"You Get a Line and I'll Get a Pole"

Wow, well let me tell you. . . I'm still not that great of a fisher man

Today Élder Thomas and I accompanied the Bishop to a waterfall that is close to where we live. Élder Thomas was wanting to get out in nature he practically lived in the mountains before the mission. He is super cool and so is our Bishop who happened to bring some line and hooks on the trip and we ended up using some thick grass for a pool and going a fishin'. 

"You get line and I'll get a pole .. . . . " andy griffeth show

Any way so that was super awesome! The Bishop ended up catching 14 little fishes and Élder Thomas 1 and you guessed it Élder Anderson 0. Well at least I got to get my hands in the dirt and hunt for worms to stick on the line before the little fishys robbed em' all! Super cool experience would love to send you a picture, but I don't have a way to send them today! Well, maybe I can work something out and send a picture afterwards. . . . 

Well this week was pretty cool, my companion had an idea to let each companionship in our zone make a goal each day for the zone to accomplish. It helped a lot with zone unity and working in creative ways for example, doing 7 random acts of kindness, or 4 references from members, quoting a scripture from the Book of Mormon in 10 contacts, stuff the the companionships made up to help our zone find more new investigatores and have more excitment in our work as missionaries.

My companion is super awesome and I am receiving some great counsel from him about teaching and being a missionary. I'm trying to be humble and honor God and I'm realizing things each day I can improve to be a better person, someone that others like to be around and they can feel loved and can share there feelings and thoughts, this is super important. I have good examples and great missionaries in our district and I am super glad that I'm learning these attributes as a missionary and as a person. 

Tomorrow we have a mission conference and I'm excited to receive some counsel and apply the revelations that I may receive. One thing I and my companion have been feeling that we can improve is the fast. I remember a letter mom had sent me about the fast and I really know that I can apply this powerful tool more to help me, our investigatores and the missionaries in our zone. I am feeling a few "growing pains", but I feel that it is all part of God's plan for me to be a better disciple of Christ, more faithful, more wise, more courageous, and more charitable. I'm learning that prayer is the tool that will help us be "Grateful in our Circumstances", always looking for the hand of The Lord in our lives. 

One thing I thought was interesting in my patriachal blessing was that it says after a period of difficulty I would be able to communicate with the people whom I am called to teach, and I always that of that as Portuguese, but I was always confused because i didn't feel that I was having such great difficulty. But, know I realize that maybe the language that I am learning is a language that is even more important than Portugues, maybe the language I'm learning is the language of The Spirit, the language of the angels and of God- the language of love. The apostle Paul writes about the importance of love in 1st Corinthins 13 the first first is excellent. I love you all and thank you for your support and prayers.

Te Amo,

P.S. mom you know that little cow cup you sent me, yah well it broke into pieces, but thankfully my companion had super glue and I was able to fix it up just about the way it was when you sent it haha. Thank you soooo much for the munchies and jam and hymn book! 

Élder Anderson

My Zone/Getting in Shape!

This is my zone- they are all so awesome!!

This is the baptism of the mother and son of the Bishop. It was an amazing day. The Bishop played and sang a wonderful arragement of "When I am baptized" on the guitar. Wow. Maria who is is mother has been going to church for 2 years and stopped drinking cofee while we were teaching her and she was baptized, in preparation to go to the temple with her family sortly after the second to youngest son returns from his mission in Vitória in a years time.  What an amazing testimoy of eternal families!

I love you all I am very well and yes dad I am eating well and we are excercising, too because, my companion wants to be "in shape" for when he returns home in a few monthes. AWESOME!

LOVE you All

If There Isn't a Feeling of Love, the Spirit Isn't There

Hello Family

Elder Hayden Anderson

7/13/15

To: Andy Anderson, Austin Anderson, Clarissa Lewis, jorge andrade, Lorna Anderson, Lorna Anderson, Marti Zohner, Ryan, Sydney Layton, W. Clark Anderson

fotos.zip

Hello my dear ones,

Glad to hear that you are all doing well. Today I played soccer with a group of missionaries and the Presidente; didn't exactly feel qualified to play with the best of em you know. . . the soccer thing is still a work in progress. But, luckily we were able to play a bit of basketball in the end and that made me fell a bit better, however I tell you what, I am starting to feel 20 coming on. . . hahah just kidding, only 3 more days! It is a bit weird, time. . . 

