Fruits on Trees

 Bebendo tereré

 It's like chimarrão but cold and sweet instead of hot and bitter

 My shirt still needed some ironing after I had already putten it on and so I improvised. Putting a book on the inside provides a solid surface on which to pass the hot iron :D

 E. Brandão got to the apartment 4:00 am after returning from a meeting in Goiânia and he brought the package from....Elder Sweet! Even though it was 4am I got pretty excited

 Yum! (My tan line is bad, wow)...and that hair! (mom's comment!)

 The lunch we made on Friday, Kodiak Cakes!

ESTE CHOCOLATE FOI INCRÍVEL!

  A caixa e seu conteúdo

 All kinds of good stuff

 After a great day of missionary work

 A galera! Todos os Elderes de Patos de Minas

 Some pics from the road

 I'm going to cut my hair today

 Patos de Minas is the national capital of corn (milho)

 Eu amo Brasil

E. Brandão and I in front of one of the best acerola trees in town

One of the greatest things about Brasil has to be that you can frequently find a snack just dangling over your head as you walk down the road. There’s a ton of fruit trees here. Just this week I ate acerola, goiaba, and limao as we walked on the street during the day. It’s pretty great! A lot of times there’s kids climbing trees to get mangoes and other fruits haha; one time in Goiania some kids gave me 4 ripe jambos! There’s lof of fruit here that doesn’t exist in the US. Go look up on Google the ones I already have written and also maracuja, pequi (eu amo pequi! Mas muitas pessoas nao gostam kk), jaca, and caja-manga. There’s quite a variety and many fruits I don’t even know yet.

There are a lot of motorcycles here and I think it’d be pretty cool to have one but it’s definitely not worth it. This week and accident happened 80 yards behind us. A guy on a moped ran into a kid on a bike. The kid walked away just fine, but the guy on a moped got scraped up pretty bad and probably broke his leg and a few ribs. I pray he has a smooth recovery. Within 3 minutes of the accident there had appeared a group of about 20 people at the scene. Nobody knew the injured person, but all were willing to help him, offering their phones for him to contact his family. It reminded me that “somos todos irmaos”. 

ELDER SWEET SENT ME A PACKAGE!! I got so happy haha. He sent me a bunch of great candy and a sincere letter about the mission that helped me a lot. He's one of the best friends from my mission, and it was neat to see that he still remembers me kkkk. A shout out to him if he ever reads this!

We worked hard this week, and it was awesome. The happy thing is that we found a bunch of good families to teach and felt the Spirit guiding us to find and teach them. We invited them all to church and had faith that all of them would come. The sad thing is that only one person came. It's hard to work with people! I know that I can't control the agency of other people, but I have faith that if we continue working diligently then the Lord will bless us with people to teach who are sincerely seeking the truth.

It was Maria Helena who came to church. we're going to help her be baptized this week! If not this week, soon afterwards her 12 year old son will be baptized too. Só milagres!

I PASSED THE YEAR AND A HALF MARK! Doido demais. My mission is passing quickly. I'm almost done with a fast that I'm doing to finish strong and receive inspiration to set goals that will help me work as well as I can until the end. I love being a missionary and am so glad I have 5 more months! Vai ser ótimo. Continuemos e cresçamos na fé!

Elder Anderson

Some Good Manual Labor!

 My (not) white shirt after moving dirt

 An acerola tree

My new companion, Elder Brandão, de Rio Grande do Sul

 

!There's a few of these trees around town, and it's nice to pick a few acerolas for a snack during the day.

Me in front of the "pé de acerola"

I think Heavenly Father heard how many times I said “I  miss working like this with my Dad at home” to E. Gomez whenever we passed men working on a home improvement or construction project alongside the road, because E. Guzman and I (I was with him for a day while I waited for E. Brandao to get here. I was in the MTC with E. Guzman and it was awesome to work with him for a day!) had the chance to do some good manual labor. We were going to teach a family, and when we got there, they were taking a break from moving a truckload of dirt from the front to the back of their house. There was still a big pile left, and although they tried to convince us to keep our white shirts clean, we got the shovel and wheelbarrow and finished the job in about 30 minutes. It had been so long since I last did yard work and it was awesome! It was 100% worth getting a little dirty. Just about everyone the rest of the day asked us what had happened to make us so dirty haha. After we finished carrying the dirt, we taught them a lesson from Alma 7, invited them to church, and marked to visit them a few days later.

That was a good experience at that house. When we returned, we had a bad one. The dad was totally drunk, sleeping on top of a pile of wood outside the house. One of the 3 kids tried to wake him up. He entered a state of stupid madness that I think only a drug could cause, picked up a large brick, and hobbled/stumbled/ran around and through the tiny house to find the kid who had awakened him. When he threw the brick, the kid had already disappeared around the corner but it almost nailed E. Brandao in the shin. Whoa.

I immediately looked at E. Brandao and said  “I’m so grateful for my parents!”—never, ever have I had to fear a drunken parent. Mom and Dad, thank you so much for raising me with kindness and love always. Here I constantly realize how incredibly blessed I am to have you as parents. The gospel blesses families!

