Time to prepare transfers again!

Dear Family,

Thanks again for your emails and support.  This week was a little less busy here in the office so we were able to get out into the field a little bit more and work.  We did some divisions with a few missionaries which was great.  It is so great to teach the gospel.  When we are sharing the gospel with other people who have never received it or when we are reactivating people we feel the Spirit in a completely different way than we normally would.  This morning we were able to participate in a meeting that a zone had with their stake president and with President Ferrin.  It was really really cool and the stake president pointed out something that I had never thought about.  He was talking about the story of the Brother of Jared in Ether chapter 3.  It was a long explanation but I will make it short.  The Lord gave the brother of Jared the task to solve a problem.  What was the problem?  They were going to cross the ocean in boats that would be completely dark.  So the Brother of Jared had the task of thinking up some kind of solution to the problem.  And as we know, the Brother of Jared came back with the 16 stones and with the suggestion that the Lord touch the stones to make them light up.  We can read in verse 4 that the Brother of Jared said "And I know, O Lord, that thou hast all power, and can do whatsoever thou wilt for the benefit of man; therefore touch these stones, O Lord, with thy finger, and prepare them that they may shine forth in darnkess".  Sometimes I read this passage and don´t really realize how much preparation and thought probably went into that request.  After all, the Brother of Jared was the prophet and I am sure quite a bit of thought into the things he did, especially if he was talking to God.  And we can see that he took the stones, put them in front of him, and then asked the Lord to touch them with His finger.  What do you think he was expecting from this?  What was his real desire?  Do you think that the thought never crossed his mind that if the Lord was going to touch the stones with his finger, and the stones were right in front of him, then he might see the Lord´s finger?  Of course he did.  What was his real desire?  He wanted to see the Savior.  The same desire that many prophets have had and many normal people have had.  And because of his faith and worthiness he was able to see the Lord´s finger when the Lord touched the rocks.  Anyways what is the lesson for us?  If we are worthy and have the faith we may not see the Lord´s literal finger, but we will see his hand working in our lives, we will see this through the people around us, through the situations we are put into, and through the blessings that we receive.  I know that I have seen His hand in my life here on the mission and know that He lives and loves all of us.  All we need is the faith to believe and the desire to see Him!  

That´s it for this week!  

 

Love,

-Elder Anderson

GO BRASIL!!

Dear Family,

This week the big question that everyone had for me in their emails was "How was the world cup game?".  Well it was AWESOME.  Brasil won 3-1 however there was a call that the refs made that was really controversial.  They gave Brasil a penalty kick that gave Brasil a 2-1 lead and pretty much changed the whole game.  But it was still really fun to be here and to feel the excitement that the Brazilians have.  The game started at 5 o´clock here however the noise-making started at noon haha.  Everyone was blowing their vuvuzelas, airhorns, and car horns.  It was really awesome.  Every store, bar, or gas station has a million Brazil flags flying, the cars are all decorated, and on game day it was hard to find ANYONE on the street that wasn´t wearing a yellow Brazil shirt.  We stayed here in the office until around 4:15ish when President picked us and the secretaries up to watch the game at his house.  It was really fun and Sister Ferrin had prepared a lot of delicious foods , including bar-b-que pulled pork sandwhiches!  So we watched the game together.  Someone asked me if President gets into the games.  Well President has a lot of Brazil spirit however I don´t think that soccer is really his sport haha.  But all of us elders were at the edges of our seats.  When Brazil scored the whole city went nuts!!  Everyone was setting off fireworks, screaming, and making all different kinds of noises!  It was really awesome.  Tomorrow Brazil plays again against Mexico.  Go Brazil!  Also the U.S. is supposed to play today in a couple hours. 

Also this week we had a meeting with Claudio M. Costa (the Brazil area president who came to our mission conference about a month ago and interviewed me). It was a meeting with all of the zone leaders and their companions and the sister leaders.  It was great and he spoke a lot on the importance of faith and setting goals that are realistic.  Really awesome.  Well I`ve got to go!  Tonight we are off to a zone meeting in Guarulhos!  Love you all.

 

Love,

-Elder Caleb Anderson

World Cup!!!

Dear Family,

This week was a crazy week full of preparations for the world cup!  This Thursday will be the opening ceremonies and the opening game will be played in Itaquera, which is one of the zones of our mission.  The opening game with be Brazil vs. Croatia and Brazil is strongly favored to win.  It is going to be super awesome and I am really excited about it.  President Ferrin authorized the missionaries to watch the Brazil games in members´ houses.  This past week we spent a lot of time going to around to the different zones of the mission and giving them trainings about what they should and shouldn´t do during the world cup.  Everyone is saying that it will be really dangerous to walk around on the streets.  Pretty much the whole country will be drunk and for some reason it seems like drunk people always like messing with the missionaries!!  So anyways the missionaries can watch the Brazil games in members houses but the other games are not authorized to watch.  And after watching the game the missionaries need a ride home, they can´t walk home or take the bus since being on the street will be very dangerous.  President Ferrin invited my companion and I to watch the game at his house so that will be fun.  Half of the people here are really excited for the world cup and half of them are outraged by it.  There are a ton of protests and strikes because the government spent so much money on the stadiums whenever the country could have benefited from that money in other ways.  Anyhow a lot of people, including members of the church are really upset with the government because of the world cup.  I think it is really exciting to have the world cup here in Brazil but the soon it is over with the better.  However, watching the games in the members´ houses will be a good opportunity to get references and build a friendship with the members and maybe even friends and family that the members will invite over.  I am super excited to see the game on Thursday, go Brazil!!  

Yesterday we had a cool experience because we were here in the office about to leave for stake conference when two men came up to the door.  They came in because they didn´t know it was stake conference week and they wanted to watch sacrament meeting.  One was a less active member that wants to return to activity in the church and the other one was his brother that has already been to church several times, has read the entire Book of Mormon, and wants to get baptized!  We took them to the stake conference with us and introduced him to the missionaries that proselyte in this area.  So hopefully he will be baptized next week!  Miracles happen!

 

Love you all, 

-Elder Caleb Anderson

Transfer Week

Dear Family,

This week was an interesting week.  There were some really big changes this transfer!  The biggest change that happened is that in the past the zone leaders have always been companions.  So generally there were zones of about 20-30 missionaries and there were 2 zone leaders who were companions to lead the zone.  However President Ferrin saw that there were many problems with this situation.  I won´t go into all of the problems, but one of the key problems was that two of the best, most experienced missionaries in the zone were companions and no one else was benefiting from all of their experience.  So this transfer we split up the two zone leaders.  Now the zone leaders all have junior companions.  They all live in the same house and will now have juniors to work with during the day.  This is a huge change that President made with the purpose of helping the zone leaders to work harder, be more obedient, baptize more, and pass on some of their knowledge and experience to the other missionaries.  It will be exciting to see how this plan will work out but I think it is going to be really good.  Other than that this week was pretty normal. We were really busy here in the office because of the transfers.  There is always some kind of problem that needs to be resolved!