Missionary Week in Casa Forte!

Hey guys! 

This week was really special. We did a week of activities with the ward focussed on missionary work and we definitely had lots of cool experiences throughout the week! 

I think one of my favorite activites during the week was Wednesday night with the youth! We had a couple boxes of the Liahona (the church magazine) and went to a park to the side of the church and passed them out to people and wrote down their addresses for us to visit them afterwards! It was really cool to see the excitement of the youth and to walk around the park seeing people read the Liahona :) 

Tuesday was our (a cat just walked over my keyboard hahaha) Zone Conference! President Bigleow talked a lot about faith and having the faith to find the people that God is preparing to hear the Gospel. It was super cool :) And to make it even cooler, we had burritos for lunch! Haha. It´s been a while since I´ve had one of those, because, no, Brazilian food is not the same as Mexican food haha. 

Something suuuuper cool that happened! On the bus, going to Zone Conference, a guy named Junior started talking to me, said he had already known the church a little, and so I marked a visit with him. We went and taught him on Thursday, and it was so cool! Turns out he had attended the church for 3 months in João Pessoa and had recently moved to Recife! He already knows that everything is true and wants to be baptized! He had been wanting to go to church, but didn´t know where it was! God truly does put the people who are prepared to hear the Gospel into our path!! 

Sunday was cool :) It was the end of the missionary week where the goal was for everyone to take a friend, family member, neighbor, etc, to church. There´s quite a few families that we got to know and will be visiting this week! 

I´m sooooo excited for General Conference once again! Can´t believe that it´s already been 6 months since the last one!! I´m so grateful we have a living prophet and for the wonderful opportunity we have this weekend to receive personal revelation for our lives! I know that God loves us and knows each one of our needs! 

Love you all! 

Sister Anderson 

Lots of Walking, Lots of Sun

Well guys, this week feels like we just walked and walked and walked and nothing happened haha. But, it´s allll good. A part of the work, right?

Georg is doing well! Went to church again and is loving to learn about the Gospel. Something that´s really touched me about him is how much he loves the Book of Mormon! The other day we wanted to mark for him to read Moroni 10, but he asked if he could just read the whole book of Moroni haha. "Ummmm, sure!!". When we visited him the next day he had read the whole book of Moroni TWO times and quoted the last verse to me memorized... He´s a smart guy haha. 

Something so so so cool and wonderful that happened! Everyone remember my first area, Pina?! WELL, we were at the temple one day this week and THE WHOLE WARD WAS THERE. Even my investigators, Milena and Ernesto and their kids!!! Made me soooooo happy to see everyone and give them hugs :D 

Another cool thing that happened this week! All of Yasmin´s family were able to get their temple recommends and do baptisms for the dead at the temple together! It was really special to see them there :) They´re preparing to enter the temple to be sealed as a family and I´m hoping and praying that I will still be here to see it! Any additional prayers would be greatly appreciated ;D Thanks guys. Haha

I´m so grateful for our Savior, Jesus Christ! I know that He lives and loves us! I really couldn´t do this (or anything in my life) without Him!! 

Love you all! 
Sister Anderson 

This is tapioca cake that the temple cafeteria makes.
SO GOOD. The stuff on top is sweet and condensed milk

One Year Down

Ólaaa! 
Well guys, I have officially been in Brazil for a year! I truly feel such an immense amount of love for this place and I´m so happy to be a missionary! 

Wow, this week was really good! Sister Guimarães and I really focussed on having faith to find the people that God is preparing for us and it´s amazing the amount of people we found and just how much God blessed our area! 

I think one of the hardest things on the mission has been learning how to talk to EVERYONE. It´s pretty scary sometimes to know how to start or what to say! But I´m so grateful for everytime I find the courage to do it! This monday, we were on a bus, returning to our area and I started talking to the woman next to me, and turns out she lives in an apartment right next to the temple and has always been curious to know more! She happily passed her address, and so I´m excited to start teaching her and her family! 

We had interviews with President Bigelow this week! And so that´s always wonderful! We also had lunch once again with the member of the 70...that´s a little less wonderful and a little more nerve wracking haha. Especially because it was during a companion exchange and I had to give the message after lunch to him and his wife! Ahhhh.... BUT. I´m alive. It´s all good. Haha

Sunday we had a miracle! A man named George, who was taught by elders years ago, woke up and had a strong desire to go to church, and so he went to church and that´s how we were able to meet him! We went and taught him after church and it was super cool! He says that he still prays for "President Thomas" and that he doesn´t have the Book of Mormon anymore because he gave it to someone who was passing through hard times! The lesson was really special :) It only got a little weird afterwards when he whipped out his guitar and starting singing a song that sounded like ancient monk music hahaha. But I´m super excited to start teaching him as well!! 

Well my friends, that´s about it. I hope that everyone has a wonderful week! 

Love you all! 
Sister Anderson 

Conselho

Carnaval had Ended!

Hey, guys! 

Carnaval is officially over, hallelujah! We survived with nothing too crazy happening, just a dead area haha. 

Monday and Tuesday, we had to go home early at night and no one, no one, no one was in the roads and sooo.. not much happened. Ha... And theeeen Wednesday, all ready to work! And BAM! Got sick. Had a fever all day, had to stay home... But hey, I got a really cool priesthood blessing from my district leader, Elder Santos, so that was nice :) 

This place had been pretty rainless until, this friday and saturday! Soooo much rain! Everyone knows how when it rains a lot, all of the worms come out and stay on the cement? Well, here something similar happens, but instead of being worms, they´re GIANT FLYING ANTS hahaha. They were seriously everwhere and sticking over us all day!! 

Saturday morning as we were walking with our umbrellas, the sun was coming out a little and a very old man, with shockingly short shorts, and very skinny legs came running past us and yelled, "cuidado com seus guardas de chuva para não bloquear a luz de Deus!" Translation: "Be careful with your umbrellas to not block out the light of God!" Gave us a good laugh but I also thought it was pretty wise! God is always trying to shine His light down on us, and we have to be careful to not block it out! 

Even though the week was pretty slow, Rafaella´s baptism made things all better! It was so sweet to see her willingness to follow the Savior and show that to Him through baptism! The ward was SUPER supportive and excited as well and so that was wonderful! 

I´m excited for another week of work to see what miracles God puts into our path! Don´t forget to put your umbrellas away and let God´s light and love shine down on you! Until next week! 

Sister Anderson 

Photos from Rafaella´s Baptism :)

The young man is a recent convert named Lucas!
He´s Rafaella´s neighbor and gave us the reference!