Elder Sanderson's Mission Adventure: Dec. 30 -16 weeks

Oi minha familia!

Big rumors going around that are coming from Brazil! One of the Elders who went down there already from my MTC district says that they are expecting 50 missionaries next transfer! Hopefully that means I am one of them!

Christmas was great! I loved to see you guys and it was great to talk to you! I definitely thanked Heavenly Father for the blessing of technology! We had a great rest of our day and spent it with lots of laughter. At the end of the night, it was back to business and we received a call to go and give a blessing to someone who was sick. I didn't realize how many blessings I would be a part of as a missionary! We truly are the servants of the Lord and representatives of Jesus Christ. I'm also very grateful to hold such a great responsibility. The hard part is making sure I don't let Heavenly Father down haha.

We had an interesting couple of days after Christmas. One night, we helped two guys push their car down the street after it ran out of gas. After we began to talk to them, we realized that they were high and that they honestly didn't know what was going on. We then were on our way to the Stake Center and saw a guy cross the street in front of us to this park that is not a safe place to be. He kept looking and us and was dressed in all dark clothes. All of a sudden, he began walking towards us and saying, "Irmanos Irmanos" (brothers in spanish) and I thought to myself, "Here we go, probably going to get mugged." He walked up to us and just started to cry. He said, "I need help, I want to change my life." He had a beer can in his hand, but we asked him if he wanted to go to the church with us and said we could help him. He agreed and threw the beer can off to the side of the road. We went to the stake center and nobody was there so all of the doors were locked. We decided to check them anyways, just in case. Elder Cooper said that he said a prayer and basically told Heavenly Father that if He wanted us to teach this guy the door was going to have to be open. Sure enough, we found a door that had been left unlocked. We went into the foyer and sat down with our new friend. He kept saying he felt empty and that he wanted to know why we are all here. He then told us that nobody knows why we're here. My companion and I looked at each other and then at him and said, "Well actually, we know exactly why we're here." We then explained the Plan of Salvation and then gave him a blessing! It was one of the coolest things ever and the only reason it happened is because we did our part in talking to EVERYONE and weren't afraid to open our mouths.

I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of our lives. That when we accept it and it's teachings, we will be blessed in ways that we never even realized we could be blessed. I know that as we all do our part in Heavenly Father's plan, that he will keep us all safe and allow us to be able to do all that is required of us. I am grateful to be a missionary, no matter what I do, who I meet, or where I am, I'm on the Lord's errand, and that's one of the greatest blessings I've ever had in my life!

Love you all,

Elder Sanderson

More pics from the baptism last week.