Semana 34!!

Hello my frens! i hope you all had a wonderful Halloween and a wonderful week! my week was good! they don't have Halloween here but they do have day of the dead which was yesterday and its like a holiday and so the computer shop was shut so that's why i didn't email yesterday. and because yesterday for this holiday we went to the cemetery and talked with all the people there about the plan of salvation and we showed them how to use the little booklet My Family and how they can find out info on family search and how they can help their family who has already passed away. it was pretty cool. we met some awesome people! it was kind of weird hanging out at the cemetery all day but hey im used to that.. also other churches were there too and they were being really strange and kinda rude. like i was talking to a person who was leaving and another dude from the other church came over and while i was talking to this woman this man just cut in and said hey i will say a prayer here and then put his hands on the head of this woman and just started talking and yelling and trying to ``cast out`` demons from this person. it was really weird. but it was good for me to be there and share this message with everyone because it made me realize that we are truly  blessed to know the gospel and the hope that we can have from knowing that we can live with our families again. 

we have a recent convert that loves to crochet and she loves to teach us how to make things and she loves to show us the things she makes and so im learning how to crochet! whoo hoo. who would have thought. chey is singing in the choir and crocheting. like what even is this. i am learning how to be a girl and its the hardest thing i have ever done. no joke. 

i am learning so much in this area. and i am loving it!!:) the members are so great!!! we were talking with one the other day and he has watched baptist at our bbq!!! i almost died when i heard that. we have been having a lot of family nights and they are always so good! its so awesome to hear the testimonies of the members! we put my hair with one of our revcent converts heads.... looks natural right?:) she makes dinner for us every sunday night :) whoo! i hope you all have a wonderful week!!:) 

Semana 33!(:

This week was kind of just like a blur. i don't really remember what happened. its really hard not to get discouraged  when people don't go to church. like we spend all week trying to get people to go to church and they all say they will go and then Sunday comes and no one is there. its frustrating and sad. but this week we had a zone conference with president and he basically said to suck it up. that this happens and we cant get discouraged or else Satan is winning. he said when things get hard, go harder. it was such a good conference. he is such a good president! 

We had a baptism marked for Sunday morning before the sacrament of a mom and her daughter and so we went to their house at like 7 in the morning. just to make things clear real quick they don't have door bells usually  or a door to knock. they have a gate in the front of their house so you clap real loud and yell their name until they come open the gate. so Sunday morning we went there and started clapping and yelling and calling them on the phone and doing everything we possibly could to make sure they woke up and went to church. we were there for an hour and finally the son came out and said that his mom was working and his sister was at his aunts house. like what is this! they passed the interview and had confirmed 3 times that everything was right before and then bam. don't go to church. we got lost a lot on our way to lunch this week. we get lost a lot actually.  we have been working a lot with the recent converts and less actives and it is so crazy to hear the stories they have.  one of our recent converts is like 83 and her son lives with her and he is 50 something and he is so rude to her. he hates that she goes to church and so we can only go there when hes not there. also he stole her book of Mormon and the elders encountered her before we did and gave her another one. he is a  mean guy and does other mean things too. 

We met some cool people this week. last week we met an older woman and we went there and she was legit but when we went back she had her daughter in law there and her granddaughter and they wanted to know more too. one of their family members is a member and they wanted to know more. they seemed excited! Also we met a less active who really has a testimony its just that she kinda holds a grudge. when she was a recent convert of two months she was robbed, someone broke into her house and stole practically everything. when this happened she sent a text to the relief society president and asked her to come to her house and say a prayer with her and the president just sent a thumbs up  to her and didn't help at all. she sent the same text to a couple others and they didn't help her either. so as of today she is inactive but like she knows all the things she needs to except forgiveness i guess.  but i learned an important lesson, that we have to be so careful with all the things we say and do because even if we don't notice we can offend someone. i am sure none of the women meant to hurt her feelings but they all did. we have to think about what the other person will think and feel like if we do something. because sometimes they misunderstand our intent. i am doing good and my comp is good too. she is started to talk a little bit ahah. :) we had a crazy storm this week and our gate broke.. the wind was so strong i thought the world was ending! haha just kidding but really it was quite the storm:) i loved it. it  rains almost everyday still so its hard to find new people sometimes but we  are working on it:) i hope you all have a great week!!!:) love you all!!:) 

Semana 32!(:

this week was good and slow again. we found some more people that have some potential its just that no one was at church... one day we got lost and walked like 3 hours straight and that was the day i got a little sunburned. the relief society did a cool activity and each room in the church was decorated like a different state of Brazil! it was pretty cool. we also had family night with the ward and it was pretty cool! it rained a lot and when it wasn't raining it was hot hot. we had the time change here and it stole an hour of sleep´and im tired. my comp wants to be in the choir so we went to choir practice... can you imagine me at choir practice... i think the lady in charge wanted to kick me out . oh and here there is a lot of Macumba.. (black Magic) and they do weird things like burn pigeons and stuff so a lot of times we see birds on fire on the road and we just cross the street and walk faster. but Sunday we were walking and we saw a bunch of vultures and when we got closer there was a goat head and all sorts of things they were eating and someone had done some mad voodoo there. it was weird.  but on a brighter note.. :) we had some really good deserts this week for lunch and our studies are way good. i have been reading the liahona a lot and its crazy the spirit i feel when i read it!!! its beautiful! i drank water from a coconut :) i felt like a tourist! i love you all:) boa semama! 

