Dear Family,

This week was good. We are teaching some great investigators and we had the baptism of Iago yesterday. It was a really good and the Spirit was very strong at the service. We are teaching a lot of really good people but sometimes struggle with getting them to church. Yesterday was especially difficult because the Corinthians (my soccer team) were playing for the world championship and won!! The game started at 8:15 A.M. and church starts at 9... We new it was going to be rough when we woke up to a bunch of loud fireworks at 6:20 A.M.. There were pretty much constant fireworks going on after that for the rest of the day. We walked to church and lots of people were in the streets with Corinthians flags shouting. It really wasn´t the best time for me because the Corinthians were playing Chelsea (a team from London) for the world championship and all the fanatics in the street thought that I was from England haha. As a matter of fact Elder Bangerter got shouted at a few times by Corinthians fans telling us to go back to England hahahaha. The Corinthians ended up winning 1x0 and when they scored their goal the whole city erupted in cheers and fireworks. It was crazy. We were all in church when the game ended and the whole church building was shaking because of all the noise and the fireworks that were being set off outside. It was nuts. Other than that I don´t have a whole lot of news for this week. We are preparing for Christmas and getting all of our plans set up. I can´t remember if I wrote this in the last email but Elder Bangerter and I bought a little plastic Christmas Tree and decorated it and are planning on putting our packages under it to open on Christmas day. It is no taller than a foot and a half but we decorated it and its pretty funny to look at. We also have our mission Christmas celebration on wednesday and we are doing a white elephant gift exchange with the whole mission so that should be fun.

The work in in Vila Galvão continues to progress as God continues to put people in our path who are ready for the Gospel. I am always amazed at the trust that God has in us every time he puts someone in our path for us to teach. We are having a lot of success and I am really seeing the hand of the Lord in the work. The ward is growing stronger and our recent converts are progressing. A few have already received the priesthood and they are all strengthening their testimonies little by little. It is really awesome for me to see them in church on Sundays. I think for me seeing them at church every Sunday and seeing them answering questions in class or receiving the priesthood is even better than seeing them in the baptismal font.

That´s all I have for this week! I hope everyone is doing well back home and everyone is feeling the Spirit of Christmas!!

 

Hope everything is going well for you guys and thanks a lot for the emails and packages!

Love,

Elder Caleb Anderson