Monday, April 24, 2017

Ward Conference

Olá,

This week we had ward conference it went well. The stake is trying to get a small group together that can meet in a house of a member in cova da piedade, the north side of our area. There are tons of less active there that so we will begin doing lots of work there and hopefully begin holding the small group every Sunday afternoon starting this Sunday. 

We had a district worship with the AP´s and ZL´s this week, we learned about the importance of applying why our investigators need the restored gospel and what blessing they can receive from it rather than just teaching them.

We did the family history flag in the Almada area this week, the 8 of us made contact with a few hundred people. By the end of the day I had talked with 102 people! A new daily record, but I didn't have any eficaz (with an address or phone number) its just like that sometimes.

There are 20 addresses of less actives on Rua Almada Negreiros. So we have spent a good bit working there trying to find them.

We taught a cool man named Abel the restoration and he accepted a baptismal date for the 7th of May.

We taught the San Tomé family again this time there were just 24 of them we watched the new 6 minute restoration film. (It is really good I highly recommend watching it) When the God Father and his Son Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith the spirit filled the room so strongly. By the end some of them began to realize that this gospel is true. 

For P-day we went to Belém, it was super cool and packed with tourists. We saw someone with a BYU sweat shirt and went to talk to them, An LDS family was visiting here, one of them served his mission here 30 years ago. They were from UTAH, were super nice to us and gave us 45€ to buy lunch. Such a blessing. After that we crossed the river on a boat instead of the train, It was so cool and my first time doing it.

Até Proximo.

Elder Anderson

  Good Olé Portugal...

Belém






 Passenger Boat

Monday, April 17, 2017

Boa Páscoa and the Car pushing Miracle

Olá,

Elder Carreira is my new companion, he is native Portuguese and is from the same city and home ward of my former companion Elder Luis. He has one of the coolest Portuguese accents i have heard, i am trying to learn to speak like him. He knows Elder Jacob Bristol from my home stake, they were in the Madrid MTC together.

We had a huge lunch with Irmã Lídia Lima, For dessert we had Baba de Camelo or in English Camel Spit haha it was interesting.

The Miratejo ward has Sister and Elders now so the Miratejo elders now share our house, We ran out of laundry detergent so we have been using dish soap instead for the past week haha. 

I am now speaking around 95% Portuguese! I still have some grammar that needs to be corrected, but Elder Carreira is really helping me with it. 

My golf score caddy is so fun to use keeping up with contacts. Saturday we did the family history flag for 2.5 hours and all 8 of the missionaries in our district.My goal was to talk with 50 people, by the end I had talked to 60! One of them I talked to about the Book of Mormon for 10 minutes and gave him one, he lives in the Miratejo district so I passed his info on to the other elders, but all the rejection was so worth placing one Book of Mormon.

The biggest Miracle this week was on Wednesday, we were deciding whether to pass Bella or Pedro, they were about equal distance, in either direction. We decided to pass Bella first, she wasn´t home so we went to Pedro. on the way a young man asked us to help him. He was with his sister and grandma and their car was stuck in the middle of a busy road, I think it had ran out of gas. They asked us to help push it, we were glad to help. So we pushed the car for a good 100 yards, crossing the Metro tracks and up a hill. By the end We were so worn out haha. The grandma was so thankful for our help and bought us lemonade, looked at us and said, "I know that God lives, that he loves my and watches over me, He sent 2 of his servants to me the exact minute that i needed them, this is another manifestation of his love for me" We told her than we were missionaries and we had a message about the Restored Gospel, she said that she had here own religion and wasn´t really interested, but then said, "May God bless you with people that will listen to your message" It was a special feeling walking away from that scene knowing that we truly instruments in the Lord´s hands that day, deciding to pass Bella first was not a thought of my own, but a sure prompting of the Spirit. 

Até proximo.

Elder Anderson
- I forgot to write about the follow up lesson with the San Tomé family, they are actually composed of a few different families and just go to the same church. there were only 15 this time we clearly explained the Sabbath day, how it was changed and the restoration of the gospel, some of the more open minded ones, that we gave a Book of Mormon to and that had interest weren't there this time. Probably because of Easter, but we will teach them again this Saturday and be even more prepared.
 My new companion, Elder Carreira
 Elder Rogrigues, a friend of a friend from efy 2 years ago.






​When you run out of laundry detergent...!!!
 Saturday contacts


 Baba de Camel or in English Camel Spit

Monday, April 10, 2017

Transfers

Olá,

Another transfer has flown by! Sunday I was joking with Elder Cotrell that he was going to Santo André and it ends up that he got called to Santo André and with serve with Elder Luis, my last area and companion. I will stay in Almada and with serve with Elder Carreira!

