Ola! Boa Semana para Voces!

So if I could sum up this week I would say, Busy! Hands down the busiest I have ever had since coming to Fortaleza.  We had the goal to just keep working and working this week and thats what we did.  We taught 27 lessons and contacted nearly all of our new references.  It was pretty insane.  I think I came home every single night in a haze.  Just ready to take a shower and crawl into my bed or hammock, I bought one last week and have been using it reguarly.  It is definatly something to get used too :)

 

More recently, last night we had a fireside with the entire ward about missionary work.  We invited President and Sister Souza (Mission President) to come speak which was excellent.  I also had the oppurtunity to speak for the first 10 minutes which went well.  When I sat back down next to President he looked at me and said ´´I think you´ll be just fine with this language´´  It felt pretty good just being able to speak and not have to think too much on what I was trying to say.  Portugues is definatly a rock that I will be trying to lift these next two years but on the plus side I have a good grip for right now. 

 

I guess one of the reasons that I was so tired this week is that Elder Graff and I ran home 3 nights in a row.  We came out of a few of the lessons looking at our watches and seeing 9:05ish.  There was one side of area that takes about a 20-30 minute walk. One of the nights was especially funny when we started off walking fast and hoping that member would pass by and give us a ride.  Didn´t happen so I said ´´Elder you ready to run?´´ He that would be funny.  And then I just took off spirinting.  As we were running down the street I just kept hearing Elder Graff saying ´´I HATE YOU! I CAN´T BELIEVE I´M DOING THIS, I AM TOTALLY GOING TO WRITE ABOUT THIS IN MY JOURNAL!´´  I was running and laughing all in one.  I was all about being obiedient I guess.  We walked through the door right at 9:30 every night.  One of the many people that watched us run passed them said `´Robbed?´´ I said ´´No! Late!´´

 

I am liking this area alot. There are a lot of things to see and do.  Especially today,  I finally played BASKETBALL!. We only played for about 30 minutes because I felt like I was melting.  We are hoping to have a lot more success this week.  This will be week 6 of the transfer so that means this next saturday we will get the phone call to see if one of us will be leaving.  Elder Graff said I am going Assisent to the President, but jokingly! Hope your all doing well!

 

One thing that President said that was excellent last night to the members.  ´´We all have the same call to preach the gospel weather we have a badge or not.  Don´t put all the work on two 19 year-old boys´´  It was excellent so that goes for all of you!

Love you all, Have a good week!

 

Tchau!

Elder N. Anderson

I ATE A FISH HEAD

So this week was finally settling down as far as the crazyness, but then again life as a missionary is always crazy.  I have been started reading the New Testament and plan to finish that at my year mark.  It is one of my 6 month goals that I made for the next quarter of my mission as well as reading the Book of Mormon in Portguese and working up doing 50 pull-ups a day. For the record Missy I can do 10 :)

So where do I start...  Last Monday night our cell-phone had a melt down so this last week we have been sharing with the other Elders that live with us.  We figured that we had to contact one the seceretaries as soon as possible so Tuesday morning we woke up and ran to our Zone Leader´s house, so they could take the cellphone into the office.  I have haven´t ran in a while so it was pretty brutal.  When we got there, Our Zone Leader´s said that there was no need to run because we were having our District Meeting that day and that we would have had the chance to just give the cellphone there.  All that running for nothing ! haha 

It has been a week of contacting references for us.  We recieved 15 at church last week so this whole week it was contacting references and finding people that are ready to hear the gospel.  I also love teaching the first lesson because you can tell that people are so interested in what we have to say.  Especially, two americans that are speaking portugues and randomly show up at their door asking to come into their home.  Sometimes we have the best reactions, especially when they ask ´´So you have been in Brazil for a few years right!?`´ When I say 6 months they usually start saying ´´Nooo, your lieing, how do you know this language?´´ .  It is always interesting, but it opens up a good conversations of blessing from Heavenly Father. Wednesday we showed up at our lunch appointment, with the intent of eating really well.  Unfortunatley, the sister in our ward forgot but said she would make some really good for us.  When came out of the Kitchen I saw rice, beans, a fried egg, and a FISH HEAD!  I´m pretty sure that I screamed in the inside.  As we were saying a pray on the food I kept one eye open just making sure that it was  Fish head, Scanning it up and down and looking at its little mouth, which I´m pretty sure it was smiling at me.  I have never eaten fish head and hope that I never have to again.  The only thing I was saying in my head was ´´Your on a mission, your on a mission, your on a mission´´.  Wednesday, was also Brazilian Indepence day so that meant lots of people, lots of drinking, and lots of loud music the entire day.  It was crazy! Thursday I did another division with our district leader and his ´´trainee´´ I went to their area and was senior with his trainee.   It was interesting the area that they work in is really sketchy but we talked with a lot of people and last night when I was passing our numbers to our District Leader we said that the members of his ward really like me.  Also he said that a man who had been smoking for a while was following ´´Elder Anderson´s Way of giving up Smoking´´  haha it was something that I thought of really fast when we were teaching this man that he had to give up smoking. 

