Elder Sanderson's Mission Adventure: 95 weeks -teaching English and tears

Hey mom and fam =)

How is everyone? I hope that you are all great! Mom and Haylee, I hope you guys survived camp! Just remember, I've been camping for the last 17 months. Surely you guys can do it for a week!

DON'T PUT THIS PART IN THE EMAIL:

Mom, you are the best (you can put that in there if you want haha).

****funny part here ******

Now back to what you can put on the blog-

FOOD: I already have been searching and pondering about what I want to eat when I get home! Snack-wise, I'm just going to have to go to a store and see what wonders are there. As for dinners, I have some requests:

Mom- Lasagna, taco chili, and meat balls and gravy (they can be all in the same night or on different nights if you want =) )

Grandma Huhmann (assuming we'll be on the farm for a visit)- Roast beef and everything good that comes with it!

Joe- Whatever he wants to cook on the grill!

Other than that, feel free to make anything that isn't rice, beans, or spaghetti. We eat way too much of that in the mission. Every day, to be exact.

Our week was pretty good, but we still haven't baptized anyone. I don't know what the deal is, but all of a sudden, the people have turned against us haha. It seems like no one wants to hear our message. No worries though, we'll get there. We also went to a meeting with what I believe was a member of the Brazilian House of Representatives. He found out that I was offering to teach English and invited us to meet with him. We went to his office and he bought us breakfast and then helped me get everything set up. He and his staff were really surprised that we would be willing to teach for free. I told him that I'm happy to help and that that is what Heavenly Father would want us to do. He arranged an area for us to teach in, got some tables and chairs, and began announcing the class on the radio. We're really excited for the first class tonight and will be using it as a means to not only help the community, but also to find new people to teach! I'll be teaching on Mondays and Saturdays until I go home =)

We also went to a mission leadership conference. It was really last-minute, but also really fun! We received training on how to be Zone Leaders and District Leaders and then got to eat pizza. President bought at least 65 pizzas for us all and it was great! I also got to say good bye to some of my friends in the mission. It was bittersweet because it's the last time I'll see many of them until we all get to the Celestial Kingdom. It was great to see Elder Calcagnoto (my companion from Cruzeiro do Sul) and we just sat and told stories for a few hours. Even if I don't see him in person again, we'll keep in contact with Skype and Facebook!

That conference was when I sang the most this week. While we were there, Sister Castro had us sing a song that two Sisters wrote for the mission. It puts the mission into a missionary's perspective and is really good. At the end of the song, there is a part where someone asks, "But do you love Manaus?" and we all respond, "Of course we do," but it would be less formally translated as, "that's a clown question bro." As we sang that last part, I was reminded of just how much I love this mission. It brought tears to my eyes to sing that line. They were tears of happiness and saddness, of excitement, stress, miracles, faith, love, trial, hardship, difficulties, frustrations, and so much more. The best part of it all, I've still got one more month to go! One more month to Go Big and Go Home.

Love you all, thank you for your prayers! Vamos em frente!

Elder Sanderson

****These pics crack me up. He was re-enacting a scene from pirates: he made his comp hold the umbrella.