Thumbs up from a darling little girl and this awesome missionary!
Elder A with his new companion, Elder Williams, at the Manaus Temple
Elder Anderson with his mission president, Presidente Caetano, companion, and another missionary.
Making french toast for a church activity
On top of the world!
So, in Manaus some people have pet turtles that they raise until they are a decent size and then they...ahem...eat them. Elder A said he talked with a guy who has a 50 lb. turtle. I guess that's a lot of meat? (Yikes, but I guess since alligator tastes like chicken, maybe turtle does too?)
A butterfly.
10/14
Today was my first day with my new companion: Elder
Williams. He's pretty much the coolest guy ever! Sadly, he didn't get
to sleep at all on his flight here, so we spent the first two hours with
him napping, and then we tried to talk to his family so that he could
tell them what was going on and at least what to expect with our P-day
being later this week. We went to the internet cafe so that we could try
to talk to his family, and that was the first time that I'd ever tried
to enter the cafe so late in the day. Everyone was right, if you don't
get there right away, it becomes super busy. I could see it was going to
be pretty much impossible to get a computer so I said a prayer and then
two computers opened up right next to each other, at the same time, an
absolute miracle. It gave us just enough time to send an email to his
family about what would happen this week, and me enough time to read
some of the emails my family had sent me. In other miracles, my tongue
has been loosed! I love this area, and now I can finally talk to
everyone! One investigator, Alioni, said, "wow, you're speaking so much
more than when you first got here!" All that I could do before was play
with kids, which was fine, but I wanted to be able to do more. I don't
know if I said a word my whole first visit, and now I was finally able
to joke and talk with people when I said things like: *gasp* Mateus is
having a birthday?! I love birthdays! Although it's probably just
because I love cake. That's such a simple joke to make, but I couldn't
do that before Elder Williams got here. Williams puts up with my crazy
antics too, so many times today I stopped us and we introduced ourselves
to people with absolutely no heads up so Williams could prepare, this
transfer will probably be one of the best in my mission, how lucky I am
to be here right now, I can really just feel everyone's love so
strongly! Presidente Matos let us use his phone to video call our
families, Williams really wanted to be able to call home, which is
really important after changing locations, but Presidente called my mom
too so I got to call her for a few minutes which was wonderful! I don't
even know how he did that, come to think of it, I don't think he really
has any contact info of hers, maybe he's a wizard...
10/15
Guess
what, baby? I can talk! I can talk, and I can laugh, and I can make
jokes, and the whole world has to listen and they're constantly
thinking, "please, why won't he just be quiet?" Honestly, this whole
thing is mind blowing, I'm speaking to people alone, without the
assistance of my companion, people are understanding me, I'm a benefit
in our lessons, and I can call people on the phone! My companion says it
bugs him how well I speak, he just wants me to struggle a bit, isn't
that reasonable? After two or three months in the field, his companion
gave him the phone to talk to a person and he was like, "No no no no no
no *comp hands him the phone* great... hey, how's it going? ...Uh huh.
...Yep. ...Wow, really? *Whispers to companion* I'm understanding
nothing!" Tonight a Brazilian approached me and asked if I was American,
I told him "very" and he asked me about how he could learn English, I
told him about the church's program English Connect, he asked if I
thought it was possible to learn English in two years, to which I
responded, "absolutely!" and then he asked me how long it had taken me
to become fluent in Portuguese. I had to tell him, "well see, the funny
thing is, I don't know if I could call myself fluent, and... I've been
speaking Portuguese for 12 weeks. So." Williams and I were incredibly
busy today, we made many appointments and taught many lessons, and the
79 year old we're teaching received his response that the church is
true! Now we have to find a way to get him to church, because he's
pretty weak, but he loves the Gospel! We took Alioni and his family to
talk to Presidente freitas about a marriage license. I don't know what
will happen, my companion says it'll probably take at least a month to
get it worked out, but they're still very excited. I cannot believe how
much success we're having just because we're working! Elder Williams is
so cool! He's really helping me with Portuguese too! Oh, and Alioni gave
us a bunch of cake today which was soo good! That family has nothing to
give and they're still so giving!
