Mother’s Day Skype!

 Another pic above Goiânia!

 Another Pizza Hut P-Day

 Praça Cívica, Centro

 Pictures taken by mom while we skyped with Scott on Mother's Day!!! It was awesome :)

It’s crazy that 5 months have gone by since Christmas. After skyping Christmas day, one missionary said that from that day to the next time we’d skype, Mother’s Day, would go by fast. Com certeza, it did!

To the family—man it was so great to see you all! All you kids have grown up a ton and Bryce keeps getting cuter hahah. Mom and Dad, thanks as always for being so awesome and always loving and supporting me. You’re such great examples. I know you guys realized how bad my Endligh has gotten! Haha, it was pretty hard at times. Anyway, even though it was a too-quick 40 minutes with my subpar English, it was awesome! I love you guys so much and am glad to know you are all doing well.

There’s only 4 times to skype during the mission. Now I’ve done 2. Crazy.

Overall, this week was good. Skype was definitely the highlight! I'm on my own now as the financial secretary and am possibly the least trained mission financial secretary in the world hahaha. Anyway, it's going well. I'm trying to get up to date paying all the water and energy bills which were pretty behind, pay other people and companies that serve the mission, and adjust to my new responsibilities. It's hard trying to work in the office and then work in the field a little bit everyday, but after a month or so I'll ge the hang of it. Life is great here!

The Fruits of Missionary Work…This week was also awesome because of a few things I heard with respect to people I taught or areas where I've served. In my first area there was a family in which only the dad (we called him the 'Chefe' (the 'boss' in English)) and one of his sons (with his respective wife and son) were active in the church. Last P-Day I had the chance to talk to E. Guzman, who went to Jardim Curitiba when I left. He siad that another son of that family, whom I always invited to church but never came, had stopped drinking and making some wrong choices became active again! The mom of the family stopped smoking and drinking coffee after like 40 years and was baptized too. She and the Chefe will be sealed in less than a year! Other members of the family are changing their lives as well. I was so happy to hear this! We spent a lot of time at their house and didn't seem like we were able to help a lot, but, em fim, we did!

I was talking to E. Snell, a zone leader in Uberlândia who is in Tibery, and he told me that Eudes, whom I and E. Baltazar taught, was going to the temple!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I started jumping up and down in my little financial secretary office!!!!!!!! I remember when we found him in a run down garage one afternoon. Since his baptism he's stayed strong and went this week to do vicarious baptisms!!!!!! Hearing that might have been one of the greatest moments of my mission!! Ah it was so great! I'm so grateful to have found him and helped him find the church.

Also, last Sunday I called Araxá to see how things were going. I talked to E. Lisboa for awhile. My first Sunday there we had 9 people, including 1 investigator, in that garage for our sacrament meeting. This past Sunday, there were 26 people and 8 investigators, Jady and Matheus were confirmed, Matheus received the Aaronic Priesthood, and Marcos, a member we found making contacts in downtown, went with his daughter who's not yet a member!!! Rapaz, fiquei tão animado!!! I was so happy! Ah, Araxá is an amazing place!

I am so grateful to have learned this week about these fruits, these divine results of my mission up until this point. I know that Heavenly Father has guided me and blessed me greatly. I'm so grateful to have been and to be a somewhat effective instrument in the hands of the Lord! I love this mission, I love this work, I love this restored and eternal gospel and Jesus Christ, whose gospel it is.

I hope all of you are doing excellent and continuing to choose the right always! Eu amo vocês muito e sou muito grato por todo seu apoio, amor e ajuda que nunca pára. Estou orando por vocês! Nada é melhor que essa missão! Tenham uma boa semana e boas vidas! Até mais! 

Elder Anderson