3 Weeks and New area!

 July 26sionara lake arrowhead bliss

Hey family and friends!! i hope you're all doing quite well. this week was pretty good we worked hard and met some really cool members and non members alike. something happened this weekend that i need to tell you about though. so there is this place in lake arrowhead called "the village" it's like town square basically. it's got the stater brother's and just a bunch of little shops and stuff. well there is a concert stage there in the middle and they have like summer concerts on the weekend. we went to the village for dinner friday night and there was a billy joel tribute concert happenin and.......well let's just say i'm getting transferred.:S...................................................................................................................

.............................(pausefordramaticeffect). haha ok everyone can pick their jaws up off the floor and restore their respect and confidence in me. nothing happened. i AM getting transferred but not for any misdeeds. i don't think the billy joel tribute concert was actually this weekend haha. good one. well so the story is..i think...sister steele and lyons(just some other sisters) have been serving for about a month and half or so in a samoan ward in rialto. but for the past like 3 weeks, sister steele has been really really sick with pneumonia. they haven't been able to work like at all basically and we don't know the exact details as to why but sister steele and myself are basically switching places. we found out on saturday night and i won't lie, i'm pretty sad. this are is really remarkable. the members here have taught me more about charitable love in the three weeks i've been here than i've learned about it in the entire 9 months of my mission. i will remember the miracles and service rendered that i've witnessed here for the rest of my life. i of course haven't gotten really "close" to many people in the ward at all. yesterday was only our third ward council! but i will sincerely miss this ward and area. despite the fact that this is like a seriously beautiful and peaceful place. everyone was telling us wow, this is the place to be in the summer time, which honestly it is..it hasn't gotten over like 88 yet. pretty close to no one on this whole mountain have air conditioning. and when it gets like 79 everyone complains and complains about the heat. it's crazy. so...suffice it to say i will miss it here and i am a little sad about the situation because sister liston and i really wanted to be companions! but nevertheless, i will go and do. no questions asked. plus i'm going to be companions with sister lyons, she's pretty much one of the greatest missionaries ever so that's pretty sweet. she hasn't been out very long and i'm looking forward to serving with her. for those of you who haven't made the connection with the first part of this story and now...that means i'll be serving in a samoan ward. i'm terrified of that. samoan food, samoan people....samoan language! it will take a lot of prayer and a miracle for me to not gain any exorbitant(?) amounts of weight...i might not be the most popular missionary that the ward has ever seen but....the Lord knows what he's doing and president Godwin is called of the Lord. SO. this should be an exciting adventure. so that's my big news for this week. i know you're all shocked and thinking " i can believe they are transferring her again!!" and exclamations like unto it, but i have a miracle that i would like to share with you all..pretty cool. we were gonig to meet this less active woman, we had planned to go see her like two hours previous to when we actually got there so we get to the place that is her address and it is like an apartment complex but we have no apartment number! so we ask this guy who's walking around he says...there's a phone number on the sign. so we start driving over to the sign that was at the bottom of this spiral driveway but we stopped before we got all the way down so sister liston could write something down. there was a hispanic lady walking about the driveway a few minutes later and sister liston said well i would laugh really hard if that was her haha! and then i said , well i guess we could always ask her if she knows the woman we're looking for. sister liston thought for a second and then said ah, the moment passed and now we'd have to turn around. haha. so we drive to the end of the driveway and both of us were just like no i think we should go ask that lady so we turn around and sister liston speeds up there and we catch her RIGHT before she went into her house and we ask her...do you know so-and-so. it was her!!! whoa. both of us were just blown away. we had to stop and say a prayer of gratitude afterwards because if we had waited just a minute longer we would have lost our chance to talk to her because we wouldn't have seen where she went into. isn't it amazing how Heavenly Father gives us the missionaries a second chance to follow a prompting because it would bless the life of one of His children....super humbling. we helped the wife of our bishop make jam this week that was a lot of fun. she schooled us for like 45 minutes on food storage afterward and withstood our relentless questions about how to have and use it. haha it was the most enlightening thing in the entire world. i am totally going to become a food storage mother/wife. it saves so much money!! i'm so grateful for the church and the gospel and all the wisdom and direction we receive from our prophet. whew...we would be in the same shape as the rest of the world without them what a terrible thought!well. i thought you would all appreciate that little story. just to remind you all that when we are about the Lord's work, we'll be guided by the Lord's spirit. we are just the mouthpeices, or as president uchtdorf said, we are His hands. that's it. i hope my week was not the only exciting one:) i love you all and hope you're doing fine. onward and upward eh?...eh. i love you all !! love love love. ..love sister molly

August 2 -

TALOFA!!!!!

TALOFA FOI!!!!!(that's when you respond by saying TALOFA!!)...(it means hello:))oa mai oe?! (you then say, Manuia! fa'afetai...that means i'm good thank you!) then at the end of dinner when i'm all full and can't eat anymore of your gross weird food i say...ma ona, fa'afetai. well that's about all i know fluently at this point. i don't know if any of you caught that iwas being transferred to a samoan ward...none of you commented on that fact but oh well:). this week has been an adventure. just trying to get to know the ward and figure things out. like i said last week sister steele the one that was here before me had been sick for like 4 of the 6 weeks that the sisters were here so we are kinda starting from square one again. it's exciting. sister lyons is one of the most amazing missionaries in the entire world and she's only been out lie 4 months. i'm super blessed to be her companion, we are having way too much fun! i had a few experiences with the samoan food this week it was...interesting. boiled bananas and tarro root and this stuff called chop suey and lamb stew and meki?? and then fried chicken haha. it is going to take me a while longer i feel to adjust to this ward and to get to know the people. the names are all really hard to remember and there are so many that are similar!!! fa'alaulau and fuala'au.....stuff like that...it's lots of fun:) i think when i get back into a palagi(pronounced pa-long-ey...meaning,white) ward i will be confused with all the normal names! the culture is also much much different. this is a male dominant culture, that's hard to get used to but, just different. i've been outrageously concerned about the food situation because they really like to feed you and our zone leader elder aokuso who IS samoan said they feed the palagi's more than the samoans haha so sister lyons and i made some dinner rules for ourselves since i refuse to gain weight in this area. 1. dish up yourself small portions. 2. eat slowly(with your left hand) 3. leave a little food left on your plate to show that you enjoyed the food but that you just cannot eat it all because  you're so full 4. if they offer you dessert and you don't want any just say no and be persistent haha we had to call elder aokuso before we made that one up to make sure that the "culture" wouldn't make it so people would be offended if we didn't eat dessert. OR if you want dessert just say you will have some of your companion's dessert:). we are allowed to work out more in this ward and go to activity nights when they play volley ball and fun stuff like that so i'm sure if we can just adhere to our rules we will be just fine. they are a really great ward and i'm excited while still feeling a little aprehensive to serve here? i know that i will love it, i always do:):)! plus we get to go to the temple tomorrow. if for no other reason, being transferred was worth it haha jk jk jk. Heavenly Father knows what's up you all. don't forget it. even when we don't realized what's going on...he is in charge! well i love you all and i have to go but i hope you all have a great week!!!! love love love...sister molly

Aug 16th

TALOFA! from a brand new transfer WOO!!!

Talofa lava aiga!(pronounced, eye-ing-ah) oa mai oe?!

well this week was pretty good if i do say so myself, my companions and myself observed and learned some really interesting a humorous facts about the samoan people this week that i would like to share with you all at this time.

the samoans are incredibly giving and loving and they think that missionaries are just the end all be all and that when we come to their home to visit them that simply by being there we are blessing them, it makes me kind of uncomfortable sometimes because as any of you who know me are aware of, i dislike being the center of attention. i would rather be in their shoes,giving thanks and gratitude to THEM for serving us. when i got here sister lyons told me something, that the samoans don't really have a word for you're welcome, when you say thank you to someone (fa'afetai) they say back to you fa'afetai fui. they just say thank you right back! i was like oh that's kinda strange but oh well....a few days later sister lyons thanked me for something and i realized why she had pointed out that fact to me, because my automatic response to her was "no! thank yOU!" haha.

so anyway with that all said they are very sweet people, but they are not always the sweetest of people when disciplining their children.

 

we learned the word for spanking which is sasa, and promptly started recognizing it in almost every situation where there were children. haha. they speak in english and ask their children who are crying or misbehaving if they want a sasa! or hold up their hand and threaten with a "SASA!" in result the samoan children are INCREDIBLY respectful and well behaved. it's unfortunate however because most of the time the children aren't allowed to eat with us. we usually eat either by ourselves with the mother sitting with us or with the dad eating along with us and again, the mother sitting there. the kids are usually off doing their own thing. i've been told it's like this only when the missionaries are there so i am somewhat comforted that their family unity is disrupted only for on evening a month.