Semana 31

this week was good! we have had better though. we were working a lot with alex and rodrigo and they were doing so good and they passed the baptismal interview and they were so excited and then the day of the baptism the elders had a  baptism too and we were at the chapel waiting waiting waiting and 45 minutes later they got a hold of their investigator and he was at the beach and so they didn't have a baptism and we went to find alex and rodrigo and they were just chillin in their house and they decided that they didn't want to be baptized because their mom talked them out of it. it was kind of a hard week for me but we are doing good! this week i had a really cool experience though. we were doing contacts on the street and sis santos started talking with a lady and said we would like to share a message about eternal families with you. can we? and she said yes and then my comp just looked at me like help! and so i just opened my mouth and i didnt know what was happening but i was talking and i didnt know what i was saying but it was making sense and she was paying attention. it was like i was watching a movie of myself because i was just there and it really wasnt me talking but it was the holy ghost. it was so crazy!! it rains a lot and its  hot a lot. we  get lost a lot but its ok somehow we always find our way. this week its short but we are all good! love ya all hope ya have a great week!:) im trunky for christmas already... 

Semana 30!

This week was good! we had a lot to do! first it rained every single day all day! today is the first day that i have been here that i could walk outside and it not raining! second, conference was freaking awesome!!!:) i loved it! we were able to watch it in English and i loved every single minute. i forgot what it was like to understand every word. man it was good! all the talks were so powerful! do you all have a scripture??:) you guys will never believe what happened though. Saturday we went to the chapel to watch the morning session (1 o'clock here) and as soon as we walked into the church the power went out. everything turned off and we didn't have power for the first hour. we went to members houses and they didn't have power or internet either and finally an hour later the power came back on! whoo hoo! but before the power came back we called other missionaries in the other area and they put there phone next to the speaker and we put our phone on speakerphone and we all sat around the phone listening like we were old grandpas listening to the game on the radio. it was pretty funny! we had a mission conference Wednesday and it was bomb too. but it took all day and when it was over we rode the freaking bus for like 4 hours because traffic was so bad. i miss my car. Friday we had a baptism. his name is joão batista. we baptized john the baptist. haha it was cool. after he said he felt like a new man and he was so happy and felt so good to be changing his life around. only one problem, after his baptism he left to another part of Brazil for 15 days so he wont receive the holy ghost for a while. we had a baptismal interview for two other boys Alex (9) and Rodrigo (11) and their house is kinda small like they have a bathroom, and another room which is the kitchen and living room and the beds are in this same room and when we went there it was raining way hard and so we were all there for the interview and when the elder asked them if they believed if Joseph was a prophet they both said yes! and then he asked how do you know that? and they said by reading the book of Mormon of course! it was so cool to see them and their eyes light up when he was talking to them! their mom is catholic and isn't sure if she wants them to be baptized soon but the dad knows this church is true and he wants them to be baptized asap. he would be baptized too its just that he works every single Sunday and he needs to go to church another time before he can be baptized and then he has to keep going after that! i think the boys will be baptized this week though! Things are good here though! my new companion is really good but she is really really shy and doesn't hardly talk. but she is sweet! there are 3 sets of missionaries in our ward so it is pretty fun!  i hope you are all good:) love you all!!:) 😀

Semana 29!(:

what a week!!! it started good! we went to Santos twice and it pretty much used up the whole day both days so that sucks. but we were on the bus on our way home and the police stopped the bus and looked in everyone's bag and then left. i don't know why or what happened but it was strange and took a lot of time. the second time we went there the bishops wife took us there because she works there but she had to stop in praia grande first and pick something up so we stopped and when we were getting out of the car sister mendes wasn't holding the bag (that had all of her photos of the cat scan and all the things we had gone to Santos to do:cat scan results everything) and when she opened the door a gust of wind came and took the bag and it went into the gutter and in that hour it was all over. there was no way we could get the info back. ja era. so we went to the doctor where she did the cat scan and they don't have the pictures anymore.. when they print them they automatically delete off of the computer. so ya.. she is going there again today to another doctor because the one we went to wants her to go there every week and get a shot that costs 30 bucks but it doesn't heal it just helps the pain for a minute.. and hes crazy! we were waiting in the waiting spot and he he was in his office with another client and he just started yelling and chewing this dude out it was weird and kinda scary. we also got transfer calls last night and i am now in Praia Grande training Sister A. Santos! she already has one transfer so im really not training training but still. shes really really shy but sweet:) im excited to work here! i will miss itanheam but I'm happy wherever! i am so excited for general conference!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:) it will be so awesome to hear prophets and i think we can watch it in English so im happy for that too!!:) we taught a family that was really special! they weren't at church because their alarm didn't go off but they really liked the message and i think they will be baptized soon. the spirit was so strong and it was just a good lesson! it was kind of a hard week because we couldn't work completely but this lesson was just a good rejuvenation. im doing good and i hope you all are doing good too!!:) i love you all!:) boa semana!:) 😘

Semana 28!

