after we met her? yeah, she came to the capilla abierta and then church again yesterday! And guess what else... SHE IS GETTING BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!!! Oh man I´m so excited. She is amazing. Everything else is going so well too. I get closer and closer everyday with all of the people in my area (especially now because I´m not the newbie) haha so now I never want to leave this area... I love it so much. And my companion is amazing too. She officially has 16 months in the mission today so she´s almost done! I learn so much from her everyday.
Okay, Here´s my spiritual thought for the week from my studying:

¨for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength.¨Mosiah 4:27
I love this scripture because we all know how important service and all that is but remember not to try to do more than you really can and do feel bad if all you can do is just a little bit. We all have to grow and all that we can is equal in the eyes of God! We need to be diligent and then win the prize. It has to be in that order. (we must grow D&C 50:40)
D&C 10:4 Do not run faster or labor more than you have strength and means provided, but be diligent unto the end.
I also love this quote: When you have done your very best, you may still experience disappointments, but you will not be disappointed in yourself. You can feel certain that the Lord is pleased when you feel the spirit working through you.¨
I love you guys so much! Have an amazing week!!
xoxoxoxo

Hermana Sanders