Saturday night we had an appointment at 6:30, we entered and there were 4 or 5 people in the house, he told us to come back 30 minutes later because more people would be there. So 30 minutes later we returned to a house full of an extended family of 25, all from San Tomé, ready to listen to our message. They all looked to me so I began talking and explained that we would teach the Plan of Salvation, which responds to the 3 questions, Where did I come from? Why am I here? and Where am I going? Then we said a prayer and began teaching and walked out 2 hours later, haha it was wild. Teaching all of them at once totally took out my fear of teaching. 

They were all 7th day Adventists and a few of them accused us of breaking the commandments for not worshipping on Saturday haha We didn't have much of a response except for that Jesus was Resurrected on Sunday so we said that we would return next week at the same time ready to respond to the question and a few others that they had. That lesson totally took my fear out of teaching. I will study a lot this week to prepare for our follow-up lesson.

On divisions with Elder Mitton, we watched the 20 minute Restoration video and after testified of it. Every time I testify of the first vision it is a booming spiritual experience. I know that Joseph Smith really did see Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ and that this gospel is truly restored once again to the Earth. 

We had lunch with a member who has read the Book of Mormon 101 times!

Naytan was baptized into the Miratejo ward on Saturday (the other ward that shares our building) he is 16 and was one of the most prepared people I have ever seen.

Elder Cottrell was sick for a few days, a bad fever and some flu symptoms so we were home-bound for 2 and a half days so I had some time to get some things done and prepare for next transfer. I read some of "Our Heritage" about the church in the early days following the Restoration. It is amazing to learn about the faithful saints who endured so much, the first missionaries of the church and the many Miracles that occurred. It was such a big motivation for me to work harder.

Até Proximo,
Elder Dallin Anderson










Package arrived!


Monday, April 3, 2017

TJ´s, AP Divisions and The Blueprint of Christ´s Church

Olá,

In President´s letter this week he revealed 6 points that he wants us to know for each point of the first 3 lessons, they are: Scripture, Question, Picture, Story and Invitation. I have almost filled it all out for the Restoration and then I will do the same for The Plan of Salvation and Gospel of Jesus Christ Lessons. It should really help improve my teaching.

The language continues to come, being optimistic I would say that I am 60-70% fluent. Present Subjunctive is beginning to make sense to me and I am now using it in my speech. It was crazy complicated for me in the MTC.

We had divisions with the AP´s this week. Elder Kealberer came with us and Elder Rosenkild went with the Elders in Miratejo. We worked hard, I learned a lot and we saw many little miracles and tender mercies.

Due to a lot of transport expenses this month we were out of MSF and we really low on food, but the Lord always provides a way and we happened to have lunch and dinner with members on Thursday and Friday. It was a huge blessing. 

General Conference was Fantastic, I listened to 2 sessions in English and 2 in Portuguese, one of them at an investigator´s house. The last one we were not able to watch because it was too late, but I should hopefully be able to watch it soon. It was cool watching Ulisses Soares give a talk, he visited the mission about a month ago, I loved how he started his talk with testifying that Thomas S. Monson is the Prophet of God on this earth in these latter days. I enjoyed Elder Bednar´s talk where he spoke about that missionaries are called to the work and not to a place. It is interesting to think about from that perspective. 

For a long time I was hesitant to set goals because I felt that I was not good enough at doing it, but I realized that that is the totally wrong way to go about it. I have learned it is best to set goals that you think are realistic, they probably wont be perfect, but as you work towards them you see what you need to change and "Line upon line, Precept upon precept" 2 Nephi 28:30, (also in the Bible and Doctrine and Covenants) you learn how to correct the goals and way of doing things. I have learned a lot about goal setting recently.

Some TJ´s or Jehovah´s Witness´s knocked on our door this week. There are a ton of them here. I have probably seen over 50 of their missionaries on the streets, but interestingly enough I have yet to see them make a street contact, haha. Anyways I had about a 20 minute conversation with them, it was interesting haha I would have liked to dropped a bomb on them about the Restoration, living prophets or something like that but I realized that that would do no good, rather i gave them a pamphlet about family history and invited them to do theirs.

This morning we went to Sintra, it was beautiful, I don't think I have every seen anything like it in my entire life. I took like 150 photos, haha!

I listened to the Blueprint of Christ´s Church talk by Tad R. Callister, it just skims the surface of the book, but he clearly explains the doctrine of Christ´s church in the Bible and how The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the one and only church that fits the blueprint 100%. The Church is true.

Até Proximo.
Elder Anderson















 There are underground tunnels connecting almost everything!



 Finally got a Ronaldo Jersey!


back to the days...

 Gypsie Venders


 Rice with Octupus...








ALMADA!