 

another interesting thing they do that sister lyons and i have started imitating amongst our daily lives is that whenever their kids or really anyone is either not listening to a command they are given or they are just misbehaving is they SHH them. it's really really funny to be completely honest. the child will be climbing on the table or just sitting on the couch, the parent tells them to do something ie, get off the table or...get the missionaries a drink. the child proceeds to not act upon the request that has been presented. the parent or grandparent usually extends the direction another time or two then finally a few minutes later when the child still is in his or her first condition or disobeying they SHH loud and just liek that. SHH then they tell them again the command. i don't knw what it is about the shushing sound that spurs the kids into action but something about it works and the result desired is usually accomplished after the onimonipea.

 

we saw some amazing miracles this week. i think the hearts of the samoan people are being softened by my Heavenly Father on my behalf because the forcing of food upon us when we can't eat anymore has been dramatically lessened at my arrival. i don't know if that's the case or if i am just really good at saying no. i don't think it's the latter, so i have faith that my Heavenly Father loves me and that He is intervening on our behalf. another great miracle we experience is that we were able to talk to our very intimidating bishop about the "ward mission process" for all of you who know what that means. he was against implimenting this program in the ward previously but we went to the Lord with our plea for him to see the way we do and our prayers were answers magnificently! Heavenly Father truly blessed us with the words we needed as we presented this program to him. i know for a fact that had we not fervently sought help from the divine that we would not have been able to present it in such a way that the bishop would agree with it. we presented it to the ward council as well and i believe that things will be moving in the right direction THIS week. basically the ward mission process will just get us people to teach. it's really different situation in this ward since we can't just go out and find people to teach. it's rare to tract and find a samoan family. usually you have to go through the other samoan's. so we haven't really had anyone to teach. we've been visiting a lot of people these past few weeks but we haven't taught any lessons so we aren't really being used as we could be so the fact that bishop agreed to this program is an ENORMOUS blessing. ALSO, up until now, our ward mission leader(who should be like the go between for the missionaries and the ward council/bishop) has had a lot of health and work problems and has basically been less active, my companion has been here for like almost 2 months and until yesterday had yet to meet him. anywho, so we haven't had ward mission leader in all of this and yesterday finally the Lord and the bishop blessed us with one. he's probably the greatest person that could do the job in this ward. he's super dedicated and super busy in life as well but he just said he's dedicated to his calling and wants to magnify it. his wife is not a member and is not really sold on ever being one. but heavens, it was awesome. sister lyons and i were incredibly happy when they announced it in sacrament yesterday. woo! so pretty much, the work in the rialto 2nd samoan ward is looking on the up and up. Praises on high! this week has brought and lot of growth in heart and knowledge, studying has been full of good stuff this week. This truly must be and IS Heavenly Father's work. i'll never be able to express the gratitude i feel for being allowed to take part in it, honestly. whoo! we are a blessed people...someone we talked to last night just said it perfectly, "i am honored privileged to be a child of God". just think about THAT satement...and so i bid you farewell until seven days hence.

 

Alofa(i love you), sister anderson

May and June and Part of July!

May 10th -
hey friends. how art thou. i hope well. so the past two weeks have been something else. last week we set a baptism date with our golden investigator ramona. she's so awesome we're so grateful that we were shown the way to her and her to us. she has been ever so prepared to receive this gospel. her baptism will be on the 29th of may..that's is at least the goal she set. her husband is not a religiously minded person but is accepting of the decisions she makes for herself. he wants her to be sure that this is what she wants to do and keeps mentioning to her apparently that this is all just going really fast. she is facing a lot of opposition but she is just knocking it all out of her way. she reads outrageous amounts in the Book of Mormon a day and is already just so strong in the gospel. her faith is such an example to us. everytime she tells us a story about something she has had problems with she says....i prayed to God "please help me (with whatever she needs help with)" and she ALWAYS receives that answer in a short period of time. she reminds me of the brother of jared who pleaded witht he Lord and saved his friends and family from the confounding of the languages. who then because of his faith saw the finger of God Himself...whew! yesterday ramona came to church for the first time...her grandson was staying with her and had been begging her to be able to go to church with her. ramona's husband was a little concerned because their grandson wanted to go so badly but he didn't have any appropriate clothes. ramona prayed and asked Heavenly Father for guidance. she tried to convince tommy to wait until next week to go with her. after breakfast sunday morning(mother's day) ramona's husband took tommy and said they would be right back...ramona assumed they were going to get her something for mothers day but when they returned..tommy was in a newly purchased suit and tie with new shoes and the whole shabang. ramona got very teary eyed while relating this story to me. it touched my heart and i can see that the Lord has prepared This righteous woman to receive the gospel and is now softening the heart of her husband. one day their family will be able to be united in the gospel and be together forever. oh my word....how beautiful is that?!? the gratitude i feel for being able to show ramona the path she has been looking for cannot be put into words. this gospel, this church, the Book of Mormon, the Atonement of Jesus Christ are all wonder to be beheld and when seriously considered and pondered upon will show us the true loving nature of our Father in Heaven. That same Father in Heaven that we are to emmulate to the best of our ability while in this failed and mortal state. i love the saying...two people can accomplish anything when one of them is Heavenly Father. man we are so totally blessed. well ramona is the best thing that is happening here in the upland third ward. we are very excited for her and we are very grateful for all the other miracle we are experiencing from or gracious and loving Heavenly Father. people that get to hear the gospel are so dang lucky! well i'm grateful for everyone and their love and support to me. which love and support allows me to see the enjoy the blessings of being amissionary. something i know i will never regret doing. i love you all and hope you're doing well. remember what you're here for and where you're going after this:) i love you...love molly

May 17 - Had a sister's activity and couldn't write!

May 24 -

ok drumroll please........................................................................................................................................................................

.....................................................................i ......................am...................................................................................

NOT BEING TRANSFERRED!!!!!

sing praises and shout horray

yes yes yes, i'm staying in upland..and with sister morgan, it is very very good. i'm ever so grateful. i've come to dearly adore this ward and it would have been a heartbroken departing to have to leave. so yay! finally:) if you still feel the overwhelming need to call president sanchez, do it now and tell him thank you because this is his last transfer! well this week seems to have been overwhelmingly miraculous and happy:) erin getting things together for school, pete and his new job, dad and his new calling. we having been teaching a less active 16 year old boy who for the past month or so has been prepared to be ordained a priest but refused to come to church consistantly and refused to go out and buy a white shirt to go to church in and this week HE CAME! and in a white shirt. it was one of the happiest days ever. so over all we have all been blessed...lets all be very happy and praise the Lord by following Him diligently!:) i love the gospel...i wonder sometime if Heavenly Father is just watching us blunder around in our fallen and sinful ways just shaking His head thinking...if you would just listen to me like i asked you to you would get a really cool blessing and life would be fine haha. i feel that way sometimes about people we teach and then i think well now i know how God feels about us:). well i'm just really really happy for our little family here...:) yay families! besides our less active young chap, we didn't really have anything outrageously miraculous this week...well i guess besides transfer calls as well. so unfortunately this letter is going to be very short. i love this gospel and our loving Heavenly Father. there is no two ways about it...if we strive to follow Him we Will be blessed and we WILL be happy. following Him includes being patient and waiting just a Little bit longer for the blessings we are promised..but if we obey and we look for them...they will be there. i'm so grateful for the plan He has for us, we would be so hopelessly lost without it. that is why i choose to serve, to help those who are hopelessly lost. i'm bursting with joy right now and i don't know how to express it:) just know i love you all.   love sister molly

 

May 31st - Memorial day couldn't write.

June 7th - Again didn't write ( a group letter I mean).

June 14th -

Heyllo! how art thou dear familia. sounds like everyone is doing ok. this week was pretty good here in upland california. we had a baptism!!! ramona our investigator got baptized along with two other people from another ward. the two other people were a woman named valarie and her son dillon. they have friends in our ward who are kind of less active but invited them to church. after that valerie just loved church and it was only a short time later that she was baptized..yesterday...?.... so that was really awesome. ramona's husband who is basically agnostic came which was really great. i don't know waht more i can say about it. i love being a missionary and i love it when people accept the restored gospel through being baptized...a.fter of course having exercised faith unto repentance of their sins...anyone who knows the purpose of a missionary will understand that. ha. ok anyway sooo. another outrageously miraculous thing happened this week. we've been teaching this young boy named jake..i don't know if i told you about him but the gist is...he just turned 9 and he has a twin brother with aspberger's. his mom is less active but he goes to church with his very active grandma. he wants to get baptized but his mom didn't want him to get baptized without his brother but because of his brother's aspbergers he just wasnt interested in being baptized. but hallelujah...he can get baptized now!!! we were so excited to get the call from the bishop friday night. he talked to jake's mom and worked out some things with her. we were very excited...so we have another baptism next week woo!! it's funny because friday am when we were weekly planning we were setting our goals and the first goal is baptized and confirmed...we said zero zero...should be one and one cuz jake should get baptized....then we discussed for a brief moment how we COULD put a goal of one and one and exercise our faith in seeing a miracle of him being baptized. we did not exercise such faith but it's still happening! i just need to listen to the spirit better but i guess that is an eternal struggle. we met a man a few weeks ago named benjamin. we met him tracting and talked to him for about an hour and all the concerns he had in his life and questions he was seeking answers for were just...of course answered by the restored gospel and the book of mormon. we set up an appt with him and he wasnt there but we saw him yesterday and he's still just golden as can be...he'll get baptized one day. i love seeing miracles and seeing the fruits of being used as an instrument in the Lord's hand. we are so blessed to have this gospel in our lives and that is the reason i strive to share it with the people of san bernardino. i'm grateful beyond expression to be able to serve this way. i love you all and hope you have a fantastic week. love sister molly

