Transferências

Olá,

Time has flown by! I finished 12 week training this week. It is a program that missionaries go through their first 12 weeks in the field that includes 30 minutes of extra study everyday preparing to teach lessons and adjust overall. It is nice to have it over with but now my responsibility increases! Elder Salmon has been in Santo André for 6 months, 4 transfers and is now leaving to Cacem. Elder Pickrell is going to Setubal and I am staying here in Santo Andre with Elder Knowlton! I am happy for the opportunity I have to stay and work in this area!

A few nights ago I followed up with the Repsol cashier, that we had given the Book of Mormon to from the CODE 68 story. She had already read to Mosiah! I invited her to read Moroni 10 and ask Heavenly Father if the book was true and I promised her that she would receive an answer. I felt the spirit really strongly as I extended the invitation. It was awesome.

We ate lunch a few days ago at a Japanese Buffet close to the church. We stuffed ourselves full of sushi for a good hour, It was great haha

The language is still difficult but it has gotten a lot easier. I am now somewhat comfortable in talking with and teaching people. I am maybe 30% fluent in Portuguese and hope to make a big improvement this transfer.

We had 2 lessons with Alita and her 2 daughters this week. She was baptized when she was young but has not attended church for years and has forgotten most of the doctrine. We watched the Restoration video with her and and as we saw the first vision she began to cry. It was powerful and spiritual lesson, yesterday she attended church!

Sunday we had dinner with the Branch President's family about an hour away in Carvalhar. We left to go work there right after church and found out that is was a beach vacation town with a bunch of vacation homes and not as much work as we had thought. We drove through the small town and found a neighborhood to tract. We talked to a few people and knocked a bunch of doors and were wrapping up when we saw a lady washing her car and decided to talk to her. She was super nice and open. We did a brief overview of the Restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon then she told us that we had stopped there for a reason. It was a Miracle!

As my knowledge of the Plan of Salvation and the Atonement of Jesus Christ increases my desire to share this restored gospel increases. I know that this church is true and I am excited for this new transfer and the opportunity I have to serve the Lord. 

Elder Anderson

 Eating Sushi!

 Our Ramo (Branch)

 I tried to get some pics of the countryside on the drive to Carvalhar

 President Inacio and his family, they were unable to attend church and be in the branch photo because their car battery died

I have been working crazy hard on my handwriting everyday. These 20 sheets, 10 alphabet and 10 numbers took about 3 weeks with just a little bit of time to practice everyday. I have already seen a difference and am determined to practice until I have perfected my handwriting!

15 Lessons!

Olá,

This week started off with splits with the AP´s on Monday and Tuesday. I went with Elder Kaelberer. We worked really hard and had a great time. He is a super good missionary and was a great example for me. With their hard working and positive attitudes this difficult area all off a sudden seemed like it was beaming with Elect! We were visiting a few less actives in Por do Sul and stopped for a minutes in between two buildings to decide who to visit next when we saw a mother walking with her Son. Elder Kaelberer jumped at the opportunity to talk with her (he has a rule never to let a family pass by without talking with them) her name was Cristina and she was really nice and invited us in to listen to our message. We taught her about half of the Restoration when here husband left so we had to leave too. I´m so glad I was with Elder Kaelberer in the right place at the right time. 

We had a great lesson with Luzita (the investigator who we had lost contact with and yelled at us out of her window inviting us in) We taught her about the Word of Wisdom, as we are trying to help her quit smoking.

I began reading this book "The Power of Everyday Missionaries" on Saturday and I read every moment I had and finished it this morning. It was fantastic. It changed the way I think about sharing the gospel. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to become a better member missionary!

Thanks to the help from the AP´s, combining with members present, less actives and other lessons we had 15 lesson this week! It was crazy! the past few weeks we have have maybe 3 or 4.

Our P-days got even longer with only 30 minutes of Personal Study in the morning! I am so excited to have more time to get things done,m relax and explore!

In Salt Lake City, the mission was reading the New Testament, about three pages a day and taking one day off a week, starting after the October General Conference with the goal of finishing by the April General conference. And highlighting in Red verses that teach and testify of Christ and in Blue verses that show us how to become disciples of Jesus Christ. I am about halfway done now and half learned so much! I loved reading about the Savior's earthly ministry, the miracles, his example for us and especially his infinite Atonement, which I am so grateful for.

Have a great week!

Elder Anderson

 Candle or Grease?!

 My Comp from SLC, Elder Vano in all red, I found this picture in the Liahona magazine haha

Random picture taken from the window of our church building

New year, New schedule!

