Time flies

Monday, July 07, 2014

Meeting President D was amazing, it just happened to be on the day that we were supposed to go to the temple so I have to wait two more weeks to go, but that’s fine.  President is so cool.  We were all waiting in the gym waiting for him to arrive for our counsel and he gets there and he had to duck to get into the door.  Then he comes around giving everyone hugs and smiling and laughing and making jokes.  He is awesome, everyone loves him.  I come up to his armpit.  He has already moved they way we work in a very little but important way.  The church has recently changed the way that the missionaries teach, now we teach all 5 lessons before and after baptism, because the members just aren't doing their part.  We are also focusing a lot on the temple and family history work.  

The Brasil and Columbia game was crazy 2-0!  Everyone went crazy with fireworks and with horns and stuff.  They were lighting a couple on our street and I was filming because it’s so crazy! I got some pretty crazy stuff from our street, will try to send it when I get a good computer here that actually sends stuff.  It was great because it was the fourth of July and they had fireworks!  We sang some American songs and my companion has root beer concentrate so we put that in a blender with ice cream and made root beer floats.  Closest thing to it in a year. We have to stay inside tomorrow and if they lose Saturday and if they win Sunday.  Tomorrow is p-day.  

Found a guy with one leg this week who is really cool, he’s so getting baptized.  We have been really tired lately because this zone has a couple of little problems so my companion and I have been really tired trying to get everything fixed, but this week we are focusing on getting a really big teaching group. It’s been pretty hot this week.  But today looks like it will change and start acting like winter.  

That’s great about the Johnston’s, love the new name.  Don’t need a new usb, just need to clean the conference talks off it.   Got 10 days to make a year! Our stake pres said something great yesterday.  He said that "If you don’t take church seriously God won’t take you seriously and you will have serious problems". Hope ya’ll have a great week!

Elder Anderson

Same work, different face

Monday, June 30, 2014

So my area is called Itapcerica da Serra.  Brazil played Chile on Saturday and that was a close one, we kept asking people on the street what the score was and they kept saying that Brazil was losing.  The time of the game passed, but we didn't know that they had gone into overtime and then like 45 minutes later the city just blows up and they went crazy because Brazil won and they didn't stop the party until the next day.  So they will play again on Friday against Columbia.  Other thing that happened this week was our change of President.  On Friday President D arrived and President P left.  I am so excited to meet the new President.  We got a call last night from our assistant and he told us that our zone would be able to go to the temple tomorrow which is great because I haven’t gone in at least 6 months. We also had our last leadership meeting with President P on Wednesday, which was way cool.  He taught us a lot of cool stuff. We got a new district leader, Elder H from Boston, I was his dl in Jd. ângela a couple months ago.  Now we have 4 Americans at home.  My companion will have his birthday on the 9th and his parents sent him a package and they sent him mini ping-pong so we put it up on our desks and had a ping-pong competition while we were stuck at home.  Anyway the time is flying here, can’t believe that tomorrow is July, in 2 and a half weeks I will have a year on the mission! Sorry I haven’t been sending pics, the computer here doesn’t open my pin drive, btw it’s almost all full.  Hope everything goes well this week. Love ya.

Elder Anderson

Happy Birthday!

Tuesday, June 24^th, 2014 Elder Anderson's birthday!!

20! Wow, I´m still me! I will celebrate by going out and marking a bunch of people to get baptized.  We also had our district meeting today.  Opened my package yesterday and was way excited about the pancake mix, and so are my other companions in the house. Loved the pictures too.  I have been thinking about getting a Brasil jersey (with birthday money).  Brasil is doing pretty good in the cup, they beat Camaron and Croasia, and tied with Mexico, they will play again on Saturday or Sunday which is going to mess with our week because of yesterday and then another day without work will mess a lot of things up. But its fine, one of our housemates went to the temple with investigators and got Ephraim´s rescue so we watched that 3 times yesterday. All the schools are out for a month because of the games and they get done on the 17th of July.  

(In response to a question about the cost of fast food): The reason that some things look expensive is because it’s still in reais, divide it by half and you have the dollar value, Mcdonalds really is expensive here, don’t know why.

But this week was good.  Had one great day and the others were all right, staying at home a lot has drained us because you just sit around and do hardly nothing so we are just really tired. This week we should have a lot going on.  On Thursday our new President comes in and that will change some things.  Tomorrow we have our last leadership meeting with President P, it’s going to be good.  Got some really good people that we are teaching and got a lot of baptisms planned for the coming weeks.  Time is flying so quickly and I can’t believe it. Almost a year ago I was in the mtc.  I am sure that it will only start to pick up.

This week we entered the labyrinth in the middle of our area and that was really cool.  On the map it’s just a blank space, but that doesn't exist here, so we walked in and were in there for a good thirty minutes just getting references.  We also found some macumba (black magic spirit religion) pots with a sacrifice inside on the side of the road. The ceiling the chapel fell in the bathroom because the water box is broken and its leaking.  

Hope ya'll are doing good.  Just keep swimming!

Elder Anderson

World Cup!

