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