Tomorrow will be Zone Counsel with the Presidente and Zone leaders, should be exciting. The day after we will have a zone meeting and I will do a split with Élder Smith in His área. That is one of the duties you know . . . splits.

I had my second "split" this week with Élder Dias, my first "split" outside of my area. It was super cool. I realized from the Split that Love is so critical, I know I say that all the time, but it is true! The first thing I discovered is that this Élder's mom had passed away 4 years ago by an aniurism, and that his companion, an american from Arizona had lost his mother much like how Nolan passed away, 4 weeks before he left for his mission. That day we visited members, investigatores, less actives, and a pizza shop. . . oh that was for dinner, 1 "Real" which is about a third of a dollar for a piece of cheese pizza, pretty cool. Oh but back to the point- LOVE- right so we visit all of these people and we can talk all we want and prove that were right and everything and that is great, but if there isn't a feeling of love the Spirit isn't there. . . sorry charlie the truth is the truth okay. . . "Love people, Love people. . . You and me.. . .that's the way to beee, oh yah yah." #flashback#eagleproject#lovepeople#itwillbealright

Wow I don't think I even knew how to years this hip thing before the mission, but I feel I'm starting to master it, maybe, well it is fun. 

Oh so I met 2 youths during this "split" whom are absolutley awesome. They have very little in there home, and their mother is working like crazy to support them, but their testimonies are incredibly strong after 2 years of baptism in the church. They made some visits with us after we challenged them to share the message of the plan of salvation with a friend, and during the visites I discovered that Sarah, the 14 year old girl had asked God if what the missionaries was true. She received an answer. She said that in her dream was shown to her written in the color blue the word "SIM" or YES. That was a special testimony to me that God answers our prayers in the way that we may understand, however if we aren't listening for his answer things are a bit more painful. I want to use the fast more effectively to receive heavenly assistence in my prayers and desires for good. 

Isn't there something special about the color blue- to me there is, however, I have decided that my favorite color is green, just so you know. 

Well I have a couple of pics for you, unfortunately I don't have a pin drive again, but these are pics from my companion Élder Matheus. He is from Recife and likes to surf, worked as a DJ before the mission. His house is 30 minutes from Porte de Galinhas which is an amazing beach in Brazil look it up. The first picture is with Irmã Maria the mother of the Bishop who will be baptized with her grandaughter this weekend. She has stopped smoking and drinking cofee and is really excited to be baptized. The other picture is of Amanda who was baptized this weekend, her mom is awesome and has been to church a few times, but she isn't married and the dad is a bit tough, but we are going to work with them, really nice family. 

Well I bid you all adeu and the next time you all hear from me I will be much older and wiser too, Happy Birthday to me! I love you All!

COM AMOR

ÈLDER ANDERSON

Zone mtg./Use B of M in All Teaching/My District Leader "Barney Fife"

My family, I am very well, and Glad to hear that you are also. Sounds like lots of fun for you all and our family. On the 4th of July I had the pleasure of sharing the recording I have of dad singing the national anthem with the Élders in my zone ( thank you Clark and Dad). It was quite enjoyable. We had a great zone meeting this week, focused on working with members and using the Book of Mormon in all teaching and finding opportunities. I felt a great building opportunity in all of this and am pleased with the out come of it all. There is a new Élder in my zone named Élder Murdock and he was dancing partners with Kinzi Mitton in Pocatello! Super cool connection, one more from Idaho.

Well I mentioned to clark that I spent a day with an Élder that knew Clark while he was serving, another awesome connection. He is a great missionionary. I wanted to send pictures, but I forgot my pin drive at the house, sorry. We were able to share a bit about our families and stories and he was very excited that I was able to help him with English, which until know he hasn't received.

Oh so my district leader is an awesome Élder from Utah that reminds me a lot of Barney Fife. He has a super good heart and a strong testimony, but that same fire and humor that is famous about good old Barn, Never a dull moment on the mission when we open our hearts to love. 

Well I'm sorry that my letter is so short, but I spent more time responding individually today.

God Bless you all, until next week

Élder Anderson

p.s. exicted for the birthday box to arrive! Thanks mom