Week 30: new year, new me!

i wish today was january 1st so i could pull the "i havent seen you guys since last year" joke but i guess that joke doesnt work to well on a mission especially cuz i havent seen yall for 7 months.. except my FAM... yay talking to them was the bomb.com. speaking of january, my favorite holiday is around the corner. Aka my BIRTHDAY. Im going to be 20 years old, which quite frankly makes me want to throw up. anyway, christmas was good, i watched incredibles 2 and the greatest showman and maybe 4 other movies im not sure. But i felt like a great big lazy mess so i was happy to get back to work on the 26th. It was a different Christmas this year, the only one in my entire life that i was able to dedicate the whole season to Christ. It changed my life and I'm so grateful for my Savior and the strength that He brings. the library is closed once again so this will be short. but real quick. i have had some mad self reflection this past week and with the new year around the corner have decided i can have more faith in Christ. So i have studied self-mastery a LOT and i have become a new WOMAN. I realized it all comes down to faith in Christ... so thats one of my new year goals...and daily goal honestly to increase my faith and turn to him in hard times. INVITE : study "Finishers Wanted" by President Monson April 1972. Doctrine and Covenants 24:12, (strength we didnt know was possible to have, yes please !!!) 60:2-3,7-8 (better use your talents before you lose them... this one got me YIKES). anyway the party animal in my wishes me i was going to a really cool party tonight but the missionary me will be sound asleep at 12, happy NEW year. Xoxo, sis folk
P.s. Mom note: The Church deposited $100 in Anna's account on Dec. 31 (pday) to buy pants. Anna spent $100 on pants that day in about 5 seconds. haha! Love that she is still Anna! Miss Shopaholic!

pps. Part of email to MOM-Thank you for telling me to study self mastery because i needed it for the other aspects of my mission. I learned a lot from it and a lot about who i am becoming and how Christ will help me get there. I got a blessing from the elders because i felt like a failure missionary, i dont want to knock on doors anymore because im sick of rejection but one of the elders told me to turn to Christ in the moment. So, i kinda have to force myself to knock on doors right now but i do it because i love Christ. I know that with him i can do anything if i just have faith. And so thats what im doing- increasing my faith and trying to get back to the strong missionary that didnt mind knocking on doors. Of course its a work in progress but i am learning so much and becoming who Christ needs me to be one step at a time. I am trying not to be hard on myself. Heavenly father has blessed me with a great companion who motivates me and is so patient when i am expressing my concerns to her. And the elders i serve around as well are amazing. im grateful for their worthiness of holding the power of God. But overall im good even though it sounds like im not. its so hard but i love it. Its not like school or other hard things. I didnt love hard times. But i love this hard time i have loved the past 7 months because there is joy because of Christ even in trials. The person i was before my mission is dying and a new wonderful daughter of God is growing :)

                    

Week 29: Christmas Eve!

We saw some cools miracles this week and were able to find 3 new people to teach! One is a crazy 77 year old veteran but the other 2 are promising haha! Christmas zone conference was so fun!! We all did skits with our districts and it was hilarious! Missionaries are so funny! And we had a white elephant exchange. i wrapped up a boiled egg. We passed out like 150 invites but no one really came which was pretty disappointing but there were some non members in town for Christmas visiting their families so that was good i guess. library is closed dont want to type a long email on my phone... so merry christmas everyone!!!!!

pics: exchanges w sis baird 💖,  christmas zone conference 🎅🎅, Christmas Eve with members

Week 28: flat tire or flat out tired?

