Elder Anderson made some apple custard doughnuts. Love the icing on these mini doughnuts!
Elder Graham and Elder Anderson
Homemade pizza!
The baptism of Edivaldo!
A picture with the police. Elder A said that the police were getting into their vehicle to leave when Elder A approached them and asked for a picture with them. They were excited about the picture and wanted to make sure their guns were in the picture too!
The barbed wire Edivaldo was so kind to install for the elders to prevent future break-ins to their house.
A snake eating a frog.
The snake after its snack.
1/28
Today was spiritually awesome! We did our morning
studies and I learned more about humility which I didn't even need since
I'm already pretty much the most humble person there is. When we went
out for work today we stopped by Irmao Mota's house to give him back
borrowed keys, to which he was like, "cool, thanks, you guys want to
drink a weird plant with me right now?" and we considered our options:
Start our one hour journey to our next appointment with the sun blazing
overhead? Or get taught by our patriarch and drink a weird herbal tea?
We replied, "we're coming, Mota!" He then taught us about the importance
of humility, especially in receiving revelation. It's a good thing I
mastered humility, I probably could have taught the patriarch about it.
We also got taught by the seminary professor/relief society president
today which was amazing, she always has the best stories. Other fun
activities today included walking two hours to get to an investigators
house, we had no number or appointment with them, but still felt like we
should go, and fortunately we were briefly able to talk with them. We
also talked to Cleide's husband and tonight we talked to him about the
Word of Wisdom. He told us how he likes tea and then we told him about
how we don't drink tea and then he told us how he doesn't like tea. He's
just the coolest guy ever. He also did a security installation on our
home, we're now equipped with barbed wire. He wouldn't accept any
payment either, insisting he just liked being friends with us.
1/29
Today
was great! We were surprised by our leaders of our zone when they sent
us a message stating that we have interviews tomorrow, the dat was
marked for the last week of transfers but now it's happening tomorrow.
Liljenquist and I are super excited for interviews, though, it's been a
while since we've gotten to talk to Presidente. Yancey scared the heck
out of me tonight when we were talking about interviews though; He told
me Presidete requested to talk to me first because we had been coming
back late every night. I knew we were right on the edge, but I didn't
think that we were late, Yancey helpfully suggested that maybe our clock
was off, before he hit me with the, "just kidding" and I was reminded
how gullible I am. Today we made a lot of cool contacts, we had a lot of
success in talking to new people, which was good, since all of our old
investigators gave up on us. One contact was a seven year old boy, who
Liljenquist taught how to say, "R.I.P. Kobe Bryant". It's amazing to me
how many Brazilians will talk about his death to us. We taught our
English class tonight which was also cool, especially when Liljenquist
accidently broke a skateboard that belonged to a kid in the ward, as you
might guess, Liljenquist felt pretty bad about it. We also got to teach
Papito tonight, but I think my favorite part of today was when Irmao
Mota invited us back to drink Terere with him again, that man is a
saint.
1/30
Today was awesome! I'm doing divisions
with Graham, the Elder from my stake, which I've really enjoyed. I hope
he's enjoyed it too, because today we worked. Most of the
contacts that we made yesterday we tried to visit today, but we only got
to do one of them: A guy named Mauro. Today Mauro taught me about the
wonders of fishing, as well as avocado juice. He was like ,"you
guys ever had avocado juice?" to which we apprehensively responded,
"no..." and he was like, "sweet! I'll make some for you guys right now."
It was actually really awesome, and it blew their minds to hear that we
eat avocados salty instead of sweet. Today was also really cool,
because we got to visit the parents of Mateaus, and give his mom a
blessing. We actually got to give three blessings today, Elder Graham
got quite the crash course in giving blessings as on the spot I
suggested multiple times a blessing in response to the challenges our
investigators were facing. Graham did a great job rolling with it! We
met some awesome new people today doing contacts: There was one guy who
was washing his gate when we came up and started talking to him, I told
him that we're here for more than just talking, we're here to serve, and
offered to wash his gate for him, which made him laugh before he
finally accepted our help. He had lost contact with the missionaries a
while ago, but loves us and invited us back to talk again before we even
asked if he'd be interested in our message. Pretty good for two gringos
who don't know the language.
1/31
Today was
awesome! Today we had conference with Presidente Caetano and his wife.
