Week 6 - 26 October 2010

Hey everyone! So today at the temple was really cool because Elder Evans, Christian, and I got to do baptisms. It was really cool because it was my first time doing baptisms and it was in Portuguese. I really enjoyed it and it made my whole day better!

So last Friday was the day we went proselyting and it was really fun. We just walked around the CTM and the area of Casa Verde. We ended up giving out 9 Books of Mormon! It wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be and it got easier after we handed some out. We gave one Book of Mormon to these 6 workers sitting at a park bench during break. They looked pretty tough but we decided to go talk to them anyways. They ended up being pretty cool and telling us they´d read it. Another guy we talked to was walking without a shirt on and smoking. When we headed over to talk to him he put on the shirt he was holding in his hand and threw his cigarette down. He was actually really nice too. It was nice to see how he respected us and the Lord’s work by noticing he was doing wrong things and he recognized we were servants of the Lord. We also talked to this guy who was just sitting on a cardboard box. He talked to us forever and talked really fast, but we understood most of it. He said he loves the work we do and has read the Book of Mormon. Then he took us to some lady´s house that he thought would want a Book of Mormon. It was really cool and he was super nice.

This week we had some really good lessons on personal revelation and the importance of it. I also feel like I was really humbled this week. The work seems to be getting harder because there seems to be more I have to do, but I also feel like I am able to do it all because the Lord is helping me a lot. One quote that Irmao Zamboni shared with us is from Neil R. Anderson from a CES fireside. He said ``You can count the number of seeds in an apple, but you can´t count the number of apples in a seed´´. The people here are teaching us well on how to be able to plant our seeds in others and bring them to the gospel.

So you know the phone charger for my phone that I gave to Mom? Well it has a converter from USB to plug into the wall outlet. And I noticed the charger for my mp3 here is only a USB and we don´t have computers where I can charge it. It would be great if you guys could find a converter so I can charge it from a wall outlet like Mom´s phone. That would be great.

So I met a Brazilian elder here named Elder de Jesus and he looks just like Elder Smith from our ward haha. He´s shorter but his face does. It´s funny. He´s really cool too and speaks some English. You guys mentioned that Ethan got his call to the Sao Paulo Sul mission. 

That´s sweet. He´s gonna love it. That´s where both of my teachers served and that´s where Kyle Hodges is right now. It would be great if I could get his address or email or something. I love you guys and thanks for all the support.

Com Amor Muito   

-Elder Andrus

Week 5 - 19 October 2010

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!  Feliz Aniversario!  Today is your birthday, and I want to make sure you´re having a good one.  I wish I was there so we could celebrate ours together, but this is as close as we´ll get Haha. 

So this week went by super fast, just like last week.  The weeks are seeming to go by super fast now.  I got an email from Kyle Hodges from SVU who´s serving here in Brasil.  He seems to be doing really well.  I also got an email from Adam and Ryan Carpenter.  It´s nice to get mail from people.  I also got some letters from the primary, the Knechtel´s, and Katie Pederson. 

So remember that finger that I jammed last week?  Well, it was my ring finger and now my ring doesn´t fit anymore!  Hahaha.  My ring was a size 9.5 and now it fits a size 11.  I find that so funny, but I do wish my ring still fit cause I liked that one. But, oh well.

So guess what song got stuck in my head the other day...the song from the movie Rockadoodle. Remember how I used to love that movie?  Yeah, I started singing that the other day for no reason; brought back good memories.

Thank you guys so much for that big cookie and all the other stuff in the care package from Mr. Cheney’s.  We´ll enjoy it for sure :)  Next friday we get to go proselyting for the first time!  It´s gonna be so nerve racking since it´s really hard to understand natives here.  I almost can never understand them, or I have to concentrate really hard in order to understand.  But I’m stoked.  I know we´ll do fine.

Can you guys send me John Lane´s mission address?  By the time he´ll get my letters he´ll be in the field, so could you guys do that so we can keep in touch?  That would be great. 

