March 17, 2014

Dear Family,

How are you? Is everyone healthy again? How is school going? Dan, you should actually write me letters some time so I know that you're alive in Jerusalem... 

This has been a good week. Last Monday we went hiking!! It was so good. I miss the mountains. These were more like hills, but once we got to the top, we saw some real mountains far away. God blessed us with such a beautiful world. 

Tuesday I was on an exchange all day. I was with Sister Anderson. She is from Highland Utah, she is gorgeous, and she has so much greenie fire. I loved it. And here is a miracle story. Are you ready? Tuesday morning we went out to run. It was a super good workout and on our way back we decided to do stairs at city center. Suddenly this girl ran up and asked if we would run with her. We said we only had a couple more minutes. We began talking with her and she asked us if we were in high school. We explained we were missionaries and she said, "can I come to your church?" We said, YES!! We were actually right by the church so we asked her if she wanted to see it. She said yes so we ran there and gave her a mini church tour. In our exercise clothes at 6:45 in the morning. She loved it. She is from Korea and has been looking for a church to go to. She is 16 and lives with her aunt. We invited her right there to be baptized and she said she would pray about it :) Then we ran back to meet up with her aunt (who was also exercising). We began talking with her and she asked us who we were. We told her we were missionaries and she said, Oh, are you Mormon? We said, yes. I was a little worried that she wouldn't like that and then (miracle) she said, "I'm mormon. I was baptized in Korea!" She didn't know much English but it sounded like she hadn't been to church since she came here. But she really wants her niece to be baptized and said she would come to church with her. It was beautiful. I realized again how there really are prepared people who are searching for the truth. And we have it!! Isn't that amazing?  

Wednesday was another exchange. I was with Sister Correa (sister Anderson's comp). She is half Chillean and half Brazillian but came on her mission from Michigan. She knows fluent Portugese, Spanish, and English and pretty good French. I was so impressed. We got to contact several spanish speakers and it was really cool to hear her testify in Spanish :) 

Thursday was district meeting and weekly planning. We also had a dinner to celebrate the beginning of the Relief Society. They had the missionaries (us and the elders) serve dinner to the woman. It was fun :)

Friday was another exchange. This time with Sister Black. She is from Idaho. I realized that while the hills in our area of Whittier are pretty bad, they are nothin compared to the hills over where they're at. Biking up and down them was brutal haha. And I got really sun burnt. It's crazy that in just one week I got waaay darker than I was before. 

Saturday I got to work with my companion!! Exchanges are awesome, but there have been so many this transfer that I haven't really taught with Sister Oler much. So we were excited about that. We had dinner with some BIOLA alumni. They are super nice. They want to take the lessons again (the had the missionaries come about 4 months ago) but right now it is more curiosity than anything. But I know that the power of the Spirit can work miracles as we teach them truth :) We have a lesson with them on Thursday. 

Sunday was amazing. Church healed my soul. Something that I have really learned on my mission is that Church is not just a meeting where we go to worship with our neighbors. It is a place where we can experience the Atonement, receive direct revelation for our lives, see the Priesthood of God manifest in the ordinance of the Sacrament, and better understand how the Restored Gospel blesses our lives. People are always going to be imperfect, but people don't make the Church good or true, rather, the Church makes people good. 

I love being a missionary. It is amazing to think that I have been called of God and set apart by someone in authority to teach the Gospel. The way to everlasting happiness has been brought back to the earth. Isn't that amazing?! 

I love you! 

Love,
Sister Andelin