Fifty Seventh email -

Fifty Sixth email - YW broadcast‏

3/28/11 To Mom, Dad Sara Elizabeth Anderson We got tickets to go to the yong womens broadcast!!! We had two investigators with us. Paulina and Jenny. Jenny is from Germany and has been in UT for about 6 months. Her english is amazing!!!! Back at home she said that church was not cool and that only old people go to church. So when she went to the conference canter and saw 22,000 girls there she was blown away! She loved it. The baptism went great!!! Anna. Ang guess what they Young Women sang for hte special musical number, Walk Tall your a Daughter of God! It was so amazing! I was like AH my aunt sang this at my baptism!!! It made me so happy!!!! COnference is coming up!!!! I am so excited!!! Aunt Jennifer sent me a letter and said that she woudl be here. So I guess I will see the Blyels and the Mullins. Yes I got the ticket. Thank you so much!! Things are good! Staying healthy and happy. Thanks for everythinkg. Love you all. Love, Sister Anderson

Fifty Fifth email - life is a whirlwind‏

3/21/11 Sara Elizabeth Anderson Hide message OK so this week had been crazy! Well the abrasion happened Monday afternoon, went to insta care that night and that is when I found out about the abrasion. Went to the optimoligist Tuesday afternoon where he put a contact in my eye to act as a band aid. It worked wonders!!!!! I could see! And I was not re scratching my eye every time I blinked!!! It felt so good to have that contact in my eye. I went back to the Dr on Thursday so he could make sure every thing was good and it was! It was weird to have the contact out b/c I could feel the scratch. But that only lasted for a few hours. Also I got a blessing so don't worry I use the priesthood that I have available. Then there was the S. Tagawa stuff. She got permission to stay as long as she needed so everyday we would talk about what she should do, what would be the safest for her, what would be good for her parents and so on and so forth. In the long run, she went home on Friday. We got to take her to the airport, it was very exciting! I had not been to the airport since Feb 2, 2010. We got the Standard of Excellence this week but it was very stressful and last min. We had everything we needed except 3 new investigators...and it was Saturday. But the Lord provided a way like he always does and we added one new person on Saturday and 2 new people on Sunday. Very exciting. Shiloh Bowmans baptism was great! She was soooo excited! It was so cute to see! HUGE amount of people. Oh and guess who is in her ward.....Calab Baldwin!!!!!!!! So I was standing in the lobby area looking for one of our investigators who was coming to the baptism and I saw a kid that looked like him and then I remember the WML saying his ward missionary was Calab Baldwin and I was wondering if it was the one we knew. So I just stood there watching him and them he comes to the door and he goes "whoa it is SARA!" hahahaha. So he did the classic bishop thing and gives me a handshake and goes I know I cant hug you...and then hugs me. hahaha. I have not seen him in forever!! I was so exciting to see him! I took a picture with him and I just tried to put it on the computer but it didn't work so I will have to figure something out. I really didn't know what though. You might have to wait till I get home to see it. I sent in my appeal to BYUI thanks for sending that to me. They said it would be between 1-2 weeks to hear back so be looking in the mail for that. Next weeks baptism line up is Anna Tidwell. She is in the Dials ward! Well thanks for everything! Love yall. Love, Sister Anderson

