Monday, September 21, 2009

The rain came down and the floods came up...

Hey there!  Wow, what a crazy week it has been!  

Last Monday we tutored an investigator named Thelma for 4 hours.  My brain hurt a bit afterwords but it was good to get practice doing things like that.  

Thelma is an amazing woman.  She is 31 and a single mother of 4.  She also works and goes to school.  They started teaching her a few weeks before I got here and she's never been to church.  She knows that it is what she needs to do but has a hard time acting.  We decided that we needed to do whatever it took to get her to church so we tutored her and then made her and her family breakfast yesterday.  And guess what... it worked!  She came to church for the first time!  I was SO happy!

So we also got a new companion this week.  Her name is Sister Rodriguez and is from Boston.  She has been speaking Spanish her whole life!  I'm so glad because we have needed help with Spanish.  She's been out for 9 months and President has kept her in Tucson the whole time.  On Wednesday morning (transfer day) we got a phone call from him telling us that he was sending her out here for a fresh start and the advice he has for us is to be patient and love her.  He wanted us to make this the first companionship that she has ever succeeded in.  She's an awesome teacher and really bold.  We've had some problems so we had a big companionship inventory yesterday which helped a lot.  I mentioned that in D&C 42:14 it states that if you don't have the Spirit you "shall not teach."  So we discussed all of our thoughts and feelings (actually, I didn't talk too much because it was mostly the other 2 needing to share; I was kind of the middle person).  But, last night we had some awesome lessons because we finally had the Spirit with us.  

I'm learning a lot about charity and I pray for it constantly.

Monsoon season has finally arrived.  It was a bit late though.  The worst of it hit on Saturday night.  Around 8 pm we went to a members house to get something really quick.  Well, right as we got there a downpour began.  I've never seen anything like this before.  It was so windy and the rain just came down.  We decided to wait it out a bit.  After a bit it was just a drizzle so we thought that we should leave before it got worse.  Bad idea.  I've driven in tons of conditions but never anything like this.  We got out of the apartment complex and onto the road and it was flooded.  We quickly realized that we couldn't keep driving.  The street had turned into a river within like a half hour.  When I say like a river I mean the water was probably about 3 feet deep in some areas.  It was just under the windows of the car in some places.  I really have no idea how it happened so fast.  From the apt complex it didn't even look that bad but boy were we wrong.  Needless to say, we didn't make curfew that night. We got home around 11:30.  It was crazy.  The power was out and lots of the roads were closed.  This experience taught me a lot.  We have to be ready for the rains to come. They will come but what matters is how we react to it.  Also, its important to remember that tomorrow is a new day.  The sun will come out again the rain will dry. Sometimes we just need to be patient.

Since I've been here I've really tried to follow President Monson's example of caring for the one.  I don't care who the person is - baptized or not - everyone needs to be reached out to.  I've found that from doing this my faith has been strengthened.  I've learned so much from the people out here and after talking to them I always have a desire to do a little better.

Thanks so much for the letters and packages!  I love them all so much and every day I think "I sure have the best family and friends in the WORLD!"  I'm sorry to hear about BYU.  That really is such a shame.  Well, have a great week!  I love you all and am so thankful for all of you!
Love, Hermana Anderson

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