BAPTISM, BAZOOKA and BEER

Week 41

Monday, March 27, 2017

Hello Friends and Family,

I hope you all had a great week.  This week I have a few stories... haha!

This week's crazy story:

So as I said last week, the Assistants came up to Pandan for "L's" interview.  (Of course she passed and the baptism was amazing!)   On Monday, Elder Cobabe was driving us around and we were showing him  potential new meeting houses... President Cruz wanted him to check them out with us.  Elder Cobabe pulled the truck down this alley and he needed to turn around... the alley led into the beach.  He decided to drive into the beach... I said jokingly, "I hope we don't get stuck"...that' is exactly what happened!  We got stuck really bad!.  After about five minutes of pushing and trying to get the truck out, we realized that it wasn't gonna happen.  Luckily, there was a bunch of people on the beach and they happily jumped in to help.  After about 25 minutes of pushing and putting trees and ply-wood i\under the car,  we finally got the truck out!   Elder Cobabe said,  "lets's give them money for maryenda," (which just means snacks.)  So we told them thank you and gave them like 200 pesos for them to go buy maryenda.  They were so excited for the money and as soon as they got it they said,  "LET'S GO GET BEER!!"  SO... we essentially bought them beer.  II guess t's okay...Ithey have their agency.  It was really funny though.  

Second story:

Later this week I got a call from Elder Cobabe.  He told me there was a big package in the office with the words Titleist" on it. (My parents are awesome and sent me a couple of old golf clubs so that I could play a little on my p-days.)   Elder Cobabe continued to tell me that when President Cruz saw the package, he said, 'oh... there's that bazooka I ordered.'"  I died laughing...SOOO funny!

The week:

This week was a fairly normal week.  We've been spending some time looking for a new meeting house and a new house to live in.  President Cruz really wants us closer to the bunwa, or center of town, so every morning we've been looking.  It looks like we have found one of each, they just need to be checked.  I'm not sure that I'll still be here when we move though.  I'm really good at finding new houses... haha, (I think they should send me to areas that need new homes and find them because I found a really good one in Dumangas, and a good one here haha.)  This week ended in the best way possible with "L" being baptized.  It was a really good baptism. We ended up doing the baptism at this resort. It wasn't as cool as baptizing in the ocean, but still really great! The day of the baptism was also the birthday of one of our members. We had a bunch of great food after the baptism.    I bought two cakes, one for the birthday, one for the baptism.  

Yesterday we had our District Conference.  It was a lot of fun and a really good conference.  We had to wake up at 4am and travel about 7 hours. President and Sister Cruz spoke and also a General Authority.  The teaching is going good.  We have investigators who are actually keeping their commitments and really want to know the truth.  It's very exciting.  

The Language:

I've had a few people ask me how the language is... I think this experience will describe the language here in Pandan.  SO... when Elder Cobabe conducted the baptismal interview with Luc, he said  that he asked her the first question in 

Kar-ah, and Luc answered in ilonggo, so he asked the next question in ilonggo, and she answered in Tagalog, so he was just like ok... I'll do it in Tagalog.  Pandan is a weird place language wise, it's pretty tough and kind of a melting pot of languages,  but so much fun!

That's about all I have for this week.  I love this work, and I love being a missionary!

Love,

Elder Andersen

Baptism Day

"L's" Baptism

EIGHT HOUR JOURNEY

Week 40
Monday, March 20, 2017

Hello friends and family I hope you all had a great week!

This week I don't have a crazy story.  We went to Iloilo this week, which was fun and hard at the same time.  On Wednesday, we woke up at six and headed to Iloilo at seven.  Our Area is the second farthest area from the mission home and our trip took eight hours...it was rough!  On the ceres, (bus) they play movies the whole time, and I didn't want the "worldly" things surrounding us for eight hours, so I was able to bring my usb that has a bunch of Mormon movies.  We became friends with the Driver and Conductor, and they played our Mormon movies all the way there.    It was funny to just see six missionaries enjoying these movies and everyone else was like... HUH?! It was awesome though.  And then, the other day that same ceres passed by us and the Conductor and Driver were honking like crazy and waving at us.  