Fifty Forth email - Rain then Snow

Rain‏ 3/14/11 Yes pres monson has a body gaurd with him at all times even when he goes to him home ward. He also has a body gaurd at his home at all times chillin in the drive way even when he is not home. He has a couple of cars but they are all lincolns. Yeah I would love to help out with Youth conference! I would also like the 2 tickets for conference. This will be sister longs first time for conference! And my last....sad. Do you know if the surrounding stakes have extra tickets?? Love you tons! So last p-day it was raining for like 3 pm through the night. When we woke up there was like a foot of snow on the ground!! So much snow!! But the good news was that it was like 60 a few days latter and it was all gone!! Oh I forgot to tell you about transfers. I stayed in the same area and with the same companion, Sister Long. But guess who else is with us....Sister Tagawa!! She is done with her mission but stayed an extra week and a half and goes home on Friday. Its good thta she stayed b/c the eathquake happened like the day she was supposes to leave. Victoria and Joses baptism went great! It was a bit on the smaller side but the talks were wonderful! This weekend Shiloh Bowman is going to get baptized! She is 13 and super cute. She has such a great support group from her YW. We are teaching this 11 year old boy, Cooper, (who is on-date for baptism on April 26. I know its forever away but we can only teach him everyother weekend) Well we ended up going to the ward that he was going to that week and after the sacrament was done him and his uncle stood up and started walking to the back. Well he stops at our row and goes "can I sit with you?" so cute! So cooper sat with us during church b/c for some reason his uncle moved to the back of the chaple. But I love this kid. Another kid we are teaching in Nate. He is 18. We were talking about baptism and he was saying May. But sister long an I decided to commit him to April 1. Long story short. He is on date for April 1!!! He was SO excited to call his grandpa about the baptism! And to tell all of his friends at church! Its so exciting to see people so excited about baptism! Things are great here! Thanks for all you do! Love you tons! Love, Sister Anderson

Fifty Third email - Hello

Sara Anderson sara.anderson@myldsmail.net To Mom, Dad Mon 3/07/11 8:14 PM I got to go to the temple today! I looked for Kelsey but didnt see her. I told a few temple square sisters to tell her I said Hi. I hope she gets the message. Wednesday is transfers. I have no clue what is going on. Two sisters are coming in. One from UT and the other from VA!! So thats pretty awesome. I will probably stay where I am but who knows, I said that last transfer and I ended up getting transfered. Jackie and Madi's baptism was good. Their mom from Tooele, who is not a member, came! They were so excited to have her there. They are so cute. Every time Madi sees me she runs up and gives me a hug! It was sad because they really dont have a mom figure (parents are divorced) so there was no one to help them know what to do with clothes or what not so I was very grateful that it was us teaching them and not elders so we could help them out with that. Do you remember Jen Anderson, she got baptized last weekend. Well her and her husband are doing some detox diet and so they called us last night and told us that they have a bunch of food they are getting rid of and wanted to know if we wanted it! Of course we did!!! So we went over there and got milk, juice, cheese, salsa, tuna, crackers, frozen food meal things, bacon, oatmeal, string cheese, pudding, peanut butter, and even more! So good news is we didn't have to go shopping today! So it gave us extra time to clean our apartment! So not this past weekend but the week before that we had 88 baptisms in this weekend! Awesome! We are going to have a celebration on transfer day! Rumor has it one of the 70 that is over our mission is coming to speak to us and we are going to have cafe rio! Well hope all is well, Love you. Love Sister Anderson

Fifty Second email - who has the best mission, that would be me!‏

2/28/11 To Mom, Dad From: Sara Elizabeth Anderson I love my mission! I get to meet so many amazing people everyday! Ok so you know in General Conference President Monson talks about a retirement place that he loves to go to and goes there many times a year. Well that is the branch Ilo is in. We went to her branch yesterday and I was telling Sister Long how cool it would be if he came so I looked for his car in the parking lot when we got there. Nothing. Oh well. So we get there and we are chatting it up with Ilo in the little recreation room that sacrament meeting is held and we are in the back and guess who walks in. Pres. Monson! I got to shake his hand and say hello to him this time!!! Woot woot! He is so amazing! After the 2 speakers were done one of the counselors leans over to him and goes "Did you want to say something?" Pres. Monson goes " That's why I'm here" So he got up and spoke for 15 min. It was so amazing! At one point he was talking about how his mom has one disappointment in him and he asked her what it was. She said "You didn't stick with the piano" Haha. He told us about one song he remembers. He goes it sounds something like this......then whistles a song and at the end goes "join the navy" I guess it was navy song. All the old people thought it was great. He is wonderful at whistling. The branch had about 13ish people there from the rehabilitation center and then there was all whole branch pres and their wives and about 8-10 singles from a singles ward that it was there month to do the sacrament and talks for the branch. There was about 40 people and Pres monson in this room. So cool. The love that he has for these people is amazing! Well everyone but especially for this rehabilitation center. Its were his parents and his wife's parents were so he said its a very special place. I agree. Jen Anderson's baptism went amazing! We had to do it in the chapel! And it was full! So many people!!!! I went to a WML's house yesterday to get something and his son was there that served his mission in RVA and I told his that I was in Gayton ward and he was so excited! Once he got which Anderson I was he goes " I helped you move in!" Small world. His name is Elder McDonald. Apparently he was there for 6 months. Do you remember him? Well if you do, he's married now. Thanks for all you do! I hope you got those pictures. I got a letter from grandpa long saying I did a good job on doing my job well.....something along those lines. haha. He is so cute!! I cant wait for yall to meet him. Love, Sister Anderson