this week was good! we were able to help two more young girls enter the water of baptism this week but one counts as the ward but it was still good to help them! the one that counted as missionaries name is maria helena and she turned 8 on saturday so she was baptized on her birthday! her mom is a recent convert but they dont have a lot of money to make a cake for her birthday so we made one for her and sang to them after the baptism. it was special! my companion is having some problems with her knee so we walk very slow all over the place and we go to santos every week and go to the doctor. she is really having a hard time and sometimes we have to stay in the house and it is hard for the both of us. but were working through it. this sunday was good. i think my talk went well. there were two others who talked who have less than 3 months in the church and they both did so good! i was so proud of them! yesterday i was doing a contact with a woman on the road and i was explaining a little about the book of mormon and i gave one to her and when i asked if we could visit her in her house to explain more she said certainly and she was so happy to hear more and we prayed with her on the road and when we invited her to read and pray to see if it is real she said she would but she already knew it was true she said when she held the book she felt something powerful about it and that everytime she drove past the church building she always had a desire to go there but she didtn know if she could. she was legit. but she lives in a another area so we wont be able to  visit her. other missionaries will but it was still way cool to have that experience. also we had a lunch appt with a member and it was practically in cedar and when we got there there was no house. like there was just the outside walls. everything else inside was gone and broken.. dont really know what happened but we went without food for a while and then we ran into constancia on the road and she made us lunch:) it was nice of her. it was so hot this week!! one day i missed a spot with suncreen on my neck\shoulder and so one side of me is bright red and the rest is white white haha oops. things are so good!!!:) i hope you are all good:) love ya!! 

Semana 27!

yay pday again already!!:) whoohoo!! this week was good! it rained every single day all day!!! except Thursday but on Thursday we stay in the house and plan for the week and then when we left it rained on us! it was great! ya know in the movies when its raining and a person is already wet but there is a puddle and a car drives by and splashes the puddle on the people walking on the side of  the road... this happened more than once to us this week. haha but its ok! we had a good week non the less. Hevelyn and Gabrielly were baptized on Sunday and it was really special! their mom was crying and the spirit was strong! i think constancia (their mom) will be baptized soon but for now she still thinks shes not ready. and she had a hard past so we´ll have to get permission from president to baptize her. we spent a lot of time at their house this week helping them. and their relative (salvaci) because she was baptized 2 weeks ago. i have to talk again on Sunday and i still get so nervous to talk to people even though i do it every single day! we are able to find our way around and the members always help us! also we live right by the beach! i will try to send a picture! its so pretty! i learn so much everyday! my comp is having problems with her knee and so we went to Santos Friday and we will go again next Friday. but when we got there we were lost completely! this whole week i felt like i was in a movie. two girl in a giant city lost lost lost. we asked everyone how to get to where we needed to be. it was good though we found it and we are all just fine:)  time is flying by! this week i hit the 6 month mark! i cant believe it!! also i met a girl from cornish Utah! like what! from all the places in the world cornish :) she knows Taylor and Courtney! right when i think the world is to big to imagine i am reminded how small it really is. that's one thing we've been helping our investigators to realize. how important they are to our father in heaven and how much he really knows them and he wants the best for them. that's why he blessed us with the gospel and prophets to help u in this big wide world! i know that he loves each and every one of us and that we are all important to him. even if we think we aren't important to anyone else we will always be important to him! i love you all!!!!:) i hope you all have a wonderful week!:) 

Semana 26

what a crazy week we had! everyone in our district is opening an area which means that we are all new to the areas that we are at! no one was there before! its kinda tough but its good! the ward here in itanheam is awesome! the bishop is kinda crazy but its just because hes a little old. him and his wife help the ward so much! yesterday it was raining after church and almost no one has cars here and so she (the bishops wife) made 5-6 trips from the church to peoples houses and the bishop took people home too.   we had two people receive the holy ghost on Sunday! it was cool! we have two more baptisms marked for next week! they are all family! its kind of confusing but i will try to explain. the one who was baptized already her name is salvaci and her nieces are the two that are marked for next week. their names are gabriella and evelyn. their mom also is investigating but isn't ready yet but she will be soon. the other person who was confirmed is the daughter of another couple who are recent converts. she is 26 ish and awesome! the whole family is great! when we were looking for their house we were kinda lost because the numbers here don't make any sense at all and some houses don't have numbers and we passed their house and the mom came out and said sisters sisters and asked if we were looking for a house and we said yes and she said her address and we said yes and she said i live here and we went to her house! it was an answer to our prayers! it rained almost every day here this week but no worries because our new house doesn't have a leaky roof!:)  this week we had a conference with all the mission and the temple president from sao paulo. i think he said he was one of the ´70 and man it was awesome! he was so funny but i learned so much! he was telling us about how we shouldn't be afraid to teach people because we might not know the answers to all the questions and he talked a lot about the book of Mormon. he said its not our responsibility to defend the book of Mormon but its the holy ghost responsibility and i dont have time to write all about it but it was awesome:) it was a good week!:) we met lots of new people and had a lot of fun! love you all:) 

Semana 25 and surprise!!!

hey hey hey!!! this week was so good!! we had some great experiences! first, magali was baptized!! it was very special. her dad wasnt able to baptize her but she was baptized by an americano like the rest of her family. also we met with another girl who read some of the book of mormon and prayed about it and joseph and she said she got an answer but she didnt know how to describe the feelings she had. it was awesome to see her grow in the gospel. i love that about being a missionary. when people really want to know if its true they will get an answer! we also were meeting with another person named jose. hes crazy!!! he tells us he goes to the mountain to pray and when he thinks its been almost 40 minutes he ends his prayer and looks at his watch and its been 4 hours. he really is investigating the church a lot and watched many videos about joseph on youtube and he believes that joseph saw god and christ but he is still having a hard time understanding that he restored the authority to the earth. he says he has cast demons out of people in the name of jesus christ and that he sees angels and that he really likes our church and he will continue looking into it more and he wants to know what all the things sybolism mean about the church like the steeple and he searched things on google and found temple square and wants to know more about that. also we had emergency transfers and i am in another area. same companion but different area in itanhaem. in the center. we just got here like an hour ago so i dont know anything about it yet but itll be interesting because we are both new here and before this area had 2 sets of elders and now its just us. wish us luck and that we can find a liahona to help us haha. our old house got hot water and things were fixed a lot and then we arrived here and dont have hot water again. yay. hah the life of  a missionary. always changing and always unpredictable. i gave a talk yesterday and it wasnt too  bad. it was about the gift of grace from last conference dieter f uchdorf. we had a good week overall!:) 

