Physically and mentally tired . . .

Ta-se Bem Familha!

So so good to hear from you once again! You are right about me being physically and mentally tired all the time. Last night, for example, I memorized around 150 nouns like eating stuff, clothes stuff, colors, places, just tons of stuff. Don't ask me how I did it because I'll tell you that I didn't do it. The Lord did pretty much all of it. It's not fair. Every time I try and do my part, he just continues to bless me!


Let me just tell you that I think your family night idea was super amazing with ya'll doing different clip art things about the gospel.

Tara - Yours was awesome and a lot more true than you know. It's all about "planting the seed". When it is planted and you continue to "water" it or "read scriptures, pray and stuff" then the seed will grow. Another analogy as a missionary I like to think of is this. When I'm out teaching people, I'm kinda like a water well. When I read scriptures, bear my testimony, pray, and things like that, I add water to the well. The Lord is the bucket. When I don't know what to say to someone, that's when the Spirit comes in and pulls water out with the bucket. If I didn't have any "water" the Lord wouldn't be able to help me.

Mom - Yours is perfect, too! It's not only the Book of Mormon that will help us. It's when we have desire and diligence. That's when the Lord says, "OK. Look. Here's a person who is trying and actually wants to know the truth. Let me help you." Perfect!

Heath - I like yours, too. There are definitely things in this life that could bring us "instant" happiness, but that happiness doesn't last. The way we can be truly happy is by doing stuff we're supposed to and then get this . . . we're promised to be in an Eternal state of REST and happiness. Sounds good to me! I'd give anything to rest for five minutes let alone Eternity!




Kyle - You chose my favorite scripture. It keeps me going and helps me almost every day. I didn't know it was the theme this year [for YM and YW] but that's awesome. We need to always have courage. I mean, look at Moroni, for example. He was the leader of an Army when he was 16! And basically every character in the Book of Mormon is way buff and juiced so they probably got that way from having courage, strength, and knowing they are NEVER alone.

Dad - Yours made me laugh. Way cool picture and way appropriate. I've learned here that personal revelation is super important and the biggest boost spiritually ever. When you can learn to listen to the Lord, wow. Can you say blessings/miracles?

We don't have a family night here, we just do class every day/night. On Sundays and Tuesdays we have huge firesides though. They're my favorite. I'm gonna miss those, too when I leave. Speaking of leaving, they say I should get my travel plans around the 12th or 13th so I'll be sure to let you know all about that.

And I definitely think that it's time for another package. What a silly question, Mods. It's always time for another package.

I'll be sure to take a picture of the verb card or maybe even send you one. You'll be surprised.

Sounds like what you did with my countdown chart is pretty legit. Don't forget to put stickers on every day!

Sorry to say, but now we don't call Kim any more. She wouldn't answer her phone, but at least we taught her a few lessons and "planted the seed". It was in English.

That poem you sent was awesome. Portrayed a lot of the feelings I've had already. I can't wait til I get to say for myself the last two paragraphs. But then I gotta start worrying about marriage. Instead of being here with a dude non-stop, I'll be with a girl. Good to think about. :)

Things are fun here still. Portuguese is still Portuguese. Hard some days, easy others, but always awesome. Just wait til you hear my sweet accent! :) I love you all and can't thank you enough for the prayers. Best family ever! I miss ya'll!

Love,

Elder Anderson

What the heck? Anesthesia? (e-mail)

Hey Mom, your probably sleeping by now, but what the heck? Anesthesia? You better be ok. But, ya I just like e-mails and letters so both would be preferred. So glad to hear about more dear elders too :) Elder Fairbanks was just playing basketball and tweaked it i guess [his back]. I told him hi and ya Elder Stewart is his comp. I hope that Madeira is my 1st area that would be so tight. I can't wait to go wherever though. I'll pray for Sharlee Neubert. That's really too bad but cool she's still serving. There are tons of crazy earthquakes going on and a bunch of people had to get re-assigned its crazy. But everything is for a reason, right? Love ya Mom and hope that whatever you have going on gets better. I'm prayin for you. Love ya much. Tell the kids hey :) and tell Dad he's awesome.

New e-mail address (e-mail)

Hey Mods, I had to get a new email address here, so tell everyone to start sending stuff to this one. So how are ya? I just wrote a really long letter so this e-mail might not be so long. You'll get lots of my words in the letter. The family night thing you guys did is a really good idea. I put my input in so it'll be good. I'm not really sure why you all of a sudden decided not to e-mail me anymore, but i guess you're probably real busy with work and what not. Tell the kids to keep sending their letters cuz I love them. Can you believe how fast that the time is flying by? I've almost been here 2 months. The days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days. I'll remember that forever. There's a lot of cool things going on and stuff. I don't remember if I told you that I got to be a host missionary last week. That means that I got to be the missionary to bring in all the new missionaries when their parents dropped them off on Wednesday. It was a crazy experience and really sad too. All the Elders families were bawling and Dads saying their last "I'm proud of you's" and it was all just sad. But also fun to be the one showing them around and stuff. Can you believe the snow? I think that I need to get out of here because all of this snow is making me crave snowboarding so bad. Especially when the teachers here rub it in my face that they are going as soon as they get off work. Ha, jerks. But check this out. Elder Fairbanks pulled a muscle in his back about a week ago so he has to go to physical therapy for it. Nothing serious. But his comp doesn't want to leave cuz he likes studying more, so I go with him. We get to leave the MTC like every other day. ha! Its so amazing! They drive us in a little van to the place and then we walk about a block to get to his doctor. Then when we go in he goes and does his thing and I just chill in the waiting room or whatever for like an hour. With music booyah. I finally got to hear all my favorite songs and stuff again. Amazing. And I got to talk to real people, not just fake missionaries. They aren't real. It was weird to see people texting and just chilling on their cell phones. I miss that fast communication. But all in all it is so amazing when I get to leave these walls and taste some real air for a few hours. Makes me want to go to Portugal real bad. I'm memorizing words like its nobody's business. Last night alone I memorized about 150 words. The Lord really blesses those who try. Gotta love it. I have a question with my debit card. You said it won't work until you get the pin number. I'm confused because I thought I made the pin number up. Don't confuse me like this. Simple things should remain simple things. But for now I gotta go power chill. Tell everyone I said hi and I love them. I'll be getting on in just a bit too, so hopefully you write me back today ;) Love ya!