Letter #52

Dear Family!! 

THIS HAS BEEN A CRAZY WEEK! I am out of money, we are out miles, and we are out of food... jokes! We have some... but It's been a crazy week. Yesterday was the first time in a while that we have been on bikes. It felt so good. Being on "full car" sometimes you don't feel like a missionary. However, when you are on bike you do! You get stared at and you draw a lot of attention to yourself! haha especially when you are riding a bike in a skirt! hahaha. 

I love how everyone tells you what you will learn on a mission: 

you learn to cook 

clean 

mange money 

study... 

I've loved learning all these things, but what they don't tell you is... I've gained so much from my mission. I think the thing I love the most is that I have learned how to love! I have also learned to see people the way Christ does, and try to have that pure love. My time spent working and serving the people here in Florida; I have realized that I just want what is best for each of them! 

I have also learn how to love life! Even when times get hard, because the mission is HARD! There is a reason it is called "the best two years" not the easiest two years, because it is not...

Being on a mission has changed me . For the best!!  I have learned so many things that I could not have learned other wise. We had the coolest training at D.M. (District Meeting) this week. One of our ZL's (Zone Leaders) asked us to think of the happiest and most joyful times in our mission. I just had so may memories and different times pop into my head. I couldn't narrow it down to just one! I was studying Preach my Gospel and I was reading in the beginning  message from the First Presidency and it really stuck out to me. This is what is said;

Dear Fellow Missionary:

We compliment you on the great opportunity you have to be a missionary. There is no more compelling work than this, nor any which brings greater satisfaction.

Preach My Gospel is intended to help you be a better-prepared, more spiritually mature missionary and a more persuasive teacher. We urge you to use it daily in your personal and companion preparation, and in your district meetings and zone conferences. Study the referenced scriptures and learn the doctrines and principles.

We challenge you to rise to a new sense of commitment to assist our Father in Heaven in His glorious work. Every missionary has an important role in helping “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39).

The Lord will reward and richly bless you as you humbly and prayerfully serve Him. More happiness awaits you than you have ever experienced as you labor among His children.

I love the promise they give us! And I have to admit it is so true! I don't think I have ever been as happy as I have been on my  mission... more happiness awaits you!! That is a promise for all if we serve him! I'm so thankful for the decision I made to come out here. I am also very thankful for all your support and love. It is well received! 

~Sister Sharon Andersen 

 THANKS for the Package!!

 Ready for the Trunk or Treat...

 The Bishop's son dressed up as a Missionary!! haha!

 Scary Pumpkin!

 Gross Pumpkin and Nurse to help it get better

 cute little pumpkins

Don't worry we got PLENTY of Treats!!

Letter #51

Dear Family!! 

I love the letters every week! I love to hear what everyone is doing... I love knowing you guys are doing great. It puts a girls mind at ease. I do worry and think about home sometimes. However, I am glad to hear that you are all keeping busy and out of trouble! I love hearing about your week. It makes me feel a part your life still even being far away :) We have had a pretty good week. Sister Kitchen and I are starting to get the hang of things.  We are getting things set up and and keeping busy. I love being busy!!! It helps staying focused and not getting home sick! My year mark happened this week! I can't believe how fast the time is going. I don't want it to end... I love the mission! Sister Kitchen is making it mad fun!

The mission can be really hard! You have days you want to give up, but then you have good days and they make it all worth it! This week has been pretty interesting! hahaha
Like for example:
We kinda set up a less active with someone this week. We brought her with us to a lesson and they hit it off and were flirting hard core! (Flirt to convert! haha) No... that's bad. I shouldn't say that. It was funny though because they are in their 80's! hahahah Old People need love too! I guess...

Our gator (investigator) Miguel committed to baptism this week!! We don't have a date or anything but it is an improvement... he was kinda our awkward investigator. I think he's kinda in love with Sister Kitchen. It is so funny, I'll be talking and then I will look up and he's staring at her... and we've both caught him winking at her. hahaha So we make sure to bring a member with us from now on! hahaha. Everyone needs the gospel... even "creepy old men!" hahaha 

We saw a legit drug bust the other day. We drove by a couple of times and tried not to look suspicious. 
(don't know how to spell that word) (don't worry I fixed the spelling for her) 

The downer for the week is we had to move back Matt's baptism date. He is still struggling with the word of wisdom. He gave up coffee cold turkey, however smoking seems to be a challenging. He is down to 2 a day which is an improvement. ( he was at a pack and a half a day) We would rather have him fully ready then force him too soon.
Like always I'm out of time... Sorry it's so short. Hopefully the pictures make up for that:)
I LOVE you guys so much!!!!! Thank You for all you do!! God be with you till we meet again! LOVE YOU!!!!! I MISS AND PRAY FOR YOU DAILY! 
Sister Sharon Andersen 

 ~Celebrating her ONE YEAR MARK!!~~

Letter #50

Dear Family! 

