Monday, January 30, 2017

There is power in The Book of Mormon

Olá,

Tuesday we drove back to Lisbon for transfers and that night I returned to Sines with my new companion Elder Luis. He is from Leiria, Portugal about 3 hours north from here. He is a super good missionary and has taught me a lot already. His girlfriend´s Dad is the Stake President of our Setúbal Stake. haha He has a really thick, deep accent and talks really fast, which has really helped me with my Portuguese, I can already tell a difference in the past few days. I spoke more Portuguese than English this week! Its crazy to think that I can do that now.

We watched the worldwide missionary broadcast on Wednesday. It was really good and I learned a lot. Elder Bednar spoke on how Faith, repentance and baptism are all linked together. Faith unto Repentance unto Baptism. They also revealed the new 4 key indicators, shortened from the 9: Baptism and confirmation, Investigators who attended sacrament meeting, Investigators with a baptismal date and new investigators. These should help us stay more focused on our purpose to teach repentance and baptize converts as Elder Dallin H. Oaks said. While watching it I realized how far I still have to develop to become the type of missionary I want to be, then Elder Bednar said, "you  just have to be as good as you can be and the spirit will make up the difference." That made me feel a lot better. 

I weighed myself at a health clinic, I took my shoes off and with just my proselytizing clothes I weighed 165! Loco! I weighed 150 before I entered the MTC haha

Sunday we went to Santiago searching for a few less active, the first door that we knocked on we met a man named Simon, the less active we were searching for owned the house and he was just renting. We told him that we were missionaries and we had a message about Jesus Christ that we would like to share with him. He invited us in and we taught the Restoration to him. It was great! We went to another part of the city and the first door that opened was a young Portuguese couple who also invited us in, we taught them the Plan of Salvation. As we walked out after the lesson I couldn't believe what had happened, the first 2 doors that we knocked on in the entire city had both let us in and listened to our message, Milagrés!

Last night we had a lesson with Romeo and taught the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I was a little lost in the lesson and wasn't really understanding was they were saying so I only taught a little bit. At the end of the lesson I was asked to give the closing prayer, I had this burning desire to testify to him, so before I said the prayer I told him that I had one more thing to say. I testified that The Book of Mormon is true and promised him that if he prayed to God and asked him that it was true that he would also receive an answer that it was true. As I did this I felt the spirit so strongly and I know that he felt it too. After the Lesson we walked past the Repsol gas station and saw João from the Code 68 story. We went to talk to him, I had a hard time understanding his accent but, he pointed to my Book of Mormon and he said: "that is a good book I like that book" It is a good book because it is true I feel the spirit so strongly every time I testify of it, I know that it is true.

Até Logo.
Elder Anderson









 The fortress that was used to defend against pirate attacks.


 Almoço



 From the elevator

 Meu novo colega Elder Luis



















Monday, January 23, 2017

The Book of Mormon Challenge

Olá,

Tuesday morning we drove up to Lisbon for transfers then that night I returned to Sines with my new companion Elder Knowlton. He is from Oregon and has been out about a year and speaks really well. Wednesday morning we spent some time cleaning out the house and the Area Book, it feels great to have a tidy house and organized Area Book.

The mission will be visited by a member of the Seventy on February 15th and a few days ago all of the missionaries were challenged to read The Book of Mormon by then, 25 days. In English it is about 20 pages a day. I am almost done with 1 Nephi now and have loved reading it. The Book of Mormon is true and is so powerful. I love reading it.

It has been pretty chilly over the past few days. it was -2ºC the other night as we were proselyting!

A month ago we were given a list of 53 members who lived in Sines so we have been working like crazy to find them, we have found that most of them are dead or moved a long time ago haha. Our goal is to try to find a Melchizedek Priesthood holder in Sines so we can start holding a group sacrament meeting in his home on Sundays. The ones on the list are no longer here anymore so we will just have to baptize one!

We taught Ana and Paulo again this week, due to their busy Schedule we hadn't met with them in over a month! It went really well and I hope to be able to meet with them more often and help the progress towards baptism.

A few nights ago we were searching in Sines, buzzed all the apartments in one small complex and were about to leave when we decided to also try the one on the other side of the road. No one was interested until the second to last one that we buzzed. A man named Romeo picked up, we introduced ourselves as missionaries and told him that we had a message about Jesus Christ for him. Without hesitation he said , "I'm coming down" He is from Guatemala and is here in Portugal for work, we gave him a Book of Mormon and invited him to read the introduction I am excited to follow up with him.

Alma 37:
 Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.
 And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls.

I am learning this language step by step, truly by small and simple means I understand almost everything that I hear and hope to be fluent in a few months!

This morning we got some news, confirming Emergency Transfers. Elder Luis will be my new Companion in Santo André, he is a native Portuguese and will really help me with the language!

Elder Anderson


 We explored the castle in Santiago, it was crazy! the inside was a cool looking cemetery that you are not allowed to take pics of








 Santiago do Cacém










  The north side of Sines











A water tower on top of a big hill in Santiago