memorial day

Well, I guess you didn't get the letter I sent you last week... That's ok, I'll probably tell you everything that happened again...

Yeah, Library was closed yesterday, so we are emailing on a tuesday this week. Hope you check for it today ;) I was wondering how Lulo was doing. Do you happen to know his MTC address? I'd love to write him... :/ Also, Can you find out Morgan Child's mission address? She wrote me and I really want to respond, but she gave me her MTC address, and I didn't get the letter until after she had left! haha! Postage can be so fast sometimes, and other times it can be so slow... I don't know most of those names, and the ones I do, I don't know super well (some of them I didn't even think were mormon from the way they acted in school... but whatever) I'm excited that Sister Christensen's daugher is getting married!

Summer sounds exciting. I will brainstorm skirt ideas, draw them up and mail it to you (Too bad it's not hats you need, in my college stuff I patterened really cute Dr. Suess themed girl's hats...) I will talk with Elder Sorenson too, he was in Suesical the Musical, so he probably has some fun ideas. BTW- He's cool, he's a brat-tard, but he's cool. He went to Snow College and did Theater there, we know a lot of the same people, places, ect. It's great. He's very fun, very obnoxious, and likes to harrass me.... but I've noticed recently that a lot of Elders are enjoying finding ways to pester me.

Recently their pranks have been;

Parking in a square around my car, so that we cannot drive away. (That was the  most obnoxious)

Changing the background picture on our phone to pictures of them making weird faces.

Changing their names in our phone, and setting our phone to spanish. (We need to quit letting them use our phone...) Switching our keys. Writing jokes in our planners. Leaving notes for us to find in the library...Among various other random things.  We are surrounded by Elders at the very second which I am typing....

 

Yes, I did get the CTR rings! $1 each? wow! I thought they would be like, 20 cents... at most... that's a lot, but thanks. The package was cute too, I'm using the same envelope to mail ya'll some stuff. Sending it today! I replied to Jessie's letter before I read this email, so a few sentences are mildly out-dated... but whatever. There is also that random gift for Jacob, and some pictures. Oh! and an envelope for Grant. :P I think that's all..

 

Sister Cole and I would be getting along just fine..... if she were still my companion. I wrote you a letter last monday (I think I already said that I guess you didn't get it....:P) but, she hurt her knee and had to go home to recover. My companion is now Sister Otto, and we get a long pretty great. She likes Doctor Who, and she... well, she's basically me except from Idaho. It was a little creepy though, because she knew exactly who I was, and a bunch of stuff about me, because she looked up the Texas Dallas Mission page on facebook, and followed all the Missionaries that she saw on there. Haha, so she already knew my name, where I was from, your name (mom), that I liked doctor who, that I cosplayed as 11, that I drew a lot, that I knew how to sew, that I had a large collection of photo-shopped David Tennant pictures, that I liked MLP... She's pro-level stalker/facebook addict.  She's awesome.

Investigators? Right now we are just teaching Brother Diaz. He was supposed to get baptized this saturday, but he postponed it till the 22nd, so that his entire family and many other people could come to the baptism. We are glad that he is suddenly so excited for people to be there. We are working on finding more investigators.

Again, if you had gotten my letter, you would have known that I was safe from the Tornadoes.

 

I am 100% certain that I have a billion more things to say to you. But what they are, is a mystery to me... I have  a two new friends in the ward. They are 9 and 10 year old girls, and they love My Little Pony. We went to eat at their house for dinner the other day, and their parents want me to move here after my Mission and be their permanent baby sitter! haha!

 

Hmmm, what else? I haven't written to President Durrant yet, so I can't include that email.

I don't know. I think that's it... I'll go write to him, and then come write more if I think of anything.

Love ya!

~Sister Sanders

 

Saw an Armadillo!!! Finally :)

I haven't recieved your letter yet, though this week I finally was able to send the letter that I wrote in response to the group of letters ya'll sent a bit ago. I did get the cards! And I love them! They are so beautiful, and so fun to use! My companion wants to get her own set, and several sets to give to the people we baptize! I think that's a bit expensive, but if she insists, she can do it with her own money. I do have a gospel art book, I don't use it much because the pictures are in a weird order, and the book is too big to fit in my purse, but I do have one, and we keep an extra in the car in case we ever come across  the need for it. .

