June 30th, part III

More pictures, as promised.

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0ByRUZeow-VaVRTQtNFJIZ1B5RDg&usp=sharing

June 30th, part II

Time at the MTC is inexplicable. The first 4 days felt like 4 years. But this last week or so has seemed to slip through my fingers like a bar of soap.

I have become rather attached to the people in my district and am sad to be saying goodbye this evening. I've learned so much from them and they've made the MTC experience beyond fun.

Some great memories I think I'll always have from the MTC are:

-Playing volleyball during gym time and just having a total blast

-Hermana Vargas laughing at Hermano Wood (our teacher) for basically EVERYTHING that ever happened. Not making fun of him, she just thought he was hilarious...he's not....but it was funny that she thought it was funny

-Always singing with Hermana Robles

-That awkward moment when you're shaking an elder's hand and talking to them and then you realize you are still holding hands and then you both flinch away for fear of excommunication

-Doing facials with the zone girls in our apartment

-Elder Thompson and his neverending history of skating (not skateboarding, skating!)

-Watching the adorable ducklings in the little creek at RainTree

-Hearing Elder Nilsson's "On the Wall" talk

-Watching the Character of Christ by Elder Bednar

-Seeing the Perry's devotional (I cannot even express how much I enjoyed that!)

-Flipping out at the cafeteria because they had Blueberry Muffin Square cereal which is THE BEST EVER

-Elder Soto reenacting how he shook D Todd Christofferson's hand for the MILLIONTH time

-Laughing so hard that I couldn't breathe. Seriously, these people here are hilarious. I can't even explain. I love them so much!

It's been a great experience here and I am really thrilled to be heading off to the DR tomorrow!!!!! It's finally here!

Funny story: So last night some people from our district were preparing their suitcases for departure. We had a scale to make sure we weren't over the weight limit and Hermana Robles stepped on it and said she'd gained 10 pounds since she got here! (It ended up that she misread a number, and was the exact same....) So she was fussing about herself because she thought she'd put on a ton of weight and Elder Butler goes, "Don't worry! You lose it all when you die!" And it was just super funny. It kind of reminds me of something Brendan would say, haha. 

Nuther one funny story: The guys told me this one. Apparently Elder Cuevas was sitting next to a couple guys he didn't know. The one right next to him turns and says "puedo?" which means "can I?" and Elder Cuevas just kinda looks at him and is like "puedes que...?" and the guy just keeps going "puedo?" and Elder Cuevas is like, "what's going on" haha. So then Elder Soto, who is super easy going, shows up and here's the guy ask "puedo?" and he automatically says "Sure!" Then the puedo guy just farts nice and easy. HA! So for the rest of the week whenever there was any sort of silence SOMEONE would just go "puedo?" and we'd all start laughing hahahaha. No farts of course. I think.

Cool thing I learned: We got to watch an incredible video of a talk given by Elder Bednar in the MTC a few years ago. I think it is called The Character of Christ. YOU MUST READ THIS TALK. It is really phenomenal. It is long. But it is phenomenal. Read it. I will share with you what I gleaned from it. That does not mean you are off the hook for reading. You must still read the whole thing. But what I learned was that essentially, the Character of Christ is putting off the natural man. How do you do that? You stop turning inward (always thinking about yourself or wanting others to focus on you) and instead you turn outward (focusing on others, even when the natural man would be focusing on himself). Elder Bednar gave several great examples when Christ does this in the New Testament (GO READ THE TALK) and he also gives very powerful real life examples of your everyday latter day saint (GO READ THE TALK). He also talks a lot about conversion versus testimony (GO READ ABOUT IT) and how if we are converted, we will never fall away. Suffice to say that--oh wait, there is no suffice to say BECAUSE YOU JUST NEED TO READ IT OKAY? OKAY.

I hope you all are loving life! Thanks for all the love! 

The gospel is true! 

Con amor,

Hermana Anderson

June 30th

Here is a link with some of the pictures from Hermana Anderson's two weeks at the MTC.  More to come.

