Transfer Week

Eu e Elder Zeballos!

Thanks for the awesome chocolate Uncle Spencer!

Rapaz, escrever inglês é dificil demais!

Every day this week I’ve fallen asleep within like 30 seconds of laying down. Going from here to there and back and doing all kinds of stuff and working as hard as I can is cansativo demias! Man I’m worn out haha.

This week was transfers. As part of the mission staff, we helped with every part. Every 6 weeks missionaries are transferred to another area of the mission or stay in their area for another 6. The logistics of moving 150+ missionaries around is a huge task—the secretaries stay busy! At the beginning of the week, (can I just write in Portuguese…? Por Favor? Haha!) missionaries arrived in Goiãnia. It was way fun to see Elder Stafford, the only friend from the CTM whom I haven’t seen since we all got to Goiania. Tuesday all the ‘novinhos’—new missionaries—got here. It was cool picking them up at the airport. We had a great lunch and testimony meeting with them at Presidente’s home. You could definitely tell they hadn’t been in the mission field yet haha.

Wednesday was the actual day of transfers. In the morning, E. Zeballos (my new companion) and I gave an over two-hour training to all the district leaders, new trainers, and novinhos. I thought we might not be able to fill up the time and E. Zeballos hadn’t been there when I prepared it all, but tudo deu certo (it all went well). We had an awesome lunch at Presdient Kuceki’s house again but this time with all the missionaries that were finishing their missions, including Elder Zanuttini. The contrast between them and the novinhos was huge and was really cool to see. The mission really transforms people.

Thursday morning we woke up at 3:45 to go to the airport with all the leaving missionaries. That was a tiring day. E. Zanuttini, E. Sanchez and two sisters almost missed their plane hahaha. They had already closed the door, but they got there just in time! I sense that many missionaries think that getting on the plane to return home at the end of the mission is like a huge magical thing. Nope. It’s just getting on a plane, haha!

We got to Parque Amazonia Thursday too. It’s great here! One of the richest areas of Goiãnia. One of the strongest wards here also. I haven’t heard anything negative about it. We already have a baptsim for this week, Pedro Henrique. He’s 17, way excited, and wants to serve a mission! So awesome. His girlfriend introduced him to the church a month ago, and he already knows everything we’re teaching. We’re pretty much just reviewing the lessons for him haha. We’re going to find a ton more people also! Missionary work is the best!

E. Zeballos, the new assistant, is from Chile! He has six months left here and was serving as branch president in Catalão. If you want to see his dad, open up the conference Ensign magazine to the middle and look of the last row of the Seventy. Way cool! Haha, we’re both way excited to work here and lead the mission in building the kingdom of God!

I’ll take some good pictures of the area this week so you can all see what it’s like. Brazil is awesome! I’m loving the gospel of Jesus Christ more then ever. I wish I could study the scriptures 3 hours every day, but it’s even more important to bring the message of the restored gospel to the people here! This week I got a package from Uncle Spencer—a huge box of chocolate. IT WAS AWESOME. Comi tudo ja! Thanks to all of you, my family and friends, for your constant love and support. Ate mais!

Elder Anderson