Oi oi oi! Week 3

Hi everyone!!

It has definitely been quite the week! So first off, one of the elders in our district had to go home. He was having a really hard time this last week, and he ended up not eating or sleeping for 3 days which was super crazy. On Friday he ended up passing out and had to be taken to the hospital. And then I guess when he woke up he had lost a couple months of memory! It was super crazy!!
So he couldn´t remember any of us, anything about the CTM, or any of his Portuguese. He came back for a couple days, but it was just too hard and stressful and so they ended up deciding he needed to go home. So that has definitely been a struggle. He was a super fun and happy part of our district and so it´s been hard to have that missing. But I know that God has a plan for him and that it´ll all work out and be okay. And Sister Snyder made us brownies to lift our spirits! Her and Elder Snyder are a senior missionary couple here from the states and it was GLORIOUS to eat some food from back home. Don´t get me wrong, I love Brazilian food-- but food from home is a special treat.

So for Easter they broadcasted a devotional from the Provo MTC because Elder Ballard from the quorum of the 12 apostles spoke. And guess who I saw on the broadcast.... Sister Southam!! I got to see her singing and at one point they also showed her writing notes haha. It was so good to see my dear friend. 

Things at the CTM are still great! Friday they´re taking us to go proselyting and hand out Book of Mormons to people. I don´t feel ready for that because I still can´t speak Portuguese haha. But I know the Lord will bless us and help us. 

This week I´ve really have my testimony strengthened on the power of faith. I´ve always thought that faith is something that we just do personally, but I´ve learned that it is a gift from God. We have to constantly be seeking for and asking for faith. And as we act on that faith, I testify that miracles happen. With faith, there´s no need for fear because we can know that things will always work out as long as we´re trusting in God. If anyone has time, read Moroni 7 in the Book of Mormon. It is such a good chapter on faith and strengthening our testimonies-- it gave me a lot of strength throughout the week. 

I hope everyone had a good week and a good Easter! Thanks for all the love!

Sister Anderson

Katelyn's CTM district at the Sao Paulo Brazil Temple with their instructor, Irmao Santos, in the middle

Oi! Week 2

Bom dia everyone! 

I hope everyone has had a good week! I definitely have! I am still loving Brazil and the CTM. Things are so wonderful and happy here. Plus, I´m getting a lot better at Portuguese so that´s really nice! The gift of tongues is a very real thing!

So every Sunday and Tuesday we have devotionals and they´re super nice. Ususally someone who used to be a mission president in Brazil will speak to us. This week we had a member of the 70 come and speak to us-- Elder Zwick. He told a super cool story about the gift of tongues. He was at one of the temple dedications for a temple in Brazil and Elder Nielson from the quorum of the 12 came to do the dedication. Not knowing any Portuguese, he would say a little bit in English and then have a person translate into Portuguese for everyone but then when it came time to do the dedicatory prayer, he said "if I have enough faith and if everyone here has enough faith, I will be able to do the dedicatory prayer in a language that everyone can understand." Elder Zwick said he was sitting behind Elder Nielson and could see that he had no papers in front of him and had nothing prepared. But then he did the prayer in perfect Portuguese. How cool is that? I can testify that things like that really can happen through the power of God. One of the Elders in my district was having a really hard time with the language and wasn´t understanding much of what one of my instructors (Irmão Santos) was saying to him. But then my instructor started to testify of God´s love for him, and I could see the Spirit touch this Elder and then he understood what my instructor was saying for a good 2 minutes. It was such a touching experience for all of us. 

Portuguese can be a struggle, but I have a lot of faith that God will help me learn it. The Brazilians are so sweet and love to help us learn it. It was so funny though-- especially the first week and even sometimes now, their absolute favorite word to use is "calma", pretty much just telling us to calm down hahah. I guess we look like gaping fish whenever they start speaking Portuguese haha. 

P-days are super nice! We get to go to the temple in the morning! Last week we went to the Campinas Temple and this morning we went to the São Paulo Temple. Going to the temple is always such a nice experience and brings me so much peace. Today they did the session in English and so that was soooo nice!! It felt like I was at home doing a session in the Vernal Temple :) 

I still have yet to find someone else going to Recife!! Kind of crazy, but it´s all good! Whenever I tell someone that Recife is my mission they get really excited and happy haha. Most Brazilians seem to really love Recife. And then after that they tell me it´s "muito quente" (very hot) hahaha. It´s so humid here, but it´s totally worth it because everything is so green and beautiful. 

I love Brazil and I love being a missionary! I know that the church is true. The fact that I can be doing something so hard, but still be so happy testifies to me that this truly is the Lord´s work. I have been so blessed in so many ways. 

I love you all!

Have a good week!

Sister Anderson 

Week 1

Oi everyone!! I´m sorry if my email looks weird at all, I´m still trying to figure out this Brazilian keyboard. It´s not letting me enter, so it´ll just be one blob, sorry haha. I can´t believe it´s only been one week since I left, it seriously feels like I´ve been out here FOREVER. I´m doing so well though!! I love it so so so very much.

