Pictures!

3.8.13

Hey fam and friends! 

So....I`m in a new area! We had changes and now the mission nurse, Hermana Bryce, and I are working in the same area. I got moved to a new area, new house, new district...but same Zone. Our house is huge and there is tons of space but the down side is its really old....it has like generations and generations of mission nurse history in it...so it needs a little declutter....you can imagine that was one of the first things I did was start throwing tons of stuff away. (but you already knew I would do that huh, Dad) The other thing is all of the new sister missionaries that come to the mission stay at our house the first night before they get assigned to their area and then all of the sister missionaries that are going home stay at our house too before they leave for the airport. So every six weeks its crazy at our house! Also we get dumped on with everything that everyone doesn't want in our house too.....anyways we have a little bit of work to do but its alright...we`ll just whip it into shape! We also have a cook....I was way excited until she came over and put a gigantic fish on my plate.....ha and by fish I mean eye balls little scales...and cute little tail flipper thing....I was like awe my mom would be so proud of me right now...I`m eating fish...and I still don't like it! ha but I ate it! 

So yesterday I was thinking about all the blessings that I am and really how much my Heavenly Father loves me. and I was thinking how much all of us have to be happy about! It is so easy to get caught up in everything of the world and lose track of what really matters. So my application for all of you would be, when your feeling down or sad or depressed....Focus on how MUCH you have! There are people here that would give anything to speak English or live in the United States or to know who their real dad is or give anything to find peace and happiness....what a HUGE blessing it is to live where we live and have a family have the knowledge we have and to be a member of this amazing gospel! Everyday I am made more and more aware of how blessed I am! Its so incredible! 

Thanks for all you do for me family and for all your love and support, have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Ahrendsen

PS I found this sweet BYU jacket at a american clothes store for 2 dollars its almost brand new! ha they have awesome imported american clothes stores everywhere and they sell it for dirt cheap you can find anything! and then the last one is of these Super cute kids that we are teaching...well teaching them and their parents, Family Castro...they are hilarious and so much fun! :)

3.1.13

Hey fam!

Well yes Kaylee and JC our mission is getting split! In July we are losing Belize and a part of mission to another mission. Starting in July we will only be El Salvador Santa Ana Mission...TONS of changes but we are excited. The president said he will be sending some missionaries to the other mission but we don't know who yet. I don't think I will be moving because the other nurse leaves in July so I will be the only one. But we will see. Very exciting that there are so many youth answering the call to serve!! Love it!

We are preparing to recieve 20 new missionaries this change! And every change me and the other nurse, Hermana Bryce, have to give them a nurse orientation thing with each one individually..it takes some time...and then after we do a slide show orientation with them too. So that will be Monday and then changes are Wednesday. Word on the street is that I am going to be switched to be companions with the nurse so it is easier to work. We have had a few missionaries in the hospital and going back and forth to San Salvador and we always have to find arrangements for our companions so it might be easier this way... but who knows I guess we will see what will happen.

So we contacted a man last week named Nito....hes like 6 something, black, and a profesh soccer player...his kids are sooo cute! Hes rock solid and came to church with us last week...its funny though that all of sudden the entire ward is like hey I will go with you to that appiontment...and the bishop for the first time that I have been here in 3 months said...invite him for family home evening this Monday! We were like...ha ha what??? We are also teaching a man named William...he is super interested and wants to got to the temple! We gave him a pamphlet of San Salvador and he loved it! IN the closing prayer hes like "please bless me to be baptised and to some day be able to enter the temple in San Salvador"......he is an awesome guy. We are also working with a less active family and they have a daughter that is so gaurded off all the time and we just couldn't seem to crack her until....two days ago we had a lesson with them and showed them how the book of mormon can answers questions of your soul....and we went through a bunch of questions like Does god exist? and how can my family be happier? and asked if she had any of these questions and almost everyone her family was like nehh...she said well yeah I have had that question...we were like yes! We have somewhere to start now....man the book of mornon is awesome!! It really can answer so many questions! Hopefully everyone is reading daily :)

Well I love you all so much! Thanks for all the love and support! 

Keep on keepin on!

Love,

Lyndee

2.22.13

Family and Friends hey!!

Fam how are you?? Is it still super cold in Idaho?? We get like zero news in the mission so I never know whats going on in the world....like the Pope quit and there was a massive shooting in a school back east?? what!? Crazy stuff is going on....

So I told you last week that I started taking calls...well they just decided to give all the mission to me so I am currently trying to balance taking nursing calls and knocking on doors...it's crazy but good. We are making it work...I am talking with doctors in San Salvador and trying to decide over the phone if sending a missionary to them is worth it. As the nurse you have to make TONS of judgments calls and fast because there just isn't time...but we're learning. Funny story...I was sitting at the table after we had just got home from work one night, it was like 10pm and my phone had been ringing all night and then it just rang again and I looked at my companion ...and I was like "ahhh I dont want to answer" ...and my comp goes "what if someone is dying??"....I was like ahhhh okay...ha ha so I answered and the elder goes HERMANA IM DYINGGG!!....My comp and I just started laughing... Most of the time when I'm talking to Elders they go "Hermana IM dying....i have tons of diarrhea..."  and I go what did you eat for dinner and usually the elder says well...pupusas and I say...uhh okay how many...and the elder says "13 or around there"...and I go "okay well lets start there"....ha ha sometimes they do some crazy things but what can you except from 19 year old boys...