This week has been so great!!  :) Yes Mommy I got your package! Most of the clothes do still fit... sadly I'm not a size 2 anymore! hahaha. I was very happy for the new clothes :) The medicine helped too!  Thank You!! It was a little late, but much appreciated! :)

Being sick on the mission is the worst!!!! It is tough because you need and want to rest when you get sick. We all know we need to do this so you can feel better, but you feel guilty for resting when you are on your mission... So we were "power through-ing it" hard core!! However one of the nights last week we crashed and feel asleep at like 5:00 pm. :( and we didn't wake up until our night out alarm went off!) We both felt so bad, but the rest was much needed! So even though this week we have been sick, we still had a petty awesome week. We had a great lesson with Matt. I've told you a little about him, we are preparing him for baptism. Our lesson on The Word of Wisdom this week went great! He is quitting everything cold turkey!!! He is awesome and brought his son to church this week. We were hoping that he was going to be the leader for his family. He says his wife and kids might show some more interest if he gets more involved! :) So PLEASE keep him in your prayers. We are still shooting for the 27th of this month for his baptism... we and he are working towards it.

The coolest thing happened... I was in the Gospel Principals class this week at church. I love Daddy's new calling! I love it because now I now know we are doing the same thing every Sunday! I know Dad is doing a great job :) He is a great teacher and can connect and get along with everyone! I was sitting in class thinking about how things would be back at home... I just know your going great! :0 

Sorry the email is so short. I ran short on time again. We are going gator hunting again this week! I hope we find some... pictures will be coming next week! :) I love you guys!!! Thank you for all you do!!! I love you guys!!!!!!

God be with you till we meet again ~

Sister Sharon Andersen 

Letter #49

Dear Family!! 

I love Conference Weekend! It gets you super pumped as a missionary! haha. I also loved that everyone was talking about missionary work and getting the members more involved. There was so many good speakers, one after another! :)

Mommy and Daddy, I wanted to just take a second and thank you for all that you did to help us kids enjoy Conference when we were younger. On the mission I've really come to love Conference. I feel like I get so much more out of it now. Daddy, you are right my favorite part was the Bingo Game you did ever year. (believe it or not... it  never feels the same without it haha) Again, Thank You Mommy and Daddy for always setting the perfect example and for getting us involved and focused even when we may not have wanted to! hahaha. 
This Conference this week was so great!! We had an investigator come!!!  That is the best!!! They seemed to really enjoy it. It is funny though, I've never worried before about conference. Like worried about what's topic are going to be on or what there going to say.  However, when your watching with someone that you are teaching you kinda worry! I kept wondering ~ What are they thinking? Or how are they talking this? I still don't understand why I worry; like our Prophet is going to say something wrong! hahaha. It was really great Sunday Morning. We got to go to the Evan's house (our Ward Mission Leader) They are the "Rockstar Member Missionaries" in our ward... they invited our investigator over to watch conference. It is their neighbor that they had refereed to us. :) (see what I mean; church members helping the missionaries :) Sister Evan said we were invited too, and that she would have some snacks. Low and behold she brings out like a 3 course meal! haha. Ok, not that extreme, but close to it! It was so great being in a members home. It made me feel more like home! :)
I just love them, Sister Evan is kind of like our missionary mom. :0 I've found there is always a member that takes that role and just loves the missionaries to death! :0 She is always there for us! :) The whole family is awesome! 

So all the other sessions we watched at the church and it was the elders, us and like one other member. hahaha. It was still great. We made the best out of it. Sister Kitchen and I made a ton of treats and stuffed out faces while getting feed spiritually as well :) It was great, and gets you super pumped! :0 I love Conference!! There were so many good speakers! I loved the Saturday Session's with Ucthdorf and Holland. They were awesome as usual :) I always enjoy hearing President Monson. How could you not?Hearing him talk about his wife is so sweet. You can't not love him!!! I want to find someone that will talk about me that way! :) You can feel the spirit and authority he holds. He has so much power when he speaks... I forgot to bring my notes, but those I think were my favorite! :) 

Besides General Conference being amazing (like usual)... we had a pretty good week :) I've been kinda sick this last week... so that kinda sucked. However, I have been pushing through it! hahaha.  The highlight of week though for sure was getting a date set with our awesome investigator. His name is Matt and he set up for the 27 of this month to be baptized!:) and to watch conference. So this week we just need to talk about the Word of Wisdom yeah!! I have to admit I am kinda worried/nervous about that one. We need to get him off coffee and smoking. So this should be fun... besides that our other investigator has kinda been sadly sucking and canceling on us :(but it was still a pretty good week. We are still working hard. Cancellations help to teach you to plan well; and to always have a good back up plan because you never know what is going to happen. :)

On Monday we were working with this sweet part-member family :) We are going back today; pretty excited about that.  We are starting with the basic stuff; they have a 6 and 9 year old. I think we are going to be talking about Jesus today. The only thing I don't like about visiting them is the dog. Don't get me wrong; I love dogs, but their dog is so gross. It has a tumor as big as my fist. It is gross! Not to mention; it bits you too. What can you do?? Everyone here has dogs!

