Sister Sharon Andersen's Mission Blog: Letter # 62

Dear family!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Everyone :)

I can't believe it's 2014, crazy!!! I had just gotten used to writing 2013, but no biggy... So my New Year's Celebration this year was so much fun!! (No we didn't stay up!) :( We set an alarm to get up, but we were so tired that we both slept through it! haha. We partied "missionary style" for sure! :) We went to the Parisi's house to celebrate! They are the sweetest family and I just love them! They are one of my favorites in the ward… They have 5 girls and it just felt so much like home! It was great!! We played games, and one of the little girls tried to teach me to play the guitar. TRIED being the key word! haha. Oh, and we ate a ton of food. :) It was just exactly what I needed. The Holiday's are so hard on the mission and this helped me feel so much at home. I made best friends with the youngest girl... who was pretty much me! :) She loves and looks up to all her older sister's! :) Oh yeah, and we won at apples to apples :) Another thing that also helped is that brother Parisi reminds me so much of dad! He is so great at dealing with and loving all of us girls. haha!

We were sitting at the dinner table and the girls we're telling us jokes, we were having such a good time... THEN their Dad wanted us to share some stories with his daughters. He asked us "Why are you out on your mission?" then "Why did you give up school, friends, and family to be here for a year and a half?" I always love those questions :) So Sister Calder and I both told stories about why we wanted to come out on missions. We shared how much it has changed our lives, and how we finally decided to come out. It was just the heated experience! I know that young girls look up to us, and it helped reminding each other why we are out here. Towards the end of the night the older kids were listening and we found out later that they are thinking about going on mission themselves! :)

So sharing those experiences with them was the best! :) Then the family shared with us their conversion story because they are all converts. (Most of our ward is actually.) During it the little kids were running around and playing... but what I loved is that the spirit was so strong in their home. Even with the kids being loud and playing, the spirit can still be present! That is what I love about the spirit. It is the coolest thing! I love having it so strongly with me, I think growing up in the church you can get so comfortable with it. You have always had it with you. That is one thing I have always worked on in the mission; relying on the spirit and relying on it for missionary work. It just reminded me, and made me feel so much at home! :)

I found the coolest thing in my studies the other day. What I read said only the home can compare to the temple with sacredness. Not church buildings or sights... but our homes! I have totally seen that! I loved going into so many homes and being able to feel the spirit there, it is so different in every home. That is one of the many things I have loved!!! I am just always so thankfully for the spirit in our home. All the things that Mommy and Daddy did to always have the spirit there. I know it is in our house, I always remember it in our home. Almost automatically, i can completely feel it.

We had another party… Sister Calder hit her half way mark!:) It is so crazy being with her again! I love it, we get to see that change and growth in each other. At least for me it's been so hard to see that in myself, but I can see it in her. It is easy seeing how much she has changed, I guess it is just hard sometimes to see it in ourselves. I love serving with Sister Calder! We are hoping we will be together until the end. I guess we will just have to wait and see. :) That would be a long time to be together, we were just surprised we got to serve together again in the first place! hahaha.

So, as you may know... We have been on Facebook! President said he would send an email to everyone about the rules and stuff. So Cool story: Sister Calder and I had our first online lesson! It was the best!! I still like lessons in person better, but it was nice to have some time to think about what we wanted to say. It was also cool to be able to look up info on the spot without having to get back to them. I'm just feeling so blessed to be on a mission at this time, and to be able to see and do all these new things! I love it!!!! This week we have been starting to get in with more people. Hopefully next week I will have more people to talk about!! haha. Well I love you guys so much and miss you even more! :)

God be with you till we meet again!! :)

P.S. Daddy, I totally remember going out with brother Young! We always visited him when we were on Marco Island! :) He has taken us out to eat! He took us to this German place once, but usually would take us out for burgers! haha. It is such a small world!

P.S.S. Mommy, Thank you for all the pictures! Sierra looked like a beautiful bride:) I so want to go to the Salt Lake Temple! :) Well... really any temple!! haha I miss the temple so much! :)

LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!!

Sister Sharon Andersen