So my comp and I are still in El Trebol. We were teaching a man named Juan Migel (I think I mentioned him in my last letter) He is sooo humble and awesome. We also teach him in his work..he works as a mechanic. All the guys there know us and always joke around with us. And whenever we teach we sit in old car seats that they ripped out of cars...its awesome. Anyways he accepted a baptismal date and we were super excited until he told us he doesn't live in our area so we had to go yesterday and tell him he will have to get baptised in a different area and attend church somewhere different and at first I felt really sad...because we have worked with him and he has made friends in the ward and come so far...and then at that same moment the spirit testified to me that it doesn't matter where he gets baptised or where he goes to church its all the church of Jesus Christ and the Lords work will move forward. He is ready to be baptised! We are so excited for him! 

Right now we are in the process of passing off all of the lessons to our district and zone leaders. Our president started a new program to help all the missionaries teach better and so with all 4 lessons we have to pass them off and we are graded on all of them. We do it alone without a compaion and if we dont cover all the points we fail and do it over until we can teach it correctly (basically exactly PMG). The whole mission is stressin big time...its nuts...I think part of the reason we are having tons of changes right now is beacuse we are going to recieve 150ish new missionaries in the next 5ish months!! Crazy huh?? and they keep sending more! We are going to open areas and they are sending more missionaries to Belize! We are being very blessed with lots of help! 

I love you all and always pray for you! Thanks for all your prayers and thinking of me! I always pray for you all too! 

Con amor,

Hermana Lynd Ahrendsen

2.15.13

Hey fam!

 

Yes I will send a pic of my hair...how crazy! Ash is in the mission! But awesome! I hope she is loving the Mtc! 

So right now the other nurse and I are SWAMPED with sickys! I swear the whole mission is sick. We have missionaries in the hospital and missionaries going to San Salvador almost everyday to see doctors of all sorts. I took half the mission last week and she has the other half...and we have been running from doctor to doctor from hospital to hospital...my phone rings off the hook a lot of the time and I will be real I haven't had a lot of time to work in my area! Its crazy right now! We are also preparing to receive 29 missionaries this change! In the next 3 changes our mission will be doubling in size with all the new missionaries! Its going to be crazy!

 

Anyway I love you all and thank you all sooo much for your love and support! Hopefully you all will receive lots of blessings by having two missionaries on missions!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Ahrendsen

This is a cake we bought for our investigator for his birthday!

2.1.2013

Hey fam!
 
How is everyone? Hope everyone's Friday is going good! Here we are again...mouth of the river!...I don't know why I just thought of that from rattlesnake rapids at lagoon but its kinda fitting right? Ash are you getting excited to leave? Only 13 more days right? I remember waiting got harder and harder I just wanted to leave! ha Hopefully you have everything ready to go because I remember I was packing the night before and one week before I left I wouldn't go shopping with mom because I wanted to go boating....ha ha wow hopefully you weren't as difficult as me. I'm sorry mom! :) 
 
Well we are still working hard here in our area El Trebol. We started contacting a new area that is really nice and we were scared we weren't going to find anyone because everyone is pretty wealthy (for El Salvador) in this area but we found an awesome family...well we haven't met them all yet- just the mom...but she was way nice and we are going to visit them tonight. We also went to visit a less active family yesterday night and also to visit the boyfriend of one of their daughters. They have a daughter that is 14 and had a baby about 2 months ago. She is living with her boyfriend who is 30 in the house with all of the rest of the less active family but he isn't a member. We met him and it was a short lesson but put a baptism date with him for the 17...we know they are going to have to get married so we are planning that for the Saturday before. Here in the mission if your investigators need to get married you make all the arrangements, get the lawyer, the cake, decorations....the whole bit and then you and your companion eat Ramen noodles for the rest of the month because you have no money after the weeding! Haha.. a little crazy but very very worth it! Really money isn't even a factor for me when we are helping them come to Christ. Please please pray for them! They need your prayers..they are the family Garcia. Will you pray for my area too if you can...pray that we can find people to teach that will be positive and receptive and want to come to Christ. Thank you all so much for your prayers and your support, it really is felt here. 
 
I love you all so much and pray for you everyday! Thanks for everything! 
 
Love,Hermana Ahrendsen
 

1.25.2013

Hey!

 

So to start...sorry about last week!...on Thursday night they called me and said "hey you have a sick missionary in the hospital...we are coming to get you at 8 tomorrow morning because we are taking him to San Salvador (about an hour away)". So all day we were in San Salvador doing tests...visiting doctors and picking up medication...so when things like that happen we don't get P-day...:( but its all good because here I am chatting with you all again!

 

This last week I got a new companion..Hermana Guzman. She is from Mexico. She was serving in an area in Belize and the president switched her back to El Salvador and with me because she fell on her bike in Belize and took a pretty bad fall. She was all bruised up...her face was all swollen and she had stiches in her lip. I'm pretty sure they put her with me to take care of her. I took out her stiches in the house a couple days after she for to the area and she is doing a lot better and healing just great! :) 

 

So I got to see my old companion Hna Romero this week and she told me that the family we baptised, the husband...Lionel Siefontes is the ward secretary and my other convert Jorge Turcious is ward mission leader....I was so excited!!! How awesome is that?? Also this last week we had a family come with us to church!! My other companion and I had been working with this family for 6 weeks and they always said they were going to come to church but never did but last week they came for the first time! They had three cute little kids and really could not believe it when they walked in the door. I had been praying all morning that they would come and then right before the sacrament was passed my comp said "ya estan"...and I looked up and my heart started beating and really it was a tender mercy!..we will see though...keep praying for us here in El Trebol and pray for us to find people that we can teach that really want to live this gospel!

 

Love you all so much, thanks for everything!

Hna Lyndee Ahrendsen