Halloween!

Dear Family,

 

This week was a good week.  Things are starting to improve here in the work and in the zone.  My new companion is Elder Zancheta from southern Brazil.  He is AWESOME!!  Ever since he got to the ward it seems like a spark hit our area.  And things are starting to go better.  Today we did a zone P-Day and I don´t have time to write a really detailed email.  Elder Zancheta and I got the whole zone together and we did a churrasco with basketball and volleyball and stuff.  It was really fun and it helps get the missionaries in the zone more excited and have more unity in the zones.  However things are going well here in Taubaté and I appreciate your emails that you guys sent me.  Sorry that I can´t write more!

 

Love you all,

 

Elder Caleb Anderson

Transfer Day

Dear Family,

Thank you so much for your emails and support.  This week past and without much new to report.  We are teaching some really elect investigators.  The members here in Taubate are awesome and are helping a ton.  This last week we received a new ward mission leader and he is really excited about the work.  He really wants to help and get this ward turned into a missionary ward. He's going to help us a ton.  Today is a transfer day so tonight we will get the phone call that will tell us if we are going to stay or go and also will tell us what will happen to the zone.  I just got here to Taubate so I doubt that I'll be leaving any time soon.  I sure hope not anyways.  If I could choose I would stay here for the rest of my mission!  

That's it for this week.  Sorry the letter this week is so short but we've got to get going soon!  

 

Love you all and hope that you are all well!

-Elder Caleb Anderson

Trabalhando até o Pó

Dear Family,

´´Trabalhando até o Pó´´ (working until the dust) is an expression that the missionaries use here and it basically means ´´´working super hard´´ haha.  That pretty much explains this last week.  We have been working super hard.  Things improved quite a bit last week.  The zone went better but things in my area are still a little bit slow.  We got a lot more investigators to teach and they are all investigators of really good quality.  We didn´t get a baptism this last week however we are working with a really great investigator for this week.  I am really hoping that he will be baptized this week.  Last week we had our interviews with President Ferrin and they went pretty well.  Today we had a zone p-day and it was pretty fun.  We got together at one of the church buildings and played soccer, volleyball, basketball and afterwards we ate some stroganoff that the sisters made.  Overall it was a pretty succesful P-Day.

I have been thinking recently about the Pride Cycle that we learn about in the Book of Mormon.  In Helaman 11 we can see the Nephites go all the way around the pride cycle in one chapter.  It is always the same cycle of Prosperity/Happiness to Pride/Iniquity to Punishment/Unhappiness to Humility/Repentance.  In the Book of Mormon we see that the people go through this cycle many times.  This cycle can apply to nations as a whole, to the church, to a ward, and especially to our personal lives.  Sometimes in our lives we go around this cycle pretty quickly.  I know that this cycle happens in our lives.   However it is our decision if we want to stay in the Prosperity/Happiness spot or not.  For us to stay in this spot we need to be always aware and alert to stop ourselves from sliding into the second spot which is Pride/Iniquity.  In Helaman 11 we learn some of the warning signs of this part of the cycle.  If we can identify the warning signs in our lives, we can catch ourselves before we ever completely leave the Properity/Happiness spot.  And through the Atonement of Jesus Christ we can make the necessary changes for us to get back on the right path and continue receiving the blessings.  

I love you all and thank you for your emails and support!

-Elder Caleb Anderson

     

Dear Family,

This week was another tough week as far as the work is concerned.  Things in the area are a little tough and things in the zone aren´t much better.  However we are working hard and I am sure that the blessings will come soon.  I am learning a ton here in the new area and am trying to figure out how to be a good leader.  Elder Caetano is awesome and we are getting along well.  

I have been thinking lately about how each person is different and has different strengths, weaknesses, gifts, and personalities.  And God is aware of all of our differences and He will put us through experiences in our lives that will mold us into better people.  He puts us around different people and in different situations, all with the intent of helping us become better people.  However, in order for us to take advantage of these opportunities, we need to be watching out for them.  We need to always be looking for ways we can improve ourselves every day.  And we need to have goals for our improvement.  We need to determine where we are right now, and where we want to be in the future.  Once we determine these two things we can know what parts of ourselves we need to improve.  And how do we get from point A to point B?  We make a concious effort every day to improve those weak parts of ourselves.  Until we finally turn our weaknesses into strengths.  And when we finally get to point B we will regognize other weaknesses that we have and we will try and get from point B to point C.  And we will keep going like this for our intire lives, always trying to improve our weaknesses and maintain our strengths.  It is all part of God´s plan for us and if we are humble enough, one day we will be able to turn all of our weaknesses into strengths and be as God is.  

Ether 12:27  And if men come unto me I will show unto them their^aweakness. I ^bgive unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my ^cgrace is sufficient for all men that ^dhumble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make ^eweak things become strong unto them.

That´s it for this week!

 

Love you all and thank you for your prayers and fasting, I know it makes a difference.

-Elder Caleb Anderson   

General Conference

Dear Family,

This week was a little bit tough as far as the work goes but hopefully this next week will be better.  I enjoyed watching General Conference and am excited to study the talks more in the future.  I think I learn more by reading and studying the talks than by watching them for the first time.  Not a whole lot happened this past week that is worth writing about.  On Thursday night Elder Caetano and I made the three hour trip to São Paulo and spent the night there.  On Friday we went to our leardership counsel at the mission office.  It was a good meeting and we learned a lot from President Ferrin.  He talked about the importance of being an example to be a leader.  If we aren´t showing the example by working the hardest and being the most obedient.  then we would be a hypocrite to ask someone else to work hard or to be obedient.  I also really liked one of the conference talks in the Priesthood sessions that talked about how if we want to have success as a missionary we have to be humble, obedient, and we have to be able to feel and follow the Spirit.  I know that this is true and I am trying ever day to improve in each one of these three things.  That´s about it for this week!

 

Thanks for the emails, packages, and letters!  Hope you are all doing well!

-Elder Caleb Anderson

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