First week in Taubaté

Dear Family,

Thank you for your prayers, letters, and support.  This week was a great week.  We had the baptism of a man named Wellington.  He was super awesome.  Last week he showed up at church all alone and so we scheduled an appointment with him.  On the very first appointment he accepted baptism.  We taught him every single night this last week and he kept telling us ´´all this that you are teaching me just seems really familiar.  Like I´ve heard it already somewhere´´.  That´s called the pre-existance!!  Teaching him was awesome and it was great to see him take the step of baptism.  I am getting used to the new ward and the new responsibilities that I have, so far I have learned a lot.  This ward is really awesome.  The members are great.  My testimony has been strengthened and I know that God is willing to give us revelation if we will just ask for it.  

This past week we were trying everything possible to acheive a zone goal for baptisms.  We were working as hard as possible but towards the end of the week it became clear that we just weren´t going to get our goal.  On Thursday night the other three missionaries that live in the house and I stayed up talking and trying to think of anything we could do to reach our goal.  In desperation my companion said ´´And the eternals??´´.  An eternal investigator is an investigator that many missionaries have taught for a long time but no one has been able to baptize them.  We thought about one man who´s entire family are members of the church and he comes to church every once in a while, but doesn´t want to get baptized.  In fact he used to be a leader of another church and knows the Bible really well.  We decided to try and mark an appointment with him to teach him and baptize him.  On Friday we scheduled to teach him at 7:00 at the church.  Elder Cherry and I got to the church early at about 6:30 (we were on a division that day, Elder Cherry is one of the other Elders that lives in the house with me).  We went into one of the rooms at the church and decided to make a lesson plan.  We said a prayer together and then individually we both started studying.  The idea came into my head to study the conversion of Paul.  So I turned to Acts 9 and started studying.  After about 10 minutes of study I looked at Elder Cherry and guess what chapter he was on??  Acts 9.  I asked him why he decided to study that chapter and he said, ´´I just felt like studying it´´.  We took it as a sign and developed a lesson plan around the story of Paul.  Around 7 Edson (the eternal investigator) showed up, I had never met him before.  We invited him and his wife into one of the rooms in the church and talked for a little while.  We said the first prayer and right after the prayer the words ´´Edson what are you waiting on to be baptized?´´ splurted out of my mouth.  He said ´´Elders it is simple.  Are you two familiar with the conversion of Paul?´´.  I was speechless haha.  Elder Cherry and I looked at each other and then explained to him about how half an hour ealier we had recieved revelation that we should teach him about Paul.  We gave him the lesson that we had prepared and he was thinking about it a lot.  It definitely threw him off.  In the end he told us he still didn´t think that now is the time and we finished the lesson.  However we are not going to give up yet!!  This week we are going to try and talk to him again.  Even though he didn´t accept the baptismal invitation it was still a lesson to me that revelation is real and God is willing to send it to us if we just ask for it.  I know that for some reason we were meant to teach him that lesson.  Everyone pray for him so that his heart can be softened and that next time we go back he will accept the baptismal invitation!!

 

Love you all and hope you are all well!

-Elder Caleb Anderson

Taubaté!!

Dear Family,

This week I got transferred to Taubaté!!  It was pretty crazy and I wasn´t really expecting to get transferred here but so far I am really liking the area.  Taubaté is in the zone Guaratinguetá which is the farthest zone away from the city.  After spending the first half of my mission in the city I got transferred to the country haha.  It is really weird to be here in the country after being so close to the center of São Paulo.  To get here I had to take a 3 hour bus ride and we passed a ton of fields with horses and cows and stuff haha. This is the farthest zone away from the office and the areas here are a lot bigger than the other areas that I´ve passed through.  I am really liking it here though. It kind of reminds me of a small town in Texas.  It is a lot calmer and quieter here than the other areas that I´ve been through.  The ward is a good sized ward and the members seem really great.  There is also a set of sisters in the ward so every day we have our lunch appointments with the sisters.  My new companion is Elder Caetano he is a Brazilian from Pernambuco which is the same place that Elder Ciriaco was from.  He is really awesome.  Elder Caetano and I are the zone leaders of Guaratinguetá.  This zone historically has the reputation of being the hardest zone in the mission.  However I don´t think that it´s as hard as people say it is and i´m sure that the zone is going to have a lot of success.  Being a zone leader is a lot like being a District Leader just that when I was a District Leader I was responsible for the success of my area and the other 2 areas in my district.  Every night I would call up the other areas in the district to see how things were going and to try and help them have success.  Now as a zone leader Elder Caetano and I are responsible for the success of our area and all the other 8 areas in the zone.  So every night we call up the district leaders in the zone and try to help them.  And every night the assistants to the President call us up to see how things are going.  The missionary who was here in this area before me as the zone leader was Elder Bangerter.  While he was the zone leader the zone had a lot of success and now he is one of the assistants to the president!  And President sent me here to take his spot as zone leader.  It is kind of an intimidating idea to take his spot as zone leader of one of the hardest zones in the mission but I am sure with the Lord´s help we will be able to continue having success.  God doesn´t call the equipped he equips the called!

 

Love you all and hope you are well!!

-Elder Caleb Anderson 

Transfer Day Again

Dear Family,

This week was a pretty good week.  It started out with a temple trip on Tuesday.  We went to the temple in São Paulo on Tuesday morning and it was really great.  It was the second time that I went to the temple since got into the field and it was really great to feel the special peace that exists in the temple.  Also on Thursday me and all the other americans that arrived with me all took a field trip to the police station to renew our visas.  It was weird to think that I´ve been in Brazil for over a year already.  Other than that this week was a pretty normal week.  Tomorrow is transfer day so tonight we will get the call telling us if one of us is going to get transferred.  So we´ll see what happens!

 

Love you all and hope that you have a great week.

-Elder Anderson

Temple This Week!

Dear Family,

This week was a good week.  We are working hard and are being really blessed.  Yesterday we had the baptism of Talita.  She is the sister of Elida and Gabriel.  Both of which were baptized recently.  In fact yesterday was Talita´s baptism and was the first day that Gabriel passed the sacrament.  It was awesome.  Other than that this week was pretty uneventful.  It was a pretty normal week.  There was a dance at our church on Saturday night and Elder Bolognini and I went.  Don´t get worried though haha, we didn´t dance.  We just set up a table at the entrance door and got the names and addresses of all the non-members.  We got some really good references to teach this next week so we are pretty excited.  That´s about it for this week!

 

Love you all and thanks so much for the emails!

-Elder Anderson

Emergency Transfer?!?!

Dear Family,

This week was kind of a crazy week!  There was an emergency  transfer and Elder Bracken was transferred to a different zone in the mission called Itaquera.  I received a young Brazilian missionary named Elder Bolognini!  He´s from a state of Brazil called Espírito Santo which is right above Rio de Janeiro.  He is 19 and before the mission liked to do martial arts.  He studied 3 types of martial arts.  Right now he is teaching me a little bit of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.  It´s pretty awesome! haha.  The district is going super well.  Yesterday here in Vila Industrial we had two baptisms.  Lucas and Amanda, both are great people who were super excited about baptism.  They will be a great strength to the ward and to the church as a whole.  Things are really moving here in Vila Industrial.  It´s taken a while to get things going but now things are going great.  We are working well with the recent converts and less actives.  That´s about all I´ve got for this week!

 

Love you all and hope you are good!

-Elder Caleb Anderson