Monday, September 1, 2014
So the past two weeks have kind of blended in together.  Getting the new área down and trying to establish something here.  I know the área pretty well know, now the hard part is getting a group together.  We have been working a ton and seeing few results, but that will change this week.  We gave talks yesterday in sacrament, but only 54 people were there.  They are talking about maybe closing our ward,  so now us 4 are going to save it.  We have a couple of plans that we will put in action this week.  Be praying for our success and that the ward will open up.  There are a ton of wards splitting and our branch in Juquitiba finally split!  love yall

New companion

Monday, August 18, 2014

This week was great!  We worked really hard trying all that we could to get new investigators.  Saw peacocks in the road the other day walking around, that was cool and a couple of people stopped us this week telling us that they wanted to go to church!  Saw a recent convert from Noronha on Tuesday, she studies close to the chapel where we do district meeting.  Basically this week was just getting to know the area and the people.  The church is really nice, opened in February and it's really big.  We live next to the train so going places is really easy.  There is a sister from Amarillo, or some place in north TX,  so that's cool.  My comp is from Colorado but he was born in Honduras.  He has 9 months on his mission and served in Oregon for 8 months. The last elder in my first MTC group got his visa so he is coming down soon, so that will be really cool.  My companion knows Spanish so we have been speaking Spanish some times and I am getting really good with Spanish because it's really close to Português.  He is having knee therapy so we have been going into the city a little and it is so cool. The buildings are so nice,  buildings with 2 story apartments, with a giant window and a big arch on each floor. Will take pictures because its nice.  I have been getting really good at cooking.  Made grilled chicken sandwiches the other day and last night I made pork chops.  Have a great week sending Rach away and getting ready for school. I'ts going to be great! Love ya'll!

Elder Anderson

de nova

Monday, August 11, 2014

I loved reading the e-mails this week.  Looks like things went great in Utah.  So glad that ya’ll made it back safely.  This week was crazy for all of us here in the zone.  My companion had his birthday on Monday, so we had a party, made the cake that yall sent.  We can now say that we closed a church on our mission.  Went to go teach an old guy that takes care of a church.  He let us enter and see it and when we were leaving we shut the door.  Effectively closing the church, haha.   Tuesday we had a district meeting and after lunch we got a service project of painting a member´s new snack place thing in the garage.   On Wednesday we had a special meeting with Presidente about baptisms and how we can have more. After the assistentes came up to me and my companion and told us that Pres. wanted to talk to us.  so we waited and he took my companion aside and talked to him, and he came back, and took me and said that he was going to put the two zones in our stake together again and make one zone, my comp and I would be emergency transferred to other áreas, he would continue as a zone leader and I would helping another missionary adapt.  So that was cool, just that we couldn´t tell anyone.  The rest of the day was hard accepting all that would happen, I was only in that ward 3 weeks and my comp. 4 months.  We kept acting like everything was normal.  Had the biggest lunch of my life.  The missionaries were talking since the first day about this sister that makes a ton of food and keeps putting food on our plate until you die.  We went there and I escaped death because I hid behind another elder that looks like me, so I was great and the others were having trouble walking, haha.  Anyway, went on a division with the other dl, found another pizza place to teach, speaking of which the pizzaria that I was teaching in my last área got baptized this week!   Sunday we let the other missionaries know what would happen and we packed. Today we went to the office at 730 and I got my new companion and am now in Primavera Interlagos, and my old comp is my zl! So excited to be here, opening área again! SÒ ALEGRIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love ya'll tons, pin drive broke so I will send fotos next time. 

Elder Anderson

Miracles

Monday, August 4, 2014

This week was crazy!!!!!!!!!!  On Monday we made french toast and homemade syrup.  Later that day one of our investigators gave us weed because he is giving up drugs, so we were walking around the favela with weed.  Then on Tuesday we had lunch at a recent convert´s and the minute we walked in I knew it was fish, we get to the table and the entire fish is there, head to tail, literally. Later we were walking on the avenue and pass by a hospital with a bunch of cops there with their guns out and a helicopter in the air.  Get home and find out that there had been a police shooting right before we got there. On Wednesday we had our counsel for the month of August.  Lasted forever but was good, got to see old companions which is always fun. On Thursday we had district meeting and had a division with one of  the district leaders.  I also made pork chops for lunch, and we went to get a jug of water and my comp tried to put it in the sink and he hit the faucet off and water sprayed all over.  So we had to fix that, got some funny pics, when the computers start working I will send them.  And Friday was when all the miracles happened.  

So backstory.  3 months ago my comp was here in the area and did a contact with a woman who said that she would go to church and that she had a family.  He wrote down the address and it was the sisters area so he passed it to them but they never passed by the house.  So come to now.  That family was cut when the elders moved areas and the family never went to church.  But my first week in the area the husband found us on the street and told us to stop by the new house because they had moved and now things were better for them.  We wrote down the address and marked a visit.  Turns out that there are two number 8 on that street, happens a lot,  and we went to the wrong one, or so we thought.  Knocked on the door and a guy answered.  We asked if they would like to go to church with us this week and they accepted. Marked a visit for the next day and found the other house.  Went back the next day and talked to this guy, taught eternal marriage in the first lesson and he started to cry.  The next day we went there and he had invited the whole family to listen to us, walked out with 6 new investigators. Sunday they were waiting for us when we came to take them to church, they loved the church, and both have already received answers that this is the true church.  They have lots of great questions and only have to get married to baptize.  Last night we went there and they told us that on the day that we had knocked on their door the wife had come to get her things and leave.  And at that moment we knocked on the door.  So she decided to stay, and now they will have an eternal family, please pray that they will continue to grow their faith and that they can get married soon, their names are J and T.  

