Philippin' Awesome: February 2018

Monday, February 26, 2018

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!

Week 89

February 26, 2018

Hello Friends and Family,

I hope you all had a great week. First of all I want to wish my Dad a HAPPY BIRTHDAY... he's really old now haha!!

This week was sooo amazing! We spent the whole week in Capiz.

On Tuesday afternoon, we left for Sigma. We arrived there at around 5pm and then we met with the Bishop in Sigma. It was crazy how far away the Bishop's house was, and by the time we got to his house we had mud up to our knees. It was fun though! After that, we drove to Roxas City and slept there with Elder Infante (my MTC companion), and Elder Strulend. We did some Exchanges with them on Wednesday, and we met with several priesthood leaders that Wednesday night. They bought us dinner after that meeting. It was an amazing meeting, with three Bishops, and a Stake President getting so excited to help their Wards and Stake improve in missionary work. That night we slept in the city again, then in the morning we headed to President Roxas and did District Meeting in Manoling. It was amazing...Manoling is the farthest area away in the mission. It's in the middle of the mountains, and they also have the most amazing church. (I'll attach a picture.) After, we met with their Bishop, then drove back to President Roxas and met with their Bishop. Then that night we drove to Estancia, and slept there, The missionaries in Estancia have the most beautiful apartment view in the world! (more pics attached.) It was fun I and was able to work with Elder McAllister again. The meeting with their Branch President was also very good. Saturday morning, we drove to Ajuy, and worked with them a little bit, and met with their Group Leader. After that meeting, we came home. Man... It was a tiring week, but it was amazing! It has been sooo cool to see all these areas, and be with all these missionaries.

The work here is great! I love you all. Happy birthday, Dad. This calling as a traveling assistant is a lot different, but it is so rewarding and a lot of fun. I love this work. Have a great week

Plangga ta kamo tana

Elder Andersen

Manoling

Estancia and Bucket Hats

Bucket Hats

Estancia Apartment

Monday, February 19, 2018

REUNION

Week 88

February 19, 2018

Hello friends and family, this week was a lot of fun!!

So this week, the best thing that happened was that Saturday President Cruz asked me and Elder Hanks to do a special project for him. We spent the day making a little light house. We made it and then we were invited to the Stake Conference in the Iloilo North Stake. It was especially great because I served in three areas that were in this Stake, so I knew a lot of people there. (I probably knew about 1/5 of the people there.) I also had about ten converts at that conference...it was so awesome!! President Cruz also gave a really cool object lesson. Elder Schmutz of the Seventy was there, he gave a really good talk about the Holy Ghost. I love listening to our General Authorities...they are amazing and so inspired. Lastly, the Iloilo North Stake Choir was just awesome. I was brought to tears by their music. I honestly felt like I was listening to Motab... it was so great!

This week we also had the opportunity to go on "Exchanges" with two companionships. I was with Elder Steiner for one of the days, it was so fun. We have been together so much on our mission and have grown sooo close. This calling is fun because
I get to see missionaries in action and develop a better and closer relationship with them...it's been great!

Lastly, today was really cool! We got to go to a national park to check out a possible site seeing spot for the departing missionaries. It was cool... lots of BIG spiders, poisonous snakes, really cool caves, and a really good view. It was a hike though, and I am wayyyyy out of shape... haha.

That’s about all I have for this week. I love you all... have a great week!

Plangga takamo tanan

Halong

Elder Andersen

Jimika and me and Elder Hanks

The national park

The National Park

National Park

Stake Conference

Monday, February 12, 2018

TRAINING AND TRAVELING

Week 87

February 12, 2018

Hello Friends and Family,

I hope you all had a great week, life is good here in the Philippines!

So this week was awesome! We had our MLC (Missionary Leadership Conference) this past Wednesday and Elder Hanks and I were able to give an awesome training, along with the other Assistants. We trained about Diligence and Teaching Daily, Teaching Daily is my biggest belief in missionary work and I have been wanting to share this for a long time now... I'm so glad I was able to share it!!

After our MLC we had a little bit of an adventure. We had the opportunity to give a blessing to a member here in Iloilo with President Cruz. They were from Antique, and after the blessing, President had us drive them home. We got to Antique pretty late, and then stopped on the way back to do Exchanges in Tiolas, Iloilo, and in Oton the next day. Oton was fun because I was able to work with Elder Nielsen, my Batch from my District in the MTC. It was a lot of fun to get out and work again, it was just pretty rough being so tired, haha. It was so much fun to see a lot of areas in the mission. I had no clue how beautiful some of these areas are. This new calling as a Traveling Assistant is a lot of fun, and my companion, Elder Hanks makes it so fun too. We get a long so well, and we just love being together. This has been the most challenging part of my mission, but I can tell that I am growing a lot. I am so thankful that my Heavenly Father gave me the opportunity to be doing this.

We have also had a lot of fun the last few Preparation Days. Last P-Day, we went bowling which was a lot of fun, and today...let's just say I was humbled haha. We went to the driving range, and I think I hit less than 5 balls solid haha, it made me unexcited to go home and play golf haha. We'll see how it goes when I get home though.

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

Plangga ko kamo

Love,

Elder Andersen

Bowling and traveling

Bowling

Traveling

Tiolas

When you have to sit on your companion and a rod because you don't fit in the Trike.

Elder Hanks

Monday, February 5, 2018

ON THE ROAD

Week 86

Monday, February 5, 2018

Hello Friends and Family!

This week was… well... different haha

So, just a little about the week...on Monday (p-day), we just hung out and played some ping pong. Afterwards, I took Elder Barrus, the Elder who replaced me in Kalibo, around to meet some members, and we had an FHE (Family Home Evening) at the Garmino Family’s house, it was so much fun, I miss them so much. Then on Tuesday, I headed down to the Mission Office in Arevalo. It was a long ride haha, like 6 hours. It was nice though, I traveled with Elder Ika who is one of my great friends in the mission. I got here, and life had been crazy for the last few days. We had the new missionary arrivals, which was super fun to see all the new missionaries come in and see how excited they are to work. We had their Trainer and Trainee Meeting...that was a lot of fun too! Since then, we have been preparing for our travels.

We have had a meeting with President Cruz and he explained what we would be doing, it was great. My new companion is Elder Hanks, we are so pumped because we have been like best friends our whole mission, and we have always wanted to be companions. We will be over three Zones, and we will go on exchanges with every companionship in those zones. We will also be meeting with all their priesthood leaders, and members and teaching them about the things that President Cruz wants us to teach them. It’s gonna be lot of fun! Luckily, I am over Kalibo, so I will be able to go there and see all the members that I just left. It will be a little hard, because we will be sleeping somewhere different every day, but I am so excited. It has been nice to drive again, I really missed it. It is a lot harder to drive here though haha, you have to pay a lot closer attention.

This week we will hopefully start traveling, we have MLC (Missionary Leadership Conference) on Wednesday and then hopefully we will be on the road Thursday!

That’s about all I have for this week. I hope you all have a great week, I love being a missionary and serving my Lord

Halong kamo

Plangga ta kamo

Love,

Elder Andersen

Last Day at Church in Kalibo

The "G" Family

The "P" Family