BRAZIL!!!

He made it this morning!!  Here is his email:

I made it to the MTC in Brazil! It is freaking awesome so far. Turns out, we're the first group to ever do this in the history of the Church. No pressure I guess! They are telling us that instead of being in class for 2 out of 3 periods of the day, we will be there for 3 of 3...that will either be really helpful or really boring! Sao Paulo is amazing! It's such a big city! On P-day we get to go to the temple here and also get to explore the city with our companions. All of the missionaries in my district have been waiting from 6-12 months for their visas! It's crazy! But 6  of the 20 or so of us are going to Manaus which will be sweet! Gotta go, they only gave us 10 minutes!

 

Love,

 

Elder Sanderson

 

 

PS I dont know when P-day is, but it sounds like it's either Friday or Tuesday. I'll email you whenever it is!

The MTC President also emailed and sent this picture :)

24 weeks on the 24th :)

all of this is from Tara:  today did not go as planned.  I got an email from the church with HD's itinerary for Brazil it said he left today.  It said they would notify him on Thursday.  I didn't email him because I hoped we would get to talk on the phone and I didn't think he would be checking email today.  So imagine my surprise when I got an email from him at 12:16 with these photos:

Why on earth is my child holding a scorpion?!?  His title of this email filled with pics of him holding the scorpion said -you can tell I wasn't too thrilled.  I was so confused.  Was he in Brazil already?  Why is there a cat poster?  Why is it in English?  Is he still in Utah? Again, why is he holding a scorpion and a machete?? Is he emailing me from the airport? So many questions!!  lol  I immediately emailed him back and said "where are you?" he replies "In Utah.  Where are you?"  smarty pants.  He then tells me he heads to brazil tomorrow not today.  I double checked the email we recieved sure enough it said the 24th.  I frantically searched for the number for the mission office, while losing my mind, called and the sweet secreatry told me he was correct he did leave tomorrow.  I told her the last info I had said the 24th.  She was so nice and apologized for not sending me the updated information.  She sent me the correct itinerary and I was so happy to see the date for tomorrow.  He is going to be a part of a new program the church just started where the missionaries who have waited for their visas will go to São Paulo and stay at the MTC for two weeks for a laguage refresher course before they head to their areas.  I think that is so fantastic!!!  Hard to have 6 weeks of such intense language study then four monhts of speaking english again.  D and I emailed back and forth for about 15 minutes and he said he would call us tomorrow!!! So excited we get to hear his voice.  My mom is a flight attendant and she flies for Delta the airline HD is flying to ATL and then onto Brazil she was flying to newark today the gate next to hers?  What would have been Ds flight to ATL!  She thought he was leaving today so she looked for him and left him a care package with the gate agent (she has been flying for 43+ years she knows everybody!) she called me when she landed in newark to say she didn't see him.  The first officer had even gotten off the plane while the flight attendants were prepping everything to look for HD he was going to bring him on board so he could say goodbye to his grandma.  :)  so sweet.  She flies again tomorrow but she is flying into DC so she might not be near his gate.  She is going to take another care package just in case.  :)  such an emotional day.  one more to go.  Here are the rest of his picutres:

their zone t-shirts

the comps badges.  Love this photo.  Hopes he takes one with all his comps and roomates.

Lunch

The house he lives in :)  just the basement apartment -Sierra goes to church with this guys cousin.

the Christus statue at the Salt Lake temple 

There is a lady in their ward who loves missionaries she has their pictures up.  Currently HD is #1 lol

The Salt Lake Temple great shot!  I am jealous he went in this temple.  I am going when I go home this summer!!

23 weeks

*********a disclaimer from Tara --I have been using Siri to type my emails.  She doesn't always understand what I am saying so she puts in her own words lol I try to read what I told her to type and correct any errors but I obviously didn't catch them all yesterday LOL -hey  In my defense I was watching the Olympics with Sierra amd chatting and typing so there was a lot going on :) next week I'll type it. This letter may seem a little disjointed from him too as there were a few things he asked me not to post on the blog.*********

Lots of progress this week! We have 7-9 people we are going to try and put on date to be baptized by Friday! So there is definitely progress bbeing made! I got the Valentine's box, thank you! But please don't use Siri to type any more messages haha, it made my head hurt to try and see where sentences stopped or began. That is awesome! Good for Tyler!     *****[his friend Tyler got his visa and left for Brazil this week]*****.  The few days heads up is perfectly normal. They'll tell me and then I'll leave probably 3 days later. I feel great! There is 0 stress about anything concerning Brazil in my life. I'm happily serving the Lord exactly where he needs me. Gee, I can't even imagine what it would be like to have to go to church everyday...=p That's awesome that Sierra came home for a few days! And again, please don't use Siri anymore when you write me. It adds a tremendous amount of work to my emailing and we only have so much time to do it. Love you! 

