Mmmmmm the food from the district's Christmas activity was incredible
Cleaning the font—my favorite thing to do on Saturday morning!
Batismo!!!
I didn't take a lot pf pictures this week, sorry haha.
I just want to write in Portuguese! BUT that might not help
you guys out very much. I’ll try to write my best English this week. Try.
Gessiley was baptized this week!!! I’ll go ahead and
explain: her name is pronounced kind of like “Jesslay” with the emphasis on the
first syllable. She is one of the best converts of my mission! Right after she
was baptized we asked her to give a short testimony as part of the baptismal
meeting. Whoa! It seemed like she had been a member for a year or two already.
She said her life didn’t have much meaning and she had a lot of doubts, but as
she learned about the restoration of the gospel, everything made sense to her.
She’ll be a strong member and has the desire to serve a mission too! It was a blessing
for E. Gomez and I to be able to teach her.
The sister missionaries of our branch, Guanabara, were
robbed near the church the other day. I was pretty surprised because Patos de
Minas is one of the safer cities in the mission. Even though we missionaries
are assaulted sometimes, I’m sure the Lord is protecting us. We walk in the
road all day, every day until 9-9:30 p.m. and certainly if we weren’t servants
of the Lord, a lot more armed motorcyclists would harass us. I pray for protection
every day and know that my prayers are heard and answered.
I read the book of Enos this morning in my personal study. I
really like his example of fercent prayer and faith. I’m trying to pray with
more faith and heart just as he did.
This Sunday I experienced one of the best church meetings I’ve
ever seen. All stakes and districts (Patos de Minas is a district) in Brazil
held a conference. The first part was a talk by the stake or district president
and the rest was a transmission from Salt Lake. Richard Maynes’ talk was
translated to Portuguese, the second counselor in the Primary Presidency spoke
in Portuguese with a full American accent, a seventy from Argentina spoke with
a thicker Hispanic accent, Presidente Costa of the Brazil Area then spoke (in
normal Brazilian Portuguese), and then Elder Holland gave a great and humorous
talk and spoke a little bit of Portuguese at the beginning and end of it. It
was awesome! Not only were the messages excellent, but the mixture of accents
and cultures added significantly to the awesomeness of the meeting. I never have
seen a meeting like it. The Church is
really becoming expert in use of technology and creativity.
The two things I most remember that were said are: 1- The
law of the harvest- “You reap what you sow/ If you want strawberries, you have
to plant strawberries” (from Sister Bonnie Cordone (?) of the Primary) and 2 –
A quotation for Brigham Young that Elder Holland shared “I don’t worry about
anything, only if I am well before God” I loved that. A lot of stress in this
life can be avoided if we only worry about what is the only thing that
eternally matters: how we are before Heavenly Father.
I love the gospel, I love being a missionary, and I love
this church. Thank you all for your loving support and prayers!
Elder Anderson
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