Nose Intact

MY MOTHER WILL BE HAPPY I LEFT TOCANTINS WITH MY NOSE

much better in Portuguese don't you agree. . . Tocantins is super hot- burns

Anyway Transfers was this weekend and I took a bus yesterday 7;30pm  and arrived in brasilia this morning 8 am. I'm going to Paracatu, Minas Gerais. Now the third Brasilian state I will be getting to know not including the Federal District of Brasil. I'll take another bus today 3pm to arrive in Paracatu about 7;30pm. Paracatu is a recently opened area of a year or so with a group of about 30 or so frequenting members. I will serve as district leader finishing the training of èlder Costa from the north of the Country, Maceio. I'm super excited to work in this new area a city of about 100,000  inhabitants. Sounds like they have good milk and cheese which makes for an excellent pão de queijo. YAH Clark now should know what I'm talking about- yum. 

Well I have to go now, but I will inform you of any other exciting news new week. 

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!

Doing Everything We Can to Strengthen the Church in Palmas

hey family! I'm doing great, glad to hear from you all, today I'm short on time, but I just want you all to know I'm okay and the lord's work is going well here in Palmas. We had training with the mission President and Interviews as well. I was very inspired, by really what we are capable of as missionaries and my companion and I are doing everything we can to help strengthen the church here through working with the members to reactivate, retain and strengthen the members. We know that through this effort the lord will bring other sheep to his fold as well. 

Yesterday after a super awesome lesson at a members house with an investigator, my companion and I went sprinting home in the pouring run and river filled streets and I laughed and smiled the whole way. I will never forget that moment and I'm so thankful to be serving as a representative of the lord Jesus Christ in Brazil. 

LOVE ÈLDER ANDERSON

Special Week

Hey folks good to hear from you all!

This week was super special. Certainly there were difficulties, but my companion and I are looking to use those difficulties to our benefit so that we may improve our capacity to serve the Lord in the area of Palmas 3. My companion and I searched long and wide to find investigators to go to church with us Sunday morning, but to no avail. However I was very pleased to see a man there who really is looking to make a change in His life. He has been married to a member here in the ward for a long time and we had spoken with him on various occasions, but he told us Saturday night that he really needs God in His life. We passed by their home to ask for some help getting to the church and he gladly drove us there and while we waited for the others to arrive, he told us of his desire to change and I felt such a joyful spirit inside of me. I was able to share my testimony with him and I'm super excited to be able to visit them and help him and His family! ETERNAL FAMILIES!!!!!

Other experience I had this week that was super special was a split that I did in Miracema which was the first city of Tocantins as I'm told. It was such a beautiful drive- really jungley and we crossed the tocantins river which is really full this time of year. However, this wasn't even the best part the most special part was that I was able to interview for baptism a real South American Indian XERENTE, if that is how you spell it. It was a very special and spiritual experience and if all goes well she will be baptized by her son this Sunday evening. 

I LOVE YOU ALL WISH I COULD SEND PICTURES NOW, but I have to go!!

Èlder Anderson

Parrots and Coconuts

Hello Family! 

Great to hear from you all this week! Sounds like good things are happening in Nottingham and Everyone just looks beautiful! Especially Austin in the suit gussied up for the the school dance- yyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaaah! 

Anyway, I am thankful for another excellent week. I was able to go on splits with Élder Gomez from the Domican Republic. We slipped over to their house which is an hour long bus ride through some awesome looking jungle and farm land- super green, lakes, cows and wildlife. Many times throughout the week you may find a pair or two of big blue parrots passing through the air. Super awesome! Not to mention that in every other house you go to there is a green parrot bird that likes to talk with you. cool right? Anyway about the split so were immediately placed in various circumstances in which we could serve as soon as we left the bus. Helping an elderly woman with a suitcase who returned our service with a coconut or two which we later shared with a poor man looking for lunch. The only difficult part was to open the darn nut, you have to whack it with a machete or an axe to open it. Any way, but even with the rain that day we were able to persevere and find people that needed our help, including a recent convert that we invited to a members house to share some FRENCH TOAST! with some homemade syrup which I was able to supply! But, that isn't really important, what is important is that the recent convert was integrated with one of His home teachers!!! 

Well that is just one day in my life, but really in regards to the topic I placed on the email Sunday was called a new Bishopic in our Ward and I now that This church is lead of God and not by Man. The Spirit testified of this truth. 

WOW I have to goo!, 

BUt I also felt my testimony strengthened a lot this WEEK !!!!!!

LOVE YOU 

Élder Anderson

Hello my dear ones, 

My new companion is ÈLDER Sanchez from Paraguay! That is correct. He is a new leader in the mission and he has got some fire in him, so it sure to be a blast of a transfer! We practice speaking english one day in the house and spanish on the other. Kind of fun, he is my 3rd companion spanish speaking, but the first who has wanted to speak spanish with me, but don't worry the Portuguese is still a major priority in our language studies and certainly the language of our daily work. 

