Well everyone, I have finally left Arcoverde and have returned to Recife!! And I´m pretty sure I have been transferred to the best area EVER! My new area is called Casa Forte-- and do you know what´s in Casa Forte? THE TEMPLE. And it´s the ward of none other than... President and Sister Bigelow! Yep. I´m extremely excited.
My last week in Arcoverde was wonderful! My last day there, saturday, was probably my favorite. We went to visit my recent convert, Djanira, to find her in a pretty difficult situation. Arcoverde is SUPER dry, and so there´s lots of times when the city goes without water. And so Djanira almost the last two weeks has been completely without water-- without showering, and without cooking. It honestly broke my heart to see her, and her granddaughters that way. And so, Sister L. Silva and I determined to help! Our other investigator, Lira lives in the same neighborhood, a little ways from Djanira. So we went there, told Lira about the situation and we resolved to take water to Djanira. And so, we got three big buckets, filled them up with water, Lira put one on her head, Sister L. Silva and I with the others and we headed off to Djanira´s house. It may have taken a while, and I may have arrived with my skirt soaking and arms about to fall off, but we made it and the happiness on their faces made it all worth it :) Later that night, we had a ward talent show, that also went super well and was super fun, and so I definitely ended my time well in Arcoverde!
Sunday after sacrament meeting we had to leave to catch a bus to find our new companions and go to our new areas. I learned that after 7 months, you get pretty attatched to people... So let´s just say that saying goodbye to everyone on Sunday was pretty emotional haha. Buuuuut, now I´m here in Recife with my wonderful new companion, Sister Guimarães!
So something super cool, is that I´ve been called to be a Sister Training Leader (I think that´s how you say it in English haha)! But that means that Sister Guimarães and I will be taking care of 5 companionships of sisters on the mission and doing splits with them! Sister Guimarães is from São Paulo and probably one of the cutest people you could ever meet! She´s a wonderful missionary and I´m super excited to work with her!
I´ve really felt this week the immense love that our Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ have for us! They are so aware of us and have a perfect plan for every one of us!
Love you all and hope that everyone has a wonderful week!
Sister Anderson
Monday, January 30, 2017
Monday, January 23, 2017
The Last Week of the Transfer!
Óla meus amigos!
Well, this is the last week of the transfer! And seeing as I´ve been here in Arcoverde for almost 7 months, I think that quite possibly, I could be in a different area next Monday!
This week was great though! Matheus was baptized! Woohoo! He´s a very special young man and I really enjoyed teaching him! On monday, we taught him at a members house and afterwards the father of the family told us that Matheus "is a blessing" and "has the semblance of an angel" haha. Super sweet but also pretty funny :D
The spirit was very strong at his baptism on Saturday! At the end of the baptismal meeting, he got up to bare his testimony for everyone! He talked about the special feeling he had the first time he entered the church and how he´s been able to receive a testimony that this really is the true church and the right place for him. Afterwards, we sang the hymn "Testimony" and goodness, the spirit was so strong! The words really really touched my heart--
"The witness of the Holy Ghost, as borne by those who know, has lifted me again to thee, O Father of my soul!I know that thou art in the heav´n, I know the Savior reigns. I know a prophet speaks to us, for our eternal gain. My eyes are wet my heart is full, the Spirit speaks today. O Lord wilt thou my life renew and in my boosm stay. As testimony fills my heart, it dulls the pain of days. For one brief moment, heaven´s view appears before my gaze."
A difference that the hymn has in Portuguese is that at the beginning it says, "Um testemunho é dom de Deus", which means, "a testimony is a gift from God". As we sang those words the Spirit really testified to me of how precious a testimony is. This confirmation of the truths of God that we receive from the Holy Ghost truly is a gift from God. It´s a gift of knowledge that we will always have, to always keep us on the right path. I´m so grateful for the opportunity that I have to be a missionary and teach people who are willing to search for, receive, and follow this testimony of Christ and His Church!
I hope everyone has a wonderful week!
Sister Anderson
Well, this is the last week of the transfer! And seeing as I´ve been here in Arcoverde for almost 7 months, I think that quite possibly, I could be in a different area next Monday!
This week was great though! Matheus was baptized! Woohoo! He´s a very special young man and I really enjoyed teaching him! On monday, we taught him at a members house and afterwards the father of the family told us that Matheus "is a blessing" and "has the semblance of an angel" haha. Super sweet but also pretty funny :D
The spirit was very strong at his baptism on Saturday! At the end of the baptismal meeting, he got up to bare his testimony for everyone! He talked about the special feeling he had the first time he entered the church and how he´s been able to receive a testimony that this really is the true church and the right place for him. Afterwards, we sang the hymn "Testimony" and goodness, the spirit was so strong! The words really really touched my heart--
"The witness of the Holy Ghost, as borne by those who know, has lifted me again to thee, O Father of my soul!I know that thou art in the heav´n, I know the Savior reigns. I know a prophet speaks to us, for our eternal gain. My eyes are wet my heart is full, the Spirit speaks today. O Lord wilt thou my life renew and in my boosm stay. As testimony fills my heart, it dulls the pain of days. For one brief moment, heaven´s view appears before my gaze."