Glad to hear things are going good for the most part!

I do have some exciting news though!!!! I SAW AN ARMADILLO!!! It was super cute! I saw it for approximately 3.6 seconds as we drove past and I demanded that the car be turned around so that we could get a picture. Sister Ackerman said no, because we were going down a one way road, and it would take about 25 minutes to get back to that spot if we were to try to go back, so next time I have to spot it quicker. Drats. It was alive though, and I DID see it!

I have a couple spiritual insights/challenges that I've been wanting to share with ya'll, but I'm struggling to find the right wordings for it... 

Alright- I'll just go for it, and if something sounds weird or doesn't make sense, you can just ask. So, conference talked a LOT about Members doing missionary work as well, and the following is a tool that has been tested and proven for members to use in helping missionaries find people to teach.

"Would you be willing to listen to a brief presentation about my religion?"

Ask that question to everyone. It may be a bit harder in Utah, since most people are already LDS, but really, there are a great deal of people who are not LDS, and have never been invited to hear about our church! One of the appostles said that ONE THIRD of the world's population is ready to join our church, they just don't know how.

So how do you help? Say you go to the store. I KNOW you talk to the cashier. Find out if they are mormon, if they're not, use the above question. If they say yes, you get their Name, Address, Phone Number and the time/day thatthey are usually most avaliable, then you send that information to the local missionaries! We've had a few baptisms in our mission that have happened because members ask this question with people they meet! Ya'll should give it a try, and let me know how things work out.

I had another insight to share, but my time is almost up, so I'll share it next week.

I love you a bunch and I hope to continue to hear good news from you.

God Bless!

~Sister Sanders

 

2 months (comes before happy tax day)

Two Months already? Wow... That's crazy. I was thinking while I watched conference that there was no possible way it had alredy been 6 months since I started my Mission Papers... Time is going by so quickly!

 

I am doing fantastic! The fleas are mostly gone. I did get sick though this week and had to stay in for a day. I just got really dehydrated, so I need to drink more...

 

My new companion is....Well, her name is Sister Ackerman, and she is very different from Sister Hansen. That's about all I can say right now. We are adjusting...

 

I don't know who does the Transfer pictures, I tried looking around for someone with a camera, but I didn't see anyone, that's exciting that you got to see me though! Tell Eliza thanks for me. :)

 

We did get to watch conference! It was super lonely though, because we went to the church to watch it, and found out that at the church they broadcast it in Spanish, so we had to go sit all alone in the Relief Society room and be the only english- watchers. xD It was great though. I loved how they had a repetative theme of building your foundation on Christ. In every session they used Helaman 5:12 at least once. I also really wished we had been able to get some of our investigators to watch conference with us, because it taught ALL of the missionary lessons.... Probably my all time favorite for this conference was Neil L. Anderson's talk. I think every member in the world should print that, frame it and read it daily! It talked about how not just the Missionaries are serving missions right now. EVERYONE is a missionary. That means you guys too! As a Missionary my all time favorite things is when members call us and ask how they can help. When they ask who they can visit, or who they could teach. It's just great. I also REALLY loved President Uchtdorf's talk, but that's not a surprise, because I just love President Uchtdorf.... And Elder Porter's talk about being positive was pretty inspiring too.

I don't know what my 25 words would be... I'd have to think about it more. :|

 

Oh! I looked up the Africa pictures in the New Era, just so you know... that back of a white person's head was pretty exciting ;)

 

Happy Birthday. Since you didn't mention my card, I'm going to assume that it didn't arrive on time, but don't think I forgot it was your birthday (because I totally didn't.)

 

Remember Billy- the guy who wouldn't let his son get baptised. Well guess what? Now, on top of agreeing to let Devin get baptized, he has also started reading to Book of Mormon! MIRACLES! It made me so happy to hear that the other day. :) Many of the rest of our investigators are struggling right now, but I'm trying to stay positive and just let them know how much they are loved...

