Month 9!

Family and Friends,

Santa Felicia (São Carlos 5) is a good area and has a strong church foundation here. There are normally more than 100 people in the sacrament meetings here (much different than in Guanabara). There are many strong and faithful members here. 

I can´t believe I'm already in my 4th week in this area. time is flying by. 

Two families who are investigating the Church came to Church this week. It was great to have them there and they all liked it. Kelma and Rivaldo came with their 3 kids and Adriana also came with her 4 kids. 

We had the opportunity to do some random service this week and help a mom and daughter bring groceries to their house.

We had stake conference 2 weeks ago and it was really great. 2 Venezuelans spoke about their experience coming here after their country crashed economically. One of them said he had tried to sell everything that he had but only succeeded in selling his car because the people only want food. Its really rough over there. the mission President also spoke about mission work and how the Church in this area has been growing a lot.

Love you all!

- Elder Anderson

Week 37!

Family and Friends,

This week was my first in my new area (São Carlos, Ward 5). The Ward here is bigger than in Guanabara (This Sunday, there were 104 people there). My new companion is Elder Saltos, he´s from Ecuador and can teach very well. It´s remarkable. I´ll learn a lot with him this transfer.

Some highlights from the week:

- During transfers, I arrived at the bus station and by the time I talked to the mission secretary, my group (leaving Piracicaba to São Carlos) had already left. The Secretary told me that he trusted me and bought a ticket leaving later in the day and I went to São Carlos alone (2hr. bus ride). Everything ended up working out and I meet with my new companion and 2 other Elders at the bus station in São Carlos. 

- There are lots of people here to teach. We taught 17 (or more) lessons this week and meet 11 new people who are interesting in learning about The Church. It was great. 

- This past Sunday, the Elder´s Quorum lesson was on a talk by Dallin H. Oaks titled, ``Where will this lead?`` Its an incredible talk. I invite you all to read it.  https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2019/04/35oaks?lang=eng . I learned that I need to analyze what I am doing now and decide if what I´m doing now will result in the outcome I want. Super great.

- This Sunday, we ate lunch with a family whose son has an old Volkswagen Gol with an inline 4 engine (I think its a 1.8 or 2 Liter) that has 500 HP! The thing is a beast. I´ll attach pictures of it.

- Also, on the bus to the lan house today, I saw the first Ferrari I´ve seen in my life. I´m not sure what model it was, but it was beautiful. 

Some things I´ve been learning:

- The main thing I´ve been learning here is the purpose of the Gospel. It is the only way to find true happiness and peace in this life and to have Eternal happiness after this life. No other thing in the world can give the same result as The Gospel of Jesus Christ. It´s taken me a while to realize that, but I´m learning it now. 

- Patience. I´ve been trying a lot to be more calm and relaxed and to develop patience. I like to get things done and to do it well and fast. I´m starting to learn how to relax, slow down, and exercise patience in everything I do. It´s helping me a lot.

I love you all! Hope y'all have a good week.

- Elder Anderson

Week 36!

Family and Friends,

This past week was my last in Guanabara. I will leave here tomorrow for São Carlos, and serve in ward 5 there. In my 4 months here, I´ve learned and grown a ton. I got to be really good friends with the members of the Church here and also with people here who are investigating the Church of Jesus Christ. I´m going to miss all of them.

This week was spent helping Elder Lira with his studies and to know the area better. I also helped him build a diet and exercise plan built around his goals. It was super fun and he seems like he´ll stay dedicated to it.

this past week, I bought over 15 pounds of supplements hahaha. I bought Whey Protein at a supplement store in the city here (900 grams) and 6 kilos of mass gainer from a missionary here who bought 9! kilos of mass gainer and still hadn´t opened any of it. I bought it from him for 50% of market price .

This past P-Day, we had a barbecue with the young mens president here. It was super great! I´ll send some pictures of it.

This past Tuesday, we were returning home from one of the longest neighborhoods in our area (normally a 1 hour walk). we were about halfway home, it started pouring rain. we waited 10 minutes under an overhang of a building but ended up running a half-mile or so to a nearby store. We got soaked haha.

There was a dance at the church building here this past Friday. It was very well done and made me miss home a bit. But, I´m glad to be here.

Love you all! Hope you all have a good week,
- Elder Anderson

Week 35!

Family and Friends,

These week was slower than normal but was good. Elder Lira now has 3 months in the mission field and is nervous that I will leave this next transfer haha. He´s nervous to have a different companion and I will probably leave this area (Guanabara) next week. 

This past weekend it rained a ton and the church building got filled with water, most of it drained out but the Bishop here had to call maintenance and have them clean everything. crazy haha.

We decided to focus in a new area. There are a lot of less-active members there and the people seem to be more receptive than where we have been focusing. We visited with a less-active member there and his brother and his brother talked a ton about his philisophical/psychological approach to life and about how he is free of religion in his life. It was interesting and sad. He didn´t try to listen to anything we had to say. 

This past Saturday, my companion and I were talking with people in the road. I decided to go to a specific sidewalk and there we ran into a member who is from a different city and would be going to our church building that Sunday. It was a pretty cool encounter haha.

