What a week it has been!

What a week it has been!  Thank you all for your letters and packages!  I just love mail and it really gives me boosts. 

Missions are so crazy.  I swear that they're like roller-coasters.  On Monday one of our very few investigators dropped us.  It was unfortunate but didn't get us down.  We're serving the Lord and doing our best so nothing else matters.  I've really thought a lot about how if we were always teaching and baptizing like crazy I would be so happy but I don't think that I would appreciate each of them as much.  Plus, sometimes we need to be stretched so that we can become who the Lord sees fit for us to become.  I think that if it was up to us none of us would have any trials or hard times and where is the good in that?  What would we learn?  How would we progress?  There's no way that we would ever get anywhere.  I'm just so thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who lets us go through hard times and even puts us in hard times.  

Sister Mackay's companion joined us Monday night-Wednesday night while Sister Mackay went to Tucson.  It was fun to have her around but just reminded me of how lucky I am to be companions with Sister Curlee.  She's a great missionary but I feel like I have so much to learn from Sister Curlee and we work well together. 

On Tuesday night we had an appointment with Heather and Mikayla.  They're the 16 and 12 year old girls that we're teaching.  They told us that they've been coming to church off and on for about 4 years and that their mom is now letting them get baptized!  Yay!  The only condition is that they have a testimony.  I personally think that this is a great condition.  We asked them if they thought that they had testimonies and they both said no.  So we asked them if they believed in our Heavenly Father.  They both said that they definitely believed in Him.  After that we asked if they believed in Joseph Smith and they both said yes.  I was happy to inform them that they both had testimonies and that they needed to be baptized.  So as of right now they are going to be baptized on September 4th!  I'm way excited!  They're so nice and truly just want to do what is right.  Heather and Mikayla definitely are a bright spot in our lives right now. 

Another bright spot is that Bishop Bryce of the Patton Ward has put missionary work as a top priority in his ward right now.  He had us speak yesterday in church.  Sister Curlee spoke about testimonies and I spoke about missionary work.  I shared the story of David P Kimball and how he carried the people across the Sweet Water River and really saved their lives.  I told the ward that our job is the same, it's up to us to save souls.  I referenced D&C 15 and 18.  Every soul is great in the sight of God and it is our duty to help them come unto Him.  It was amazing because I didn't really have any idea of what I was going to talk about and I got up and spoke for about 10 mins.  Things sure have changed since I left home.  It is amazing how the spirit works with us when we put our trust and faith in the Lord.   After we spoke the bishop stood and announced that next Sunday we'll be having a ward fast to find new investigators.  I'm so thankful for his desire to help us and the desire of the ward mission leader as well. 

We saw a miracle in the San Pedro ward yesterday.  An hermana from Tombstone showed up to church.  She doesn't understand a word of English so Bishop Trejo called a brother and myself out of the audience to bare our testimonies in Spanish.  Before calling us up he was talking about how he was going to surprise some people and call them up.  I was laughing to myself and wondering who the unfortunate person would be but it turned out that it was me.  I was nervous because I haven't spoken in Spanish in church for months but it all worked out.  The Lord put words into my mouth.  It definitely wasn't the greatest Spanish but the spirit was there and that's all that matters.  It was really neat to be able to share my testimony in Spanish again in church.
They also had someone interpret for her and had a Spanish Sunday school class.  I really think that she may be the key to finding Hispanics in Tombstone. 

So yeah, things are really starting to move forward and I'm so thankful.  I'm so excited for this week and the potential that it has.  We're going to see miracles!  Also, we get to go to the temple on Wednesday!  I'm SO excited!  It's been over a year since I've had the opportunity to go.  I'm excited to just go, feel the peace and love there, and get a spiritual boost.  It will be so amazing!  The temple really is the house of the Lord.  We are so blessed to have them! 

I hope that you all have a great week!  The Church is definitely true!  Look for the small miracles that happen every day.  They're there!  I love you all lots!

Love,
Hermana Anderson