Week 24!

Hello Family,

Right now it is 10:18 in the morning in Guanabara, Fort Elangia Brazil. And I’m going to to something different this week and see how it works out. The rule of 1 hour in the lan house (where we email from) is really hard to keep, to email the Mission President, enter in the numbers for the week, and read the mission newsletter, then answer the 25-30 emails that I get every week. So I’m usually in there for over an hour and so I’m going to try and cut the mass email time down to 30 seconds, just by adding a recording to an email and sending it, and that’ll save me a lot of time and help me be more obedient, and mom, if you can I would like you to transcribe the recordings onto and email and then send that out as the mass email for the week.

Monday a week ago I bought a ukulele and the total cost was 320 heias, so right around $80, and it’s pretty cool. I’ve played it some, but it’s tough to get music but it’ll be great to play it in Brazil and it’ll help me relax some. Tuesday we had a lesson with Juliana and we taught her and her mom the first lesson and it was a really good lesson. The mom was taught by the missionaries about 8 years ago but forgot everything so we taught them a first lesson, gave a Book of Mormon to Juliana’s mom, and invited them to an activity at the Church this Thursday with ice cream and a spiritual thought, just all the members at the church hanging out. And Wednesday...I talked to an owner of a Mercedez Benz s63amg and the engine is a twin turbo v8 that has 585 horsepower, and it was outside of a sandwich shop place and I went in and talked to the guy about it, and he had just bought it, it was 3 days old, brand new. It was one of the most beautiful cars I’ve ever seen and in college, he studied environmental engineering and now he does real estate, for the past 18 years, and right now he doesn’t have any rental properties, he just sells real estate. It must be going really well for him! His last car was an Audi R8, which is an incredible car and he traded it for the new mercedez. He asked me what I want to do in college and I told him I was thinking about mechanical engineering and he said civil engineering is better than mechanical because civil engineers will always have work and if i do that, I’ll always have a job and be in high demand…

Thursday morning we had district meeting and the training was done by Elder Vascus, he’s from Mexico and just has 1 more transfer. It was one of the best trainings I’ve had my whole mission. It was super good, power packed with tons of good stuff. He talked about doing contacts, doing  lot of practice, how to ask questions, how to be yourself, how to make friends with the person, how to have confidence, just super, super great stuff and they did some practices (role-modeling) and he shared a story of Rinaldo, a soccer player from Portugal. There was a competition for the best soccer player in the world, and a huge trophy went to the winner. It was between Rinaldo, Messi, and some other 3rd guy. As part of the process, they asked the top 3, “who do you think is going to win the trophy?” and Messi and the other guy said it’d go to another guy, but Rinaldo said “me, I’m going to win, i’m not saying it with any pride, but I know I’m the best in the world.” And he just had this incredible confidence about it. And it’s kind of funny but he ended up not winning but he had incredible confidence and that helped him be as good as he was. Elder Vascus said we need to have confidence in ourselves and have a vision of success, we need to see ourselves making a good contact, teaching a good lesson, and being successful in what we do, and that will help us be more successful. It was great and really helped me a lot and will continue to help me as I work on mastering those principles. Super great! He talked with me after and said he’s heard a lot of good things about me and that I’m doing really good on my mission and that with a ton of practice, I’ll get really good at contacts and get really good at talking with people. That night we had the ice cream activity at the church and none of our investigators came, which was a big bummer. We had called Julianna and asked her if a member could pick her up, but her husband answered the phone and said she already has her church and don’t come back...and man, that was really tough to hear. We went back Saturday there and we only talked with her husband and he said “yea, she’s got her church and don’t come back”. And man, that was not fun. She was a really solid person and really looking to find more happiness in her life and because of her husband she won’t be able to find it for a long time.

Friday, I’ll tell you my workout for that morning...10 sets of 20 incline push ups, 10 shoulder side raises with my backpack with books, and 40 sit ups. So I ended up doing 240 sit ups at the end in about 30 minutes. I’m trying to work on abs and lower back a ton, they are my weak points right now. That day I studied a ton in “True to the Faith” which is an incredible book. I haven’t really studied it a lot in the past, but it’s a super good book, just a lot about the commandments and about marriage, spiritual gifts, just tons of good stuff, and the gospel, commandments, and the rules of the church are a guideline how to have a happy, peaceful, and successful life. And that’s really awesome. The gospel is a simple pathway of how to be happy, which is really, really incredible.

Saturday I studied “coveting” a lot. I looked through the 10 commandments and realized I need to work on that one. I sometimes see nice cars or homes and I want to have it and I realize that it robs me of being happy with what I have and who I am in my life because I’m always seeing people who are bigger, better, faster, stronger, and so I’m working on that, just being  happy with who I am and my abilities, and then when I see something or someone that I hope to have/be...I just think, “oh, there’s an example of something I’d love to have or be someday” but not get all mad because i”m not there yet, just be more happy, calm, and confident. That was really good to study. We had lunch with our Bishop and were helping him with a house project, building something for his chicken coop, he has a lot of house projects going on, reminds me of dad! While we were there, the mission president called me, President Bangerter, and he talked with my companion first and then me and he said that my companion was going to be district leader this next transfer (new area) and then he talked with me and he first asked me “how’s your Portuguese?” I told him that it’s not perfect but that it’s getting there and then he said “well Elder Anderson, I’m going to call you to be a trainer so Tuesday you’re going to come to Piracicaba, have a training and then have a new companion straight out of the MTC and whoa..that’s a huge responsibility, and I’d already heard from other missionaries that I’d probably be training so I was ½ prepared for it but man, it’ll be a new experience, it’ll be wild, we will see how it goes. It will a new opportunity to learn and grow. It’s a big responsibility.

And Sunday we had a good day at church. It was my comps last Sunday so he took a lot of pictures with the members. This transfer has flown by. Out of my 3 companions so far, we are probably the best friends, and he’s super funny, super awesome.

I remember that a little under a year ago I wasn’t really all that sure about going on a mission, I wanted to maybe go into the military and thought I’d come out of that a good leader and solid person. I just thought a mission would be teaching lessons and walking a lot in the sun. With that perspective, the military seemed a lot more interesting and exciting, but looking back I’m super glad I came out on a mission and I think a mission will do a whole lot more for me than the military could. The mission is more than just teaching lessons and walking in the rain or sun, and in these past few months, I’ve been learning and growing a ton and especially in this next transfer and in the future I’m really going to learn how to be a leader, to have more confidence, to build faith, and just help people love people, and really mature and grow. A mission is so much more than lessons! I think it’s the plan of God to turn young men into men. And it’s really incredible. I’m pretty nervous, excited, have butterflies, etc…(about training). This next P-day I’ll be able to tell you about my new companion, about how the week was and how everything is going.

I love you guys and hope you are all doing well! It’s crazy to think that in 19 days I’ll have 6 months in the mission and I’ll be starting my “sisters mission” of 18 months. I still feel super new in the mission and it’s going super fast!

Love,

Elder Anderson

 My companion's art work, and I gave him a haircut!