Chapter 31: American Week

After going on splits with the zone leaders, Elder Anderson and his companion, got to have a doughnut as a special treat.

Another special treat, Elder A and his companion received permission from their mission president to visit a mall to pick up an item they needed, and while they were there, they were able to enjoy the luxury of eating a double whopper, fries, and a soft drink at Burger King!

2/18

Today we went to the hospital, LilJ was dying: We've really messed up his foot from walking so far everyday. Fortunately I've gotten to know LilJ well enough that we were able to turn even the miserable experience of the hospital into a pretty hilarious experience. When we went into the IV room so that they could give him an IV  for his hurting foot (because that's how it works) he got injected with a couple of shots. After he got ready to go they were like, "hold on, we need to do one more, you can go into that curtained area over there" and he's like, "another one?" and the lady looks at him and pats her bum. About 30  seconds later LilJ hurriedly walks out, his eyes wide with fear and says, "Bro, I don't think you understand what just happened" while I was dying of laughter, these IV ladies are crazy, I'm not sure how that's supposed to help his foot, but sure, whatever. LilJ got a note saying that he couldn't work for the next 5 days and after I got off the phone with Sister Caetano and she emphasized the nothingness we were to do, LilJ  was like, "you ready to work?" and I was like, "you better believe it" so we went to work like normal and helped so many people today really was an amazing day. We're teaching a lot of people right now who have been truly prepared, so we couldn't afford to lose time, this was one of those "ask forgiveness, not permission" situations (sorry Sister Caetano).

