Transfer News Tonight

Dear Family,

Thank you all for you emails, letters, and support. Tonight we will get the call with the transfer news. I honestly am not sure what is going to happen. This past week went pretty well. We taught some good lessons and found some great people. I have learned a lot this transfer from Elder Heiner about missionary work and about how to measure success. I am really grateful for the opportunity that I have had to serve in this ward. I feel like I have developed a lot of friendships with the members and have learned a lot from them. As far as news this week, there isn´t a whole lot. There is a super nice gym close to our house that we have always wanted to go to but it is really expensive. But we found out that they will let you do a free trial day so this morning we went to the them and got a great workout in. It was awesome. Later today we will start making some visits to some families to say goodbye to them just in case I get transferred. It is kind of a sad thought that I might be leaving Vila Galvão but I´m definitely ready for a change. That´s about all I have as far as news goes! Hope that everyone is well at home!

 

-Elder Caleb Anderson

2/18/13 Update

Dear Family,

Thank you all for your emails, letters, and support. This week went by quickly and I don´t have a whole lot to report. I think my time here in Vila Galvão might be almost finished. I have been here for about 6 months now and transfers are next week. So we will see what happens next week. Vila Galvão has been a great ward and I love the members here but after 6 months in an area I am about ready to try something new. I have seen the ward grow and change a lot and it has been really awesome to get to know all of the members. I feel like I kind of grew up in this ward and that it is time to move out soon. Elder Heiner is a great Elder and I am sure that he will keeps things moving here in the area. He is a really hard worker and I have already learned a lot from him. So far in this transfer with Elder Heiner I have learned a lot about planning, hard work, and my portuguese has a really improved. I have also learned a lot of about how to measure success inwardly instead of measuring my success as a missionary by comparing myself to what other missionaries are doing.

That´s all I´ve got for this week! I hope everything is going good for all of you!

 

Love,

Elder Caleb Anderson

Dear Family,

This week Carnival started. I believe it started on Thursday. It is still going on right now though and so the Lan House (internet cafe) that we usually do email at is closed. So I am using the laptop of a member and this email will probably be relatively short because Elder Heiner is waiting to do email as well. Carnival is really the Devil´s party. It gave us a really hard week because people usually like to travel for the holiday´s. We had three baptisms set up this week but all the three of them fell through because they all travelled. This week we worked really hard and did everything we good but our numbers just didn´t show it. However we did find a lot of new people and are excited for this coming week. Carnival is kind of a weird party and we have seen a couple strange things on the streets but for the most part the biggest effect that Carnival has had on us is just that all of our investigators traveled. At church on Sunday we usually have about 120 members there and this week I think we had about 40. It was pretty crazy. However we still got to teach some good lessons. One of my favorite lessons this week was a lesson that we taught to Senhor João (John). We found him by contacting him on the street. He looks like he is in about his high 60s and we talked to him a little bit on the street and found out that his wife who he had been happily married to for 40 years died about a year ago. We asked him if we could come by his house some time and share a message about what we believe about life after death. He accepted and the next day we went by his house to teach him. We started asking him about his beliefs in God and what he thinks happens after death. He told us that he says his prayers every night and ever morning but at this point he just doesn´t know if God exists and he is begginning to think that death is the end. We asked him how he was feeling and he said he misses his wife a lot but thinks that death is the end. We testified to him that death is not the end. We told him that God is his Father and knows that pain that he is going through, for this reason he sent us his house. We testified that his wife is still alive and is in a better place waiting for him. That through the Gospel of Jesus Christ he can be with him wife forever. Tears filled his eyes and he asked us if this was really true. I testified with everything that I had that it was true. I was really happy after this lesson and know that we taught Senhor João that lesson for a reason. I don´t know if he will get baptized or not but I at hope that we brought a little more peace to his life through the Gospel.

That´s all I´ve got time for this week!

 

Love,

Elder Caleb Anderson

Week of Hard Work

Dear Family,

This week was full of hard work as we were trying to prepare our investigators for baptism. We worked really hard this week unfortunately our numbers this week didn´t really reflect the effort we put in. However this coming week looks promising. I am learning more and more about how to work effectively and am improving my portuguese, teaching skills, and finding techniques. I am enjoying being companions with Elder Heiner. The guy is awesome and I am learning a lot from him. After being in this ward for about 5 months it is starting to feel like home. I feel like I know pretty much everyone in the ward.  However on Sunday I did see a couple things that were new to me. I saw a baby blessing given to a kid that was about 5 or 6 years old. Also the opening prayer in Sacrament meeting was given by a girl that who is about 4 years old. At first it struck me as a little bit strange but after I thought about it a while I started to think it was actually a pretty cool. I am still getting Portuguese lessons from Marcelo every week. Except now we are focusing less on Portuguese and more on teaching skills. My studies for the next few weeks will be centered around improving my teaching. I am going to continue studying portuguese but now I feel like I have a pretty good grip on the language and can spend my time planning lessons for my investigators.

Have you received any instructions concerning Carnival? No President Ferrin has not said anything about Carnival to us. I believe it starts this week but I am not sure which day. I have heard that Carnival is not as big here in São Paulo as it is in some other parts of Brazil like the Northeast or Rio de Janeiro. Up there I wouldn´t be surprised if the missionaries were shut in the apartments during Carnival. But here I think work will continue on just like normal. A lot of people will go on vacations. In Brazil the ´´youth conference´´ is always on the week of Carnival and all the youth leave the city and go camping for the week. I think here in Guarulhos there probably won´t be any huge parades but I´m not sure. I think in the center of São Paulo you would probably find a little more of that.

That´s all for this week! Thank you all for your support through your emails and letters!

 

-Elder Caleb Anderson