Semana

Olá,

Wednesday night we were returning home and I looked at a small apartment building and had the feeling that we should go knock it. We met this cool lady named Alexandra and taught her the Plan of Salvation.

We knocked a door, they said, "We´re Catholic" (tons of people use that as a Barrier) Elder Fisk was super thirsty so he asked for water and they offered us Beer...We declined.

Metro (like a subway) contacts are the best. I used to be super scared to talk to people there but now the fear is gone and I just enjoy it. It is funny because there are tons of people sitting there and I just start talking with the first person I see and go to the next and next everybody is looking at me and knows they are going got be next so they try to look busy and get on their phone or something but it never works for them haha. I saw a lady looking at me when I was talking to a few other people so I walked up to her and said, "Já sabes tu és próximo" or "you already know that you are next" haha.

Nothing too big happened this week, a lot of small miracles though. Street Corners. We find everyone on street corners, we are walking one direction and they are walking the other, we have ran into a lot of our friends and old investigators and potentials this way.

Last night we were returning and the both us looked at apartment complex #20 so we decided to knock it, one of the buttons was weird so Elder Fisk decided to press it the 7th of 11 floors so we knocked from there to the bottom and no one was interested, we wondered why we felt inspired to knock that apartment when we left and there was a cool guy named Edson from Brasilia, Brasil leaving from delivering Pizza, We talked with him, he was in a hurry but we got his information and marked an appointment for this week. 

I gave a talk on Faith in Jesus Christ in our group meeting Sunday, I used a few scriptures Helaman 5:47 was one of them, and used an example that I saw on lds.org that faith in Jesus Christ can be a shield against things of the world. It went well.

We passed Ana and watched the video https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2011-11-018-a-book-of-mormon-story?lang=eng  from a Bishop in London, England and how the Book of Mormon changed his life. when we were about to start the video her cousin Pedro walked in he happened to be visiting them and is from London. After we testified of the power of the Book of Mormon and left one with him inviting him to read it. 

Before entering the MTC, my Grandma Anderson gave me 50+ pages of Family History Stories from my Pioneer ancestors, I have been reading them for a while and finished them all this week. It was super cool to learn about them!

Tchau,

Elder Anderson

 Our Apartment (the second floor)

Training for a Day

Olá,

Tuesday we had divisions, I stayed in Almada with Elder Guymon, who had been in Portugal for 3 weeks haha. I basically trained for a day. I was a little nervous leading our area all by myself but it went well. In the morning we went to pass some Less actives in the north part of our area, when we usually pass (visit) a person in an apartment complex we press the other buttons and try to get in so we can knock their actual door, I did this and someone let us in so we knocked on the door that let us in and met a guy named Rogeiro. We said we were missionaries and he said come on in! We then taught him the restoration and he was super receptive, he then said in was funny that we passed today because he works in Lisbon and that day was a holiday in Lisbon so he did not work and happened to be in his house.

In the evening we taught Katia and Frances the Word of Wisdom, and explained that God does not want us to partake of Alcohol, Tobacco, Black Tea, Coffee or Illegal drugs because our bodies are temples and we should treat them like that as it says in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. She has a small problem with Coffee, after the lesson I asked her if I could have it, then I tried to buy it from her (and through it away) haha neither worked but he committed to finish what she had and after no more. After that our last lesson fell through, our goal was to teach 3 lessons that day and we had just taught 2. It was about 9:20, about time to return home. We thought about passing the grocery store real quick and getting as few things that we need but then decided we would at least try to teach one more lesson, We passed an apartment building and i thought no, then the next and i had a feeling that it was that one, I knocked a few then someone let us in we met a guy named Mateus he invited us in and we taught a brief restoration and left a Book of Mormon with him. It was such a miracle that we were able to teach three lessons that day!

The next day we went back to pass the same less actives because they were not home that day and we ended up running into Rogeiros friend, Marcos he invited us in and we taught him the Restoration and invited him to read, ponder and pray about the Book of Mormon.

We met our goals for 12 lessons and 10 new investigators this week!

We had zone conference again this week, President Tavares spoke  about three zones of missionaries: Fubecagem (Lazy), Comfortable and Consecrated (giving all you have to the lord) and being determined to reach your goals and how your hard work will pay off with many blessings in the end. We all got super pumped to work hard.

Irmã Rosa took us to a sushi buffet and we at a ton!!

Sunday we had stake conference and had a visit from a different Elder Anderson from the seventy he spoke a lot about the time to prepare to go the the holy temple is not when it opens, 6 months before is opens but now! and the blessing the temple will be for the faithful saints here in Portugal and how it will help boost the work here. He also shared a ton of super cool,l conversion stories that he has been a part of.

We went to pass Tejan, he was not home but his neighbor Claudia we coming home at that time I introduced us as the Elders and she said that she had talked to the Elders 10 years ago and liked our message but hadn't talked to us since and thought it was funny that we ran into each other at that time.

Last night we ran into a a lady named Margarita, she had some bad back problems and was carrying two heavy bags of groceries back to her house, so we carried then for her, she was super grateful for our help.

My brother Scott returned from his mission in Brazil this week, it is crazy how fast time flies!

Tchau.

