Saturday, September 7, 2013~Week 4 Provo MTC;9:56 AM

Kumuuuuuuuuuuuusta! First of all, tell everyone in the family not to worry about how long their email is because we just go print off the emails that we get in the mornings before breakfast and read them during breakfast so that after personal study time we can just reply without taking the time to read! So don't worry about length! I have plenty of time to read them! But don't get crazy. (Bon Qui Qui reference)

Last Week on Pday

We mustache you a question! Wanna hear about the gospel? 

Celebrating Sister Briggs' birthday with our district.

``Okay sooo I don't even know where time is going! It seems like my last p-day was yesterday. Time is literally flying by! On Monday, the older district leaves and then we'll be the oldest district in our zone! Like what?! How did that even happen?! That's insane! It's all good though! I'm ready! I wanna go to the Philippines and conquer this dang language and master everything about a mission! Oh my gosh! We met this sister from the Philippines and she's ADORABLE! She's like 2 feet tall and speaks like a mouse and I died when she started talking to us! And she knows my mission president! She said that he is very humble! I'm so excited!

Our District celebrating our half way point!

 What was my most challenging part of the week? Fast Sunday. Without a doubt. Because we are forced to eat three meals a day every single day which I'm not entirely used to. At home I just ate little meals whenever I wanted and it wasn't like a set thing. But now that they have us on this schedule where we eat like that every single day and then there's just NOTHING TO EAT FOR LIKE ALL OF ETERNITY and we have like 20 hours of personal study and a 2 hour conference and we're already exhausted. I was so tired and when we ate dinner finally, it was like manna from heaven. Literally. Okay I'm exaggerating a lot but it was kind of hard. BUT! My day ended in the best way possible! After the Sunday devotional which by the way was all about the Philippines basically because the speakers used to be the mission president and his wife in the Philippines! They showed some pictures and it's so poor and dirty and beautiful and I'm stoked! And they showed this one picture of a little girl, probably like 4 or 5, and she's hugging an Aklat ni Mormon with all her might and smiling so much and it was perfect and I love everything! Okay so after that though, we went and watched the Joseph Smith film and I bawled like a baby of course but only because I love him so much and I'm sure that we were best friends in heaven. But there's this part at the end, after Hyrum is shot and Joesph looks to the window and there's a look on his face that's almost peaceful and you know that he knows that this is the end but he runs to the window and then it goes black and silent and it's just his voice when he says, "O Lord, my God." He sees the Lord! He's in heaven! He finished his mission! And the Lord is standing there welcoming him! "O Lord, my God." CHILLS. And tears. Ohhhhhhhh I love Joseph Smith. I will never not know that he was a true prophet of God! NEVER.

We learned this is what Filipinos do....
the way Japanese love to make the peace sign.  :)

Our investigator Ranie is getting baptized!! It was kind of funny because in the first lesson I asked him, "When you know that these things are true, will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized?" and he said that when he knew they were true that he would. And so then in the third lesson, after we taught him and everything, my kasama is looking for something in her scriptures and then I just turned to Ranie and said (sa Tagalog of course), "Ranie, do you know that these things are true? Can you feel that they're true?" and he was silent for a second and all the while my kasama has no idea what I'm asking because she's still looking for something, and then he starts saying how he's never felt anything like this before and he loves his family so much and wants to be with them forever and he knows that this is the only way and can feel that and he knows that. And my kasama looks up finally and is kind of confused because she has no idea what's been going on and then he looks at me and says. "Yes! I want to baptized! Very much!" And my kasama starts asking me where a certain scripture was or something and I tell her and then I say, "And um...he wants to be baptized. That's what he just said." And she goes, "What?! REALLY?! YAY!! WOO HOOOOOO!!" And Ranie just started laughing! It was so funny and so great! But yeah. He's getting baptized and I'm so excited because that means that his wife will probably get baptized because she's in the Philippines taking the discussions and then they can be sealed and his two little girls who are 2 years old and 6 months will be baptized when they turn 8 and they'll be an eternal family and that's what this gospel is all about and I'm so happy and excited!!!

This is our half way done party with the roomies!

Sister Sims' family sends several boxes like this....
I think they think she's starving in here!
We have already polished off two boxes like these!
Everyday is a party in our dorm!!

 Anyway, I love the MTC and I love being a missionary and everything's wonderful!  I go to the temple at 2 every Saturday. Laundry is scheduled from like 10:00 to 12:00 or something. It takes like an hour and a half and then while you're down there you can send pictures.  Umm I don't know if we have a country flag. I can check. They have one of those luggage weight things on my floor in my residence so I'll know if my weight is okay. But I don't know if you still wanna send me one to have for the trip home. I still don't know how all this works. YOLO. But I get flight plans next Friday! Woo!! Tell Elder Morley I love and miss him and that if I think of anyone he can teach, I will let you know and then you can message him back on Facebook!  And thank you for the package! I love everything! Tell Jake his sweats saved my life and I'm wearing them right now!! The picture books are so cute and Shannon is a saint! Tell her thank you from the bottom of my heart! Could you maybe send pictures from like graduation?! Like some with my friends! Katelin, Manda, the one where I'm hugging Alena and Melissa, the one with Brock and Brady if you want, etc! And then just some more random pics if you have time! I love the pictures! 

Happy to see Hermana Amanda Nelson Beirdneau!!
(She teaches Spanish and is a close family friend from home)

Okay well my time is basically up! If you have any more questions, just send a quick note and I can answer while I send pictures!! I love you all!! You are all amazing! Thanks for everything!! Sobra mahal kita!!!!

Love, Sister Andersen!

P.S. I'm slightly embarrassed because last week I spelled the sorry not sorry thing wrong. Tagalog doesn't even have the letter c in the language. It is definitely, pasensiya, hindi pasensiya!