Monday, May 26, 2014~Week 41
Antipolo; 1:15 PM Mon (PH); 11:15 PM Sun (US)

Hey fam bam. Soooo this was definitely one of the most rewarding and trying weeks of my whole entire mission. I'll start from the very beginning! So after I emailed on Monday, Sister Dowe and I had a great normal p-day where we did a lot of washing of clothes. That basically took up most of the day as per usual. Then on Tuesday, we had Zone Conference which was a w e s o m e! I looooooove when we have Zone Conferences! It's literally the best thing ever! Because we're completely uplifted and inspired by our leaders and they give us new resolve to do better and be better! Ah I just love it! And my wonderful past companion Sister Tibungcog gave a great workshop so that was fun to see her again. She is still a beautyyyyy.

And then after we got back, Sister Dowe and I OYM'd James Bond II which was actually a very interesting experience for reasons that cannot be properly conveyed through email. So I'll just have to tell you about that when I get home or something. But that was quite an accomplishment I must say! 

Then Wednesday! Wednesday was E P I C. So basically what happened was, the dream team literally caught on fire and we blazed through Antipolo and extended bap dates and taught lessons and OYM'd basically all the tricycles drivers and found families to teach and all that great stuff that missionaries are supposed to do and ya wanna know what the result was?? TWENTY ONE NEW INVESTIGATORS IN ONE DAY! Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?? #unheardof  The Standard of Excellency for new investigators for the whole week is 6.  And we got 21 in ONE DAY! #dreamteam #andersendoweandheavenlyfather  No honestly though. It was so incredible.

Sister Dowe and Jayson

We were truly able to see Heavenly Father's hand in the work that we were doing. I know that without him, we would not have the miracles that we do here in the mission. Sister Dowe and I were just humbled because we knew that all those new people that we found were a blessing from our Heavenly Father. It was truly amazing. So we got home that day just flying high and it was the best day ever and we were writing everyone's names up on the board and we were doing so swell and life was so happy and great....when we got a call from the APs.

Sister Dowe and I

They called to tell us that Sister Dowe was being Emergency Transferred to Marikina because there was a missionary there that got sick and they needed to replace her. Soooooo Heavenly Father chose Sister Dowe.  Needless to say, we were not happy about it.  We were soooooooooooo sad and there were definitely tears shed. They told us that Sister Dowe would be leaving the next day at 7 pm.  We were basically distraught. Because we had had the BEST day ever and then this happened and threw everything off completely! It was sooooooooo hard.  I didn't even know what to think honestly. So we went to bed feeling really really disheartened.

Then Thursday morning came and the STLs showed up to do exchanges and we were not very much in the mood for it obviously. But we didn't really have a choice so we went.  And it turned out to be okay.  I had fun with Sister Rimano and Sister Wilson and Sister Dowe had a pretty good time too I think. So it wasn't too bad. And because we had exchanges with them Sister Dowe was allowed to stay until Friday morning. Soooo that was one blessing.

My temporary companion Sister Rimano! 

So yeah. On Friday morning she left and there were still tears being shed. But the STLs were going to do splits with the other sisters and so I was just going to go with Sister Wilson and Sister Atu'ake. And as it turned out, they had to go to Aurora that day because Jepoy had to have an interview with President for his baptism on Saturday. So then after Jepoy got interviewed, I just asked President if I could talk to him for a minute and so I went into his office and he was like, "Sister Andersen, this is your first time in here." I was like, "Yep!" And he said, "That's very good! And it's still okay that you're here today because I know that you're just sad that I took away your companion!" Haha anyway we just talked and joked and laughed and I love President because he just makes everything better. And then he gave me a blessing of comfort and it was wonderful! I love the priesthood and am so grateful that we have it! And I love President because he truly truly cares and you can just feel it. So that was definitely a tender mercy!

TEMPLE TRIP!!  below....
Me and our investigator Angie and our recent convert's baby Mark!
I love Marvin! He's so fun!

Jepoy! Yung bagong binyag! 

