Tuesday, September 22, 2015

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!:) 

Sunday, September 13, 2015

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, 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 heaventhatthereby they may dwell with God in state of never ending happiness. 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!!

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

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!!!:)