We did a lot of practices which were pretty fun, although nerve wracking
when your mission president is judging you on on what you could do
better. We had an awesome lunch with him, he had paid some cooks to
make, and the cooks were super nice, they even taught me how to make
what they made. Sister Caetano was stunned when she heard I was learning
the recipe: "Elder Anderson likes to cook?!" I told Sister Caetano I
was, in fact, very fond of not starving to death, which she thought was
pretty great. Elder Graham and I switched back, and I was glad for the
chance that we had to work together, but Liljenquist knows the area way
better than I do, so I was also really glad to be back with him. Work
today wasn't as fun, when we were heading back from conference our bus
broke down, which turned a half hour bus ride into, like, an hour and a
half walk. We also got caught in some pretty strong rain but I got to
see Bia from Grande Circular which was pretty fun. We did get to do our interview with Cleide's husband,
though, which was great! Yancey interviewed him which was super nice of
him and Torres, since they had to pay for an uber to make that interview
happen. He passed with flying colors, though, so tomorrow he's going to
be baptized!
2/1
Today was Irma Cleide's husband,
Edivaldo's baptism! The service was amazing but almost didn't happen
because Elder Liljenquist got super sick last night. We weren't really
sure if the baptism would happen because there were still some small
things we had to finalize, but Liljenquist couldn't even leave his bed,
so that left us in a real pickle. Fortunately, our good old pals Sanchez
and Graham were able to completely ditch their work for the day and
come over for splits; So Sanchez spent all day in the hospital with LilJ
and Graham and I went out to do only the things which were most
necessary. It was "most necessary" that Graham and I taught four
unplanned lessons, but Graham didn't mind, we got some good practice out
of it. We also invited to church like none other Saturday we've ever
had, which was cool. The service tonight was really spiritual though, it
was also kind of weird because our ward looked to me as the leader,
LilJ wasn't there to help and Graham didn't know any of them, so I ran
the reunion alone. It was a good feeling to know that I'm capable, that
six months into the mission I can really talk to people and they really
understand me. I made an agenda to follow tonight, prepped speakers and
even got the opportunity to perform the ordinance of the baptism today.
That man was so happy to be baptized, he's going to be an awesome leader
in the church and in a year when he can be sealed to his wife, that'll
be the best thing ever.
2/2
Today was a great
Sunday! Except for that small part where none of our friends came to
church with us, which was sad because it was an awesome fast and
testimony meeting. Fortunately Elder Liljenquist was feeling better so
we were able to go to church, which was really important since it was
the confirmation of Cleide's husband. Bishop invited me to do the
confirmation up on the stand which was super nice of him, but I had
never heard of a missionary doing that before, I had no idea how to,
especially in Portuguese, so I opted for "next time". After church we
went out and talked to some of our investigators. One family we went to
consisted of a less active man and his wife who isn't a member, and
because personal space isn't a thing here, when he saw us his eyes lit
up, "Elders!" and then he shoved a spoonful of Acai into each of our
mouths. That was interesting. We also did the math and found out there
is a church less than every 1/10th of a mile. It was pretty cool to hear
so many people worshipping in various methods.
Lately
I've been thinking about Mosiah 18:20, a scripture that says: Yea, even
he commanded them that they should preach nothing save it were
repentance and faith on the Lord, who had redeemed his people. This
scripture harmonizes with President Nelson's talk "We can do better and
be better". In his talk, Nelson said, "Recently I have found myself
drawn to the Lord’s instruction given through the Prophet Joseph Smith:
“Say nothing but repentance unto this generation. This declaration is
often repeated throughout scripture. It prompts an obvious question:
“Does everyone need to repent?” The answer is yes." Then comes President
Nelson's beautiful reminder about the true nature of repentance: "Too
many people consider repentance as punishment—something to be avoided
except in the most serious circumstances. But this feeling of being
penalized is engendered by Satan. He tries to block us from looking to
Jesus Christ, who stands with open arms, hoping and willing to heal,
forgive, cleanse, strengthen, purify, and sanctify us." I wish to
testify that the Savior pleads for all to use his atonement, this life
is our opportunity to deny ourselves of all ungodliness, and if we will,
we will be healed, forgiven, cleansed, strengthened, purified, and
sanctified. Please, if there is anything that's blocking your personal
connection with heaven, repent. We cannot survive in these last days
without personal revelation.
Muito amor,
Elder Anderson
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