Transferencia

 Life at work

 Selfie time

 With Elder Pearce, from Georgia!

 The best group in the mission! Desde o CTM

 Com Elder Banz! (x2)

 The missionaries of ARAXÁ!

 Presidente Sousa!!

 Elder Snell!

 Elder Meireles!

 Elder Banz e Sister Smith!

Organizing the reeimbursements (in all, took me 6.5 hours Friday...)

The whole mission

Rapaz essa semana foi doida! Sabianos que seria. I wish I could just continue writing this whole letter in Portuguese. That’d make life easier! Haha.

This week we had transfers! As part of the transfer, we brought the whole mission to Goiania for a big meeting with Pres. and Sis. Kuceki before they leave. Buying the passagens for everyone to get here was financially straining, but in the end it worked out. Oh, I’m being transferred to….!!!!....no, I’m staying here as financial secretary—woohoo! I think I’ll be here awhile.

It was tough this week trying to help with the transfer while still handling the weekly financial tasks. For example, Thursday afternoon we were eating lunch at the bus terminal after helping a bunch of missionaries leave. I suddenly realized that I hadn’t yet done the caiza pequeno (the fund used for weekly expenses that I have to send for reimbursement every Tuesday and Thursday). I have to turn it in before 3, and the moment I realized it, it was already after 2. I called for a taxi as fast as I could, we ran to the office, and I was able to finish it just in time! It was crazy haha.

The going away meeting for the Kuceki’s was great. President K. gave an excellent talk about sincere and focused prayer. He said that by focusing more intently as we talk with our Father in Heaven about what is actually important for us and the people we are teaching, we will be blessed with the power and revelation needed to fulfill our purpose. It was just what I needed! Being so tired, it’s easy for me to lose attention and even start sleeping as I pray or listen to someone’s prayer. Praying so often during the day—as we wake up, study, leave the house, eat, start a lesson—I had fallen in the pattern of going through the motions. As President Kuceki spoke about focused prayer I was inspired to act, and now, I pray more meaningfully. The difference was immediate! Now I feel the Holy Ghost stronger, am closer to His whispered guidance, sincerely look for the Lord’s help, and realize even in a greater sense how blessed I am! President Kuceki is such a great leader and example for me, and I’m grateful for his inspired messages.

Also as part of the get-together, we ate cake. It was probably the best strawberry cake I’ve eaten in my whole life—or maybe the year-long drought of the awesome cakes that Mom and Grandma make, made this one seem so good. Afterwards, I took a ton of pictures. It was great being able to see so many friends from the mission! Having the whole mission in one place was really a cool experience.

This week I’ll get back to normal work—running the financial side of the best mission in the world! MISSAO BRASIL GOIANIA!!!! Life is great here, how could it not be?!

Elder Anderson 

Presenting the Mormons

 Um bolo legal

 Com Elder Zeballos!!

Opa! (Don't worry, we're in the process of cleaning the office...)

 All day everyday (Tues-Fri until 5pm!)

 Banana e chocolate!

Mmmmmm

 A galera!

 Pastel é TOP

Pequi and guariroba - Sou Goiano demais!

The whole mission together with President and Sister Kuceki (mom found this on FB and added it to this blog post!)...can you find Scott?! :)

First part in Portuguese: Essa Semana foi boa! Ah, cada semana e boa, mas essa semana foi boa mesmo!

Odrei, the Ward missión leader, Works at a school that has a religión program. The religion teacher chose to focus on the ‘Mormons’ as part of the course, and we secretaries were invited to speak to all the second year students (high school –ensino-medio- in Brasil has only three years). So, Tuesday morning, after some late night preparation, we presented the church and its beliefs to 300 kids. What a cool experience! We explained who we are –as missionaries—showed a video that explains the doctrine of the restoration, and answered questions, which was fun!

Afterwards we had a table set up with Books of Mormon and pamphlets for people to take and the thirty Books of Mormon we brought disappeared in like 3 minutes—everybody wanted one!

It was an awesome event and I really hope that lots of the students have the desire to learn more, contact the missionaries where they live, visit the church, and get baptized. Telling 300 people at one time about the restored gospel was a rare experience, and I’m grateful to have been a part of it. Should have brought my camera…

This week Elder Oliveira and I were at the bus terminal (rodoviaria) buying the passagens for everybody to Goiania for the transfer. It’s been crazy because the whole mission is coming here for a big meeting with President and Sister Kuceki before they leave. It’s a ton of work being a secretary! E. Oliveira and I talked one day about how, being that it’s his first transfer and executive secretary and my first as financial secretary, we don’t have a choice—we have to learn fast how to do our job! If we don’t, the whole mission falls apart. A little bit of pressure.

I’m tired x 50. I’ve been falling asleep during evening prayers frequently, and in one of our lessons and in church last Sunday, comecei dorrir demais hahaha. There’s a constant pattern in missionary life: tired, stressed, and happy!