i dont know if i am in st George or in columbia right now because the weather has been NICE. literally like 55 degrees and we are LOVING it. 12 days of Christmas- Como Sisters Edition: we decided we needed to have more Christmas spirit so we decided what better way to do that than to move out mattresses downstairs and sleep under the Christmas tree for 12 nights. Christmas SpiRiT HIGH. we do and activity each night (future relief society pres) and it has been a GOOD TIME. day 1: binge watch all the addiction recovery videos (we dont have netflix but we do have LDS media. day 2: tell me two things you like about me (it had been a long day, activities were not on the mind). day 3: finger nail painting day. day 4: gingerbread house making. stay tuned for the rest. we had a TON of lessons this week which i LOVE because i learn so much from the people that we are teaching. we had a lesson with Rob and he was telling us the more time we spend with people the more we become like them. which is so true because i am literally just a piece of every companion i have had because i am with them 24/7. so anyways he continued to say that the more time he has spent studying Christ's life, the more like him he has become. INSIGHTFUL. i literally hadnt ever thought of it with this perspective and i absolutely loved it. i can definitely say that over the past 7 months I have been able to become more like my Savior because I am spending so much more time with him and i get to represent him! it can be the same at home, something to ponder on i think :-) . i was also studying during my personal study this week and i came over a LEGENDARY quote. "The more fully we submit our will to Heavenly Father the richer the blessings will be. They may not be the blessings we expect, but they will always be the blessings we need." SO TRUE. i LOVE this. because Heavenly Father has the bigger picture. he knows exactly what we need and when we need it. so be patient if your blessings are currently pending. SOOOOO a FLAT (not pun intended) out MIRACLE: we were driving to an appointment around 8ish and sis shaff goes... whats that? and i said whats what? and then BOOM i hit a tire that was bouncing down the highway, but literally we only got a flat tire.... no other damage to the car and i cant be more grateful. like ya it was prolly the scariest thing of my life but it could have been so much worse. i am so grateful we were protected. but lets be honest im so glad i didnt put an animal to sleep that would have been even worse @ sis beal. also referring to my subject line.... i am flat out tired too. but hey that means we are working hard right? LIFE HACK: if you ever are feeling nervous about going to a dinner apt. with a less active, put two sandwich baggies in your pockets and when they arent looking put the yucky food in your pockets. yep it worked like a charm. Love, sis folk

Week 27: Zzźzzzzzz nap time!

welllllllll its been a week and i guess that mean its time to give my fans what they need to survive the week, a spiritual uplift and a picture of a sleeping animal. well i might fail you on both parts of that but i have some stories that might suffice?? first; i got a new companion: SISTER SHAFFER from O-Town, Utah. which i am pretty hype about. we looked up our addresses at home and good news we only live 7 minutes apart!! that will make for an easy mission reunion at the local Lee's Marketplace. we keep finding friends and people we both know and honestly im pretty sure ive met her at a football game before. sadly she is a silverwolf (yuck), but we have put our high school mascots aside and have taken como to a whole new level. we are teaching an 80 year old minister who told us that if you put up your finger and tip toe out of a sermon that it is respect in the black church. teaching a minister is F-U-N. we invited her to be baptized and she said she wants to know all the doctrine and everything she can before she accepts, we extended a date and that is currently... pending. another super sick lady we are teaching, invited her to be baptized, she said yes. extended a date.... pending. COMMITMENT ISSUES in COMO. um currently teaching a muslim, which has been super interesting because we have just started at the basics of what we believe and the need for a Savior. I have absolutely love it though because its what we all need to fall back on in the rough times. we need a Savior to make it through those times, it is impossible without Jesus Christ. I am so glad that I get to share my testimony of the Savior especially during this Christmas season and that i get to remind myself and others that it is all about him. and all because of him, that because of him we will live again, because of him we are never alone, and SO many other more things. plus instead of just putting up one tree with my family, i get to put 45 extra trees with different families. SCORE. sadly i have no pics of sleeping animals but i saw 5 (new record) sleeping squirrels and 1 sleeping racoon. missouri is the KING of tired animals. merry Christmas you filthy animals. and a happy new year. ***insert that cracklely laugh from home alone****
if you want to be santa please send all Christmas packages to 4812 E Schooner Rd. Apt B Columbia MO 65201
if you want to be the grinch please send all Christmas packages to 4812 E Schooner Rd. Apt B Columbia MO 65201
sis folk <3

pics: 1. me n sis jonesy on our last night together. #minidab 2. transfers como team split up once again 3. sis shaffer and I in the dark with some sick lights