Semana 24(:

New area and new miracles! first the language is coming along very well! i dream in Portuguese almost every night!  the lord is helping beyond measure!  our house is kinda funny. we don't have hot water so our showers in the morning are quick and freezing! haha and there is a spicket that is turned upside down so if you turn on the water more than just a little it will spray you in the face so you have to be careful. haha. and the toilet doesn't flush by itself we have to fill up a bucket and pour water in the toilet haha. and our roof leaks in 11 places so we have to move things a lot so our beds dont get soaked. but its all good.:) its fun :) 

our area is large and we share with the elders! our ward has about 100 people that were there on Sunday and we have a new chapel. it was dedicated in November so it still new! the members are great and are so happy!! i was reading in the bom this week and came across mosiah  2 41     and we are so blessed to have the gospel because when we keep the commandments we are much happier! we were teaching an investigator magali and her mom (less active) said that she loves the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints because there everyone has a smile and is happy and when the world is turning mean the church is still happy and pure. magali is on date to be baptized this Saturday and she wants her dad to baptize her but her dad doesn't want to baptize her because hes really shy so if you all could pray for him to have courage that would be great:) we are working on finding new investigators. i have forgotten how to speak English too. i had to teach English class the other day and i couldn't talk. and we were at a recent converts house and she asked me to pray in English and it was hard and i said some things in Portuguese and it is impossible to say in the name of Jesus Christ amen. in English. my tongue doesn't function. 

  41 And moreover, I would desire that ye should consideron the blessed and happy state of those that keep thecommandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in allthings, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold outfaithful to the end they are received into heaven, thatthereby they may dwell with God in a state of never ending happiness. O remember, remember that thesethings are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it]

 and we are so blessed to have the gospel because when we keep the commandments we are much happier! we were teaching an investigator magali and her mom (less active) said that she loves the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints because there everyone has a smile and is happy and when the world is turning mean the church is still happy and pure. magali is on date to be baptized this Saturday and she wants her dad to baptize her but her dad doesn't want to baptize her because hes really shy so if you all could pray for him to have courage that would be great:) we are working on finding new investigators. i have forgotten how to speak English too. i had to teach English class the other day and i couldn't talk. and we were at a recent converts house and she asked me to pray in English and it was hard and i said some things in Portuguese and it is impossible to say in the name of Jesus Christ amen. in English. my tongue doesn't function. this week was really good!!:) i miss you all and i hope you are alldoing well and have a wonderful week!!:) love you all:) meet my companion  

sister anderson 

Semana 23!

this week was full of the spirit! sunday was good and i learned a lot and we had members come out with us alot this week. we had 14 member present lessons and 14 other. every time the members bare testimony it is so powerful!!!  cezar and gismara weren't at church again so that was upsetting but the ward was so great to help them and supporting gismara. we taught tainara also and she was doing so good and living all the commandments until Saturday and she didn't go to church but we visited her yesterday with a member who used to be a bishop and he was able to counsel her so good and we were all crying because the spirit was so strong and she is so excited to be baptized and is loving the gospel. we found some new investigators this week and they are doing good. the sisters that lived with us had a baptism and they baptized in the ocean so thats cool. also we had transfers and i was transfered to another area thats 3 hours away from where i was. belas artes 2 is our area and itanhaem is the name of the place. its close to the beach too. i was extremely blessed because another sister that was here was transferred to guaruja and so a sister in the ward of belas artes drove her to guaruja and picked me up and drove me back. yay i was excited because i didnt have to take the onibus with all my luggage. blessings. im excited to serve here and to meet new people. i will miss santa rosa!   my new companion is brazilian and doesnt speak english either:) her name is Sister Mendes. i dont know much about her yet because i just to the new place and the first thing we did was come to write but shes sweet and talks really fast. sometimes its hard to not get discouraged when i am trying so hard to make something make sense and no one understands but oh well.  i hope you are all doing well:) 

Week 22

this week was slower but we are learning alot. we have more investigators but no one was at church. yesterday was fathers day here and so i think that had something to do with it but still, no excuses. we worked a lot with the less actives and members who are struggling this week. we were teaching a man about the plan of salvation and another man came in and he was drinking and said he didnt believe in the 3 glories of heaven and that there is only heaven and hell and we had a member with us and she read him the scripture in 1 cor about this and he listened and when she was done he said i still dont believe. haha and he just wanted to bible bash but we just bore our testimonies and he quit trying to come up with things to argue about and then we left. another time we visited a less active and we just bore testimonies and this week i want to talk about the power of testimonies. our testimonies are so precious! we should always search for ways to strengthen them and opportunities to share them. one who shares his testimony keeps his testimony. i dont have a lot of time today but i invite all of you to share your testimony with someone this week. it can be formal or informal but just a little helps a lot sometimes:) i love you all and i hope you are all doing well:) 

