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