 

I'm really not focusing very well today, so I think I'm gonna end my letter here. I just want you all to know how much I love you. Even if you don't write me, I think about you every day, and I often tell people how amazing you are. Stay strong, and keep making righteous choices.

 

Love always,

Sister Sanders

Happy Tax Day

Wow! So much news in just one week! I don't know how to respond to it all... Today has been a good day so far, we've washed our car and now we are at the library. Later today we will go shopping and then go out with the other Sisters in our District. It's going to be a great day. :)

This week was pretty tough though. The first letter I recieved was on Friday. I was feeling really unloved, but hearing for all ya'll help cheer me up quite a bit. :D Sister Ackerman really laughed at Jacob's letter.

Sister Ackerman and I are getting along pretty well. Not perfectly, but you can't expect to get along 100% with everyone. I'm glad to hear that Peter is doing well, and that he is doing such good work befriending Jacob. :) He is a good guy.

I know all the names for the new Bishopric, but I can't place the faces for them. I'm sure they will do an excelent job, and I doubt Bishop Olsen will be any less involved with the welfare of the ward.

That's exciting that Bryant is heading out on a mission! And yes, I knew about Morgan. She got her call a couple weeks after I did, so I knew about it  a while ago. :)

Super Jealous of Amanda's Puppy. Do you have Robyn's Address? Maybe a letter from a missionary will cheer her up! ;) What is Lydia expecting? And that's awesome for Kirsten! Glad to hear the frogs were ok. I was worried when no one mentioned them in the letters you sent. (seriously)

No, it's not technically allowed for Matt and Paula to stop and see me.

Slap Ryan for me. Keep up the good work Jacob.

Glad you got the card. :) Did you like the picture? (We have an offical ward photographer- you know how they make up callings to keep people active? He takes his job very seriously. I have a few more pics, I might send them when I get time. :P)

Can you send me some pics of Taylee and Taron? I tell everyone about them, but I didn't bring any pictures and people don't believe me about how adorable they are.

Another favor- remember a while ago when I really liked those Book of Mormon hero posters, (Real hero, or true hero, something like that) and I wanted some, but they were super expensive. Well, I was thinking about those again the other day. We are teaching a lot of families, and for the children I would love to use a few of those pictures for visual aide. I know they sell them in smaller sizes (5X7, 3X6?) But I don't know how much they cost, and I can't shop online anyways, so could you check that out for me? Thanks. UGHHGHSAJFNEAIFHOINF I have so much more to say, but I'm running out of time and I still have some other things I need to do on the computer. I'm gonna go do that sups quick and if I have time I will come write more, but if not I will write you this week. 

****Note from Sara's mom. The posters and pictures have been sent. The pictures on here are from a facebook group. It is transfer day. One of the members goes and takes the pictures, then posts them for us. Enjoy!

Happy Easter

I'm sorry I disturbed you with my Zombie Child story, it disturbed me too... In the future should I refrain from telling scary stories? If so I should probably leave out the story about Simba the cat...

...

You got my pictures already? Hurrah! I'm glad they made it home so quickly. :) I noticed after I printed them off that I am wearing glasses in all of those pictures, which is weird because I've been wearing contacts more... I guess the camera just likes me more when I wear glasses?? :P

Brother Jubera's Baptism went great, he bore such a cute testimony afterwards too... Unfortunately though, he missed the train Sunday morning and was late to church, so he was unable to get confirmed. He has to wait until the 14th! So long.... :<

More sad news is that we got "The Call." Sister Hansen is being transfered away from me. We've been crying for the past two days consistantly. Sister Hansen has been a great companion, and it feels like we've known each other our whole lives. Also, she's been in the Rowlett Area for 7 months, so she's having a hard time saying goodbye to all the ward members and investigators who have become like family to her. It breaks my heart to see the people I love crying.

