Monday, April 24, 2017

Food, Inspiration, Church, Good Stuff

Yesterday morning I woke up and threw up the most I ever have on my mission. Pamanha isn’t as good on the way up as it is on the way down. This may not be a great way to start a letter but it was an even worse way to start the day, hahaha. Thankfully I got gradually better throughout the day. I don’t exactly know what it was, but I think I ate something bad.

Speaking of eating this is the best area I’ve served in with respect to food. Lunch with the members is great here. They make a lot of lasagna, and it’s awesome! Brazilia lasagna is different; it usually incudes presunto which is kind of like ham.

This week started off great with an amazing multi-zone conference in Goiania on Tuesday. The morning part of the meeting included 6-15 minute mini-trainings given by zone and sister training leaders. I gave a training about goals, which is a topic I love. It was really fun! I talked about how our goals measure our lives and how we should do everything within our power to reach our goals while respecting the agency of other people (using the examples of Abinadi and Ammon to show that although we give our best, the results aren’t always what we want—though they certainly can be sometimes). As missionaries we should set goals in harmony with the Lord’s calling in Matthew 28:19-20 – preach, baptize; He is with us. I called for a “strong” volunteer in each training to practice establishing a challenging yet reasonable goal of push-ups and then I did the established number of push-ups along with the elder to encourage him to reach his goal just as the Lord does with us when we make worthy goals in order to serve him. I think it was a successful and dynamic training.

We got home from Goiania and discovered that our power had been cut (is that how it’s said in English?!)/ As we got ready for bed in the dark, a member knocked on the door and gave us a pizza!! So we ate pizza in the dark, and it was great. Elder Martin, the new financial secretary and one of my good friends in the mission, was able to take care of the situation and a day and a half later we had power again.

I had and inspired feeling early in the week as I looked towards a bairro (neighborhood…kind of) waaaaaay out the edge of our area from where we were walking, close to home. Later, looking at this bairro on our map I felt that we needed to go to the road ‘I-10’. Thursday afternoon we decided to walk there and find who the Lord wanted us to find. After knocking about 40 doors and with 5 houses left on the road, we were greeted by a nice woman who is the mom of a young family. We taught her the first half of the Restoration and will returned this week to teach the whole family. I believe they will accept the restored gospel because we really were guided to them. We would never have gone to that part of our area if not for inspiration.

We visited a few times this week and became good friends with Josy, the woman whose son recently died, and her family. One day we enjoyed a big churasco (barbecue) at her house and the next day a ton of pamonha. I learned how to make pamonha! Hahaha it was way fun. Yesterday morning she came to church with 3 of her kids and a little granddaughter. Elder Tanus and I gave talks about missionary work and the bishop did too. It was a special Sunday. After the ward had finished a 40 day fast (one member fasting each day) for missionary work in the ward. I believe the results of this fast will be miraculous. We’re actually already seeing them!

Josy and her family came to church with us in the morning and at night we visited their church. On the mission we can't go to rock concerts, but we can go to other churches if we're invited. It's usually kind of the same thing hahaha. It was a cool experience, and I'm glad our church doesn't talk about tithing, offerings, and donations for 30 minutes each meeting. I'm grateful to be a member of the true church of Jesus Christ that was officially restored to the Earth on April 6, 1830. In the words of E. Tanus "Every time I visit another church it only strengthens me testimony of the true one." We did meet a lot of kind people and enjoyed the experience.

Sunday afternoon we visited a less-active man who was really nice. We hope to help him return to the church and made a good friendship with him and his wife.

Last week was great, and this week is the last of the transfer! It went by fast. Que sempre reconheçamos os milagres em nossas vidas!

Elder Anderson
 Up early and excited for the multi-zone meeting!
 Pizza in the dark!
 Preach the Gospel!
 Our house is new and is still faulting a place to keep our clothes so this is how I've been living hahaha
 Learning how to make pamonha with Josy and her family! 



If you want to make missionaries happy, give them pizza.

Monday, April 17, 2017

Easter and English

Happy Easter to you all!!! The word for Easter here is ‘Pascoa’ which is the translation of ‘Passover’. After consulting the Bible Dictionary (something interesting: in Portuguese there’s not a Topical Guide and Bible Dictionary at the back of the Bible, but a ‘Guide to Scripture Study’ which is like the two combined but much smaller) in English I learned that ‘Easter’ only appears once in the Bible and that ‘Passover’ comes from “eastre’, “a Norse goddess whose pagan festival was observed at the spring equinox” (Bible Dictionary, “Easter”). This was one of the most interesting things I learned this week. Independent of the roots of the holiday’s name, I’m grateful that each year of we have a special springtime Sunday to remember the glorious resurrection of the Savior, Jesus Christ. President Buhrer came to Anapolis this week for interviews, and he made a goal with the zone to talk to everyone this week. I enjoyed fulfilling this goal, taking advantage of the Easter season to talk to people about our Savior and invite them to visit the church’s site to learn more about Him and ‘Pascoa’. President and Sister Buhrer thought my haircut was too short kkkkk (hahaha). I’ll wait till after the mission to cut it like that again.