I went to see Lucas the dentist this week (the friend of E. Zanuttini and I) and he took out the broken metal wire from my bottom teeth and put in a new one. It was a huge blessing because my teeth were already starting to move. Also, this new wire lets me floss alright, which is great!

I forgot to write this in another letter, but a few weeks ago, Elder Oliveira and I went with irmao Ricardo to another city to visit someone from the ward that had been arrested and put in prison. Last time I was in the Goiania ward he was always helping us out and inviting us over to eat. We gave him a blessing—a direct answer to his prayer the previous night—and comfort him. We’re not sure one way or the other if he is guilty of the accused crime (we think he’s not), but we hope the best for him. It was a spiritual experience.

This week will be absolutely crazy! The whole mission will be here in Goiania! I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures. Sorry I don’t have many pics this week. Semana que vem havera! I hope you all are happy and well. Ate Mais!

Elder Anderson

Brazilian Hamburgers (Are Good)

 Peanuts on sale!

 HamburgerZÃO (x2)

This is excellent

I want to talk about hamburgers in Brasil. They're different. 

For example, I ate a big hamburger this week that was great but had a few ingredientes that we would never find on a hamburger in the US—an egg, a slice of pineapple, mashed potatoes, and corn. It was actually really good! The pineapple part was the best haha. However, American hamburger's are sem dúvida the best in the world. NENHUM lanchonete no Brasil se compara com In'n'Out or Five Guys!

At the place where we buy these hamburgers, they have a challenge: eat 3 hamburgers and drink two milkshakes in 23 minutes and you win 1000 reais of restaurant credit. One of these days I'm going to try it. That'll be a fun weekly letter to read!

This week we set a goal and met it. Presidente wants us to leave the office at 5:00 everyday, and we weren't doing very well with this. It's really easy to work work work work work here in the office because there's just about infinite things to do. Anyway, our goal was to leave on time everyday and only one day this week we left past 5 because we were buying bus tickets for missionaries at the terminal and didn't get back in time. I think we were blessed for this because yesterday was awesome! We taught two great lessons and blessings resulted!

FIrst, we marked baptismal dates with Célia and Paulo, an older mom and son. They've already been to church once and to a family home evening activity also. After a spiritual lesson about the restoration of the gospel, we invited them to be baptized by the same authority by which Christ was baptized and in His church. They have the desire to choose the right and they accepted!

Saturday we made a contact with Aiara and passed by her house yesterday to teach her and her daughter. They are passing through some hard times but after we taught and talked to them, they felt better. We said a powerful prayer with them and we know that through the gospel their lives will change miraculously for the better.

The rest of the week was kind of tough, but walking home last night I was so happy for the fruits of our weekly labors. A mission is a lot like that, working hard for a long time without many results and then suddenly Heavenly Father gives huge blessings because of your diligence. I am so grateful for the blessings I have received in these 10 and a half months here in Brasil. It has been so hard and tiring, but absolutely worth it! I'm grateful I have a whole other year!

I've heard Trump is the nominee. I'll be praying the America makes the right decision. 

I am so happy and grateful here and life couldn't be better! I miss all you guys a ton, but don't worry, before we know it I'll be back. I hope it goes by really fast for you guys but not so fast for me, I love this mission!

Que Deus abençoe vocês!

Elder Anderson

Baptism and Football on P-Day

 In the office!

 I have no idea what I'm doing!

 Batismo de Cristina!!

 Com Cristina

 Animadão!

Batismo e amigos

This week I'm writing my weekly letter during my email time (que está acabando...(which is finishing...)), so it'll be short (instead of sending pictures of my weekly handwritten letter). BUT! It was an awesome week, and I took some good pictures which will tell the story pretty well.

Well the majority of this week was sitting in a little room handling the finances of Missão Brasil Goiânia. The church financial system is back up and I'm realizing how lost I am trying to handle the contracts and interaction with the owners of the 60+ houses the mission rents. Help me. Hahaha, it's going well and I'm learning a lot. Surely it will be an experience that will help me later in the professional world.

Cristina was baptized this week!!!!!!! Só felicidade! Her sister was baptized about a month or two ago and now she made her decision to follow the example of the Savior as well. She actually lives in another area, so it was tough trying to get to her house to teach her during the week, but in the end, it all went well—tudo deu certo!

We played football last P-DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was just maravilhoso. I miss it a ton! It's funny teaching Brazilian's to play hahaha.

Matheus (from Araxá) sent me an email this week with his written testimony. It is so amazing to see how he has progressed spiritually since we met him in front of the supermercado a few months ago. There is nothing better than knowing that my time here in Brasil has truly helped someone become more like Christ.

Thinking about that, I fasted this week to strengthen my testimony of the Savior. I am so grateful for His perfect example and the life He gave for me. As a representative of Him, I want to develop His attributes and help other people just as He would. I hope to always grow in my knowledge and testimony of the only perfect Person that ever walked here on Earth.

Everything is great here in BRASIL! I love you guys tons and hope you all have an awesome week, uma semana ótima! Act like Jesus sempre!

