Elder Sanderson's Mission Adventure: 51 weeks- Rodeo Rule Breaker!!

Hey there everybody!

Yes, I'm still alive. The internet went out in our city yesterday, so we get to email today! Everything is still going good, and I'm finally 100% health again. My nose was still stuffed up until the other day, but it's all good now. Thank you for all of these pictures!!!! I am missing BYU this year, but will be there in the year to come! Can you believe it's only about a week until my year mark???? It is honestly flying by!

The week was pretty crazy and we had some adventures for sure! To start off the email, I'll answer your questions. Yes, I'm 100% healthy, no, she wasn't baptized and we aren't really teaching her anymore, and no we didn't have baptisms =/ but are hoping for some this week! I'm glad you didn't cry and that the report on the mission went great! My own testimony has grown too during my mission. You learn some really important things, especially how much Heavenly Father loves you, how strong you really are, and how much stronger you can be when you have Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost helping you. I have learned a billion things, and it's only been a year =)

Now for some of the adventures, some of these will be quick, and the others maybe a bit longer.

First off, we were in the street going home on Monday night after a lesson, and were passing by an intersection. There were three or four girls coming to the same intersection from this intersecting street, but we were walking fast, and were going to pass in front of them. As we did so, we were about five or six steps away, and I heard, *whistle whistle* "Paz do Senhor" which is basically saying, "Hey there good looking." I honestly didn't know what to do, and my companion was waiting for me to do something, so I told him, just keep walking and don't look back. We kept walking until we were a ways off, and then started laughing our heads off. I have had some experiences like that here, because they love the Americans, but that was one of the funniest. We called our District Leader to tell him about it, and he just laughed and said good night before hanging up. Later, another Elder asked us why we didn't make a street contact, and I told him there are just some times when it's better not to haha.

We were at lunch the other day, and had eaten until we were about to explode. The sister asked if we wanted to try a dessert she had made, but we each politely said no. However, when it got to my companion, our District Leader, Elder Diaz, said that my companion wanted to eat more. The sister gladly accepted, and filled a cup up with something called Mucusa. It is this weird, white, creamy, lumpy, substance that did not look very good at all. My companion decided to back fire by saying that we all could eat some, so the sister poured us each a glass. We almost threw him out the window for that, but had to focus on eating and not throwing up. We ate it, and it tasted like lumpy Frosted Flakes. It turns out, the lumps are pieces of corn. I honestly never want to eat it again, and we are still giving my comp a hard time about it. He said that if we were going to throw him under the bus, he'd drag all of us with him haha.

WE WENT TO THE RODEO! There was a rodeo and exposition here this weekend! We went as a district and it was quite the adventure. Technically, we could only go on P-day, but it wasn't going to be here on P-day, so we went on Saturday. We went after working all day, arrived in our houses on time, and only spent about $1.50 to get there. As you can see, we justified ourselves, but I still repented and felt much better afterwards. Now, you may ask, Elder Sanderson, "why are you telling us about a story where you broke a rule?" And my response is this, we went to a rodeo. It was awesome! They even had country music from the States for about 2 minutes. It was Holly Jolly Christmas by Alan Jackson, and then another song by him that I've never heard. We also saved our investigator's life! He was drunk and planning on riding the bulls...we ran into him in the stands and convinced him not to do it. So there you have it, the leaders in the mission know, and we have already repented. Did I mention we saved a life? lol It was really fun, and I'll send you guys pictures when my companion sends them to me =)

That's about it for the week, we are really excited for this week, and I am still loving life!

We have transfers in two weeks (the 15th) so we'll see what happens! They say once you are in Cruzeiro, you don't leave Cruzeiro, but I think I might be heading out.

Love you all and miss you all!

Elder Sanderson

******And he sent pictures!!!! Thanks to his awesome companion!!! Yahoo!!!!!*****