And yet more sad news.... The cat who lives with us (Not our cat, because we cannot have cats.... probably specifically for this reason...) *awkard sentance transition* Her name is Lefty, and she is super adorable. She is really friendly, and when we go jogging in the morning, she runs along side us, and I love her a lot. Well, recently, she's been craving LOTS of attention. We found out a couple of days ago that she has fleas. Long story short, Sister Sanders probably has fleas. I've been very physically miserable, but we are working on getting rid of it, and as long as I wear long sleeves and tights, I don't look overly diseased...

Here is where I would probably share the story of Simba, but since you're not adventurous enough for zombies, well, let's just share the cool part of the story- I found out that bamboo grows wildly in Texas! That was fun. :)

What else happened this week? I can only remember so much....I ate possum, and it was super tastey... Kind of like melted marshmellows... I have yet to see an Armadillo......

 

Oh! The Easter Bunny was still able to find me in Texas. :) He actually found me a couple of times, so that was fun. :) For Easter we gave all of our investigators little plastic cupcakes filled with Jelly Beans and the CUPCAKES thing that you made up. They all loved it.

 

Billy- the guy we went fishing with, finally gave permission for his son to be Baptized, and we were super excited about that, but then we talked to the son... He had previously loved the church so much, because at home his life was hectic and not any fun, but since we've started talking with his Dad, Bily has become nicer and things at home have gotten better. He thinks he doesn't need the church anymore, he doesn't realize that the church is what has made things better in his life... It's super frustrating. We have a couple investigators who are right on the edge of... I don't even know what, but they are so confused....

 

Have any of you had contact with Landon Hills at all recently? I don't know why, but I've been thinking about him a lot. And something that I've realized since coming on my mission is that if you think about someone, you probably should talk to them as soon as you can. So, if you could get me his contact info or something, that would be great. I have no clue what I will say to him, but I need to say something.

 

Well, I have about 14 minutes left, but I can't think of what else I had to tell you, besides the Simba story.... Maybe I'll type it and if you're too scared to read it, you don't have to, but if you want to you can....

 

 

***Simba the Cat: Once upon a Time, there was a woman who was ignoring us, but who we HAD to talk to, so we were basically stalking her for several weeks. One day we were praying in the car that we would have an opportunity to teach her, and just as we finished praying, her family gathers outside of her house, so we book it over to her and ask if we can teach a lesson. She says no, because her cat Simba had run away. So we asked if we could serve her by helping her look for him. She agreed. Simba had recently had a surgery, so he was in a cone, and he needed his medicine or else he could die, so we go looking for him in the forrest by her house. Well, we are searching for him, and A WILD DOG comes running after us, so we are running away, but he catches us and tears his teeth into the woman whose cat we are looking for... It was a really bad bite... so, I grab a piece of bamboo, and guard the dog away from us, as she hobble home.... The end. We have not seen her since. We did find the cat, but we were unable to catch it, and I don't know what happened from there on.... It was just fun, climbing through a forest, fighting off wild dogs, bleeding to death, oh, and trying to get help from a man who knew only spanish.... "Gato.... Naranja? This big. Lost Gato... No can find... Es Sick. SIIICK. Gato hable 'cough cough' Understand?" haha.... -___- That's all... time is up now. ;)

 

I love you all! I should probably start sharing more spiritual thoughts with you, but I always forget until time is almost out... A scripture I plan on sharing with Gail today is Mosiah 23:10. It talks about how the lord hears our prayers, and it's really pretty. I have a lot of scriptures that I have grown to love,  remind me, and I'll share a few in the next letter. :) Have I talked to you at all about Gail? I think I told you about her son, who watched My Little Pony.... Oh! That reminds me- Grandma Heuer, the mother of the man who owns our house- watches My Little Pony. :) Only because her grandson likes it, but still. She's amazing. I'll tell you more about her next time too if I get the chance.

 

Love you very much! Stay strong, set good examples, Tell the seminary teachers hi! Bye!~

First week of March

I did get the package! And that's weird that the zip code was wrong... I just typed what my companion told me our address was... (but personally I think she's mildly dixlesic...) I got some mail from Alison Dixon... who else asked for my address?