Fifty First - What a Week‏

2/21/11 Sara Anderson sara.anderson@myldsmail.com To Mom, Dad From: Sara Elizabeth Anderson We had a wonderful week! We got the Standard of Excellence again this week! It is very exciting!!!! Our two baptisms when so great!!! There was so much support for both people. Alishia is 17 and is living with her LA brother now active. She has lived with him for a few months and is from a reservation. I now know how to say I love you in Navajo! Tons of the YW group came to support her. It was great! They all did a special musical number. Ilo was so precious. The first time she went under it freaked her out and so her leg came up. So the Branch pres changed in a white suit and got in to help out. When we went in the bathroom to grab her wheel chair she was so happy and was like it was better the second time! So cute. I tried to e-mail a picture of her baptism but either my memory card is messed up or my card reader thing is messed up but I am gonna go with my memory card b/c it is always deleting pictures. We got to do temple service on Tuesday!!!!! It was weird to walk in with jeans on when other people are walking in ready to do baptisms. I felt unholy. We worked in the basement with lots of dust, wood, and metal (old lockers) The basement is huge!!! So many extra rooms with just random stuff in them! It was awesome to see down there though b/c not a whole lot of people get to. Well hopefully my memory card will get fixed and I can print/send pictures to you. Love ya'll. Love, Sister Anderson

Fiftieth email -Standards of Excellence

Thats way awesome about the baptisms!!! I am excited to go out with the sisters back at home to see how our missions are different. And I am stoked to have the elders come over every monday so I can pick their brains about the RVA mission. It will be fun to compair stories. Thanks for all you do. I put the pictures in teh mail today....i never got around to it last week. Sister Lnog and I got the Standard of Excellance last week and this week!!!!! 2 weeks in a row! 1-3-5-8-3!! one baptism, 3 on-date, 5 ppl to church, 8 lessons with a member, and 3 new investigaters. We got 5 news this week actually and 11 with a member present. but the SOE is 1-3-5-8-3. Love you tons. Love, Sara

