Big Weekend Ahead!

So who is ready for a big ahead at the Anderson homestead?  I hope you all are!  This past week was really different as far as all my weeks have gone on the mission.  I have learned a lot and hope that this next week will be good for you all and me.  

Last Monday, we recieved a lot of information primarily on our Zone Conference down in Aldeota.  It was really different as far as working.  Elder Boehm has been sick this week so the work was a little slow.  We have still been working with Paulo Henrique and Tiago, two boys that are 18 and 16.  They still seem pretty interested in the church so every lesson counts with them.  They really wanted me to speak english to them this week.  Just say a few phrases or teach a few things.  I decided to try it out.  It was suprisingly difficult.  

Especially when they chose me to give the prayer to end things, they wanted it in english.  I realized that for the last 6 months I have been praying in Portugues so that was definatly a struggle. It was half portugues half english which was way different haha.  

The music class that I am teaching is going really well.  This week I figured out that people I am teaching didn´t know the notes as well as they played it off.  I said on Tuesday that if they could memorize both staff´s of notes in the 30 minutes that I gave that I would tell them my first name.  There has been a big scuff in the ward with the members and me.  The really want to know my name but I never say it.  So I gave them the ultimatum.  After the half hour, the students had the notes down so I finally ended up saying my name.  Made it 4 months!  Man! 

Like I said early, there was a lot of trips back and forth to Aldeota.  1 hour bus ride so I have been accustomed to standing and holding on for dear life.  Thursday was our Zone Conference in which President and Sister Souza gave excellent talks.  There were a lot of missionaries, a lot of food and a lot of missionaries coming out with a better attitude toward our new president.  It was really cool because I was understanding everything that was going on.  Didn´t have to guess or ask a bunch of questions.  

We had a baptism on Sunday.  Gelson, an 11 year old who is cousins with Marcelo a young kid we baptized in July.  

There have been a lot of mixed feelings this week but especially because I recieved the wedding invitation.  I have sitting up on my desk to look at two shanagans finally tieing the knot.  I guess this is the part where I have to end this but I just wanted to say that I will be thinking about you all this week.  Hope everything goes well and that you take lots of pictures.  Especially with this card board cut out of me :)  It is definatly a sacrifice but I am very happy to be here.  Love you all.  Have a good week! 

Tchau!

Elder N. Anderson 

I wake up thinking in Portugues!

Dear Friends and Family!  

  How is everyone doing this week!  I woke up this morning thinking in Portugues which was super weird to me.  I was thinking about church yesterday but it was all in Portugues so I grabbed my book that I have been reading (Marvalous Work and Wonder)  started to read it because I was confusing myself.  Elder Boehm and I started off a little rocky.  It was a little difficult trying to communicate and make it all work but as the week progressed it got a lot better and I could see the dramatic improvement.  He has been teaching me a lot about the south of Brazil and it is pretty cool see the similarities and difference with the US.  

  As every new missionary, he wanted to learn the area alot so I was showing him around through out appointments.  We stopped by a lot the ward leadership houses and members.   It was a little funny because I was trying to think of where everyone had lived.  I was basically playing Senior comp for the first few days.  He has a funny personality and I think this transfer with be a ``learning experience``.  It was a little difficult speaking about regular things but when teaching lessons we were defiantly speaking the same language.  I could tell my teaching has improved a lot and even Elder Boehm was confused of how many months I had on the mission (6 month mark is coming up, YEAH!)  We taught a lot of new investigators this week and have been working with all of the old ones E. Birdsall and I were working with. Most of our news are around 16-19 years old so it is cool to talk with them and relate to them a little bit better.  Elder Boehm is 23 so he feels like an old man.  We had 6 at church yesterday which was really awesome.

  I have become the only piano player in the ward and I am the only piano teacher.  I teach the music class every tuesday night and Saturday afternoon.  It is going well there is still a lot of people that show up and I have been getting a lot of help from them with trying to explain things to them.  Everyone seems like they really want to learn to play so it keeps me going with teaching them.  

  On Friday, we went into Aldeota for most of the day.  Elder Boehm has had some medical problems so we had to go to the ho

spital for him to do some tests.  It went well and I had the chance to talk with a few missionary friends.  One of them just became the Sec. of Finances for the mission and he has only bit out as long as I have.  Strange to think that people from my group are starting to get leadership spots.  

We celebrated a ward members birthday on Saturday which was really fun.  I have perfected the ``Happy Birthday song``, brazilian version so it is fun to sing that now at all the birthday parties.  

