Shaking hands with an Apostle of the Lord

Olá,

Monday night I  went to Tejo to spend the night for transfers. The next morning, we studied then had a few hours until transfers so we went and did contacts on the Metro, I gave a Book of Mormon away to a cool lady. After we went went to Sete Rios and then I returned to Almada with Elder Fisk, he is from Tooele, Utah and  his Dad also served a mission in Tennessee like my Dad did. He is a "Maquina" or machine at working. We are both confident that we will baptize this transfer!

I finally learned how to receive a referral. For my whole mission until this point I have said do you know anyone that would like a message about Christ, or something like that. I think we had received 1 reference like that. I learned from Elder Haws to rather say do you know a Brazilian, African, or Portuguese in this apartment complex, depending where they are from. From this way we have received a lot of referrals this way. We had an appointment fall through then Elder Fisk knocked on a door, she was not interested and was closing the door then he said wait do you have some water? She then filled up a jug of water and gave it to him then was closing the door again and I said wait do you know an African in this Predio, she said yes in the Cave (Basement) there is one his name is Pedro. So we knocked on his door and said that we were missionaries and he said, I am Mormon. Come in I have proof he then showed us his baptismal certificate, Book of Mormon and Gospel Principles Books. He was a less active and we didn't know him and had never seen his address on the roster. We talked about living prophets and Apostles and invited him to hear elder Andersen speak on Sunday.

After that we went to pass an address from the area book of a person who expressed interest a while back. They weren't home and as we were leaving the apartment I saw a man who looked really familiar, It was Abel! we had lost contact for him for over a month, we talked with him for a minute and scheduled an appointment for later. It was a Miracle finding him, there were 10 little things that lead up to finding him. 

We taught Evandro a powerful lesson about the Restoration and Book of Mormon then invited him to listen to Elder Andersen and he came with us!

The first group meeting in Cova da Piedade was held yesterday in Irmã Daniela´s home. It was small with 7 people and was less than 30 minutes, just a little sacrament meeting but it went really well. We will work a lot more in that area this week to grow the group so that eventually the church can buy a building there.

Sunday night we were walking to knock one of the roads in the north part of our area we accidentally made a turn on a road and didn't notice, then I saw a woman who looked really familiar, It was Sofia! I had talked to her about 2 months ago on the Metro, I couldn't believe that we ran into her. We then invited her to our group meeting in Cova da Piedade next week. Milagre.

We passed a less active who wasn't home, left the apartment and a man happened to be walking by at that very second named Tiago, we talked with him and he told us about how his friend gave him a Book of Mormon a while back and he had read past Jacob! and wanted to know more! Milagre!

Yesterday we went to the Piaget Institute to hear Elder Andersen speak, Portuguese is his 4th language that he said he hadn't spoken in over 2 years. He had a member help him through some pf his words haha. He spoke a lot about tithing and the blessing that come from it, at the end he gave a powerful testimony repeating a few times, "Eu sei que ele vive" or "I know that He lives, I know that He lives" Oh what a blessing it was to hear an Apostle of the Lord speak, the third in my life. Afterward he surprisingly walked through the middle aisle and shook hands with everyone. I waited for my turn and eventually was able to shake his hand! Such a rare experience!

Até Proximo,

Elder Anderson

-Dallin didn't send any pictures this week... :(

One in a Million

Olá todos,

This week I had a one in a million opportunity of seeing my parents on my mission. My Dad has a conference this week in Lisbon and with permission from President I was able to eat lunch with them on Saturday and they came to church with me on Sunday and watched me give my talk. I heard in the MTC that the church had just reached over 1 million missionaries. I am sure other missionaries have also had opportunities to see their parents on their missionary so I am probably not truly 1 in a million but still it is SUPER rare and was such a cool experience. 

For my talk on Sunday I had 15 minutes to talk about whatever I wanted. I choose to speak on how the Atonement of Jesus Christ can change our lives. I used numerous quotes from living apostles, one of them being from Elder Dallin H. Oaks, "Our Savior’s Atonement does more than assure us of immortality by a universal resurrection and give us the opportunity to be cleansed from sin by repentance and baptism. His Atonement also provides the opportunity to call upon Him who has experienced all of our mortal infirmities to give us the strength to bear the 
burdens of mortality. He knows of our anguish, and He is there for us. Like the good Samaritan, when He finds us wounded at the wayside, He will bind up our wounds and care for us (see Luke 10:4). The healing and 
strengthening power of Jesus Christ and His Atonement is for all of us who will ask."

We had divisions with the Zone Leaders this week. Elder Haws came with me and Elder Carreira. We had gone a week without teaching anyone, some of our plans fell through then Elder Carreira said, how about we try visiting Olympia, she is an evangelic that was not open at all to hear our message about a month ago and some friend of her daughter had given them a book of Mormon some time ago. We decided to stop by and she graciously welcomed us in. We taught a powerful Message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and testified that Jesus Christ called Joseph Smith to be his Prophet and restore his gospel in these latter days. It is just a good feeling teaching people the gospel!

We visited Irmã Daniela with Francisco from the Stake this week, this Sunday we will officially have the first group meeting in Cova da Piedade in Daniela´s house. She lives in the middle of our area, right now the chapel is in Miratejo which is a good distance from most of the members so the group meeting will be a big help!

We taught Natinha fore the second time last night and marked her for the 20th of June.