A difference that the hymn has in Portuguese is that at the beginning it says, "Um testemunho é dom de Deus", which means, "a testimony is a gift from God". As we sang those words the Spirit really testified to me of how precious a testimony is. This confirmation of the truths of God that we receive from the Holy Ghost truly is a gift from God. It´s a gift of knowledge that we will always have, to always keep us on the right path. I´m so grateful for the opportunity that I have to be a missionary and teach people who are willing to search for, receive, and follow this testimony of Christ and His Church!
I hope everyone has a wonderful week!
Sister Anderson
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| Matheus! |
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| The other girl in the picture is a cute member in our ward that introduced us to Matheus! |
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| Photo of the ward that we took after the baptism! |
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| TAMIRES!!!!! |
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| I know that my face is ridiculous, but I liked my hair hahah |
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| Garanhuns Zone |
Monday, January 16, 2017
Keepin' the Faith
Hi everyone!
This week I´ve been thinking and learning a lot about faith-- that even when things don´t go perfectly as planned, we just have to keep going on and keep the faith. Aaaand the song "Keepin´ the Faith" by Billy Joel may or may not have gone through my head a couple of times this week as I tried to always remember that haha.
This week was good though!
Tuesday we had lunch Djanira, Rayani, and her other 7 year old granddaughter Isabeli! Even when they don´t have much, these people are so willing to give! Rayani and and Isabeli even wrote cute little notes for us, wrapped them up in paper, and gave them to us as presents :)
In our Zone Conference on Thursday, President passed by to drop off materials for us! It´s always such a great blessing to be with that guy :) You really feel a peace and a happiness when you talk to him! We´ve been teaching a young man named Matheus, that´s 14 years old. We have a rule on the mission, that if someone is less than 15 years old, they have to go to church for 3 months before being baptized. Well, it´s been a while that Matheus has been going to church, and so we talked to President and he said that we can baptize him this Saturday! He a really smart young man, and has been wanting for a while to be baptized, and so I´m excited!
Tamires and Claudio are doing well! I just love Tamires. And Claudio is progressing lot! One night we went to teach his mom, and he was there and even bore his testimony to her about the Book of Mormon! It´s something special when your investigator bears his testimony! He finally went to church this Sunday and loved it!
This Saturday was really different! So there´s a city outside of Arcoverde called Pesqueira, that´s about 40 minutes away. 10 years ago, there was a branch there, but it closed because of problems with the leaders. And so it´s been 10 years without missionaries, and 10 years without the church. Last Saturday the other sisters here in Arcoverde went there for the first time to start working again with the people there. They had to go to Recife this Saturday and so... we went there in their place! It was REALLY cool to teach the people there. Super interesting. But I could really see and feel the testimony, desire, and excitement of the members to return! They put together a caravan this Sunday and a big group of them were there in church!! I´ll send some pictures we took :) It´s a cool city. There´s even a castle there!! But sadly, I didn´t get a picture of it :(
Buuuut, I hope everyone has a wonderful week! Remember to keep the faith! Even when things are difficult, if we continue diligently, trusting in our Heavenly Father, things will always get better and we will see miracles with our faith!
Love you all!
Sister Anderson
This week I´ve been thinking and learning a lot about faith-- that even when things don´t go perfectly as planned, we just have to keep going on and keep the faith. Aaaand the song "Keepin´ the Faith" by Billy Joel may or may not have gone through my head a couple of times this week as I tried to always remember that haha.
This week was good though!
Tuesday we had lunch Djanira, Rayani, and her other 7 year old granddaughter Isabeli! Even when they don´t have much, these people are so willing to give! Rayani and and Isabeli even wrote cute little notes for us, wrapped them up in paper, and gave them to us as presents :)
In our Zone Conference on Thursday, President passed by to drop off materials for us! It´s always such a great blessing to be with that guy :) You really feel a peace and a happiness when you talk to him! We´ve been teaching a young man named Matheus, that´s 14 years old. We have a rule on the mission, that if someone is less than 15 years old, they have to go to church for 3 months before being baptized. Well, it´s been a while that Matheus has been going to church, and so we talked to President and he said that we can baptize him this Saturday! He a really smart young man, and has been wanting for a while to be baptized, and so I´m excited!