 This week was busy but it is what keeps my mind focused and my feet going.  I`m thinking the Dr. Schoels might be in order, because I woke up this week every night with huge cramps in my feet.  I am starting to feel a lot more confident with speaking and the whole principal of learning something from all your companions is really true.  I love you all and I am grateful to be here! Hope your all doing well. 

Love,

Elder N. Anderson 

Transfer Week!

Dear Family!

  Well we recieved the call on Saturday morning and I will be spending another transfer (6 weeks) in Ipanema.  Elder Birdsall unfortunalty will be serving in another area.  He was pretty sad about it because he passed 6 months here.  But I guess its all apart of the mission.  I am now serving with Elder Boehm.  He is a BRAZILIAN who speaks very little English.  It will definatly be a change for sure.  After coming back from the transfer I really started to realize that because I can't asked my questions in english anymore.  So I guess its just going to be speaking it 100% from here on out.  I'm excited though.   

  We had the baptism of Gabriel this week. I am pretty sure I have explained the story on him before so it was nice to finally see him so excited.  This week was pretty busy for the most part.  When we finally got everything ready for the baptism we realized the font wasn't clean.  Saturday morning we went over to go see what it looked like and unfortunatly we realized that we left the water in it from last month.  There was all sorts of creatures in there..YUMMY!  We spent about 2 hours cleaning.   The piano class that we are teaching is going really well lots of people show up which makes it really nice.  I think I might be teaching it be myself now though so it will be interesting.  Elder Birdsall and I gave talks on Sunday.  Trying to excite the Ward about the work and see if there could be anything done to help us out.  During our talks we talked about references and during Elder Birdsall's he spoke about inspiration and we had two young men pass out these little slips of paper to the congregation.  After the meeting we recieved 25 references so hopefully this will keep me busy with my new comp.  On thursday after lunch we were walking home and off the side of the road someone dropped a bunch of scrabs  of fabric.  I told E. Birdsall that I wanted to get some and told him that I would make a tie out of it.  After getting started I said I would make it before Monday(Today).  We had a little competion because E. Birdsall was doubting me.  So all weekend, during my free time (Morning and Night) I hand stichted a tie.  Yes, everyone I did finish it last night and E. Birdsall was amazed.  I wore it today to the transfer.  It was pretty funny.  I call it my ''Brazilian Trash Tie''.  

  It will be an interesting week as we start the new transfer and all but I am definatly excited for the challenge.  It will be different especially since I will be speaking portugues 100%.  I will keep you up dated for sure next week.  But that is all I have time for today.  Love you all!  Thanks for the updates.  Tem Semana Boa!  Tchau!

Love,

Elder N. Anderson

8/8/11 Syrup Anyone?

Oi  Pessoas! Como estan? I espero muito bom! So I decided that the whole transistion of writing in portugues and then in english is actually really difficult now.  I just finished my letter to my President but I feel like my mind is still thinking portugues.  It is definatly one of those strange tricks my mind has been playing on me.  I speak english, my mind translates into another language or vise versa.  Smells like a fluent speaker is around the corner, Missy.  But I am still remaining humble. 

   So this week we were gearing up to baptize Gabriel.  He has been ready since Feburary but was waiting for the Green light from his Dad.  I think I explained it last week but we finally got last sunday and the date was set for Saturday.  We planned to meet with him every other day and make sure it was all good.  After his invertview on Friday, with our district leader he let us know that his uncle who would baptize him wasn´t going to be able to make it.  So the baptism is scheduled for next week.  We had an interesting week of visiting of let of people and trying to just stay on top of our schedule.  I have been teaching a lot more of the lessons this week because I wanted to really see what I knew.  I suprised myself everytime.  Especially if I said something that someone didn´t understand I just had to take it and rephrase it.  I had the chance to really prove my language this week on Thursday while working with a Brazilian.  On Tuesday after district meeting, E. Birdsall got new that he had a meeting in Aldeota on Thursday and I would do a division with another missionary working in our area.  I basically had to become senior over night.  I was a little nervous because I would have to lead comp study, talk with the members, basically go from a 3 to an 8 on a scale of one to 10.  It was nerveracking at first especially since the Brazilian just got here in July and didn´t have a lot of experience.  We spent the whole day together contacting recent references, teaching lessons, lunch appointment, riding the bus and so forth.  It was strange for me because I felt like I was the one be followed and not doing the following.  By the end of the day, I speaking pretty well and even picked up the accent that E. Raffati had   (Porto Allegren).  I really like it being able to speak portugues for most of the day and being able to teach a lot as well.  There is a young man in the ward that has been getting ready for his mission in Belo Horz.  He will be leaving this week and it seemed like we were invited to all his going away gatherings.  Of coarse this consisted of lots of food so I wasn´t complaining.  It was really fun going to his farewell party and talking with a lot of people that had different stories about him. 