2/19
Today was cool, I went on splits with Elder Packem. These splits were a little different than normal, Yancey and Packem (our ZLs) decided that they don't have anything to do in their area, so they both decided to come here. That was an... interesting decision to make. Working with Packem today was cool, we went up to Jesus Me Deu, in all my time in Santa Marta I had never been up there, so it was cool to enter a  completely new area. We were able to teach a lot of lessons today, some of them were pretty amazing. We talked to  one lady who told me I speak beautifully which was a nice confidence booster. We made brief introductions and then our new friend recounted to us her entire life story, but it was cool to hear, she was a really sweet lady. Afterwards she thanked us for our message and told us how grateful she was to have prophets like us in her house. Packem and I looked at each other like, "Umm... you know what, it's fine, she's progressing, we'll teach her about that next time." We also broke a bunch of girls' hearts when we told them tonight would be our last English class. EnglishConnect is going on and our English class was a distraction from missionary work, so it's better not to do. Some people  have a lot of success finding new investigators with their English class, but we haven't had that success, so we're going to let EnglishConnect handle the teaching of English to these people. Liljenquist got fed a bunch of bad information from Yancey today, but Packem seems like he'll be a good zone leader.
2/20
Today was pretty cool. We cancelled lunch with members today to eat with our investigators; They invited us and we  thought it would be an important friendship builder to eat with them, which led us to eat in the nicest house I've seen here in Brazil, yet. We always just talk to them in their store, so it was kind of a shock when we showed up to their house and it was ridiculously big. Our goal was to love the mother of the family since both the husband and daughter already wanted to be part of the church, but the wife wouldn't let them, so getting to eat with this family was a really important opportunity. The wife LOVED talking  to us and wants us to cancel more of our  lunches to eat with her again. Hopefully, that was the needed progression so that she'll at least let the rest of her family come to church now. Another pro of being there today was that I got to eat a fish head. Brazilians love the fish head, so it was a great honor to eat it. I didn't mind the hard outside bones or the fish's cartoon alien nose, but the teeth were a little weird and the eye was slimy...  yet satisfying. Hakuna matata. Our lessons today were less fun, we got cancelled on by multiple  people, so that didn't make things easy. The one thing that did go well  today was the lesson that we taught  to Diego. Diego was prepared by God, every time that we talk to him I'm like, "yes! Exactly! Isn't it so obvious? I  don't understand why no one else gets this." Diego was a great breath of fresh air. We also talked to someone  who was convinced the Book of Mormon contradicts the Bible: That was a breath of Manaus sewage air.
2/21
Today was fun. We had a zone reunion in the morning which was amazing! I got to see my old friend Elder Kenison as well as meet the new Elders in our district, which was also great. I was pretty angry during our reunion today but finally calmed down when I vented to the other District leader afterwards. The ZLs started off the meeting by doubling our goal for people that we're going to have in Sacrament meeting; LilJ and I are already working our rear ends off and still not getting anyone in Sacrament, so I was pretty angry when our Zone Leaders, who aren't working nearly  as hard, but still have been blessed with people in Sacrament told the rest of us to just "try harder". Well, LilJ and I are trying harder, we have a goal to reach the mission "pattern of excellence" every week (goals that are crazy high in every category). Number wise, today was definitely my best day on the mission, by far. 45 contacts, 8 news [lessons with investigators], 5 [baptismal] dates. That's even more dates than I would do in a day back at home. In order to hit our weekly goal, we have to catch up, but we're going  to do it. I also did an interview for a baptism tonight, which was a great chance to calm down and remember that good people still exist in the world. When I showed up  though, Douglas acted surprised,  because apparently our ZLs told Douglas that they were going to do the interview, which they're qualified for, but only if I'm not available. The ZLs backed off on the interview, but while I was conducting the interview they talked to LilJ and said that they were setting a new transfer baptism goal for us, lower than what we had set. They tried to lower our numbers under suspicion that we were trying to copy them, having a goal to hit the mission  pattern of excellence. The difference between our goal and their goal, though, is that they were trying to have the highest numbers in the zone as a way to get "glory of man", which so many people obsess about on the mission; However, LilJ and I have our goal, independent of them, to meet the  mission standards of excellence, and we're putting in the work to meet our goal, not just for the "glory of man". I'm feeling a little attacked by our ZLs, and they're supposed to be on our team, this is pretty messed up.
2/22
Today was actually hilarious. Today was also the first time I've ever hit the mission's "pattern of success", so it was also an amazing day. This week we got 147 contacts, 26 news [lessons with investigators], and 20 [baptismal] dates. First of all, lunch was awesome, it was in a scary house but a new crowd was there for lunch today (it's always a completely different group of people every time). There was a normal lady there though today, so we were able to pretend it was a normal house. We drank Terere with the lady, which is about as normal as it gets. Although there was a dog out front that had a horrible scar on its face that was dripping (omitted for my mom's sake) and that was... actually, that was sadly also normal.Today we taught a lot of lessons, so I'll just hit the highlights: We taught one lady today who was kind of into the lesson, when we finished I requested a cup of water, she went into her house (we had been teaching in her yard) and I looked over to her son; Her son stands up, and resting on the back of his chair is a Book of Mormon, I look at Liljenquist and we're like, "what the heck", ask the lady about where she found the book and she's like; "oh, I think it's my dad's" so that's the story of how we put her dad on date for baptism. We also helped out a guy who's building his house; LilJ and I started carrying his granite countertop and sink in (which is HEAVY) and the guy starts having a seizure, I look over and he's like, "I was shocked" he had touched a live wire sticking out of his wall. LilJ and I were dying from laughter , LilJ almost dropped the countertop. Then the guy, arthritic, kneels, starts screaming in pain, gets up, says, "I can't do it", then kneels down AGAIN, starts screaming again, which made LilJ and I lose it all over again, which led to me doing the plumbing for his sink. Then we got Tacaca with Luiz because WE HIT PADRAO! It was awesome.
2/23
What were the effects of working so hard this week? We had seven people in Sacrament. We may work hard, but the Lord works harder. It was an awesome Sunday.


Today's message comes from Helaman chapter 3, a chapter that largely instructs how we are be as a church.
35 Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God.
This pattern, fasting and praying to purify ourselves brings us closer to the Atonement, a process called Sanctification, brings true joy. The greatest difference in following the church teachings and living the church teachings is learning how to actively do these actions we repeat so often that they can frequently become mundane, if we let them. Today you are invited to reach out with your whole soul, if you find that you're passively praying and just saying the words, try actively praying that you may truly feel the "joy and consolation", the power that can accompany these everyday events.


Muito amor,
Elder Anderson