Batismo!

(Scott received his Christmas ackages finally!) 

​Gratidão!

​WWWWHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAA! Didn't wait one sceond to open my most anticipated Christmas present! Haha

The chapel of the Tibery Ward

The baptismal font here

​Batismo de Eudes!

​What a great day!

O Eudes foi batizado quinta-feira! Eudes was baptized Thursday! Thanks to the Lord’s help and all of your prayers, tudo deu-certo—all went well. It was so nice to finally have a baptism after what felt like a long drought of results in spite of lots of hard work. A couple weeks ago Elder Baltazar and I were talking about this transfer, and when I told him that I thought we’d baptize this transfer, the Spirit confirmed to me that we would. Ah, so awesome! Trust in the Lord, do your best, push through trials, and you will be blessed. Eudes is pretty quiet, but he likes church a lot and was so happy to be baptized! I’m so glad we talked to him sitting in his garage our first day here. Helping people accept the restored gospel and receive its blessings is such a marvelous work!

I always thought – before my mission – that it was relatively quite easy to baptize people in Brazil. I shared the mentality with tons of people that here people were just jumping into the baptismal font hahaha. In some places in Brazil, missionaries are able to have tons of baptisms—some missions here are among the highest baptizing in the world. Goiania is not one of those places. While it’s way easier ainda (yet/still) than Spain, Russia, or Japan, for Brazil, it’s tough. I don’t know the numbers, but my guess is it’s in the top 5-7 hardest missions out of the 34 in Brazil. Sometimes I feel that we’re not having enough baptisms here, but I have to remember that every mission is different, every area of the world is so different and unique in its challenges and opportunities, as Uncle Taylor well explained in his letter. I know I’m supposed to be serving here and growing from the challenges and situations I face! I’m grateful for my trials as they are such awesome opportunities to learn and grow.

Thursday morning, we had an amazing zone conference with Presidente Kuceki (Thursday I was so excited for it haha. We thought the meeting was going to be Wednesday, but then it was moved to Thursday). All my excitement had been built up, was deflated, and after another day of waiting, the meeting finally came haha. IT WAS SO AWESOME! Pres. Kuceki talked to us for about an hour and a half about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how we can grow in our faith until we reach a fullness of the Spirit. To fully increase in our spirituality, he said we need to do 3 things: 1-Give up things we like to do because of our love for the Lord, 2- Like and do things we don’t like doing because of our love for the Lord, and 3- Be worthy. On my mission I’ve had experience with all three. For example, giving up playing sports, watching movies, and hanging out with friends for 2 years; learning to give up my fear of talking to people I don’t know and contacting people on the street (that was hard); and doing my best to be obedient, follow the Spirit, and focus all my heart, might, mind, and strength on the work of bringing the true gospel of Jesus Christ to all the world. I will continue to do my best to increase my spirituality and faith and be the best missionary I possibly can. Man I was so inspired by what he said! Foi top.

Thanks so much for all your thoughts, prayers, and support. They are felt all the way down here in Uberlandia! I’m so grateful for an amazing group of support of family and friends in America. You guys are a blessing!

It’s almost Christmas!? Crazy! It really doesn’t feel like it since it’s 90 degrees even with Christmas decorations here and there haha. I hope you are all enjoying the cold, hot chocolate and apple cider, an abundance of Christmas trees, and the great American Christmas Spirit. There’s no place like home for the holidays!

Tenham uma semana otima!

Elder Anderson

​Melancia Monster :)