76 weeks- Surprise!

Hey there country folk! That should be your new code names or something, I can be jungle boy haha. 

I'm so glad to hear that you guys are doing good and loving it there! I'm so glad that the youth program was welcoming and that Haylee liked it! I've been praying for her every day this week =) Heavenly Father answers our prayers, without a doubt. He has been blessing Elder Battraw and I like crazy, but I'll to that later in the email. I've been praying for all of you =) I'm glad to hear that the neighbors are welcoming and that the town is better than PG county haha. I've considered moving back there one day, but on the Virginia side I think, we'll see how it all goes. 

The house looks really nice! I feel like we've reached a new level of fanciness (is that a word?) because of the fireplace. We're moving up in the world haha. The house looks really nice though =) When are grandma and grandpa Huhmann moving in? Haha

And on to my adventures! You can share this one with the new ward: We are planning on NINE BAPTISMS this week! It is going to be awesome! We have a potential of 11 or 12, but are pretty sure we can get these nine in the water =) It is going to be amazing! The week will be full of work, fasting, prayers, and tons of running! We also got our transfer call this week, so I will be staying one more in Manacapuru with Elder Battraw. We are pretty excited about it, but were also wanting a bit of a change. This is three transfers together and that doesn't happen very often during the mission, so it's weird that we'll be together one more. But, with nine baptisms, it really doesn't matter that much haha!

We also got kidnapped by a member this week. He was visiting from Manaus and his extended family lives in Manacapuru. We thought we were getting a ride to the church, but he instead took us to a surprise birthday party for his nephew. We got there and he declares to everyone, "These guys are doing exactly what Pedro (his son who is serving a mission) is doing and are going to start visiting you guys." That was it, we then made friends with all of them, ate cake and pizza, and marked days to go back and teach them all. Three of the guys who were there are going to either get baptized this week or next week, and the others will be sure to follow =) 

We also went to a wedding for two people who are in the other ward. They got married and then were baptized right after! It was awesome to see and get to be there with them. They know us really well too, and that's how we scored an invite. Brazilian weddings are pretty much just like American ones, but we didn't have any music or dancing. It was just the ceremony, baptsim, and then food =) There was food, so we didn't complain =) 

Other than that, we are just doing a mission-wide fast today because Elder Cook is going to speak to us tomorrow! It is going to be awesome! The entire mission is getting together for the first time in more than 3 or 4 years for this! We're already in Manaus and are just waiting for tomorrow morning =) It will be cool to see all of my MTC District! It will be the first time we're all together since the MTC in Provo! I don't know Elder Herrera, but Elder Battraw (my companion) says they were in the same MTC district together. I'll keep a look out for him tomorrow. 

That's really about it for our week =) I could maybe write more, but that was all of the important/exciting stuff from the week!

Love you all! Keep sending pictures!

Elder Sanderson

Week 75 -Carnaval isn't for kids :)

Hey there everybody!

Did you guys already buy shirts that say, "Don't mess with me, I'm local" haha you need to if you didn't! It was weird to see the living room empty after it having things in it for the last 10 years. I'm excited for the change though, even though I'll really just be more of a visitor =) How is everything today? Have you guys made it to the base yet? How is the weather today? Hopefully it's great and going good. By the way, you guys should have all told that guy three different places haha that made me laugh.

We had a pretty relaxing week down here. It was HOT, but that's been normal since the day I got here haha. We seem to be lacking rain, but that's normal across the whole country. It's pretty bad when the Amazon Rain Forest is out of rain...

I don't have too much to report on, but I'll share some bits and pieces of the week. Sorry, if it's not very much, but that's life these days. 

We taught a less-active member of the Church this week who is 88 years-old. That is almost unheard of among brazilians. Usually, if they made it to like 65 or 70 they lived a good life. She is going to keep going for a good number of years to come too! She was there with all of her great grandkids who are older teenagers, but was working more than they were in the bakery that they own. She gave us juice, cake, water, almost coffee haha and was really nice. We tried to leave a message with her, but every time we started to share it, she would say, "Of course you can share a message, come back whenever you'd like." haha and we didn't really get anywhere. She likes to talk a lot too, so the appointment lasted about 2 hours... We're excited to have found them though and are going to try and baptize her grandkids =) It will just be hard to get a word in!

