Happy Easter!

Dear Family,

The transfers went smoothly once again, another miracle haha!  I am still here in the office and my companion is still Elder Pinheiro.  This week was awesome because my companion and I were able to baptize a man named Evanildo!!  It was really an awesome story.  He is the man that my companion and I found on the first day that we went to work in our area.  We grabbed the list of members which had ove 500 names on it and we picked a couple of families to try and visit.  We felt like we should visit them so we called them up and marked to pass by their house later that day.  When we tried to find their house we spent 20 minutes walking around searching and could not find it!  Finally we just sat on the curb and were ready to give up when the mother of the family showed up and led us to their house.  The mother´s name was Josefa, the son´s name was Wellingtom, and the father´s name was Evanildo.  Wellingtom and Josefa were both members of the church who go every week.  But even though they had been members for 18 years Evanildo had never been to church and had never met the missionaries.  So we taught him the first lesson and everything went perfectly.  We have been preparing him ever since but the preparation took a lot longer than usual because we could only work in our area 1 or 2 days a week.  But finally yesterday he was baptized and it was a really spiritual baptism.  I felt a strong Spirit as I saw the father being baptized, now the entire family is in the church and their next goal is to be sealed in the temple.  It made me really grateful for the family and I have and especially that everyone is a member of the church and that we are all sealed together.  Although this family is a different size than mine, lives in a different country, have a different culture and a very different style of life, they will be able to enjoy the same blessing of an eternal family if they stick to their goal of entering into the temple together.  Heavenly Father´s plan is all about famlies and as we share the gospel with others and see their progress, we develop more gratitude for their blessings that we have been given in our lives.  

This week was also great because it was Easter Sunday and we were able to remember the ressurrection of Jesus Christ.  Here in Brazil the tradition of eating fish on easter sunday is stronger than in the U.S..  Thank you all once again for your emails.

 

Love you all,

Elder Anderson

Transfer Week Again

Dear Family,

 

This week is transfer week again.  This last transfer really flew by.  This last week has been a hectic week since we have been working on the transfers.  However now it is all done and tomorrow will be the transfer meeting.  This week I have been focusing my studies on the general conference talks and one talk that I really liked was Elder Christofferson´s talk about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Another one that I really liked was Elder Perry´s talk about obedience.  We don´t always know where the Lord is trying to steer our lives but if we our obedient we can have faith that he is the one that is in charge and that everything will work out for the best.  I have seen this on my mission and I have seen examples of it in other people´s lives.  Heavenly Father will let us do whatever we want, but if we humble ourselves and are obedient, he will give us a life that is much better than anything we could ever accomplish on our own.  Jesus Christ lived, died, and is a resurrected being who loves us and has a plan for each one of us.  Other than that there really wasn´t anything new that happened this week.  We ate at Pizza Hut one day this week and it was awesome!! 

 

Love you all and thanks for the letters and emails!

 

-Elder Caleb Anderson

General Conference

Dear Family,

Thank you all as always for your prayers and letters.  This week was awesome because of general conference!!  I was able to watch all of the sessions, some in english and some in portuguese.  I watched some of them here at the office and some of them at the stake center.  It´s a little bit different to watch the sessions in portuguese, it lacks a little bit of emotion.  But I really liked all of the sessions but my favorite by far was the preisthood session.  Elder Oaks´s talk was incredible!  I thought that he taught some really profound principles that are important for all of us to know.  I especially liked when he said that in the priesthood their is now going up or down, but there is going forward or backward.  If we are serving with more energy an faith, we are going forward.  It was a great talk to hear and to keep in mind on the mission.  It is great that if we go to general conference with questions on our mind that we have prayed about, we can almost always receive answers to those questions.  This next week is transfer week again so we will be super busy.  Other than that there isn´t too much new going on here!  

 

Love you all,

Elder Caleb Anderson

Conference Week Again?!?

Dear Family,

This week was a busy week.  Luckily we were able to get out of the office a little more.  This week we went on a couple divisions which was good.  On Wednesday we went on a division with some Elders in the zone Itaquera.  That zone was having some difficulties with teaching and baptizing people so we went there to do a division and to give a training.  Then on Friday I was able to go back to one of my old areas, Vila Industrial, and I did a division with the Elders there.  It was cool to be in my old area again.  The elder that is in that area has been there for seven and a half months so he is a little bit worn out haha, understandable.  Other than that this week was pretty normal.  I have been focusing my studies lately on the atonement.  I have been learning about how the atonement of Christ applies in many different ways in our life.  Not just to clean us from sin, but also to lift us up and strengthen us to be something greater that we normally are.  When Christ suffered in the Garden he suffered all of the pains of all of our sins, he paid our debt in full and he set the conditions for us to one day return to him and gain eternal life.  The conditions are a broken heart and a contrite spirit, always trying to obey the commandments and improve.  I am grateful for the Savior´s mercy that has a daily role in my life.  

Love you all and hope you all have a great week!

 

-Elder Caleb Anderson