(Week 10) Chapter 10: The Real Justin Timberlake

A watercolor composite Elder Anderson painted of the Missionary Training Center and a flower from the temple.

A really beautiful picture of the Campinas Temple

This enormous spider was in Elder Anderson's house last week.

 The rain pouring down!

Elder Anderson and Elder Steed 

The last pictures are from Elder Anderson's house.  This is his bed, he's learned to keep a fan blowing on him as he sleeps to help keep the mosquitoes off of him.

Notice the rope going down the room (it's their clothesline, since they don't have a clothes dryer.)

Fridge, bathroom, and washing machine.

9/24

Today was a little disappointing, we had three lessons planned and none of them worked out. One lady even said, "oh yeah, right now won't work out, but come back in an hour and I'll be ready for you guys." So we rearranged our schedule to make things work, and when we came back, she had cleared out. Kasnocha asked me if I wanted to do more with lessons earlier and I was like, "yes! Finally!" so I prepped a lot to teach about the restoration. Maybe one day. I shouldn't be so pessimistic though, there were some amazing things today. We had a district reunion but only with part of our district, I guess the Sisters and Elder Steed and Walisson weren't able to make it. The fact that an Elder knew how to not starve to death blew their minds and they asked if I would make breakfast. They all marveled as I made eggs. We also stopped by the house one of our investigators. He was already a pretty promising investigator, the rest of his family also is kind of interested, but he's really interested. Anyways, he actually prayed to know whether or not this was the right church to join. Today when we came back, he told us about his response. I'm not sure about the heritage of these people, but I'm pretty sure at least some of them are through [the tribe of] Manasseh, because this guy had a dream. He said that night after he prayed that he dreamed he was in darkness, searching. He saw my companion and I, and we called to him. He came to us and we led him to light. That was all I understood, but that kind of blew my mind. We've been working pretty hard without much fruit for Brazil standards and this reminded me of the promise that if we do our part, the Lord will do His. He certainly did His part! We played football again today, I didn't have as much success as last time, but I still got a goal. We also had what I thought was great mango juice at lunch, but the Brazilians don't seem to be obsessed with mangos. Weird.

9/25

The Brazil rainstorms I've heard so much about are finally starting. Fortunately we were never caught in the rain though until the end of the day. Kasnocha was extra motivated today so we got to go out in the morning too today, we did some great work. The first people that we went to visit were especially cool for me, it's that family that we're not really teaching because Kasnocha says that we need to gain their trust. I talked to the dad for probably 45 minutes, no exaggeration, which is definitely the longest conversation I've ever had one-on-one with a person before (Kasnocha was busy channeling his inner photographer taking photos of their super nice house they're remodeling. We talked about interests and life in America vs. Brazil. We both understood each other which was a huge confidence builder for me, and it wasn't awkward at all, maybe Kasnocha's Social Missionary is rubbing off on me. We had a great lesson with one of our more promising investigators, and she prayed at the end, which was a first for her, I think. We also taught this girl, Hiase for the first time. We started talking to her about her life, she's 17 and married with no kids, which is pretty rare for Brazil. I asked her if we could pray to start. She said no. I kind of choked there and was like, "oh. Ummm..." and fortunately Kasnocha came to the rescue and said, "cool, we're going to do one at the end though, okay?" and then I taught all the great stuff I had prepped for people before about the restoration. My companion really likes using the pamphlets which I'm not quite as fond of because I feel like they just hold me back, but I did a good job of tying in my testimonies to the points on the pamphlets. It was so cool! She really understood! Kasnocha didn't even have to translate my sentences like he usually does. I was really led by the Spirit. Then I realized she didn't care. She's the second person like that we've taught, and I guess we had to find more eventually, oh well. Then Kasnocha bought me açaí to celebrate (that we taught so well, not that we found another not so interested person). I hope I stay in this area for a looong time.

9/26

Today was so cool! After I finished writing last night, I got ready for bed, layed down to sleep, and Torres called to tell me he forgot that I was supposed to be on splits right then, so I got up and someone called an Uber to take Kasnocha and I to a faraway land. I made breakfast for everyone again, and it was awesome! Well, it tasted awesome, I used a stick pan (it's like a nonstick pan, but the surface is coated in superglue and the pan is filled with hatred for humanity) and a metal spoon as a spatula, but the sections of egg that didn't have chunks of metal glued to them were pretty good. I shouldn't downplay it, it was good enough that even super depressed Elder Luis came out of his coccoon of love to eat it; Last time he didn't so this is improvement. Then the Elders there were like, "cool, thanks, bye" and Kasnocha and I returned to our area without speaking to a single person in that area we did "splits" in. Actually, I guess I did talk to a lady in the morning to buy eggs, I hope that touched her life. We met new people today and really hit it off with them, we talked to them for an hour and a half and I even understood a good amount! We also played football with a bunch of kids, I'm officially renamed as, "The American", and did pretty great; Although more importantly, I taught them about the magic of good sportsmanship and encouraging others, and even though Kasnocha kicked them down multiple times, and then kicked them while they were down, and then kicked their emotions, they had a blast because I got them cheering each other on. The kids really liked me after that and they're all super excited to talk to me, which is a problem; They all have the same terrible accent where they mash their "s" sounds, and trying to understand them reminds me of talking to Emily's little sister, the "huh?" girl. I got to play with Anabela and a bunch of her friends, which was even more fun because I understood them! Then they went inside the church to do choir, so I invited myself to bring the bass to their soprano voices. The choir leader was pretty amused, apparently even tone deaf people like me sing better than Brazilians though, so she didn't kick me out. One of the really promising families bible bashed pretty hard with Kasnocha tonight, I did everything in my power to invite the Spirit and just listen, and occasionally testify. We left with good feelings because of that, but I don't know if we'll get to return. I got promised a daughter to take to wife again, so I guess now they'll have to fight each other, and maybe while they do I can sneak off and get away from these crazy people. Maybe if I live a life of solitude in a cave somewhere eating bugs to survive I'll be safe from these crazy Brazilians. Still, maybe it's good that I've been promised two now, at least I have options. "But your church believes in polygamy! That's an easy solution" No. We don't. Sorry to disappoint you.