-sister anderson

Week 21

this week was good! not a lot of things happened that i remember. i ate tapioca and it was good. this week was fast sunday and our investigator cezar bore his testimony and it was awesome! he started out by saying my testimony is small but it has made a huge impact on my life and it was just awesome. during gospel principles we talked about taking care of our bodies and the things we shouldnt use and gismara told us how hard it was for her to stop smoking and before she was baptized she would dream about smoking and wake up looking for cigarettes and now after she is baptized she is better and when she is around someone and they start to smoke she feels like vomiting and she leaves and she is just awesome! we had a festival of music at the church this week and it was super cool. there was tons of non members there and less actives too. i made brownies and they were good:) i studied a talk That We Might Not Shrink and it was so good. you all should read it! have the faith!! also i read another talk and i really liked this quote, we become what we want to be by consistently being what we want to become each day. it is kind of like duh but it is so true. we cant expect change if we dont work on being better each day. life is great and brazil is great:) missions are great!:) my camera got a virus so until it gets feeling better i wont be sending any pictures. we had a lot family home evenings with members and they all invited non members and it was so good. they really liked it!:) how are you all doing?:) i hope good! time is flying!! have a wonderful week!!:) 

Week 20! Batismo or not?

this week was one i will always remember!:) first, last monday was awesome! we went home after emailing and they cut our power because we didnt pay the bill.. whoops haha. so we didnt have power for a couple of days which meant studying by candle light!:) it was awesome. it also meant cold showers. haha it was like i was camping. it was so fun ahah we also ran out of gas and water too and so we were a little short on money this week haha it was so good though. i didnt even know we were supposed to pay the bill for the lights. im learning so much. mas, later that night we had fam night with a bunch of people from the ward at cezars house and it was awesome! a brother from the ward blessed his new house and it was just so great! we had another investigator there also so it was awesome. gizmara stopped smoking and the elders interviewed her again and she was good to be baptized and she asked them for a blessing to help her  continue keeping the commandments and it was great! we marked her baptism for saturday so she could be confirmed on sunday! the ward was so good to help us and they all wanted to help so they all made cake and treats and we all showed up on saturday except gizmara and cezar..,.... nossa i was dying. she was doing so good and so excited to be baptized and then she didnt show up. all the members were there with food and the font was filling and she wasnt there! so sister r left with a sister from the ward and i stayed with another sister and they went loooking for them! they had been gone like 3 minutes and finally gizmara and cezar showed up! they just were late.. things all worked out perfectly and it was a beautiful baptism for gizmara!:) after she was baptized some members bore their testimonies and the ward mission leader handed out pass a long cards to everyone there to give to some one that same night and invite them to church!!:) it was so great! sunday she was confirmed and when we went to her house later that night she had invited her friend to hear our lesson and to go to church with her on sunday! it was awesome! blessings are happening here! we werent able to find any new investigators this week so hopefully this week we can find more! also another funny thing happened this week.. we had lunch at a restuarant of one of the members place and to get there we ride a boat to santos and then another boat to her place and while we were in santos we were walking along the street which is very busy its right on the beach and there are tons of people and some old dude just peed on the side walk with everyone there. i almost died. it was crazy. i had the elders give me a blessing this week because i am just not able to concentrate when people talk to me.. my mind just zones them out and its hard to learn a language when you dont listen. it helped a lot and i am doing and feeling a lot better!!:)

Week 19

so this week was not what i expected but it was good and i noticed so many miracles in the lives of people here and in my life too. so gizmara and cezar were getting kicked out of their house and we talked to the bishop and he found them a house and we moved them into their new house and the ward was so great to help the bishop find a house and the ward has dropped food off at their house and gave them clothes for the baby to soon come and for the daughter and just so much help and support from the ward!  so gizmara and cezar had baptismal interviews and gizmara passed but cezar is on probation or something so he has to wait but they were both at church on sunday and gizmara was supposed to be baptized sunday but she smoked friday after an activity at the bishops house.. so close!!  but she really felt awful and said she would not smoke again so pray for her!!  they love the church and want to be baptized as soon as they can so they can go to the temple and be a forever family! they are awesome. we are having family night in their house tonight :) we taught nildo more and he was doing so good.. he made orange juice in the morning and not coffee and reading and praying and one night he bought us pizza and we ate while we taught. but it couldnt just be us so sister ribeiro started making contacts asking if they wanted to eat pizza and hear a message about the gospel. it was hilarious. then nildo found a friend and she came with us and she had a lot of really good questions but doesnt want to change. the next night we met with nildo and he had been drinking and it was just uncomfortble and he didnt come to church on sunday and so we dropped him because sometimes we thought he was more interested in the missionaries than the gospel and he wasnt at church for the 3rd week in a row so that was kind of upsetting. maybe he´ll be more ready later. dennis was doing so good too until the weekend and he wasnt at church either but he really needs to come to church and stop smoking. pray for him! we  had 6 investigators at church. cezar, gizmara, celia, reinaldo, and a man and a woman. i dont know the man and woman but the missionary ward leader does so we will meet with them this week i hope. this week the language really came along. im learning and growing!! mostly this week we saw miracles :) it was great! i hope you all have a great week!!

