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

Strengthen our testimonies

Monday, March 3, 2014

To answer your questions, we have learned that the new mission president is President Dalton and that he has a family of 3 kids I think. One of them will come with him, she is 15 years old.  He studied at Harvard, so he is really smart, he is way excited to get here, served a mission, I think in São Paulo, but his wife doesn't speak Portuguese.  He is taller than 6 feet and President Pinho has a lot of respect and love for him already.  I am actually really excited to get to know him.  We have 8 or 10 sisters in the zone, about half, more than a third.  Did the package that I sent ya'll get there?  Hope so . . 

Anyway this week was great, got to go to the zl´s area to work,  saw the hand of Satan at work.  One of the recent converts was there and  he sporadically goes a little crazy and this time he got possessed by a demon, and went to some recent converts and told them a bunch of lies about the church that basically ruined the testimony that they had. So we went there to try and save them, they were totally without faith, don't want to pray or read or do any of the things that will help them, but what a testimony builder it was that Satan is real and how much we need to strengthen our testimonies. 

Went to the temple this week with investigator which was great, the instant that he walked in he said that he felt something that he never felt before and that it was so good.  He wants to serve a mission, but still has to get baptized, please pray that he can have the courage he needs and the strength to obey the commandments.  We also had interviews with president, which was great!  Carnaval hasn’t been really anything different, a little more dancing on the streets than usual, for example last night we were walking to the church from an appointment and there was a big group of people listening to music really loud, the sound systems fill the trunks cars, drinking beer, and eating bbq and dancing in a circle, my companion thought that it was pretty funny, especially because some of them had fake pink hair.

I am so glad that we are a family and that ya'll are mine forever, love you tons and say hi to the ward for me, and thanks to all the people that helped us out!  Love ya!

Elder Anderson

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!

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