9/27

Today was a blast! It's pretty much been pouring whenever we need to walk to places, but the rest of the time has been awesome. Kasnocha practiced making contacts with me and today when we were contacting, I was able to do one completely on my own! It was such a cool feeling! Even being held hostage by the pouring rain after couldn't dampen my mood. We were talking to a brother before the latest freak outburst occurred that trapped us in the church for two hours, and apparently I've learned nothing because I noticed a couple of raindrops and the guy I was talking to goes, "*gasp of horror* Elder! RAIN!" and I was like, oh cool, guess I'll start packing up, wow, what a nice looking car. And of course it took all of three seconds for those nice, gentle raindrops to turn into a hurricane. If that wasn't the definition of "torrential downpour", I don't know what is. Elder Steed showed me pictures of a road turned into a river he was standing in that came up to his knees, and after he said came up to his waist, it even knocked down a house, it's bad... The lightning is awesome though, it's so brilliant and completely lights of the sky; The biggest lightnings will make thunderings louder than gunshots, it's so cool! Unfortunately, my companion always has cash, so I haven't gotten to walk in this yet, but one day I hope to, and discover the sixth ocean. Everyone has been so kind to feed us today, I got so much great food, and I even got to share the spiritual thought at lunch today! This one was really cool because I shared it more like I was just talking normally than only being able to share spiritual stuff, and make the connection to a person's heart. I'm starting to be able to have fun and laugh with people! I'm finding real joy now that I can connect to people.

9/28 

Today was an awesome day! We had a giant lunch with a rich family, and today was so cool because I understood so much of what people would say to me. The family at lunch was very interested in me after they learned that I wasn't a robot, and did in fact have hobbies before the mission. My art vocabulary is pretty good so I talked for like, 45 minutes, and I had my camera with me so I could show them all of the fun things I've made on the mission. Now they want me to give their kids art lessons. I guess once a teacher, always a teacher. We found out that our diamond investigator isn't married even though he's lived with this lady for 30 years and has three kids, so I'm not 100% sure how this is going to happen, but in his vision he was led to the light, so it's going to happen. If he didn't have that vision I'm not sure I would be a good enough missionary to be super motivated about his baptism, he can't afford marriage, so it's going to be really hard to try to get him married, we're going to have to rely on the members a lot for this. I am having so much fun with kids! They speak simply and their games are so interesting to them, it's easy to love them. I was playing with Silva's daughters and they taught me a hand clap game, they thought I was the coolest Elder ever! They invited me inside, pulled up a chair for me, and gave me a baby to hold while Kasnocha was standing at the gate, watching, still trying to get past one of the elder daughters. Should have gone with the kids, Kasnocha. I got to see Steed at a ridiculously giant birthday party for a six year old. I felt terrible for her, she probably took over 100 pictures, no exaggeration, everyone wanted a picture with her, so she sat in the same spot for over an hour. It reminded me of Barbie in the end credits of Toy Story 2.

9/29

Our diamond investigators came to church with us today! We also learned about the new youth program, it looks pretty awesome. We went to the same family for lunch as we did yesterday, and today it only took me a couple of hours staring at their wifi router to remind me of the one thing me mom asked me to do. For probably an hour I looked at the blinking black box that slowly brought back memories of a time with internet and then one of my brain cells was like, "I bet I could upload photos with that" and another brain cell was like, "okay...?" and then it took another 10 seconds before my last brain cell did a spit take of that awesome juice stuff I had at lunch and was like, "oh, shoot! Mom wanted me to upload my photos!" I'm functioning very well right now. However tired I'm feeling though is constantly 1-up'd by Kasnocha, though. It took him all of a half hour to fall asleep on someone else's bed at lunch. The mom walked in and was like, "Hi, Elder Anderson and- oh *this is where I made a drawing that vaguely resembled a laughing emoji*" She thought it was pretty funny and I was just like, "that's my companion..." That power nap gave him strength though, because we stayed at that house for four and a half hours. It was actually a lot of fun, they wanted us there, it wasn't awkward, although they would mock like they were hurt when I didn't give them my Facebook. I was like, "I'm sorry! I don't have one!" and they were like, "sure, we see how it is, we'll just sacrifice our food for you even though you eat a ridiculous amount, but if you don't want to stay in contact, that's fine." I also learned more about Portuguese Harry Potter that I wanted to. Those Brazilians are obsessed with Harry Potter *this is where I tried to redeem myself and draw a better emoji. The laughing tears look like a mustache.*

Keep rocking like a Brazilian on Sunday,

Elder Anderson