When we got to Iloilo, our first stop was of course Angles, my favorite burger place.  It's as cheap of a burger as you'll get... so cheap that it's not a surprise when there's a bone in the meat, but it's so goooodddd.  They don't have any in Antique so I always have to get some when we're down there.  In Dumangas, Elder Paxton and I ate there every night... haha, I love it so much.  To put it in American dollars, it's 50 cents for 2 burgers, very cheap!  

On to the week. We had interviews on Wednesday... that was good.  It was funny because it was a companionship interview and President was looking at our baptisms.  He saw that we had three in January, and one in February, and President asked if we'd be having any this month.  We told him we have an investigator ready, but the Zone Leaders couldn't make it up to interview her.  So he was like, "I have an idea..."  He called Elder Cobabe in and told him to come up to Pandan to interview "L".  He wants her baptized this week because we are "setting an example for the mission."  It was cool to hear that.  President is really happy with our work, and Elder Cobabe is coming up here tonight to interview "L".  "L" is so happy that we could move her baptism to Saturday.  

On Thursday, we had our Zone Conference.  It was awesome, I learned so much.  What we were taught works...it's this thing called inspiration...haha.  It was also so fun to hang out with Elder Cobabe for a while.  I miss him so much .  Then after Zone Conference, we headed back to San Jose and slept there because there weren't any more Ceres leaving for the night.  Friday we headed back home got here at like 1pm and went to work.  So, not a ton of work this week, but that's okay.  

That's really all I have to say this week.  I'm excited for Saturday and "L" being baptized.  She's so happy too.  I love this work.   It's almost time for me to leave Pandan though.  I think I only have three more weeks here.  I love this place so much!

I love this work and I love serving my Savior every day.  Have a great week! 

Love, Elder Andersen

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS FROM OUR PERSONAL LETTERS:

Q:  How are the languages?  Are you thinking now in your new language?

A:  The language is really good.  I've been working really hard on my accent lately.  I honestly think in both languages.   All of our trainings and meetings are in English, so it depends where I am.  Also, we're suppose to speak English in our apartment (for our native companions) so it really just depends on the situation.  I speak a mix of Ilonggo, Pandanon, Kara-ah, and Tagalog haha...it's a mess.  My Tagalog is alright, haha.   Here's the real question... how's my English?  (Honestly his English is getting worse and worse...he throws in Ilonggo words all the time and his grammar, spelling, etc. is crazy.  I hope it all comes back when he gets home.)

Chicken Pesto 

Our Delicious meal, we found American food!

A milk shake in the Philippines!

Zone Conference

"Family Picture"  The STL's (Sister Training Leader) are called a new missionary's Naynay.
So yeah...weird!

BOYS

Some of my good friends

BATCH

T

DOG DAYS!

Week 39

Monday, March 13, 2017

Hello friends and family,

I hope you all had a great week.  Elder Estrada and I have been killing it here in PANDAN!!!

So this week's crazy story has to do with something I ate this week, but I'm going to wait until the end of me letter to tell you all what it was, so you're not disgusted with me while reading this. haha

This week was really good.  Elder Estrada and I have been finding like crazy... it is so awesome!  Our best day was Saturday.  So we oym'ed  (This term refers to "open your mouth.") this one tay ( I think this is an Ilonggo word for man??) and he said we could teach him, so we did and while we were starting...a lady, I think somehow related...but not sure how, joined in with us.  She was way tight and so cool.  We taught both of them, and the lesson went really well. After the lesson,  she told us that she wanted us to teach her dad and brothers too. So, we walked over to their house and taught them...she even came with us and rounded them all up. It was SOOOOO cool!  The only problem I can foresee is them being able to come to church...they live pretty far away.   (As we were walking there, I was really realizing just how far away they live.)  

"LA" is doing great.  She is so excited to be baptized and is really getting to know all the members.  We moved her baptismal date to April 1st because of some interview issues.  She is so awesome and loves for us to teach her.  The work here is great and I love it so much!  

We have been told to find a new meeting house so we're gonna focus on that this week if we have time.  This week we're also headed to Iloilo for our Zone Conference, so that will take three days out of our week, that's alright though.  I'm excited to see Elder Cobabe and some of my other friends!