So that we really cool.  Also that day we had sarapatel for lunch that is basically little chopped up bits of lung, heart, kidney and tongue of pork, in blood.  Luckily the member didn’t know if we could have blood so she left it out.  Lets just say it went all right eating it until one of the missionaries pointed out the taste buds on the tongue.  We continued having dance parties on our street at night, this week there was MC Bin Laden.  Our sister missionaries were transferred without warning, they switch with ITA 1c which is the ward that I was in.  On Saturday we had 5 deserts at lunch, a cake, tapioca, mouse, ice cream and a box of chocolates.  We have 2 baptisms for this week, be praying for E and L.  But yeah that was my week, it was pretty good.  We are super tired but today is my comp´s 20th b-day so we are going to party, which means buy pizza.  Anyway, hope all is cool in Utah and that ya’ll have a great time.  Love ya, and give a hug to everyone up there.  

Elder Anderson

Transfers

Monday, July 28^th, 2014

So I got transferred, along with the rest of the mission, literally all the companionships were changed, and I ended up in a great ward-Parque Santo Antônio! A lot of the old leaders got changed and put as trainers or as cuidadors.  I am with Elder K as a zone leader still, we were both made zl at the same time, he is from Nebraska, and we are a lot alike, having a great time with him and the other two elders in our house.  This area is really cool, it has a giant favela called 'communidade fim da semana', which means weekend community, and it is huge.  My comp has been here for 4 months and still hasn’t walked all of it.  We got a really cool investigator that is stopping with almost everything in the word of wisdom.  But he has a lot of desire and even wants to serve a mission! We had some interesting lessons this week with less actives.  The craziest was an old lady that had tons of visions and had received revelation from God that she needed to leave the Mormon church for the Brazilian Christian congregation.  When we said the prayer to leave she went and got a veil to pray because in that church the men and women sit apart and the women use a veil when they pray.  So that was interesting. 

We got 14 liters of milk from a lady in the ward, no one at home drinks it so we have been trying to give it away, and finally found a family that was needing it and it was cool to hand over to them, they were really grateful.  We met a possessed guy living in a hole, literally this week, totally thought that he was going to attack my companion, but he didn’t.  We had a giant party on our street this weekend, it was actually right outside of our door, and they had a huge stage and sounds system and lights and it went until 5 in the morning for 2 nights, but now it’s over and they just got to clean up all the sin.  Besides that I have a slight cold, it’s been quite chilly lately.  But everything has been going great and this will be an amazing transfer!  Love ya’ll and have a safe trip up to UT!

Elder Anderson

1

July 21, 2014

This week I passed my one year mark!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  That was cool, to celebrate we went to the temple and had churrasco.  The rest of the week has been good.  Last week was the last time that we had to stay home because of the world cup so everyone was way excited to be out and we managed to baptize 5 people in the zone, we have been really focusing on keeping a solid number of baptisms every week and we think that things will really start picking up now.  We went out to Juquitiba this week which was a fun- 4 hours trying to sleep in a bouncy hot crowded bus, but it was cool to see it again.  Had interviews with President D this week which was really cool.  His daughter finally arrived, and his wife got robbed.  So it was a pretty interesting week for them.   We met a member from Idaho that was at the temple. He is the uncle of one of the sisters that I used to be the DL of.  Saw the missionaries from São Paulo oeste (West?) the other day, they were in our area.  We also started teaching our new pizza place, they made a free pizza for us one day, that was nice. So blessings.  Had follow up with the assistants and then we had a surprise meeting with president on Friday.  Our baptism this week is a wife of a menos activo that we are helping come back.  His brother is in the bishopric of JD Angela that I passed in a couple months ago.  The brother in law baptized her so I got to see them which was cool.  Then we had a possessed guy enter the church and start yelling during the other ward´s sacrament, so we had to help remove him.  I found out that in my previous ward the guy we baptized blessed the sacrament, had completed My Family, and was ready to go to the temple!  That was pretty cool to find out,  it’s always so cool to see your recent converts doing things in the church.  Transfers are tomorrow and I got transferred.  President is moving a lot of people around and making a lot of the old leaders trainers, he is taking one of the assistants and having him train too.  So I might get called as a trainer, which wouldn’t be that bad.  That is basically what happened this week.  Each week seems to go faster.  In president’s office there is a card with everyone´s picture and information, and they had the enter and leave dates-which they didn’t used to have, and I was looking at my zone and accidently saw my leave date, so that freaked me out, but I will let it be a surprise for ya’ll.  Hope all goes well with the move, have a great week!

Elder Anderson

More pizza

Monday, July 14, 2014

Wow! I can’t believe that this week marks one whole year!  This week was crazy because we had to stay inside three days because of the games, which was not fun.  Got a minor form of pink eye on Saturday, but I got healed.  My companion had his birthday on the 19th and a couple of members made cakes for him, which was great.  We have been trying a couple of new things on our food lately.  I have always liked a thing called farofa and farinha on my beans, but this transfer I have started putting pepper on my food too.  This week got to extremes when we took the actual peppers out and put them on our food, that was painful, but funny.  This week we got a reference of a family that has a pizza shop and we heard that they were really good. So that very night we followed up about the restoration pamphlet and ordered a pizza!!!!  Found a couple of people legally married, which doesn’t happen here, so that was sweet.  Rained for the first time in a month and that was cold, but got a good umbrella and jacket here so I stayed dry.  I finally finished my blue journal that I have had since 2006 and started the red one.  I am down to one pair of shoes now.  The first ones got so bad that I had to get rid of them.  It looked like I was wearing a green house because of the mold that was on them because it’s so wet this time of year, but the new shoes are great.  Baptized a young man in a family yesterday was pretty funny, got to go, more next week!

