September 16, 2009

Howdy familia,

How goes it in Australia and in the kan? Things are going good here, you know Brazilian stuff. This week there was an emergency transfer and now elder Riskey from my CTM district is in my zone. He is such a nerd but I love him. It’s cool to see someone I know and who is experiencing the same things as me. My comp and I are very different but I like him and I’m learning a lot from him. He is a really hard worker. He is 27 years old! That is probably why we’re so different ha but we get along real good. I realized that I did know a little Portuguese; I just never had to use it so now I have to but we can communicate just fine. About the plaque, you guys can just pick a picture and for the scripture I want 1 Nephi 13:37.

Dad I hope your having fun in Australia and I’m sure you will in Japan (Tim is confused here – Dad is going to Fiji from Australia, not Japan.) Brush up on the old Japanese ha, and Mom I hope your enjoying the little monster. I always ask how old kids are when we’re teaching to try and get an image of how big he is and how he is acting and what he will be like when I come home. I’m sure he keeps you busy. Here is a Brazilian parenting tip; if he is loud, hungry, tired, laughing when you don’t want him to, or just running around, take off your flip flop and whack him. I don’t know if it works or not but every parent in all of Bahia uses it. It’s actually pretty sad, some of the things I’ve seen. But anyways I hope Justin is doing good in school. I know he struggles with learning things, especially facts.

I’ll find out today if your package got here or not. The zone leaders go to Salvador once a transfer and then the president comes to zone conferences once a transfer. The zone leaders left today, but those are the only times I find out if I got mail or packages or anything. If you guys could send a memory stick that would be great. I don’t think there is anywhere in my area to buy one.

Yeah I do get to see the beach everyday and it’s pretty, and the land and terrain here is really pretty. But here is what you don’t see in the internet pictures of this so called paradise ha. Every street corner is used as a dump. Literally it just fills up until cars can’t get through the road and then they just burn it and start over. I wouldn’t go into the ocean where I’m at if you paid me. There are two big rivers that flow into it that are quite literally septic. You can see way out into the ocean where the water turns blue again but the beach here is brown. Some of the areas around here have really pretty water and beaches like Nelson Coasta. It’s really pretty. That’s where Elder Palmer is now. But the terrain and stuff is very pretty here. I do like that a lot. And I still love walking past the ocean; we follow the shore line every week to get to church. I like it a lot.

Ok, well here is a spiritual story before I sign off. we found this 19 year old boy to teach. We taught him in his house, if you can call it that. It was one wall with a door between two other houses with a little roof over it. It had a dirt floor and no back wall or anything else in there. There was a little home made couch made out of crates and a blanket. He didn’t have a mom. He just lived there - him and his dad. He had shorts, no shirt and a pair of flip flops that his feet hung over the front and back of them as if he had grown out of them a couple years ago. On his flip flops, one of the straps had broken and you could see where he had melted it back together. But you could tell the kid was a cool kid and had friends and what not. Oh also he couldn’t read, but we taught him and he liked the message and we asked if he would say the closing prayer. He said he would if we would help him. So my comp said I’ll say the format of a prayer and you repeat it with things you feel, so it went like this. (My comp) Heavenly Father (boy) Heavenly Father (comp) I am thankful for ... (boy) I am thankful for everything (comp) please give me.... what ever it is that you want from God, (boy) God I want my dad to stop drinking in the name of Jesus Christ amen. It was one of the most sincere prayers I’ve every heard, one of those moments where you really stop and think about what’s really important to you. Well I hope you are doing well I love and miss you all.

Love,

Elder Anderson