Semana 18

this week was awesome i dont even know where to start. its difficult not having a companion that speaks ingles but i am learning a lot faster i think. its great. this sunday was awesome! we had 5 investigators there and a less active who we have been working with. we had Cezar and Gizmara! they are the perfect little family and they love the gospel. they have some problems with the word of wisdom but really are honestly trying to stop. we met with them a lot this week and they were supposed to have a baptismal interview so we took the elders with us to their house and Cezar wasnt there. so we took Gizmara and her daughter and the elders to a members house and had family night and it was perfect. the members prepared a lesson and we watched a video clip and Gizmara felt the spirit so strong and was crying it was awesome. and then returned to the house of Cezar and he still wasnt home and so we left and as we were leaving the neighborhood we ran into him on the street and he saw us and he just started crying and it was a huge blessing that the elders were with us because they hugged and comforted him in a way that sisters wouldnt have been able to. but he went to but a beer so he didnt have the interview yet but hopefully this week. sunday he met with the bishop and we made appts to meet with them this week with memebers to they are pretty much in good hands. they both were balling during sacrament and loved sunday school and cezar promised to stop drinking. never again. and we brought hard candy to gizmara so she can stop smoking. it was just a wonderful church day. all the talks and lessons were perfect for them! also yesterday we stopped by a the house of Nildo and we were making goals with him to help him obey the commandments and usually we teach him on the street but we had a member with us so we could go in his house and he lives with a catholic family but they werent there and we were teaching and he said he would really focus and try hard to live the commandments he said he really wants to change his life and he said he prayed for repentance and he said he cried when he was praying because he felt better and then this wild woman came in and started yelling at me and saying things that i dont know but she wasnt happy that we were inher house because shes catholic and she was mad at nildo because he disrespected her or something but we left and it was kinda awkward but we really made a lot of progress with nildo and hes on date so pray that the lady doesnt change his mind and that he can still want to change and that he can come to church. we had the conference of the mission this week and it was way cool! there were 4 of us there that were in the mtc together and pres cabral is hilarious! he reminds me a lot of my dad so thats good i guess. we got a referral from some elders this week of a lady who ran up tp them and wanted to know more and so we called her to find out when and how to get to her house and she and her mom came and picked us up. it was cool. she is awesome. i hope she reads and feels the spirit. she is single  23 and has a baby so hopefully she can realize that the gospel will bless her adn her family! also i had an avacado smoothie and it was delicious. the avacados here are huge. i am a little stressed because i kind of took over this week because i was already in this area and it is so much different with a different companion. oh another man on the street told me he wanted to marry me and move to the united states so awkward. but the language is coming along a lot and i am loving it! im finally used to most of the strange things they do here ahah and fit in more. pray for our investigators to be baptized this month. we have a goal as a mission for every missionary to baptize so pray that we can accomplish this goal:) i know we can do it! the lord really has prepared people!! i love you all :) have a great week!!:) 

 

Semana 17

miracles! and prayers are answered! we finally had investigators at church! his name is cesar! he has a family of him his wife and his daughter who i think is like 6.. the wife is pregnant and smokes but she knows shes sinning and wants to stop. cesar was at church and it was fast and testimony meeting and after sacrament meeting he was crying and kept saying how he felt this feeling in his heart so strong and he didnt know how to describe it besides good. the wife had to work so she wasnt able to be there but the daughter was and she really liked it too! the ward is really helping make them feel comfortable and they are married! so as soon as they stop smoking and come to church again they can be baptized! they are so excited to learn more and they love the spirit! continue to pray for them!! dennis ( the other man who smokes) his mom told us that he didnt want to learn more and we havent been able to talk to him yet so pray that he really will have a desire and the strength to overcome his weaknesses. nildo another investigator is doing good. he wasnt at church but he has read the bom a lot! he is in enos now and he says he likes it. he is really fun to teach but he talks with a lot of slang so i dont understand a lot. we finally were able to meet with a lady named marjorie and she accepted everything and really wanted to be be baptized and accepted all the commandments until we told her she couldnt smoke and she needed to come to church a couple times but she said she wants to start over and be better so i hope we can get ahold of her again!

oh we had transfers and i have a new companion because sister tornini is going home! my new companion is Sister Ribeiro  ( you pronounce it like this he-bea-doo) shes brazilian and doesnt speak any ingles at all so this week will be hard but i know its what i need and i will learn better. i pray that she is patient with me:) it rained a lot this week and it was pretty cold! haha but people thought it was 100 below they all had big coats and they dont have very many scarves so they had towels tied around their necks and then there was me with t shirt thinking man im glad im not sweating right now. summer is going be warm for me ahah. on sunday we had 7 member present lessons! it was seriously an amazing day!! oh and this week i stood in front of the bus and talked/yelled to evveryone. it was so scary but it was so awesome!! people here know and some celebrate the 4th of july... with hamburgers and fries! haha its funny. i woke up and the sisters we live with were saying Happy day of Independence! haha. pray that we can continue to teach the people we have met and contact them. its been hard to get a hold of people lately. the language is still a barrier but it is getting better.:) i have been studying a lot about prophets lately and how blessed we are to have a living prophet and how important it is to follow the prophet i encourage you all to pray and find a talk by the prophet and read it! it will be great!:) i love you all :) have a wonderful week!!!:) 

Semana 16(:

hello! this week was full of adventures and the spirit testifying that this is the true church! we met more people who accepted dates to be baptized but none were at church. we actually rang one persons door bell 4 times and then went back 20 minutes later and tried a couple more times. his name is dennis and we found him when we were on our way to contact a referral and we walked past his house as we did i just stopped and turned around and said that we need to go back and knock on this door. it was crazy because i wasnt even thinking about it i just did it. we knocked and he answered and was smoking and we told him who we were and what we were doing and he  accepted to be baptized and he said he would quit smoking and he said he believes that joseph smith was a prophet and he said hes already read some of the book of mormon and he would come to church. he didnt come to church and we tried to help himas much as we could. i hope we can get a hold of him soon and get him there next week! also another thing that happened was after we rang his door bell and clapped our hands off at his house we went to another investidgators house and he answered (he was only in swim shorts) and we were so happy and we went and he went and changed his clothes into other shorts and a t shirt and flip flops. he walked with us to the church building and then he wouldnt come into the building because he wasnt dressed the same as everyone else. he left at the gate no matter what we tried to do to get him to come in. it really was upsetting but when we were at his house i had a thought that i should ask him if he wanted to change his clothes before we left but i ignored it thinking that maybe he didnt have other clothes and then later i realized that it was the holy ghost telling me that i should have said something. i learned my lesson. but when we were at the church outside we were trying to tell him it doesnt matter because its his first time and its ok and he shook our hands and when he shook my hand i tried pulling him into the church but he held on to the garbage bin thing they have on the roads. it was funny. he promised he would come next week. we have had a lot of help from the members this week and the ward is always so good at helping and bringing people to church. so when we finally went inside we had a non member there with a member. we have family night with him tonight at the bishops house so well see how things go he seemed to really like church! we taught a lesson in english this week! and sister tornini taught one in spanish! it was awesome! the one in english was way cool! the mom is from Australia and the dad is from here but he speaks very good english because he worked in the us for a while they have two kids whoare 6 and 4. they have australian accents its cute. but the mom had already heard about the book of mormon and joseph smith from a tv show about it. i dont know if the show was very accurate so we explained in detail about the bom.it was really good. he wanted to know how to show more generosity to people and when we gave him a bom he opened it to a random page and it was in the index about giving to the poor. he said he doesn't believe in coincidences so it was awesome! but he wasnt at church either. pray for everyone to be at church next week!! we had a party at the church saturday night and there were so many less actives and non members there it was awesome!! :) we had lunch one day on another part of the island so we rode a boat there and it was awesome! they have cool boats here. when we got there it was at a members restaurant and it was a little sketch but i had fishand i liked it so thats good:) oh and another funny thing happened.. we were on the road talking to a less active member and he was leaving and another man came around the corner so i just started talking to him and asked if he wanted tobe baptized and he said no but i didnt fully understand what he was saying so i looked at my companion and she asked him again and he said he wanted to marry me.so we just said have a good a day and left. i didtn know what happened until we had left.. haha its so funny what happens here all the time. :) we saw lots of little fishys when we were on the boat it was cool. there were hundreds!!! we taught some people in our apt and they said they recieved an answer that this church wasnt for them so we explained more and told them to pray again. pray for them that they will understand their answer. anyways it was a great week! pray that people will come to church please i love you all:) boa semana! 

-sister anderson :) 

Week 15

what a week! we met some elects this week! we meet so many people on the street and so many people say we can visit them and then when we go to their house they arent very interested in changing religion or something they just want to hear the word of god so we prayed about what to do and we decided that we should be more bold and direct in the way we go about our contacts so we go up to people and say we are reps of christ and we are looking for people to baptized into the true church of god. and we pray that the elects will say yes so we dont pass them up and then that way we arent wasting time with people who arent ready right to have missionaries. this was on thurs we decided this.. so anyways that day we tried it and not one person said yes...... i was wondering if it was too bold and scaring people a little but we continued to do and we have people say yes i willbe interested in learnign more. one man was on the street washing his car and i felt like we should talk to him and so we went over and said, we are representatives of jesus christ and we are looking for people to baptized into the true church of god. he replied, what do i need to do!!!!! it was awesome! this was yseterday so we are going to meet with him again today! we put 3 people on date this week so pray for them to recognize their answer! it was rainy a lot this week so i got soaked one day because sister torninis umbrella broke and so i gave her mine because i had a jacket and i still tried using her umbrella but i probably just looked funny because there was wires flying around everywhere and the wind kept blowing underneath it and making it go the wrong  way but it was so funny everytime it would happen. we were laughing so hard! it was a good day even though we were pretty muddy and mostly rained onhaha. i almost got in a crash with a bike too and it was funny as well. we were both going around the same corner at the same time and when i saw himi jumped to one side and he turned to the same side and we both just kept goign the same wayand he was flung over the handle bars and i was just trying to move without falling off the curb and running into the post on the corner. it was really funny. oh and the other day we were waiting at the bus station and some man came up and grabbed the phone that was on the post that we were standing by and started talking instantly. i just thought he was wierd because obviously no one was on the other line and i had no idea what he said.. and then when he left my companion explained to me that he answered the phone and said yep yep they are here. the two princesses are here and then walked away. haha it was funny now that i know what he said.  i had to go to the police department and get a paper so i could have it with me all the time saying i was leagal to be here and something ha´ppened where we had to go into the other part and go upstairs and get our finger prints done so everyone had these little cards on their shirts except me but i dont know police dept word so i just did what they told me and followed the lady and they did all the work and then when we were leaving the lady asked for my card and i didnt have one and she got this look on her face and i was like oh great im going to jail haha but i guess i wwent onto a a part where you needed a security checka nd card and they just slipped me and didnt give me one. they just laughed and let me leave but thats about how safe things are here. haha it was funny. the man gaurding the door just said haha whoops we let one in. :0 i am getting bored of the food we have becasue we have the same thing every day. so i today i started  looking for ohter things to buy i found nutella it was 6 dollars for like two spoonfuls. sad. :( many things are very expensive and they dont have a variety of things like the usa has. but its good:) the language is coming along and i can usually answer when people ask me questions now so thats good:) this week we learned a lot about family home evening! i hope you are all having it:) it is wonderful! i hope you all have a wonderful week and thank the lord for everything you have!:) i love you all! 