Time flies

Monday, July 07, 2014

Meeting President D was amazing, it just happened to be on the day that we were supposed to go to the temple so I have to wait two more weeks to go, but that’s fine.  President is so cool.  We were all waiting in the gym waiting for him to arrive for our counsel and he gets there and he had to duck to get into the door.  Then he comes around giving everyone hugs and smiling and laughing and making jokes.  He is awesome, everyone loves him.  I come up to his armpit.  He has already moved they way we work in a very little but important way.  The church has recently changed the way that the missionaries teach, now we teach all 5 lessons before and after baptism, because the members just aren't doing their part.  We are also focusing a lot on the temple and family history work.  

The Brasil and Columbia game was crazy 2-0!  Everyone went crazy with fireworks and with horns and stuff.  They were lighting a couple on our street and I was filming because it’s so crazy! I got some pretty crazy stuff from our street, will try to send it when I get a good computer here that actually sends stuff.  It was great because it was the fourth of July and they had fireworks!  We sang some American songs and my companion has root beer concentrate so we put that in a blender with ice cream and made root beer floats.  Closest thing to it in a year. We have to stay inside tomorrow and if they lose Saturday and if they win Sunday.  Tomorrow is p-day.  

Found a guy with one leg this week who is really cool, he’s so getting baptized.  We have been really tired lately because this zone has a couple of little problems so my companion and I have been really tired trying to get everything fixed, but this week we are focusing on getting a really big teaching group. It’s been pretty hot this week.  But today looks like it will change and start acting like winter.  

That’s great about the Johnston’s, love the new name.  Don’t need a new usb, just need to clean the conference talks off it.   Got 10 days to make a year! Our stake pres said something great yesterday.  He said that "If you don’t take church seriously God won’t take you seriously and you will have serious problems". Hope ya’ll have a great week!

Elder Anderson

Same work, different face

Monday, June 30, 2014

So my area is called Itapcerica da Serra.  Brazil played Chile on Saturday and that was a close one, we kept asking people on the street what the score was and they kept saying that Brazil was losing.  The time of the game passed, but we didn't know that they had gone into overtime and then like 45 minutes later the city just blows up and they went crazy because Brazil won and they didn't stop the party until the next day.  So they will play again on Friday against Columbia.  Other thing that happened this week was our change of President.  On Friday President D arrived and President P left.  I am so excited to meet the new President.  We got a call last night from our assistant and he told us that our zone would be able to go to the temple tomorrow which is great because I haven’t gone in at least 6 months. We also had our last leadership meeting with President P on Wednesday, which was way cool.  He taught us a lot of cool stuff. We got a new district leader, Elder H from Boston, I was his dl in Jd. ângela a couple months ago.  Now we have 4 Americans at home.  My companion will have his birthday on the 9th and his parents sent him a package and they sent him mini ping-pong so we put it up on our desks and had a ping-pong competition while we were stuck at home.  Anyway the time is flying here, can’t believe that tomorrow is July, in 2 and a half weeks I will have a year on the mission! Sorry I haven’t been sending pics, the computer here doesn’t open my pin drive, btw it’s almost all full.  Hope everything goes well this week. Love ya.

Elder Anderson

Happy Birthday!

Tuesday, June 24^th, 2014 Elder Anderson's birthday!!

20! Wow, I´m still me! I will celebrate by going out and marking a bunch of people to get baptized.  We also had our district meeting today.  Opened my package yesterday and was way excited about the pancake mix, and so are my other companions in the house. Loved the pictures too.  I have been thinking about getting a Brasil jersey (with birthday money).  Brasil is doing pretty good in the cup, they beat Camaron and Croasia, and tied with Mexico, they will play again on Saturday or Sunday which is going to mess with our week because of yesterday and then another day without work will mess a lot of things up. But its fine, one of our housemates went to the temple with investigators and got Ephraim´s rescue so we watched that 3 times yesterday. All the schools are out for a month because of the games and they get done on the 17th of July.  

(In response to a question about the cost of fast food): The reason that some things look expensive is because it’s still in reais, divide it by half and you have the dollar value, Mcdonalds really is expensive here, don’t know why.

But this week was good.  Had one great day and the others were all right, staying at home a lot has drained us because you just sit around and do hardly nothing so we are just really tired. This week we should have a lot going on.  On Thursday our new President comes in and that will change some things.  Tomorrow we have our last leadership meeting with President P, it’s going to be good.  Got some really good people that we are teaching and got a lot of baptisms planned for the coming weeks.  Time is flying so quickly and I can’t believe it. Almost a year ago I was in the mtc.  I am sure that it will only start to pick up.

This week we entered the labyrinth in the middle of our area and that was really cool.  On the map it’s just a blank space, but that doesn't exist here, so we walked in and were in there for a good thirty minutes just getting references.  We also found some macumba (black magic spirit religion) pots with a sacrifice inside on the side of the road. The ceiling the chapel fell in the bathroom because the water box is broken and its leaking.  

Hope ya'll are doing good.  Just keep swimming!

Elder Anderson

World Cup!

Monday, June 16, 2014

So first off with transfers.  The first area of my mission was called Embu das Artes and it included another municiple called Itapecerica da Serra.  A couple of transferes ago it got divided into two zones.  So they almost sent me home (mission lingo here for first area) because now I am in Itapecerica with one of my old dl´s from my first transfer as a zl.  His name is Elder S and he is from Kansas with one year and 7 months, this is his 2nd full transfer as a zl and my 3rd, so we are both new and crazy.  We have a great zone with alot of potencial and we are going to make this place fly. We live with one of the dl´s from Ecuador and another elder from the states.  We had 3 baptisms in our area this week and 6 confirmations and I got to do 3 of them which was cool because it was the first time that I have done it on the mission.