Forty Ninth email - I met a son of perdition!‏

2/14/11 Sara Anderson sara.anderson@myldsmail.net To Mom, Dad Yeah pretty legit. I know. Well we spoke in a ward yesterday and this lady was telling us how she left the j dub church and joined the lds church and if you leave the j dub church and join another church then that makes you a son of perdition. Yesterday was a crazy day! We spoke in a ward, taught in a primary, taught a YW/YM, and went to 4 other sacrament meetings, 2 meetings, 1/2 of a sunday school, and I think thats it.....well that was all before dinner at least. haha. After dinner we just had lessons. We got the standard of excellence this week!!! Thursday night we got it worked out to have a baptism for Saturday!!!!! Well let me back up last week the 2 people we had on date fell through but then one ended up happening anyway! Her name is Angela. Her foster parents are members. Angela''s mom was coming to visit her this past weekend and she said she wanted her mom to be at her baptism and said that would be some time in march. So we were like, OR we could do it this weekend when your mom comes! We got the OK from the case worker and Angela's mom and we had a baptism on Saturday! We had a dinner Apt on wednesday and it wsa great. While the wife got dessert the husband (who are both in thier mid 60's) went to get something to read to us. Well he starts reading this paper that sounds like some type of letter and talking about how he put a lady's name on the prayer role and how he was planning to talk to ilo about having the missionaires meet with her that morning and how even before he could ask her she told him that she wants to be apart of our church. He then hands me the paper adn goes here is her name and address she is looking forward to meeting the two of you. Then he was telling us how she has a bad memory and how she was worried she would annoy us. He explained that she had nothing to worry about. We met her on Saturday. She lives in Mt. Olympus Rehibilatation center. So we went there and walked back to her room. The "fellowshipper wife" (Sister Smedly) was back in the room with Ilo and her husband was showing us to her room. I am going to try to describe her face when she saw us, but i dont know how I will do. haha. So you know when you have not seen someone in years and you are waiting for them to come around the corner of the airport and you are nervous but excited at the same time. That was her. It was so cute. So I walk around the corner, I was just like a foot infront of sis long so she saw me first and Sister Smedly goes, "thats them!" oh she was jsut so excited!!!!!It was so cute. She wanted to know when she could get baptized. She has been going to church at the rehibilitation center and R.S. for like 2 years. We are thinking we are going to do it this weekend! We are going to meet with her tonight! I was in the Dials Ward yesterday so that was nice to be able to see them. Matt's papers are now giong through the system. So its just a matter of weeks before he gets his call! Forgot to tell yall. I cover Pres Monsons stake!! WEll mom told me about the mission youth conference and I would like to do that. And another thing I just found out. The temple is closed from July 4th to July 16.....so thats lame. I am glad you were able to see Andrew and family!!! I am so proud of Andrew. Man is he a very busy boy! Thanks for everything dad. Love you tons! I am going to send you some pictures soon. Love, SaraThanks for all you do! Love you. Love, Sister Anderson HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELIZABETH HAPPY VALENTINES DAY EVERYONE!

Forty eighth email - Your daughter

Dear Andersons and Longs! Sunday afternoon our family had the privilege of having your daughters to our home for dinner and we just wanted you each to know what wonderful daughters we think you have! We are so impressed with their love of their families and their missions. They are doing a a great service to the people of Salt Lake City! We appreciate your sacrifice in sharing your daughter with us for 18 months. We understand a little as we have had three sons serve missions, the third still serving in North Carolina. Our fourth son is turning in his papers to serve in four weeks. But we think having our daughter on a mission (we have 6 boys and 1 daughter, she is married) might be a little more tender to us! God bless you and enjoy these pictures! Deanna and Kent Naylor Family

Forty Seventh email - Connections

Sara
One word connections
To Mom, Dad
From:
Sara Elizabeth Anderson (sara.anderson@myldsmail.net)
Sent:
Mon 1/31/11 8:50 PM
To:
Mom (homeecdiva@hotmail.com); Dad (toby7272@hotmail.com)
hahah. Page 9 of the Ensign which everyone seems to already know about! But now that everything is out in the public I can tell you they WHOLE story. So when I got in the Columbus branch 4 transfers ago I told pres Naylor it was my dream to be in the ensign. He told me he knew a guy that did photography stuff for the ensign about 2 months later I met this man. In the beginning of November the, 1st p-day with sister Morris, I get a call from him going, Sister Anderson do you still want to be in the ensign? I said "yes!" He said that his people would call us some time next week and set up a time to do a "photo shoot" !!!!!!!!! I was so pumped! So about 5 days later I get a call from Robert Casey and he says that he has time to do the photo shoot that day. So during our lunch hour we did a photo shoot!!!!! So much FUN! The porch we are standing on is a bishop in my old area. He is the Bishop over the napalis. Backing up. So I got the call on a Wednesday saying that "his people will call me" Well the next day, Thursday, we get a call from out Zone Leaders saying that "a video crew from some youth thing is going to video us tomorrow" We were like yeah we already know. Well we were wrong! I guess the mission office pick sister Morris, tagawa, bates, and I to have the youth website people video us for a bit and then the photo shoot was a completely different department in the church that have nothing to do with each other!!!! hahaha. So we did both of these things back in mid November in a matter of a week! It was wonderful!


