(Week 5) Chapter 5: Everyone's So Excited For The Second Coming And I'm Over Here Just Trying to Count How Many Times I Had To Repent Today

McKasson was really sick today and Gardner, Kenison, and I spent about four hours running around trying to find a fictitious doctor I've never seen, and I'm not 100% sure exists. I've head he's around, just conveniently never when he's needed. Portuguese is becoming fun, now that I can say pretty much what I want to, conversations are becoming a lot more interesting. My teacher told us today that he loved us but that another teacher was going to talk to us for a half hour, I told him, "your actions speak louder than your words" and he said, "Oh! Elder Anderson!" and had me hug him which was a tad awkward because I had never heard the word for 'hug' before, and left him hanging for a looong time.

As far as the day goes for me, it was pretty mundane: Gardner and I absolutely killed it in TRC [Elder Anderson's grandma who is serving as a missionary, just shared that this stands for Teaching Resource Center], I'm beginning to be able to speak fast and a couple of sentences I've said today were as good as native speakers. We've gotten good enough that Pereira wanted us to pass along our knowledge to her new district, it was weird to see new kids in the place I was in just yesterday. She made me promise to be good, I told her I was always good. She teases me a lot, it's all in fun, she's an amazing teacher!  We tried to assuage their minds and I got to bear my testimony in Portuguese which was cool, I think that was the first time for me. Tonight Presidente Milder came in and started joking with us that our hair was too short, I said I'd try to repent and lengthen my hair by pulling on it tonight, he thought that was pretty great. Turns out I'm not so great at remembering promises though because then I started teaching everyone all the important words I know like 'beleza' [beautiful] and 'facao' [machete] which is necessary to know for Brazilians.

I love my district so much, tonight we were learning comparatives and our teacher said, "It's bigger. It's better" (in English) which was a big mistake because we're all huge Incredibles fans and all shouted out in perfect unison, "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, IT'S TOO MUCH FOR MR. INCREDIBLE, WOAH, WOAH, WOAH" and Irmao Vianna was so scared, it was hilarious! 

This week I got to give a couple of blessings which was so cool, I've learned so much about the Spirit, my district is just amazing. Presidente Oppe said it was a choice district of God and I believe him wholeheartedly, we're learning so much so quickly, I'm so grateful to be here.

Muito amor,

Elder Anderson

Bonus Material:

Elder Anderson and I (Mom) were able to talk this morning!!!!  It was awesome to hear his voice!  Here are a few more details about mission life, in case you're interested...

I told him that he was cutting out and that I couldn't hear him very well and he sighed and said, "Oh menino" (which means "Oh boy")

He said that he feels like he's understanding so much more from the Book of Mormon as he is reading it in the CTM.

They have a panini maker at the CTM that makes the most delicious ham and cheese sandwiches in the morning.

He and the other missionaries receive R$7.50 (Brazilian Real--he pronounced it like we would pronounce Euro) everyday to spend on food from the vending machine.  This is great because they have their big meal of the day at 11:00 in the morning, and so later in the day he is hungry, and is grateful to be able to buy some bars from the machine.  He says he has a bunch of bars in his suitcase.

Sister Shock, a missionary in his district, is doing really well with the language.  He and the other missionaries are trying hard to stay up with her.  She is setting a good example for them.

He is only writing home about 1/10 of what he is writing in his journal.  He has already filled up 1/3 of his journal.  He went out and tried to buy some paper, but it was really expensive.  (I told him to keep writing and that we'll send him more journals!)

He spends about 6 hours a day in class trying to learn and practice Portuguese.  He enjoys this, but it is also draining.

Tomorrow he and his district are planning to visit the Sao Paulo Temple, which will give him an opportunity to upload all of his pictures he's been taking on his camera. He probably won't be able to send much of an email next week, other than to say that he is alive, because he'll be traveling to Manaus next Tuesday!  It's hard for him to believe that one month of his mission has already passed by, because he feels like it hasn't really started yet.