We quickly left and certainly won’t return. It was a tragic and eye-opening little experience.

Every week has its ups and downs, and this week had a lot more ups than downs! My new companion, E. Brandao is awesome. He has a lot of experience as a zone leader and with working efficiently. I know I’ll learn a lot from him in his last transfer.

We’re teaching a mom and son, Maria Helena and Joel, that are progressing really well. After a few invitations they finally read the Book of Mormon and loved it. This Sunday they came to church, like it a lot, and are excited for a branch activity on Wednesday. We’re preparing them to be baptized on the 21^st!

6 of the 12 missionaries of Patos were transferred this week, and 6 new ones arrived. They got here with energy and faith, and we’re going to have a lot of success here with them! E. Brandao and I are going to work with specific goals and effective plans and vai dar certo demais.

IT HAS BEEN SO HOT HERE!!!! Usually the cities in Minas Gerais are cooler than those in Goias, but this week we about melted and fried. I’m using sunscreen every day, but I still think I come home with a red face, arms, and neck haha. Brazil is great mas quente pra caramba!

I hope that 2017 is going well in the great USA! It’s starting out as a good year here.

Confiemos em Cristo!

Elder Anderson

2017!

Another picture from the baptism last week!

 Midnight fireworks from our room window—FELIZ ANO NOVO!

Kodiak Cakes are now the best pancakes in Brasil!

The only full year I might ever spend outside of the United States ended this week.  I clearly remember December 31, 2015 because I thought about how crazy it was to be beginning the first full year of my life in a foreign country, and since that day when I thought that, time has flowwwwwwn. It was the greatest year of my life! I grew and learned so much. This mission is incredible even though I haven’t gone to school in a year and a half, I’ve learned more in this time that will contribute to my mortal life than in 5 years of school. There are so many blessings I could fill pages, but maybe I won’t write all of them this week---it would take all P-Day to write the first third!

This week we had an awesome leadership meeting with President and Sister Buhrer. They’re great. President spoke a lot about obedience—it really is important. He taught us how to lead a good zone meeting and gave us counsel on how to lead our zones. Also, we were told the transfers that will happen this week. E. Gomez is returning to Guatemala after two solid years and my new companion will be Elder Brandoa from Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

I’m really excited to work with him, and I hope the rest of the changes in the zone will help. E. Brandao, like E. Gomez, is at the end of his mission and so I’ll be the last companion of two missionaries in a row haha. It’ll be great. It’s crazy that now I have only 4 more transfers. Time flies, and I think it flies more like a NASA space shuttle than a Brazilian toucan.

I think cousin McKay in Taiwan explains a six-week transfer very well in the following quote from one of his weekly emails, “We were just talking about how crazy time is out here. It seemed that when we were being trained, a transfer of six weeks was so long. It seemed to have a full other world packed into those six weeks. Now being in the field for a while, you blink your eyes and six weeks go by. It seems that the same amount of miracles, blessings, stories, salvation is still packed in, BUT TIME FLIES. So strange. Anyways, transfers come and go.”

One thing I often think here is this: I wish I could copy my desire to work and paste it into the minds and hearts of other missionaries. Well, it certainly doesn’t work like that. Anyway, a mission is an opportunity to learn how to work with various people.

This week my sister mission ends! The sisters that got here with me will be going home. Doido! If 2 years is fast then 18 months if really, really fast.

As for goals this year, I haven’t had much success in reaching conclusions about my New Year’s resolutions. The only solid goal I’ve made so far is to write in my journal every day until the end of my mission. I was only writing 1-3 days a week, and I want to be able to remember well each day I had during my mission. I’m 100% with this goal so far (easy—only one full day has passed!).

I’m excited for 2017, for the marvelous work of the Lord to be done here in Patos de Minas, and for another great transfer of my mission. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ!

Elder Anderson 

White Christmas

 Downtown Patos de Minas from a distance

Batismo do Butina! (do Edson):

  

  

It's finally time to open it!

Christmas joy (w/o flash kk) 

 Christmas joy (with flash)

 Batismo do Helio!

 Merry Christmas from Zona Patos de Minas!

 Feliz Natal!

 Animados pra caramba!

 Irmão Edinho tá cansado kk

Christmas lunch, Almoço de Natal

This was a special Christmas! I think a white Christmas by snow here in Patos de Minas is nearly impossible, but this year we had a white Christmas by baptism! Edson, who’s more commonly known by his nick-name, Butina (Boo-CHEE-na, kind of weird in English, I know kk), was baptized on Christmas Eve—na vespera de Natal! His best friend Gabriel got baptized about two months ago, and although he initially had no desire to visit the church, he eventually came to the sound conclusion that it was the right thing for him. I think he looks like a Brazilian version of Dallin haha.

The next day, Christmas Day, the sisters of our branch also had a baptism, a great man called Helio. It was a neat experience to witness people entering into a covenant with the Lord during the commemoration of the Savior’s birth!

