Yeah!

This week was awesome!  First off I got to go on splits with my old trainer, Elder Gillespie, and we did so much.  That day in District meeting we decided to use the extra time that we have (now that we don’t have practices) to contact 100 people!  The whole zone was super excited and we went to work, and we did it!  Only 3 groups did it, me and my companion, the ZL's and the sister AP's, but this week we have crazy goals to do 3 times as much as we usually do!  It’s totally possible, and we will succeed! Please pray that we have success and the strength to do everything that we need to.  I heard from the ZL's and the sister leader trainers that Saturday there would be a special meeting at the temple with a member of the 70 and only ZL's and higher could attend.  I was pretty disappointed because it’s a meeting with all 5 missions of São Paulo city.  But I just accepted that I wouldn’t be going.  Then on Friday at lunch I got a call from one of the AP´s calling to say that President Pinho was giving me a special invitation to go to the meeting!  It was incredible, the 70 was Elder Evans and he was great, talked about how we need to focus on all the parts of our purpose and focus on families that can progress for eternal life.  I took so many notes, it was 3 hours of just sitting hearing everything in English and then in Portuguese-which made my head hurt a little bit- but everyone was wanting him to just keep going, I know a little of how the inhabitants of the Americas felt when they didn't want Jesus to leave.  We are getting ready for Carnival, I don’t think that here it gets bad, President always jokes that for Carnival Satan rents an apartment in Rio and in Bahia and just stays there for a couple weeks.  But here I don’t think that anything different will happen for us.  Just another day, more or less.  We are all happy and getting tans here.  Sorry that photos aren't being sent, these computers don't have a way to send pics.  Love you all and look for opportunities to share the gospel.  Love ya!

Elder Anderson

7 months today!

Monday, February 17, 2014

7 months today!!!!!!!!!  Found that out right now.  This week was awesome, first of all I got my package that has the memory stick.  And secondly I got transferred.  On Monday night we were joking that I would be transferred to the last area of one of the missionaries in our group and that I would train his friend.  Well, he must be a prophet, because it happened!  I was transferred to JD. Ângela in the Guarapiranga stake!  And to make it so much better my trainer is the zone leader! This will be so much fun!  I am finishing the training of a missionary from Oklahoma. His name is Elder              and he has one less transfer than me, but was serving in Washington for 3 months.  The other elders in the area are great too. One of them is from Boston and was waiting a visa in Provo for one year! The other is from the north of Brasil, called Bahia.  He has a year and 7 months.  I am also the leader of the sister leader trainers They are really cool and I already have worked with them a lot.  Had a great meeting on Wednesday and learned so much, also found out a little bit more about President Duncan, actually pretty excited to meet him, he seems really cool.  President Pinho has a lot of respect for him and really is trying to get the mission all ready for him to arrive to make sure that the change is all tranquil.  I will be really sad to see President Pinho leave, but the Lord prepared President Duncan to help this mission and it will be amazing! The ward here is amazing.  The Bishop has been serving for 8 years and does a great job, always willing to help.  The ward needs 3 more men with the priesthood to divide the ward!  This is our new goal and the program for March is "Families of Zion" and every dupla should get three families so we should split this ward easily!  Have a lot of investigators that are amazing here. So ready!

So excited to be here! The pizza here is the best of the mission.  It’s called Donatello’s, after the ninja turtle.  And the pizza is huge, if you remember the picture from Halloween with the border exploding, it’s like that every time here.  You eat 2 pieces and are good until lunch the next day.  But we don’t gain any weight because it’s up hill both ways everywhere we go, and yes it’s possible, I found that out.  This will be a great transfer.  Glad to hear that everyone is doing well and that valentines went well, doesn’t happen here, forgot about it.  Pray that we can find 3 families for March and that our investigators now will be baptized.  Love ya'll so much!

Elder Anderson

Transfers

Monday, February 10, 2014 

This email is late because the LAN house lady didn’t pay her bill and her place got closed temporarily.  We had an awesome week, I found out that the Olympics are happening when we arrived at a member´s house and he was watching them.  Totally forgot.  Had transfer calls yesterday and I was transferred along with the comp of the other elder.  My comp and the elder from my group will stay here.  I will still be DL of the next group.  We had to go to the stake center every day this week to do practices because they don’t want us out in the heat, haha. But this week was the only week that we had lunch on the other end of the area so it was hard every day going there, but we did it anyway and will be blessed for it.  I will be sad to leave this area, there are lots of great people here, but I am excited to see where I will go.  I am really pressed for time, still have to pack some things and only have 30 min.  We have a member coming at 8 to grab the bags to take them to the office; at least it’s really close.  I hope that some of my friends from my mtc group come this transfer. We met a painter and he is so cool, he is so amazing and creative, but he has a problem believing that God loves people and that he is responding to him, but his house is so cool and he loved church!  The other elder that is leaving with me lost his cards, but they might have arrived already and if they did he is going to buy pizza!!!!  Yeah, we celebrate everything with pizza.  Nothing crazy happened this week was a normal week.  Took zone pictures so I will email those to you next week.  The zone leaders had an experience this week trying to find an investigator that they went to the supermarket and used the PA system to call for him.  They always have crazy things happening because one of them is leaving this week, so he is going crazy.   That’s crazy with how much school is getting canceled. Love ya’ll lots and will send some pics next week, this week I don’t have a whole lot of time. Love ya’ll and stay warm and healthy!

Elder Anderson

Shoes!

Monday, February 3, 2014

This week was great for two reasons, didn’t rain, and I got my shoes fixed.  Oh and we had baptisms!!!!!!!!  First off the shoes, they were falling apart so I went to a sapataria to get them fixed, luckily the guy is a member and so I gave them to him and was going to pick them up on Saturday.  Saturday comes around and I get a call from the other elders in the neighboring area that were at the church for a baptism.  The member had seen them passing and gave them my shoes to give to me.  He fixed up all the holes and put a new sole on!!!!! So happy. :)

This week we also had another new missionary training, because President wants everything well trained and ready for the new Pres to arrive in June.  Can’t believe that it’s February, passing so fast here.  My comp is doing a little better but still is a little sick, and still don’t know what it is. Transfers are next week and we are all excited to see what will happen because the other new elder in our apartment will train so at least one of us will leave the area, I think that it will be me or my comp.  We have 7 ZL´s leaving and a couple of DL´s and I think one of the assistants, so it will be interesting to see what will happen.  We will gain 100 missionaries in 6 months worth of transfers and pretty soon the majority of the mission will have less than one year and the majority of that will have less than 6 months, so my group will have a lot of leadership opportunities really soon.

Did the interviews for a couple of people this week, that were amazing, the people here are so open to the spirit and when they learn of the gospel and actually do what we ask they receive the answers they need.  I did the interview of one young woman who hadn’t yet been to church but wanted to get baptized yesterday, I asked her how she got an answer, she said" the elders told me to read and pray and that I would get an answer and I did."  So simple but so powerful. It’s wonderful to see the difference that the gospel makes in the lives of people here.  They change so much, even look different after they are baptized.  Baptized this young woman and the mom of some recent converts, was such a good week!!!!

Looking forward to this month, the Lord will bless us and try us but I know that everything will work out for the better.  Hope that school is going well.  Stay warm and healthy. Are the missionaries working in the cold?  Feed them well, I miss home baked things, but it’s all worth it in the end.  Love yall tons, te amo! chão!

Elder Anderson the beautiful because I cut my hair!