I guess the highlight of the week was running to church.  We had to get 5 ladies to church and they need a ride, so we went with the car to make sure it all went well.  When they got in the car, my comp and I looked at eachother and said that we would walk.  It was interesting when I looked at my watch and it was 8:50, church started at 9:00 and the chapel was about a 20 minute walk away.  We started out walking fast and then it turned into us spirinting down the street, hoping over a fence, and some random man pulling up in a car asking if we wanted a ride.  I guess he was watching us the entire time.  It was another one of those´´ Only on the Mission´´ experiences. 

I wake up to the airplanes every morning.  We literally live right next to the airport so it is a nice alarmclock in the morning.  My comp said this week, ´´hey elder, you know how far the airplane is?´´`I replied `´´How far?´´ His response ´´ 18 months´´.  I go to bed exhausted but feel really grateful for beeing here! I hope everyone is doing well! Love you all! Have a good week!

Love
Elder N. Anderson 

Hey Everyone, I got Transferred!

So this week was definatly crazy,  Not only was I thinking about the big wedding day but I was also in the middle of an Emergency Tranfer out of my area on Thursday.  Yes, I officially left Ipanema after 4 months.  The funny thing is I went in to that Area on an Emergency and came out on an Emergency.  Ironic neh?  So anyways this was my week. . .

 

I emailed President Souza on Monday explaining to him that Elder Boehm was continuing to be sick and it was starting to effect our work in that area.  I figured it was all apart of the mission so I was just sticking it out and hoping that it would get better.  We continued through out our week doing our normal routined stuff up until Wednesday afternoon.  It was interesting during those couple days but we recieved a phone call from Presidente Souza explaning that He thought it would be best for Elder Boehm to go to the office for the rest of the transfer.  I was a little confused at first because one, Presidente as using some words that I didn´t understand and two, I was freaking out inside.  We found out that it wasn´t for sure that I would be leaving. There has been a few tri´s in the mission (Companhionship of 3) and President wanted to figure those out.  So Wednesday we started to go say goodbye in the event that I would be leaving.  That night President called again and said that I would be leaving for sure on Thursday night so we had to make arrangments to leave.  We had to deap clean our apartment because Ipanema was officially being closed for the rest of the transfer.  All I can say is man! I hope I never have to close and area again!  After long goodbyes to a lot of the members and investigators we left Thursday night for Aldeota.  The car that all my stuff was in was packed with 6 suitcases and 4 people! I had suit cases on my lap for about 45 minutes and I am pretty sure my legs went number for 40 minutes.  After getting to Aldeota I met my new companion.  Elder Graff, From Alabama New Area - Expedicionários.  We arrived in the area that night and so everyone thats were I will be until further notice.  I honestly think I will be here through Christmas. 

 

Elder Graff has been out for about 14 months and we live in a house of 4 missionaries.  2 Brasileros and 2 Americanos.  It is a lot different but I am enjoing it.  One of the Brasilians was in the MTC with me at the same time so we were good friends before we even got to Fortaleza.  The area is HUGE! but it is super nice.  There are a lot of people to work with and right now our chapel is a ´´casapela´´ meaning it is not a chapel its a house made into a chapel.  They just divided this ward about 2 months ago and the new chapel is being built and should be done in November.  It is way different but I am liking it.  I was thinking that my language was going to slow down a lot, but it is actually that complete oppisite.  Even though I am with an American we still speak Portugues almost 100% of the time.  I have seen the improvement and it is nice being in a new area that don´t know that I am new from the beginning.  They talk to me like a regular person and yes, I am speaking really well now. 

 

Because I am in a new area this also means that I have to explain to people that I am not a brasilian! Everyone that I meet always starts with,  ´´So where you from?, São Paulo´´  They have the best reactions when I say ´´No, I am Americana.´´  It takes them a little while for them to believe me. 

 

This week was a highlighted one but I am glad to be here. We have a good member base and they are willing to help to us with anything.  Elder Graff is an awesome companion and we will be working our tails off in this area.  President Souza wants this area to grow like crazy so we have our work ahead of us.  I am excited for it all! 

 

Have a good week everyone!  I Love you! tchau

 

Elder N. Anderson

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