10/16
Today Elder
WIlliams and I went home hunting. The people that Kasnocha didn't want
to ruin our relationship with have a house on top of theirs that they're
trying to sell, and the reason Kasnocha didn't want to teach them is
because he really wanted to move into that house. When we had been there
before, I had jokingly said, "oh man, I could totally live here!"
because that was a super nice house, and way above what I thought the
missionary budget was, but Sister Caetano really doesn't like the leaky
house that we're living in right now, so fingers crossed we get to move
into that house. Williams and I had an awesome plan for everything that
we wanted to do today, but God knows WAY better, so all of our
appointments fell through, and instead we got to go looking for new
Investigators. We found some new people and even got to teach a lesson
to one lady who's super spiritual, so fingers crossed she remembers our
commitment to pray. That lesson was pretty awesome, actually, at the
beginning Williams asked her, "how long do you think he's spoken
Portuguese for?" about me, to which she responded, "6 months?" So I got
to be our example for when we talked about spiritual gifts! I have truly
been blessed. I was able to communicate really easily with her, she
only had to ask me like, 4 times over the course of an hour to repeat a
phrase I had said. We also spent a while trying to set up this big night
of integration for everyone tomorrow, it's going to be awesome! At
least, I hope it is, because Williams and I are running it. Williams is
super funny, and I'm as gullible as the Brasilians, he told me he was
shot by a gang member and I believed him. Yep. I can only assume this is
my punishment for always using the same type of humour and making
horrible puns.
10/17
Today was such a great day for
me! Williams and I had a ton of work to do and we did so great! We met
with Ari in his super nice house for lunch and his wife makes the best
beans and rice! After that, we were pleasantly surprised when Presidente
showed up to our house to be an Uber for us. Turns out that it's good
that he doubles as a Mission Presidente and a crazy Uber driver because
there was a mountain of dirt in our path and Presidente carved his way
straight through it in his SUV. Man, I miss driving so much. Afterwards,
he picked up a brick off the side of the road to dust his car off,
Brasilians are very resourceful. We all talked with Ari about his super
sleek house, and I really do hope that we become neighbors, or whatever
the vertical equivalent of neighbors is, since we'd be living above his
family. After talking with Ari, Williams showed Presidente the map and
how the house was outside the boundaries, Presidente was like, "eh,
close enough" so I guess now I know why the mission is so flexible on
the rules. After lunch and talking to Ari, we ran around, inviting
people to our activity. Lots of people were very interested in coming.
We wanted to share a brief spiritual thought at the activity, I prepared
a talk. A general conference talk which was pretty awesome, but I
didn't want people to fall asleep so I cut the talk more than in half,
but it was still pretty awesome/long. Awesong (?) yeah, let's use that,
it was very awesong. Oh and I also made about 30 eggs of french toast
(that's a valid unit of measurement) I'm pretty sure it was about 80
slices? I don't know, it was a lot, that part I know because I ate my
fill, and WE STILL HAD MORE! I think that's the first time I've eaten
without shame here, because I made the food, who are they going to cry
to when all the food is gone? Me? No, they'll be running away, in fear
that I'll eat all their food while they're complaining. Although it's
been a good hour since I ate that meal, I feel empty inside, I can't
wait for breakfast tomorrow.
10/18
Today was the
best P-day ever! We went to the temple and I got to see all of my
friends in the zone and take pictures with them and the Manaus temple is
just SO amazing! Williams says that each transfer if you're in Manaus
you get to go to the temple! I hope that's true, that would be so cool!
This is just the best area ever! We also took some buses to get to the
temple and I definitely have become more appreciative of personal space,
because it does not exist on those buses. I feel horrible for the
little old lady who was crushed into my back, I thought for sure that
was the end of the line for her, there was no way that she could breathe
in the mass of bodies that were crouching in on her, she must have gone
10 minutes without oxygen, but when the doors finally (thankfully)
opened so we could disembark, she just ? peeled herself of my back, and
hobbled out on her cane walking into the torrent of bodies rushing for
the exit? That lady has more courage than I do, Brazilians are a
different breed. We also got to go to the LAN house today for an
abbreviated email session, because it was already pretty busy, and that
late in the afternoon, the chances of getting a computer were pretty
slim. One Elder waited an hour and a half to get a computer, I was very
blessed though, and got one within a half hour of arriving. Williams and
I did some exercises yesterday, and they really hit him hard today,
poor guy. Our schedule for tomorrow is already packed! I'm so excited!