So for the world cup every time that Brazil plays we have to stay inside, so last Thursday I think we stayed home and tomorrow too and next Monday so I will email on Tuesday.  It’s not too crazy when they are playing, every time they get a goal they light fireworks and go crazy for a couple minutes, but when they win they have huge parties and everyone gets drunk and we had a few fights outside of our house the other day.  But we are all good at home, live on the second story so we are probably safe.  They have a lot of English stuff here because of the people that come here for the games.  The trains talk English with a Brazilian accent and it’s really funny.  This week we started teaching a guy and he prayed and said that the response was like someone was talking to him, which we got really excited about that.  We also saw the missionaries from São Paulo oeste (I think means West here) because our area makes the division with them.  HAPPY FATHER`S DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love ya’ll have a great week!

Transfers!

Monday, June 9, 2014

Wow, this time is flying, in a week I will have 11 months! I got all excited because we didn’t get calls last night for transfers so I thought that I would stay here in Grajaú with Elder L, but during studies today the secretary called us and I am getting transferred! I think that I have a curse because I only have two companions that have stayed with me for more than 1 transfer and I have never stayed in an area for more than 2 transfers.  But I like moving and seeing new parts of the mission.  I am really excited to see where I will be going.  I know that it will be an amazing place and that I will love my new companion.  

Anyway this week was awesome.  We made cocada at home on Monday, on Tuesday we had our last district meeting and on Thursday we had a mission meeting.  It was so cool.  Got to see a couple of missionaries from my first district that got to Brasil recently, I hadn’t seen them in 10 months and they said that I looked totally different.  I found out that the elders that I trained are now training, so we got a picture of the family. President let us watch Ephraim's Rescue, it’s so sososososossosoo good.  Pres. Dalton sent a little clip of him which was really funny, he speaks really good already.  Everyone is really excited to meet him and Sister Dalton. Everyone that is leaving gave their testimony, we have a lot of my old leaders going this transfer, my trainer, my old ZL, 2 assistants, and other friends.  After the meeting we did a split with the assistants, I went to their area and had a blast.  Forgot my umbrella and it ended up raining, but it was all good.  Had stake conference too this week, it was focused on the same thing (Austin, TX stake had stake conference as well.  The theme was Hasten the Work).  On Sunday we had a special broadcast from SLC with Elder Soares and with Elders Ballard and Scott.  It was really cool.  Elder Scott spoke in Portuguese and was actually pretty good.  They sent this transmission for São Paulo and Rio.  Then we had lunch at the stake presidente's house and there was a cake 2 feet in diameter. It was huge!  This transfer will be really cool, a new president, new leaders, a lot of new missionaries and new experiences.  It rained again this week and a leak opened in the ceiling above my bed and so it got soaked and so I slept on half of the bed for two nights, but now I am moving out so not my problem ha ha.  

It was cool to see Rach's pics.  Hope everyone is enjoying the nice TX weather, sure miss it. Keep smiling and have a great week! Love ya'll.

Elder Anderson

PS the package didn’t get here yet, probably will be a while because of the cup. Things will get crazy.  The other day there was a strike at the train and the streets are all painted and big flags and it's crazy here. In three days it all starts!!!!!!!!!!  Still don't know what will happen during the cup.  

don't worry, be happy:)

Monday, June 02, 2014

This week was super awesome because I got to talk to the zone leaders of Guaripiranga, my last zone, and they told me that one of my investigators got baptized!  Don’t know if ya'll remember T, we went to the temple with him, I think that I sent some pics, any way he disappeared for a little bit and I didn't get to talk to him again and then this week I find out that he got baptized!  So that was awesome! Council was sweet too, love helping make decisions for the mission and receiving instructions from President.  Then on Friday we had follow up by the assistants and we were stuck in traffic for a good hour getting back.  On Saturday we helped in a move, it was incredible the difference that there is between moves there and moves here.  I don't know if it is because I have only know LDS moves or if it’s an American thing but we showed up and there were a bunch of guys drinking and just talking and a pile of stuff to be moved to another house on top of the other. We helped a little but then had to go.  My companion and I were at a loss about what to do, ask if we can help and they say that they are managing.  Don't know if they were talking about downing all the beers or moving the stuff.  But anyway I am very grateful for the sense of responsibility that there is in the church.  My voice got back and we are staying warm, found a suit coat that an elder left and it makes a great coat. This week I was sleeping and started hearing a ping, thought it was nothing, but turns out I have a leak almost right above my head.  Luckily we were able to get a bucket and a cloth and it’s a slow leak so that's good.  Thinking about moving houses next week.  This week there were so many times that I felt physically weak and then I received physical strength. I know that God gives us the strength that we need to help his kingdom.  I know that he is blessing our family, and will continue to do so, if we obey all of his commandments. Read scriptures and pray together every day.  Love ya'll and have a great week with graduation! Love ya'll!

Elder Anderson

Luckily: optimistic in the face of riots, flooding, mold, feeling sick and cold!