We also had an interesting experience at lunch during the week. We were eating and just making small talk with the member. Somehow, it came up talking about how after the mission your next job is to get married. My companion says, "Elder Sanderson, is going to get married really quick after his mission." The member replies, "My daughter's almost done with school!" Hahaha it was hilarious! We just quickly changed the subject to something else and then left afterwards. So, if it doesn't work out with Sarah, looks like I've got options down here. 

Thursday, we had a crazy lucky day! We were leaving a lesson and then a member pulls up in his car and asks, "Elders, where are you going?" We told him we were headed to the chapel to do some contacts in the street and then he asked us if we wanted a ride. That doesn't EVER happen, so we gladly accepted (especially since it was 3 in the afternoon and 95 degrees outside). He then gave us 20 reais to get something to eat! That wasn't the end of our luck though, we also ran into a family from my comp's first area that is visiting our city. They saw us and pulled over to talk. They took our number down and then said they would call later and order a pizza for us! We had already decided to get some ice cream using the money that the member had given us, so we ended up getting pizza and chocolate shakes! It was one of the luckiest days I've had in Brazil haha. 

Carnaval started this week too...it's just a party from 8-2 every single night until Thursday. We had to walk through it to get home yesterday, but apparently we were are the "family friendly Carnaval" because as we got to the other side, they made an announcement that all people who were less than 18 had to leave because Carnaval isn't for kids. It was crazy, there were already people who had been drinking way too much, but then they basically said that was just the tailgate party haha. Luckily, none of the serious partying starts until later at night after the missionaries are already at home. It's going to be a hard week to teach though because people will just be hung-over and partying. Hopefully, we'll have a baptism though =)

That was really about it for the week! Turned out longer than I thought it would =) Next week we get to see Elder Cook, so everyone is happy about that! It should be interesting because the first thing that President Castro told the mission in his email today was, "Dear Elders and Sisters, I am happy with the work that you all are doing in this marvelous Brazil Manaus Mission, but I'm not satisfied with the results. We need to be more productive." Haha should be a good conference =) 

Love you all! Send me a ton of pictures next week of everything!

Elder Sanderson

Week 74 -pizza pizza

Hey there everyone!

Sounds like it was a week full of happiness and tears, hope you guys are doing better now though. Tell Haylee to try and imagine moving every six weeks...that's about what I'm averaging in the mission haha. It's not any easier for us, but just like us, Heavenly Father will bless you guys too! 

I hope you told everyone goodbye for me when you were at church! I'm going to miss all of them too. I will try and get better about sending emails to them =) As much as that rock idea is interesting, I think I'll stick to my journal, then I don't have to carry a rock around with me. We can only have so much weight in the suitcase and a rock is just extra weight. Speaking of which, I'm going to try and send a package to grandma chelle because I have too many t-shirts. I've gotten some shirts from the mission, Christmas presents, etc and now have like 14 t-shirts. I'll try and get it sent once I figure out how much it's going to cost me. 

We had a pretty good week this week! My birthday was awesome and it still feels weird to be 21. We ate a lot of food and one of our member families made me lasagna and cake for my birthday! They sang happy birthday to me and it was a great way to end the night. We had wanted to get a baptism that day too, but it ended up having to happen on Sunday instead. I still count it as a birthday present from Heavenly Father =) 

Our zone training in Manaus was awesome and we had a fun time with the missionaries there. The apartment where we stayed only has one bedroom and so we crammed six missionaries in there. We were as follows: two hammocks one on top of the other, two mattresses on the floor underneath the hammocks, and then two missionaries in the bunk-bed. I was in the hamock on top and was higher up than the top bed on the bunk-bed. It was crazy! We also almost froze to death because of how cold it was with the AC haha. Nobody got up to turn it down, so we just kind of froze lol. I had to put my towel over my legs and then put my arms inside of my shirt haha. 

We went to our training and it was good, then went back to Manacapuru. The rest of our week was the usual, just running around and trying to teach everyone. Here's my "trunky" moment of the week: I GO HOME IN 6 MONTHS!!! As of Wednesday! It's crazier to try and imagine that than it is to try and imagine being 21. 