Tchau e amo vocês!

- Elder Anderson

Week 34!

Family and Friends,

My voice recorder ran out of battery so I´ll type all of this email...
- This past week (April fools day) our District Leader told us we were having an emergency transfer and that we had to pack my companions clothes/books/etc... up and leave to the bus station. He was super serious about it and we ended up believing him haha. my companion packed his suitcase full and our leader called again saying it was all a joke. haha my companion got pretty mad at him.
- I saw a tarantula in the wild for the first time in my life. it was crossing a road. those things are huge lol
- 5 of our friends came to watch conference this weekend. it was super good and I think they all liked it.
- Our District Leader, Elder Motta, came to visit our area and see how we were doing. he was in my same area my first transfer here and it was really neat to see hows he´s changed in just a couple months. He has a big excitement and energy for the work. It was really impressive.
I´m still recovering from the cold, my nose is still runny and I´m feeling more tired than normal, but I´m feeling a lot better than I did!
Hope you all had a great week,
- Elder Anderson

Week 33!

Family and Friends,

This week was more boring than normal haha, This past week I had a cold, called Grippe in Portuguese. I’m feeling totally dead, super tired, my nose is awful. We stayed in the house a lot of the time. I´m taking medicine and trying to take care of my health as best I can.

On P-day I bought a soccer ball and we played for an hour and half at the field at the church, super fun. Wednesday we had a multi-zone activity in the mission, about 60-70 missionaries, 3 zones. Super fun and great training.

Yesterday was Sunday, and earlier in the week we had bought some kit kat candy bars and wrote some positive notes to different members and ding dong ditched (knock and run..) at some members houses (about 9 total) to spread some good cheer. Yesterday, we ate at one of the members houses, and Jamier (super funny, about 56 years old) asked us if we had dropped of chocolate at his house and we said no (we didn’t want them to know it was us, we were hoping they’d think it was another member), but I’m pretty sure he was joking but he said he doesn’t trust when people drop off food and said he’d probably throw it away, but his wife said “hey it’s food, I’m going to eat it!”. It was funny.

We visited a member’s friend, Rafael, 18 years old and he came to church on Sunday. We went to the Bishop’s house for a family night (their friends didn’t show up that they had invited) so we just had it with the Bishop’s family.

Tcau!

Elder Anderson

 B-day dinner!

  a kick over the head of Elder Lira

  Water at a restaurant haha

 B-day Pizza!

 i filled and stored 9 or 10 bags of tupperware and extra junk we had in the cupboards at the house. now we´ve just got 2 cups, bowls, plates, and 2 of each type of silverware. 2 tupperwares, and 2 pots and 1 pan. the rest is in a storage cabinet in the house.

 the power of the sun  these are the exact same type of chair, just that one had been behind the house in the sun for a long time.

  lunch at an all you can eat restaurant

 french fries at the house

  in the center of our city, a horse cart with 3 people and playing music haha

A big theatre tent in front of our house. they´ve been doing plays and shows

Love you all!

- Elder Anderson

Week 32!

Family and Friends,

I´ll be turning 19 years old tomorrow! (the 26th) I´m getting old... haha.
it was an `electrifying´ week haha

Something funny...right now we are walking through the middle of town and there’s a guy just riding a horse on the road, totally normal, funny! This week we visited with Clebur and Jessica, helping Clebur get ready for his baptism. We were leaving their house and we got a call from a random number, so we answered and it was a guy who said he was a member from another town and he was here for a couple days and said he needed a shirt...kinda weird, but we planned to meet him the following morning and meet him to give him a shirt (he is here working and didn’t bring enough clothes). So we met him, gave him a shirt, he said he’s about to move here and he got a job in the city.

The Lan house, the place where we go to email each week….I talked to the owner about the church, and talked to him and his wife, and they are “spiritists”...the first time I’ve talked to someone who is that religion...believes in spirits and re-incarnation. Later there was an activity at the church, and Elder Lira and I shared scriptures about faith and talked for a little bit. Afterward, I invited one of the members to share his conversion story. He met the missionaries one day and was baptized less than 2 weeks later, super quick, he said right after his baptism he was called to be the Young Men’s president for 3 years and every single young man served a mission during that time (those who were old enough) which was awesome! I’ve never heard of that happening. Really incredible.

Also this week, we were playing soccer at the church and my companion kicked the ball hard and it got stuck on the roof. I got up to get it, and there was an electric wire up there and I accidentally touched it with both hands….I’m fine but I felt the electricity….yikes.

Lots of love to you all!
- Elder Anderson

Week 31!

Family and Friends,
My companion and I meet tons of new people this week. In total, we talked with 47 new people, it was super great, and we will continue focusing on meeting and getting to know tons of people here and on giving them all opportunities to follow Christ.

Yesterday, we visited a family for the second time, they´re remarkable people and strong in their church. Before the opening prayer, they had already said that they didn't want to meet anymore with us. We prayed and continued talking, but they gave us the most blunt and up-front rejection I've experienced on my mission. It was really sad.