On Tuesday  we went and saw Sister Landry. Have I told you about her? She is the sweetest little thing. The only reason she is less active is because she is home bound :( She is so loving and so lonely; It breaks my heart... She is always giving us stuff... like a bunch... hahha I have pictures I'll have to send hahaha. We also went to visit Bro Popalto. He is always fun to go see. He always fattens us up with homemade Italian Food and ice cream! After that we went on splits.

Wednesday we has Distirct Meeting. I love them!! I love getting together with other missionaries :) We went out to eat and as always we got a lot of looks! It causes a lot of attention when we go out in a group! Then we visited 2 recent converts and taught the first lesson to a new invetigator. It was a pretty good day.

On Thursday we planed for the week. We tried to get things set up and meet with some more recent converts. We have a lot in this ward which I love :) Recent converts have such a sweet spirit to them! WE also got to do some temple preperation with one of our returning members.

Friday was a LONG DAY.  We helped this possible investigator move out of our area :( That is the worst.. we had to pass them off to the Elders! They better take good care of them. That took pretty much all day and all our energy. I decided that I hate moving!! I want to limit the amount of moving I do! hahaha.

Saturday-Sunday was all about General Conference, and eating, and trying to visit people in between sessions :)

Well I'm low on time :(Please know that I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH!!!!!!! I miss you every day and your always in my prayers and thoughts! God be with you till me meet again :)

LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!

SISTER SHARON ANDERSEN 

Zone Conference ~ Sister Andersen is in the front row sitting in the Red Skirt and Black Shirt.

Mission Pictures!!~~

Sister Andersen saved up some of her Library time to send some pictures! ENJOY!

The last picture with Sister O. (who by the way is now with Sister Calder; my last companion)

 Sister Kitchen and Sister Andersen enjoying some cupcakes at Babycakes.

 (Cookie Dough Explosion and P.M.S. were the names of some of the cupcakes here)

 taking a picture with a random picture frame we found...

 Sister Kitchen and Sister Andersen~ after church shots...

 Sister Kitchen and Sister Andersen ~ I am short!

Putting together the bike...

No Elders Required!! And I finally got to use my Pink Tool Set!!:) THANK YOU Elder Rowan!!! :) I actually knew what I was doing! :)

 you would think it was St. Patrick's day! Nope it's greenie day :) We made everything we could green :) 

gotta get that picture with my new companion by the Brooksville sign!

LOVIN' it here!

We went out to eat at "Sheak and Shake" Sister Kitchen is a bad influence on my sweet tooth!

We went shopping on P-day!! I miss... scratch that... my feet CRAVE heals! hahaha!

Sister Kitchen says she is a GIANT with heals and she does not own a pair!!

Here we are on Sister K's first P-Day...

We went hunting for gators in the rain!!

We may have gotten a little wet!!

Beautiful views though!!

We got trapped on the way home... first by a fallen tree and then by a lake in the road...

seriously... see what I was saying? Sister K in the road lake!

haha! We liked this!

We went to another Cupcake Place... Cupcake Heaven!! YUMMMMM!

And we decorated out apartment for Halloween already!

Letter #48

Dear Family!

We had an awesome week! Sister Kitchen is such a huge help, and is making the work FUN :) She is always down for whatever... and she makes it a good time. We are missionaries, and we are offering and teaching people about the Plan of Happiness SO we need to be happy! We have the knowledge of the beautiful plan! :0 This week has been really exciting . The work is defiantly hastening :) We are getting busier and busier :) I love it when our plans are full and we are running from appointment to appointment :)

We are working a lot with less active and returning members. We are helping them get solid in their testimony and conversion :) We have been helping a lot of people prepare for the temple. This is probably my favorite thing to do :) I love the temple! I miss it everyday. That is the first thing I want to do when I get home; go through the temple! So family; will you please go for me and enjoy it since there isn't a temple in my mission :( Also can you commit to go at least 1 a month? Mom has always been the best example of that by going every week. I hope to keep that tradition going with you mommy when I get home too! :)

So this week we had a conference with our area 70; Elder Tye. It was so great! I love getting together with other missionaries and getting to feel the spirit we all hold... there is no greater feeling :)