Ok shockingly I got transferred. I got an "in zone transfer" They shuffled our stakes around so there in one set of elders that have 2 of my old stakes and another set of elders that have one of my old stakes. And then Sister Long and I took one of the Elders stakes. AND we are all in the same district so at district meetings and on p-day we are all asking about our old investigators and giving each other tips on how to teach so and so. Its great! So now we cover a whopping 32 ward! Its kind of intense but it keeps us on out toes. I like it. I live with Sister Joanie again. She is the one I lived with my very first transfer.

We have a baptism next weekend. His name is Alain and married a member and they have been going to church together for 2 years. So he’s solid! I like him and his wife a lot!
Minte is from Ethiopia! He is sooooo awesome! So funny. CUTE! So black. I love it! He was worried to meet with us b/c we were not boys but after we left we got a text from his mom saying he loved us and wants us to come back.

Jen Anderson- Awesome too! She also married a member and he is just starting to come back to church and he is going to baptize her on FEB 26!

Then we are teaching about 6 girls under the age of 12. So fun. Not all from the same family. From about 4 different families.

Oh just a reminder. When writing me, mainly Abby, Write Sister Sara Anderson. No nick names. They don’t know who to send it to if you don’t at least have my last name on it.

So we spoke in a singles ward yesterday and I was slightly freaking out because first off it was not on missionary work and second b/c I didn’t have a translator with me. hahaa. For 4 1/2 months when ever I did spoke of taught in church I had a translator so it was weird not to have one. Haha. But it all worked out in the end. I sure do love when I spirit takes over. It makes speaking a lot easier. haha. Oh and guess who walked in that sacrament meeting I was speaking in.....Matt Dial. I think I embarrassed him a bit. haha. I called him out in my talk and told everyone taught we were in YW/YM together back in VA. Hahaha.

Well thanks dot all ya'll do! Love you tons! Love, Sister Anderson

Forty Sixth Post - Baptisms

baptisms‏

1/24/11

Sara Anderson
To Mom, Dad
From:
Sara Elizabeth Anderson (sara.anderson@myldsmail.net)
Sent:
Mon 1/24/11 10:39 PM
To:
Mom (homeecdiva@hotmail.com); Dad (toby7272@hotmail.com)

Grandpa Long, Tom, and Hannah's baptisms went great!!!

Sadly my memory card is dumb and likes to just delete pictures without my approval so all the pictures from grandpa long and Toms baptism got deleted! So sad. And we were going to do a small scrapbook type thing for grandpa long and all the pictures that I took for it got deleted. So sad.

Toms baptism was just so amazing! I got the privilege to talk on the Holy Ghost and so that was just wonderful! Lots of tears. haha. Oh man I just cant explain how amazing that baptism was! I also got to see Garry and Michelle Larson, the Liddell’s (who I lived with in Tooele) and the Boekweg’s!