Monday, June 16, 2014

So first off with transfers.  The first area of my mission was called Embu das Artes and it included another municiple called Itapecerica da Serra.  A couple of transferes ago it got divided into two zones.  So they almost sent me home (mission lingo here for first area) because now I am in Itapecerica with one of my old dl´s from my first transfer as a zl.  His name is Elder S and he is from Kansas with one year and 7 months, this is his 2nd full transfer as a zl and my 3rd, so we are both new and crazy.  We have a great zone with alot of potencial and we are going to make this place fly. We live with one of the dl´s from Ecuador and another elder from the states.  We had 3 baptisms in our area this week and 6 confirmations and I got to do 3 of them which was cool because it was the first time that I have done it on the mission.

So for the world cup every time that Brazil plays we have to stay inside, so last Thursday I think we stayed home and tomorrow too and next Monday so I will email on Tuesday.  It’s not too crazy when they are playing, every time they get a goal they light fireworks and go crazy for a couple minutes, but when they win they have huge parties and everyone gets drunk and we had a few fights outside of our house the other day.  But we are all good at home, live on the second story so we are probably safe.  They have a lot of English stuff here because of the people that come here for the games.  The trains talk English with a Brazilian accent and it’s really funny.  This week we started teaching a guy and he prayed and said that the response was like someone was talking to him, which we got really excited about that.  We also saw the missionaries from São Paulo oeste (I think means West here) because our area makes the division with them.  HAPPY FATHER`S DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love ya’ll have a great week!

Transfers!

Monday, June 9, 2014

Wow, this time is flying, in a week I will have 11 months! I got all excited because we didn’t get calls last night for transfers so I thought that I would stay here in Grajaú with Elder L, but during studies today the secretary called us and I am getting transferred! I think that I have a curse because I only have two companions that have stayed with me for more than 1 transfer and I have never stayed in an area for more than 2 transfers.  But I like moving and seeing new parts of the mission.  I am really excited to see where I will be going.  I know that it will be an amazing place and that I will love my new companion.  

Anyway this week was awesome.  We made cocada at home on Monday, on Tuesday we had our last district meeting and on Thursday we had a mission meeting.  It was so cool.  Got to see a couple of missionaries from my first district that got to Brasil recently, I hadn’t seen them in 10 months and they said that I looked totally different.  I found out that the elders that I trained are now training, so we got a picture of the family. President let us watch Ephraim's Rescue, it’s so sososososossosoo good.  Pres. Dalton sent a little clip of him which was really funny, he speaks really good already.  Everyone is really excited to meet him and Sister Dalton. Everyone that is leaving gave their testimony, we have a lot of my old leaders going this transfer, my trainer, my old ZL, 2 assistants, and other friends.  After the meeting we did a split with the assistants, I went to their area and had a blast.  Forgot my umbrella and it ended up raining, but it was all good.  Had stake conference too this week, it was focused on the same thing (Austin, TX stake had stake conference as well.  The theme was Hasten the Work).  On Sunday we had a special broadcast from SLC with Elder Soares and with Elders Ballard and Scott.  It was really cool.  Elder Scott spoke in Portuguese and was actually pretty good.  They sent this transmission for São Paulo and Rio.  Then we had lunch at the stake presidente's house and there was a cake 2 feet in diameter. It was huge!  This transfer will be really cool, a new president, new leaders, a lot of new missionaries and new experiences.  It rained again this week and a leak opened in the ceiling above my bed and so it got soaked and so I slept on half of the bed for two nights, but now I am moving out so not my problem ha ha.  

It was cool to see Rach's pics.  Hope everyone is enjoying the nice TX weather, sure miss it. Keep smiling and have a great week! Love ya'll.

Elder Anderson

PS the package didn’t get here yet, probably will be a while because of the cup. Things will get crazy.  The other day there was a strike at the train and the streets are all painted and big flags and it's crazy here. In three days it all starts!!!!!!!!!!  Still don't know what will happen during the cup.  

don't worry, be happy:)

Monday, June 02, 2014

This week was super awesome because I got to talk to the zone leaders of Guaripiranga, my last zone, and they told me that one of my investigators got baptized!  Don’t know if ya'll remember T, we went to the temple with him, I think that I sent some pics, any way he disappeared for a little bit and I didn't get to talk to him again and then this week I find out that he got baptized!  So that was awesome! Council was sweet too, love helping make decisions for the mission and receiving instructions from President.  Then on Friday we had follow up by the assistants and we were stuck in traffic for a good hour getting back.  On Saturday we helped in a move, it was incredible the difference that there is between moves there and moves here.  I don't know if it is because I have only know LDS moves or if it’s an American thing but we showed up and there were a bunch of guys drinking and just talking and a pile of stuff to be moved to another house on top of the other. We helped a little but then had to go.  My companion and I were at a loss about what to do, ask if we can help and they say that they are managing.  Don't know if they were talking about downing all the beers or moving the stuff.  But anyway I am very grateful for the sense of responsibility that there is in the church.  My voice got back and we are staying warm, found a suit coat that an elder left and it makes a great coat. This week I was sleeping and started hearing a ping, thought it was nothing, but turns out I have a leak almost right above my head.  Luckily we were able to get a bucket and a cloth and it’s a slow leak so that's good.  Thinking about moving houses next week.  This week there were so many times that I felt physically weak and then I received physical strength. I know that God gives us the strength that we need to help his kingdom.  I know that he is blessing our family, and will continue to do so, if we obey all of his commandments. Read scriptures and pray together every day.  Love ya'll and have a great week with graduation! Love ya'll!

Elder Anderson

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