Elder Anderson

 New Scripture cases

Este Semana

Olá,

We were working in the north part of our area and ran into guy named Luis, he said that he has prayed a few times in his life asking God if he should follow religion or not. And the next day he has always ran into the Elders. Then he told us that he prayed yesterday. This was the seventh time this has occurred. Crazy. We tried to make an appointment and invited him to church in our group meeting, but nothing came from it except for God told him for a 7th time that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter~day Saints is the true Church.

I enjoy Gospel study every morning, the 1 hour we have goes by so fast. I have wanted to read Jesus the Christ but haven't have had the time so i downloaded the audio and this week listened to the first 13 chapters.

We had a division with President Tavares this week with him we taught Ana the Restoration and Delfine and Ana the Plan of Salvation (We are teaching 4 different women all by the name of Ana haha) both lessons went really well and they were really accepting. President Tavare´s teaching is literally perfect.

I saw a man and had a feeling that we should talk to him, I introduced us as the missionaries and he told us that he was a member, named Per Evens. We explained to him how we were starting a group meeting in Cova da Piedade and invited him to come, Sunday he and his girlfriend came to our group meeting!

We met an African man named "Branco" or "White" haha

Friday we passed lots of Less Actives with Francisco from the High Council in the area close to our group trying to invite them to our group meeting, but most of them were not in their houses, 

Catia and Frances are still doing well. Frances is 9 and understands everything so well!

This morning we went to Lisbon again because I had to do "S.E.F." I  now have residency in Portugal!

Até Proximo.

Elder Anderson

Lost Phone Miracle

Olá,

With our group meeting in Cova da Piedade we have been working a lot more in the north part of the area trying to build our little group there Sunday we just had 7 of us but this week we will work even harder to bring some Less active or Investigators there.

Tuesday we were leaving the chapel after a mission zoom conference and around the corner we met a guy named Hugo and talked with him for 10 minutes about the Book of Mormon, He was super receptive to our message, but he lives on the other side of the river so we passed his info to the missionaries there. Right after we got done talking to him we received a call from the church office (Our chapel is split, one half in the church offices for Portugal and Cape Verde the other is our actual chapel) that they had a new church key for us, ours had broken a while back. After talking to Hugo we were still really close to the chapel. If we had not talked to him we would have had to walk a good ways back. Milagre.

We were looking for an address for a reference and saw a door to a 10-story apartment complex open, we said well its open for a reason, we went to the top and knocked a few floors and met a lady named Carla who had talked with the missionaries about 10 years ago, we talked for a little bit about the restored gospel and how it could bless her family, she wasn´t interested in hearing right then but i think we helped prepare an elect for the missionaries her down the road.

Last week we were knocking doors on one of our inspired roads. I saw a gypsie teenager who was smoking and looked as he had been drinking but nonetheless i had the feeling that i should talk to him, we made an appointment with him later in the week. Later that week when we went to pass him we ran into a guy named Tejan at an intersection, we were walking down two different roads and were passing the intersection at the same time. He said that he had a friend that served a mission and is some what familiar with the church and wants to hear more. It was such a miracle how we found him. It is amazing to see how Heavenly Father leads us to his prepared children!

We passed Bruno, and ended up teaching his Mom, Ana also, and she is super receptive to the gospel.

After 3 and a half months of waiting my name tags came in! it is so nice to have more than one.

We taught Orlando the Restoration, he is super cool, after when we had returned to Laranjeiro Elder Fisk realized that he didn't have the phone. So we passed the house so he could get his pass to the metro then we rode the metro back to get the phone. On the way down there Caio, who we taught some time ago was on the metro, I had a chance to talk to him for a few minutes, then we got the phone, returned to the metro, I saw a guy whose face lit up when he saw us so I sat by him, he said "Oh you are the missionaries! my cousin served a mission and I am familiar with the church." So we got his contact info, and passed it on to the Miratejo Elders where he lives. He had to have been the reason we left the phone at Orlando´s house.

We had interviews with President Tavares again on Saturday. On the train there I sat by a guy named Paulo and explained that I was a missionary and began talking about the Book of Mormon and basically taught him the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He was interested in learning more so we passed his info to the Elders in Seixal. On the way back I sat by a guy named Hugo, He was playing some game on his phone, but i wanting to talk to him so i waited until he looked up and then introduced myself and I began explaining the Book of Mormon to him. I told him that they was a family that left Jerusalem on a boat to ancient America, how God established his church in America and how after Christ was resurrected he visited the people in America. He eyes lit up as I explained it, "Another testament of Jesus Christ, Christ himself visited america?! No way! I want it how much can I buy it for?" I explained that it was not for sale, but that I could give it to him for free. I then invited him to read the introduction and passed his info on to Miratejo. It was a miracle that we found both of them, because we arrived to the train station a little late and had to wait 20 more minutes for the next train.

Tchau,

Elder Anderson

 

 (Shovel from the groundbreaking of the temple in Lisbon, Portugal!)

 Kebab!

 New Shirts

 Elder Smith, the next David Archeleta- https://www.lds.org/youth/video/come-unto-christ-2014-theme-song?lang=eng 

 Fatura

 New Name tags!

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