Week 26: penatonix #1 fan

transfers are here and i am staying in COMO!! but sadly sister jones is not. she got called as a sister training leader and will be leaving me :(( RIP because we had so many good Christmas plans. but im pumped to see who my next comp is tomorrow and to spend christmas with her !!! good news : christmas music is now legal and i am currently penatonix #1 fan. let it go from frozen is my JAM. bad news : christmas is here and so is the sugar and im pretty sure ive gained 10 pounds, trying to find the balance of "i want to eat a cookie for breakfast" and "i want to eat a 3 cookies for breakfast" send help please. medium news : one day this week we had to go to the bathroom way to bad. so we stop at what we think is a gas station to fill up our car and too go to the bathroom. we go inside and every single kind of alcohol you can think of is in there. we were at a wine cellar =) quality bathroom but we did not fit in that cellar at all. light the world is currently my favorite thing in the whole entire world. i watch all 4 videos every morning to make sure i am hype enough for the day and to spread the gospel. good news it works. also december 1, worldwide day of service was the BEST DAY EVER. we served from sun up to sun down and ive never been happier. from packaging cheerios at the food bank to bakin cookies for our neighbors who helped us when we were locked out. OOps. honestly though service is the way to happiness. LIFE HACK: watch all light the world videos in the morning and your day will be so happy !!! you will focus more on Christ and be able to see opportunities to serve more easily. I LOVE CHRISTMAS. i had one of the most spiritual experiences of my entire life this weekend. Here is the story: there are two people that i have grown really close to here in columbia. one is sister eglof and the other is a mom named marica. they are both the kindest most loving people. but they both struggle with anxiety and depression. marcia is going through a really bad divorce where her husband cheated on her and is gay. she is so sad because he is breaking his covenants and choosing the wrong path and she has to raise her two children on her own. sister eglof is older and has been my favorite member since the first day i got here. sis elgof went into the hospital on tuesday night and texted us that she would love to see us. we werent able to make it during visiting hours sadly. on saturday we had a caroling activity for the worldwide day of service for our ward. marcia was there and when i saw her she had tears in her eyes and she was turning to leave. i caught her and i gave her a hug. she said she came because she knew she would see us and that would help her and that serving others would help her as well; but if she didnt feel better after the activity she was going to the hospital to get the help she needs. so the activity went good but she still wasnt okay. we went to dinner with her and just had fun, something she doesnt get to do very often because she is a mom and works. then the elders gave her a blessing and we talked to her some more and she decided to go to the hospital. the same one sister eglof was in. its so cool because sis elgof was marcias seminary teacher back when she was in school and helped her through so much and when marcia went into the hospital she had no idea that sis eglof would be in there because we didnt tell her. but heavenly father knew and aligned their paths. we were able to visit them this sunday and it was the best night of my mission. i have never felt the spirit stronger. marcia told us that we saved her life saturday night, that she was not planning on moving forward but we talked to her and we were her light. she was planning on taking her life sadly. she then shared her patriarchal blessing with us, which i feel so honored to hear. in her blessing it talks about a community of people are waiting for her to share the gospel with them. she then continued to tell us that we saved that community because if she was gone she wouldnt be able to help them. it was so amazing. then sister eglof told her thoughts (we were all in the same room). she told us that whenever we came over her day was instantly better. we have a light about us. i then got to bear my testimony to them about how much their Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love them. it was such a special and sacred experience because i was overcome with so much love for them. the love of their heavenly parents was shining right through me. i was the vessel. this is such a sacred calling that i hold and i value the importance of it. i have been frustrated on why i havent baptized anyone or why no one wanted to listen to me, but i know why i was here. it was to help sister eglof and marcia. i dont know if all that rambling made sense. anyways it was the coolest most amazingest experience ever. i love them both so much and i am humbled by this experience. the love i felt for them was surreal. it wasnt my own love or my own words i was saying. i learned that each and every one of us is valued. our heavenly father loves us more than we understand. he has a plan bigger than we can imagine. no matter what we are going through, he cares and he is listening. more importantly he gave his only begotten son, Jesus Christ. He atoned for our sins, weaknesses, sadnesses, joys, everything. He knows us and his arms are ALWAYS extended towards us. i know that not only because i have felt his love in my own life. but i felt his love overwhelm me this weekend for someone who didnt want to keep moving forward. this is such a special calling i have and i love that i have the privilege of being in missouri to do it. You are important. You matter. and You are loved, by me but especially by our Heavenly Father and Savior. all my love+some more, sister anna folkman :))