The other day, we watched a video from a devotional where Elder Holland spoke. He spoke on the importance of the Holy Ghost and he called it the ´´Divine Companionship´´.  He told us to not only go out teaching ´´two by two´´, but that every companionship should go ´´three by three´´ with the Spirit.  It was really good, and we actually watched it twice.  Not only is this applicable for mission companionships, but also for all other companionships in life. 

Another thing, can you guys keep me informed about William? I don’t really know much so that would be awesome.  Thank you all so much for everything and all of the birthday treats and wishes.  Thanks for the support, and I love you guys! 

-Elder Andrus

Week 4 - 12 October 2010

Hey everyone!  This week went by super fast.  It seems that just yesterday it was last p-day.  I guess it could be a good and a bad thing.  The days are long and hard, but the weeks are going faster.  The language is still coming a long well, but I still want to know more and learn faster.

Rio emailed me about William having some health problems.  I will fast and pray for him and will be thinking of him.  He is such a great guy, and I know he blesses every single person he knows.  I would feel a lot more comforted if I know you guys are praying for him too.  I have lots of respect and love for him and will really pray that the Lord will help him.  Please keep me informed on what’s going on.  I would greatly appreciate it.

Well this week we went to the police station to do some stuff with our visas and everything.  We met a bunch of Elders there who have been out about 1 year and 6 months, and even one that was going home in just a couple weeks.  It was so hard for them to speak English with us Haha.  They were all from Utah and yet they had accents just like the Brazilians here and really had trouble finding words to say to us in English. I kind of wish that is me in about a year or so because I think it would just be so cool to become that lost in the work and in the culture here.

After all of our Brazilian friends left, we made a ton of new ones, and they are helping us with things.  One named Elder F. Silva is really cool and taught himself some English, so I love talking with him.  He’s probably the coolest one I’ve met here.  I’ll send pictures when I can.  Elder Silva and tons of other elders left this morning and even more good friends are leaving next week.  It’s sad because they are so friendly and we become attached that its hard when they leave.  But we exchange information so we can write each other. 

So at gym I jammed my finger really bad Haha.  It’s all good, but it looked pretty bad. It was cool because it was purple, blue, green and like twice the size. Haha  I took pictures. One of the newer Elders here, Elder Curtis, I found out knows Mariah Flake - such a small world.  He was actually at that family reunion at Mt. Rainier when I went to hang out with her. 

So in the priesthood session of conference, the Provo MTC choir got to sing all of the songs at the conference center.  Dad might have told you that already, but if my visa hadn’t come and I had to go to Provo, I totally could have sung at conference!  Not fair Haha.  It’s okay though.  I think I would much rather be here in Brasil. 

So remember me saying some things about my teacher Irmao Waskow riding a motorcycle and how they are crazy?  He got in a crash the other day, and he acted like it never happened.  I guess it happens a lot, and it was like it happens everyday. Haha  It’s crazy here, especially the motorcycles.  We get to go proselyting in about a week and a half!  Next Friday we get to go out and place Books of Mormon in Portuguese.  I’m super excited for it.  I love talking to people in Portuguese even tho I’m not near good enough to actually have a good conversation.  We try to practice with our new neighbors, who are so crazy.  They absolutely love us Haha.  They say we are the coolest Americans here. They are insane.  It’s great though, Brazilians are so funny. I love you all and will always have you in my heart.  I will also always keep William in my prayers. Let him know I care about him and hope with all my heart he will get better. Thanks for all of your support! 

-Elder Andrus

Week 3 - 5 October 2010

Hey Family!

So the President’s wife, Sister Clark, is like the nicest person I’ve met.   Last p-day, there was an ice cream party for the new work out gym here, and we missed the ice cream.  So she personally served us this huge bowl of ice cream just for us. Haha  It was fun, and I  love her.  I also bought this cool tie and a jersey of a soccer team here in Sao Paulo.  Tons of Brazilians love it and tons hate it.  They are really into soccer and only like their home team, no one else.  The teacher here that knows Sterling is Irmao Ramon, or Sterling would know him as Elder Ramon.  He said that Sterling was his trainer and the way he talks about him it seems they were good friends.  So Irmao Zamboni told me he added me on Facebook  Haha.  He tells me he looks through my pictures and everything.  He’s a great teacher, one of the best.  Another thing he said to me this past week was “I would have been happy to have been half the missionary you seem to be”.  I don’t know why he’s saying that because it seems he was a top notch missionary.  But it sure does mean a lot to me. 