CONGRATS to Dallin Anderson on his engagement! I´m super happy for them both.

This past Monday we had a family home evening with our ward mission leader and his kids (both inactive) and their boyfriends were there with them. 11 people total. It was super good. We talked about 1 Nephi 8, the vision of the tree of life, holding fast to the iron rod and continuing to the tree. This week I’ve been trying to focus on the main purpose for my mission and not worrying so much about getting little things done. Focusing on fulfilling my purpose of teaching the gospel and bringing souls to Christ. As I made that change, it helped me a ton, I felt a lot happier. I was now doing things because I wanted to do them instead of because I had to do them.

This week we’ve been focusing on a ton of contacts. Trying to find new people to teach. We are trying to talk to a ton of people. This past week we did 47 contacts in 3-4 days. We visited Mateous, a recent convert with a tough life (had had been a drug dealer and was in danger and he was sent here by his family to get straightened out). We had a good lesson with him and he wants to keep changing, but it’s tough for him. Wednesday we focused more on contacts and Elder Lira was super nervous to talk to people. He got up his courage to talk to a woman in a park and when he did, she said “oh sorry, I’m an athiest”...and he didn’t know what to say, it was super funny. Thursday district meeting, 28 people in our zone, Elder Mota is the District Leader, he was in my first zone in my mission. He’s super cool, solid guy. We also did service by cleaning out trash from a member’s yard. Friday I hit 7 months in the mission field, it’s gone by super fast. I’m almost a ⅓ of the way done...crazy thought. We did a ton of contacts on that day (Thursday). This week there was a school shooting in the state we are in (but outside the mission boundaries). A 17 and 25 year old. A student killed his uncle and stole his car, and the 2 guys pulled up the school and walked in and started shooting. 8 people were killed and they killed themselves after. There’s been a ton of stuff in the news about it. Super sad. And, that’s about the whole week.

Love you all,
- Elder Anderson

 on the Bishop's motorcycle!

Week 30!

Family and Friends,

Hello everybody, I am walking to the lan house. This week was super great. I tried to relax a little but and enjoy the week. I am working on taking better care of my health. I am enjoying it a bit more, while still working hard. On Wednesday we visited the new Venezuelans here, there are super awesome. They gave us a new type of fruit that I had not eaten. It was served in a syrup sauce. It was a bit weird. My companion almost threw up. It was super funny. We visited with Rebeccah and talk her all the commandments. She had a date for this Saturday, but I’ll talk more about that later. We showed her the baptismal font to help her get excited. We also visited Marcus who is 17 and really enjoys the church but doesn’t have family support. We taught them the restoration and the Gospel of Jesus Christ in one lesson. He told us that he used to use the name Lucifer as his name on games and things. He asked me if this was a sin. I looked at him in the eye and told him because of this he was going to hell. He got scared and then I let him know I was totally kidding and joking around. He then thought it was funny.

A fun small Brazilian truck just drove by with loud speakers. Super cool.

Thursday we visited with Rebecca and reviewed the baptismal questions and when we got home that night there was a giant cockroach on my desk and it got away and we found it and doused it with a ton of spray and killed it. We tried to sweep it out of the house, out of the gate into the road but we would hit it out and it would hit the gate and bounce back. SO me with my incredible knowledge of gold, I got the broom and swung as hard as I could and the bottom part of the broom flew off and hit the gate I and it was super loud and so funny, we dies of laughter. We later went out and swept the cockroach into the road. Super funny. Friday we had lunch with Bishop. He’s got 4 kids. His wife was still finished up making lunch and we talked with the kids for a while, who are all into toy guns and pretend war, water guns, etc. I got permission from the zone leader and showed them one of the lego movies that I made and put on youtube and it was super cool. Later one of the zone leaders came and did a baptismal interview with Rebecca and he came out of the interview and told us she still had a lot of questions and doubts and we thought “oh wow, we thought we had taught her everything well” and we were worried. But, he was teasing, and everything worked out awesome. Saturday we had the baptism and it was awesome. I gave the talk about Baptism and my companion baptized her. My companion is from Manaus and she’s also from there, super cool.

That night we visited Clebur and Jessica. Clebur came to church Sunday and really liked it. Jessica wants to return to church and have her boyfriend be baptized. They gave us hot dogs with mashed potatoes, super good. We heard about transfers and we are both staying here in our area. After this transfer I’ll have been here 4 months. I’m excited to stay and help strengthen the ward here. Sunday was awesome, Clebur enjoyed church, Rebecca received the gift of the Holy Ghost and that night we visited her and Rebecca and reviewed all the lessons including the laws and ordinances. It was about 2 and ½ hours of talking and teaching. It was good to review everything. She is a solid person. Rebekah's brother was baptized some time ago. They had a fan that had broken. He had glued it back together to see if it would work. When they turned in on, one of the blades flew off and hit my companion in the face. I thought he would be hurt, but he wasn't. It was really funny. This week was super awesome. It was just a good week. I am looking forward to staying here and growing friendships with all the members.

Love,
Elder Anderson