He told me 4 times how grateful he is for different blessings (a treat we sent from home, the panini maker, money from the CTM to buy extra food, and that he was able to talk with me.)  He may have said that he was grateful even more than that, but his voice cut out quite a few times.  His mission is helping him grow into a better man and that makes me grateful!

(Week 4) Chapter 4: Just Be Yoursel-umm...

Brother Vianna, Elder A's teacher, with some of the district

 

P-day haircut before shots:

Hair cut after shots:

Today's message from Elder Anderson is different from his previous messages.  He and I tried to have a Google Hangout--"tried" is the key word here.  Apparently, he could see and hear me, but I couldn't see or hear him--nothing. 

Instead, we texted for a little bit, which ate into his time to type his long weekly message, so this week I'll be posting his shorter weekly message along with what he texted to me.

Weekly Message:
  
Chapter Four: Just Be Yoursel-umm...

I love hearing from so many people and was glad for the chance to try to talk to you today but I'll only have enough time to share one story so I'm going to talk about proselyting.
We only went proselyting for a hour and a half but it was the best thing ever! We met some really cool people and got a ton of rejections, but that's okay, I'm learning how to talk to people. We met two people, Daniela who was super nice and willing to talk to us, and Giovanni, who is a painter. I practiced a lot of art language to tell people about my hobbies and ended up using it to the max to talk to Giovanni, it was so cool! I really related to someone and it made him even more interested to talk about the gospel.

Love you,
Elder Anderson

  

Texted Message:

I love the ctm, it's so much fun here

Yesterday we spoke only in Portuguese for the whole day, the language is coming amazing

Whenever I'm talking to people I can understand what's going on, Saturday we went proselyting and I talked to a ton of people and even got two contacts

When people talk, I can understand, and when I talk people can usually understand

It's pretty much to the point where I can say anything I want but usually not in the most direct way I'd like to

If dad asks, my conjugation is still not that amazing but my district thinks I'm amazing at talking

[I responded and told Brian that he has been blessed with the gift of tongues.]

I know I [have], I'm learning to really rely on faith and it's been great, I know everything will work out well

It's so cool to get to learn so much, every day I learn so much, yesterday I got to give a blessing, everything here is just one awesome Sunday

Bonus Material:

Elder Anderson's teachers, Brother Vianna and Sister Pereira, have been so nice to share some pictures of Elder A with his district.  (This is really appreciated because the only time that Elder A has access to WiFi to transmit pictures is when he is going to the Sao Paulo Temple, which unfortunately is closed for maintenance from August 12 - August 26.)  Thanks to Sister Pereira's pictures we got to see some before and after shots of the haircuts that Elder A and his buddies in his district received on their last P-day at the CTM.  By the way, my husband tells me that buzz cuts are pretty standard in the CTM, since they're such quick cuts to perform, a lot of missionaries can receive hair cuts quickly! 😁

Thanks to the emails from Elder A's teachers that are sent to all of the missionary parents in Elder A's district, we parents have been able to connect with one another.  Elder Gardner's mom (who is the mother of Elder A's companion) and I spoke on the phone last week and she told me that her son shared that Elder A found a lizard with him in the shower last Tuesday morning.  My husband assures me that there are harmless lizards all around Brazil and that they probably help keep bugs down to more of a minimum, so I guess I won't worry too much about this visitor! 😅

(Week 3) Chapter 3: He Totally Ammoned That Guy

Elder Anderson with his companion, Elder Gardner, at the Sao Paulo Temple

 With his district

The next three shots are with his district and one of his teachers

Elder Anderson cameo at 4:20 in this video of the missionaries at the MTC singing "How Great Thou Art"

8/6

Today to demonstrate what an effective companionship looks like, Vienna [his teacher] and I told a story together, we didn't know what the other would say so it turned out pretty interesting, it went something like this:

Vienna: so this one time, I heard about this guy who went on daily walks, and on his walk one day he came across some robbers

Me: Fortunately he had a facao [machete] 

V: so these robbers charged him

M: The first one got some MMA [mixed martial arts] action and ended up concussed flat on the ground

V: The second one went for a jab

M: and got Ammoned

I love these classes, I'm learning so many things! One [Elder] isn't learning so much though, he's in the hospital, but we gave him a blessing so I'm not too worried. We spent all day running around doing stuff for him so that was a blast, but I didn't mind. We went to Campinas temple which was really huge and I had so much good food, pday really is the best day ever. Our angel teacher brought us Brigadeiro [a chocolate dessert] which was awesome.

8/8 

We started teaching people in Portuguese yesterday, we have this mock investigator named Pedro and he's really cool, but teaching in a language you don't really know can be... difficult. I gave the "investigator" my Livro De Mormon which my teacher said to do because we would get it back, but he didn't give it back after and I could really use it again... I'm pretty sure it's destined for an investigator so I'm going to keep looking for it.

8/10

My room mate, Gomes's voice is so awesome, I've gotten used to saying "Anderson" in the really deep, booming way he says it: "HANDERZONE" and when these training teachers asked everyone's names and my turn came (I was looking up a word in my dictionary) without pausing or looking up I defaulted to saying my name Gomes's way, and that's how those teachers met their first group of students. They thought it was pretty funny but I think it might have scared them too.

8/11

Today at choir practice we got to deal with the musical version of Gordon Ramsey. We finished our song and I thought "wow! That was great!" and musical Gordon Ramsey said the opposite, read my mind, and crushed my dreams. I also got two seconds of my EDM [electronic dance music] when for a devotional tonight, the IT guys accidentally blasted an awesome beat. Then, later when a girl was playing a nice violin solo, it came back for a half second, just enough time to scream "GO" and pump everyone up.

8/12

Someone broke into our room. I assume. There is now a machined cut out of the door making it pretty easy to unlock from outside. The dead give away that someone had been here though was the floor. When we walked in, it was completely uncovered, which was odd because while our room definitely is not dirty, we came back and everything was perfectly organized. Who broke in? What were they looking for? How OCD do you have to be before you start cleaning the places you break into? Why is "red" so weird in Portuguese? I have many questions and I want answers.

This week was so good! My scripture study is going awesome and Elder Gardner and I get along great. Say hi to the family for me!

Elder Anderson

(Week 2) Chapter 2: Why Can't Everyone Just Speak English Like a Normal Person?

Elder Anderson in class with his district.




Elder Anderson with all of the new missionaries that arrived on July 24, at the Sao Paulo, Brazil Missionary Training Center.




CTM life is awesome, so much happened this week and I didn't even get to say everything last time that I wanted to, so we'll see how much I get through today. I'll start listing things off from the day after my last email:


7/31
Today was my first P-day! It was awesome to get out but waking up at 4:45 was not a blast. Today was definitely the recharge day though. Since this was technically our second Wednesday, we knew some good places to check out. It helped that our teacher was willing to tour us around too, we had such a blast and got to see so many beautiful things. The reason we woke up so early this morning was to go to the temple, the Sao Paulo temple, it was amazing on the inside! We met the new batch of kids, now that we've been here for a week it's a crazy confidence boost. We were having fun with all the kids, teaching them important words like "machete".

8/1
Today after multiple days of praying to know how to help my companion, I got my answer, it came while we were practicing with each other about faith and I got the prompting that as he would feast on the scriptures, the homesickness would stop, he wouldn't stop caring, just stop hurting, and I had to double check with the Spirit before I said anything like, "you sure about this?" and I felt the reassurance so I told him, and asked him to commit to feasting on the words of Christ and he said that he would, it made me incredibly happy.