We have been working with a less active, Hugo for some time now and have left 4 scripture reading for him and he would not read even after a potential chocolate reward. Last night we passed and he had read all 4 readings, We said, "Oh great! but one problem, we forgot the chocolate!" he replied, "I don´t care about the chocolate i just wanted to read the scriptures!" Foi um Milagre para nos!

I expected to be leaving Almada but I will stay here another transfer and serve with Elder Fisk, this Sunday I will have the opportunity to hear an Apostle of the Lord, Neil L. Andersen speak to the Setúbal Stake!! It will be an amazing experience!

Até Próximo.

Elder Anderson

 Sister Ditton "Died" she finished her mission and is going home tomorrow

 Flan!

 Lunch with my parents

 Letter´s from my 8th Grade teacher, Mrs. Eddlemen´s class---so awesome and appreciated!

 Thanks Mom and Dad!

 Ribeiro Family

 Bowling

Colombo

Duo Lingo

Olá,

This week we did another Family History Blitz, this time in Costa da Caparica. It is so fun setting up the flag and for 2 hours the 8 of us talk to as many people as we can about Family History and the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. That day I had a goal to get 5 contacts, I had 3 Contacts by the end of the Blitz and 7 by the end of the day!

We found a bunch of cards in the chapel with the address and hours of our church so this week we gave out tons and invited a lot of people to church, unfortunately none came yesterday, but hopefully next week.

I finished the book, "Member Missionary Work" It was amazing, it basically expanded on President Monson´s quote,

"Now is the time for members and missionaries to come together, to work together, to labor in the Lord’s vineyard to bring souls unto Him. He has prepared the means for us to share the gospel in a multitude of ways, and He will assist us in our labors if we will act in faith to fulfill His work."

We have seen the truth of this on our own work with a woman named Invandra who was a referral from a member and who is super prepared to accept this Restored Gospel. 

We attended a Jehovah Witness meeting this week, it was a unique experience.

It was so fun Skyping the family yesterday especially speaking to Scott in Portuguese, we will be able to speak Portuguese together for the rest of our lives!

I have been doing a variety of things for my language study this week I began Duo lingo and so far it has really helped, I hope to finish the Program before my year mark in the field I and will truly be 100% fluent then.

This transfer has flown by! this is already the last week, likely my last here in Almada, if I stay here or get transferred to another area in the Setubal Stake I will have an opportunity to see Elder Andersen from the Quorum of the 12 Apostles as he will visit the Setubal Stake on the May 28!

Até Proximo.

Elder Anderson

 HF in Costa

 This Pasterliaria has great pastries 4 for 2€

 Family Carvalho

 Even Catholics recognize Joseph Smith as a true prophet of God haha

 Almada from the top of Cristo Rei

Zone Conference

Olá,

This week we had Zone Conference combined again with the Miratejo and Setubal Zones. In one of the classes President Tavares taught what we should say when we are getting rejected or when we have very little time to talk to someone--Some doctrine that would interest the person so that the next time they saw missionaries they might be a little more open to talk to us, haha. So we did practices with him in front of our group. I said, "When you want to know what church is true talk with our friends." I have used it a few times in contacts on the streets.

We taught Catia and Frances again this week they are awesome and super elect and want to come to church but she is still working on Sundays so it will take a little bit more time. 

Saturday Morning we had interviews with President and after quickly returned to try to attend a baptism in the Miratejo ward, it seemed to go well but we just missed it haha

For P-day we went to Barreiro and played a few hours volleyball with the Zone, after we booked it to the train station but just missed and the next one we would of had to wait an hour, so we had to take a taxi back.

Até Proximo.

Elder Anderson

 When you are on divisions and you don't have the keys and you comp´s pants ripped...

Robbery Witnesses

Olá,

For District meeting this week we went on Family Search to learn ,ore about it because we have been talking to tons of people about it without knowing much about it ourselves, It was so fun for me to look back generations and find information about my ancestors. On RelativeFinder.org I found that I was 4th cousins, 8 times removed from Cornelius Vanderbilt, one of the prominent business leaders in the 1800´s haha it was fun to look at. 

We passed the 20 or so addresses of members in Rua Almada Negreiros, and have found that over half of them had moved, one over 40 years ago haha

One night we stopped by Lidl, a grocery store, real quick as we were leaving some young African Punks were acting suspicious so we waited around to see what they were going to do. Lidl is set up with one entrance and one exit that are separated, they had one wait out side, 3 go in and steal some candy or something, then 2 left through the entrance when a big group of people walked in and the other walked out normally. We would of reported them but with fear that gangs would target missionaries we felt it was best to let it go.

We taught Katia and Frances on Saturday. We had lost contact with them for almost a month and had passed by 6 or 7 times, and finally were able to find them in their house. They are awesome and have the desire to come to church and be baptized, but she works on Sunday, so we have to get that figured out first.

We had a lesson with Edminia in Cova da Piedade one night at 7. We passed but she wasn't there about 30 minutes latter we were walking down a different road and ran into her. She said "Oh Elders I´m so sorry I am returning home late right now from work in Lisbon and from picking my son up from school. Can you pass by another day?" Such a miracle that we found her one day and ran into her another day when the appointment fell through. Both experiences were from following a prompting of the spirit to go a certain direction. 

For P-day this morning we went back to Costa da Caparica and played beach volleyball, soccer and Frisbee. We also got to see some fisherman bringing in nets full of a ton of fish. 

Até Proximo.

Elder Anderson

 Coast

Seagull Leftovers 

Suffocating the Fish