Back in Recife!!

Ola everyone!! 

Once again, I am back in my old area! But only for a couple days... because I´m going to be a TRAINER! Yesterday, Sister Costa and I arrived and I´m going to pick up "minha novinha" tomorrow!! 

So this week was Sister Costa´s last week on the mission! I´ve already said bye to her and for right now my temporary companion is Sister Garrick :) She´s from Texas and super cool. It´s funny though, because before my mission, I always read her blog and now I´m sitting next to her as she writes the group email for her blog! Haha. I´ve had a super good week though! I´ve loved having Sister Costa as a companion and I´m super proud of her for giving it all she´s got until the end! 

These last couple of days have been super good though! Fernando was able to pass the sacrament yesterday in church, and so that was super cool! He didn´t have church clothes before (and recently quit his job) but still bought church shoes, pants, a white shirt, and tie, just to be able to fulfill his priesthood duty and pass the sacrament. I´m super grateful for the faith that he has! After church, we ate lunch, and got on a bus to go to Recife! It has been awesome though, because we´ve been staying in Boa Viagem, where my trainer, Sister Lopez lives! It´s been SO wonderful to see her and talk to her again! And tonight, I´m going to be able to work with the sisters of Pina, and so I´m hoping I´ll get to visit Camila and Fernando, and Milena and Ernesto again!!! 

Tomorrow´s going to be super awesome too. In the morning, we´ll go to President's house to eat breakfast (waffles!!! :D) and have a training on how to be trainers haha. And then after that, I´ll get to go to the temple! And then we´ll return from the temple and I´ll get to meet the new sister I´m going to train for the next 12 weeks!! 

Do I feel inadequate to be a trainer? Most definitetly, yes. 
But do I know that God will help me and qualify me? Most definitely, yes :)

I´m honestly a little nervous and don´t know exactly what I´m doing... But I´ve been able to feel God´s love so much and I know that He´s going to help me and qualify me!! If I´ve learned anything on my mission, it´s that. If it´s something God wants us to do, it´s all going to work out.

Can´t wait to email you all next week and let you know who my new companion is!! 

Love you all,
Sister Anderson 

Attatched is a photo of us saying bye to Sister Costa and the Sisters that I´m staying with for the next couple days! 

Week 16 in Arcoverde!

Booooom dia todo mundo! I hope everyone had a super good week!

This last week was good! Nothing TOO exciting, but good :) Super crazy though! Today is Sister Costa´s last p-day and today she starts her last week in the field! She´s super happy though, and I´m super happy for her too :)

This week I was really able to see how God has been preparing the people we are teaching to receive the Gospel! It´s so cool how God puts the right people into our paths! This week we started teaching a woman named, Dayene who did Sister Costa´s hair last week haha. She said that recently, she doesn´t have anymore desire to party and drink, but that she really wants to do the things that God wants her to do. And when we taught her about the Book of Mormon she LOVED it! We talked to her about how the Book of Mormon is about God´s communication with the people in the Americas and how Christ visited the people here and she said that that was a question she´s ALWAYS had. It was super cool!

The Book of Mormon is SO powerful!! As missionaries we always promise people that it can change their lives and we testify of how it´s already changed ours. And one of my investigators, Lira, helped me to have a realization this week of WHY the Book of Mormon changes lives-- It´s because the Book of Mormon is "another testament of Jesus Christ". It´s not the Book of Mormon that changes our lives, but it´s CHRIST that changes our lives. As we study the Book of Mormon, we come to KNOW the Savior, and as we come to know Him, that is where the change happens :)

This week I got a package from my mom (she´s pretty wonderful ;D) with a bunch of CTR rings. This week, we visited a family with a young man who´s 17, and named Moroni, but is struggling a little bit in the church. And so we shared a message about choosing the right and gave them all CTR rings and it made Moroni SO HAPPY. He told us that when he was 7, he lost a CTR ring and was SO sad and had always always wanted one ever since then! He then told us that "he´s never going to take it off until the day he dies!!" haha. It was really cool though to see the difference in him and in his family afterwards! By small and simple things, great things are brought to pass!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week of reading the Book of Mormon and always Choosing The Right! Love you all!

Sister Anderson

Somos um pouco doentinhas ;)

So the turban things is something that EVERYONE uses here and it´s super funny hahahaha

Week 15 in Arcoverde!

