Hey there! So it was good to hear from all of you! It sounds like things are quite busy at home. Things are really busy here as well. As most of you know, I actually didn't get transferred. My companionship is the only Spanish sister missionary companionship that didn't change in the mission. All of the other companionship's are threesomes now. I'm glad that I didn't get transferred right before Christmas. So you can just send things to my apt if you like. Grandma and Grandpa Apostol, thanks so much for the package! I'm excited to see what you sent!
This week has been really good. We did a lot and saw a lot of miracles. Last Sunday was kind of rough because we tried so hard to get our investigators to church and not one came. This week, however, was different. We had 5 come to church! That's huge for us. Also, 2 part member families who we had never met came to church and asked us to teach them! Talk about miracles!
So we've been teaching this man named Robert since I got here. He's about 60 and lives alone even though he's married. He and his wife each have their own house and they visit each other once or twice a week. Well, he was going to get baptized last month but his wife said that she controlled the check book and didn't think that it was a good idea. We were upset but we decided that when there is a will there is a way. So we've still kept in touch with him but hadn't gone to visit. This week we decided to stop by and see how he was doing. We planned on watching the Joy to the World video but while there both Sister Rodriguez and I felt like we should extend a new baptismal date. So we did and he confessed that he didn't know if he could give up coffee. Of course he can! He accepted a new date and we're really excited. Hopefully everything goes according to planned! We are having the baptism of Maria Elena Pacheco on Friday! We've been teaching her for almost two months. She's in her 60s and has a very strong personality. She's always telling us weird ultimatums that she gives people (mostly her family). She takes everything very seriously and sometimes we have to be careful not to laugh because everything is so dramatic. We've really come to love her and her funny personality. Well, yesterday she absolutely had to come to church in order to be baptized this week. Every Sunday Satan keeps throwing things at her so that she can't come. For instance, last week her sister had a heart attack. Well yesterday she called us a few hours before church to inform us that she cut her foot really bad. I was thinking that it probably was a small scratch and nothing to worry about. We were just worried about her not coming. Well, church started and there was no Maria Elena. I was getting a bit nervous but then she came in! I went and sat with her and she showed me her foot and it was covered in blood. She cut it way bad. Afterwords she said "Satan is trying to stop me. I'm not going to let him win! I'm going to win and I told him so! I'm the boss!" She showed him. We're just praying that it doesn't get infected before the baptism. Oh Suzy, I showed her our family picture. She kindly said that we all are very nice looking but you got an extra compliment... she said that you are "a different breed, just beautiful." You're dark hair and pale skin is just exquisite.
This week we decided to go visit this lady with cancer that we taught once a few months ago. She knew that the church was true and I believe wanted to be baptized. We hadn't seen her since the first time because she was so sick. Well, we went to her house and her husband was out front crying. He informed us that she died a two weeks ago. He was a wreck and told us that we can come visit him this week. This experience has taught me that we need more urgency. You never know when your time will end. I'm going to write down all of her information and her husbands and make sure that her temple work gets done in a year.
All in all this week has been really good. As I was reading in Alma I thought about all of the great missionaries in the Book of Mormon. They didn't see the miracle until after the trial of their faith. This is what happened to us. We didn't see these miracles until after we were tried the week before. A mission is just like a roller coaster. There are so many ups and downs but the ups always out weigh the downs. There is always something to be thankful for and always experiences that change your life forever. I love you all and pray for you daily! Thanks for your prayers for me! Please pray that everything will go well with our investigators and that the baptisms will happen and that we'll see more miracles. Thanks for everything! I love you all so much! Make sure to make this Christmas season the best one ever! Remember who it is all about!
Love, Hermana Melissa Anderson
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