Monday, May 26, 2014

This week was strange.  We were all excited for Elder Andersen on Wednesday until Tuesday night when we get a call from the assistants saying that while Elder Nelson and President were in meeting, Elder Nelson received revelation that the meeting with Elder Andersen should be canceled and that all the missionaries in São Paulo should stay home Wednesday- can’t even leave the house.  He said that it was because of the many riots that would happen Wednesday. So we thanked the Lord for revelation and advised the zone. Later that night the members where telling us about buses getting lit up and riots and bandits in the streets, then we get a call from our sisters in the top part of our zone that connects with the main road and they said that there were people running to their houses and that a bus was on fire and that there were bandits on the streets.  So we sent them home early and got ready for Wednesday.  Luckily nothing happened in our zone on Wednesday, we think that it was more focused in the east zone of the city where the new stadium is at.  So we stayed home all day and it was terrible. We just studied and talked and played a Book of Mormon trivia game that Mrs. D gave to me. Luckily Thursday we were able to leave.  Unfortunately our house is very small, our whole house could fit in the front two rooms of our house, and we have mold inside because of the rain.  So we both got a little sick and the last two days my voice has been coming and going.  Luckily it continues to rain and flooded our kitchen, and not our bedroom, because it is a couple steps higher so the water stayed in the kitchen.  Our baptism water thing is still broken but we solved the problem by asking a member to baptize our investigator.  On Sunday we were running around helping the other areas with interviews and stuff, had a sleep over with our dl and another missionary because the traveling assistants wanted to do a division with 2 duplas so we got air mattresses for our other elders.  All in all we have hardly not worked in our area and this week flew.  We are making plans for the ward and zone and are thinking about moving houses, again, and adding another dupla in our ward.  It was so cold yesterday that I could see my breath in the chapel and at home, heating and ac don’t exist here :).  But it’s all good and this week will be great.  Hope that ya’ll enjoy a day off! Love ya'll!

Elder Anderson

Running all over

Monday, May 19, 2014

This week was one of the craziest we have had.  It flew by and this one will too.  On Wednesday we will have the chance to hear from Elder Andersen of the 12!  We are all excited for it.  This week we got some new missionaries, some of my friends came in from the states and some missionaries from my old district- because it was an emergency transfer.  Totally forgot about the 15th being the renewal of the Aaronic Priesthood.  We were running all over the place this week and managed 7 baptisms in the zone, which was the best in the mission.  We can’t believe that we are in the middle of the transfer already.  On Saturday we rode in the back of an army truck to get home from an interview after running from one side of the zone to the other, luckily it’s geographically small.  The water heater is still not working right and the cold months are coming; it’s alright, cold water cleans more sins.  My comp and I are having a lot of fun.  He is so cool.  He used to be a pro. soccer player and is amazing. We are always playing soccer with rocks on our way to appointments.  My comp really likes a thing called chimmarrão.  It’s like an herb drink and you use special wooden cups with a funny straw, I remember that uncle NT, had one when he got back.  So we have been looking for them for a while and finally found a store that sells them!  Went and got them this morning! Will send a picture of us.  I have been learning a lot about the atonement this week and about miracles.  We heard a talk by C. Skousen that was really good that he gave to missionaries in Texas in 1980.  Hope all is going well, good luck with school and work!  Only 3 more weeks!!!!!!!!!!! 

Love ya’ll

Elder Anderson

A Cool Week

Monday, May 12, 2014

Hey everyone,

It was great to talk to all ya'll yesterday, it was great to hear your voices, really funny. This week was a really good week, we had 5 baptisms this week, 4 of them in a massive baptism service, literally two people showed up and wanted to be baptized early, they were marked for another week.  What was really cool was that the water was freezing, again, our water heater really is broken now.  We had 3 old people getting baptized, one of them is almost 88 years old.  The other one is in a wheelchair, and the other two were great.  The old people were throwing themselves in to be baptized, I was super worried that they would change their minds when they felt the water, but it all went well. I have pics but this lan house doesn’t have places to hook up a camera.  The lady in the wheelchair was really cool.  She has trouble walking because of her weight and age.  We had to use three men to carry her to the waters.  She was in agony because her foot is really sensitive and the water was so cold that it hurt.  We baptized her and as we were carrying her up the stairs she smiled and said "Tudo por Deus" which means "Everything for God."  On Saturday we had a couple walk in and ask what they needed to do to get baptized and to baptize their 7 children.  Last Sunday, not yesterday, we had another couple walk in that has been investigating for 8 months, they will get married and baptized too!

My companion and I have both been a little sick because of the change in weather.  But we are doing great.  Last night bishop stuffed us full of bread and water and soda while we were talking and waiting. I was trying to find the other skype account that the family has but couldn’t find it.  We also forgot our skype names and pass words so we had to create another account, that’s why it took a little while to get connected.  This week I was looking through a box of books from our old house and found a book that I am really excited to have "Articles of Faith" by Talmage, I already have heard of this book but now I have it! 

This week we had an experience that was really cool.  We were waiting for lunch one day and decided to visit a less active.  In the bottom of this house lives a man whose name is John, in English.  He is really smart and was once very rich, but he started having panic attacks and lost everything. Now he lives in a house that is poorly lit, damp and badly ventilated.  He has long hair and probably looks like a rocker dude from some band. But we talked to him and convinced him to go to church with us.  I stopped by on Sunday to get him and the family that lives in top of his house tried to stop me from taking him to church, they told him to go back to bed, and that he shouldn't go to church, of course they were very drunk.  But John didn’t listen, he said "I am going!"  They asked him where, "I am going to church" he declared.  And so we arrived at church, he was dressed in a leather jacket, with leather boots, and turned a couple heads when he walked in, but it was so good to have him there and he loved it.  Pray for him that he can get the help that he needs and that we can help him to get baptized. 

This week we had lunch in the house of the second counselor.  His house has some cool fruit, including oranges the size of my head. I took pictures and will send them next week.  He showed us a banana that was purple, I totally thought that it was rotten and hesitantly took a bite, but it was amazing.  He said that it’s a wine banana or something like that.  He has avocados that are huge, a fruit called jaka, mamá and some others, it was really cool, but it’s in the middle of nowhere.  Just think that the next time that we will talk through skype I will have only 7or 8 more months, it’s passing so fast.

Love ya'll and have a great week!