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0ByRUZeow-VaVcEZLSnlCYUl2LUU&usp=sharing

June 24th

The first week at the Missionary Training Center has been great! Because of the influx of missionaries, they have an "MTC WEST" for all Spanish-speaking missions. I put that in quotations because it's actually the Wyview apartments for our living quarters and the Raintree apartments for our classrooms. BUT it's really awesome! Because everyone here speaks (or is learning) Spanish and so you instantly have that bond. We also have a lot more time to walk around than the main campus which I enjoy. And there are so few people here that it's less overwhelming and you get to know people much better. We can take a bus over to the main campus when we need to, and I've enjoyed that because I get to see all my friends from BYU who are in the MTC but aren't going Spanish-speaking!

So my district is super small! Just 4 hermanas. And the only other new district in our zone/branch is 5 people. Apparently that's like a record for smallest entry in our zone or something. But the zone is for missionaries on the advanced course, so it changes every week! People only stay for two weeks and then they're out of here! I'm the only white girl in my district, which has been excellent for learning Spanish (all four of us grew up in the states, so we speak English perfectly--there's no language barrier between us) but it is also frustrating since my Spanish was learned in a high school classroom and hasn't been used in over a year and they're Spanish is more natural than breathing. The good news is that I understand a LOT more than I thought I would. The bad news is that I can't speak nearly as much as I can understand haha. But I have already had plenty of instances where I say things I didn't even know I'd learned or I'm thinking really hard about something I can say to an investigator and how to form the sentences and conjugations and all of a sudden an new idea comes into my mind and I know what to say. I feel like I'm getting little party favor-sized portions of the gift of tongues every day. It's amazing.

Do you want to know the hardest part of being at the MTC for me? My wardrobe. Ha! Seriously, though. I am a tad jealous of all the girls who have beautiful cardigans and lovely skirts and pretty accessories. My clothes are perfect for the DR, but they are seriously lacking when it comes to the runway that the MTC apparently is for sister missionaries! Luckily I have companions going stateside who have great clothes to share! It's been super fun to try on a million outfits every morning--sounds very un-missionary-like right? But it's just us being girls! We love our clothes! Honestly, I'm perfectly content being granola for a year and a half. For those who don't know, granola is a term for those who are hippies, but the kind of hippies who hike the Appalachian trail and eat things like...granola. Get the picture? That is my wardrobe. Example: today I am wearing Jesus sandals, khaki capris, a plaid button up shirt, and a camelback. Granola. Mis compañeras are in skinny jeans and floral shirts and ballet flats hahaha. BUT I DIG IT! The hippy that I truly am on the inside finally gets to be freeeeeeee :D But I will probably cry tears of joy when I get to wear all of my pretty shoes and dresses and earrings again.

So almost everyone in my Zone/Branch is Latino. I love it! I love them! They're all the best people in the world! And I've only known them for 6 days!

Mi compañera is from West Jordan but was born in Lima, Peru. She's the absolute sweetest and we mesh so well together. I don't think I could've asked for a better companion to start off my mission! She's short--GET THIS! I am the tallest person in my district!!!!! I mean they're all Latina so I guess my genetics predisposed me for that one, but still!--and she has long long black hair that goes to her waist and shines live raven feathers. We are always on the same wavelength and often say the exact same thing at the exact same time! 

Sorry, this is becoming a novel. I hope you're getting a feel for my MTC experience! Let me get to some cool stuff:

STORY TIME:

Our Sunday devotional was given by the Perrys, as in Janice Kapp Perry, as in, the woman responsible for every awesome church song ever. Pretty sure she wrote the entire Children's Songbook. Just so you know, they're about 80 years old. Brother Perry talked first and he was just about the cutest grandpa ever. Then Janice talked and she was a hoot! The best part was easily when she told us the story of how she met her husband. They were in several music classes together at BYU and apparently before playing a clarinet for an exam one day, he was sitting a few seats down from her as she used her mouth to moisten up her reed real good. He was staring at her and so she turned and asked "what?" and he said, "I was just thinking that those lips were made for something better than playing clarinet." The crowd errupted into applause and laughter. He stands up from a few feet behind her and walks right up at the podium, as if to accept the applause I guess, and then grabs her face in both hands and smooches her right on the mouth in front of all of us! We all went WILD. There was hooting and hollering and more applause. It was the best! 

