Letter #69

Dear Family~

This has been a really good week! :) We are starting to get the hang of things. :) So, I am really hoping they don't move me again! It always seems to be when you are comfortable that they move you... But we shall see! Transfer calls are this Saturday. I'll let you know next week! My bet is we are going to be put in trio!?! :) And I think Sister Wakefield is going to train! She has been out a year and still hasn't trained yet. We are getting 21 missionaries coming soon, we just are not sure how many serve in Spanish or English. I will let you know as soon as I know! :)

 Anyways,  we have been working with some people, and have been able to see some real growth! We had a couple people we were teaching come to church :)  This week we had 17 lessons! Sister Wakefield and I were super excited :)  It was an all-time high for this area! President Cusick wants us doing 20 lessons a week, so we are not quite there; but getting close.

We are working with a girl named Lydia and she came to church this last week! We have been working with her for a couple weeks now :) She is a daughter of one of the recent converts, and we are trying to get her going to the church organized AA Meeting. My whole mission I have not worked much with people that have addition problems. This is a new experience for me; that's for sure! Sister Wakefield has, I guess a lot on her mission... but  Lydia is so great. We either talk with her on the phone or meet with her everyday. She says there is a sweet spirit that always stays with us. We were teaching her to pray the other day, she has the sweetest prayers! haha! She said she was so happy for Sister Wakefield and I that she feels like a new born baby in the gospel. She said that she got placed into our hands...well... It was actually kinda weird but sweet. She enjoyed church a lot, but she was shaking pretty bad by the end of the 1 hour... so she had to go out to smoke. She is just taking it slow. She let us know that she has not drank alcohol for a week! :) So she is coming a long way, and we are excited to be working more with her!

We were super pumped to set a date with James. Then he got a flat tire on the way to our appointment! :( Dang Satan! He is always at work! However, we are meeting with him today and I can't wait. He is still loving the Book of Mormon. He  always talks about the peace it brings him. We really enjoy teaching him.

Dad will also be excited to hear we are teaching a Colombian... We'll actually Sister Wakefield does most of the teaching... only because I don't speak Spanish! hahahaha! She was a referral from the head quarters!! :)  She seems very sweet! Her family is still in Colombia, so I wanted to hear what areas you served in Daddy! :)

Well like always I am running short on time! :( I love you!!! I miss you and God be with you until we meet again!

Love ~ Sister Sharon Andersen 

Valentine's Day Food ~

 Heart Shaped Waffles!! YUMMMMO!

 P-Day at a members house... 

 Relaxing and writing Letters...

 Sister Wakefield

 Beautiful View!

 Sister Andersen

Sister Wakefield acting out Wicked 

(Because I told her that I had not seen it yet...)

Pictures ~

Random room picture :) oh yeah... So we are living in old Elder's
apartment. I found a hole under that Christ picture... That is why
there is a huge picture of Christ! It's no like I don't like pictures of
Christ on my wall, but it is just up there to cover this giant hole that the Elder's made. Haha. I don't know how they did that, but somehow they got this huge hole I just wanted to send you something cause I know you
guys like pictures! So this is my apartment! It's pretty... fine, for
an old Elder's apartment. I guess it has been an apartment for missionaries for a couple of years.

Oh yeah we might be moving... because President wants us out. haha

Letter # 68

Dear family,

This is Sister Sharon Andersen reporting from Florida :) I am not sure if you saw on Facebook (or saw any pictures or anything on our Mission
page...) We got iPads this week! Yay! I forgot to mention that last
week haha. I am super excited about it! Still kinda crazy, the mission has changed so much! Just during my mission... After I put in my papers,
there was the age change, then we got on Facebook, now no more tracking and now we have iPads :)

So just so you know, I am not typing right now. I am talking into my
iPad and it is typing me for me! haha! This is the coolest yet such weirdest thing... Sister Wakefield and I still don't know how to use technology very well. We are trying to use it in our lessons more to show videos and stuff. It's really neat. We are one of 30 missions with iPads right now.

