And the Work Goes On

Hey guys! 

Our p-day today has consisted of walking around the city trying to find an open lan house... But hey, we finally found one! 

The baptism this week was wonderful!!! I love this family so much :) The Spirit was so strong and you could truly see the happiness on their faces :) Flavio and Maria Jose´s son, Thiago, is autistic. He was a little scared at first when he entered the water, but with his parents help, he did it and came out of the water with the hugest smile on his face :) The ward here is also great and so supportive! There were about 60 other people to watch the baptism! 

Gabriella is doing great as well! She loves the church and is diligently searching for an answer! And now she calls us "minhas sisteres"--- "my sisters" haha. It´s pretty cute :) 

This Sunday was the last one of President and Sister Bigelow! Man, I feel so blessed to be a part of their ward! It was so wonderful to hear them speak in sacrament meeting! Sister Taylor and I were able to to a musical number as well! Sister Taylor played the violin and I played the piano, but we didn´t have anytime to practice and just kinda winged it.... But hey, everyone loved it still so I guess it went okay haha. Another wonderful surprise was when Dora showed up at church again! Turns out she´s been having some health difficulties and has been doing Chinese acupuncture (haha) and so that´s why she kind of disappeared for a while! 

I love this Gospel and I love being a missionary!! 

Love you all! 

Sister Anderson 

São João and an Elect Family!

Oláaaaa! 

Things are great here in Brazil! This week is a HUGE holiday here in Northern Brazil, called São João! I don´t know if anyone remembers when I passed through it last year in Pina... But to sum up São João, it´s a lot of bonfires, corn, straw hats, plaid shirts, and bands that consist of acoustic guitars, acordians, and triangles :) It´s a party. Haha

But hey! That wonderful, elect family that we started teaching last week-- They´re still wonderful and elect and are going to be baptized this Friday! At the beginning of the week Flavio told us that he was marked to work on Sunday and that at the prison where he works, it´s almost impossible to get someone to trade with you on Sunday. But we shared our testimonies that God would prepare someone to work for him and went on our way. Well, when we went to teach them again a couple days after, he told us that he had called one of his friends and offered him 300 reais (Brazilian currency) to work for him but that his friend said he would do it for free! We honestly just sat there AMAZED that he had offered to pay 300 REAIS just to go to church on Sunday. That is true faith and desire!  

Another thing that really touched me this week with Maria Jose and Flavio was being able to teach their son, Tiago, who´s autistic and has some learning difficulties. Sunday we went there to teach Tiago indiviually to help him to understand things a little better. We were talking to Maria Jose about how she teaches him and helps him with his school work and she said that the thing that´s helped her the most is her faith. She´s very patient and loving with him and teaches him over and over and over again until he gets it. When he gets 2 out of 10 math problems right she´s very happy with him, and then teaches him to help him get even more right the next time. As she was saying these things, it made me really think of how a mother´s love is so close to God´s love! He is so patient with us! No matter how many times we get things wrong, He will help us to try and try again until we finally get it right :) 

Have a great week and feliz São João! 

Sister Anderson 

--- AÇAÍ AND DELICIOUS BROWNIES... I´ll tried to get some pics of the São João action to send next week! 

Surprise, it´s Wednesday!

Hey guys! 

My district´s p-day was switched this week to be wednesday for us to be able to go to the temple! Woohoo! I´m currently in the Family History Center here at the temple and will be entering to do a session in a little :) 

WOW, a lot of amazing things have happened since the last time I emailed! One of the best things that has happened was being able to start teaching one of the most special and elect families I have met on my mission! Flavio and Maria Jose and their 10 year old son, Tiago :) Maria Jose is the sister of a super sweet recent convert named Doralice, who gave us this wonderful family as a reference. It´s been amazing to see how the Lord has already prepared them to receive the Gospel! They´ve been able to see the happiness that has come into Doralice´s life because of the Gospel and every since the first visit have wanted to be baptized and be members of the church! On Saturday Flavio worked from 8am until 8am on Sunday, and they still went to church-- I thought that was a pretty great sacrifice. They have such a strong desire to do the will of the Lord in place of doing their own will. In Flavio´s prayer yesterday, he thanked Heavenly Father for the oppourtunity that they would have to be baptized in His church :) They´ve definitely been a miracle in my life and have strengthened my testimony that God is preparing His children to receive the Gospel! 

Does everyone remember the atheist that we found last week, Gabriela? She is doing SO GOOD. She´s praying a ton, loved church on Sunday, and even went to institute on Saturday! She loves the Book of Mormon and is receiving every day a stronger testimony about God and His love for us :) 

I´m so grateful for the Holy Ghost! This week as we were teaching Flavio and Maria Jose I was SO amazed by how perfectly they understand everything! Because there really are some people, that it doesn´t matter WHAT you do they DO NOT understand haha. But in that moment, the Spirit testified to me that it´s truly HIM that brings all understanding. As we let the Spirit into our lives, He will help us to understand all things, and will help us to change our hearts-- we just have to let Him in! 

Thanks for all the emails and all the love! 

Sister Anderson 

p.s.-- The mission office changed and so if anyone wants to send a letter to me, this is the new address! 

Missão Brasil Recife

Rua João Fernandes Vieira 80

Boa Vista, Recife, Brasil

50050-215

The pics are from our last Zone Conference with President and Sister Bigelow!! (The new mission presidents will arrive at the beginning of July!)

Adventures of Two Gringos in Brazil

Hey guys!! It´s been an exciting week! 

Like predicted, it´s pretty crazy having two Americans together... especially when your companion is blonde haired and blue eyed haha. But hey! More people are thinking that I´m Brazilian now because of the stereotype that in there´s always one Brazilian and one American in the companionship! So that´s cool! Haha

One of the funniest moments this week was on a day that it had rained A TON. We were walking on a street that literally had formed a mini lake right in the center. However, there was JUST enough space on the edge to walk around it. However, as we were walking by, a HUGE truck came passing through the lake and caused ocean-like waves to come towards us. WELL, despite our best efforts to run, we still got pretty wet haha. And during all of that craziness, there were a bunch of men on the other side of the road yelling at us, but we understood NOTHING they were saying haha. It almost felt like running on the ocean... but only with cement and with filthy water hahaha.

But goodness, Sister Taylor is teaching me so much about faith and how to act IN faith and not just WITH faith. At the beginning of the week, almost everyone we were teaching, including Silvania and Della, decided that they didn´t want anything anymore... That was rough. But with a lot of prayer and lots of work, we were able to find some great people again and really see God´s hand in our lives :)

We were able to know a sweet young woman named Gabriela this week. We started talking to her on the street and found out that she´s atheist. We started talking to her about the Book of Mormon and when we gave her one she started to cry and said that she felt something special! Later in the week as we were teaching her again, we invited her to pray and ask if God is real-- at first she was really hesitant. But then after a moment, she said that she felt a voice say "why not?" to her, and agreed to pray :) The Spirit is definitely working with her! 

I´m so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father that is so aware of our needs and the lessons we need to learn! Even though it´s hard sometimes, He lets us pass through difficulties because He knows that in the end we will be closer to Him!

Have a great week everyone! 

Sister Anderson