Elder Anderson

Uma Semana De Boa (This week was good)

 Emailing after haircuts!

This week was good.

Right now I’m sitting and writing, waiting for E. Oliveira to get his hair cut. I just cut mine—estava precisando. I wouldn’t call where we are a barber shop, it’s just a small, rented room in a small shopping center. The haircuts here are the equivalent of about $2.85. This is one thing that happens a tone here—people just up and decide to cut hair for a job. It doesn’t require a whole lot of skill and wins a small income; portanto, there’s a ton of ‘cabeleireiros’ in Brazil, or at least in Goiania. It helps out us missionaries!

Being the financial secretary was stressful at first, but as I learn through experience everyday, working and organizing, and fixing problems, it gets easier. There’s still a lot I don’t know, but frequent calls to E. Sweet, E. Zeballos, and E. Morris (former financial secretaries) are a big help. It’s a lot different being in an office all day instead of on the road!

It just happens to be that in my first transfer running the finances of the mission, the entire church financial system shuts down for 10 days….Hahaha. Oh well, pretty soon it’ll be upgraded and running again. I hope no big problem arises during this week and a half! Trying to turn in and approve all the payments before the system closed on Friday was a rush, but in the end it went well—entim, deu certo!

We had little proselyting time this week, yet it was productive. We marked two baptismal dates this week: Cristina, the sister of a recent convert, and Geraldo, a cool old guy with a granddaughter serving a mission. We found Geraldo by just knocking doors. He already has a big connection with the church and wants his grandson, who’s inactive, to serve a mission too! Both of them and Cristina came to church yesterday and like it a lot.

The rest of the weekly follows here:

I just opened my email and saw that DALLIN WAS CALLED TO PORTUGAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Man I'm so excited!!!!! Dallin, you'll do great there and you'll love Portuguese!! It'll be so fun to speak it with each other our whole lives! A mission is the greatest thing in the world and I'm so glad you will have this experience!!!!!!!!! After seeing this, I'm so happy and excited and there couldn't be a better way to start his week! Hope you all have an awesome 7 days and start learning about Portugal!!!!!!!

Elder Anderson

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

Is This Even Brasil?

 BRASIL

 The Staff (plus E. Lacerda)

 On top of the office building! (x2)

 Up top

 Eu e E. Lacerda

 Bom dia Goiânia! (x2)

 Com Paola! (in Araxá)

Good transfer = Good pizza (Araxá)

It’s been cold this week. That’s weird. Since I left the U.S. during summer, it’s been like 15 months since I’ve been in cold weather. Thursday was the cold day. It was cloudy and windy and cold. Probably the temperature wasn’t less than 50 degrees, but in Brasil, that’s frio!! The question ‘Is this even Brasil?’ passed through my mind as I felt chilled for the first time in South America. However, talking with other missionaries about our experience being robbed definitely reassured me that yes, I am still in this country. Haha!

Because of the cold, I got sick. Woohoo! I got some type of flu…(but it wasn’t H1N1 because I was vaccinated for that in Uberaba a month ago). It was similar to the sickness I had when I was with E. Zanuttini, including weakness, headache, fever, and amongst other symptoms, the weirdest—extreme pain in the neck. It’s really esquisito. I don’t know how this is caused, but yesterday afternoon and especially last night, I couldn’t move my head because my neck hurt too bad. It was pretty funny because I had to rotate my whole body to look for cars to cross the road, since I couldn’t look over my shoulder. It looked really funny so E. Morris and I laughed but when I laughed it hurt worse hahaha. Anyway, I made it home, got a Priesthood blessing, and after a good sleep, I’m feeling way better today! I’m grateful.

Training to be the next financial secretary is going great! Usually, training lasts a whole transfer—6 weeks, I’ll have 1. So, it’s been a pretty intense week! E. Morris, the current secretario financero leaves tomorrow, I’ll have to call him a ton for help haha!

I’ve learned a lot the past few days about what I’ll be doing for the next several months. I’m pretty much the mission’s accountant, making sure that after I pay all the rents, water, and energy bills, and other expenses everything is balanced. I take care of reimbursements, house contracts, mission debit cards, maintenance services, and everything else related to finances in the mission. It’s a lot, but really interesting stuff and I like it a lot! I’ll explain more about what I’ll be doing as the months go by.

As always, it was an awesome week. Things are going excellently in Araxá too! I called E. Lisboa yesterday, and he said that there were 26 at church (the most when I was there was 17) and 8 were investigators!! Matheus and Jady were confirmed and Matheus received the Aaronic Priesthood! Man it was so good to hear all this. E. Lisboa and E. Oñate are continuing the tradition of hard work that we started and the results will continue to be miraculous.

I hope and pray that all is well in the USA! I miss my country. There's a little American flag in my office, and it makes me happy haha! Continue choosing the right and doing all kinds of good stuff. Also, I CAN`T WAIT FOR SKYPE! This Sunday will be awesome! Haha, I love you all, have a great semana!

E. Anderson