Mission Life

Sugar Cookies & Birthday Parties

6 Months!!!

Hellooo everyone:) How´s it goin? Man, what a week! I feel like the work was insane this week. In a good way. And guess what? I have exactly a year left from tomorrow!!! So that´s crazy. But yeah, this week has been filled with all kinds of fun stuff. Last Monday I FINALLY got to make mom´s sugar cookies that I´ve been craving like craaaazy and it was really fun. We don´t have a rolling pin so I had to compromise with a little glass but hey... it worked great haha. Everyone died over those. There´s nothin like em here in urugay. And it was the birthday of one of the Hermanas in our zone this week so my companion and I made a cake and we celebrated in the morning when she came over for intercambios. That was really fun! And Speaking of food, for real, I´m gonna die. The members just bring food randomly to our house almost every night and I´m always still so full from lunch because we eat so dang much but the food is always suuuper good so of course I have to eat it lol. It´s insane here in this area. But hey, at least I´ll be back to a healthy weight in no time!

The members are awesome for real. But I´m pretty sure none of them know my actual name, because literally the whole branch refers to me as their ¨barbie¨because I´m blonde and skinny haha so at church on sundays it´s always öh hey barbie!¨

My companion and I also got to go to Maldonado (thee richest/most touristy part of Uruguay) this week and that was way fun. We have a conference with elder Vinas tomorrow and we are in the choir so we went to Maldonado to practice for that. I´m so excited for tomorrow! Oh man and seriously Maldonado is BEAUTIFUL. when we visit Uruguay after the mish we have to go there and piriapolis for sure.

On the working side of things... it´s great! the members help out a ton.There´s one member named Roberto that comes with us all the time and he´s awesome. Sooo funny. It makes me laugh cause he reminds me of dad a little bit and his name is Roberto! perfect. It´s seriously a miracle what has happened this week. We have like a lot of investigators progressing to be baptized in March and it´s crazy because the area that I´m in hasn´t had a baptism in a suuuuper long time. I think since like July. So if we actually have a baptism it will be so amazing! I can´t wait. The problem with a lot of the people here is that they smoke like crazy, so that´s something they all have to overcome before they can get baptized. We are teaching a lady right now named Liliana and just last week she was smoking like 3 or 4 packs a day but now we´ve got her down to only 10 cigarrettes a day. It´s unreal. She has such a strong testimony of the book of mormon and that helps soo much. We have some other super amazing investigators as well that are totally ready to get baptized. they just have to come to church first! Ahh I love the people here so much. The members and investigators both are sooo amazing. And my companion Hermana Eddington is thee best. I love her so freaking much! And the other sisters we live with are from Chile and Brasil and they are AWESOME! We have wayyy too much fun together.

So yeah, the mission is pretty much the best thing in the world! But... I still miss you guys like crazy.

Have the best week EVERRR!!

xoxoxo

Love,

Hermana Sanders

My new companion and area

Changes Conference

Saying Goodbye

I see cows...

Hey hey! How´s everyone doin? I love short weeks like this cause I get to write ya´ll sooner. But oh my goooodnessss what a great week! I already love this change. It was suuuper hard to leave El Pinar and all of the people there though. I got lots of letters from my converts and some members and some cute gifts too so that made it fun. I cried when I had to say goodbye to Carlos and Natali though because they had to freaking cry! That was hard. But I´m planning on going to the temple with them in less than a year now so thats good. And I had a super awkward moment when we went to say goodbye to my favorite family with three little girls. They ran outside and asked which one of us was leaving and I told them that I was. And the youngest (Ailen) she´s nine years old was like ¨Nooo I want it to be your companion that is leaving!!!¨and yeah... it was super awkward for everyone. But anyways, after all that hard stuff everything has been fantastic! The conference for changes was awesome. And we found out that now we get to have 30 minutes every p day if we want to do our family history in order to find a name that we can take to the temple to do the work for. So I am suuuper stoked about that! We are going to the temple and having interviews with the president sometime this change. We don´t know when yet but Im so so so excited! 

Okay and this is INSANE. last p day I went to the pharmacy with my comp cause she had to buy something there and there was a machine that tells you how much you weigh and how much body fat you have and everything. I was curious cause I know I´ve lost weight so I did it... yeah. I had NO idea I lost THAT much weight!!! Umm I weigh 98 pounds right now. I´m pretty sure I weighed more than that when I was like 12 years old haha. It´s disgusting. The good (but not really) thing is that now I live in a house of four girls and we are always cooking and baking and the members give us and bring us food like crazy so I´ve already gained back like two pounds. In less than a week haha. 