  On Saturday we woke up to a phonecall that lunch had fallen through. So we decided we would make french toast and Homemade syrup.  For about 2  hours we were on the hunt for Vanilla.  Just to find a tiny bottle for about 4 reals.  It was insane but we needed to get it.  1 cup of Water 2 cups of Sugar and  table spoon of Vanilla.  It was a little watery but when there is no syrup to be found you make what you can´t have.  Anyone have any ideas for peanunt butter?  We also started our music class on Saturday.  There are many members that want to learn how to play the piano or just read music so we decided to teach a class every Saturday and Tuesday.  It turned out well and even our bishop showed up to learn.  After whiping the dust of my fingers from not playing for a few months I got right back into it this  weekend, teaching the keyboard and so on. 

   There hasn´t been to many major things happening these last few weeks so I am sorry I don´t have pictures again. But I´ll try for next week.  Thanks for all the support everyone.  This is the last week of the transfer and there is a high probability that E. Birdsall will be leaving so next week I might be emailing with my brazilian companion sitting next to me  :) Keep an Eye single to the glory of God and remember his hand in all things. Have a good week everyone! Love you!

Te Amo

Elder N. Anderson

8/1/11 45 Minutes of Sleep and Continue to Work

Well Family and Friends, e ei?  Como estan voces?  I´ll be honest in saying that this was one of the most interesting weeks so far.  I believe it was week 21? or something.  However, 5 months have been touched today! OPPPA! 

  

We were trying to have a crazy week of teaching. That is actually what I wrote in my planner last week during weekly planning. We wanted to teach with members every day and really put a dent in the numbers for this area.  However, everyday our members called us and said that they weren´t able to meet with so we were just a couple of Elders teaching as much as possible.  I think I may have heard every possible excuse from a most of our ´´new´´ investigators regarding teaching.  Someone even said that they were to busy with watching for their lottery numbers! Goodness! Brazilians :)  You all know that feeling when your on a rollercoaster and your stomach drops well I had that feeling this week when I walked into district meeting.  I walked in only to see Presidente Souza standing there.  I think I was only nervous because I was caught off guard.  Don´t get me wrong, he is super nice and has a lot of advice but it is just scary when your not expecting a visit from him. We had a lot of references this week which was truly a blessing.   Including one that was way on that other side of area. Elder Birdsall and I walked about 45 minutes to find him not home.  Boo! So we started the long journey back.  Unfortunatley not everyone has phones so somtimes its difficult to know if someone is home or not.  

   

On Tuesday we recieved a phone call from the Mission Office that Elder Birdsall would need to renew his visa this week so we would stay the night in Aldeota.  Elder Birdsall was pretter excited to see a lot of Elders from his group and catch up with them.  So Thursday, We packed our bags and took the bus around 8:00pm over to Aldeota.  The mission ´´home´´ is really close to the office so the bus ride in all is about an hour.  Of coarse like most places, Fortaleza is way different at night.  Many Many random people walking to the street or standing holding their hands up (if you know what I mean) and it was a very interesting bus ride.  Sometimes I think these bus drivers learned to drive a Honda Civic or some some car and then started driving buses.  Anyways, when we walked into the apartment there was about 20 missionaries in total staying the night.  Half brazilian half American.  The funny thing is that apartment only had about 14 mattresses.  Yes,  if you do the math, 14 and 20 do not line up.  In short,  I ended up sleeping on the hard wood floor along with my companion and a few other Americans.  It was one of those experiences in which you say ´´Only on the Mission´´  I´m pretty sure I only got about 45 minutes of sleep the entire night.  Waking up every hour, turning over, wiping the sweat off my face and so on.  It was an interesting night to say the least but when Elder Birdsall and I got home, a one hour nap was in order and then it was back to work.  I was pretty beat all weekend.  I did however enjoy a nice Double Whopper from BURGER KING for lunch!  Holy COW!  I never realized how delicious that can be.  I talked with alot of missionaries that morning while Elder Birdsall went to the federal police.  Two of them are returning home early because of a broken foot and the other with a sickness in his stomach.  It was fun hearing all the stories of all the different areas.  