June 21st -

i'm so sad, when i will come home...sad as i can be....:)

jk jk jk, i won't be sad, that was just a little play on that father's day song i'm so glad when daddy comes home. speaking of father's day..how was all of your father's days? i hope all went well. i thought of you much my dear father. i hope you had a good day. we had kinda a weird week. we saw a lot of people but we didn't get much done haha. we had a big service thing we did this week. apparently there is an international competition at this raceway in fontana. the company that sponsors it is called formula sae. it's all these college students who are doing like engineering and stuff liek taht and that make this little formula racing cars and then..race them? i guess i'm not actually sure. but there were people there from all over the world. japan, italy, canada haha, m.i.t. it was pretty much a waste of time though...we because we're sisters i assume were stationed at the registration desk and pretty much did literally nothing ALL day. well not all day but for like 8 hours straight. i wanted to die. oh well. it's done and over with so i'll repent for being a slothful servant and move on with my life. saturday was awesome possum. i don't know if any of you rememeber me mentioning our investigator who want to get bapitzed but his mom wouldn't let him and then she decided to give him permission. well that was this saturday. the baptism went beautifully. sister morgan and i got the chance to speak together about baptism it was fun!:) the spirit was very strong there and you can tell that the strength and courage and faith of that little boy will bless his life and the life of his family so so much. we were so pleased that he was able to get baptized but at the same time very sad for them. they are going through a tremendous amount of difficulty. the grandma is very active and is the one who always brings jake to church. well apparently the lady they were renting their house from was pocketing the rent they were paying and now their house is being forclosed on and they are being kicked out. they have known about it for about a month or so but jake's mom is on disability and vicky the grandma has been searching for a job and a house to move to for the longest time. since no one is working and they have bad credit and such it's hard for them to find somewhere to rent. well the bank who bought back the house is offering them liek 6 grand to move out by saturday. they signed the contract and now of course...have to be out of their house by saturday....a litle hard to do when they have no where to go. so they are have a lot of issues. there are things on top of that that i won't go into but we are very very worried about them and because of all the drama that is happening to them the baptism almost didnt' happen. satan is a very sneaky and sometimes effective spirit. we fasted for them yesterday and the ward came up with some good plans to get them moved and out of the house on saturday so we have faith that it will all work out the way it needs to. President sanchez gave us permission to give more than 4 hours of service this week for them so that is one way we can help. our perspective as a missionary is an awful one since the only thing we know how to do is teach the gospel. that won't help these people at all! this is a very affluent ward though with lots of big houses so.......things will work out that's all i know and have to say. so that was our week. lots of bitter and one really big sweet. oh funny thing that happened. saturday after the baptism bishop frandsen came up to us and said well ladies what do you have lined up for next week? because we had a baptism two weeks in a row. so he said that and we were like well....we dont' really have anyone that has fulfilled the requirements to be baptized...so anyway we talked and kinda chuckled about that then yesterday in ward council we finally got around to missionary work and bishop frandsen said ok let's talk about missionary work.....we have a baptism this saturday...!!! sister morgan and i were thinking....is he joking?? apparently a lady that had come to our ward quite a few times but was being taught by the ap's was being baptized and he wanted to let the ward know since a lot of them knew her haha it was so cool and hilarious..i can justimagine the looks on our faces...bah he probably thought he was so funny. pulled a fast one on the missionaries. anyway that was pretty funny.  so that's all i have for this week...the gospel is true, the book of mormon is the word of God and President Monson is the prophet of God on the earth today and i know that missionary work brings Heavenly blessings upon us and those we influence for good. i love you all thank you for your support and letters...ahem...your LETTERS:). i hope you have a good week!!! love love love...sister molly

June 28th -

well it sounds like we all had very eventful weeks! mom and sara and erin in san diego, even though it wasn't QUITE what you had planned it sounds like it was a lot of fun! that's too bad about the temple, i hear it really is gorgeous,we saw a picture of it in church news with all the scaffolding that's too bad. sounds like lake powell was a blast as usual for the boys. i'm super jealous..i love that place. people are always asking me how on earth i made it 21 years living in utah without seeing things like zion's or bryce canyon or other things like that and i just say...i've been to lake powell more times than i can count! haha. it holds a special place in my soul..i love it dearly and can't wait to live there someday..it will happen. i bet hole in the rock was fun..we haven't been there in a while. this week was a lot of up and a lot of down! we got a two week missionary on thursday and because of the family i told you about last week that had to move because their house was being forclosed, we did service thursday friday and saturday. it was crazy. we saw so many miracles and met some reallycool people this week. we talked to this guy that we have visited a few times before this. he is a super methodical thinker and because of that he has needed some time and patience while he researched our religion. we gave him the website and warned him of all the anti literature to be found but he wouldn't accept the book of mormon. well when we visited him on friday he started asking us a bunch of kind of obscure questions. we tried to answer him to the best of our ability and eventually he opened up about something that he has had a problem with in his life since he was in his twenties. he's now probably in his fifties or so. as the problem he had unfolded before us i did and i'm sure sister morgan did as well, prayed fervently for guidance to help this child of our Heavenly Father. of course, that help came. It was a testament to me of the love that is had for everyone we meet. he had expressed how he knows he needs to develop faith in his life and how that will help him overcome this problem so i shared a part from alma 32 with him and emphasized the fact that because he WANTS to have faith in christ that he CAN develop that mountain moving faith. sister morgan then in her always inspired ways, shared a story in the ook of mormon that related so perfectly to his situation. he finally admitted that the things we had shared with him had opened new ideas in his mind and that he would now accept a book of mormon. he couldn't promise that he could ever be a mormon haha but he would take the book of mormon. it was really great. we were able to help and comfort this man using the word of God. such an amazing blessing to have been a part of that. ah- missionary work. that is not the only miracle we experienced obviously because we are missionaries! but i won't bore you with all the details:) the family that we had to help pack and move still doesn't have a house so one part of them is living in a hotel..the grandma..i'm not sure where she's staying. the bank i think gave them an extension on when they had to be out of the house so until that time i think she's staying in the house. i really didnt' understand that things like that happened and it makes me  so heartbroken to see these individuals that i have grown to love so dearly in such a situation and i cannot help them. i see from my vantage point so many people in just this ward with resources to help them out if only for a short time and while i understand i cannot in any way persuade any of those individuals to depart of their substance as I think they should...one thing this has taught me is that whenever i am in the situation of having the ability to help others monetarily or otherwise..i will not hesitate. at least that is my hope for the future me. there is a scripture in the book of mormon that talks about if you seek for the kingdom of god then you will be given riches if you have a desire to use them in a righteous way. that is paraphrasing and probably totally butchered it but i think that is an amazing promise from our Father in Heaven. i hope one day i can recieve that blessing. i guess it really would just be another way to be used by heavenly Father to bless the lives of others so it really wouldn't be a blessing that you were given. anyway. we have faith that they will find a place to live and soon. i guess this also shows me WHY the white handbook says don't ask your family to donate to causes in the area you're serving. well so that was our week in a nut shell. sister piutau is our two week friend. it's really cool they let the youth age boys and girls 18 and over serve missions for two weeks. they are set apart as missionaries and everything. i'm super jealous i woul dhave loved to do that. except when i was 18 i had no desire to serve a mission so i probably wouldn't have done it even if i could haha. well i love you all and i have to get going.. thank you so much for all your support and love and letters. i know that this is the Lords work and i know that we can all take part in it if we want to and when we do, the Lord will bless us beyond our current comprehension. I love this gospel and i'm grateful more than words can say for the blessings it has brought to myself and those that i love. i hope you have a good week! love sister molly

July 5 - No letter due to Holiday here in Cali since the 4th was a Sunday everyone decided to take Monday off. 

