This past P-day we talked and had lunch with William and Talida, they are members in the ward here. I asked William for advice for my companion who is moving to a new area and will be district leader and he gave some super good advice. He said work with the members a lot, obedience is more important than how many people you baptize in the church, and just focus on doing the best you can and Jesus Christ will take care of the rest.
Tuesday we woke up at 4:45 and left the house at 5:30 with all our bags, we went to Campinas first, the bus station and went to Piracicaba, the capital of our mission. There we had a super good training, they talked to all us new trainers, gave advice and counsel and then we all talked about our trainers and how it was and what was good, what was bad, and how we all want to do better. Then we got our new companions. My new companion is Elder Lira, he’s from Manaus, Brazil, he’s 21 yrs old and super great. He’s a convert, he boxed for 5 months before coming on his mission. He had callings in the church before coming on his mission: a counselor in the YM presidency, executive secretary, and he’s really solid, really good. When we were coming back from Campinas, there was a super awesome sunset and I took a picture of it that I’ll send.
Wednesday was our first full day of the transfer. Super good. Started out in the morning, worked out, did our studies, and there’s a book called “The First 12 Weeks”, it’s to help trainers and trainees just get used to the mission field and know their responsibilities, so we studied with that, did some practicing teaching the lessons. We had lunch with the Bishop, that was super good, and we worked with a returned missionary in the ward (who got back 8 months ago) and visited some people, talked with some people and got their addresses, we will talk with them later. Super good day.
Thursday we had District Meeting. We have a new Zone Leader, who gave some super good counsel at the training (be confident, invite everybody, don’t be scared to drop down super big commitments with people, teach with power and clarity). When we were leaving we took the wrong bus and got lost in Jardim Felista, a different city, so we ended up having to call a member and he gave us a ride back to our area which was a big blessing because we were totally lost and didn’t have money for another bus. That day we visited 2 people that we had contacted the day before. One of them the wife answered the door and said “We have our church so whatever you are going to say Im not going to accept it”, super straight and blunt and didn’t want to hear anything. The other one was Glassen. His sister is Victoria and their mom is Anita. And they’ve already talked to the missionaries for a while. The mom and daughter have already come to church before. We taught a Restoration lesson. They are really solid people, super great.
Friday we had lunch with Bishop again but his wife forgot that we had lunch with them so we ended up staying at their house longer and ended up talking with the Bishop and his kids for a while before having lunch. And we visited the daughter of a member who is less active in the church, and her in-laws and 2 other people there the Restoration lesson, it went super great. Then we went back to the Jardim Victoria area and we were walking on one of the roads and a kid was riding his bike and said “oh the missionaries” and he took off on his bike to a house and so we followed him to the house and there was a 17 year old kid there who took the lessons from missionaries in November but his mom didn’t give him permission, so we are talking to him now and he’s a super solid kid, super cool.
Saturday we worked with our ward mission leader, his name is Bergie and he’s from the same city as my new companion, Manaus Brazil, so they are already super good friends which is really awesome. And we went to see Glassen, Victoria, and Anita, and talked with them about response to their prayer and Victoria wasn’t there so we talked mainly with Glassen and it was super good, just a really solid guy, I’m really excited to keep talking with him and teaching him. And we visited a reference that they gave us but he wasn’t home so we marked another day to visit him with his wife who was there. And we went to meet with Marcus again, the guy who was almost baptized (17 year old) but he wasn’t home, and so we met with some other people, we were walking around and a car came up and stopped next to us and the guy started talking to Bergie, the ward mission leader and Bergie and the mom and dad in the car are good friends, so they picked us up and took us to their house and we taught a Restoration lesson with them and it was a super good lesson, super good people and it was really great. We are going to return tomorrow and talk with them. Their names are Antonio and Angelica.
Sunday was fast and testimony meeting and it was super great and my companion and I both bore our testimonies and my testimony of how “when you bear your testimony, your testimony is strengthened” is really improving. Some of the last messages or teachings at the last District meetings, they talked about testifying and being really clear and so I’ve been testifying a ton, every lesson, when we talk to people in the roads, I say “I know this with all of my heart, that this is true and that everything that we said is true” and I say that a ton. That’s really helped strengthen my testimony and others, and it’s helped us have a lot more powerful message and it’s super awesome and super great. We had lunch with the Elder’s Quorum president, super cool guy, then we visited a family that we taught the first lesson to and they told us they have their church and they don’t want to hear more about our church. So we returned home, did some paperwork stuff with the area book then we visited Luciani and we taught a Restoration lesson and it went super great and we are going to return tomorrow to visit her again and talk about the answer to her prayer. Super great. We also visited Marcus and talked about what the other missionaries taught him, and how he had felt about being baptized, just to get to know him more and we are going to return this Thursday to talk more with him.
Today is Monday again and we woke up, then slept for 3 hours (P-day!) and it was awesome. We’ve been working and walking a ton and taking a little time to relax and get more sleep was super great, super fun. Right now I’m looking out the window at a Volkswagon truck and it’s got a lift and some super nice rims, pretty cool. And today we’ve got 2 visits marked, tonight with a reference from a family in the ward, and a follow up visit with a less active and her family and we are going to a store in just a little bit to buy some food and eat for lunch and have another great week.
Sure love all you guys. I’m doing great here. Training is new and tough and it’s good. I’m in control of everything and I have to mark what day we are going to teach lessons, when we visit people, and be in control of everything which is tough but it’s really awesome to have that experience of leading and leadership and it’s super awesome. It’s going super good so far. I’m really pumped for this transfer. Love you all and tchau!
Elder Anderson
a cool car with cameleon paint we saw
a drawing elder Villagomew drew for me
epic sunset on the way home from piracicaba
Elder Lira and I!
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