Okay onto this week's crazy story:

This week we were at an investigator's house and I was playing with some kids and doing some magic tricks for them.  Then Elder Estrada came out of the house with a small plate of meat, and was said, "it's "carne" eat it."  Carne  means meat.  So I was like...okay.  I started eating it and I was like "This is good!"  Elder Estrada and the investigator were just laughing, and Elder Estrada said, "I promise that you have never eaten this before." So I was like... "okay... don't tell me until I swallow."  Right as I was about to swallow, I said "iyam shya bala" Which translates to... "Is this dog?"  That's exactly what it was haha.   I can now say I have eaten dog... and I liked it hahaha, ONLY IN THE PHILIPPINES!

That's all I have for this week. I love you guys so much!  Have a great week!

Halong Kamo dito 

Love,

Elder Andersen

Chicken Curry

The biggest mosquito I've ever seen!

Hanging with the kids

District Leader Conference

Zone Training

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY

Week 38

Monday, March 6, 2018

Hello friends and family, 

I hope you all had a great week, This week was a lil' different,  but still great!  I'll start off the usual way... but this week's funny story is one that reminded me a lot of my Dad.

This week's funny story:

Our main source of transportation when we have to travel any distance is called a Ceres (pronounced series). This week we had to go to Bugasong (I'll tell why later) which is two hours away.  There are two kinds of ceres, Air con, and Standard.  Aircons are the best because they're a lot bigger and much nicer. A Standard is a lot smaller... more people ride in them, and... it is honestly the WORST!  On one side of the Standard bus, there's two seats and on the other there's three seats, and at the very back there's one long bench that can fit who knows how many people. .  A two seater is what i can sit in somewhat comfortably.    We were going to Bugasong, and we went to the back of the Ceres (regular) because there weren't any people.  As we kept riding, A ton of people kept getting on but they would just sit in the closest seat no matter how many people were sitting on the bench, a lot of them already had four people on them. So...we had this packed bus, but the seat next to me was empty and they whole bench in the back where Elder Estrada was sitting was empty.  It was unbelievable how many people were on this bus, but just all at the very front.  I was laughing as people kept sitting in crowed seats,while there was like 8 open seats next to us.  It just reminded me so much of my dad because i could just imagine his face as he watched people pile onto the same seat.  I mean...my Dad is the guy who coughs on the plane when people are boarding so they won't want to sit next to him. After writing this, it doesn't seem that funny,,,but it was! haha.   I still don't understand why the heck all those people wouldn't want tot sit in an open comfortable seat!  haha.  

So... on to the week.  This week was different, because of transfers, so not a ton of work was done.  On Wednesday we went up to Kalibo to Withdraw.  That took all day, then on Thursday we had District Meeting, so we weren't able work a ton that day because traveling just takes so long!. On Friday, we went to Bugasong to pick up two boxes of Books of Mormons, because every companionship, including us, were completely out.  That took all day too.  We were able to still have some good teaching experiences this week though, especially with Luc Alvarez.  She is progressing really well! We teach her almost every night because they live so close to us.  She's awesome, she came to church yesterday for the 3rd time in a row, and is getting really excited for her baptism.  We have been trying to teach her husband...it hasn't happened yet, but we'll keep trying.  Also, another cool family that we found is the Pintor family.  I talked about them in my letter last week.  They're the family with the 5 girls.  We taught them a really good lesson yesterday...they really understand.  They were a little apprehensive when we showed up but after we taught them, they were asking lots of questions, and everything  just made sense to them.  

The District: 

I am so unbelievably pumped for my District.  All the people who transferred in are awesome, I know all of them.  Elder Crichton Is from Austrilia and he only has 5 weeks left but he is s excited to be back in Antique, and get his area going.  Elder IKa is from California.  He was in my last District, he is  loud, fun, and so dope!  Elder Valencia is Elder Simpson's bata.  He is happy to be here and ready to get to work.  All three new missionaries in our area  are from my last Zone Iloilo North.  It sounds like our numbers were really good last week to the zone leaders were way happy.  

I'm excited for this work and Iove this place.  Pandan is dope such a beautiful place and so dope.  I love the work, and mostly I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!

Have a great week, Love you all

Love, 

Elder Andersen