July 12 -busiest week of my ENtire life. period.

hello friends and family alike. how are you all doing? i hope well. well well well. this has been hands down the busiest week of my entire life ever. let me first answer some questions and make comments to all your letters so i don't forget. mom- the shirt i was wearing in those pictures isn't new and i as well like this watch a great deal. sister taber is the stinkin coolest lady ever i love her to death. she commented once on one of her relatives naming their child it was something like ellie and she said i don't like that name it's like a name for a cow like..bessy or molly. haha it made me laugh. someone in the bishopric of our new ward's dog is named molly and we have to feed her this week for them while they are out of town. if you ever email sister taber back tell her not to feel bad cuz i get stuff liek that all the time. haha. so yes i was transferred again but you must be a little confused cuz it was time for transferrs. tiem is just going by so swiftly that it seems like we just had transfers. i agree with dad, i will be an excellent packer when i go home haha. i HAVE served with sister liston before, she was with me when we whitewashed the ward in san b. and yes she worked at the rec center, she's from ogden area but she is a figure skater and there aren't very many rinks so she skated there. my actual half way point was july 7th. sara you asked for alist of recent converts. here goes. jake halczak-june19,2010. ramona dougherty-june 12th, 2010. christine duran-jan 16, 2010. vicky anderson-march 27th,2010(but she doesn't really count, i only taught her for a transfer). p.s. do the robbins have family that live in upland? jay and pamela? ask them...get back to me on that. yes mom i got your letter both times. SO. onto better news. yes here i am in lake arrowhead. it's an awesome place...first i need to tell you something from my letter last week that i lost...for the frist time in almost nine months...i'm not wearing nylons haha. they made that not a rule anymore yay! oh yeah one more thing, our new pres arrived yesterday and i haven't even met him,,,you all know just about as much about him as i do and all i know about him is from the little bio they had in the church news. SO lake arrowhead is the bomb.com yo! it's gorgeous up here..Super dry but still awesome. tracie and adam were right...i don't want to leave and i haven't even been here a week yet. this first week was insane busy busy busy busy. the elders that have been here previously i guess were not very good at keeping up the area book or making notes or anything like that and so it seemed like there was no work to be done, ya know no one to be visited or taught etc etc but tha tis just not the case at all. the members are amazing!!! i had kinda given up hope on elderly people sharing the gospel but we had tons of people sayin...hey i want to start something with my neighbor and stuff liek that. we went to dinner yesterday and this brother i swear is like 100 and he just said hey! i have a boy  that comes to work with me everyday and he's been asking a lot of questions...i want to set up lunch with you all and have you come over and answer his questions and show him that video you just showed us. oh man people...they just GET IT. the ward just sincerely UNDERSTANDS the gospel. they get that when you have a sincere testimony of the atonement that you will want to serve and to share it. ah...i don't know how to explian it other than they get it. sister liston and have i have had the conversation  alot about the difference between being active in church and being an active member of the gospel. i dont' knwo if that makes sense to anyone else but like ya know there are people who are active in church but for whatever reason, they are just going through the motions. then there are people who sincerely strive to use the atonement and the gospel to improve their own lives and the lives of those around them. that is like the entirety of the active members of the lake arrowhead ward. we walked out of ward council with our heads just buzzing of people we could go see and try and teach. whitewashing is sometimes a daunting task because it means usually that for wahtever reason, Heavenly Father thinks or expects you to bring new life into an area...but that wasnt' even needed in this area. all they needed were some missionaries who would take time fromt heir busy schedules to do some stinkin missionary work! sister liston and i are just very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very blessed to be serving inthis ward. beside the fact that it's been DECADES since sister missionaries have been allowed to serve in the mountains like here and big bear and such because in the winter time the elders spend a lot of time digging people out and shoveling driveways. so this is a super rare opportunity. i doubt they will leave us up here in the winter time, unless they bring elders up to be here with us but i doubt that will happen. so here we are. in lake arrowhead. we were reading in our white handbook the other day and realized something...lake arrowhead is kind of a famous place...people drink water from here EVERYDAY. TOOOOONZ of famous people have lived here like...pricilla presley, michelle kwan lots lots lots more that i can't remember, , doris day filmed here with rock hudson, american president was filmed her in part...the part they go to camp david. the original parent trap was filmed at a camp that is up here. wicked cool right? so anyway...this is a really cool place but sister liston and myself have been entrusted with the responsibility of building up the kindgdom of God here. how awesome is that! ah! it's kinda super hard to find our way around here cuz of all the windey mountain roads and such but other than that, this is pretty much the ward all missionaries dream of being in. there is a talk by elder perry a few conferences ago and he talks about how missionaries are underutilized and should be teaching more than we do and how the members should be primarily our finding tools like they should have referrals for us, which is totally true because people are much mroe likely to realize the truthfulness of the gospel when introduced to it by friends instead of being like tracked into. and that is THIS ward. first off we can't really tract that easily anyway because most houses are just vacation or weekend homes and they are all built on the side of a mountain so there are stairs galor! it makes me feel super out of shape cuz of the altitude difference, you get winded just walking up some stairs! not that those things make tracting or finding impossible, just a lot more difficult. so we need to work with the memebers a LOT but hello, they already want to work with us. ah....it's soo cool. i feel way to blessed to be here and i don't know what sister liston or i did to deserve this! plus we get to be companions again so rad!! we wanted to serve together not in a threesome when we were together last time but that didn't happen. but here we are! so we're going to work our butts off and the people of lake arrowhead are going to be blessed for it. yikes. it's powerful. so since the elders didn't really keep the records very well and because of a few other things we had to deal with, we basically spent last week and yesterday organizing our thoughts and all the materials and names and things we wanted to do and people we wanted to see. we had to go down the hill to take our two week friend back and so all in all it was just exHAUSTING. i'm glad it's over and we're on to a new week and a new transfer of awesomeness. if there was any question in anyone's mind let it be known that i love with all i have being a misisonary and serving the Lord. this IS His work, and whether you wear a black tag or not we CAN be guided by Him to find those lost souls, those Elect of God who have been lovingly prepared by Him. it happens. all the time it happens. and whether someone is prepared right this second or not, we can still be led in this work because we will be used to prepare someone for the future when they will accept this glad message. and when someone does, we will feel joy beyond measure in our eternal home and in this life as well. well dears, that's what i have to say today. i love you all so much and i'm grateful for all the support an sacrifice that has brought me to the point i am right now. words cannot express the thanks i feel. i hope you all have a good week. love love love. love your sister, molly

July 19th -

oh boy family...i think i went on and on and on about how awesome this place is last week so i'll just say...i feel that way time's ten. it's so hilarious...we had to go down the hill a few times this week. once to meet our new president who is totally awesome and once for a dr appt for my comp and it was like 100+ degrees each time. up here it's been a tiny bit humid and like 85...maybe 86 and oh boy, everyone up here is like oh my gosh its soooooo hoooooot!!!!!!! everyone we talk to is like oh my gosh i can't believe it's so warm. in church yesterday it ws ...probably 75...78 maybe and everyone had the air blasting. oh man...sister liston and i were just laughing our heads off. it's so not hot!!! it's like the perfect temperature but EVERyone is just throwing a fit for how "warm" it is haha. how is it in palmdale and utah? so adam and bryce were up here that's awesome! did they have a blast? do they have a boat? dad i think you would love it up here. apparently it's a private lake so i don't know if you can get on it even but..i guess since adam came up you probably can. it's so cool...it's kinda small, i'm sure there are a lot of wakeless areas but you still see people skiing and stuff ilke that. way cool. and they have a bunch of cute little shops. so cool. but anywho...enough about the scenery...we had tonz of miracles this week. i'll just tell you about one...family, friends, i exhort you to take note of this one and if you don't already(i'm sure most of you do) try to exemplify this kind of christlike love in your life and service. we met an inactive woman who hasn't been to church in years and years and years. she agreed to let us come over and teach her so we did. we brought the rs pres with us and when we got there we were asking the woman about how her brother was doing(he had just recently gotten his tonsils removed). she said he wasn't good he was in the hospital. she then was telling us what had happened and in the midst of her story she said she felt bad because her two sons, 4 and 5 had been shushed and kinda ignored in the hustle and bustle of things. she said she wished she had someone who could watch them. this is the shortened version but sister rs pres jumped to action! she called a family in the ward who had little kids and they agreed to take the boys for the day so the family could have some time to figure things out. within the hour we at the boys loaded into sister pres's car on the way to the family's home. the boys hadn't eaten lunch yet and it was like 2 in the afternoon. so what did she do? took them to macdonalds! the boys were very worried about their uncle and their mom was very worried about her brother. sister pres is "coincidentally" a nurse and was therefore able to explain to the boys that their uncle was fine. and in some detail explain to thier mom and grandma what would probably happen to him and that chances are he would be just fine. she calmed nerves and satisfied needs. without bliking an eye. later that night she went and picked up their mother and took her to the house that they had played at to introduce her to the parents. Hello! this woman hasn't EVER been to church in this ward. nobody knows her and she doesn't know anyone. does that matter? no. this is something i will never forget for as long as i live. sister telmos(the pres) didn't hesitate to do all she could to help this woman who is a daughter of our Loving Heavenly Father. that is exactly what Christ would have done had He been there in the situation. he would have calmed fears. sympathized. and solved the problem. even if it takes sacrifice on our part of time talents, monetary funds or just simple convenience, when something needs to be done and we have the capacity to do it. we should. oh boy. it was truly a miracle for if sister telmos had not come with us that day, us missionaries would have been Helpless. i'm so grateful for the chance to see that love in action. i just want everyone to ponder that situation. understand how truly miraculous that was. it humbles me. i am surrounded by people like that...not only in lake arrowhead but in my life in general. you never know the good you can do. you simply have to strive to do your best and you WILL be used as Heavenly Father wants you to be. and in the process you will be shaped, refined, and you will become a truer follower of the Lord Jesus Christ and as such you will become LIKE Him. i'm inexplicably grateful for this time in my life and for all of who you put me her. i loev you all and hope you're doing well. miracles happen everyday if we have the faith to recognize them. Love love love love and some more love love, sister molly

Til next time!!!

