Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink

Monday, January 27, 2014

So this week a lot of stuff happened and only one of the three baptisms happened.  But more about that later.  That purple thing in the big pot is called açaí,(referring to the picture in last week’s email)  it’s a fruit native to Brasil and is super good, and I think it tastes a little like blueberries, but it’s not. This is from the store on the other side of the road from the Cartorio and we go there every time we get someone married.  So we ordered the biggest one they had because this wedding was a long time coming.  That's so crazy about the snow and ice that ya'll have been getting. And the ward baptism sounds so cool.

So this week was good, every day after lunched it managed to rain, and one day it was really bad, but we keep moving forward, the theme of our area this week was JUST KEEP SWIMMING because of all the water we got.  This week I met an Elder that is in the zone and area next to us.  We were talking and we found out that he went to Dripping Springs HS and is from the Oak Hills stake and lived in the building next to mine at BYU and we were there at the same time.

This week’s baptism was the son of the woman that got baptized 2 weeks ago.  He was so excited.  I went to do the interview for him, because the other area taught him, and as soon as I was done with the interview Satan tried to interfere.  The neighbor came out with a bible in her hand telling us that we shouldn't be talking about Christ outside that we should enter the house.  The problem is that the husband doesn't live in the same house and we didn't have a member with us to enter the house, so we have been teaching her outside.  The neighbor was trying to get us to enter the house and so while I got the information for the record my companion tried to talk to this woman and somehow he got her to leave.  Now we can’t go and teach at the house, we have to call beforehand and meet her at the park.  An hour later we baptized him, it was so cool.  The water was so cold, but he just started smiling when he walked into the water.  He was immersed three times and each time he came out smiling for his mom, while he was shaking with cold.  

With the four missionaries here, we sang a special musical number and his mom said the closing prayer and it was so good, she thanked God for letting us find her and to tell her about the only true church and to bless her life and her son, it was amazing, the spirit was strong.

We are coming to the end of the transfer and really pushing forward, the mission is really focusing on true conversion and we are really being tried to make us better missionaries and better people.  I know that God is trying us for a reason, because he knows what our potential is and wants to help us reach it.  I have really felt a change in myself as I have been here; I am now more converted to the gospel, but still have far to go.  We have been focusing a lot on spiritual experiences everyday and it is great to be able to hear from the district the things that are happening in the lives of our investigators and in our lives too.  Look every day for these experiences, they happen every day, because God is always watching over us and protecting us and he is always doing things for you, you just have to look and thank him for it. 

I hope you all have a great week and that everything goes well with school and work and everything else.  Thanks so much for being my family, love you so much.

Elder Anderson

Oh yes!

To answer the questions first, a dupla is two missionaries. And the shirts are holding up great, the rip is from some barbed wire, but I can fix it.  And I haven’t been sick besides a little cough that I had a few weeks ago, other than this I have been great.

This week went great, had our multi-zone conference on Wednesday which was so good and after it we went to the office and got fans for the house, finally, it’s been a month since our fan broke, so now we are sleeping so good.  It’s been raining off and on this week, it seems like it waits until right after lunch to start.  This Saturday we had the wedding of one of our investigators, they are so cool.  They love the missionaries so much and are showing us their friends and family.  One of their family members was supposed to get baptized yesterday but she changed her mind at the last minute, but she will be baptized next week.  But after the wedding we went to our favorite açaí store and bought the biggest one they had, a big pot of happiness.

One of our recent converts had an experience this week.  On Sunday her daughter went to a party with some friends.  On the way home two cars blocked their way and guys with big guns got out of the cars.  The daughter remembered that her mom was taking the lessons and was being baptized that day, and so she prayed for help and at that moment the police showed up and caught all the guys with guns.  Everybody in the car would have died, but this mother was blessed for her decision to be baptized and everyone was saved.

It’s incredible the stories that we hear.  I am getting so good at walking fast, this Saturday we were a little lost in the sister´s area because as DL I have to do splits in all the areas during the week. So it was late at night and because it was my first time there I didn’t know how to get back home.  So we asked someone and she said that we were really far and that we should take the bus instead.  We just smiled and said that we would walk.  So we started on our way and it only took 15 min to get where we wanted to go.  I am getting so good at climbing hills, my first area helped a lot.

I hope that Sarah’s birthday went well, that’s so funny about her magic 8 ball, where did she get that idea for a present? Have fun on the break today, have a great rest of the week, pray that our 3 baptisms can happen this week.  Love ya'll lots, say hi to the rest of the family!

Elder Anderson

Yeah

Monday, January 13, 2014

Brazilian cereal!