Olá,

Happy New Year! !t is crazy to think that 2016 is over and it is now 2017! 

This week has been wild. Monday night  we got a call about Emergency transfers, and Tuesday night Elder Pickrell joined us in Santo André. He is from Wyoming and has been out a year and a half. Wednesday night the office missionaries dropped off a new bed for him and some other things to help accommodate the 2 person apartment for 3 Elders. It is a little tight but we make it work.

Thursday we had splits with the Zone Leaders, I went with Elder Collete and stayed in Sines. He is one of the funniest Elders I have met haha we had a great time and found some Elect! We met this lady named Maria Fatima and gave her a Book of Mormon. The next day we followed up with her and she had read the introduction and the testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith! I am excited for our lesson later this week.

The best mission in the world just got better! New Years day we had a mission wide zone meeting where President Tavares presented the totally new Daily schedule! It goes as follows:

7:00- Wake up and Exercise

7:30- Prepare for the day and eat Breakfast

8:30-9:00- Daily planning

9:00- Personal Study

10:00- Leave the apartment for proselyting!

1:00- Lunch

2:00-Comp study

2:30- Language study

3:00- 12 week training, (I only have 2 weeks left of this!)

3:30- Leave for proseltying 

9:30- Return to our house

11:00- Bedtime

We have 90 minutes for lunch and dinner combined, so we will have to shorten one of them. We have no more nightly planning or Zone meetings! By cutting down companion and language study we will have more proselyting time throughout the day and without nightly planning we will have plenty of time to wind down and get ready for bed at night. On P-day we plan and have personal study until 8:30 then can leave the apartment, 2 hours earlier than usual! Although it now ends at 6:00 rather than 6:30, but we will have an additional hour and a half to get our things done and explore.

 Alma 49:8 "But behold, to their uttermost astonishment, they were prepared for them, in a manner which never had been known among the children of Lehi.(The new schedule) Now they were prepared for the Lamanites (Portuguse People), to battle (Preach the Gospel) after the manner of the instructions of Moroni (President Tavares).

I am so excited for this new year and new schedule and the opportunity I have to represent and serve my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

--

Elder Anderson

 We explored the northern part of Sines this morning, it was amazing!

2-5-8-0

Olá

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! We had a pretty warm one here, it was around 70's throughout the day and felt great. It was so fun to Skype with the family and see how everyone was doing, that had to have been the fastest hour of my life!

Weeks in the mission go by so fast it is crazy! On Wednesday we went to tons of stores looking for a present for the gift Exchange for the Christmas party after a while we went to this cool craft and sculpture store. I bought this African carved mask haha it was super cool. On Thursday we had the mission Christmas party. We left at 6 in the morning, drove about 2 hours to Lisbon and didn't get back until 10:30. It was fun to see the whole mission and my District from the MTC. I saw this guy that looked familiar so I talked to him and he was my good friend, Ben, now Elder Fogg from EFY 2 years ago haha it was crazy. I couldn't believe that we were both called to the same mission!

One night we were tracting in Baho de Torres and we came to this building that had a keypad. I pressed 2-5-8-0 and it unlocked the door haha it was so funny and we found some great people in there that we will hopefully begin teaching.

The Santo André área covers 18 cities that are spread out pretty good. It would take about 2 hours to drive from the bottom to the top haha Obviously we could not work effectively it all 18 so we focus mainly in Sines, where we live, and Santo Andre, where the church building is, and we have done some work in Santiago and Melides. They are all cool areas. It is so fun driving out to Melides and seeing the countryside and all of the rolling hills and trees.

Tuesday night we had an appointment with José Maria. We were about to knock on the door, but I just felt like sitting down. So we sat down for a few minutes and then we saw him walking up the stairs. We then met with him and had a great lesson, definitely the best that we have had with him so far. He finally decided that he would pray about the Book of Mormon and ask God if it was true! My thought to sit down for a few minutes was not me wanting to be lazy, but a prompting from the Spirit. If we had not sat down for a few minutes we would have knocked on the door then left and would have missed him. It was crazy. Elder Bednar said something like, "whether we know it or not we will be guided by the Spirit" That is so true as I have had and acted on so many promptings that have turned into miracles.

I gave a talk in church yesterday. I read the story of Jesus´s birth in Luke 2, then lots of scriptures that testified of  Christ. It was pretty simple but it went well. Have a great week!

 A rock from the sea of Galilee

 Passion fruit

 My friend Elder Ben Fogg from Efy 2 years ago

 Christmas Day

 Bolo Rei (Kings Cake)

 Cut my own hair today

 Frisbee at the beach!