I'm feeling good. I was feeling a little iffy last night, so I think we'll go to the hospital later. They'll just stick an IV in me and then I'll be better =) What made me laugh this week was when we were in Manaus. We went to a pizzaria to get some dinner and they had a large pizza for 15 reais! That is waaaay cheap, so we all decided to get one. The waiter walks up and says, "what would you like?" Elder Thomas replies, "I want a large pizza." The guy writes it down and starts to walk away, Elder Thomas goes, "wait, they want something too." The guy looked confused and then we all ordered a large pizza for ourselves. It was awesome! The guy made us move inside because the tables we were sitting at were too small to hold them haha. We ate every single bite! We've laughed about that for the rest of the week =) 

My favorite person this week was Lucas! He's my favorite because he got baptized! =D

That's about all I got folks =) The week was good, thank you all for your prayers and birthday wishes and everything!

Love you all,

Elder Sanderson

Week 73-happy Birthday to me!

Hello everyone!

Happy early birthday to me haha. We are excited for my birthday and even have a member family who is going to make me a cake and lasagna! Lasagna is really good here in Brazil =) 

You guys had a crazy week! I was pulling for the Seahawks...but I'm glad it wasn't like last year's super bowl... I was surprised to see Jeff Gordon will retire too, but glad I'll get to see him in his last races, hopefully he wins the cup this year! 

Haha why is it that every time I go somewhere you guys meet the President or go to the White House? I know that it was always just you and Joe, but I didn't even stand a chance in Brazil. That is a hilarious story! You don't look like the mom of a 21 year-old and I feel like I have the body of a 60 year-old. The mission will do that to you. But, I'm not sick anymore, so it's all good! The fever has been gone since last Sunday =) 

That house looks awesome! I'm excited to go see it! And I won't have to sleep on the couch when I get home! That was honestly a big concern of mine for coming home. Is it close to the base? The neighborhood looks nice too =)

I'm glad Grandpa got such a nice funeral =) I have been thinking about him a lot this week and how great of a guy he was. He did a lot in his life, if I can do half as much I think I'll be okay =)

Tell grandma that I'm praying for her and thank you for talking to Dick Cheney for me! Don't lose that note! I think that is awesome =) I'll try and send her an email, but I got a lot of emails this week.

And now on to my adventures!

 We went to the hospital again...because my companion almost broke his foot playing basketball last week on p-day. It swelled way up and was purple from bruising, so we decided it would be good to get it looked at. Everything turned out fine and he is just fine now. While we were there, a lady asked me to write my name down on a paper because she thought it was pretty. I basically gave her myautograph haha. I made sure to write the name of the Church at the bottom so that she would know where to find us and then get baptized!

I also got a package from grandma Shirley =) It had an awesome tie and a new BYU shirt! There were also new pictures of the family. I especially liked the picture she sent of grandma millie and grandpa val. I have them all up on my study desk =)

Remember Anderson? I told you all about his baptism last week. He is WAY better! We went and visited him yesterday and you could just see and feel the Light of Christ inside of him. He smiled more than we've seen him smile and was just happy. It is amazing to see how different of a person he is now that he has the gospel of Jesus Christ blessing his life =)

Mom, could you send me Sarah's address? I don't have her home address and have some letters to send her. 

Also, we found out yesterday that Elder Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve will be visiting us at the end of February! He is going to meet with all of the bishops in Manaus and then requested a meeting with the missionaries as well =D We're excited for that!

That's about it for the week! Love you all and thank you for the birthday wishes and love!

Elder Sanderson

Week 72- out of the font

Hello family!

Can nobody wait a few more months before they go to the other side? I had been hoping to see grandpa Val and grandpa Allgood both, but they just decided to head on out. I'm grateful to hear that grandpa's passing was good and that Grandma Allgood was there to show him the way. He was always a fighter though, so she might of had to drag him a little bit too haha. I'm sorry to hear about Sister Hansen passing away too. I didn't know her as much as I know President Hansen, but love them both. I will try and find a way to send President Hansen an email. Tell grandma Chelle that I'm praying for her too =) 

Our week was pretty cool down here! I was sick again, with a really bad fever on Saturday night, but I think I just sweat it out. I had to get up and change my sheets in the middle of the night because of how sick I was, but I am feeling much better now =) I've also been taking medicine round the clock to help fight it. I also received a blessing from the other missionaries, so no worries! 