April Update! and Transfered Again!

March 29th -the temple! baptisms! and car troubles to boot!!

well friends..satan is out there and he is trying quite diligently to ruin this great and marvelous work!!! this week started out like a normal week and all. monday was a regular old preparation day! tuesday went really well as well we had a great lesson with some of our investigators. then WEDNESDAY CAME!!! wednesday was temple day and it was totally rad. we showed up at the temple the very early 815 session and who was there!?! my last two companions!!!! it was so rad. sister liston and sister house. it was so cool..president said they could go one more time because this is sister house's last transfer. the lady that brought them was driving really slow so they were late for the session they were planning to go to so they went to the next one and that's when we got there! it was really so awesome. i love my the sisters in this mission they are all just so fantastic. so the temple was really great...we all just sat in he celestial room for a while and discussed things...the spirit was so strong there. i love the temple. after the temple we had to take our car to the shop bah..i'm so sick of cars!! i just think...this is crazy cars aren't human...they don't have cells that can be corrupted or minds to make decisions so why do they break! i guess because they are made by humans that have frailties and agency...oh well i guess. satan just really wants to mess us up is all. so we took it to the shop and then the next day we had to go pick it up and take it to the dealership because whatever was wrong with it was a warrenty issue so the shop couldn't fix it. well we had an appointment thursday morning so we walked which really isn't that bad but our area is pretty enormous. it took us an hour and a half to go there and back. i got a huge blister on the bottom of my foot which was not totally awesome haha. we FINALLY got our car back friday and then saturday night it sarted making a weird noise again. so we didn't get out a lot this week. friday we were tracting and there these two people outside in their garage unpacking some boxes and we talked to them for a little bit. we asked them if we could help them unpack..they said we could come back the next day and help them. we were really excited because that doesn't ever happen! whenever you ask someone if you can help them they say no no it's ok we're fine. so we were really happy to go back...the next day we went back and he was in his garage again and as we walked up we said can we still help? and he said no no i think we got it today. me and my wife talked about it last night what you wanted to share with us and we...well we go to another church....blah blah blah blah balh blah blah blah blah. ugh satan is really sneaky sometimes...we didn't want to help you to convert you! we just want to help you!!!!!!!!!!!!things are so frustrating sometimes. well today is monday and our car is BACK in the shop....we are doing exchanges today so sister sanchez had to come all the way up to rancho to pick us up. just one of those crazy weeks. but we have the gospel in our lives and it helps us to not get bent out of shape over things like this right? we had an awesome experience on saturday...christine duran's husband got baptized...i think i mentioned that last week...ah it was the best spirit ever. i just can't put into words the feeling that comes when you see a family make the choices to become eternal. it's the greatest opportunity. well i'm kinda out of time. the gospel is true. this church IS true. the book of mormon IS true. Thomas S. Monson is the prophet of God on earth today and we get to listen to him and the quorum of the twelve apostles this week!!! we are so dang lucky. i wish this could happen every week...the best thing ever.....tell EVERYONE. i love you all. love sister molly


We only got personal emails on April 5th and 12th due to transfers and her being super busy on P-day

April 19th - and the area is.....(drum roll)......UPLAND

i am now in UPLAND. one of the wealthiest areas in the mission. woo. there's pretty much NOTHING going on in this area right now. but no fear! we will prevail...someone will be baptized....eventually. i'm serving with my dear friend sister morgan in this area. she was my roommate when i was in fontana..so many transfers/companions/areas ago.she was here last transfer with my first dear friend sister harrison. they have worked diligently here and i'm sure they have prepared the way for things to come forth. like when you can't open a jar and you try and try and then someone opens it easy peas for you...you just loosened it for them right? not saying it will be easy peas to progress the work in this area but...i'm sure their hard work will start paying off very very soon. we're living in rancho cucamonga..an area called alta loma. in a detatched apartment of a woman who is living with her daughter at the moment. it's a really cool house tiny little studio apartment with the kitchen sink in the bathroom! there is a little tiny stove that is just adorable and the property is filled with orange trees and lemon trees and grapefruit and avacado and tangello...whatever those are. and sunflowers and asparagus that hasn't been taken care of so cannot be used:(:(. it's really adorable i quite love living there. we get to go to the temple this transfer which totally rocks. i'ts a good area...the ward is a little older demographic and everyone knows everything about everyone so they feel like there isn't much gospel sharing to be done in their area or within their realm of influence. we don't really have any investigators and the one we sort of have cannot progress because of family conflicts. we really can only improve here so there is a lot of hope for the bright bright future! with any luck i'll get to stay in this area and witness it grow and progress and become a completely different area than how it started out as. but really any growth and progress will transform the area haha so we'll see how things go. areas like this can make it hard to love missionary work so this is quite the challenge and call to perform ahead of me. i love this work. i love this gospel. and i love being able to share it with others...even when they don't want to hear it. understanding and living faithfully the principles of this gospel is ALL this life is about!! it's so clearly laid in front of me that it is true and it can be as clearly unfolded to anyone else who sincerely seeks it. we are here to become more liek and be prepared to live with our Father in Heaven. what better way to do that then to Share the most precious thing in our lives. the thing that blesses our families most...this true gospel of Jesus Christ...that's what Heavenly Father did isn't it..He offered for anyone who would accept it the sacrifice of His only begotten Son....we are just making people aware of that love that was felt for them when that sacrifice was made when we make them aware of Christ's restored gospel and church. There is a living prophet today. He hold the priesthood power to lead and direct Christ's church on this earth. There is no other way to succeed but through Christ. I'm grateful beyond words for the chance i have to be His missionary at this time in my life...i wish i could do it forever but alas...that is not what i was called to do. :( I love you all and appreciate all your support in this endeavor...i know that God will bless you for doing so. i hope you all have a good week...i love you! love sister molly

April 26th - miracles miracles and more miracles woo!