   

On Saturday we particpated in the ´´Mâos que ajudam´´  which translated into Helping hands.  Yes, we did get to wear the famous yellow vests.  We had to go around to a lot of people around the neighborhood and talk about Dengue awarness.  It was a good oppurtunity for us to recieve a lot of references and meet a lot more people. I also discovered the ward recieve a PIANO! this week.  I was really excited and so was the ward when they discovered that I could play. I am pretty sure I have an unofficial calling of ´´Pianist´´ now.  Last night we taught abunch of lessons trying to catch back up with our goals and had a really good experience with an investigator.  He is 15 and has been going to church since Jan.  He wanted to get baptized in Feb.  but his dad wouldn´t let him.  We wanted to meet with his dad and talk to him about letting his son get baptized.  It was an interesting conversation as well as eventful.  He yelled a little bit and there was some portugues words that I had never heard but it all turned out that Gabriel will be getting baptized this Saturday!  YEAH!  We came out of the house give eachother ´´knucks´´  :)   

   

I discovered that many people say that they would ´´die for Christ´´  when ever we meet them.  Many people have this idea.  But I realized that we shouldn´t ´´die for him´´ but rather ´´Live for Him´´.  He set the example and is the way.  If you accept him then live like you know he would want you to live.  

   Love you all!  Minimal sleep really affects the work but I feel well rested after today.  Hope you all have a good week at Lake Shasta! Just remember that that Lake knows me a lot better than a lot of people :)  I love you!  

Tchau!

Elder N. Anderso

7/25/11 Boa Semana!

Caro Familia e Amigos! Bom Dia!  Como estan!?  Tuda Bem?

This was a very interesting week to say the least.  It started good and ended really wierd. 

In the beginning:

We started teaching a 27 year women this week named Nete (Thats Ne-Ch) she is really ´´gun hoe´´ about religion and is looking for the right one.  She was luckily a reference from a member that is in our ward.  She has a little daughter named Emily who is 6 years old and of coarse likes to mess with the Elder that is still learning portugues.  On Monday, we gave her the first lesson and in return she gave us cake, juice, and a bus money home.  She lives on the other side of our area and refused to let us walk home.  We tried explaning that the bus would take longer and that walking was faster, she said no.  We tried explaning that we had no money, she said take this.  We tried explaining that we needed to go to another appointment and she walked us to the bus stop. So instead of taking a short 20 minute walk home we ended up walking 30 minutes at the bus stop and then all in all it took about an hour and a half to get home.  We recieved a phone call that night about interviews with the new president, President Souza happening on Wednesday.  So lets fastforward.  I woke up shaking in my pants because I was so nervous for my interview from what we heard, he speaks no english at all.  So as we took our hour bus ride into Aldeota I was running over vocab in my head over and over. ´´You have nice shoes President´´  ´´How do you like the weather?´´ etc.   When we got to the office, I was greeted by a tall man giving me a hug and of coarse speaking no english.  President Souza as well as his spouse seem very nice.  I guess I was nervous for nothing.  Our zone was all together and he called us in one by one.  Luckily when he called me in, I had stopped sweating.  I suprising understood everything he said.  I presented my study journal, planner and area book all in portugues! WHOOP!!   I came out pretty confident and even asked him if we could make a little detour into centro (Large shopping place) on the way back so I could get a pull-up bar.  He said of coarse :)

  We have been concentrating on finding new people to teach.  A few investigators fell through this week and decided that it wasn´t really for them.  We met this interesting 80 year man named Pedro who had alot of questions.  Including asking us if we needed financial help at all.  He said he was willing to support us in anyway.  I couldn´t help but laugh a little when he was talking.  I also started to learn how to talk about family history and show my family tree to a few recent converts.  Thanks Grandpa McCune! Elder Birdsall and I are rapping up our traing with watching ´´The District´´.  It is part of the Preach My Gospel training now. ´´´The District´´ is 3, 45-minute videos of Missionaries serving in San Diego.  It is kinda like reality tv for missionaries,  (comparable to the Real World).  We had a good time watching those even though I had watched them at school, before entering the MTC, in the MTC and now here. 