Tamires and Claudio are doing well! I just love Tamires. And Claudio is progressing lot! One night we went to teach his mom, and he was there and even bore his testimony to her about the Book of Mormon! It´s something special when your investigator bears his testimony! He finally went to church this Sunday and loved it!
This Saturday was really different! So there´s a city outside of Arcoverde called Pesqueira, that´s about 40 minutes away. 10 years ago, there was a branch there, but it closed because of problems with the leaders. And so it´s been 10 years without missionaries, and 10 years without the church. Last Saturday the other sisters here in Arcoverde went there for the first time to start working again with the people there. They had to go to Recife this Saturday and so... we went there in their place! It was REALLY cool to teach the people there. Super interesting. But I could really see and feel the testimony, desire, and excitement of the members to return! They put together a caravan this Sunday and a big group of them were there in church!! I´ll send some pictures we took :) It´s a cool city. There´s even a castle there!! But sadly, I didn´t get a picture of it :(
Buuuut, I hope everyone has a wonderful week! Remember to keep the faith! Even when things are difficult, if we continue diligently, trusting in our Heavenly Father, things will always get better and we will see miracles with our faith!
Love you all!
Sister Anderson
Irma Vanda, that made a couple skirts for me,
made the clothes for this doll and gave it to me!
Monday, January 9, 2017
10 MONTHS DOWN
So today, makes 10 months in the mission for me! It´s crazy how the time flies! I´m hoping that these next 8 months can pass by a little more slowly, but we´ll see if that happens haha.
This week was... good. Challenging, but good. I feel like this week was the week where all the devout members from other churches in Brazil decided to attack the Mormon missionaries haha. There was a lot of doing our best to defend the truths as peaceably and respectfully as possible as others preached to us. One day, we were walking to a members house, and as we passed a group of people we heard an older lady informing the other people sitting there that, "it´s the sisters from the church... they do sacrifices!" (like animal sacrifices and that kind of stuff) haha. We just continued on and got a good laugh out of it. And at the end of it all, I´m grateful for our religious freedom... and liberty of speech!
Do you guys remember Tamires? She was going to be baptized... But a little before her baptism, she got back with her boyfriend Claudio. But it´s all good, she´s still doing well, loving the church, and now Claudio is starting to make changes in his life too! When we started teaching her, she had a really serious problem with drinking. But she shared a story with us that really touched me the other day-- It was back during Christmas when she just had a little time without drinking. On Christmas Eve night, she was really sad and with a strong desire to drink. And so she went outside and her neighbor gave her a cup of beer. She told us that she was about to drink, but then remembered that it wasn´t something that God wanted her to do, and started crying. She put down the drink, went inside, and said a prayer, and she said that after her prayer her desire to drink just went away. And all the rest of the night, even when she was outside with her husband and everyone was drinking, she didn´t have any desire to drink. When we act in faith, Heavenly Father truly answers our prayers and strengthens us!
I just have to share one more thing-- the people here are so loving! A woman in the ward, named Neide, loves to give us lunch. But her mom is Catholic and has recently been fighting with her a lot about giving us lunch, and so she can´t anymore. But today she woke up at 6am to make us food and brought it to us! It made us so happy! I´ll send a picture that we took with her :)
I love you all and hope that everyone has a wonderful week!
Sister Anderson
This week was... good. Challenging, but good. I feel like this week was the week where all the devout members from other churches in Brazil decided to attack the Mormon missionaries haha. There was a lot of doing our best to defend the truths as peaceably and respectfully as possible as others preached to us. One day, we were walking to a members house, and as we passed a group of people we heard an older lady informing the other people sitting there that, "it´s the sisters from the church... they do sacrifices!" (like animal sacrifices and that kind of stuff) haha. We just continued on and got a good laugh out of it. And at the end of it all, I´m grateful for our religious freedom... and liberty of speech!
Do you guys remember Tamires? She was going to be baptized... But a little before her baptism, she got back with her boyfriend Claudio. But it´s all good, she´s still doing well, loving the church, and now Claudio is starting to make changes in his life too! When we started teaching her, she had a really serious problem with drinking. But she shared a story with us that really touched me the other day-- It was back during Christmas when she just had a little time without drinking. On Christmas Eve night, she was really sad and with a strong desire to drink. And so she went outside and her neighbor gave her a cup of beer. She told us that she was about to drink, but then remembered that it wasn´t something that God wanted her to do, and started crying. She put down the drink, went inside, and said a prayer, and she said that after her prayer her desire to drink just went away. And all the rest of the night, even when she was outside with her husband and everyone was drinking, she didn´t have any desire to drink. When we act in faith, Heavenly Father truly answers our prayers and strengthens us!