so this week was totally the bomb.com we got to go to the temple and then we had zone conference and a zone tract in our area and TONS and TONS!!!!!!!!!!! of miracles to boot. let me start from the beginning of this most tantalizing tale of missionary work in the great san b cali mission. so tuesday we had an appointment with a woman who was on a potential investigators list. her name is ramona. she told us the first time we met her that she has been studying with the jdub's and i may have mentioned this last week but anywho. we get to her door and we're really excited about this lesson. but she opens the doors and acts almost as if she doesn't remember us. so i say...we were here last week and you said we could come back and teach you more.... she says yeah "the jehova's witnesses said i have to stay with them because i've been studying with them for so long." wHAT! we just told her ya know you don't have to listen to them you can let us teach you more and make the decision for yourself. then we just bore testimony that the message we share is true and i asked her if she had a book of Mormon. she said no so we grabbed one and gave it to her. i showed it to her and said "this is the Book of Mormon, another testament of Jesus Christ" right there it all changed. come to find out they had told her that we don't believe in Christ and that after you're baptized we make you worship joseph smith. we told her no. we Believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet in the latter days but we don't worship him. she was surprised that we believe in prophets and told us that she believes in miracles like that but that the jdubs told her things like that don't happen. i asked her if we could read a scripture with her from the book of mormon that talks about miracles. mormon9:18-20. she then invited us in so she could get her glasses. we talked for about an hour and taught her roughly the first lesson of the restoration. she said she'd had a dream. about christ coming in a cloud-when she saw him in the dream she told him that she hadn't been baptized. she was baptized as a baby in the catholic church but doesn't believe that counts because it wasn't her choice and wasn't sure why in her dream she would tell christ that she hadn't been baptized. we showed her the picture of Christ in the clouds with the angels all around him. she said it was like that and that it made her feel very peaceful and happy. when she told the jdubs about the dream she had the completely discounted it and siad that dreams liek that are from the devil. we talked about how so many people in history and in the bible have benefited from dreams they've been given. by the end of the lesson she said that maybe we were an answer to her prayers that she needed to be baptized and that she was going to try to avoid the jdubs slowly. she took the book of mormon and said she was goingto tell them that we believe in christ and all the things we told her. she even had a paper so she could write it down and remember for when they came next. it was so awesome...she's so prepared. we asked her if when she found that the things we taught are true would she be baptized and she said absolutely in a second. i kinda whimped out on the baptismal commitment but that's ok...it will happen. that was on tuesday then wed was temple day, thurs-zone conference! friday weekly planning saturday zone tract in our area which rocked...all the missionaries in our zone got together and then we tract someone's area together and then that companionship whose area it is gets to count all the lessons you taught and all the hours of finding for their week. then sunday...oh boy sunday is the best...get ready this might be kinda long. OK so first off....a muslim a catholic and luthren and two mormons are at a barbeque...the catholic says to the muslim...these are my two mormon friends...they'll teach you about their church...the muslim says can i come to your church next week and the luthren drinks some tea after cleaning the kitchen...haha really bad joke i know i know but that totally happend. we're teaching a man who is from syria but he is catholic and he invited us to a barbeque he was having for his students and his muslim friend was there and wanted to talk to us. we invited him to church and the catholic man's wife who is luthren and usually avoids us like the plague came into the livingroom and sat down while we all talked. haha someone pointed out that there probably weren't many missionaries who had the opportunity to teach a group of people made up of so many different denominations. we hope the guy comes to church next week that would be so rad. the last miracle the best of all the game though...hold on to your hats for this one. ok so there is this woman...sister sh we'll call her i don't know how to spell her last name but it starts wiht a sh sound. so sister sh had surgery and is very missionary oriented so asked her son's russian teacher if she could take them to church last week. her friend the teacher(named victoria) agreed. came to church and loved it. this week was not asked to bring the sh boys to church but came to church anyway!! the gospel priciples lesson was VERY confusing:( sad day...even to us the missionaries. between gospel principles and the start of relief society we started answering some questions that victoria had. we ended up...well sister morgan did most of the talking...but we ended up teaching her the first have the the first lesson about the restoration. relief society started and then after that she had to go. fast forward about 4 hours past the bad barbeque joke and we're at the bishop's house for a youth discussion thing. everyone is eating ice cream and we're just kinda talking to some people...the door bell rings and i was close to it so i got it...it was the assistants??? elder wood one of the assistants used to be in the ward so i wasn't TOO confused as to why they were there...i assume they were just there to visit the bishop...they walk in and they are both like "we have some good news for you...we just visited sister sh" WHOA! no stinking way!!!!!! apparently they had been in upland for something they had to do at 6 and they had about half an hour so elder wood(at least he thought it was him just thinking that) thought let's go see sister sh. they show up and sister sh says come in i have someone you need to teach! so they go in and teach a quick lesson about the book of mormon. how crazy is that! right were we left off. elder wood said..i guess God really wanted that lesson completed haha. it was so amazing like honestly...best miracle EVER. they commited her to read and pray about the book of mormon and got a follow up appt with ehr. i don't think she lives in our ward boundries but that seriously doesn't even matter. it's was such an amazing event. like seriously...i don't know if i'm getting my point across effectively of HOW miraculous it really was that they just stopped by per chance and finished the lesson we couldn't. THAT woman is going to be a baptized member of the true church of Jesus Christ. i don't know when it will happen but it IS going to happen. gosh dang. it's so cool. miracles liek that just make me love this work that much more. it's so fantastic to see the hand of the Lord in someone's life. look at the weird connections that had to be made to make it so she could be taught....elders werent' prompted to go tracting on her street that night because she wasn't home! ah i really don't know if i'm making sense at all i guess i'll sum this up and say...This IS undoubtedly the work of our Heavenly Father. He and only He...is incharge. He directs His missionaries to do His will. He molds and shapes us to be the perfect instrument He needs at the perfect time and we (members of the church not just the missionaries) are just for SOME reason blessed enough to be there to be molded. I sincerely cannot put to words the joy and gratitude i felt driving home last night. God loves His children and when we try to serve Him by serving them...we truly will be living the plan of happiness. and we will recieve joy and peace in THIS life as WELL as the eternities to come. Each of us should strive not to take this opportunity on earth for granted. if we just humble ourselves we can allow the happiness into our lives and help OTHERS to feel it probably for the first time in theirs!!! i don't know what it feels like to be newly baptized after living a life of confusion and pain. but i know the joy that i feel when i can help someone ELSE feel that. I'm grateful to be a missionary and i know that this is the true chruch. No one can sincerely understand it but dispute it honestly. Thank you for all your support in this adventure i get to be on. i want you to know that you can feel the same way when we live Christ centered lives we will always be ready to be molded to be the tool that God needs. i love you all and hope you have a good week sorry if i've bored you this week :S love love love sister anderson


***(We have all been worried about Molly since she has been transferred so much and we have all offered to call and talk to the Pres. for her cause knowing Molly she wouldnt dare anywhoo she put us all in our place with the next letter written on the same day)
 
everyone should take a deep breath and relax...it is OK that i've been transferred so much. President doesn't just make trasnferrs up willey nilley...He is a man called of God and thus follows the promptings and direction He receives. I am perfectly fine with it. it was hard to deal with liek the first two times but after that...no worries. I'll go where you want me to go dear Lord right? there will be no calling president sanchez to rebuke him or plead my case...it will be just fine if i get transferred EVERY transfer i'm here for that matter. and even if you did give president a call He wouldn't have any control over me staying or not. He told sister morgan last transfer...a WEEK before he made transferrs that he really has no clue what is going to happen until they get in there to do transferrs....so...be calm and supportive of your miisonary..even if she gets transferred a lot...it's what is best....ok i've said my peace i love you and have to go.
 
May 3 - No blog email just persoanl ones. She's doing well and enjoying her area.
 

March Update

March 1 = Transfers and Molly was transferred AGAIN! Poor thing so she didnt have time to write a weekly letter

March 8 -
one transfer older and wiser too...happy transfer...to you!
hola, como esta amigos! how is everyone...birthday greetings from....are you ready for this....drum roll please......VICTORVILLE....haha i know you're all dying right now....please refrain from comments on how close i am to palmdale...i already know...palmdale road(not blvd) is in my area...the god things is though...i don't think i could get to mom and dad's house if my life depended on it so alas...all trunkiness is subdued. so...new transfer...two new companions! i've only been out five months and this is my 7th and 8th companion. the other surprising event of this transfer is that the two sisters i am now companions with, sister judd and chid..were mtc companions AND came out only one transfer after me....i am the senior......whoa. the dynamics of "senior/junior" companion is a little different with sisters especially when i only have one transfer of experience ahead of them  but still i am the oldest and when decisions need to be made they must be done by myself. president sanchez is always saying that we need to become better sooner, so i guess here is my chance?! it was really a very strange transfer...all the sisters who sincerely are senior pretty much stayed in their respective areas and sister child and i were put in sister judd's area...silver lakes becuase sister judd's companion died(that's missionary speak for she finished her mission and went home). the work is going really well here...we're really really busy and have a lot of investigators, which is way cool. this is actually the area i was in for exchanges last transfer and when i was here before while we were teaching a lesson i thought this is areally cool ward...i could totally serve here some day...i never thought someday would be this transfer!!! i feel like i can never ever fill the shoes of my own senior sisters..i'm not nearly as experienced or knowledgable but...i'll go where Heavenly Father wants me right? i don't really have much of a choice! haha. i was very sad to leave san b...it was a good ward and really good companions...i don't feel like i learned all i could from them. this is sister house's last transfer andi will miss her:( and i probably won't ever be companions with sister liston agin now! the word on the street is there can only be three sisters in this area for this transfer so for all i know i'll probably be transferred again in five weeks! but the good thing is that next transfer we're getting enough new sisters that we probably won't need a tripanionship anywhere woo! don't get me wrong i love my companions but being in a companionship with three is just a lot more work...relationship wise ya know? well my companions are pretty awesome i love them both already...they are the tallest of the sisters....go figure. sister judd is somehwere around 6 foot. sister child is not far behind i think she's like 5'9". both of them thin and gorgeous....sister bowers always said that when sister judd would back her up in the car that she felt she was being backed up by a super model...totally true haha. sister judd is so funny though we laugh ALL the time. sister child reminds me so much of myself sometimes it's crazy...i don't know how things will go there haha ya know sometimes someone is just TOO much like you and you end up not getting along...i know that won't happen because we're missionaries and that just doesn't happen so:) but they're both great...we're learning a lot from eachother and this transfer is going to be so awesome....we had zone conference and the zone leaders in victorville are really great...they are so dedicated and want us all to e the same way. during zone breakout after zone conference(so many meetings!!!) they went around the room and we individually dedicated ourselves to working 100 percent to further this work. there was such an amazing feeling of hope and optimism...i'm really happy and excited to be here...i think i will really like this area...maybe i'll even get to stay:)one hilarious thing is that this zone is going to the temple this transfer haha. i'm beginning to think there is something about the temple i need to understand...otherwise president will just keep transferring me to zones that are going to the temple haha. jk jk jk i'm super grateful. well...this week was interesting and we had to get our oil changed...so along with that, transferrs and zone conference, we haven't accomplished alot and a lot of our appointments cancelled on us. so that's all my exciting news....i love being a missionary and you all should too! there's nothing greater in this world than to serve Christ and to help one of Heavenly FAther's other children, truly understand His love for them. that's all the gospel really is...a plan and a conduit to understanding fully and feeling Heavenly Father's love, it is when we feel that love that we are moved and motivated to follow Him and obey the commandments and it is when we obey the commandments that we gain salvation...so help other people feel the love of their creator and you will help them live the gospel!!! i love you all and hope you're doing well...oh i just figured something out...this transfer i have three birthdays!! yesterday was my five month mission birthday...saturday is my actual birthday and then april 7th is my SIX MONTH mission birthday....oh my gosh i hope that day never comes!!!! ok i love you...stay faithful and obedient:) love sister molly




