Pamonha com Jose Carlos

 Happy Birthday Tyler!!! It’s crazy you’re already 17 and crazier that in a year you might already have your mission call! This week we worked a lot under the beating sun and rainy rain without any significant results. A lot of people don’t keep commitments or already have another church. I wish everyone would pause their lives for a moment to actually contemplate and consider the real possibilities that God calls living prophets and that the true church of Christ has been restored in its’ fullness. We’ll keep enduring the UV rays until we find the elect.

P-Day was awesome. After finishing a good day of volleyball and emailing we tracted in an upper class barro (neighborhood) and then ran to the house of Jose Carlos as it started to rain. We had a good lesson about conversion with him and then he took us to a famous pamonharia just outside the city. Pamonharia is a place that sells ‘pamonha’ which is kind of like a Mexican tamale but Brazilian and made of corn. The basic flavors are ‘com sal’—with salt, and ‘doce’—sweet, and there are various combinations of cheese, chicken, and pepper, I ate a pamonha ‘com sal’ with added ingredients. I had a ‘doce’ with chocolate. Mmmm bom demais da cena! We also drank quite a bit of ‘suco de milho’—corn juice, which was actually more like corn milk, but was also pretty great. Going to the famous pamonharia of the national capital of corm was a cool experience.

Jose Carlos is one of my favorite investigators I’ve taught on my mission, right up there with Matheus from Araxa (whom I’ve talked to recently and who’s preparing to go on his mission this year!). Jose greatly admires our work and maturity as missionaries. I’m so grateful that the Lord has shaped me into who I am today as I’ve dedicated my time and effort to Him. It is only with His divine help that I’ve turned from an immature and unexperienced boy into a missionary half-worthy of the praise Jose Carlos offers us. I know I am doing Heavenly Father’s will. If I weren’t there is no conceivable way I could be who I’ve come to be.  Obigato, Pai Celestial.

We actually did find a new, good investigator this week, a girl name Francelle. We just couldn’t find her at home again.  We’ll try again this week.

This week is transfer week! It’s been an awesome three transfers here In Guanabara, and I’m excited to see if I’ll be blessed with another or it the Lord is calling me to another area. As soon as I open my email tomorrow (it’s Sunday night right now), I’ll see the transfer email sent to all the zone leaders and will know what will happen with everybody in Patos. It’ll be fun! E. Ward and I will think of a creative way to reveal the transfer to the zone after district meeting on Tuesday.

Who’d excited for general conference???? MEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

Elder Anderson
(and from a later email he gave this update:  I was transferred!!!!!!!!!!! To Anápolis, the city with the most churches per capita in the world. I've always wanted to serve there and I can't wait! I'll be a zone leader with a Brazilian named E. Tanus! It'll be awesome and probably my last area and companion.

José Carlos is doing great! I'll sure miss him and I'm sure he'll be baptized within the next month or two.

This was a good week and I CANT WAIT FOR CONFERENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

 Bom dia! Segue as fotos da Pamonharia do Aguinaldo.

 This candy is vida

 Excited to work!

 About to play vólei

 It turned more like tomatoes with eggs than eggs with tomatoes but it was good

 In the centro

 Estou enviando logo cedo para não esquecer.

  With Elder J. Silva! 

A Lagoinha

 Staying busy

A little square

Descandso do Senhor

One thing I am really looking forward to is the “rest of the Lord” that is promised to the faithful. Life is tiring and being a missionary makes it three times more tiring. Last night I lay down at 10:30 and was so, so grateful that It was finally time to sleep. I think it’ll be wholly worth living the gospel until the end of this life just to experience the rest of the spirit world’s paradise (Alma 40:11-12), but there will be way more blessings awaiting us than only rest! Pao Celestial é bom!

The highlight of this week was President Buhrere’ visit to Patos. We had interviews with him in the morning. I was the first to be interviewed, and it was one of the best interviews of my mission! I asked his advice about thinking about home and things after the mission—I felt that I was thinking too much about that and losing part of my focus Presidente told me that thinking about things outside the mission wasn’t a sin, but staying thinking about them was. He admitted that he thinks about traveling, to the US sometimes and gets ‘trunky’ too haha but always reminds himself to focus on the work. Amo Presidente Buhrer!!

During the afternoon Presidente worked with us! He’s really excited when he talks to people on the road hahaha. We did companionship study with him and then we went to teach José Carlos. We had told José Carlos that our President would be with us and so he left work early so we could visit him. We had a really spiritual lesson—on of the most memorable of my mission. Teaching with the mission President was a rare and special opportunity.

That night Presidente gave a great devotional about faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. It was excellent!

The middle of this week was tough but this weekend was great. This mission is a bunch of ups and downs.

We spoke with some nard-hearted people this week and some receptive people too. We found a good family that said they would go to church but didn’t. We’re going to teach them again this week.