I just have to share one more thing-- the people here are so loving! A woman in the ward, named Neide, loves to give us lunch. But her mom is Catholic and has recently been fighting with her a lot about giving us lunch, and so she can´t anymore. But today she woke up at 6am to make us food and brought it to us! It made us so happy! I´ll send a picture that we took with her :)
I love you all and hope that everyone has a wonderful week!
Sister Anderson
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| Photo with Irma Neida! |
Monday, January 2, 2017
"Trancamos 2016 com uma Chave de Ouro"
FELIZ ANO NOVO!!
I hope everyone had a wonderful new years! "Trancamos 2016 com uma chave de ouro!" Translation: We locked 2016 with a golden key! This could quite possible be a phrase we use in the United States as well, but let´s just pretend like it´s a cool Brazilian saying that you guys have never heard before haha. Also a little fun fact: A type of new years tradition that they have here, is that if you´re on the beach, you have to jump over 7 waves! Not sure why... But. I thought it was interesting haha.
Rayane was baptized this Saturday!! Goodness, she is just the cutest little girl. After the baptism, she told me that she had achieved two of her dreams:
#1: to enter a pool.
#2: to be baptized.
Haha. I love the spirit that is always present at baptisms! It is truly such a sacred ordinance of God! And it´s so special to see my recent convert (Rayane´s grandma), Djanira, progressing in the Gospel!
I am so grateful for the tender mercies that Heavenly Father gives us every day! This Sunday, because of new years it was a little harder for our investigators to get to church. And so we were sitting there in sacrament meeting without any of our investigators there-- which was pretty difficult. And so I said a little prayer that one of our investigators would show up and as soon as I ended the prayer and looked up, there was Tamires entering with her four little boys!! It really filled my heart with joy to see them. It´s really these tender mercies that help me to feel Heavenly Father´s love-- knowing that He listens to our prayers, big and small!
Can you guys believe it´s already 2017?! So insane! But I´m so grateful for the opportunities we have to reflect on what we can do better as people and disciples of Jesus Christ! Something that Sister Bigelow told me a while back, is that we all have "a list"-- a list of our weaknesses; things that we want to change about ourselves. She told me to keep this list, write the weaknesses down, choose one, put the list away, and then focus on fixing that one thing. And doing that we can always be "a little better than we were yesterday". And with the new year, I thought it´s a wonderful opportunity to do that! Choose something, work on it throughout the year, and then at the end see how you have changed to become more like the Savior Jesus Christ!
"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." Ether 12:27
I know that this promise is real!!
Love you all!!
Sister Anderson
I hope everyone had a wonderful new years! "Trancamos 2016 com uma chave de ouro!" Translation: We locked 2016 with a golden key! This could quite possible be a phrase we use in the United States as well, but let´s just pretend like it´s a cool Brazilian saying that you guys have never heard before haha. Also a little fun fact: A type of new years tradition that they have here, is that if you´re on the beach, you have to jump over 7 waves! Not sure why... But. I thought it was interesting haha.
Rayane was baptized this Saturday!! Goodness, she is just the cutest little girl. After the baptism, she told me that she had achieved two of her dreams:
#1: to enter a pool.
#2: to be baptized.
Haha. I love the spirit that is always present at baptisms! It is truly such a sacred ordinance of God! And it´s so special to see my recent convert (Rayane´s grandma), Djanira, progressing in the Gospel!
I am so grateful for the tender mercies that Heavenly Father gives us every day! This Sunday, because of new years it was a little harder for our investigators to get to church. And so we were sitting there in sacrament meeting without any of our investigators there-- which was pretty difficult. And so I said a little prayer that one of our investigators would show up and as soon as I ended the prayer and looked up, there was Tamires entering with her four little boys!! It really filled my heart with joy to see them. It´s really these tender mercies that help me to feel Heavenly Father´s love-- knowing that He listens to our prayers, big and small!
Can you guys believe it´s already 2017?! So insane! But I´m so grateful for the opportunities we have to reflect on what we can do better as people and disciples of Jesus Christ! Something that Sister Bigelow told me a while back, is that we all have "a list"-- a list of our weaknesses; things that we want to change about ourselves. She told me to keep this list, write the weaknesses down, choose one, put the list away, and then focus on fixing that one thing. And doing that we can always be "a little better than we were yesterday". And with the new year, I thought it´s a wonderful opportunity to do that! Choose something, work on it throughout the year, and then at the end see how you have changed to become more like the Savior Jesus Christ!
"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." Ether 12:27
I know that this promise is real!!
Love you all!!
Sister Anderson
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| Viviani & Alexandre |
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| Rayane's Baptism |
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| Rayane's Baptism |
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