Love ya'll. Love, Sister Anderson

Forty Fifth email - Happy Day

Happy Day!!‏

Sara Anderson
To Mom, Dad
From:
Sara Elizabeth Anderson (sara.anderson@myldsmail.net)
Sent:
Mon 1/17/11 9:25 PM
To:
Mom (homeecdiva@hotmail.com); Dad (toby7272@hotmail.com)
Tom Bauer is getting baptized!!!!! He is from Tooele and I was the missionary that started teaching him! He is in his late 40's. There is a long story to lead up to his baptism that I will have to tell you when I get home. haha. But he is getting baptized! On the 22nd!!!!! So he got out # from the set of sisters that are in Tooele now and called us to tell us he was getting baptized but we told him that is was not to likely that we could go but we would still ask. We were just chatting and then he goes "sister Anderson I know that this is not possible or its not allowed but if it were, you would be the one dunking me" Do you know how good that made me feel!!!!! I never knew that I had such a big impact on his life. He told me that I was "his rock" and that "it’s all because of you" and my favorite, “you don’t ask me, you tell me" hahahaha. Tom is why I am on a mission! Well many other people too but mainly Tom. His wife goes, “He calls you his mom" b/c I am his favorite/first missionary. haha. He goes "I know I am not allowed to have favorites but you, you and sister drew with her eyes"( I guess in lessons she would "talk" to him by looking at him. haha) I felt so good after that, just amazing! So then I called up pres Winn.......I was a bit nervous. So I kind of explained to pres Winn who he was and that we would get a ride and be in the program. And he goes" well we usually try to not let missionaries go out to Tooele but, what do you think?" I go "honestly president this man", then I started crying I know right I cried! "Means the world...." Then pres goes "Go" Those were amazing words to hear!!!! So we get to go to Tooele on Saturday!!!!!!!!! Tom called us yesterday to tell us who was picking us up and then goes "Sister Anderson I would love for you to speak on my behalf" hahaaha. So I had to explain to him the types of talks so I am giving one on the Holy Ghost. Oh what I forgot to tell you is after we got off the phone with pres on Thursday sis drew and I seriously cried for like 30 min b/c we were so happy. It’s like that scripture in D&C 18:13-15. The feeling was amazing to know that you knew you had a small part to helping someone get to baptism and the temple! I know we do that a lot in this mission but Tom is just amazing. I realized that I need to do better at loving each one of my investigators as much as I love tom. Missionary work is so easy when you love the people. I never had an issue teaching tom b/c I was teaching him and not a lesson. I can’t wait to tell you how the baptism goes!

Grandpa Long is doing wonderful. Yesterday at church he comes up to us after sacrament meeting and goes "don’t tell anyone but I am going to sneak off now" hahaha. We told him he should stay at least one more hour but he was set on going. I was like whatever your old you do what you want. Don’t worry I didn’t say that I just thought it. hahaah. And the bishop thought is was funny.


Love ya'll lots. Love, Sister Anderson

Oh and can you tell Kels and Katie thanks for the b-day present!

Forty Fourth email - Snow

snow‏
Sara Anderson
To Mom, Dad
From:
Sara Elizabeth Anderson (sara.anderson@myldsmail.net)
Sent:
Mon 1/10/11 8:49 PM
To:
Mom (homeecdiva@hotmail.com); Dad (toby7272@hotmail.com)
It’s been snowing a good amount here. But it’s fluffy so we can just blow it off of our car or just open the car door and shut it and it all falls off. So it’s nice. Can't complain.

Things are going great! We have baptisms the next 2 weekends! Rylee Young (10) and Grandpa Long (83)

Grandpa Long is so wonderful! We go to his house a lot. The ward is way supportive which is so nice. Grandpa Long came to church for the first time in his ward yesterday!!! His grandson Courtney came too. B/c we cover 19 wards we were not able to stay for all 3 hours, just sacrament meeting. But it was like he was my child and I was dropping him off to primary for the first time. I had to make sure people said hi to him, I had to check and see if there was someone sitting next to him in Sunday school. Then I had to stand in the hallway for a min or two looking through the cracked open door to make sure he was okay. Then I had to go talk to the bishop and someone in the ward and tell them that we were leaving and that Grandpa long was in their hands. Mom, I now have a slight knowing of what you go through when dropping your kids off to something for the first time. We gave him the temple issue of the ensign and he read it the whole thing in one afternoon! He can’t wait to go to the temple and be sealed with his wife, who passed away in slept, in the temple!

Things are going good here. I stopped by the Lloyds’ the other day to invite sis Lloyd to a book of Mormon class. It is always great to see them!

Oh I forgot to tell you! I had strep throat, first time ever. It was not bad and I got meds for it last week so I only need the meds for 3 more days!

Zone Conference is this Wednesday! I am super excited!

Thanks for all you do! Love y'all! Love, Sister Anderson

Oh so there is a WML here that knows the Knights! I told her I was from RVA and she asked me if I knew them so I told her how Neal would let Abby and I ride his horse. Small World. If you ever talk to the Knights the last name of the WML is Thompson. And sis Thompson is from SC but has not lived there in a long time.