Elder Anderson

Transfers

Monday, May 5, 2014

This week was great.  On Tuesday I got my new companion and I am really excited because he is from Georgia. He used to be the executive secretary and so he is way excited to be out on the street and the days fly by.  We had a baptism this week and are hoping to have a couple more on Saturday.  We are so excited to talk to our families.  Ya'll are 2 hours behind but I will call to confirm.  It will be after church and probably after 3. This week we started our pilot and it’s going well, we were looking and found a couple of people that were never confirmed that need to be baptized again.  This week has been great also because every night we listen to a conference talk and wake up and listen to another. We had a council on Thursday which was cool and on Saturday we went to the cartorio to see my companion´s investigators get married and baptized.  We are having so much fun together and these days have flown by.  Found a family from the Ukraine which was really funny.  The mom is already baptized and went to church this week. 

This week a terrible thing happened, we ordered pizza with a chocolate border and it arrived without the chocolate.  We had to call and trade.  

We have a 10 year old convert that we invited him to read a part of The Book of Mormon and pray to know again that it is true.  We went back the next day and he said that he got an answer again!  He wants to serve a mission, just 8 more years, buddy! 

Hope everyone is doing well and can’t wait to talk to ya’ll on Sunday.  Have things ready to talk about because I want to use all the time we can talking.

Love ya'll

Elder Anderson

Cold

Monday, April 28, 2014

This week was crazy, first off it was Easter, and everyone had a day off, because here every little thing is a big holiday. So the LAN house was closed and I only got to send that little letter on Tuesday.  On Thursday we had a meeting with all the leaders in the mission.  Our mission was chosen by the area presidency to start a pilot program until the third week in June, which is when President will leave.  We are going to use half of our time helping the recent converts and will be really cool. We had meetings with all the bishops in our zone and with the stake president.  On Friday we had a zone meeting to pass the pilot to the zone, I got to see my friend Elder F that got here this transfer who was my district leader in the MTC and is from TX.  It was so cool to see him and be able to talk to him.  I was able to talk to missionaries from my old area and I was really happy to hear that two of the families that I was working with there were baptized! Last night we had a transmission from the area presidency about family history.  It was really cool.  I don’t know if you have already seen the booklet, "My family", but it is really cool.  President said that when he was in Salt Lake being taught by the Apostles the main thing that they talked about was family history and that they are all really excited with some of the new programs for this tool.  Get 6 MY FAMILY booklets and fill it out for a family night, I started one today and it is really cool.  On Monday we had a ward family night that was really cool, the activity totally changed at the last minute but it was a lot of fun, we totally winged everything. Last week I got to try sugar cane, the plant itself, it was really weird. It almost looks like bamboo, and you take off the outer husk and suck on the inside of the plant, tastes nothing like sugar, but was cool to see and to try it out.  We got transfer calls last night and my companion was transferred.  He is really sad to have to leave but that’s the way it has to be, it has been a great experience being with him and learning how to be a zone leader.  Here for Easter they give out giant hollow easter eggs, they are really cool.  We also got a box of chocolates, and a bag of homemade chocolates that we really good.  I got to teach English class on Saturday because the other elders weren’t able to, it was fun, it’s weird to teach English to people, it’s so hard to explain.  It’s been really cold here lately, the other night I could see my breath.  I have been using socks to sleep and sleep with a jacket over me because we only have one blanket and my companion has been sick so he needs to use it.  But they should have more in the office that I will grab tomorrow.  Luckily it hasn’t rained a lot more, and the leaks haven’t gotten worse but we have mold growing on our ceiling.  I gave a talk yesterday, bishop told us about it on Wednesday and I didn’t have time to prepare anything so I made it up on the spot for 15 min.  It was pretty good.  We had a baptism on Saturday of a young man that is really cool. He is the tallest Brazilian that I know, 6ft 1 or 2 and he is 17 or 16.  Because it’s been cold here the water in the font was freezing and the heater for the font was broken, and the gas ran out-btw water heaters don’t exist here-and the water almost had ice in it.  I was chosen to baptize him and entered the water first and had to clench my teeth and try to keep a straight face to give the guy confidence, I was trying to explain to him that he would have to bend his knees, and the water was so cold that I was almost gasping.  He was ready to panic, because no one knows how to swim and they don’t have tubs here, or pools, so no one has entered into water, except at the ocean.  So he was panicking, and I said the prayer really fast and put him down so fast the water splashed out.  But like the bible says- only one baptism, and that’s what he got, I think that if it had gone wrong he wouldn’t have had the courage to try again.

Love you all and have a great week, will send photos next week!

Elder Anderson

Quick

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

I got the package with the skittles and the package that had the socks.  All of the houses here have old umbrellas from missionaries that already left so I have three umbrellas now. Speaking of packages I got the package that I sent at Christmas. It returned. Don’t know why.  I am writing today because the LAN house was closed yesterday. We baptized a future missionary! He is cool, and found out about some baptisms in my old areas that I taught.  I am great and happy to hear that everyone is healthy and happy too.  Had an awesome ward family night yesterday and got lots of references.  Have to go, but everything is good here but will have to write more next time, we will see if I am transferred again. . . hope all is well, love ya'll. 

Elder Anderson

Rain and Dreams

Monday, April 14, 2014

This week was great, lots of cool experiences.  The new house we moved into was going great until it started to rain on Saturday night.  We were without umbrellas and 30 minutes of fast walking from home so we just took the rain.  It was really cold and when we finally got back to our house we realized something, the house leaks.  The roofs here are strange sometimes, they are flat and hold water, and so you have to do some things to the roof to get the water off.  This house doesn’t have these things as we found out on Saturday.  We walked in to the house to see water leaking down the walls.  But we were so tired that we didn’t do anything about it, mainly because we can’t do anything about it.  But we went to our rooms and tried to sleep.  Right as I was falling asleep I hear a dripping sound next to my head.   I thought that it was a drip that was on the other side of the room that I already know was there.  But I held out my hand next to my head and felt a drop, then on my leg-another.  I moved the bed over and put down a towel and slept, luckily the rain soon stopped.  But it is really cold now; it’s getting ready to change to winter here.  In 4 days I will have 9months!  