The food here is kinda crazy sometimes but sometimes it’s really good too.  I’m definitely gaining weight. I’ve probably gained 8 or so pounds! Haha  The goal is 15 by the time I get out of here because I’m sure I’ll lose it pretty quick in Belem.  It’s cool here because the contrast between the Brazil CTM and the Provo MTC seems to be just like the contrast between SVU and BYU - such a smaller environment but just as good, or better. 

One thing I remembered was that you guys should try to get some pictures of the Neal’s house as “after” pictures.  Just a thought because I’m sure it’ll look different in two years. 

Being on a mission is such a good experience.  It’s really hard work out here though.  This week they are really pushing us with the language and it’s really tough.  I know I can do it - I’m catching on really well.  Man, I really like Portuguese.  It’s such an amazing language. 

So yesterday, all of the Brazilians we were friends with left.  It was really sad cause they were really cool and we were really good friends with them.  Only two are going to Belem.  I’ll miss them...one of them gave me one of his t-shirts too.  They are great people.

  

So today we went to the temple, and I bought brand new Portuguese scriptures.  They are super nice.  How did you guys like conference?  We got to watch all the sessions and took tons of notes.  It was really good and all the talks were amazing – I can’t even pick my favorite one.  Yeah today I went over to Mr. Cheney´s and sent a letter and got 3 cookies.  Man those are some good cookies!  Best one’s I’ve had in a while.  It’s too bad I can’t send pictures yet cause it would be cool for you guys to see everything.  I’ll make sure to take tons and send them when I can. Thanks for all of your support!

Love you all!

-Elder Andrus

The newest Elders of District 38-A at the Sao Paulo Temple

The newest Elders of District 38-A

The night view of Sao Paulo from the MTC 

Week 2 - 28 September 2010

Hey! It’s a lot easier for me to send one general email for you and Dad - just because we have no time here to email basically.  Tell Dad sorry for making his email so short but that this one is for both of you :)

So at the beginning of the week, this one Brazilian elder wrote my name in my scriptures. He has the best handwriting ever and he’s been training for like 2 years or something.  I’ll send you guys a picture once I get out in the field and have time to.  It’s pretty amazing. So as I said, my companion is Elder Cook, but this week we got a new elder, Elder Lewis from Spring City, Utah.  So now we have a trio companionship going on.  Every Wednesday we have pizza night here, and it’s pretty weird pizza.  The weirdest (and actually the best pizza here) is the banana chocolate pizza.  It’s soooo good.  So my teachers are Irmao Zamboni and Irmao Waskow.  They are both Brazilian but Irmao Waskow has a polish name. Haha  Irmao Waskow is so funny. He doesn’t speak English very well so we help him out a lot.  He told us that when he was growing up he owned a horse that he named “stupid” and a dog that he named “poopy.”  Oh, and he rides a motorcycle here in Sao Paulo, and the other day he told us he hit a car and broke off his mirror.  But he was so chill about it, and he said a lot of motorcyclists get mad and kick car mirrors off. Haha  He’s hilarious. 

So one thing that really made my week here was when Irmao Zamboni took me out of class to talk to me.  He’s been in the missionary business for about 5 years, and he told me that I was one of the best missionaries he’s met.  I was just in awe, but he said that I was hard working and he could just tell.  Then when we were walking back to the room, he told me that if he had a son, he would want him to be like me.  It was an honor to hear all of this from him and really just made me want to work even harder. 

So I had a funny experience last Friday.  We were sweeping outside on the sidewalk for service when this random Brazilian lady came up to me and started talking to me in Portuguese.  She was talking so fast - I had no idea what she was saying.  Then after like a whole minute, she asked me a question and I just looked at her.  Then she got mad and started walking away.  I felt bad and I wanted to say sorry to her.  But instead of saying the word sorry in Portuguese (desculpe), I yelled thank you (obrigado). Hahaha! My comps were laughing so hard.  It was really funny, but it made me really want to learn the language faster so I can actually talk to people. 