So... It's been a pretty good week even though it was Valentine's
Day. It sounded like you guys had a delicious breakfast. Sister Wakefield and I also made heart shaped waffles! Sounds like your were way festive. Haha!

We were able to meet with James again this week! I love this
guy. :) He messaged us on Facebook and told us that he is already in
second Nephi! He is awesome!! He also said that he can tell the
difference when he reads, and he feels like he wants to keep learning :) he didn't come to church this week:(but we're meeting with him on
Thursday) We are super excited. He seems to really be progressing and
really wanting to learn about the Gospel. Sister Wakefield and I were a little worried that he may be doing it just because he wants to date his
friend! haha. He seems really awesome and we are excited to teach him
again. We think he's trying to impress her so he can go on a date with
her. However, he still seems really open and really searching.

Those we're the highlights of the week. Oh yeah, and Sister Wakefield got peed on this week! haha That was pretty funny and sad! We are getting along pretty well. I still miss Sister Calder a lot though. I am just enjoying the work!
Just trying to hasten it :)


Well like always I'm short on time... Please know that I miss you guys so much :) And I love you even more! Thank You for all that you do :)

God be with you till we meet again!

~ Sister Sharon Andersen
P.S. I took a lot of picture but couldn't send them on my iPad so
hopefully I'll be able to send some next week... Love You!

Letter #67

Dear Family!!!

Yes daddy! I will be your Valentine; but you might have to share me this year;) I hope that is OK? :D THANK YOU THANK YOU FOR MY PACKAGE! And for all the goodies :) My skirts don't thank you though! haha I loved it! I have been stuffing my face with all the chocolate! haha Sorry I didn't wait until Valentine's day! :) Thank you for always being my valentine! I love you guys!!!  

HAPPY EARLY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!! 

LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

It sounds like Dad has been teaching a lot. I love to hear that! He is still the best teacher I know, so I am not surprised you have been asked to teach so much :) And that is great that the ward had a baptism!! Yay! and you spoke at it too! I love to hear that :0 So you spoke in Spanish then?

It has been freezing here in Florida with lost of rain and a weird mist. ( I wish I would have gotten pictures of It... It looked like what I think the mist of darkness  would be look like) Florida weather is the weirdest :) So it has been interesting to ride bikes in :) haha On the bright side... we got a call this week that we will be getting put on car full time. We will be biking during the day, and driving at night. :) So we won't have to ride in the dark anymore. I guess our mission president didn't like the sister's biking in our area late at night... that is nice.

So... we have started teaching the coolest guy; James! I love him already :) These first couple of weeks we have been trying to get to know the members in the area more. We have been dropping by their houses for a "quick visit" ... Sister Wakefield and I have been trying to make them quick! hahaha We want to be able to meet everyone and help them with their Family Mission Plan. On Thursday Night we were stopping by the cutest/sweetest single mothers house. :)  We show up and she already has a friend there. :) We love when that happens! (Even though that doesn't happen that much :) We got to share and introduce the Book of Mormon :) The member had already told him a lot about the church, and what we believe. It was so great :) Sister Wakefield and I got the idea and impression that there was something else maybe going on between them!  hahaha. Then we find out later that this "friend" has taken her out a couple times on a date and so she invited him to learn more about what she believes. She told him that she could never get serious with anyone that doesn't have the same beliefs as her. So she gave him a   Book of Mormon and shared her testimony with him. He was already to I Nephi Chapter 12 :) We are going back over today and teaching him about the Restoration and we are super excited! :) We have just been kind of discouraged because coming in this new area we haven't had a ton of people to teach. We are for sure seeing miracles happening and we are starting to become more busy :) Which I love! It helps the days go by fast when you are busy going from place to place! :) 

We also had some other families that invited friends over :) We have some potentials which were getting excited about. We are hoping on setting a date with our investigator Jane this week! Please pray for her :) I'll have to tell you more about her story next week! Well I love you guys so much!!!! Miss you!!

