Sister Anderson Mission Blog: And to all a good night !

Thursday we met two new investigators. One is from Africa and his name is Mondi. He is a believer! It makes me so happy to see how strong his faith in Christ is. He came prepared with scriptures to share with us and wants to come to our church. Then we met Milli and Nicolo. Milli is the daughter of a less active and Nicolo is her 7 year old son. Milli has taken the missionary lessons on and off but called a lady in the ward because she wants to start taking them again. She's our miracle. When we asked her why she wanted us to meet with her again she said more than anything it was for her son. She wanted her son to grow up well. She had seen 8 year olds swearing and she wants her son to grow up in the church. She thinks there's a different feeling in our church

Friday we tried cleaning the baptismal font. We used bleach, calcium remover, any type of chemical, you name it and we used it! However, still it was not spotless. There are a lot of minerals in the water here so the minerals have dried in the font and makes it look a little less than clean. You could say like people have left their sins in there, haha. But we tried and scrubbed but nothing. Then we passed by Corrado and took him some cookies for Christmas and also Grace.

Christmas Eve was amazing! We went to the Reyes to eat lunch and man did we eat! Melissa served in Salt Lake 3 or 4 years ago and Victor served in Rome. In fact, he actually served in Pisa when it was still a part of the Rome mission. We had a lot of fun with them. And they have a 7 month old baby. She's adorable. This couple is amazing and I think that they are examples for everyone in the ward. For the night we went around and gave people on the street cookies. But we also gave some to our poor neighbors below us who get woken up by us sometimes and Francesco from the cafe where we always steal wifi. Haha. Serving on Christmas Eve was really the best way to spend it. I want to make it a tradition back at home. The little things make a difference and just a smile makes all the work worth it.

Christmas was amazing! We spent it with the Craddock family. They are half British and half Italian. They are very giving and made us feel at home. We played games with them, talked, laughed, ate, and had a ball of a time. It was good to see everyone at church too. My heart is full of love for the people here.

Monday was the 26th and yet another holiday in Italy. So we went and ate at a family's house with the elders and passed by Francesca’s because we haven't seen her in ages. But we were able to say hi to her and it seems like she's doing alright. She's probably just been busy with Christmas and family.

Tuesday we saw the Alvarados and they are doing fine! It makes me so happy to see them. We ate some panettone with them and talked. We were laughing pretty hard. It makes me happy to see them laugh and smile because they always work so hard!

We saw Juana and Claudio this morning and they're doing alright. They are still struggling a bit but want to pick things up this next year. I would do anything for them! They will be taking a family trip up to Germany either today or tomorrow and it's greatly needed for them!

So we got transfer calls this week! I stay and Sorella Nielsen will be going to Lugano. It's the only city we have in our mission that's in Switzerland! I'm going to miss her a lot but I know she will be great! My new companion is going to be Sorella Orr. I don't really know anything about her but I pick her up Thursday and drop off Sorella Nielsen.

Something that has been on my mind this week is the scripture 3 Nephi 17:5.

5 And it came to pass that when Jesus had thus spoken, he cast his eyes round about again on the multitude, and beheld they were in tears, and did look steadfastly upon him as if they would ask him to tarry a little longer with them.

Christ has just appeared to the Nephites and He had said that He needed to go. But the multitude was in tears. I feel like I often feel like that. Sometimes you have a spiritual experience or you just feel the Spirit extra strong for some reason and you don't want that feeling to go. You want to keep that feeling that Christ is with you for just a bit longer. Maybe we want the Christmas spirit to last just another month. After Christ saw that they were in tears, He had compassion on them and stayed for a bit longer. Christ will also stay with us. He will not leave us.

I love you guys! I hope you guys have a wonderful new year! Be safe out there!