  I guess the way we ended the week is here!  Elder Birdsall was feeling pretty sick this week with back pains and head aches.  We held out till Friday to call sister Souza and she said she would make some calls.  We came home on Friday with a phone call from São Paulo, the area medical doctor down there.  When we talked to him, he described what he thought was going on.  Elder Birdsall appreantly has a virus attacking his brain causing brain inflamtion.  Sounds pretty intense I know!  Turns out that we needed to stay home all weekend and Elder Birdsall had to rest up.  So all day Saturday and Sunday we stayed in, besides going to church.  Yes,  I was suffering from cabin fever like crazy! I wrote letters, I cleaned, I read, I studied, I cleaned, I danced in the kitchen.  I did all that I could but literally felt like I was going insane haha! A few of the members stopped by and brought food so it was really nice.  I also suprised myself by talking on the phone to alot of people who kept calling.  My portugues seemed like it progressed alot.  Especially at church when EVERYONE thought I was sick. 

  I am doing fine and truly loving the work and the experiences.  It is a way different life style but I enjoy it every single day.  Love you you all! Ate Semana que Vem!

Te Amo,

Elder N. Anderson

http://eldernickinbrazil.blogspot.com/

7/11/11 Boa Tarde!

Good Afternoon All!   

We finished that last week of the Transfer this last week.  Saturday night we got the phone call that Elder Birdsall and I will be together for another Transfer. I almost positive that I will be here through my 6 month mark, but Tuda Bem! I really like this area alot, I guess I don't have a whole lot to compare it too, but I am really loving it out here.  

  So this last week seemed like we were running all over the place just trying to visit everyone.  We work in 3 barros (neighborhoods) Which have a 15-20minute walk to each.  Its interesting how fast our little legs can move when we have an appointment at one end of the area and the next at the other end.  We have been making alot of progress with that family that I talked about a couple weeks ago, the one with 7 kids! We are gearing up to baptize them this transfer.  The have no problems with the church and feel comfortable with us teaching them.  They even went to go by church clothes last week so that they can be ´´prepared´´ for this coming Sunday.  We have been teaching this little boy named Marcelo the last couple weeks and he told us that he wants to get baptized this coming weekend.  He is 11, so we are very excited for him.  The main focus was going through our area book this week.  Finding people that have had a few lessons but did not progress as fast as other Elders and Sisters would have liked.  It amazing how these people are now ready to be taught.  We found a young guy that had been wondering if missionaries would ever come back, because he feels ready now for the Gospel.  When we were teaching him, he stopped in the middle of his sentence, looked right at me and says, Elder Anderson I think I have met you before.  I had this weird look on my face according to my Comp. All I said was I don´t think so, I have only been here for 2 months. He said No,  I really do think I have met you.  Not sure entirely, if we have met but I we felt like it was alot different after he said that.  Kind of like I was talking to a friend more than an Investigator.  

  

  One of the Highlights this week has to do with Nike! After lunch we were walking home and this guy road up on his motorcycle.  He started off by saying that He had a few questions and it finally got to the point that he was a inactive member that had been trying to get back to church for awhile.  Turns out that one day he saw walking past his house one our way to get haircuts and he saw my Nike shoes and Shorts and according to him that was the ice breaker.  We ended up going to his house for a little bit just getting to know him and he said when he saw that I was wearing Nike he knew that we were good guys.  So for all those of you that made fun of me for having a bunch of shoes! They finally came in handy!  

I have officially become ´´Elder N. Anderson´´ out here in the Brazil Fortaleza Mission.  There are of course two Elder Anderson's and because I got here second I had to change my name.  So with a new name tag that arrived last week.  This is now coming from Elder N. Anderson.  I have begun wearing that tag though because there is a game going around with some of the members trying to guess my first name.  The weather wasn´t completely hot the entire week.  The was a couple nights with some Storms so it cooled off a little.  When I say cool I mean it was just windy and still 85 degrees.  We ended the week on Saturday night with Festa Junina.  Which is a big party they have every year around this time.  I reminded me alot of the rose festival back in Portland so I guess thats a good thing to compare it to.  It was a fantastic week to say the least.  Nothing is like this work.  It changes my life's perspective. I love it, everyday is new adventure and everyday is another day that I am excited to be a missionary.  

 Have a good week all! I love you! Tuda Bem!

Love, Elder N. Anderson 

Pictures

Zona Litoral 

My Mininos

Just two Elders Keeping the rules

Cicero, Elder Birdsall, Diego, Edwardo, Me

´´Thou shalt not commit adultery´´ For those of you who have seen The Best Two Years.