From Tyler's mission office

This was received a few days after Tyler had entered his mission, met his mission president, and was assigned to his trainer and new area.

Dear Anderson Family,

Thank you so much for sending us such a wonderful missionary.

He met with President and Sister Bangerter, met his new companion and already started working hard in his new area.

We wanted to send you some pictures of his special first day in the mission.  We all love his beautiful smile.

Week 5!

Family and Friends,

This week has been great and tough. Our Brazilian roommates left this morning at 5:30 for their missions. Their three weeks here at the mtc flew by. They were super cool and funny haha. Elder Galvão is into video games and Metallica and learned almost fluent English from playing video games online/watching tv/movies. The other, Elder Lima, didn't speak any English upon arriving but started learning some during his time here. He is big into working out and ju jitsu/ufc. He showed me showed fighting form/technique this week which was super cool. He only weighs a little over 100 pounds but hes solid muscle and bone. It was fun to talk to him about working out and exercises.

Elder Skinner is still here at the mtc, its been a long process of meetings, leaders talking to him and arranging for a ticket but he will leave tonight at 5:30 for the airport. It's tough to see him lose his faith. He plans to return to BYU this winter semester. The mtc president said he would pray about who my new companions should be. He's an incredible man and I really look up to him. I'm grateful to have met him.

The temple this past week was great! We went to Campinas for the 3rd or 4th time, its really pretty and peaceful there. For the rest of p-day, we got pizzas from Mr. Cheneys (a cookie store that is connected to other food places around town so you can get almost anything there) and some hamburgers from a restaurant we found. They were super good but we didn't know exactly what we had ordered because the menu was in Portuguese haha. 

Lessons have been going well. In our last one, we only brought our Portuguese scriptures and a lesson pamphlet. it went well and we only had 10ish minutes to prepare for it. The gift of tongues is real, the language is still tough but I can always speak more than I think I can and words come to mind even easier during lessons.

I know that I am doing what God wants me to do and that I am where he wants me to be. I think I've said this before in an email, but this is such incredible knowledge to have. I know as I continue working hard and being obedient, I will continue to be helped with the language and have the spirit with me. I love you all! Eat some great American food for me!

Tchau,

Elder Anderson

(and we got snickers again this week... 5 weeks of perfect room checks and counting...)

MTC Update

This past week has been wild and tough but great. The Sao Paulo Temple is really beautiful and the session was in English which was a definite plus.

The whole time here at the MTC my companion, Elder Skinner, has been quiet and reserved. I thought it was just his personality because we got along so I didn't think anything was up but we were talking a couple days ago and he has really been struggling with his testimony, feeling the spirit, and having faith. We have been talking with the mission president, teachers, and MTC leaders and he will go home either today or tomorrow. It has been really tough to seem him struggle. He has been trying hard to receive a testimony and do the right thing but he has no faith and I think he expects to be given a testimony instead of building his own. It has been tough for me to feel the spirit recently especially in lessons and I believe this is why. When he testifies, there is no spirit to carry the message and it becomes tough for the both of us.

This past Saturday we went proselyting for an hour and a half on a busy street in downtown Sao Paulo. It was a really neat but difficult experience. There is so much more Portuguese I need to learn haha. We got rejected and ignored a lot but were able to hand out a few pass-along cards about the Book of Mormon and got 1 good referral. One man talked with me for a while about how God is just positive energy all around us and I explained how we believe that God has a body just like us. It was a great experience and a great motivation to study the language harder.

I am still feeling sick, but a little bit better than I have been. I've been coughing and my nose is usually stuffed up... its no fun but its a small trouble for me.

The language is good but slow. What I know I can use well but it's hard to add the words I've been memorizing to my "in the moment" vocabulary. Practice is key and I can never get enough of it. I set a goal to memorize 50 words and 10 phrases every day Monday-Saturday this week and be exactly obedient and follow every commandment and rule. I want to be worthy and ready to do God's will.

My testimony has been growing a lot recently, I've studied about the life of Christ and attributes of Him and the lives of his apostles and disciples both in the Bible and Book of Mormon. They are incredible books. I have so much to learn and so many ways I need to grow. There is nothing I would rather be doing than this. Eu acredita que esta igreja e a verdade e que Deus ama todos pessoas da terra.

Tchau!

- Elder Anderson

Snickers, Sore Throat, and Haircut

This Sunday, the mtc president walked into our Sunday night devotional (in the auditorium) with a couple boxes of snickers. He talked about room checks and showed percentages for the elder and sister missionaries of what percent had perfect rooms, optimal rooms, good rooms etc... after showing these numbers he showed a list of the 15 or so rooms that had gotten `perfieto` (perfect) on all of the room checks for the past 3 weeks (6 room checks over 3 weeks). Room 621 (mine and my comps. two other elders and 2 new Brazilians) was up there. We all got snickers which was a simple recognition/reward for a small and simple effort. Those snickers tasted so great hahaha.

I've had a sore throat for the past 4 days now and my nose has also been all clogged up. I've been taking some medicine I brought, had a blessing, and got more medicine from a drug store across the street from the mtc. My throat is getting better and with time, my nose will too. Not being 100% is no fun but I'm still giving 100% the work is tough but what I know I need to be doing. I wouldn't rather be doing anything else right now.

After the hair-cutting incident last week, my companion and I went to a hair store within our walking boundaries and bought a new one that has the right outlet setup so now I don't have to worry about the voltage converters. I cut my companions hair and then mine and cut another missionaries hair who is in my district. That was my first and second time cutting someone else's hair but they were really happy with it and everyone was impressed haha. It's a small and simple talent but it will be a big blessing to me and my companions in the future. An update on my old clippers: it ends up there are two different outlets in the bathrooms, one for the hand dryers and one for normal use. I used the hand dryer outlet for my other clippers and the higher power overheated them. They probably still work but it doesn't matter now haha. The new ones were only 68 reais or 20ish USD so it wasn't too bad.

This week has been great. There's so much to learn and so much I want to learn. I'm so glad to be a part of this incredible work and so glad to be worthy to do it.

Some great stuff I read this week:

D&C 60 (part about missionaries)

parable of the talents (Matthew 25)

Alma 32 (faith)

esta igreja e a verdade e eu so grato por ele.

(ele being used as it and not he)

tchau!

Elder Anderson