But anyways, about my area and companion and everything. It´s amazing for real! My companion is the biggest sweetheart. She´s from Roosevelt Utah. and the girls we live with are so fun too. They are absolutely insane so there is never a dull moment in the house. And I love having more people to cook for! haha. oh and there´s a member that does like a farmers market thing every sunday, so every sunday we get to go and pick up all of the fruits and vegetables that we want for the week for free. so that´s awesome because I eat fruits like craaaaazy.

The area... Well I´m livingmy country girl dream right now. Where´s my cowboy boots? haha. I think I teach more cows than people but it´s chill. There are parts where we have to walk like 30 minutes with no houses or anything in sight. just cows. and horses.The other day... this is so embarrassing. I had to go to the bathroom sooo bad and we had a long walk ahead of us.... and there was nobody around so luckily there were lots of trees and stuff too... and yeah, that definitely happened. I am utilizing all of the resources I have here hahaha. Itscool though because it kinda looks like utah because it´s the one part in Uruguay that house ¨mountains¨more like hills. and it has a famous hill with a cross at the top that we´re planning on hiking to one day.and we{re  close to Piriapolis (I´m there right now writing because there isn´t a place in my area) and it´s a super touristy area so there´s some pretty sweet houses and the beach and restaurants and stuff like that! It´s fun. 

It´s kinda hard cause I came here and they have absolutely NO investigators. sooo this week is gonna be a week of searching for new people like crazy! We gotta work super hard but I have faith that we will find people if we are diligent. Also, here we teach english classes every friday! So on friday with my comp I taught my very first english class. It was sooo fun. But kinda hard I didn{t know exactly what to teach. But we were successful! And then yesterday... oh my gosh. I loved meeting all the members and everything. Oh yeah I forgot to tell you. In this area it´s just a branch. the chapel is like a cute little doll house I love it! we had like 80 people in the church yesterday. But anyways, we were entering into the sacrament room and the president informed me that I would be speaking/bearing my testimony in sacrament for 15 minutes. so yeah. NO time to prepare. I was so nervous because not only did I have to talk for 15 minutes, but I had to do it in spanish! and they asked me to direct the music for the himns... that was interesting. Man most stressful sunday of my life! But somehow I was able to talk for a whole 15 minutes. Luckily I´ve got the spirit to help me out a bit haha. 

So anyways... wow long email. Lots happened this week! I´m super excited to be in this area with the best companion in the WORLD!

I hope all of you guys are doing GREAT.

I love and miss you so much!

xoxoxox

Hermana Sanders

Happy Valentines!

Zone Activity

Zone Conference

New Area - Pan de Azucar

Hey everyone! HAPPY VALENTINES!!! And happy birthday on the 12th to Grandma Sanders:) I love you! So this week was GREAT. Even though it was an extra day longer because of changes... speaking of changes. I´m leaving my area! I´m super excited and suuuper sad all at the same time. There are so many people here in this area that are so dear to my heart. I don´t wanna leave them. I have to say goodbye to everyone tonight and I´m probably gonna cry... it´s the worst. But I´ve had fun making brownies for all of them! (They love the american brownies haha). I´m excited though. I´m going to an area called ¨Pan de Azùcar¨ in the zone Minas. It´s not too far from here. Still somewhat close to the coast! I guess it´s just a really small branch there with a really tiny church. My companion right now was there for her first area and loved it. And My new companion will be Hermana Eddington from utah as well! Not gonna lie, I was kind of disappointed when I found out that I´ll have a gringa companion because I don´t wanna lose my spanish... but it will be fun too! I think I´ll be able to relate to her a lot more, so I´m excited. And I´ll be living in a house with two other latinas so it will be great! I´m excited. I´m leaving suuuper early in the morning.

So yeah, there´s changes! There isn´t too much to tell about this week. The begining of the week started off pretty slow and we didn´t really have any new investigators, but we suffered with patience and ended up having a lot of success in the past couple of days! We are teaching the future son in law of a family in our ward and he´s already reading the book of mormon and is getting baptized on the 28th of this month! I´m super sad I won´t be here... cause he´s super cool and they are one of my favorite families. But I´m still really excited for him. His fiancee is adorable too! They´ll get married in the temple in a year! ahh. And yesterday it was so cute, an 8 year old boy came up to us in the street and started asking us a bunch of questions and wanted a pamphlet to read. So we gave him one and he asked us to come visit his family this week. So unfortunately I can´t go, but hopefully my companion will be able to baptize an entire family!

Also... I RECEIVED MY VALENTINES PACKAGE! Thank you sooo much to everyone for the ¨heart attack¨ with all those cute notes. I was crying and laughing all at the same time as I read them. For real, it made my entire week! I love you guys and miss you so much.