Even though it was Christmas week and lots of people were traveling, we worked hard to find and teach people. It was nice being able to relax and Christmas Day knowing that we had worked hard all week.

Christmas Eve we had an amazing little dinner with Irma Ivanilda, a sweet old lady who loves us missionaries. She served us so well to help us feel like we were at home, and I admired her example of charity.

Certainly the best part of the week was……SKYPE!!!!! It was incredible being able to talk to you guys—Dallin in Portugal (speaking some Portuguese with him was so fun!) and Dad, Mom, Tyler, Heidi, Natalie, Katie, and Bryce at home. I love and miss you all so much! I hope Mother’s Day comes quick so we can Skype again J.

I hope everyone had an awesome Christmas! I miss spending the Christmas season in the US with the family, but I sure am glad I’m here.

Feliz Natal para todos e Feliz Ano Novo!

Elder Anderson 

Feliz Natal! And the True Church

 Elder Martins!

 Today's going to be a great day!

 Altura dos Elderes! (Height of the Elders) I'm not the shortest to have served in Guanabara! Brasil is actually pretty great because I don't feel as short as I did in the US, hahaha!

 Mmmmmmmm

 Manga

 Elder Banz!

 Elder Stafford!

 Presidente Bührer!

Always representing Central

I bought a whole kilo of Raisins this week!!! It was 15 reais which is about 4 dollars. I bought them on Monday and finished the last ones of Friday. It didn’t even last me five days! I like raisins and can eat muitas. Coisa boa.

Gessiley was confirmed today! (I’m writing this part on Sunday night). She’s great and already participating as if she were a lifelong member. We had a lesson with her today, and she asked about the organization of the church from President Thomas S. Monson to the bottom. We explained it all from the First Presidency and Apostles until Bishops and branch presidents. It was the first time I’ve ever completely explained the church’s hierarchal organization in my life, I think. It was cool.

I am so grateful to belong to the true church of Jesus Christ. There are few thoughts more comforting than this. I know that God’s true church was restored through the prophet Joseph Smith, that Thomas S. Monson is the living prophet, that there are 12 living apostles, and that Jesus Christ leads His Church through this, the organizations that He established and reestablished. My testimony of the restoration of the gospel grows every day. I’m grateful not only for being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, but also for representing the Lord’s church every day. It’s a marvelous experience.

A lot of people here say “a church’s name doesn’t save anyone.” That’s true, but they say it to mean “no single church is necessary to reach salvation.” That’s wrong. As an explanation: Jesus said in John 3:5 that no one can enter the kingdom of heaven without being baptized. Ephesians 4:5 declares there is only one baptism, the correct one as clarified in Lucas 12:50 (people often quote Ephesians to say you can only be baptized once, independent of the manner of baptism. Clearly that’s not true. This ‘one’ baptism means one correct manner and not one time only. This is clear in Luke (I’m sorry, I wrote Lucas the first time, that’s what it is in Portuguese haha) 12:50. Also, if one were baptized by not by the true baptism, how would he be prohibited from being baptized once more with the correct baptism?). What is the correct baptism? Mark 10:38—the same baptism with which Jesus was baptized. He is the perfect example in all things! His baptism included the following essential elements: Immersion, age of accountability, and authority from God, which John the Baptist held. In anywhere in the world you can find sufficient water to immerse someone (well, maybe not in the Sahara and maybe not in Georgia during the last few months of drought!) and people with an age of personal accountability (being 8 years old, as revealed to the prophet Joseph Smith). Authority of God, the Holy Priesthood, does not find itself so easily, however. It is passed from someone who holds it to another through the laying on of hands, as we see in Acts 6 and 13. Jesus gave this authority to his 12 apostles. When the Savior and His apostles were killed, the Priesthood was lost and the line of authority abruptly halted. The organization of prophet and apostles (Ephesians 2:19-20) was lost. If apostolic authority were passed to others and had continued for many years after the death of the original apostles, the Bible would have continued. When Peter, James, and John appeared to Joseph Smith in 1829, they restored the Priesthood through the laying on of hands. Today this authority is passed to worthy men of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Therefore it is only this church that has the authority required to perform the true baptism and thus enable people to enter the kingdom of God.

Note: After writing this I gave a look in the English KJV and realized that Luke 12:50 has a meaning in English different than that in Portuguese. In the Portuguese Joao Ferreria de Almeida version Lucas 12:50 reads “It is important that one be baptized with one correct (also: right, certain) baptism…” I refer to this interpretation in the previous paragraph.

Isn’t it a blessing that we have the Book of Mormon and modern day revelation to clarity the confusion which resulted after centuries of worldwide apostasy?

This week was awesome! We had a great Christmas activity in Uberlandia with the missionaries from there, Uberaba, and Patos. It was fun to relax, see friends, play ping-pong, talk to President and Sister Buhrer, and commemorate the Savior’s birth.

I CAN’T WAIT FOR SKYPE ON CHRISTMAS!!! It’ll be great. Feliz Natal! J

Elder Anderson 

Um Batismo e Uma Conferencia

 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