Elder Scott Anderson's Mission Blog: I Survived the Second Week!

I’ve survived the second week in the field! It was definitly a faster week than the first here in Jardim Curitiba. It was easier too, but still pretty hard, haha.

We found some new investigators this week! In general, the people here are open and receptive to our message, but getting them to fulfil their commitments to come to church, read the Book of Mormon, pray, and study the pamphlets we give them is tough. Often I want to explain the them the magnitude of what we are teaching—that the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is the greatest they will ever hear, that God will confrim the truthfulness of it to them through sincere prayer, and that it will change and enhance their lives more than they can imagine. I wish I had the Portuguese to be able to do it effectively!

That is the hardest thing..Portuguese. Not being able to communicate, one of humanity’s basic functions, is quite a humbling, stressful, and overwhelming experience. Thankully, Heavenly Father is blessing me greatly, and everyday it gets easier. While last week I was only understanding about 15-20% of what people were saying, now I can get about 30-35% except for when someone is talking directly to me or asking me a question, and I hardly understand at all, haha. There are some words and phrases in which I’m already fluent. For example, ‘acho que si’ which means ‘I think so’, ‘sobre’ – ‘about’, and ‘por certeza’ – ‘for certain’. It’s going to be a long few months until I can speak and listen well (80+%), so I just need to keep doing what I’m doing and be patient.

To sum up shortly what we do all day, we walk, talk, and teach. We walk forever, haha. Yesterday we got a ride after church to a member’s house for lunch, then the Bishop drove us to teach families in the evening, so we walked less than 2 miles all day. That was a miracle. During the average day, we walk 8+ miles in 90+ degrees (and it’s winter) in pants and tie. The good thing about walking so much is we can contact a lot of people and make appointments to teach them. Usually we teach 5-7 lessons a day and gain 1-3 investigators. It’s all hard work, but I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else for the next two years!

After we email today, we’re heading to the church for a churrasco (Brazilian barbecue)! It’s Independence Day in Brasil.

I’ll try to send more pictures this week, haha. I’m really enjoying all your emails every week. Thanks for them! Keep me updated on how everything is going in the Estados Unidos! Ate o proximo P-day!

Elder Anderson