God be with you until we meet again! :)

Sister Sharon Andersen

P.S. Thanks for reminding me about the  Olympics!  hahaha We went to our Bishop's house last night and it was on. It is so weird that life still goes on when you are on your mission! And to think we're in such a different world~ haha

BUT I love it!!!  

 The other sisters took her out to eat for her Birthday!!

Some cute Slippers a member made for them!

Letter #66

Dear Family!!!

So, I got off e-mail last week and realized I told you like NO info... hahaha. I completely lost track of time and just had to e-mail really fast! So, to catch you guys up :) I'm in Seminole... white washing, my new companions name is Sister Wakefield :) She is 20 years old, and just hit her year mark with me last week! :)  She has been doing Spanish Work until we got together. Now we are focusing on English Work because we're in an English Ward. When we are contacting  we can talk with everyone! It is really neat :) I'm hoping to pick up on some Spanish hahaha then maybe I can talk with Dad and Preston! hahah Anyways, I have a lot more to report on this week... so much has happened.

This week we have been trying to get to know the members more. We figured with both of us being new to the area that was where we should start. We know like NO ONE! :(  So last Monday we went to an F.H.E.  with all the "empty nesters" hahaha. We had the scariest/neatest experience. We were heading home from the church (and in this area we are on car share :) So half the time we are on our bikes) We were just about to book it home because we only had 30 minutes to get home before curfew. It usually takes about 45 minutes! hahaha.  We we're getting ready to go and Sister Wakefield and I just didn't feel right. Not horrible or anything,  but just kinda off. So Sister Wakefield asked if we could say a prayer. So we took a minute and prayed that we would get home safely. We had already prayed after F.H.E. but felt like we needed to pry again. So we had a quick prayer and got on our bikes to go. As soon as we hit the corner we heard this huge accident... So we pulled out our phone and called 911. We quickly realized if we had not stopped to pray we would have been in the accident, or we would have seen it! Hearing it was hard enough... it was just such a comfort to know that we are being watched over and protected. We always pray for the spirit to be with us and for safety and protection. All that night we were still freaked out a little about it, but to know that the Lord is watching over us helped us sleep at night! :)

We also got to go to Tampa for 3 days this week. President is asking all of us to park our cars and walk and bike around more. He wants us to be recognized like Christ was and just try to be like him. He figures we can do this by walking the streets and helping and talking with everyone as we go.

He wants us to be able to talk with everyone in our paths. So we went to "Tampa Metro" and got to receive some training.  From Friday night to Saturday night we were there. We walked around all day and talked with people, we walked all around the school campus and around downtown. We talked with everyone... it was such a eye opening experience!! It was cold and raining so there we not to many people out, but getting to talk with everyone and try to share with them a short message was the best! :) So Thank You Mommy ~ my boots and comfy missionary shoes came in handy! :) I can laugh about this now, but it was just a little cool, then we totally got splashed by car (just like in the movies) crazy! hahaha

Well, again I ran out of time... like always. Well I know that I love you guys so much, and I feel your prayers :) Thank you for all you do. LOVE YOU!!!  God be with you until we meet again! :)

Sister Sharon Andersen

LOVE YOU!! AND THANK YOU FOR ALL THE BIRTHDAY WISHES TOO :)

 Sister Andersen and Sister Wakefield after Church...

 Sister Wakefield on her ONE YEAR Mission Birthday!!

 The Girls after the accident they spoke about above!!

 Sporting the Matching Silk PJ's a Less Active Member got for them!!

 SUPER cold and being ON THE BIKE...

 Shortly after they got splashed by the car ~

Sister Andersen's feet after WALKING all day...

Don't worry that is NOT blood... her shoes were red inside! LOL!

Red Soles and Walking in the Rain all day = your feet looking like they are BLEEDING!! LOL!