We've had a great week this week and the temple was awesome! we went to a valentine's dance that we didn't know would be a dance for one of our wards haha it was awesome! They played: Ice Ice Baby and we had to do a dace off, the missionaries, the bishopric, and others from the ward council. They also played, I like to move it, we are family, footloose, faithfully, and a bunch of other good songs! It was fun to be able to hear them haha! My new pet peeve in life is Spanish. I am so sick of people either claiming I speak Spanish or talking to me in spanish just because they see "Cristo" and then assuming that I understand it. 

Sorry for the short email today, but we are in a rush!

Love you all!

Elder Sanderson

22 weeks

Hey there familia de Elder Sanderson!

My birthday was awesome! It was a ton of fun because I got to spend it with my District all day. Friday's are our weekly planning sessions from 10-4 so it was nothing but laughter and more funny memories. The pants fit perfect! The cupcakes were good too. You sent 12 of them and there are 12 missionaries in my district, but Elder Day and I decided we're going to be selfish and eat them all. Not very missionary-like I suppose, but it was my birthday =p I got the mosquito net, but not the tie...I'll keep looking for it though. Were they supposed to come in the same package? I also got the bank card and have activated it. Is my Wells Fargo account closed now? We've seen some of the Olympics too haha. There was a family we are working with who are less active and are die hard sports fans! They said they'll let us come over when the snowboard halfpipe is on haha. It was cool to see the USA competing, even if it was just for a little bit. We actually saw the girl go down on the snowboard last night! She was definitely knocked out for a few moments we think. Thank you for all of the Birthday stuff too! Tell everyone that I said thank you! 

We had a pretty good, but somewhat slow, week this week. I got to hear George Strait on the radio when we went out to lunch earlier in the week and that was awesome! I also drank some "apple juice" that looked like water and tasted gross. But I didn't die, so that's alright! I went out with one of our Zone Leaders on exchanges. He is a Spanish-speaking missionary and we went to his area so I had to try and understand spanish all day. For the most part, I got what was being said because the words were so close to Portuguese. I mostly just said the prayers in Portuguese and tried not to fall asleep in lessons. We were at the DI on Saturday and these two girls who were probably 10 ran up to Elder Day and I and started singing, "Hey I just met you, and this is crazy, but here's some scriptures, get baptized maybe?" And then ran away. It was very interesting haha. We also had chicken hearts thrown at us from some sister missionaries in our district. Apparently, they are common food in Brazil, and the sisters had gotten them from a Brazilian restaurant in SLC. We couldn't drive away fast enough haha. I can now say that I've had chicken hearts thrown at me.

That's about it for this week, no news on Brazil yet, so I think I'll finish the month here!

Love you all,

Elder Sanderson

PS I also got a package from the Wilkersons tell them I said thank you! I am going to send them a card. 

Pictures 

This is Elder Raveneau from France he's awesome!! 

Us attempting to move a mattress with twine and duct tape

My birthday cake

Our district climbing the mountain of missionary work 

Dinner 

Elders

Happy 20th birthday buddy boy!

Can't believe he is 20.  Can't believe he is on a mission.  Can't believe he is headed to Brazil very, very soon.  Can't believe he has gained 15lbs. Can't believe he is my boy.  Can't believe I got lucky enough to be his momma.  XoxoOOOOOOOOOOOOOO 

Lots of big hugs for my buddy boy.  

Happy 20th birthday D!!!!  

PS we sang to you tonight even though you weren't here :) -just saying I am not skipping a year of singing to you on your birthday.  Not ever!  :) 

Feb. 3, 2014 -21 weeks

Sounds like it's been an awesome week for you guys! That car show looks awesome! Too bad about the game...we were getting updates from members lol. We didn't get to watch any of it though because they announced that we had to be at a zone activity from 5-9 on Sunday...It was fun, but not the Super Bowl! Not much else going on this past week. I am antsy for Brazil, but still understand that there's a reason I'm here. Sarah is doing great, finally getting transferred after 6 months haha! She spent a third of her mission in the same area, that's crazy compared to me! Bountiful is great because of all the food we get. Elder Day and I were on a junkfood hangover this week...I might not ever eat junckfood again in my life! Would you mind sending more Si quotes? Thanks! Also, could you please send me the picture from FB with me and my ROTC flight mates on our combat day? Elder Day wanted to see it! 

In other news, I got to go back to Glendale on Saturday to do my first actual baptism! Elder Cooper and I had been teaching them and then I got transferred, but they got baptized Saturday and wanted me to do the baptism! I have pictures and will make sure to send them to you! =)

Sorry for the short letter, there is seriously NOTHING that went on this week. We didn't even teach anybody.

Love you guys,

Elder Sanderson