We had a baptism this week! Ana Beatriz was baptized on Saturday. She was baptized by her uncle which was cool. She is super awesome and has a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith- it is soo awesome to help someone recognize the Spirit confirm the truthfulness of the Gospel to them. 

This week we watched a missionary transmission worldwide, but we watched it in Spanish. . . ya and we were eating lunch at like the same time, but even with such distraction and difficulty I was impressed by our Inspired Leaders and the Spirit that testified of the truths they spoke. Here are a few things that stuck out to me in my roughly spanish to portuguese to english translation:

Teach Repentance and baptize converts. . . okay that was the name it, but let me add some more. . . 

Use the Book of Mormon to testify of Christ and of His Gospel

Teach people not lessons, and teach by the spirit

Helping investigators keep commitments and commandments 

working with members, less actives and recent converts. 

and the last Hymn "HARK ALL YE NATIONS" it was super cool, because that morning we had a zone meeting and we sang this hymn as a zone before kneeling to pray at the end of our meeting. I felt the spirit so strongly and felt the grandure of this great work. Some thing I found in my personal study that I was able to share with the missionaries in our meeting was a revelation from the Prophet Joseph in the Section 75 of the Doctrine and Covenants. Towards the end of the chapter God counsels his servants to be unified in the work including Simeon Carter and His companion. This revelation was given in the year of 1832 in which my great grandfather was baptized at 21 years of age by Simeon Carter. If it wasn't for these dedicated missionaries I might not have enjoyed all the blessings I now enjoy as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

MISSIONARY WORK IS A MIRACLE 

I LOVE YOU ALL 

ÉLDER ANDERSON

Let the Games Begin!

HELLO, HELLO, HELLO,

Family I am soo sorry that some how my letter from last week stayed in my "drafts" box and wasn't sent to you all however I will send it and include some up-to-date info about transfers and such! LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

Well I'm sure the Spirit is very close to you all at this time of wedding and funerals, I'm surely thankful for the power of prayer and the love I feel from God as I truly pray to him. I hope you all an awesome week. Tomorrow my companion is going to Brasília and I will be in trio for a week until my companion arrives. I'm so thankful for the help my companion has shared with me in teaching with the Spirit and being obedient and diligent in the work of the Lord. He is a good missionary. I'm super excited to receive my new companion! I don't know who he is yet, but I have an idea. . . (ya, but that idea was wrong, my new companion's name is Élder Sanchez from Paraguay. Ya it was a mile away.) 

I'll fill you in next week, actually it will have to be the week after that, because he only arrives on Tuesday..  ( or today, because I already know. . . :) 

This week was cool as my companion was getting some contact information to help his recent converts, I too felt a desire to follow up a bit on some of my recent converts, it is such a great work we are involved in. I LOVE THE GOSPEL. ( Cool experience about that was the same day I called Èlder Sifuentes and to get some info about some recent converts and he informed my he had finished leaving a funeral of the father of some of our recent converts. I felt like the Lord touched in my heart to follow-up on some of the converts. 

HAVE TO GO

LOVE YOU ALL

ÈLDER ANDERSON

Ya so that was my letter from last week, with some up-to-date information. 

I'm feeling excited for the next transfer and hope to see some improvement in my work as a missionary and leader in our zone. I have felt a difference in the way I serve in as a leader and missionary in the past few weeks after the passing of Grandma and I know that the lord will be able to use me for much good in these next months on my mission. LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!

I Know that God has Grandma in His Hands/Joy/Gratitude

Man I'm really sad to hear about Grandma, but I know that God has her in His hands and that she is being well taken care of and is feeling free from her earthy stresses and that brings me joyful thoughts of gratitude. 

I wanted so much to send some pictures to you guys today, but once again- I am technologically unable and the little time I have doesn't help.  Today we went to a waterfall as a zone and took a few pictures. Man I felt like I was in a Book of Mormon seen. Wow I was in the Jungle- I even saw a monkey! He was throwing stuff at me from the tree tops. Luckily we didn't see any snakes! ahhaa, but it was super cool, but also a little stressful trying to handle everything as leaders, thankfully everything turned out okay. Man I tell you what I know that there are three things that help me so much with the load that I have in my life and as a missionary: Prayer, Scripture Study, and the Sacrament. This morning I woke up feeling heavy and I felt to slump to my knees, I began to feel lighter and the love that Christ has for me. I was reminded of the special hymn "Did you think to Pray?". I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ works and is true, because I use it in my life. I hope all of us may apply the atonement of Christ to help heal us. 

Love you all, I have to go, more info next week

"ON TO THE WEDDING!"

ÉLDER ANDERSON