That's sad that they have such misinforming shows about Mormonism. A lot of people have really weird ideas about us, and as missionaries we are supposed to clear up misunderstandings, but it's super hard. Like the otherday someone asked if we saw his picture in the paper, and we said "No, we don't read newspapers." Meaning we as missionaries, but he got really embarassed and thought it meant that Mormons couldn't read newspapers.... it's absurd!

Good luck with Jessie's meds. How much longer does Weston have on his mission? and Congrats to Manti Theater, we always rock the house.

OUAT- update. We went to someone's house last night and they were watching it... I almost died on them, I was like TURN ITOFF I CANT WATCHTHATBUTIIIIII WANNNTTTTOOOO SO BADDD *sob sob sob* and my  companion almost died of laughter. Then we spent a good deal of time talking about it, and shared a scripture with them. They are a fun family. The little boy is amazing too! He just got baptised in November and since then he has completely read the Book of Mormon and is working on it the second time, already in 3 Nephi!

Snow? haha. I read in your email from last week (that came with the package) something about flowers and I thought it was weird, we've had flowers since the day I arrived here, and it's be 80-95 degrees the past couple of weeks. :3 It's super nice. However, saturday we had a super bad lightning storm- It was still 80 degrees, and there was no rain, but lots of lightning, so we had to postpone the fishing trip. :< Everything else is going great- I'm not sure about the meds yet. My hair HATES Texas- like, usually I can shake my hair and it's dry, here, I blow dry it and it still take 3+ hours to dry, and the wind here is really dirty, so that's gross. And it rains dirt too, which is also gross. My feet..... hurt. A lot, but I'm getting used to it. My arms are also in a lot of pain thanks to all the lovely little bugs that enjoy biting me all day long....

 

In response to your last letter- you said you would like to hear more about Hosea- What did I already say? lol. We now call him Brother Jubera as he is on his way to baptism, and he is hilarious! He's been baptised into 5 different churches, but doesn't feel that he's found the complete truth in all of them. After our church we asked what he thought and he said "I've seen better, but it's good." He LOVES preisthood, and the idea that the Holy Ghost can be our constant companion is something that he really likes also. He cries whenever we talk about Joseph Smith... The only problem is- He won't stop smoking. He claims that he's not addicted, so it's not a problem, but it is... We hope to help him with that and have him baptised by the end of the month.

 

We also met an amazing Woman named Candace this week. She was hesitant to let us in the door, but her 5 year old daughter (who has the strongest spirit I have ever felt) came running up to us and said "I love you. I like you. Your church is true." So Candace let us in and she said "I've always read the Bible, but I feel like something is missing, do you know what happened to the rest of the scriptures?" So we told her about the Book of Mormon, and she said that she knows it's true. :') That is the only meeting we have had with her so far, but we get to see her again tonight, and hopefully she is still on the same page as us... Did I tell you guys the story about Anita? It's a sad story, but I don't have much time left so let me know I didn't tell you about it already and I will tell you about it next week...

 

Thank Jacob for burning the CDs. My companion loves hearing me talk about you all. Every night she asks me to tell her another story about my family, and she really enjoyed Jacob's note. (I will reply to that by hand, because I have some things to say that cannot be described with words.) She also constantly tells me that I am so good at telling stories I should be a comedian, or write a book... oh!!! Which made me think of something else that I wanted to say to Nino... You should make sure she has my right address, or find out hers and give it to me, because I have to write her!!! gah!!!

Currently we have 2 members and 1 investigator who are Bakers, and they love to make Cupcakes/Muffins and other things for us, so I'm probably going to be 700 lbs by the time you see me again- just letting you know... but I have grown the love daily excersize (I don't love the time frame, but I do love the movement....) Sundays are super hard, because we don't get to excersize, and we have six hours of church. Yesterday was especially precious to try and stay awake through it all. Daylight savings, and we had to wake up early to get people to church... bleh. Fast Sunday wasn't too bad, except my companion who rarely eats, forgot to take time at the end of the day so we could break our fast... I was pretty much dead by the time we got home.

