April 29th

As promised, THE TEMPLE will be the highlight of this email. We left bright and early on Sunday morning and had a fun roadtrip from Santiago to Santo Domingo. I don´t think I can overstress how beautiful this island country is. Flourishing would be a good word to describe it. Anyway, Santo Domingo is WAY bigger and city-er than Santiago. I liked it! And the temple is absolutely stunning. It´s incredible to see the angle Moroni among palm trees and ocean water. Stunning. We went down with other missionaries and beat the members so we had lots of extra time to enjoy the day at the temple. The highlight of the day was being able to see a family be sealed for all eternity. I will never forget the joyful anticipation in the sealing room as the couple waited for their children to be brought in to be linked for all eternity. Peaceful bliss filled the room as they all embraced. It was such a huge privilege. After the leaving the temple we had tons of fun too! There were TONS of people there. And it just so happened that my past ward and my current ward AND a ton of missionaries I know were all there. I felt like I knew everyone that I saw! We were all so happy and hugging and smiling and I thought, "I bet this is what the Celestial Kingdom will be like!"

News from the ward of Esperanza: Hermana Anderson is currently ward pianist and ward choir director! It is a lot of fun to use what little musical talent I have to bless the Saints here!

Awesome story from this week: so Hermana Blanch and I go running in the mornings. One morning we passed by this guy who was milking his cows and Hermana Blanch said, " I really want to offer him service and learn to milk his cows!" And so a few days later when we passed by, we asked if we could. He told us that he was milking a particularly  tempermental cow but that we should come back the next morning to milk a more patient one and bring a bottle to fill it up. And so we returned with a bottle the next morning! After waiting outside the fence for a few minutes he came up to us, took the bottle, filled it with milk, fetched some fresh brown eggs, and handed them to us for free. We. Had. Real. Milk. FOR FREE! (the milk in the stores here is powdered milk mixed with water. It has infinite shelf life) God blesses His children when they seek to serve! And now we know where to go buy delicious and authentic milk!

I love you all and know that Jesus is the Christ. We are so blessed to live in a time when the world is populated with His holy temples. Take advantage of the blessings He wishes to give you within the sacred walls of His house.

Love

Hermana Anderson

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByRUZeow-VaVfnJ1QWc1c2VqZjFxWGszLThRVGNCZDg3eFUyTU4zenRyVmVlbmhpbmp3bGc&authuser=0