I love this work, and love to hear that people are catching the wave and spirit of missionary work! This is the Lord's work :) I know and can testify of that. Sometime's you may feel like your not making a difference, but if we are trying the Lord will concert our effect. (not sure what she was trying to say at the end of the sentence here; sorry) Did everyone listen to the Relief Society Broadcast on Saturday? It was so good! We need to remember our baptismal covenant!!! We promised the Lord so much! We are going to be judged accordingly. We need to feed him sheep! We need to find those lost ones and bring them back to the fold! Trust me; there is so much work to be done. We can always do so much more with the help of the members. I love that you are feeding the missionaries! That is so great; now you need to work on giving them families to teach! Member referrals are the best!! Mom and Dad, actually everyone... You need to pray and ask for help in doing his work. Pray for names to come to mind of people that are prepared, for missionary experiences... I know first hand sometimes that it hard to do.. but it is so worth it! Open your heart and your mouth!! Share the gospel with those around you. I just love the promise from the Hasten the Work Broadcast!

If it is all out of the Pure Love of Christ, we can not go wrong. I love you guys so much!! I am so excited and love to hear how great you guys are doing :) I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!! AND MISS AND PRAY FOR YOU DAILY!!  God be with you till we meet again :) Love You!!

Sister Sharon Andersen

P.S.  I thought of a few things if you haven't sent that package off for Christmas. 

First of all; new clothes or some of mine. I am beyond sick of my clothes!!! Please send me some colorful things that will go with multiple things? 

Second of all; Stamps :) some cute ones preferably :) 

Third of all; snacks and cookie butter :) Sister Kitchen made me try it, and it is amazing. I'm kinda addicted haha. Well love you guys :)

Letter #47

Dear Family!!

This week has been so great!! I forgot how much I enjoy training. I love "greenie fire"!!  I love serving with new missionaries :) They are so excited and ready to work! It get's me excited and wanting to work even harder. It can also be a very reflective experience; being able to see where we all started out. I sometimes get down on myself because I feel like I should be further along coming up on my year mark. I should know more, and be doing more! I kinda think I need to be the "perfect missionary" but then I look back from where I started and I have changed and grown a lot! I don't have a problem talking with random people now! hahaha I sometime still get nervous teaching, but I think that is normal. I love the people though! I try to picture everyone how Christ sees them; as my brother and sisters! :0 I also always picture them in white :) 

I may not be where I want to be, but I think that's how it will always be. That is just the way of life we are all here learning and  growing. We are just at different stages of moving forward. There are only two ways of moving; I choose forward! I want to continue to grow and improve myself everyday! :)

So about my new companion :) She is the best!! I love her already :) Her name is Sister Kitchen and she is 19! She is from Fruit Heights, Utah. She is super excited to be out here and so funny. We have been getting along great :) She like sports and baking so... we have kinda been baking up a storm! hahaha! I am getting a little worried about my "6 months to sexy." She is a very bad influence on me in that regard. hahahaha! Well I forgot to mention she is freakishly tall. Like really really tall!! She is 6- 1 and makes me look really short! :( But she is great and ready to work.

I was a little worried about taking over the area after 2 1/2 months. Even though I'm the one driving, I still have no idea where I am going! hahahah. At least I know the people... that's what is most important. So this week because I'm still getting used to training again has been a little on the slower side. We didn't have a ton of set appointments, it was a lot of drop by's. That means we drive around and hope ~1) that  people are home ~ 2) that people answer the door for us. It's breaks my heart when you hear people inside and they are shhhhing their pets acting like there not home. :( * But we do have a funny story. We were visiting this recent covert of about 2 years and we rang the door bell. His little daughter come to the window and runs to tell her dad who is there and she says " I think it is the preachers" Sister Kitchen and I couldn't help cracking up to that one! hahaha! We have been focusing on visiting the less active members or the returning members with the new "To The Rescue" program. Have you head much about it? We are really focusing on strengthening the members we already have. As we do that, the Lord will bless us with more people to teach. We have already seen it working here... after visiting some less actives we have starting to teach their family :) The Lord defiantly has a hand in this work and is preparing people evey day. I keep reminding my self even if all I do is just plant a couple of seeds for other missionaries or members to harvest in the future it will all be worth it! It is all the Lord's work!! I signed up to do whatever is asked of me...

 I love you guys so much!! God be with you till' we meet again! :)

LOVE YOU! XOXOXOXOOXOXOXOOXOXOXOOXOXOXOOOXOXOOXOX

Love, Sister Sharon Andersen

P.S.- mommy still thinking what i want for Christmas. :)

P.S.S- I love that Grandma and Grandpa Andersen are coming to Florida for their mission!! I wish they could have been come to my mission but that's alright hahaha!  LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! (my fathers parents have been called to the Tallahassee, Florida Mission; they enter the MTC at the end of October)