Philippin' Awesome: KNIVES, GUNS AND AN AWESOME STORY!

Week 10
Monday, August 22, 2016

Dear Friends and Family,

Crazy story of the week:

Last Monday (when our p-day was over), Elder Paxton and I decided to meet a less active family at their house. We went to the area where the they live and were trying to find the family's home. This super drunk guy helped us...it was pretty funny some of the stuff he did. We found the family and were just talking with them and getting to know them. The mom left the room to go grab something. Suddenly, there was a lot of commotion outside and the commotion just kept getting louder and louder. One of the little girls ran into the house screaming, and right behind her was the mom. The mom said there were two drunk guys fighting outside, both of them had knives and apparently one had a gun. When the dad heard this, he grabbed his wooden billy club and ran outside. It was crazy and we immediately hit the floor and began praying. Everything ended up being okay and no one got hurt. Isn't alcohol just awesome? Haha. It was scary, but at least I have an cool story!

This week was really good. We've been teaching a lot and finding a lot of new investigators. One of our investigators, "R", is progressing really well. He's been coming to church and keeping his commitments. He's the only non-member in his family and so he has good influences around him. Another awesome investigator we have is Brother "M". He is really set on learning more about the gospel. He asks really good questions and really wants to be baptized. He struggles however, to keep his commitments. It's hard for him to get to church because he just can't find the money to pay for a trike ride. He is awesome though and he really loves learning about the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

We had a cool experience this week...the Elders we live with had a baptism. The Bishop baptized performed the baptism. It was such a good and super spiritual experience.

Some awesome news came this week. It looks like Elder Paxton and I will be moving into a new apartment. It's way nice...it's just a studio apartment that is so much closer to our area. It will make us much more effective. We are pumped to get out of that other house.

The food is great and I am trying everything here. (If any of you know Elder Andersen, you know this is huge!) My favorite is the fruit here, it is sooooo unbelievably good. I could live off of it. it honestly doesn't even compare to fruit in the U.S.

The work is great here, and I am loving it. Even though at times it can be hard, it is all worth it when we meet people who want to learn about the gospel. I love the Philippines, and the people here are so awesome.

Have a great week,

Elder Andersen

A few other comments from our family letters:
"This week has been great, I feel like I am adjusting well. The language is coming along great. I've had some really cool experiences with the language and being able to speak it without having to think about what I am saying."