BEST THING EVER HAPPENED THIS WEEK.

It all started Monday night at a Family Home Evening we had with Fernando (super cool young man that we met at General Conference and started teaching), Bruna, Cristiane, and her two daughters, Jessica and Julia. We shared a message for Fernando about prophets and the priesthood, and at the end we asked him if he prayed like we had asked him to the week before. He started to talk about how ever since he learned how to pray, he hasn´t stopped. And then he started to talk about the church and how it started out as curiosity, and never imagined that it would turn into such a big desire for him to learn more. As he was saying all of this, I felt really impressed to invite him to be baptized on Saturday (only 2 week after knowing the church), and even though I was super nervous, I did it and I am SO glad I did. At first, when I said, it all he said was "this Saturday???" and honestly my heart dropped. But then after a couple seconds he said, "I can?!?!?" with the biggest smile on his face :D Goodness, it was the best thing ever! And he just kept getting happier and happier the more we talked about the baptism! 

And so after that our week was filled with teaching him all of the lessons and me being amazed by his spirituality! Lots of the things he would say to us during the lessons left me completely amazed! He already understands spiritual truths that took me YEARS to understand! 

And then Saturday we had the baptism!! It was super cool too, because Julia, the daughter of Cristiane turned 8 recently and was baptized with him! Well, it was more like Fernando was baptized with her as we intruded on the baptism of Julia haha. But they were totally cool about it. The Spirit that is always present during baptisms is so wonderful. I think the best part for me, was after the ordinance, when Fernando came back into the room. I was conducting a hymn and he sat down in front of me and looked up at me and gave me the BIGGEST, happiest, brightest smile ever! He was honestly radiating happiness.  

Sunday was just as wonderful with his confirmation and receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost. After church, we asked him how it was to receive the Holy Ghost and he said that it was something indescribable. And then he started to talk with us about the baptism and how strongly he was able to feel the Spirit confirm to him that he was making the right decision. He said that he had to hold back tears as he entered the water and that afterwards, he turned around so that no one would see him crying haha. Sorry to talk so much about Fernando, but it truly was such a HUGE blessing for Sister Costa and I. He was a person extremely prepared by the Lord and I´m so grateful to have been the missionary to teach him. The happiness of the Gospel is real!!! 

In other news... I ate chicken feet this week! I don´t know why Brazilians love it so much, it was quite gross haha. I also learned this week that a type of meet that I LOVE, called charque (sharky), is DONKEY or HORSE meat. I really wish someone would have told me that before... BUT, I´ll probably keep eating it because it´s super delicious haha. 

Love you all! I hope everyone has a great week! 
Sister Anderson

 picture from the family home evening

 Fernando and Julia! 

Fernando, Bruna (friend that introduced us to Fernando), Sister Costa, and I!

I thought everyone would like to see a good ol' Brazilian Fiesta!!! 

It´s the birthday party we had for Julia after the baptism!! :)

​I love coconut water!!

Week 14 in Arcoverde!

Olá meus amigos!

Once again, I´ve had a wonderful week and am feeling super blessed! Serving a mission truly is the best thing ever!

Everyone remember Fernando, the young man that went to General Conference, that I talked about last week? Well he is doing WONDERFULLY! We were able to teach him quite a few times this week and then he was able to go to church on Sunday! On Wednesday we were able to meet with him and talk to him about what he thought about General Conference, and he said that as he listened to the prophets speaking, he was able to find a peace and comfort that he´s never been able to feel before. And then as we continued talking to him about the church, he said that it´s like he´s found something that he´s been searching for all of his life. SUPER cool. It makes me so happy to teach him and I am still amazed by the incredible spirit we are able to feel everytime that we teach him! Bruna, his friend that´s a member and works with him, says that he´s always super quiet at work now because he´s constantly on his phone on the app of the church reading and learning about everything haha. What a blessing technology is!

Something that I´ve loved on my mission is seeing how God answers our prayers and how He is so aware of us! Some answers take longer than others, but I know that God will always listen and that He will always answer! Something that I´ve been wanting and praying for a ton is to have more charity-- love people like Christ loves them. It´s been a long process of studying about charity and praying to be blessed with it, but this week I´ve finally been able to see God blessing me with this gift! This Sunday, in fast and testimony meeting, I was able to bare my testimony for the ward, and afterwards I was able to feel such a strong amount of love for everyone in the ward! Charity truly is a gift that God gives to us as we ask for it! Everyone should read Moroni 7 in the Book of Mormon and seek to develop charity! It truly is a wonderful feeling and can bring so much happiness and light into life!

