Monday, October 21, 2013~Week 10
Quezon City; 12:43 PM Mon (PH); 10:43 PM Sun (US)

Hello my beautiful family!! First off, just thought I'd let you know that the dearelders that you sent a while go in September, I just got them last Tuesday! So they take a while to get here! But thanks SO much mom and dad for those letters. It's so so nice to get mail! 

Okay so last Monday was my 2 month mark as we all know and so after emailing time, we were on our way back home but Sister Jones had to stop at this little store to pick something up and when I went inside guess what I found?? A HERSHEY BAR!! I was completely overcome with joy! It was 43.7 pesos which is basically a dollar in America and it was worth every peso! So I got that to celebrate my two month mark!

My Hershey bar! Super excited about it!

So we went home and we decided to watch Legacy! We're allowed to watch those kind of movies on p-day if we want! But it was really really fun because I popped some popcorn for us all on the stove and had my little Hershey bar and we watched Legacy and wrote letters! And then watched it again and wrote more letters. Because it's actually a pretty short movie and we still had a while before p-day ended and we wanted to write more letters! So obviously we had to watch it again! It's as close to a love story that we will get on our whole missions so it's probably going to be my favorite movie. Anyway, I wrote letters to Nick, Jake, Josh, and Aaron. They're all in the same envelope though and I sent it last Tuesday! So it will get there in a couple weeks! And I would just like to add the weather was splendid on Monday! It wasn't even that humid! It felt so nice!

Popcorn and Chocolate!

On Tuesday it rained SO HARD! The streets by our house were started to flood and we had to walk to PEC Meeting at the church house!  They said that the intense rain was an effect from the earthquake in Cebu! But that's the only effect that we felt! Thanks to everyone for asking about me and caring though! I'm perfectly safe though! It was so funny though because I was wearing this little plastic rain poncho and had my umbrella so I stayed pretty dry!

Us at the church in the rain!
 I pulled my skirt up to be a dress for the walk home!

 Except for the part of my skirt that wasn't covered by the poncho! I may as well have walked straight into a lake! It was SOAKED!!! I got to the church I literally was ringing my skirt out! It was so funny! So the next day, because it was raining hard again, I got inventive with my skirt to make it shorter so the bottom part wouldn't get drenched! I'll send a picture!

My creative way of shortening the skirt...rolling it up and belting it.

On Wednesday, I visited America. Okay obviously not for real but we were on our way to part of our area and neither of us had eaten lunch and we wouldn't be back at our house until 8:30 or 9:00 so we just walked into a grocery store to pick up a snack and they had so much American food! It's now my very favorite store in the world! The American stuff is super super expensive but it was so fun to just see it and hold it! They had stuff like Ragu sauce and Spaghettios and whipped cream and Honey Comb! It was amazing! So we had that little adventure and then we went to teach this little family! The Fuertes family! I think I talked about them last week but I don't remember. But their names are Anna Mae and Ruben! And they are both so smart! They follow through on all the commitments we give them and they understand everything! We asked them in the previous lesson to pray about Joseph Smith and read a little bit from the Book of Mormon and to pray about it and when we returned this time! They had! And they both said that they knew it was true! And so this time we taught them more about the Book of Mormon and the Holy Ghost and gave them Alma 7 to read and they said they would do and we left! But it was the BEST thing in the world because we passed their little home on the way back from our area and we looked over and we saw Ruben hunched over the Book of Mormon with a flashlight reading it! IT WAS SERIOUSLY THE MOST PERFECT MOMENT IN THE WORLD AND I WISH I COULD HAVE TAKEN A PICTURE OF IT!! It was beautiful!! Haha and then also, I had a HannsBoNanns moment earlier that day. So in the ward, we don't really have a lot of members that work with us and so when we do have someone that wants to work with us, it's really really good! And someone had texted us that morning and asked if we had anyone working with us and Sister Jones told me to text back, "Wala po." Which means like none. And I accidentally typed, "Walo po." Which means EIGHT! I told her we had eight people working with us! And we didn't even catch it until later that night!! It was so sad! I felt awful!! Bahhhh.

Thursday we had BEAUTIFUL weather!! And we street contacted someone named Pio and he spoke amazing English! So we taught him the whole first lesson in English! It was so fun! Life is so much easier in English. That's all I have to say. Tagalog is fun and I'm trying so hard to learn it! But life is just better in English. I LOVE AMERICA.

Friday was a big day for me! We taught the Fuertes family again but this time we also taught another sibling named Damdam! Anyway, we taught the first half of the Plan of Salvation and at the end of the lesson, I, yes I, Hannah Lynne Andersen, extended them the baptismal invitation in Tagalog! I was so darn proud of myself! And Ruben and Damdam accepted!! Anna Mae left right before the end of the lesson because her baby was acting up but we're planning on giving her the invitation next time! I'm so excited for them! They're just so cute and happy and I love them!! But yeah! Ruben and Damdam have a baptismal date set for November 23! So please pray that they will be prepared by then! And that we can get them to come to church 4 times in a row!! After that, we taught a brand new investigator that we were just talking to when we were passing these little shops! We taught him the entire first lesson and he's so golden! He just kept saying how he's been searching for the true church his whole life and how he's gone to four or five different churches over the course of his life and he feels like maybe this could be the one! We're super excited about him! The Lord is blessing us with so many new people to teach which is amazing because our teaching pool has been really really low lately! So we are definitely being blessed right now!

Saturday was kind of fun because we got to do something different! The young men and young women from the stake are doing a road show and we got to go help make and paint little props! It was fun and they're so cute! Our ward is doing something from Mulan! I'm not sure what the heck the theme of the road show is but I'm excited to see it! If I don't get transferred! It's at the end of November! After that, we took one of our investigators to the Family History Center and helped her start her family tree and hopefully got her excited about doing work for her family! I think she wants to be baptized but her mom won't let her come to church. Her older brother was baptized about two years ago but he's not allowed to come to church either. So pray that their mom's heart will be softened! 

Sunday was good! We went half an hour over in sacrament meeting because one of the talks was so long and he was speaking very very slowly! So that was kind of funny. But other than that, it was a pretty normal Sunday. 

TODAY!

This morning, I had a very HannsBoNanns moment. So the stairs that lead up to our bedroom are rather steep and the steps are really quite small and I tend to go down them kind of fast and this morning I was half way down the stairs and of course, I fell. But it was a pretty bad fall! Haha my ankle gave out from underneath me and so I started to fall to the side but I kind of all of a sudden was falling backwards and I landed right on my tush. SO HARD. It hurt my back pretty bad actually. Like I think my spine got crunched a little bit. But in that process, I ended up hitting my other ankle, bending both of my wrists in funky positions, hitting my elbow, and bruising the back of my leg. It's so nice to know that I'm still the same person whether I'm in America or the Philippines. Isn't it comforting to know that I won't be that different when I get home?? You're all very very welcome. (Yes dad, I know, Angel's Landing!!)

Anyway, it was a pretty good week and hopefully this week will be even better! I'm finally starting to become comfortable with the area and I'm opening up a little bit more in the lessons which is good! My Tagalog is still very very beginner but it's getting better and I can understand people pretty well! Thank you all for your prayers and love and letters! I love hearing from all of you! It makes my week so much better!! It's crazy to think that on Friday, I will have been in the Philippines for a month! Pray for all our investigators and less actives and for me! I need all the help I can get over here! You're all the best! Thanks for everything!! I LOVE YOU ALL SO SO MUCH!! MAHAL KITA!!

Love, Sister Andersen