Kenison got a mosquito bite on his neck and the conversation that ensued was too beautiful to not write down, so here goes:
Kenison: why do you guys leave your screen open?
Anderson: I don't know, we could close it, I guess
Kenison: Do you just like getting bug bites?
Anderson: Nah, but I do like necking with them
Kenison: McKassen, Why do I tell you anything, why do you tell Anderson anything?
McKassen: Hey, don't blame me for your weird obsessions
Gardner: You were necking with a bug? That is so gross.
Kenison: *defeated sigh*
I know it's a tad unbecoming of a missionary but I'm glad we're bonding, I worried that we wouldn't get along at first.


8/2
Today we went on a field trip to the police station, we spent four hours being fingerprinted, it was a blast! I semi understood what the police ladies said to me and I wasn't tackled to the ground so I guess my fingerprints were clean. I spent the majority of the time just talking to Kenison which was a blast because we didn't get along very well at first, he would belittle me occasionally, but now we're clicking, so everything's going well.

My roommate Gomez has been making good use of my dictionary, he just called out Kenison who is a tad chubby and said, "hey man, you are a beautiful man" and the rest of us laughed our heads off while Kenison looked around like, "great, who gave him that?" Also, Steed told me today that I'm a great district leader, and that he's super impressed, he's such a good guy, I have been worrying about measuring up a lot.

8/3
"I feel like if we were to write scriptures they would be normal books, Anderson would write Alma" -McKassen
I love how great we're getting along, even little teasing jokes are starting and I never would have imagined I could get along with these people: McKassen was talking about a girl he thinks is really pretty that he went to high school with and sat next to in seminary but when her district asked her about McKassen she was completely unaware of his existence, and he said, "oh well, can't get all of them" and Kenison muttered "...or any of them" poor McKassen 😂
I feel like I'm learning so fast, I love the gift of tongues!

8/4
Today was my first fast Sunday at the MTC, it was such a great experience! The ZLs asked if Kenison and I would bless the sacrament so I got to do that in Portuguese, but the part of the meeting I liked the most was the testimony meeting. As it turns out, I just cry all the time now. Hopefully that will stop when I'm off my mission. I must be doing something right to invite the spirit though, because when I bore my testimony (it was directed a lot at my district) one of the Sisters in my zone started crying and thanked me for what I said, a lot of other people said that I teach with the spirit too. I forgot to say last week but the branch President who called me, President Oppe said to tell my family that I'm a special spirit, and I've felt the spirit like nothing else here. 

We had a lesson today and the speaker gave me paper and since I was trying to stay awake, I drew him, and gave him the thing, which he loved, maybe this drawing thing will be a useful tool. At one point in his lesson, we were talking about tasting the fruit of the Spirit and he gave us all candy to show us through physical senses what investigators would experience, and it was pretty awesome, so I asked, "and if they should desire to taste more?" Which made people laugh and his wife turned around smiling to see who the smart alec was.

I've gotten to give more blessings which is awesome because you feel the spirit so much when you're trying to understand how God sees the person you're blessing. I'm doing great with the language, I feel bad because the rest of my district is still kind of freaking out about everything that we're supposed to do so I've been trying to do more group meetings on our purpose, like testimony meetings to try to help everyone feel the comfort of the Spirit. I'm sleeping fine and I found my shower sandals so that's awesome, I think sometimes people are annoyed that I'm upbeat, upbeat and that I'm not dead meat, dead meat, at times like breakfast; we have the same 3 meals every day and every morning I'm like, "sweet! Ham and cheese sandwiches!" and people are like, "are you for real?" but I'm having a blast! I'm learning lots and have found a real love for the scriptures. I also heard a hilarious line from McKassen this week when he was frustrated with Portuguese and said "Why Can't Everyone Just Speak English Like a Normal Person?"

My companion's name is Tate Gardner and he's so cool, he's over his homesickness and now we're just doing amazing.

Take care!
Elder Anderson