Notice the missionary tag on the Batman logo:)

Hello everyone, right now it’s raining really hard outside and hailing sideways. The power has already gone out twice now, so I am trying to write this fast, so sorry if there are a lot of mistakes.  This week was awesome, we only had one dupla in the area the whole week because I had meetings. One of the new elders got sick and couldn't leave the house until we took him to the hospital last night, but now he is good and should be normal tomorrow.  We had an amazing Sunday, we had a missionary Sunday.  We planned the whole thing, had great testimonies from some recent converts and then I talked for the rest of the time, which wasn’t enough, because the bishopric gave me a paper that said "your times up", first time I have ever gotten one of those.  totally saving it. :)

We also had 2 baptisms yesterday, they went great..  The district is awesome, going to do some miracles this week to find some baptisms for the sisters in the other area.  Found out that next transfer 7 of the ZLs will leave.  We will get so many new missionaries in the future that it will be normal to have 3-4 duplas in every area.  Also found out the name of our new president, President D, from California, he served in São Paulo.

This week I was on splits with the zl and I ripped my shirt on barbed wire, so now I am going to learn how to fix that:)

(answering a question I had about The Book of Mormon):We teach a lot from The Book of Mormon while trying to use the Bible to back it up.  People are really open to The Book of Mormon, we have some investigators that explained the book for their friend, and it was really cool.

All the things that are happening at home sound good, that’s a lot of basketball.  I can’t believe that Sarah will be 7, that’s crazy.  That’s funny that she wants tortilla soup, I miss banana cake, it’s been so long.  I got a Christmas letter from the Howards, tell them thanks.  How is the rest of the family doing?  Has anyone gotten mission calls in the ward, any announcements?    Will send some pics, it's finally working this time.  Love you all lots and have a great week, pray the baptisms will work out for the sisters.

Love,

Elder Anderson

This week was double

So much happened this week that it felt like two weeks. So I will start with last Monday and work up.  The bad thing about p-day is that something really cool always happens right after we write emails.  So on Monday we were going to talk to a family that was a referral of a family in the ward.  We already had talked to them but they haven’t been keeping commitments.  So we went there and they weren't home, but there was a man that has a store under their house that invited us in.  We decided to just leave a scripture with him.  My companion pulled out his bible and the man said for him to randomly open the bible and the scripture that he needed would be there.  So my companion did it, a little reluctantly, and read a scripture about the Holy Ghost. The man started to cry, and then stood up and said a prayer thanking God that we had found him.  He said that he had had a dream that we came to his house and read this scripture to him; he said that he would come to church that week and that he wanted to get baptized as soon as he got married to his wife. WOW.  The rest of the week it was a little difficult to find him home so we were a little worried that he would make it to church.  But as we were leaving the church to go help people arrive, he showed up with his wife, they had walked a couple miles just to come to church.  He bore his testimony that he knew that God had sent us to his house to help him. He is incredible.

So that was the first thing that happened this week.  On Tuesday we got the calls about transfers, my companion and I weren't transferred but I was called as District Leader.  The next day we had p-day and the next we went to the office to help our new missionaries arrive in their new home.  They are both Americans, one of them is in my group and the other was the companion of the ZL and he has one less transfer than us.  So all of us have less than 6 months!  I was also given 2 sisters, both Americans, one is also in my group and I have already worked with her when I was in Embu, and the other was in our district last transfer too.  They both have less than 6 months too.  We had 4 of the 7 zones split, so now we have 11 zones in the mission, because so many missionaries have arrived.

The last couple of days have been going on splits with the new Elders helping them learn the area.  On Saturday we went to the cartorio to try and get a wedding date marked for two amazing investigators.  This is the third time that they have tried to get married.  The first time, something happened.  The second time, a car hit them and they had to get surgery and this was the third time.  So we all went together, the missionaries making almost a circle around them to make sure that nothing happened, and we made it to the cartorio, only to find out that one of the documents was wrong. NOooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  So we went and bought açaí and went back home, but we asked for a new document from the bahia and everything thing should work out, just pray for them, they are amazing.  We are getting everyone married here; we have 6 couples that we are helping get married to be able to get baptized.  

And then Yesterday.  We had 14 investigators at church!!!!!!!  It was so cool.  A couple of them were contacts, which is crazy because contacts never come alone to church, and they said that when we had talked with them they felt that they needed to go to this church, and so they came, and now they will be baptized!  The Lord has really been helping us this past week. On New Year’s Eve we got a call that President  P had received revelation that we needed to be home by 6 that night.  So we did it, it was crazy, the parties were so loud and the people were using so many fireworks, even giving them to little kids and the music and the people on motorcycles without mufflers, wow, my ears are still ringing! Thanks for the prayers that ya'll have been doing, they are really making a difference here.  Please pray for my companion, he has been a little sick this last little bit.  Love you all so much, don’t worry the Lord will work everything out, he has his plan already made, we just have to trust in it.  Have a great week of school and make goals to grow.  

Elder Anderson