Saturday, July 9, 2016

Transfered!!

Oi Everyone!!
My time has ended in Pina and I am off to new adventures and new people now! I´m now in a city called Arcoverde! It was a 5 hour bus ride this morning and it´s the most interior area of the mission! And the super cool thing is that me and my new companion, Sister Costa are opening the area! For a really long time it´s been an area of Elders, but now they´re changing it to an area of Sisters! Usually when you go to a new area, your companion has already been there for a transfer or two and knows the area really well. But with opening the area, everything is completely new for both of us and so we have to figure everything out together. It´s going to be a good adventure :) 
Sister Costa is from São Paulo and super awesome! She already has more than a year on her mission and has opened an area before, so I´m trying not to stress out too much haha. There´s another companionship of sisters opening the area with us and living with us too, so that´s nice. I think one of them´s American and the other is Brazilian. I haven´t been able to talk to them yet, so I´m not quite sure haha. I´m SUPER excited to work in this area though. It´s so different from Pina! Everything is much more open, and clean, and fresh. And there´s mountains! It makes me feel a little bit more at home haha. 
This last week in Pina was really good and I´m super sad that I had to leave! I loved the people there a lot. But I know I´m going to find a lot of good people here in Arcoverde. I had an experience this week that I would like to share. It´s nothing huge, but it helped me to remember the importance of listening to the Spirit and how God is always watching over us. So in the mission, we have pass-along cards that we give to people. One of them has a picture of Christ visiting the Americas and a picture of the Book of Mormon on the back with a number they can call to receive a Book of Mormon for free. We ran out of them this week, but I had one more that I was keeping on my desk. And the other day, before we left the house, I had the thought to put the card into my bag, feeling like I would need it that day. That night when Sister Lopez and I were walking back to our house some crazy and probably drunk man, came up to us and started just yelling things about Mormons. And then he started yelling at us to give him a Book of Mormon. I didn´t know what to do, but then I had the thought to give him this pass along card. And then when I gave it to him, he saw the picture of the Book of Mormon and calmed down and just walked away. I´m not sure what would have happened if I didn´t have that card, but I´m really grateful that I did and that I listened to the prompting from the Spirit. 
 
I hope everyone has a great 4th of July today!! It definitely isn´t a Holiday celebrated here in Brazil, but I can celebrate in my heart haha. 1 Nephi 13 in the Book of Mormon would be an awesome chapter for everyone to read today! It talks about how America and is one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon!
I´m so grateful for the Gospel and for the challenges God gives to us to help us grow and become better!
 
Love you all!!
 
Sister Anderson