The work is going great, this week we are really trying to get more families involved in the work.  We have a program called, let the ward catch fire, or something like that. It’s focused on getting the families all excited to help.  We were supposed to have a training for the families yesterday but we got called to a special meeting with the Stake Pres. and the Bishops and ward mission leaders.  It was a cool meeting but it lasted a long time.  

We finally got our new set of elders.  The new elder is really cool and was in Michigan for 9 months, he looks like a cross between AJ and NT.  He is from Utah, Cottonwood Heights or something like that.  He knows SW because he was in his ward at BYU and lived on the same floor as me in the dorms, but I never got to know him.  It was cool to find out that we know some of the same people.

This week we talked with  alot of people that are receiving answers through dreams. We have one investigator that dreamed that someone arrived at his house and told him our message was true and another that he dreamed about Joseph Smith, and this is after the first lesson and no one remembers his name here because its hard to say but this investigator knows his name, and he dreamed that Joseph Smith changed the world in a way no one thought possible, it was so cool to hear his experiences and to see his faith growing.  

YC sounds like it was incredible! I want some pics if ya'll have some.  That’s great about Rach and prom, that´ll be fun, who is in the group?   How is the rest of the family? I loved Elder Holland’s talk and have been listening to it almost every day and Elder Rasband’s too.  I love the talks that they gave.  Hope ya'll have a great Easter!  

Love yall

Elder Anderson

Conference surprises

Monday, April 7, 2014

Conference was great this week despite the fact that we had to get up at 4:30 (on Sunday morning) to get to the stake center by 6 am to watch the priesthood session.  The speakers were amazing and I am so excited to read the talks too.  I loved how Elder Holland was the first speaker.  I don’t know if ya’ll realized the really cool thing that happened when President Uchtdorf was reading the names of the new area 70's, he read a name of a guy I know.  PRES. PINHO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  That’s right my Mission President is an area 70 now.  He was up in Salt Lake during the last week or so and the AP’s have been running the mission.  We were so excited when he read that name, it took us a second to recognize who it was because in Portuguese it’s different! We were so excited! But this might mean that he will have to leave 2 months early.  We’ll see.

This week was fun. I stayed the whole week away from home, which wasn’t planned because of some things that were happening here. While I was away we moved houses, which I am glad that I missed, and luckily everything made it to the new house.  My comp had a birthday yesterday and we have alot of food now. We were walking on the street and two women from the Universal church here who were evangelizing also talked with us. One of the women said that she knew our church and that she had studied our doctrine, she asked a question that she thought would shock me that she knew it.  It was a question that had to do with an eternal truth. I countered by asking her if she had read the Book of Mormon, which she responded that she had read it.  If she had really read it she would have known that this church is the only true church.  The story is alot better in Portuguese because of the way the verbs work, and what they mean, but you get the gist.

My comp wants me to tell you that he is awesome and funny. Watch the video, "Mountains to climb", it’s really good, one of the guys looks like Dr. Who.  Good luck with everything this week. Hope that everyone is happy and healthy, say hi to the rest of the family for me.

Elder Anderson

A little place called.......

Monday, March 31, 2014 

GRAJAÚ!!!!!!!  When I was working in Palmares two transfers ago I was to the side of grajaú, and now I got back!!!!!  In a couple areas of the zone I can see my old ward and zone, haha.  My comp is Elder F from Brasilia, Federal District.  It’s the capital of Brasil.  His 19th birthday is on Sunday and he has one more transfer than I do, and he is related to President P.  He was a little sick this week so we got to do some traveling to the center of São Paulo to go to the hospital.  I found out that the Elder that I trained, Elder B, was called as a DL!!!!!  It was so cool seeing him again, and my old companions from Palmares.  It was hard leaving Jd. Ângela to the zone leaders but I hope that they take care of our investigators.  Here we had a couple of baptisms this week which was really cool and I am starting to get to know the people in my zone.  My comp from the CTM Elder H, was also called to be Zone Leader.  We got new secretaries and opened 2 new zones.  Our mission in the last 6 months has gotten 120 missionaries!  This is unheard of.  I think that my friend Elder F is in the CTM here and will enter the mission here this week or next.  I am so excited for Conference; it’s like Christmas for missionaries. President said that we have to watch it in our native language, and it will be at the stake center because projectors here are rare.  We are trying to move out of our house.  This is the first time that it’s just me and my comp in a house and it’s a little weird, but we will get a bigger house and maybe some new house mates.  I am loving being here and am really getting good with Portuguese, loving it so much, it’s so cool. It makes sense now and English is weird for me.  We had a counsel on Thursday and we have a great new plan to make everyone excited.  We finished the month with 228 baptisms!  but we are shooting for more.  We are really seeing alot of opposition in the mission, Satan is really trying to destroy our work, but we are beating him and still having great progress.  Hope the week is great for everyone, love you all and enjoy conference.!!!

Elder Anderson

So....what you doin this week?;)

**Editors disclaimer:  The editor left a few of Elder Anderson's spelling and grammatical errors in this one. We're taking it as a sign that he's full into the Portuguese language!  Also, there are some missionary terms here that I didn't know.  I asked Gary about "grandkids".  He explained that it refers to the missionaries that you train becoming trainers themselves.

Monday, March 24, 2014

To answer your questions: the money comes every half month, on the first and the 15th. I buy things to make spaghetti, tapioca-not the pudding, and bread with ham and cheese, or pbj-which grilled is really good now that I have pb! I will be good on pb for a while, I don’t use a whole lot, just for sandwiches.  

