Elder Scott Anderson's Mission Blog: 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