10/19
Today
will probably be amusing for everyone that reads this. I got a newfound
appreciation for lunch and the fact that in the US one road name maps
to a single road, because we walked for more than an hour today to find
our lunch. We can also walk from one side of our area to the other in
~20 minutes (our area isn't a circle, it's the lower half of a leg with a
MASSIVE calf), and we walked that area many, many times. We were
passing a bible store that sadly did not have any Books of Mormon, and
didn't even want to stock them when I offered them the cutthroat deal of
zero reals, which is a pretty great deal since the book is priceless.
Anyways, even though we had walked right next to where we needed to be
for lunch, the lady called us and told us to bring containers she could
fill with food so she could just give us our lunch, and not risk being
tempted by my gorgeous blue eyes. Smart lady. Well, we walked home and
then back across our area to get food from her. Well, after talking with
a confused lady at the door and calling the lady who had promised us
lunch, we realized there were two members in our ward living at houses
with the same address, but the houses were on completely opposite sides
of the area. That's fun. The other address pointed to a road right next
to our house so we both facepalmed for having walked so much more than
we needed to and headed back to that road, right next to our house. Well
wouldn't you know, one address doesn't map to one house here, not two
houses, but THREE houses! We found this out after knocking at the door
right next to our house and calling our lady again, who was, in fact, on
the other side of our area... At this point, my companion's crying into
my shoulder and I'm stoically looking into the distance as the wind
ruffles my hair which I really need to cut and I say to my companion,
"be strong Elder, we WILL find our lunch today." And we were able to
find our lunch that time, so we meandered back to our house with our
spoils of war. I just know the city designer in Brasil was drunk when he
was designing the streets, he couldn't see the plan correctly he was so
intoxicated, and lost track of whether or not he'd designed a street
15, because the number "1" is pretty hard to keep track of, I guess.
Better have three, just to be sure.
10/20
Today was
the best day ever! I just love Sundays! My companion and I got to bless
the sacrament because our ward was especially small today (26 people)
and we were without other Priests. Directly afterwards, I found out I
would be giving a talk. I've always wondered if we have a timer counting
down over our heads to our death that the Bishopric can see, and when
they saw that mine was within 60 seconds and I was still going strong
they were like, "well, it's his time. I know how to stop his heart!" But
little did they know, I'm actually a battle hardened, steely eyed,
always ready missionary and when they asked me to speak in 30 seconds, I
told them in my deep, resonating, beautiful voice, "I was born ready."
unfortunately I didn't have aviators or background music, but I'm pretty
sure some lady in the congregation still swooned when I said those
words. I gave the full version of that general conference talk I had
prepared for our night of integration, with one difference from before, I
didn't use a script this time, because why would I need one? It's not
like I'm speaking another language or anything. I ate all the food at
lunch today. Yes, all of it. Yes, that means 4 or 5 plates, I lost
track. We watched The Other Side of Heaven 2 with the Matos's today. It
was a beautiful film, very emotional. I had a "marriage" counseling
session with my companion that went something like this today:
W: What do I need to improve?
Me: Idk, nothing?
W: cool.
Me: What do I need to improve?
W: Idk, nothing?
(But with a lot more, "sorry man, I can't help you, I'm not perfect, but this is what I think you're awesome at"'s)
Then
Williams took a fat nap and I made an awesome cake that looks like a
stack of pancakes and dinner and Williams comes out and is like, "great.
I can't leave you unattended for an hour (he was NOT sleeping just for
an hour ;) )". Also, the gift of tongues is real, this week I've been
able to talk unlike anything else, I'm understanding Portuguese!
Muito amor,
Elder Anderson