Pics: 1. Best place for a bathroom stop =) 2. Sis whit, sis wall, and sis folk at the temp :))  3. Sis Beal and sis folk at the temp 4. Chubby squirrel is so sleepy (i can relate) 5. The johns fam 6. Food bank=life #elfstatus 

Week 25: livin the life :)

Hey! I dont have much time to email today because i am in st louis for the day!! I get to go to the temple and i might go to the arch i am excited! I am glad you all had a good thanksgiving! I had a good one as well. I ate at the kitchens family! We built and launched rockets and mine got second place for height and first for looks. Pretty proud. We got locked out one day for 5 hours without our phones so that was a struggle because we had no numbers memorized to call! But we eventually got back in but we had to break a window in the garage, which we gorilla glued back together and hung it back up. Haha🤣 also someone broke into our apt last night we think. We came home and our door was open so we called president and the cops and they came and looked through. I am doing good and i love spreading the gospel even when people dont want to listen to me! Keri is doing good, we are actually teaching the whole family. Its a work in progress but its moving along slowly :) Have a great week! Dont forget the worldwide day of service!!!!!!!! #lighttheworld Love, sis folk

heres some pics this week becuz im in st louis going to the temple!!!! YAY
1. The best cooks in the kitchen 2. How many missionaries does it take to let the Columbia Sisters back into their apt?? 6+1 member. Disclaimer: never walk to the mailbox during lunch hour and shut the door behind you because that = u being locked out without a phone. After 5 hours of using our neighbor phones, one broken window...elder tucker came in clutch and broke into our house. #legendstatus 3.glueing our window back together :) 4. Stls spent the night bc their house got broken into =) win for us 5. Us the next day bc TIRED. My week in a nutshell of sorts i guess.

 P.S. just got out of the temple! It was awesome !!! I saw sister beal and sister whitaker and me and sister wallace serve in the same zone so we have been together all day!!! 

Week 24: gobble til u wobble

BUCKLE UP BECUZ YOU ARE IN FOR A GOOD EMAIL. or so i thought until i started writing it. But hey its coming from me sooooooo its always good ;-)  KERRI- YALL REMEMBER HER??? well shes not in jail or didnt go to jail IDK but it doesnt matter because Heavenly Father let us cross paths with her outta the blue again and we taught her & her FAMILY twice this week #miracle. ive been so frustrated because i have been out here working so hard to find someone who will progress to teach and when it finally did happen she fell of the face of the earth but SHES BACK AND BETTA THAN EVER. So we taught her and her family the plan of salvation and started by asking them the questions of have you ever wondered... where you came from? why you are here? and where you are going after this life? Lorie, kerries daughter, jaw literally DROPPED to the ground. She was like "YES" LITERALLY BEST DAY EVERRR. Its one of my favorite lessons to teach because we get to share with others that their is a plan for them and that there is more to life. honestly wahoo YAY from blessing from HF. So stayed tuned for more about them. Being a missionary is honestly so comical. Sis jones and I leave appointments or houses and look at each other and just crack up and say "what in the heck just happened" ahhh the memories. For example i dont know if being a missionary makes us more approachable and trustworthy (well lets hope right) but sometimes people just feel the need to tell us the extended version of their life story. I just love it. I have so many different life stories stored in my brain right now i should write some biographies. Here is my fave quote of the week: "Sorry Alice will have to call you back shes on the pot" LITERALLY COULDNT EVEN respond i was laughing TOO hard. we had stake conference this weekend and it was grrrrrrrreat! One of my favorite talks was on forgiveness. He said that anger and resentment is only hurting ourselves. when we truly forgive we are allowing ourselves to become more like our Savior. I loved that. Satan is always trying to get us to be mad at someone or something because he knows if he can get us to be angry then we wont be able to see all the good thats happening around us. The anger takes over. I know that forgiveness is so hard sometimes but im so grateful for the times that i have forgiven or when people have forgiven me, it is truly humbling and freeing. I hope u all have a splendid TURKEY DAY. Lots of love, sis folk :))

Piks
1. When u go to the doctors and they ask your hobbies and u only have one 2. CHRISTMAS TIME 