This week I tried something new, it’s called tapioca and it’s like a tortia but it's sweet and you put a bunch of stuff in it to make you diabetic and eat it.  I have only had it once and seen it made once too, out the back of a car.  But since this was the last district meeting I decided to make some for everyone, it actually went great.  It is really easy to cook and makes alot.  I will make some when I get home, if it exists there.  Then on Saturday we had a meeting with the zone where we got our zone t-shirts.  They are so cool.  Elder Gillespie had a shirt one day and was looking at it and it was a converse shirt that had "I (converse sign) brazil" and he said that we should do one that has "I (baptism sign) brazil". It turned out really cool, has the Brazilian flag colors and our names on the back. 

An hour later we had a meeting with all the leaders of the Ward where we took 2 hours and talked about how to work together, was really good, we are really focusing on this now that our Elder from Utah, who was there for a year, is here.  we were walking that day and we came around a corner and had a drunk guy smoking a cigoret-i have no idea how to spell it-and he got something stuck in his throat and hacked the biggest luggy ever right at my comp's feet and he got so scared, he ran up to my comp and was saying, I’m so sorry, and gave him a hug, but it was funny because my comp is really tall and the guy was really short.

Then on Sunday we were getting all ready for transfer calls and we had a meeting with our Ward mission leader at the chapel, and he was joking about how we were going to get calls. But I already had a pretty good idea of what was going to happen because I talked with President P on Wednesday about transfers.  Towards the end of the meeting, the phone rings. The Elder I thought would leave is being transferred, to be DL.  Then my phone rings, it was the executive secretary.  He told me to put the phone on speaker, so I did and he said elders you are both transferred, which was not what I was expecting, I thought that my comp would stay here to train, nope. But my area will get the all’s.  So that was fun, then we took pics and talked and then the phone rang again and I was called to be ZL and my comp will train and open an área!  Elder G was transferred too but he will be a DL because he is ending his mission, but now he has great grandkids, and I have grandkids!  I think I know where I will go, and who will be my comp, but I won’t know exactly what will happen till tomorrow and the Elder that is here will become dl of sister ap's and the zl's. Haha, he doesn’t know yet, it’s a surprise. haha.  I also found out that another kid of my first family got baptized and his girlfriend! Tomorrow our ap leaves, he is the only one, and 30 missionaries get in, I think that Elder F from TX and from my group will arrive because I saw his name at the office! Hope so. Feels like Christmas, because its cold and I am anxious for tomorrow.  So excited!.  Love ya'll have a great week!

Elder Anderson

Good times!

Monday, March 17, 2014

Transfers next week!  Don’t know what will happen, last time I had a pretty good idea.  This week was great, went to the mission office on Wednesday because President wanted to talk to all the missionaries that had served in the US, so I went with my companion.  It was great, loved it.  Also got the package, it was wrapped in homeland security tape and I thought that it was the other package, which still isn’t here.  But I was very happy to get everything inside, love the pens, and the skittles and Orange slices disappeared fast, forgot how good they were. This week was great and exceeded some of our goals with lessons and references.  Was great.  Here they have a promotion for the cup of the world and it’s little coke bottles of the countries. We are making zone shirts that will be amazing.  On Tuesday I found out that one of my investigators in my last area was baptized!  It was so cool, I am so happy, and another was baptized yesterday! This week we had a couple crazy experiences.  One of our investigators is convinced that we are angels.  Yesterday we were leaving his house and a police car pulls up and cops get out and chase a couple of guys with guns drawn, so we went back inside and waited a couple of minutes.  This week we found out that we have some angels working in our area because the sisters found someone that said that Germans are teaching them, but my comp and I are the only ones here, so logically it's angels. Hope that everything is going good there, that everything went well with Gpa T.

Love y’all!

Elder Anderson

Monday, March 10, 2014

This week we had a lot of good times.  Every month the zone leaders have a special meeting called Counsel.  It was supposed to be Saturday before last, but it was moved to last Tuesday.  On Monday night I got a call being invited to join the Counsel.  So that was a lot of fun, got to go with the zone leaders and the meeting lasted all day, from 8 to 6 with an hour for lunch, we got home too late to do anything.  On Wednesday we had district/zone meeting after lunch because one of the AP´s was coming, we also bought a big tub of ice cream, which wasn't that good but it was worth 3 reais.  Last Friday I was doing splits with the other missionaries in the district and it was raining really hard, we were walking down a bunch of stairs and we saw a woman with a small child climbing the stairs, we stopped to talk to her and she was way receptive.  We gave the restoration pamphlet to her and invited her to be baptized, which she said yes, and then we asked the question that usually gets everyone, "Are you married?  Legally?"  Because here it’s 400 reais to get married, $200 US, and these people don’t have that kind of money. She said that she is legally married for the past 10 years!!!!!!!! This is a miracle here, we were so excited.  Then yesterday my companion and I went to get some investigators for church and we were already behind schedule because with a family it takes at least 30 min to walk to church, uphill too.  I prayed for a ride and as we were leaving the house a car pulled up and it was members that offered a ride and then they sat by them in sacrament and then took them around to show them where everything was! It was great.  Last night we had to go to the stake center for a fireside.  On the way home we were on the bus standing up, and the bus suddenly pulls a hard right and goes down at a 45 degree angle, it was like a roller coaster, turns out that that’s normal.  Oh well, no one died at least. On Saturday we had to cut an investigator that lost the will to read and pray and go to church, which was really sad because we liked him a lot.  We also have clouds of mosquitoes in our house and we take breaks from studies to kill a couple, we are getting really good at catching them out of the air, have lots of cool fotos to send when the computer works! 

Hope everything goes well with grandpa and with your break, love you all! 

Love ya’ll so much,

Elder Anderson