(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! 😅