Scripture for the week:

D&C 123:12-17. Talks about the importance of sharing the gospel and how there are so many people searching for the truth and they just don´t know where to find it. Through small and simple things and actions, we can help them find the truth! Never be afraid to share your testimony:)

I hope everyone has the best week EVER! Remember how much I love all of you.

Besos,

Hermana Sanders

Pics of the week

EMail

Hey hey familia!

How´s it goin? Good news! No food in my hair this week:) haha so it´s definitely a step up. Mom and dad your pitch perfect jokes killed me this week. I can´t stop laughing.Ï´ve been hit by flying mexican food¨hahaha.Ok first and foremost so I don´t forget, cambios are next week so remember that my p day will be on tuesday. can you believe that? this change flew by sooo fast. and I´m pretty dang positive I´ll be changed. I´m super sad cause I get closer and closer to the people here every week but at the same time i´m ready to experience another area and find more people to serve. 

This has been an awesome week! I´m so grateful for all the recipes mom has sent me. I´ve been able to experiment, and I made some cinnamon oatmeal cookies the other day, and also banana spice cookies with cream cheese frosting. those were super good not gonna lie. (so you can stop worrying about me getting to skinny because my own baking is making me fat) but now everyone is obsessed with my brownies so I´ve had to make them like three different times this week for different activities. Including today. We had another zone activity today that was super fun! It was just at our chapel and we played volleyball, soccer, and basketball. Half of the hermanas didn´t do anything, and the other half played volleyball the whole time, so I was the only hermana playing basketball with the elders for a solid three hours... it wore me out so much but I haven´t had THAT much fun in awhile. I loved it! I miss sports.... A half hour of ab workouts in the mornings just doesn´t quite do it for me. But oh well haha.

A down side to this week is that I got suuuper sick. Tuesday night I started throwing up after we got home and then I woke up really sick on wednesday (the day we had interchanges with the hermana viajantes) and I had to go to Carrasco with Hermana Orme. I was ready to work though and everything. We had to visit Hermana Burnett in her apartment really quick and she told me not to go out that day but we still did. We were walking in the street and talking with people for about two hours and then I started needing to throwup again and felt like passing out so we had to go back to the apartment for the rest of the day... It was thee worst. I hate not being able to work! And I was so sad because Hermana Burnett invited us over for dinner and she made ENCHILADAS and I couldn´t eat them:( saddest thing ever. But it was good cause Elder burnett gave me a blessing and it helped a lot. He is such a cool guy and SO in tune with the spirit.But yeah... I have still been throwing up these days after that too but I´ve felt better and have been able to work everyday. It´s no fun in the street though when I have to throw up hahaha. But I made it through yesterday and today without so I think I´m completely better! Hopefully. There´s an hermana in our ward (Silvana Gonzalez Mila) and she is always sooo worried about me so she always stops by our house and brings me soup and fruits and stuff. Seriously she is amazing. 

Other good (spiritual) things that happened this week: On saturday we found a homeless guy (homie lol) chillin at a bus stop so we stopped to talk to him. he told us how he was just looking for some food and was gonna sleep there for the night. Luckily, Nilda had her birthday and we had just come from visiting her and she gave me some birthday cake that I was taking home to eat later and so I was able to give that to him and we also gave him a pamphlet to read. We invited him to church for sunday and he said he would come, but he never did.... but at least we were able to give him a little bit of food! And ahh my two most recent converts are both so amazing. Cinthia just got her temple reccoment to do baptisms for the dead and we are helping her do her family history so she can get baptized for her grandma that died about a year ago. And Nilda pays her tithing every single week and she told us that every week it´s more and more and she can already see the Lord blessing her for doing so. They are amaaaaazing! 

Okay totally off topic, but Alex sent me a picture of the new raptors.... HOLY CRAP. Feel free to buy me one for when I come home;) just kidding. But wow they are good lookin´.

On that note, here´s a spiritual thought for the week lol.

I was reading about Pres. Hinckley and how he found success in dealing with his discouragement as he renewed his decision to serve the Lord. He said: The best antidote I know for worry is work. The best medicine for despair is service. The best cure for weariness is the challenge of helping someone who is even more tired.

I love that. It´s so true. There´s days I feel like there´s now way I can work, but I always walk out the door and the Lord blesses me with the strength as I strive to serve others.

Also, One last quote that I love from Neal A. Maxwell:

Being blessed with hope, let us, as disciples, reach out to all who, for whatever reason, have moved away from the hope of the gospel. Let us reach to lift hands which hang hopelessly down.

That´s it for this week.

Love you guys lots!!!

xoxoxo

Hermana Sanders