Finishing March Already

Dear Family,

Thanks again for the emails and support.  This week was a good week.  We were able to work a little bit more in the field which was great.  We worked on Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday in our area and on Friday we did a division with some elders in another zone.  We went to the zone Itaquaquecetuba and I worked with a new american missionary that got here on Tuesday.  On Tuesday the 9 americans got here to the mission.  Nowadays any missionary that is coming to Brazil that has been serving in a U.S. mission waiting for their visa, has to go to the São Paulo MTC for 2 weeks before coming to the field.  At first I thought that this was a little bit ridiculous to have to go back to the MTC after serving in the field already, but these americans that got here on Tuesday are speaking really, really good portuguese.  Just goes to show you that the missionary department knows what they´re doing.  The 9 americans had been serving different missions in the U.S. so they already have a lot of experience, they just need to learn the language.  So on Tuesday we were wrapped up in getting the new americans here, training them, and giving them their new companions.    Then on Tuesday night at 11:30 three brazilian elders arrived coming to our mission.  These three brazilian elders had been serving in Venezuela but due to political problems the church had to pull out all missionaries from Venezuela that aren´t natives.  So these three brazilians came to our mission.  Of the three, the one who has less time on the mission has a year and seven months haha so they are just coming here to finish it up their missions. 

Then the rest of the week went fairly smoothly.  We had two investigators at church on Sunday.  they are both marked for baptism and we are really excited about it.  The man that we found last week went to church yesterday so that was really cool.  In the ward that we work in there are six missionaries.  Us, the zone leaders, and a district leader and his companion.  And last night we had a special fireside for the whole ward that was planned by the zone leaders.  It was really cool.  There was a workshop part at the beginning where us missionaries gave trainings to the members on how they can help us and how they can talk to their friends about the gospel.  I gave my trianing on how to help investigators fulfill their commitments.  Then after the training we did an activity with everyone.  We had all of the members write down on a piece of paper the names of EVERYONE that they know who isn´t a member of the church.  Then we had each member say a prayer and ask Heavenly Father to reveal the name of 6 people on the list that were ready to receive the gospel.  It was a really great activity and at the end of the night we had over 300 referrals!!  Other than that there isn´t much to report for this week!

 

Love you all,

Elder Caleb Anderson

Fun Times in the Office

Dear Family,

This last week was a good week.  We actually had a lot of stuff to take care of in the office during the week so we didn´t get out into the field until Saturday.  We were mostly preparing the leadership counsel that we had on Friday.  The leadership counsel is a meeting that happens once a month for all of the zone leaders and sister leaders in the mission.  We have a meeting about the most common problems that we are facing on the mission and then we give a training to the missionaries, and then President gives a training.  Anyways after the leadership counsel on Friday we were able to go to our area and work on Saturday.  We got there and neither one of us really knows the area.  However the other companionship gave us a list of members that we could visit.  On the list there were about 500 names.  We looked at the list and called up 2 families, we set an appointment to visit the first Family at 6 o´clock and to visit the other Family at 7.  The first Family was a pretty normal visit, nothing out of the ordinary.  And then the second visit was awesome.  First off we took forever to find the house.  We looked and looked for about 20 minutes but couldn´t find the right address, finally we just sat down on the sidewalk and then out of no where the lady and her son walked up to us on the sidewalk and showed us where they lived!  We went inside and met the lady´s husband who has been married to this member for 18 years but had never met the missionaries or been to church!  So we taught him about the Book of Mormon and invited him for baptism and sure enough, he accepted!  It was really awesome to have a teaching experience like that.  We are really excited to go back next week and teach him again. 

 I also received sad news this week that a man that I taught and baptized in Vila Galvão passed away.  His name is Vilela and he was the man that use to be in a special division of the police here in São Paulo.  When Elder Heiner and I taught him he was already fighting with cancer.  This week he passed away.  It was a really sad thing because what he most wanted was to be sealed to his wife and children.  He was going to hit the year of membership mark in April and was already doing the temple prep. class to be sealed.  However I know that his desire to be sealed continues on the other side of the veil.  If his wife is faithful here then she will be able to be sealed to him and their marriage can be eternal.  God has a plan for each one of us and for people like Vilela who have the desire to be sealed but for some reason weren´t able to do so in this life, we can trust in the love, mercy, and grace of our Savior Jesus Christ.  I feel confident that on the other side of the veil Vilela was greeted by members of the church, we don´t know exactly how it Works but maybe he was greeted by a Bishop, or home teachers, or the elders quorum president.  We don´t really know how it works but I know that he will be taken care of and that he will have people on the other side who will work and help him to achieve his goal of being sealed to his family.

 Other than that this week as pretty normal.  Thanks to all of you for your thoughts, support and prayers! 

 

Love,

Elder Caleb Anderson 

Transfer AND Conference Week

Dear Family,

This week was crazy!  We were all super busy here in the office because we had the transfer meeting on Tuesday, and then on Thursday we had a mission conference with Elder Claudio M. Costa who is in the first quorum of the seventy and is the President of the Area Brazil.  Tuesday was the transfer meeting and Elder Caetano and I were in charge of organizing everything and making sure that everything went smoothly.  We got everything planned out and our transfer meeting on Tuesday was definitely the smoothest transfer that we have had ever since I got on the mission.  On Tuesday all of the missionaries were called here to the office to recieve their new companions and go to their new areas.  On Tuesday I received my new companion, his name is Elder Pinheiro.  He is from Natal which is a city in northern Brazil.  He is super cool and we are already really good friends.  We got the transfer meeting down and Tuesday morning and then on Tuesday night there was a testimony meeting with President Ferrin and all of the missionaries that are going home.  It was a really spiritual experience and was really awesome to hear the testimonies of these missionaries that had served faithful missionaries and were returning home with honor.  The spirit was very strong in the meeting as they shared what they had learned on their missions and how they had grown.