Times up, but I would love to say more... I'll write again next week~ Love you! Bye.

-Sister Sanders

Happy Last week of February

No Email this week? Wow, now I'm not going to know what to say...

Though I did get your card, and that was nice, at least now I know that you got my address... and hopefully soon some more people will write me *hint hint STRONG NUDGE NUDGE* I'm feeling kinda lonely, my companion litterally spends a few hours every week writing letters and I'm just sitting here wishing I knew peoples addresses... By the way, did you ever tell Dad how to contact me? I haven't heard from him either...

That's weird that my letter never came through, but at the same time it makes sense. The letter I wrote the first day here was one that the President mandated we write home, he was going to send it with a picture of us to the parents, and since there are 35 new missionaries in the Texas Dallas Mission, it is possible that he just hasn't got it sent yet... *sigh* I wish I remember what I wrote because then I could just say it here again.

Yep... So.. Just talking about life now huh? 27 minutes and a blank mind, this should be great. I told you we live in a mansion right? It's gorgeous, and it has a beautiful view for the back yard, we live right on the edge of Lake Ray Hubbard, so every morning as I eat my breakfast I get to watch the sun rise over the rippling water, and through a couple of trees. It is sooo beautiful! I just want to stay here forever! Seriously, if the water were clean enough that it would be sanitary/legal to swim in, this would be my dream home. The dog that lives with us is named Ajacks! (Like earth-version of Prince Charming's dog when he was married to earth-version of King Midas's daughter from OUAT! Wow, how sad is it that I can remember the dog's name, but not the people...)  The cats are Lefty and Poncho. They are really cute, but they are super shy, and I don't have any time to spend trying to get them to like me- Always running past yelling "YOU'RE SUCH A CUTE KITTY CAT-- BYE!" Last night I had a bad dream about Twinky and how he was mad at me for abandoning him.....

 

I finally heard a real Texas accent. We went a bit into the country(it was still in our area, but not someplace we go often) to meet the family of one of our investigators. It made me so happy to hear him talking, and the father was laughing at my foolishness. Currently, we are trying to get him to sign the permission slip for his son- Devin to be baptised. It's something that Devin really wants, but the father doesn't trust Mormons. He does however find it amusing to watch two young girls try to do things that they don't know how to do, so he's agreed to go fishing with us this weekend. We plan to build a relationship with him before we try asking him to sign the papers again.

 

We have yet to see an armadillo, because we are super busy teaching all the time, seriously, it's crazy how much we do, we start right off the bat at 10AM and teach straight to 9:30 every night. The missionary schedual says that we are allowed to take an hour break for Lunch, extra study (and we are even allowed to take naps at this time...) but for us, we take about 3 Minutes to toss something from the frige to the microwave and then we have to run off to another lesson. I'm glad that the work is moving so quickly here, and that we have so many people who are ready and willing to listen to the word of God, but at the same time, I kind of want a break. The only break I get is on Preparation Day. Glorious, wonderful preparation day..... The problem with that though is that I'm so used to being super busy that when I do get a break, I'm easily bored and I want to go out and teach. Today I took a 3 hour nap while my companion cut her hair and wrote letters and learned a new song on the piano... I have this problem where I want to do everything, or I want to do nothing.

 

OH!!! If you haven't sent my package yet, could you also add to it my Selah CD? Last time I had it was in the CD player in the kitchen, I wanted to bring it with me, so I was listening to it to make sure it still worked and was 100% mission aproved, but then I forgot to bring it... Also any of my other instumental CDs or church CDs would be great. My companion loves music, so she wants to listen to it all the time, but the variety of her music is limited... But if you've already sent it that's alright too, don't worry yourself too much over it.

 

Tell Soapy congrats on his mission call. .

 

I love you. I hope you are feeling alright, and doing good. How goes the indexing? And FHE? Everyone reading your scriptures every day? You should, they are great!

 

Seriously though, tell people to write me already. I always write back.

Love Always,

Sister Sanders.