Getting to Brazil was tiring, but there were about 15 other missionaries traveling with me so that was really nice and it ended up not being as scary as I thought it would be haha. Flying into Brazil was crazy though-- I am definitely not in the United States anymore haha. A van was waiting for us at the airport to pick us up and drive us to the CTM. When you drive in Brazil, cars pretty much just weave in between each other and motorcycles just zoom in between the cars so it´s pretty crazy. I think in our 15 minute drive to the CTM like 5 cops and 3 ambulances passed us! Funny story- so off on the side off the road there was a river and then there were places along it where water was draining into the river making waterfall type things. So as we were driving into Sao Paulo, I was looking at the river and all of a sudden, BAM- a naked man taking a shower in one of the waterfall things hahaha. It was an interesting way to start out my experience with Brazil. The CTM is absolutely wonderful though!! The spirit is amazing and we are blessed with little miracles everyday.

All of the Brazilians are absolutely wonderful. They are the nicest, most loving people I have EVER met. I love them all so much. I´ve been blessed with an awesome companion! Her name is Sister Klimes. She´s from Minnesota and 6´1´´ so there´s quite the height difference haha.

She´s so sweet and exactly what I needed. I´ve been struggling with learning Portuguese, but she´s fluent in spanish and already has Portuguese down really well so it´s nice to have her around. She´s also really patient with me and I´m really grateful for that. I absolutely love my district, they´re the best. So there´s Sister Klimes and I, Sister Thacker and Sister Berg, and then we have a trio of Elders, Elder George, Elder Romero, and Elder Heaton. Sister Thacker is from Iowa, but she´s actually related to the Thacker´s that live in Upalco, so that´s really crazy!! Sister Berg is from Idaho and is such a sweet girl, I love her. Elder Romero and Elder Heaton are both from Utah which is nice and then Elder George is from Indiana.

The Elders are sooooooo funny. I love them. So we´re in a classroom for the majority of the day studying, and so it´s very nice to have them around because they make me laugh so much and are a lot of fun.

In my room there are two Brazilian sister´s-- Sister Pedrosa and Sister Barbosa. Sister Pedrosa is the sweetest person I have ever met and Sister Barbosa is so funny and so loving. I wish I could understand and communicate with them a little better, but I´ll get there eventually. Brazil is a gorgeous country. It´s so green and when it rains it RAINS haha. I love being a missionary. I know the church is true and is what brings true happiness and I can´t wait to share that happiness with others. I´m about out of time though-- hopefully next week I can share some of the experiences I´ve had and maybe send some pictures. I love it here and I am muito muito happy. Thanks for all of the emails! I love you all!

Your missionary´s arrival at the Brazil MTC

Dear Parents,
Sister Grahl and I are very happy to let you know that your missionary has arrived safely at the Brazil Missionary Training Center.  What a great joy and privilege it is to greet each missionary as they begin their missionary experiences with us! We will surely take good care of your missionary.  
                                                                                                   
The missionaries now have companions and are settled into their rooms.  They are assigned to a district with capable and caring instructors for language and lesson study.  Their branch presidents and wives will meet them this Sunday.  These wonderful couples are richly blessed as they work with, motivate, and interview the missionaries assigned to their branch.
The MTC has a full-time live-in physician to care for their health needs.  He is assisted by his able wife who is a nurse. We are also happy to report that the MTC food is plentiful, healthy and very good.
Your missionary will be able to e-mail home on Preparation Day after a morning at the Temple.  This will be either Wednesday or Friday, depending on individual assignments.
Your missionary is about to make an eternal difference in the lives of many others. President Lorenzo Snow said: “There is no mortal man that is as interested in the success of an elder when he is preaching the Gospel as is the Lord who sent him to preach to the people who are the Lord's children".  We love these missionaries as if they were our own.  We will watch over them carefully to ensure they are ready for a wonderful missionary experience after the rewarding time they will have in the MTC.
We thank you for preparing such a wonderful representative of the Lord.
Pres. Paulo R. Grahl and Sister Zuleika M. Grahl

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:  

PlEASE DO not send packages to the Brazil Missionary Training Center. All packages must be sent directly to the mission where your missionary will be serving, not the MTC. If you have already mailed a package to the Brazil MTC, please understand that the package cannot be forwarded to his or her mission and will be returned to you.
WE Strongly eNCOURAGE sENDING HAND WRITTEN LETTERS. Please write your missionary´s first and last name. Your missionary will provide you with his district and box number. Also, please DO NOT SEND ANYTHING BY FEDEX, DHL, UPS, or other private carriers.  The cost to process this type of correspondence is exorbitant.

IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO REPLY TO THIS EMAIL.

I´m in Brazil!!

Oi family!!

I´ve made it to Brazil and I`m doing great! They´re letting us email to let you know we made it :) The flight was long, but not too bad. I sat by the nicest Brazilian EVER. She was seriously so cute and helpful. She lives in floranopolis and gave me her email so I can contact her if I ever take a vacation down there haha. Brazil is crazy, but I love it!! Soooo green and so many cool trees. There was someone there to pick us up from the airport in a big van. Driving in Brazil is insane. Everyone just weaves around everyone and motorcycles wizz by and just in our short 10 minute drive like 2 cops and 3 ambulancia drove past us hahaha. Once we got to the MTC they let us shower... And yes mom, it´s true. There are lots of tiny little bugs in the showers haha. My companion is sister Klimes and she´s super sweet so it´s all good there. 

I better go. I´m good! Soooooooo hot and wet but good haha.

Love you guys!!

Sister Anderson

Airport Pictures