INTERESTING THING I LEARNED:

So our branch presidency is great. Brother Nilsson is basically like Elder Holland or Elder Mckonkie--super straight forward and powerful. He's a football coach, so imagine that type of personality giving you a spiritual thought. It's like a pep talk but 1000x more scary/incredible/profound. SO what I learned from him this week goes along with the Elder Oaks talk about Good, Better, Best. Here's how it goes. If you are a good missionary, you are trying. There's nothing wrong with trying--trying is good! But that's about all. So naturally the next step up would be trying and also succeeding, right? So Brother Nilsson says that a better missionary has exact obedience. At first I was like, "how can there be a best now?" but then he made a very valid point: you can be exactly obedient to all the rules, but still not be a very good missionary. So the best missionary you can be happens when you are living in what he calls "the culture of righteousness" which he says is where we get power. So now you are obedient AND you have power. And I thought that was a really great lesson! Why be good or better than good, when I could be striving for BEST? 

Can you believe that this time next week I will be on an airplane to the Dominican Republic!? Wish me luck!

Con amor,

Hermana Anderson

June 21st

Letter from Chloe, June 19, 2014

Dear Family,

I am officially Hermana Anderson! Grandma and Bob dropped me off at the MTC yesterday. It was very exciting as I walked through all the buildings to collect my books and nametags and everything.  Can you believe they gave me a new set of scriptures en Español?

So I'm actually not staying on the main campus of the MTC.  All Spanish-speakers stay in the MTC "west" which is Wyview.  We walk across the street to Raintree where the apartments function as classrooms.  They have a big trailer for our bookstore and another big one for the cafeteria.  There's a place to get hair cuts or have your buttons sewn on.  There's a travel office and a nurse.  It's like its very own miniature, Spanish-only, MTC (the Spanish acronym is CCM).

My companion is Hermana Robles (sic) from West Jordan.  She went to the U last year, so I know Dad already likes her.  The other sisters in my district are Hermanas Avila y Vargas.  And that's all!  Apparently we are the smallest district to have come through in a while.  There's another district of 5 in our zone who also arrived yesterday, and I suspect we'll all be fast friends.

The Spanish is good.  All of the Hermanas in my district grew up speaking Spanish in their homes, so they're definitely fluent.  But for the most part I understand everything they say.  It kind of depends on who's talking, actually.  For example, Elder Perez spoke almost like he had a small cotton ball in his mouth yesterday, preventing him form really making any hard sounds with his mouth.  I was lost!

Embarrassing story: In my first class yesterday (all in Spanish) Brother Stevenson was teaching us about our objectives as missionaries.  There's an actual thing in Preach My Gospel that is an objective you can memorize and recite.  He looks at me and I thought he asked "Do you have it memorized?" So I shook my head and said no.  The he goes, "You won't?" and I looked confused and basically he had asked me "will I" memorize it and I definitely told him no, ha, ha.

Hope y'all are having fun at home

con amor,

Hermana Anderson

June 18th

Chloe left very early yesterday morning for the MTC.  On Monday afternoon, emotions ran high as she was set apart as a missionary and consecrated to the Lord by the stake president and her father.  It was a lovely and touching time for our family.

By now she has arrived in Provo and will be officially checking in and beginning her service.  While Chloe is serving and teaching in the Dominican Republic there are a few things we can do as well.  For her, we can use the free service provided by DearElder.com and send her frequent letters and news.  Details on the service are in my earlier post.

For those she's serving, we can participate in doing good from afar.  One excellent example is the charity Rubens shoes http://rubensshoes.com/ serving people in the Dominican Republic.

June 14th

Hermana Anderson will be set apart this Monday evening! She arrives at the MTC on Wednesday, the 18th. If you wish to contact her in the MTC you may do so by emailing her at chloe.anderson@myldsmail.net or you may send her a letter at the MTC


Sister Chloé Irene Anderson
JUL01  DOM-SANT
2023 N 900 E Unit 831
Provo UT 84602

But she will be there only two weeks, so plan accordingly!
You may also send her letters via dearelder.com (it's free!) by selecting Provo MTC, West from the drop down menu and then typing in the information above as her mailing address. These will be delivered to her the day you mail them.

She is excited to hear from all of you!

June 9th

Chloe is preparing daily to serve.  And we are so very happy for her and proud of her.  The preparation helps us to focus and keeps my tears at bay.  Her farewell talk is this Sunday, Father's Day at 9 a.m. and we are hosting an open house for her later that evening in our home.  She'll depart very early on Tuesday morning to travel to the Provo, MTC.  She is our little bit of heaven here on earth and we happily share her with the citizens of Santiago.  Watch out.  Here she comes.