Saturday, August 17, 2013~Week 1
Provo MTC; 9:55 AM

KUMUSTA PAMILYA!!! I hope everyone is doing well at home and everyone loves their new teachers and class mates at school! When does college start for Nick? Anyway, I LOVE THE MTC!! It's so amazing!! The spirit is like nothing else here! Like really. 

There are 6 girls and and 6 boys in my district and 24 people in our zone plus the two district leaders and two sister trainer leaders.

My kasama is Sister Sims! She's from Las Vegas. She's 19 and she turns 20 in December. I really like her! She's very funny and has a lot of spunk and attitude. Haha it's great. We get along really well together though! I'll send pictures a little bit later!! The other day I was made senior companion.

The language!! It was a punch in the face! I literally walked into the class and we were already learning! He did not say ONE ENGLISH WORD THE ENTIRE DAY!!! It was crazy! It is such a pretty language and I'm so excited to be able to speak it! I'm actually surprised by how fast I'm learning in it! Me and my kasama are the only missionaries in our district going to Quezon City. Everyone else is going to Loag or something. But there are three more Elders from the other district going there too. But it's kind of amazing. Because Sister Sims and I weren't originally in that district. We were transferred last minute. And I am so glad. Because my teacher Brother Mansfield is so amazing! He has such a powerful testimony and if and when he does speak in English, the spirit just overwhelms everybody. Like yesterday, we were all getting to know each other better and we were hearing the reasons why everyone decided to serve and when they decided to serve and everything. And there are three converts to the church in my district including my kasama who shared their conversion stories. So the spirit was present and everything but then Brother Mansfield started to share his story and bear his testimony and the spirit just hit everyone SO HARD. It was like a spirit bomb exploded in the room. All the girls in my district started crying and a few of the boys. I don't know. It was amazing. And he said something that kind of put the whole reason we're even learning a different language into perspective for everyone. He said that the reason we're learning Tagalog is not so that the people of the Philippines will be able to understand the words we're forming. It's so that they won't have to focus on trying to understand what we're trying to say and what we're trying to convey. It's so that they can simply focus on the spirit and the feelings they get when they hear us bear testimony. He said that when he bears his testimony is Tagalog, we can all feel the spirit because the spirit will always be there. But when he bears his testimony in English, we feel the spirit more because we don't have to think about the words. We can simply think about the feelings. It was so cool! He's the best teacher ever and it's no accident that Sister Sims and I were transferred there! I love it! IT'S AMAZING.

So I don't know if you have this already but my mailing address is:

Sister Hannah Lynne Andersen
SEP23 PHI-QUE

2011 N 900 E Unit 295

Provo UT 84602

It's just a little different from the last one.

Thank you for the donuts! The sisters in my room loved them and some of the other girls in our zone had some too! Very much appreciated! OH! And I saw Sam like a few minutes ago! He says hello! And he got reassigned to Virginia! Where the Mathesons lived for a while! Chesapeake I think? And he's sorry he's not sending pictures! Tell Sister Tenney thank you for the letter! And Darlene! And tell everyone to use Dear Elder or just write because I want mail! 

My date of departure here is September 23rd!! And I leave the Philippines on February 11, 2015. I don't know why but I got a card telling me that. Kind of depressing to get on the very first day.

I keep seeing a lot of people that I know here. I've seen Elder Tenney, Elder Johnson, Elder Kaplin, Elder Gray, Elder Emery, and maybe more but I can't remember. 

This letter is so random. Sorryyyyyy. The other day I prayed for the first time in Tagalog without looking at the guide. It was short but I did it! And we taught an investigator ON THE THIRD DAY! Whaaaaaat? That was scary business because she doesn't speak English! The scariest part though was definitely knocking on the door. We stood outside it for at least a minute and half outside of it trying to prep ourselves. We teach again today and every day I think. But Brother Mansfield keeps on telling us not to focus on the language. just prepare the lesson, do our best to know the discussion in Tagalog and then let the spirit do the rest. Sooo hopefully that's workin.

Do you wanna know what good water is in Tagalog? Mabuti tubig. That is not a lie.

For Jorgi: The ploooooooooow aaaand hooooooooooooe!

Okay I'm basically out of time. I'll see if I can send pictures later today but if not, I will send them next week! I miss you guys! But I love it here and everything's going great! I get to go to the temple at 2 today and I'm super excited! I've missed being able to go!

Okay well I love you all! Totoo po ang Simbahan!! Mahal po kayo ng Diyos! Salita ng Diyos ang Aklat ni Mormon! MAHAL KITA!! MAHAL KITA!! MAHAL KITA!!! Sa pangalan ni Jesucristo, amen!