March 15
week three already:( where does the time go??
Hello friend family and fellow followers:) how art thou this fine week? this week was my birthday and now i am 22. that is weird.on april 7th i will have been serving for 6 months already and that means i will only have one year left to serve. that is sad. i want to be 21 and a missionary for the rest of my life...i want to be the 4th nephite......i could hang out with john the beloved...they are cool. this week was pretty good...we worked hard.  a LOT of our appointments cancelled which really wasn't cool. but we found some new people to teach so that is really awesome. i don't know what it is about sister child and i that makes everyone not want to talk to us anymore haha but apparently there is something. we met this really cool lady who goes to HDC(high desert church) they are like the anti-Christ of the high desert. they teach a ton of anti. but we met her and talked to her for like an hour...one day she will be baptized. we just talked to her about our church and asked her about hers. and talked about the Book of Mormon. then we got this referral for a man named alvin who visited st. george and requested a Book of Mormon and when we talked to him on the phone he said i don't want someone to come to my house and preach to me about religion i just want this book. when we got to his house he let us right in and we spent the next hour pretty much just talking about our church and answering questions from him and his wife. apparently they are devout catholic but OF COURSE there is something that he "just doesn't like about the catholic church" haha i love it when people say that. i just want to shout THAT IS BECAUSE IT ISN'T TRUE!!!! to them but that is super in appropriate and like vomitting the gospel at people which isn't allowed. later in the week we talked to some really cool ladies...yahana and her daughter yahana. friends of some people in our ward. this is just such a testament of member work. we went over their with their friend and these two girls are naturally very kind and friendly to people but because we were with the member they let us right in and visited with us and let us tell them about the restoration and we got a follow up appointment....if we had tracted that house they would have been like no thanks we go to church even if we had said...we know so and so they would jsut not have responded the same....i love members....that's pretty much every one who will ever read this....so be good to your missionaries...give them referrals and go with them to those referrals! well saturday was my birthday and we went to a birthday party how crazy is that! haha we had to leave early but i thought that was pretty fun.   well that's about it for this week...super boring because everyone cancelled on us. but alas...the begginning of a new week awaits us...i hope it goes well for you all! LOVE YOU...love sister molly  

March 22

laundromats, lessons and the GUITAR

on top of old SMOKEY all covered with cheese i lost my something or other...i don't remember the words to that song but i learned how to play it on the guitar this week cool right!? sister child knows how to play the guitar a little bit and sister peeler has a guitar! when i asked sister peeler if we could use her guitar she misunderstood me and thought i said shar shar haha so now that's what we call the guitar..."hey you wanna play the shar shar" haha. good times. well this week was pretty good...sister peeler's dryer broke though so we had a little bit of a laundry mishap. we had to go do our laundry on a wednesday bah! there are some really nice sisters in the ward that keep telling us that we can just use their driers until ours is fixed but it's just such a hassel when all of us have like 3 loads and NO time. but all is well this week. whew! we had some really awesome lessons this week. we taught a lesson called the great supper lesson. i want you all to do this in your own personal study...read luke 14:15-25...now make a list of ALL the things that have blessed your life from having the gospel in it. everything like wholesome music...good values and morals...awesome seminary teachers...just keep going until you can think of anything anymore and then commit yourself never to be the ones to make weak excuses for not attending the great supper that has been offered to us by Heavenly Father through His restored gospel. will you do that? ( you all nodded yes) good. i know that Heavenly Father is just WAITING to bless us and all we have to do is obey His simple commandments. we had another lesson with our investigator erin...she goes to the High Desert Church..otherwise known as hdc...antichrist of the high desert. it's really awesome to see the questions she has and the explaination that she gets from her own church and the clarification that our gospel can offer. like one of the questions she has is...what is our purpose here on earth....why couldn't God just snap His fingers and Make us perfect so we wouldn't have to live on earth....now if her church understood agency and the Fall of Adam and Eve....she wouldn't have that question now would she baha!  we are also teaching the other girl tessera...she reminds me of a lady i taught in my first area...the lessons we had with THAT lady made me love being a missionary so much...no matter what we talk about the spirit is there and it's there SO strongly!! she's just searching for the truth and God is giving it to her!! ah!!! well this upcoming week is going to be awesome. we get to go to the temple which rocks and then there are TWO baptisms of people that i taught this week. well the one we are going to i only taught him one lesson....his name is gonzalo..he's inapple valley but we helped his wife get baptized while we were there. and then the other one is a lady from fontana who grew up a member but had her records removed when she got divorced...she had to overcome a lot...it's so so SOOOOO amazing to see the gospel change people.   i just don't have words to describe the feeling of seeing someone become a better person and obtain remission of their sins! i pray everyday that something will happen in the next 13 months to make it possible for me to stay a missionary forever....:( pray for me will you haah. ok well i gotta run now i hope everyone's week goes so well....read that section in luke it's awesome.! i love you all....love sister anderson

5 week update and another area again plus a new comp!

Jan 11


hello one, hello all! song of the week is...i don't have one because our greatest investigator barrowed my hymn book and i have forgotten the name of the one i had in my brain...the chorus says..never, never, never from thee let us stray, ever, ever, ever to thee will we pray...or something like that.
anywhoooo this week was a tad uneventful....we got to go to the temple on wednesday which was probably the best thing ever. i love the temple. in the celestial room there were these little moments when no one was talking or moving around...just..................silence........... oh it was so glorious, everytime i go to the temple i think...i want to just stay here and live here and then i think, oh...one day i will :) how awesome. afterward we got to walk around the grounds and take some photogs..i got some really cool ones of the angel moroni. good times. we also watched mountain of our lord with one of the less actives we're working with...that's a really great show if you've never seen it. do. watching shows liek that make me feel so so wimpy haha. the pioneers did some amazing things like build this outrageous temple by hand and preach the gospel without "preach my gospel" or the mtc. it's also a blessing that we don't have to do those things. temples can be erected in a matter of months now and us missionaries are being better prepared to fight against the adversary and preach to people specifically who are prepared to hear the message. but i always feel very humbled when i see the stories of the pioneers. well this week was pretty boring haha i know i say that every week but here...it's true. this week we are doing exchanges which should be a lot of fun. one of the girls i was roommates with in fontana is coming up to my area with me. a good thing cuz i like her, a bad thing because i don't know the area very well still and i think the ap's are crazy for leaving me here by myself! we also get to go to the zone leader and district leader conference that should be way fun. i don't know why they invited the sisters but they did and i'm stoked, it should be good. christine's baptism is also this saturday...so exciting! she's just eating everytnig up and guaranteed when she's baptized her husband will start taking the lessons, and then he will be baptized and then when their girls get older they will both be baptized and then gabby will serve a mission some day and they will both get married in the temple and they will raise their kids in the church and they will go on missions and then look at what an amazing impact the gospel will make. oh it's so great. in helaman3:29-30 it says that if we lay hold upon the word of God that we will end up in God's kingdom and sit with Abraham and Isaac and so on and so forth. what an amazing promise! the path is laid out in front of us if we can but hold onto the words of God himself we will be lead effortlessly to His side. not saying the path is effortless, but He will lead us effortlessly. the problems arise when we fight against His guidance. we're so blessed to have this gospel in our lives. we are so much more blessed when we can share it with others. oh boy...ok i'm done. well that's all i have to share today. things are good, we're working hard not hardly working and Heavenly Father is blessing us. Next week is Martin Luther King Jr. day and the library will be closed so i won't be abel to respond to any emails...also we will get transfer calls on saturday so i won't be able to email you and tell you whether i will be transferred or not. i'm pretty sure sister house will be but i don't know about me. you can write me or just wait for me to be able to respond the week after that haha. i will write you all and let you know the result of transferrs and such on tuesday. i love you all so much thank for all your support and love...i hope you have a fantastic week!! till next time! love sister molly