Elder Tanus and I are trying to do creative missionary work. We’re both tired of knocking doors and talking with people in the road. Although we’re fully willing to find people that way, we’re trying to work more effectively and intelligently and have fun doing it. This week I finally put into action an idea that I’ve had for two months or so. We went to 4 English schools on Thursday, and at each one I introduced myself, said I was American and offered to participate in some conversation classes. Two schools got our contact information, and at the other two I spoke English with one of their teachers who readily invited me to take part in their classes. I didn’t say anything about the church, just offered to help—kind of like Ammon, Elder Tanus and I thought. On Saturday morning we woke up early to go to the first school. I participated in a class of just the teacher and one student. What I thought would happen happened: the English conversation started with an assigned topic and transitioned the subject of what we do as missionaries and what we believe in the church. I taught almost the whole lesson of the Restoration as a natural part of the flow of the class’s conversation. At the end, we got the address of the woman taking the class and the missionaries of another area will go there this week. The Mormon missionary program really sparks people’s interest, and in a setting other than a roadside contact or knocking on someone’s door, it’s great sharing the gospel because people actually want to hear us. We’re going to keep thinking outside the box to preach the gospel. A youth activity of American football is an idea that has crossed my mind.

We found a woman this week whose son recently died in a motorcycle accident. We taught the Plan of Salvation, and she loved learning about the Fall of Adam and Eve, the Spirit World, and eternal families. We’ll return this week.

Our teaching group is weak right now, and this week we’re going to work hard to find lots of people prepared for the gospel! I love you guys! Thanks for your encouraging and inspiring emails.


Elder Anderson
 Excited for P-Day
 Apparently it's too short...
 Waiting for the ônibus
 Some views of Anápolis





 A cool park. Anápolis is a really pretty city with some well-kept parks. If I lived in Brasil for a time it'd be a nice city to live in.




 4 different types of bananas
 Tabasco also exists in Brasil but it's too expensive for a poor missionary
 This stuff looks awesome but I'm also too poor for it kkkkk
 Água com gás...incrível!
 Maracuja...por fora
 E por dentro
I. Love. Dark. Chocolate. Especially. Mint. Dark. Chocolate.

Monday, April 10, 2017

I'm 20!

I’m old.

This week was quite a memorable one. On Friday I entered a whole new decade of my life—“the decade of adulthood.” Because of how much I’ve grown on my mission, the same thing happened on Friday that happened on my birthday last year—I actually felt older. Now when I say I’m 20 years old (Tenho vinte anos), I don’t feel weird saying it; I feel more mature than I was and prepared and ready to begin what will likely be the most eventful decade of my life. The maturity and growth I’ve experienced on my mission are undoubtedly great blessings from the Lord. As I’ve dedicated all my time and effort to serving Him, He has blessed me more than I feel like I deserve—and I still have more than two months’ work of miracles and blessings to enjoy on my mission! I often think about what King Benjamin says in Mosiah 2:20-25. That Heavenly Father has blessed me immensely and that compared to Him I’m nothing—not even the dust of Earth!

We had lunch with Itma Itaneuma on Friday (my birthday) and she bought a little cake and candles of the numbers 2 and 0 and her son, Elder Tanus, and she sung “Parabens!” (the Brazilian version of “Happy Birthday”) to me. It was muito especial! That morning I opened my caixa (package) de anicersario-so alegria! Thanks so much family for the card, Tabasco sauce, toothpaste (I was needing that; it’s expensive here (at least, a good kind is expensive here), Clif bars, candy, and the FOOTBALL AND BASKETBALL!!! Without a doubt the next 9 P-Days will be a blast.

We had a great zone meeting on Tuesday, one of the best I’ve been a part of during my time as a zone leader. Descobriu-se que eu sou o unico Americano na zona—tem onze Brasileiros e eu kk. I’m the only foreigner in the 12-missionary zone. My Portuguese will probably get better and my English and little bit of Spanish will probably won’t.

There are a ton of churches here in Anapolis!!! There‘s way more than in any other city I’ve seen, and the other cities I’ve seen have a lot of churches. More than once we’ve seen two churches facing each other on each side of the road—once, two of the same denominations but of different ‘ministries’. Crazy.

Elder Tanus started talking to a guy in the road this week who took off running to avoid us hahahaha- we had a good laugh at that.

We had a meeting with the stake presidency this week to discuss missionary work in the city. Our ward, Flamboyant, and on other ward in the stake are doing a 40 day fast (one member fasts each day) for missionary work. It was an idea that President Buhrer gave, and I believe it will result in several miracles!

I realized this week that I’m getting better at following the promptings of the Holy Ghost. I’m really grateful for having developed this ability. This week I felt like I should knock on a door as we were returning home. We found a receptive family and the son of the family came to church yesterday. Bencao! Jose Pereira also came to church, and we taught him the Word of Wisdom. He committed himself to stop drinking coffee and threw away all the coffee he had. TOP!

I love this mission, I love the scriptures, I love my Savior, Jesus Christ, and His wonderful gospel.


Elder Anderson

 Guaraná Antárctica!
 Sempre o melhor
 A decent wafer
 We got soaked walking home from the centreo. Luckily a member picked us up as he happened to pass by and saved us a good 15 minutes of walking in the rain

 Last picture as a 19 year old

 Opa....
 HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!



When you're just about dying sick but want to keep your goal of writing in your journal everyday


 Feeling like an American again with my favorite birthday presents!

 Near our house
 Brasil has the coolest fruit
 Before
 After
 Waiting for the bus




  Praça da Liberdade



  

 Oi from Zona Anápolis!
 A great torta de limão
 E. Tanus brought his slackline
 E. Pinheiro consegue
 Eu não consigo então eu só faço isso
 E. Tanus consegue
 ...Muito bem
 The said elders and also Elder Silva

 Games
 E. Moraes didn't like it
  How good to reunite with you, Chimarrão


Excelente
 Olá!
 Happy Birthday to US! April 9, 5, and 7!


A picture taken in my last area with Elder Ward and Jose Carlos