So some of my Brazilian friends here keep telling me I look like the singer in a band called Mcfly.  I have no idea who that is but that’s my new nickname.  I love these Brazilians - they are hilarious.  I got your letters today from you, Dad, and Janna.  Thanks so much.  I love getting mail.  Oh another thing is that these Brazilians taught us a new way to tie a tie.  It’s called the cobra.  It looks way cool, and I’ll send pics of it sometime. And I’ll have to show Dad when I get home.  Sorry if these emails are unorganized and such, but the keyboards here are really weird, and they won’t let us use the enter button on the email.  So it ends up just being a huge paragraph.  

Well the language is going great, and I’m starting to pick it up.  We are starting to teach and do almost everything in Portuguese so we’ll see how this next week goes.  I’m doing great out here so don’t worry about me.  The gospel is great and the CTM is really preparing me to teach what I know to others who need it.  I love you guys and thanks for all of the support.  You’re the best.

Love,

Elder Andrus

Week 1 - 21 September 2010

Hey Family!

First off we barely have any time to email here at the MTC.  They give you 30 minutes from the time you sign on and that’s it!  Glad you got the picture.  I’m really looking forward to getting letters and pictures.  There aren’t very many missionaries here in the CTM because there are over 100 still in Provo.  I’m really grateful that I got my visa as fast as I did! 

So here in Sao Paulo we have guards guarding the CTM 24/7. Yeah it’s crazy haha. Everyone here is really nice and friendly and willing to help us greenies. My teachers are great. They both are really cool and teach us lots.  The language is really tough, but I think I’m catching on pretty well for the first week. I already can’t wait to get out in the mission field though. The Brazilians here are CRAZY. Everyone has such outgoing personalities and are really fun to talk to.  I have a really soft spoken personality compared to everyone else here so I really need to work on being more out going like all these Brazilians. We always try to talk to the natives to help us with the language.  So I went to the doctors here for my throat, and they gave me some Halls to take.  It’s funny because I guess here in Brasil they eat Halls like candy, not just for medical needs haha.

The food here is...interesting.  Not bad but nothing compared to American food.  I hear this is the best food we’ll get here in Brasil though so I guess I won’t complain!  I already sent a couple letters so you’ll probably be getting those within a week or two, I’m guessing.  My companion is Elder Cook, and he’s from California. We also have a girl in our companionship, which is funny.  There isn’t another girl in our district so she has to tag along with us.  Her name is Sister LaBaron, and she’s from Spokane.  My companion and I are doing okay together.  We are rooming with 4 other elders, Elder Evans from Portland, Elder Christian from Sacramento and 2 Brazilians.  Rio should tell Sterling that I think I met one of his good friends here.  I don’t know his name but he told me Sterling trained him when they were on their missions.  He was super excited to know I knew him haha so they must have been really good buds.  A couple Elders told us that a good way to send and receive letters here is through MissionTies.com.  I guess there is a cookie shop called Mr. Cheney´s here who can scan and email my letters to you and print off typed letters to me.  I’m not quite sure but if you would like to look into that you can.

The drivers here in Brasil are insane. There are people standing on the islands in the freeway selling things and the motorcycles just weave in and out of lanes.  Today we went to the Sao Paulo Temple for the first time, and it was really pretty!  It was really small but definitely gorgeous.  Tell Dad congrats! And I hope he finds a job he really enjoys.  My time is running short so I need to wrap this all up.  Letters are really slow, but we can write more than email.  I love all you guys and cantt wait to hear more from you all and what’s going on back home.     

Love,

Elder Andrus

Off to Brazil - 14 September 2010

Tuesday morning, September 14th, Elder Andrus embarked on his full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to serve the people of Belém, Pará, Brazil. His journey began with an emotional farewell at the Sea-Tac Airport.

After 20 exhausting hours of travel, we are happy to report Elder Andrus' safe arrival to the Brazil MTC in Sao Paulo, Brazil.