My mission has been the hardest and greatest experience of my life. I’ve learned so much. This week I learned, in my personal study and in Gospel Principles at church, about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I’m immensely grateful for my Savior and Redeemer, and for the opportunity I have to represent Him. Tenhom umo semana feliz!

Elder Anderson

 My least favorite morning task

 My shirt almost did not hold up the work of this day kkkkkk

 Excited for church!

 Com E. Xavier! We were a pair in doubles volleyball today.

 Com os caras

 A view of the Patos area

In a downtown park

As Escrituras!

I think this was the best week of my mission with respect to my daily personal study. I was inspired to buy a notebook to organize what I study each day, and it made an instant difference. Each day this week I felt like I really "feasted upon the words of Christ" and each day I felt spiritually enlightened and edified. I love reading the scriptures! Before my mission I read because I knew I should, not always because I wanted to. Now I wish personal study was 3 hours instead of just one! There is so, so much to be learned in the gospel. How grateful I am for what I've learned so far and how excited I am to keep learning "by study and by faith" for the rest of my life!

This week flew by and so did this P-Day! We played a ton of volleyball this morning (about 9 games to 21) and that took up a big part of the day and so we had to run to the lan house to do our e-mail time. I won't have time to write a long letter today, but nothing really out of the ordinary happened this week so não se exige uma carta grande.

We've been teaching Jose Carlos for over 2 months now, and he continues to progress in getting to know the restored gospel and church. It was funny: after asking E. Ward and I how many brothers and sister we have, he asked if there was some motive for increasing the American population hahahaha. We proceeded to explain that Mormons just like big families. I miss my big Mormon family! José Carlos went to church for the fifth consecutive time yesterday, and we also ate lunch with him and his wife this week—it was an amazing lunch!

It is a noticeable difference having lunch as the day's principal meal. Here in a few months I'll suffer a whole other round of culture readjustments!

I have 3 more months on my mission and I will work as hard and as well as I can to preach the gospel and fulfill my calling here in Missão Brasil Goiânia. This has been the most incredible experience of my life.

Espero que vocês tenham uma semana excelente. Amo vocês e agradeço-lhes todo o amor e apoio constantes.

Elder Anderson

  Haircut! I really am liking shorter hair.

Watch! I bought this for 12 reais today. That's 3 US Dollars. I wanted a cheap watch and I found a good one. My last one (that Josh gave me before I left home) was robbed awhile back in Goiânia.

 Natural orange juice! E. Ward makes it just about everyday and shares it, an awesome companion.

 Breakfast! Eggs, tomatos, bread, salt, pepper....

 Some zoom shots of Patos de Minas from our apartment's windows.

Gripado

Estaou gripado. Gripado = with a cold/flu/sickness.  We went to Goiania for the monthly leadership meeting and two night long bus rides within 3 days caused a huge lack of sleep and a sore throat, weak body, headache, and an incredibly runny rose. In these last 3 days more substance has drained out of my nose than in the rest of my time here in Brasil, I think. My nose is pretty raw after cleaning it a thousand times a days with cheap toilet paper. The good thing about this is that I realize how great of a blessing health is. I usually take it for granted, but during these few days of sickness I because grateful for every non-sick day that Heavenly Father blesses me with. From now on I will strive to always give thanks in my prayers for every day of full health.

If what you’re reading isn’t making much sense, I apologize. I really am trying to write clear and normal English…

The leadership meeting in Goiania was awesome; it always is. Time had flown since the last one! Presidente Buhrer organized a training that all the zone leaders will present to all the ward mission leaders within our zones. Elder McBride reviewed the rules of the mission and taught about Christlike attributes and Elder Gorman taught about the mission’s “Standard of Excellence”, a pattern of weekly goals for the work.

I really admire the leaders of the church. President Kuceki had the same ability that President Buhrer demonstrated in the meeting. He talked to us for at least two hours giving us counsel, teaching us how to be better missionaries and leaders, showing us how to be like Christ, and inspiring us to do so. I remembered part of a letter Uncle Taylor sent me that said the instruction from his mission president was “spiritual Mana”. I feel that the same is true each time throughout my mission as I have been taught by an inspired leader called of God.

We stared in Goiania for another day to go on exchanges with the assistants which was an enjoyable and instructive experience.

We didn’t have much time in our own area this week and I wasn’t feeling my best but we didn’t let those facts affect our work.  Jose Carlos is reading the Book of Mormon a ton and is already in the middle of Alma! He came to church for the fourth time yesterday and is well integrated in the branch. It was raining yesterday before church, so he picked us up at our house and drove us there!

Also at church yesterday was Bishop Goncalves from the Tibery ward! He was visiting Patos, where he previously lived. It was great to see him and his family after over a year.

I hope all is well in the US! In a few more months I’ll be there with you all.

Elder Anderson

 These lasted a good solid year mas morreram esta semana kkkk

 I'm still using this awesome blanket, thanks Grandma!

At the lan house. Happy P-Day!