Here in Brazil, I am always amazed by the sacrifices that these people are willing to make for the Gospel. A woman we started visiting this week named Cristiane, woke up super early to get her 4 little kids dressed and ready for church and then walk super far in the super hot sun to arive in church. It definitely was a sacrifice for her, but I know that God blesses us immensely for the sacrifices we make for Him.

I hope everyone back home is enjoying the nice fall weather! Because here in Brazil it´s just getting hotter and hotter and hotter. BUT, I´m definitely not complaining because I absolutely love Brazil-- even with the ridiculous amount of sunscreen I have to use everyday haha.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!
Amo vocês!

Sister Anderson

my american lunch!! (SUBWAY IS A BLESSING)

My face in this photo hahahahahaha
I saw Danilo (the brother of dayene) outside and so I was motioning for him to join us hahaha. SO creepy! 

Some of the lovely people from the Arcoverde Ward! 

 I LOVE DAYENE. She´s 19, recent convert, preparing to go on a mission
 and the absolute SWEETEST person I have ever met.

This is Agatha. She is absolutely adorable. And absolutely hilarious.

Week 13 in Arcoverde!

Bom dia!! 

It´s been an exciting week of General Conference, elections in Brazil, teaching hippies about the Plan of Salvation, and seeing God bless and help our investigators! 

But really, it has been a wonderful week, and I am so very grateful for the love I have been able to feel from my Heavenly Father. He is truly blessing us and helping us in this work. 

Our investigators are doing well! Zelia and Joaquim went to a couple sessions of General Conference with us and they were even able to do a fast with us this week, and so that was really special! 

So Sister Costa and I have two investigators named Carmen and Genildo that we have been working with for a while. They´re an older, married, couple and pretty funny. Carmen is always SUPER excited about everything haha. And Genildo is a lot more serious and stubborn, but super intelligent. The problem is that they LOVE to talk and so it´s been hard to find a good opportunity to teach them all of the Restoration in one visit. But finally this week, Genildo stopped talking and said he was ready to listen to us. And so we started to teach the Restoration and it was honestly one of the cooler experiences I´ve had teaching about the Restoration of the Gospel. I could truly feel God helping Sister Costa and I to teach with power and authority and with the Spirit. It was incredible the way that Genildo changed as we started to teach-- he suddenly became VERY interested in what we had to say. At the end of the lesson, we asked Genildo if he would read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it was true and he just sat there staring at us. And then after a lot of silence he finally said "Well, if this thing here is true, it´s going to change everything!!!" haha. And it´s so true. The message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ definitely changes everything. 

I hope everyone loved General Conference! Here in Brazil, because not everyone has access to computers and internet, everyone goes to the church to watch it! Listening to it in Portuguese was a little bit of an adventure, but I know that God blessed me to be able to understand. And more than anything, He taught me the things I needed to learn through the Spirit. Something that I love about General Conference is that it´s an opportunity to be connected with all of you again! Even though I´m here in Brazil, we are listening to the same prayers and singing the same hymns and it made me super happy to know that! 

After the Sunday morning session of Conference, a member of our ward introduced us to a friend of hers that´s interested in the church, named Fernando. We were able to teach him with her in the church and it was SO COOL. He is definitely one of God´s children prepared to receive the Gospel. The Spirit in the lesson was so incredibly strong, and at the end of the lesson, he accepted baptism without hesitation :) 

I hope that everyone paid super good attention to Elder Oaks´ talk about missionary work!! Study it this week and then APPLY the things that he taught! This truly is the time for missionaries and members to work together! We were only able to find Fernando because of the member in our ward! The role of the members in missionary work is ESSENTIAL! 

There´s been elections going on all month and they finally ended yesterday! But that meant that after leaving General Conference we found all of Arcoverde partying. Brazilians get really excited about things haha. There´s always a lot of drinking involved, super loud music, and HUGE groups of people together. It was a little hard leaving General Conference after feeling the Spirit so strongly and returning to the world. But that´s the purpose of General Conference-- to prepare us to return to the world and have the strength and faith to do what is right and find JOY in our journey! 

Love you all!! 
Sister Anderson