I also got the package that the Sandersons sent me! It was amazing! There was all kinds of good stuff, but my favorite thing would have to be the family picture. It even had the Sanderson touch because everyone was making a funny face haha. I keep it on my desk where I can see it while I'm studying =) It makes me miss home, but also reminds me that home isn't even that far away! 

We had our interviews with President Castro this week too! It was fantastic! Every time I talk to President Castro, I can just feel the Holy Ghost and know that he is guided by Him. He talked to me about my family, then asked me to tell him 4 things: 3 good things that I'm doing, and one challenge that I'm dealing with. I was the first to be interviewed, so I wasn't really prepared. I have the list at home, and have forgotten one of the three good things, but remember the rest:

1. I am praying deeper than I have before. I feel like I'm really talking to Heavenly Father and know that He is listening.

2. I am repenting in the moment. That was the advice of Elder Klebingat

And my challenge is that I'm not exercising in the mornings. I am getting up on time and everything, but I'm not exercising. He told me that I need to exercise so that I don't have problems with my knees when I get home. President explained about how muscles and cartilage work, then told me that my brain would also be able to work a lot faster. He also told me that my immune system will be strengthened and that I will have more energy. I will definitely follow his advice =) 

Lastly, here is our group of miracles from the week:

We had a very productive Saturday which included me having to pull someone out of the baptismal font by force. Yes, by force. Usually, you have to pull them IN by force, not out. (just kidding, it's always them entering by their own free will of course) But this guy was determined to get baptized that second. The only problem: there was about 4 inches of water in the font, not nearly enough to baptize him. He hadn't been interviewed for his baptism yet, and he wasn't even in baptismal clothing, but he didn't seem to understand why that matters. So, he starts to enter into the water and I grab his sleeve and say, "no, you can't get baptized right now, it will have to be tonight after we fill the font up." To which he replies, "no, there is enough water here already and I want to get baptized right now," and then proceeds to enter into the font. I grab his arm this time and once again say no. He continues into the water, so what did I do? I stepped down into the font and lifted him out of the font by his arms. It was nuts! I have never heard about anyone doing that haha. He then looked at me and said, "I don't want to get baptized anymore," and leaves the church. 

However, that wasn't the end of his adventure. We've already been teaching him for a number of weeks, but hasn't gotten baptized yet because of timing issues or problems with commandments. We went to his house yesterday afternoon because he hadn't come to church for the first time in like four weeks. When we got there, he once again informed us that he didn't want to get baptized. When we asked why, he simply replied, "because." I asked if we could simply leave a message with him and he agreed. We read Alma 7:10-16 with him and explained about the love that Jesus Christ has for him and how baptism should be his way of showing his love for Jesus Christ. We showed him a picture of Jesus Christ getting baptized and he asked us how we know that that is how the baptism works, so we turned to 3 Nephi 11:16-24ish which show Christ teaching the Nephites about baptism. He then said he wanted to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, not in the name of the Son (people have a lot of problems with that here) and so we explained that the Savior taught in John 3:5 that baptism has two parts: water and the Spirit. He gets the water part in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, but the confirmation ends by saying, "In the name of Jesus Christ, amen." He asked to once again be baptized and we baptized him yesterday night!!!! It was a fight, but that's how it always goes =) 

Love you all! Remember how much the Savior loves you and that He is ALWAYS by our side, even if we don't want Him to be, He's there =)

Elder Sanderson

P.s mom, please send me an email for President Hansen if you can, I tried to find it, but couldn't. 

71 weeks! Staying in Manacapuru

Hey there family =)

The week was pretty good, but not free of the sickness. I was able to work more or less, but didn't really kick the sickness until yesterday. I just kept a fever all week that came and went, but that was about it. I am feeling better though =) 

We really didn't have an eventful week either, so I'm sorry if the email isn't too long this week. We had transfer calls last night, and I'm staying another transfer in Manacapuru! I'll be staying with the same comp, but am still excited for it. The biggest goal I have for this transfer: WORK! I just want to work, work, work this transfer. I have been feeling that we need to work more, and Elder Battraw seems to think so too.

