Week 57!

Family and Friends,

This past week was incredible! Here are the highlights:

- Multi-Zone activity (60 missionaries together) was great! We had trainings focused on not giving excuses for failure or lack of effort, self-improvement, and serving others. It was super great. I got to see a lot of friends from other areas which was good.

- Divisions! I stayed with Elder Stohel for 2 days this week. We were able to get a lot done and teach more lessons than normal which was awesome. One highlight was buying Bread from 2 ladies in the street (people here who sit on the sidewalk and sell food etc...) and eating it with Djalma. It was cool.

- I took a physical fitness test for the Air Force Academy today! Results are as follows:

     . 18 Pull ups

     . 95 Sit ups in 2 minutes

     . 75 Push ups in 2 minutes

     . 6:00 1 Mile run

It about killed me haha, but I did better than I expected!

Love you guys! Thanks for the continuous support!

Elder Anderson

One Year + One Month

Family and Friends,

This past month has been fast and eventful. I returned to one of my past areas in the city of São Carlos. It's been neat to see how it has changed while I was gone. My companion right now is Elder Ferreira, he's from Fortaleza (north part of Brazil) and lived super close to the beach there. We have recently been teaching Adriana, Silvia, and Djalma. 

Adriana is super great. I knew her when I was here before. At the beginning of this year, she had been praying to find a church and help in her life, and 2 missionaries knocked on her door. She willingly invited them in and accepted the Gospel. We are continuing to teach and help her. She comes to church every week. 

Silvia I also knew when I was here before. She is open to learn and came to church with us this past week. She has been investigating the church for 20 years and still hasn't decided to be baptized. She is slowly learning more.

Djalma (My companion and I call him DJ Alma haha) is super cool. He's 84 years old and open to learn and improve. He started a conversion with missionaries on the road and now we're teaching him. Super great. 

Two Sundays ago, while my companion and I were walking to church, we saw a drunk man fall in the road. He got up and continued walking but was stumbling into traffic and in front of a truck! Elder Ferreira and I ran out and grabbed him and walked him to the curb. He was totally out of it. He laid down and went to sleep on the curb. Crazy! It was almost super bad.

I've been learning a lot recently about Christlike leadership. I'm trying to focus on having and showing love and patience with the people I am with. It's been really great. 

I love you all! Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Anderson

Month 11!

Friends and Family,

Today is my 11 month mark on my mission! The time has truly flown by.

I will be staying in this city, São João da Boa Vista for another transfer (6 weeks) and will continue as District Leader here. 3 of the missionaries in the district left and we received 5 new sisters in the district. 

We had a multi-zone meeting and got to meet our new mission president here, President Barros. He´s from northern Brazil and I think he´ll do great here.

I´ve refocused my studies to ´´the basics´´ and have started a thorough study of Preach My Gospel Chapter 3. I'm starting with lesson 3, The Gospel of Jesus Christ and its been really incredible. Studying the simple basics of the Church and doctrine has been great.

Love you all,

Elder Anderson

Month 10!

Family and Friends,

This past month has been incredible. I was moved to a new area, ``São João da Boa Vista`` and was made a District Leader here (Signifying  that I´m the leader of a group of 8 missionaries). My new companion here is Elder Ferreira. He´s from Portugal and lived very close to where my brother Dallin served on his mission. He speaks some English and wants to join the military when he gets back home. The church building where I´m serving has a regular attendance of 70-80 on Sundays and the members here are great. They´ve been a big help with getting to know the area and the people here who are interested in the Church. 

Two weeks ago, I gave a training to the District (group of 8 missionaries). It was super neat. I focused on the difference of Proactivity and Reactivity and on making the necessary changes in your life to live the life you want to live now. It seemed to both impact and help everyone there. 

President Bangerter visited the zone (group of 18 missionaries) this past Thursday, gave a training and a farewell. He will be leaving back to the USA in just a week or two. Our new mission President will be a Brazilian, President Barros. 

Yesterday, Sunday, my companion and I had the opportunity to baptize Hugo and Isadora. After 10 months here, I had my first baptism. It was a really great experience that I´ll never forget. Things seemed to work out just right so that it would be my companion and I who would baptize them. It was great. 

I have been learning a lot about patience and about how to live a life of peace. It has really been helping me become more like who I want to be. 

Love you guys!

Até mais...

- Elder Anderson

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