***Molly was transfered so we did not get to hear from her the 18th


Jan 25th


ok i have like no no time right now. i was transferred as you all have heard already...sister house and i went from apple valley to san b. we gained a companion, sister liston who is actually from utah and skated at the rec center for some time. she's really cool i love having her around and she's an amazing misisonary...i will learn a lot from her. it has poured and poured and poured rain this week and finally stopped on saturday! it was good to see the sun. it started monday in apple valley and continued when we got to the new area...we're white washing this area and i don't think there have been sisters serving in the san b zone for 10 plus years! crazy!! we are living with a little old lady named sister adams in devore which is part of our area...she's an amazing lady. her and her husband served as mission president in spain..i don't remember the mission but she said it wasn't dad's mission and it was after dad's time as a missionary...her husband has passed away and everyone in the mission was telling us..oh you get to live with sister adams! that's the best place in the whole mission to live!! i'm so jealous...sister sanchez said when you walk into sister adam's home the spirit is just THER. and it is sooo true. she's cool, she said we could drink her milk and use her bread and eggs and laundry detergent and she's just the best. we've had some really amazing conversations with her. she's just cool i love her already and it hasn't even been a whole week! things are going well here so far...it was hard to work last week because of the torrential rain and i'm not even exaggerating it was ridiculous. but now that we've been to ward council once and the rain has stopped things are very hopeful...there is a lot of improvement to be had but the ward is good and everyone in the are even sisters not in our ward are excited to have sisters, so things should be pretty good as far as working with the memebers goes...we'll just have to see though. i'm really excited to be in this are, it should be a lot of fun. we're living in devore which is kind of in the mountains and friday we even got a little snow!! it didn't stick of course but it snowed pretty hard for a good two hours...the house we live in is pretty big and sister adams conserves as most smart people do so it's pretty cold most of the time in her house so my snuggly blanket is coming in handy! :) well i don't know her address at the time ori might consider giving it to you and i really have to go...that' pretty much all that happened this week....rain rain go away come again another day, that's my song of the week. ok i gott a go i love you all so much muah muah mauh take care of your missionaries please! loves! sister molly



Feb1


song of the week. joseph smith's first prayer to the tune of oh my father...really cool mash up.
so i hope everyone is doing well this week. i'm glad to report that my companions and i are doing fantastically. these weeks are flying by...today is the beginning of week 3 in the transfer....i caNNOT believe it!!!!! AH! anyway...this week was zone conference and oh man...i love zone conference...last transfer i didn't love it so much because i felt like i was being buried with a huge burden of things i wasn't doing correctly. this time it was so inspiring and just ah, it was aweosme. after we had zone conference we sat and just revised all our transfer goals to meet the things we talked about that morning...the spirit was so strong during the meeting and while we were planning...i can just tell that this transfer is going to be awsome. sister liston is so great i'm so happy she was added to our already awesome companionship. she is just so motivated and wants to be better all the time. she is such an awesome exmple to myself i know that i will be able to learn so much from her. we get along so well and we think so much alike sometimes it's cool. i love sister house too..sister liston is just new to me haha. so all is well in the neighborhood. we're living at the best place in the mission to live...we were told that by multiple elders before we got here and they were ALL right. sister adams is the most amazing person i think i've ever met in my enitre life. she lets us eat all her food and she is always taking care of us and she's so patient as we pick her brain for these deep doctrinal questions that plague us all. it's so aweomse to be able to sit and talk wiht her about things, she's so smart! yesterday was an awsome sunday packed with the spirit! love those days right? i had to speak in church and because we as a companionship decided to focus with this ward on love and caring and the love of Heavenly Father that's what i decided to talk on. "coincidentally" that's what the other two speakers spoke on as well. i really know Heavenly Father is leading us in the work and in this ward and think that He really does want the ward to focus on His love and how we can effect other's with His love. it's so amazing. i had several confirmations yesterday that we are at the Lord's work and He IS guiding it and that we can be and do anything with this help.  there was a lesson that we taught in my first area and it made me fall IN LOVE with being a missionary and yesterday just did it again. i love being here...i want time to slow down so i can spend more time doing this! everyone told me to wait until my fourth transfer out and then time would fly but they were all so dead wrong, it happened last transfer and it's happeneing again this transfer!! ah!! i don't want it to be february because after february is march and in march i turn 22 and after march is april and i will have been out SIX MONTHS!!! ah...i wish i could have joshua here to stop the sun for me. oh well. i guess i'll live....just ahve to work extra hard to make sure i've done everything i can right? well. missionary work is awesome...Heavenly Father DOES love each of us...he knows and cares about what you're doing right this second. and He just asks that we share that amazing and infinite love with others. it's so simple. when we share that love with others we will feel it more prominantly in our own lives and the cycle will continue until we are lucky enough to be called back to Him....what an astoundingly beautiful plan don't you think? whew. we are so blessed.  well i have to be going....i love you all so much you are the best.  have a good week! love sister molly


Feb 8

hey friends...family..countrymen haha jk jk- so how the heck is everyone?! i hope all is well.  this week was pretty good. a little on the unproductive side...at least in the obvious kind of productiveness..if that makes sense?? i don't have song of the week this week...i'm giviing that up haha we sing a lot of the same songs so if i ever have one stuck in my head or anything i'll let you know. i just want to say first of all that i love being a missionary...it's the greatest thing ever. how lucky and blessed am i that on my preparation day i can sit down and watch a movie..about the gospel! how often did i do that when i was home...oh like  NEVER. maybe i've said this before...sometimes i feel like a broken record but if there is one thing i have learned whilst being a missionary it is that you CAN live a gospel centered life in the world. you can be IN the world but not at all OF  the world. we can center our lives and thoughts and actions and every aspect of every day around Christ and do you know what will happen? we will be HAPPY!!!! it is called the plan of HAPPINESS not only because we will be happy in the end but because we will be happy NOW too! ah i just love it. i love the gospel...it is true...we can all go home now right? oh boy...well we had to get our oil changed this week so we didn't get a ton done that we wanted to but here's a funny story for you. the other day we stopped for lunch but we don't have very many miles each month so we usually take lunch and then just eat in the car and either study after or nap...anywho...well i don't usually nap during our break time because i just don't like taking naps during the day but that's another story...so we all fell asleep and it hadn't been very long when we all woke up and sister house sat up first and said uh oh!...well there was a cop parked right next to us...it was raining and i guess our lights were stilll on because the car was still running and he was just checking things out...making sure all was well...well he was a really cool guy and we got to talk to him for about 15 minutes. he said he'd been to salt lake to "that cathedral of yours" and asked why it was that he couldn't go inside. *aaaahhh* it's moments like that when angels sing:) so sister liston handed him a pass alon card with a pic of the temple on it and explained what goes on there. he said he had seen us in his neighborhood a few days ago...we had been going to see a potential investigator. what are the odds  right? sheesh. i wanted to say God is trying to tell you something when you run into the same three missionaries twice in one week eh! but he had to run off to something far more exciting than said three missionaries. it was really cool...we're totaly going to go visit him because we didn't get his name. yesterday was almost the most awesome sunday EVER..i think it was because it was fast sunday...i used to hate fast sundays...i used to hate fasting but that's beside the point. i love them now! the spirit was so strong it was way cool....everyone that bore their testimony - said something that fit almost so perfectly to the needs of this ward. and we had like seven less actives that we've been trying to focus on in sacrament AND an investigator. it was great...then the lesson in sunday scool was so amazing...we don't have a gospel principles class which i guess is ok cuz we have no investigators but one of the teachers is an institute teacher so obviously it was so enlightening. then the lesson we had in relief society was so cool...it was about protecting our families and making our home a refuge for them.     i'm not necessarily excited to be home and done with my mission but i am excited for when i get home and i can use all the awsome knowledge and skills i'm gaining now! whew i am so blessed thatHeavenly Father would let me serve a mission. i'm sure all you RM's feel the same way. well we fasted yesterday for new investigators and people to teach and eventhough no one wanted to talk to us due to super bowl sunday we got ONE new investigator...it's amazing the miracles that happen when you have faith and do the things God asks  you to! i just want to share something funny with you all...i am readhing in 3 nephi this week about when Christ comes to the people there and i had a question about when God speaks to them and tells them that Christ is coming and then the next night i totally had a dream that the world was way way bad and the second coming was very close to happening and it had been raining for days and days and days and then it thundered and the thunder turned into God's voice and he was telling the people here that he had sent them missionaries that needed to be listened to haha. it was way funny..i don't know what i should have learned from it but oh well... well dear friends i've talked y our ears off for another week....keep up the good work...take care of your missionaries please....they need it!! and remeember that missionary work is not the hardest thing ever..when we pray for opportunities to share the love of our Heavenly Father with others..those chances will turn naturally into paths to open the gospel to someone...a good friend told me recently that she realized...it wasn't her responsibility if they accepted or not...just her responsibility that she shared it.    this gospel IS true....Christ Does live. and Heavenly Father loves us enough that he sent us another prophet to lead and guide us!!!! blessed doesn't begin to describe what we that have the truth are......LOVE YOUR NEIGHBORS!!!!