It's still raining a lot, but it is really nice because it is getting to be almost "chilly" here. I know that sounds crazy, but it's true haha. The people are all getting sick in the city too because they are feeling the cold that comes and goes with the rain.

How is the move coming along? Who's going to the Super Bowl? Does it look like it's going to be a good game? Not too many questions, but a few I'm curious about =) When you get the chance, you should listen to Mitt Romney's talk from BYU's forum in November, it's really good! =) I'm listening to it right now. He is really funny, but it also very spiritual. 

I know this email isn't very exciting, but that is really about it for the week. I'm still doing great and loving life! We are hoping to have a baptism this week, next week, and the week after as well! =) It should be great, but we'll have to really work for it too! We also get to go to Manaus on Wednesday to go to the temple! We'll stay the night there and then have interviews with President the next day =) I'm excited to be going back to the temple, it will be refreshing and uplifting. 

Love you guys! Hope your week goes great and that you are seeing the Lord's Hand in your life!

Elder Sanderson

70 weeks -cold and rainy

********Tara here: when I emailed him I typed "hello buddy boy" and I mistyped something So it ended up saying buffoon boy lol.  Funny coincidence that I woke up in the night right around 3 not feeling well either.  Must have had some sympathy sickness for my kiddo.  :) ************

Hey everybody! I'm glad I'm not a buffoon too =p that wouldn't be very good at all.  *******

Those Cabbage Patch Kids definitely don't have to be lonely haha. I'm sure Joe just used that hat to pick up all the girls! I need to get one! 

It was pretty cold this week too! We were just trying to stay dry through it all. It rained cats and dogs this week almost EVERY DAY. It was crazy! We just tried to move fast and keep out of it. It was nice though because it got cooler and we didn't sweat very much =) Last night was crazy though. I got to not be feeling well when we were at the church for Ward Council after lunch. I just felt really tired and started to get aches and pains in my body. We went to Ward Council and then straight home. I thought I had a fever, but the thermometer said otherwise. I was just really hot before I went to sleep, but I took medicine and that helped a little. At about 2 or 3 in the morning, I woke up and was FREEZING cold. It was so weird. My body hurt any time I moved it to another part of the bed and I just was cold. I turned my fan off and shut the window, but was still cold. I was actually shivering because of how cold I was. I went to my suitcase and pulled out me jeans, socks, and a t-shirt to try and help, then went back to my bed. It was the first time in Manaus that I wanted the sun to come back out haha. I woke up and wasn't feeling too much better, but it has gotten better as the day progressed. We played basketball at the church this morning with some of the young men, but don't worry, I sat out....for the first game. It was 4 brazilians, a chilean, and an American who is a band kind of guy vs a sports kind of guy. The sorriest thing I've ever watched. It is a good thing that they didn't have a ref haha. I was just calling fouls to myself every two seconds, "Double dribble, travel, travel, foul, foul, reaching foul, double dribble, etc" haha and I couldn't let it go on any longer. They had taken about 10-15 shots a piece and it was 2 to 1. I stood up, subbed in for one of the brazilians, and then played the rest of the game. We won =) 

We went to Manaus earlier in the week too =) It was just for a Zone Training and it was fun. The travelling was kind of sucky (we left at 5am) but the bus was nice. We stayed there until about noon and then headed back to our city. It's only about a two-hour drive, and I took some cool pictures =) The worst part was having to carry a box of Books of Mormon (about 40 of them) through the streets of Manaus until we got back to the bus stop. We walked about an hour taking turns carrying the dang thing haha. I looked at Elder Battraw and asked, "Do we even need these? Why don't we just give them all out right now?" But we only had about 3 more in our house, so we had to continue on. We made it home though! 

Honestly, that's about all from the week haha. It just rained and rained and rained. We are still trying to get some baptisms this coming week, so we'll see how it works out =) We also have transfers on Sunday! I'm pretty sure I'll stay here, but I've said that before...I hope I stay here though =) I will let you all know on Monday!

Love you guys! 

Elder Sanderson