Week 23: winded

this week was FAB. my fam got to go climb waterfalls and lay on the beach. But I had the better end of the deal because I got to knock on doors and walk in a hailing / snowing windstorm. My favorite. But WOW IDK FOLKS IF ILL SURVIVE WINTER. I lived in St G. last winter and now im out here wearing 3 pairs of pants. Its ok though worth it to spread the gospel. SOTW (story of the week): we had president interviews this tuesday and sister jones and I both told president we were going to find someone new to teach that day. We had about an hour to go finding and we had no luck sadly. We then went to go help at our relief society clothing swap (at which i got the dopest jacket from a 90 yr old gpa) and we saw this dude there and we have NO clue how he found out about it cuz it was only advertised at church but hey a non-member in the church building randomly?? MIRACLE. We chatted with him and found out his name and let him continue finding clothes. But we saw him leaving and we said "no way jose u are leaving with the BOM" so we literally grabbed our bags and chased him all the way to his car and gave him a BOM and testified of it and taught him a couple principles (literally panting & very winded) ((im out of shape ok)) and i wasnt about to let Pres. or myself down. idk what will come of it but it was another testament to me of how much God is aware of our desires. #miracleclothingswap. I gave a talk in church yesterday. It was really good if i do say so myself, and i do. Here is a quote from Elder Utchdorf that i used so you can have a taste of the goodness. "We are surrounded by such an astonishing wealth of light and truth that I wonder if we truly appreciate what we have." Since it is the season of giving thanks I thought this quote was appropriate. We all have so much especially this gospel. we need to be thanking our Heavenly Father daily for everything he has given us. so quickly i want to thank all of you. Sooooo THANK YOU. for your support, prayers, emails, and letters. it means the world to me to know i have so many people at home that love and support me. i love you all A LOT and everyone who receives this email and reads this, you have helped me become who i am today so thank you for your influence on me. #attitudeofgratitude spread the love this thanksgiving season. last pday w/ the other sisters in the zone, we went on a "hike" but there are no mtns here so it was more of a walk (my kind of hike) to a place called devils icebox. it is a cave we were going to go exploring in but it was full of H2O so i guess satan didnt want us in his cave because we are too holy?? other updates that really dont matter: we got a Christmas tree but sis jones is actually scrooge so she wont let us put it up until after thxgiving but we compromised on the week before ;-) . its currently snowing and im cold. that's all. lots of love, sis folk

PIKS: me and my STLs, A snowman we built w/ candy bc we had no vegetables....oops, SNOW PIC, Sistas pday!, Us and Bri (our bestie from the YSA who was baptized in June) 

Week 22: she had fallen & couldn't get up

GOOOOOD MORNING. Or whatever time it is wherever you may be. this week was FLIPPING GOOD. but sorry a shortish one this week again bc sisters pday :P HALLOWEEN:
•we were knocking on some doors and it was about 4 (so obviously way to early to be trick or treating) and this guys opens and says "Oh trick or treaters!!" And then grabs a hand full of candy and then then we say no actually we are missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and he goes "oh" and THEN CLOSES THE DOOR. But thats not even bad, used to that, the worst part is that he didnt even give us any candy.. what a ripoff amirght???
So we are walking up the street trying to decide if we should stop knocking on doors or not and we come across a old lady laying in her grass. She was so skinny and frail. And like my title said had fallen and couldnt get up. And it was cold and windy AND she was like in pain and it was a scary moment. But her husband (who walks approximately 2 steps a minute) called life alert. Anyways cool part of the story we said a prayer with her, as i was praying i truly was overcome with this power and love for her and it was undesirable. I just felt the love flow through me into her body warming her up. The ambulance came and got her all back inside. i think shes okay now.. so pretty sure me and sis jones saved a life this halloween. ZONE CONFERENCE: spiritual thought of the week: 1 Nephi 17:41- all they had to do was look and they would be saved, but because of the simpleness they perished. easiness is fatal. we need the hard times because we need our Savior. When we are going through hard times its when we can experience true joy and we truly understand how to rely on Christ. (Srry my mission president says it a lot better, maybe come join a zone conf to get what im sayin). quick updates:
•met some way cool potentials this week
•daylight savings is a BLESSING
•i love being a missionary and i love being apart of this marvelous work!!!!!! happiness truly comes when you are serving and truly caring for others.
CHALLENGE: if u chose to accept--serve someone everyday this week and see the difference. :)))) i know it will make you happier and i can promise you will grow closer to your Savior by serving others.