Sister Sharon Andersen's Mission Blog: Letter #56

Dear Family!!

We had a much better week! :) This week I am happy to report! Sister Kitchen and I both left last week thinking our emails sounded pretty depressing... Sorry! It was just a tough week, but we all have them. We just need to keep pushing forward! I really do love the mission, maybe not every second of everyday, but I do love it!!! I am also trying to enjoy it more.

So this week was pretty good! We are still struggling to find new people to teach tough. I just kinda feel like we are working with the same people... over and over again. It also feels like they are not moving forward much. I want to bring people closer to Christ! I really want to fulfill my purpose here!!

I have kinda been ready for a change... then this week, I've seen some changes :) . We have started to see some fruits of our labors, and people are progressing :) Yay!!We went and visited Brother and Sister Anderson (there's always an "Anderson" and they don't spell the name right usually! It's also weird praying for Sister Anderson! hahaha ) Anyways... we have been meeting with them for a while... I've told you about them, and I think I sent pictures. Brother Anderson (or Santa Clause as most people call him) is a returning member who has not been to church in like 40 years. His wife is not a member. Well, when we first meet with him it was just out on his porch. It was a real short meeting, and then slowly we go into his house, and now his wife is sitting in on the lessons!! :0 It is so great :) We taught him about the importance of Scripture Study last week. We also showed him how to read the scriptures online. Well I guess we showed him how they can be read to you online. hahaha He has made it to Chapter 20 just this week! :0 Sister Kitchen and I were so excited about that! :) It is great seeing this change come over him! I love this gospel!!!

On Wednesday we saw Sister Sykes... I think I've told you about her. She is the one that is missing her big toe. Well we were sharing a message about her not being alone from the Relief Society Session of General Conference weekend and she was almost in tears. She said that is exactly what she needed to hear. It is the little things like that that make everything else so worth it!

On Thursday I got to go on exchanges... Honestly I don't usually look forward to them because I kinda feel like they were a joke. All the Sisters and Elders are on their best behavior just for the Leaders being around. This one was so great!! It was the first time I left this area in a really long time too. Sister Kitchen had to take over the area for the day and was freaking out a little bit. She did such a good job! Anyways, our S.T.L. are in Tampa Mentro... this is am area where you are pretty much just making contacts all day long. The missionaries in the area walk around school campus and Downtown area and talk to people. So obviously at first I wasn't to excited about it because it is scary going up to random people and talking with them for me. Even being a missionary it still scares me! hahaha! It ended up being so great, and I felt like I had learned a lot. I also got to do what they call "Book of Mormon" :)

So "The Book of Mormon" show came to Tampa. The show and our mission decided to have 4 sets of missionaries outside of the theater to talk with people. So when we were on exchanges I got to do it! It was so much fun! I heard horror stories about doing it, but it wasn't half as bad as they made it out to be. You just have to talk really fast!! Like "We are the Mormon Missionaries, here's our card. If you have any question after the show give us a call." It was real fun! I guess everyone is a lot nicer to the Sisters, but it was still fun. Sister Kitchen and I wanted to go, but we were so far away (like 1 1/2 hours). We knew they were going to pick missionaries closer to the show area. So needless to say I was excited that I got a chance to do it. I love love being in town and experiencing Tampa! :)

On Saturday we went and visited someone in a Mental Hospital. That is always an interesting experience. hahaha We had gotten a referral online that someone need help there. We went and tried to visit her because we just thought it was an E.R. or regular hospital. They would not let us in, :( So we checked the visiting hours and came back the next day. We meet the sweetest lady. She had gotten herself into trouble, but is wanting to turn her life around. She stared crying when we came too. So there has been a lot of crying this week too! hahaha

All in all it has been a pretty good week :) I am excited for Thanksgiving! We are going to the Kane's house :) They are pretty much my favorite family ever :)

Love, Sister Sharon Andersen

ENJOY THE PICTURES~