Saturday, September 14,  2013~Week 5
Provo MTC;10:15 AM

Magandag umaga!!! Okay really quick I have a story that the boys are going to love probably. It's from last week and I just forgot to send it! So one night we're all sitting in the class room and all of a sudden it just stinks. SO BAD! Like it was disgusting! And we could not focus and none of us knew what the heck it was from and so our teacher says let's go outside and so we all get up and I open the doors and we're all taking a huge breath of air that we think is going to be 5000000x better but NO. It was 500000000000x worse! It was like rotten eggs that had been sitting outside for months! And then Elder Lasley exclaims "What the heck?! It's like a poop meteor hit the earth! My nose is literally crying right now!" Hahahaha it was so funny! We all DIED! From the smell and the from the laughter! You actually probably won't find that funny but I swear on my life that it was.

Okay moving on! So it's been a pretty eventful week! Last Saturday after the temple, it was pouring rain! And we had to run all the way back to the MTC in it and it was AMAZING because I love the rain and we got drenched and we looked disgusting and I was so happy about it! My kasama was definitely not as happy but that's okay! I was! I'm so excited for the every single day in the Philippines! Later that night was such a cool experience because we watched The Testaments and it was my kasama's first time seeing it! At the end when the dad is blind and can't see the Savior, who he has waited for his entire life, is where the tears start to flow. His son, Jacob, is weeping because he knows how much his father has waited for this day and because of his pride and disobedience, his father was blind. Jacob is faced away from the Savior and hugging Helam, his dad, when the Savior rests his hand on Jacob's shoulder. Jacob turns around and just starts weeping more. Then the Savior stretches out his hand and says in the most loving peaceful voice, "Helam." And Helam immediately recognizes who it is and falls to the ground weeping. It's so amazing!!! I LOVE that part! And then he's healed and can actually see the Savior and then the words come up onto the screen, "Christ came to the earth. And he will come again." Or something like that. SO cool! And obvi my kasama was bawlin.

 Last Sunday

We were cold and the Elders gave us their jackets and thought it was picture worthy.

So Sister Sims and I got to visit the outside world! WHAT?! It was cray cray. She got real sick and so we had to go outside the gates of the MTC (in the fun rain again) to the BYU Clinic and pick up some meds for her.  Nothing really exciting happened except for the fact that we saw real people and stuff. So that was pretty neat.

Okay so that same day, which was Thursday, was my favorite day of the week and maybe for the whole time of being at the MTC because of how the day ended! First of all, during our class with our teacher, we were talking about the doctrine "Teach People, Not Lessons" and we practiced teaching to our kasamas using the influence of the Holy Ghost and not just teaching what we had prepared. It was SUCH a neat experience because the question that we were answering was "How do I feel God's love for me? How can I know that he loves me?" Sister Sims went first and was silent for a solid minute because she didn't know what to say. And then after she prayed in her heart to know what to say, one word popped into her head: Atonement. And from there she went on and talked all about the atonement and bore a powerful testimony of that! And then when it was my turn, I didn't know what to say either. So I was quiet for a solid minute as well. (Oh and we were pretending to be the investigators that we're teaching right now. If that makes sense. So she was being one of our investigators, "Jenny.") And then one image popped into my head and it was the image of our first meeting with "Jenny" and I asked her why she let us come back after that first meeting. And then just went from there. It was cool because it was the exact same question but we answered in two completely different ways!! But they were both powerful and both answered the question! So it was neat to feel that our lessons should be completely tailored to fit the needs of the investigators!

Panoramic view of our classroom

And then! That night was so so soooo amazing! Everyone, including myself, has been sick for like 2 weeks. And no one was really getting better! So I just had the idea maybe we need blessings. And I so I asked our district leader if we could give blessings after planning that night. I actually was almost completely better and probably would have been fine without one. But I realized after it was all over that I don't think I asked for them because I needed one. I think I felt prompted to ask for blessings because other people really needed them and because some of the Elders really needed to give them. There were two Elders in our district that had never given a blessing to anybody before. Elder Lasley and Elder Johnson. So I asked them if they would be the ones to give me a blessing. Obvi they said yes but they were sooo nervouse! Especially Elder Johnson! So after planning, we started the blessings. Elder Johnson was going to anoint me and Elder Lasley was going to seal the blessing. Elder Johnson put his hands on my head and he was shaking so bad! But he did it just fine and then ended it. Then Elder Lasley put his hands on my head and Elder Johnson joined in and I received probably the sweetest blessing in the world. He said three things to me. He blessed me that I would recover from my illness, feel comfort in the MTC, and learn the language. And then ended it. It was so simple but it was so perfect. I didn't need anything else! I loved it! And then the Elders continued to bless anyone that needed or wanted a blessing whether it was a blessing to heal them or just a comfort blessing. The spirit was so strong! It was such a neat experience to watch the Elders give blessings! They used such simple phrases but they were exactly what the person needed and nothing more! Anyway, super neat experience and I am so grateful for the priesthood!  We actually kind of made a joke because the next day I was basically completely better and Elder Lasley was all of a sudden sick so we just say that he sucked all the sickness right out the top of my head and straight into him! What a gentleman.

Feeling better on Friday!

Oh flight plans! We got them yesterday! I'll take a picture of them and send them to you!!

FLIGHT PLANS!!!

There is so much more I wanna say but I have no more time left!! I love you all so much!!! Thank you for all the love and support and letters and everything!! Nagpapasalamat po ako para sa inyo! Totoo ang Simbahan ni Jesucristo ng mga banal sa mga Huling Araw! Sobra mahal kita!!

Sister Andersen

PS:  I forgot to take a picture of my flight plans!! But I leave on the 23rd! I report to the travel office at 2:00 PM. My flight leaves SLC and goes to LAX.  From there we have a 4 hour layover and then travel to Hong Kong! We have a 4 hour layover in Hong Kong too. We go from Hong Kong and arrive in Manila on the 25th! I'll send you a letter with all the details later today! I did that from memory so I hope it's mostly correct! Love you so much!!

PPS: Let me explain the investigators real quick. Our teacher Brother Mansfield is "Ranie" and our other teacher Sister Briggs is "Jenny." They are role playing real people that they know very personally and were able to teach the gospel to. So it's a very real experience. They separate themselves very well from their real selves and we as the missionaries treat them like the investigator and as if we don't know them. It's literally like they are different people. So when I refer to "Ranie" or "Jenny," it really is like I'm teaching them as real investigators.