SEMANA 14!

this week was great!! we had only one person at church and she is 11 and her mom doesnt want her to be baptized or else she would be. our other investigators are not married so they cant be baptized until they are married.. another investigator who was on date told us that the only reason he accepted our visits was to preach to us and that he was pretty rude. we had a lot of other good lessons and talked with many people. the language is coming along and i am adapting more haha. people still stare at me like i cant see them but thats ok haha so much happened this week i dotn even remember what. i know i had my prayers answered and i know that this church is true and that the book of mornon is the word of god. i always kind of took it for granted and never really explored it like i could have but its great! i invite you all to read alma 5! we worked a lot with less actives this week and we are always finding less actives so if you can all pray for them that would help love you all:)  #notalottosaytoday #openingyourmouthishard 

WEEK 13!!

HELLO EVERYONE!!!!!!  how are you all? this week has been wonderful! we have been meeting with a couple named luciana and admilton and they ask tons of questions and really want to keep meeting with u sbut they wont come to church and they are having family problems and they think its because of god so pray for them to know the church is the right thing and it will strengthen their family. we met with celia and she is awesome she comes to church and wants to be baptized but shes not married and i dont think her man wants to get married s thats hard i had to go to santos last week to go to the police station and get a paper saying i was legal to be here but since we dont have a permanent address they wouldnt give it to me so hopefully when i go back next time theyll give it  to me. this week was a little harder. we met with a man jobert and he was basically yelling the whole time and when we left we asked him to pray and he was shouting and prayed that we would find god and that we would know they truth. not him.. its very difficult to have people stop talking for a minute so we can explain the church. all  they do is try to find reasons why its not true and i just felt like i was on the defense all week.we met with a lot of less actives this week and they were at church so thats great!  we had many other powerful lessons and talked with almost 200 people about the gospel this week. im so exhausted but its the best exhausted ever! the language is coming along! i am understanding more and more and when we talk with people i can usually understand enough to have somewhat of a conversation. haha some members came out with us today and they help incredibly!! its amazing what they bring with them when they come! i invite you all to go with the missionaries in your area and help them:) also when we were at a recent convert house this week his neighbor came over and said he wants to know more about the book of mormon so we have been meeting with him and he seems like he will probably be baptized pray from him his name is nelson.  he has a family so pray for them also. the power of prayer is real!!! on sunday we were having a hard time talking to people and helping them realize the difference in our church and other churches because they all think they have the authority which doesnt make sense becasue they go to a church thats only here in this one place but thats not the point, we were hving a hard time talking to poeple and then we prayed and after we recieved a couple contacts and people answered their doors and we ran into a couple members who wanted us to come visit them other days and visit with non members and the people we talked to were more open and understanding. so pray. pray expecting an answer and he will answer your prayers. moroni 7 48 read the liahona and ensign and scriptures! they are amazing!!!! always strive to be better:) i hope you are all doing great! i love you all!!! pray for the investigators of the missionaries that they will be able to recognize their answer. :) 

Semana 11 & 12

ola! tudu bem!? man what a crazy last couple of weeks ive had! 

- left Cali :(

- flew to Washington from Cali

- flew to Detroit for about 4-5 hrs

- flew for 10 hours straight to Brazil

- we talk with everyone here and we go on buses and stand in the front and talk to the whole bus all at one time! its way cool! people here are way more open and more nice than Californians aha the lord has prepared people here a lot! 

- the weather is great! its raining right now but it rains a little almost everyday! its always overcast since ive been here and it is like 25 degrees Celsius but it ist cold at all! its very very humid! 

- its not a clean place at all and dogs just roam the street and poop where ever they would like and so its important to watch where you walk!  

- we walk all over the place! the church is about a 45 minute walk from our aptmnt 

- we have a fairly nice apt! its on the second floor above a grocery store so we dont have to worry about running out of food! haha. 

- lunch is the main meal so we eat a bigger lunch and then we work the rest of the day. we dont have dinner breaks at all so sometimes i get  hungry but i dont notice until we are home and i see food and im like man im kinda hungry haha. we are very focused on what we do.

- church was good! it was wierd to not understand the things people were saying but to still feel the spirit! it was good!:) 

- there is a lot of english here! the people love americano music so all the songs they listen to i can sing along to haha its funny because they dont know what it says they just like listening to it! sometimes its a bad song but they dont know it they just like the beat haha. all their clothes have english writen on them and they have no idea what it says. haha and a lot of signs have english as well as Portuguese!  

- the food is a pretty similar to normal except the fruit is a lot bigger and tastes a lot better and they really know how to make rice! 

- the houses are all wild colors and they are all inside gates so instead of knocking on a door we stand outside and clap and they cometo the the gate! 

- the work is really moving on here! people here a lot more sincere than in cali, if they say you can come back, theyll let you in and really be interested and want to know more but if they dont want to hear it they just say no, they usually dont make excuses of why we shouldnt come back.

- we have already put 3 people on date since i have been here! its great! :) people want to know the truth!!! 

- president is awesome and hilarious! when all the new missionaries arrived we all prayed and he made us all hold hands and then he started to pray to joseph smith!!!! hahah its was funny we all looked up and around at each other and then president just started laughing!! hahha it really was funny! he is really spiritual though! and he has high expectations of us! by the time we go home we have to know 3 languages. we know our regular language and our mission language and then for me i will have to know spanish also.. so pray ill have the gift of tongues!!!

- my companion is from Uruguay and studied to be a english teacher so she knows English very well and helps me a lot! she only speaks in English a little when i cant figure it out after she has explained in Portuguese and weve played charades though haha. shes 24 and a convert to the church she was baptized when she was 20 and she is amazing!!!!!! 

- its hard and not everyone is as nice as most but its totally worth it!! my testimony is growing simplifying in Portuguese ahah  i know this is the true church Christ established when he was here and i know that it is so important to read the scriptures every day and pray and become mor like Him! i love you all !!!!