Then on Wednesday my companion and I worked like crazy planning the mission conference the next day with Elder Costa.  We spent a lot of the day planning and setting stuff up at the stake center.  We were told that everything had to be extremely organized and that there needed to be military discipline haha.  So we got everything planned out.  We were up until 4:30 that morning preparing things!  Then we woke up at 6 o´clock and headed over ot the stake center.  We showed up and Elder Costa was already there waiting for us, he had arrived 2 hours early!  He said it was because he was worried about the traffic but I actually think that it was to see how early we would get there and how prepared we would be haha.  But anyways we got everything ready and at 9 o´clock we started the meeting with the zone leaders, district leaders, and sister leaders.  He talked about a lot of different principles of leadership.  Then at 10 o´clock the conference started with the whole mission.  At 12 we had a lunch break, and at 1 the conference started up again.  Then around 3 o´clock the conference ended and all of the zones took a picture with President Costa.  Afterwards he interviewed 10 missionaries.  The conference was really excellent and I am really glad that its over!

Then on Friday Elder Costa came here to the mission office in the morning and had a meeting with my companion and I, the secretaries, and President and Sister Ferrin.  He talked about some ways to streamline our work in the office so that we can get out more and start working in the field.  He stressed the importance of us assistants working as much as possible in the field.  I was honestly really glad that he said that because now we will be able to get out more which I have been wanting to do for a while.  After the meeting he had a personal interview with me, my companion, and the two secretaries.  It was really cool.  We talked a lot about the mission and about the importance of giving good ideas. After that on Saturday we went to our area and worked there on Saturday and Sunday.

Overall it was a really busy but great week!  Thank you all so much for your support and prayers.

 

Love  you all,

Elder Caleb Anderson

Mon, Mar 3, 2014 at 4:51 PM

Mar 3

Message starred

Carnaval!!

FROM Caleb Anderson TO You + 4 More

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From

• Caleb Anderson

To

• jdaclb
• John Anderson  
• Ariel Cook
• 2 More...

 

Dear Family,

This week is carnaval week again here in Brazil.  There are a TON of people traveling and anywhere you go you see parties and EVERYONE watches the parades on TV.  This week was a great week because we had the visit from Elder David Evans last monday.  It was a really spiritual meeting and he taught everyone a lot about our purpose as missionaries.  He said something really interesting too, he said that we are a peculiar people, and what has always set us apart in the past has been the word of wisdom and the law of chastity.  However what will set us apart in the future is the fact that our church defends the family.  Our church defends the truth that marriage is between a man and a woman and that children have the right to be born into a family with a mother and a father.  It was interesting to think of it that way.  This past week has been really busy because we have been preparing the transfers.  President Ferrin is the one that does the transfers and we help him in the process.  Tomorrow is the actual transfer meeting and it is the assistants responsiblity to make sure everything runs smoothly.  Other than that there isn´t much news this week.  This next week is going to be nuts because we have the transfer tomorrow and then on Thursday and Friday ANOTHER general authority is coming to visit the mission.  It is really awesome but kind of crazy too haha.  Anyways that´s about it for this week!

Dad- I had never thought about how Ben will be going into BYU at one of the most competitive times!  I think I´ll be reapplying during one of the easiest times.  Thanks for the notes that you sent me last week.

Mom- Yeah I talked to Elder Bangerter once since he went home but I think he´s pretty busy these days.  I talked to Elder Heiner a couple times too.  Are you guys going to adopt Jupiter?  So is Kendall´s house empty right now waiting for Grame to get back?  Do you think you could send me some more deoderant sometime soon?  

Ariel- That´s going to be cool to have you guys in Austin when I get back.  I can´t believe there are four months left!!  I´ll try and shoot an email to Trenton.  Elder Heiner wrote me a couple days ago and it seems like he´s feeling the same thing.

Lauren- The name of the song is Bless the Broken Road haha.  How was Frozen??  You should try and live with Kira.

Ben- Sounds like a fun week.  Wow you scored 20 points in the church game? haha.  how is school going?  What is your favorite class?

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

-Elder Caleb Anderson

Carnival

Dear Family,

This week is carnaval week again here in Brazil.  There are a TON of people traveling and anywhere you go you see parties and EVERYONE watches the parades on TV.  This week was a great week because we had the visit from Elder David Evans last monday.  It was a really spiritual meeting and he taught everyone a lot about our purpose as missionaries.  He said something really interesting too, he said that we are a peculiar people, and what has always set us apart in the past has been the word of wisdom and the law of chastity.  However what will set us apart in the future is the fact that our church defends the family.  Our church defends the truth that marriage is between a man and a woman and that children have the right to be born into a family with a mother and a father.  It was interesting to think of it that way.  This past week has been really busy because we have been preparing the transfers.  President Ferrin is the one that does the transfers and we help him in the process.  Tomorrow is the actual transfer meeting and it is the assistants responsiblity to make sure everything runs smoothly.  Other than that there isn´t much news this week.  This next week is going to be nuts because we have the transfer tomorrow and then on Thursday and Friday ANOTHER general authority is coming to visit the mission.  It is really awesome but kind of crazy too haha.  Anyways that´s about it for this week!

 

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

-Elder Caleb Anderson