Cuiaba week 6

May 5, 2014

My sweet family! It has been a great week. The missionary work in our area is quite the challenge and so we are starting from scratch, but all is well. We have been working hard and talking to a lot of the members of the ward. It has been exhausting but we have some awesome things lined up and the lord is putting some awesome folks in our path. The people here are incredible. So happy and enjoy the simple things. Gathering together in there humble homes for rice, beans, and coke is like christmas to them. They are grateful people. The love I feel for the people here is difficult to explain but it is a huge part of my life right now. Their language, culture, it all is so awesome.

       Gratitude really is the secret is to happiness. And as Uchtdorf put it, ´´The catalyst to all Christ like atributes.´´ How freaking true is that. Jon Hanson said ´´soak it all in, even the parts that suck´´ All words of wisdom. Any time that I just want to grant my comps wish and go back to our casa to chill I just think about how grateful I am to be alive, to be serving a mission, in beautiful Cuiabá it makes all easier. I am just grateful for everything. For my family my brothers and sisters, my friends, the people I have met, my leaders all of it!

     This week I figured out the secret to eating here. I just had to switch it up a little bit. The fruit here is awesome and cheap. I make this tasty smoothie with avacado, a little lime, sugar and milk that is amazing, it is called abacate here and they are huge and a little sweeter, I love it. Maracujá... In english I believe it is passion fruit. I buy a few of these, blend up with a tiny bit of sugar and it is literally the greatest juice in the world. Oh, and it knocks you out, haha after you drink it you are bound to be sleepy, I love it. Plenty of other funky apples, bananas, and other staple simple foods, I am feeling healthy and strong as ever. 

      The mission is amazing, I had a pretty special experience on sunday. A guy in our ward got up to bear his testimony, and said I know that gifts of the spirit are real because Elder Anderson has the gift of tongues. I was overwhelmed with the reality that I truly have had divine help with Poruguês. It has been incredibly hard and at times discouraging but I speak Português, I can teach, converse, and understand everyone around me. I learn and study every day, but I can speak. It is all about prayer, faith, working your butt off, and having the guts to try. I have been blessed with a Brazilian companion who helps me a ton with the language and have not had a conversation in English since I arrived but I did what Dad said to do while I was in Texas. Every night after working as hard as I could in Texas (refiners fire) I would pray that god would help me with the language when I got to Brazil. He did. I had to do my part but I now I know that God really does visit his people in there afflictions. Every challenge that we face in this life is an oppertunity to grow. Literally everything that doesn´t kill us will make us stronger, if we let it.

      I am so grateful that I made the decision to serve. I have done some crazy things in my life, but I know that  god knows me, and understands me. I know that Jesus Christ´s grace is suffiencient for all of us. We just have to come unto him. I love you all so much, I am so grateful for everything. Serve, love, and be happy. Enjoy beautiful St. George and the simple beauty that surrounds you. Drink a Mountain Dew for me.

Com Amor,
 Elder Davis Bradley Anderson