And then on Saturday, we had a trip to the temple with some of our investigators and recent converts! We just walked around and talked about the different things that happen within the temple and all the blessings that come from the temple. It was really good! I think that they really enjoyed it! And then we had a baptism! Yayyyyyyy!!!! It was super great! Siyempre naman! WE LOVE BAPTISMS!! Because it just means that that's one more person that once we leave the Philippines, we can leave them in peace because we know that we'll see them in the next life! That's the only reason that it's okay to go home after a mission!!

So yep! That's my week! It was super great....and super hard. I don't have a new companion until transfers on June 4. So right now I'm just in a threesome with the other sisters. But it was still a good week. Sister Dowe and I had shot to OYM 28 people and to have 21 investigators with baptismal dates. We ALMOST got it! We had 38 OYM's {we rocked that one actually. The Standard of Excellency there right now for our zone is like 20 or something. Haha} And we got 18 investigators with baptismal dates by the end of the week. So that was super close! And then of course, we had 25 new investigators! Which was super duper awesome! Not gonna lie there. But of course, that was all Heavenly Father.

The Relief Society of Antipolo 1st Ward

So anyway, I have high hopes for the next week! Although the dream team is split up now, it's okay! Because the fruits of the dream team are still here and I can still harvest them completely with the help of my Father in Heaven and His Son Jesus Christ! I know that they are there for us literally ALL the time. There is never a time that we will have to be alone. EVER. He loves us and is aware of us and His only desire is for us to be happy. All we have to do is trust Him and His timing and understand that His plan and His vision is greater than ours. I'm so grateful that I can see that right now. I maybe can't see His entire vision and I don't understand all the reasons behind everything, but at least I know that He knows. That in and of itself is a blessing and a tender mercy from Him. I know that this gospel is true. I know that Heavenly Father is aware of all of us and our needs and He will attend to us. He is there! I'm just so grateful to know that He is! Thank you for all of your prayers and support!! You are all so amazing!! Thanks for EVERYTHING!!! Love you soooooooo much! :) 

TODAY

Sister Andersen

PS: President also told me that the reason that he's not giving me a new companion right now is because he's calling me to be a trainer next transfer. Bahhhhh. I'm gonna be a mother! I guess it's fitting because I'm almost 9 months in the field right?  Hahahaha yay my first child!! Who knew that I would be a mother at the age of 19?? I was thinking at least 23! Well, I guess the big man upstairs has a different plan for me! HAha just kidding. But really. I think it'll be fun. Just pray I'll be good and that she'll be happy!

Monday, May 19, 2014~Week 40
Antipolo; 12:59 PM Mon (PH); 10:59 PM Sun (US)

Heyyyyy family! So I would just like to publicly declare that I am l o v i n g life! This is the greatest area in the world!! I never want to leave! And Sister Dowe and I  think that we should probably just stay together for forever because we are literally the Dream Team! So many great things are happening in this area! It's amazing! 

TODAY

When I got to this area, there was only 1 progressing investigator and one investigator with a baptismal date. But ever since SisterDowe and I got together, the area has BOOMED! It's literally been a miracle to watch! Right now we have 10 investigators with a baptismal date. And then on Saturday night, our district leader called and he asked us what our most awesome companionship goal was and for some reason we just told him that we were going to have 21 investigators with baptismal dates by the end of the week. We have no idea why we said that because we had originally set a goal for 17 by the end of the week. But the number 21 just came out. So we were like.....okay! I guess we're doing it! So we're really really REALLY excited for this week because we know that we can meet this goal but we also know that it's going to take A LOT of faith and A LOT of hard work and A LOT of prayers. We're really really excited to come home every day super tired. We also set a goal to OYM* 4 people a day. Meaning that our potential investigators will sky rocket! Which is, obviously, super great!! We got super inspired this week from our Zone Training that we had last Tuesday. The STLs gave a workshop about raising our expectations and how the mission has set a standard, called the Standard of Excellency, and missionaries are expected to hit that standard. But they talked about not just hitting the Standard of Excellency, but going over it. Jumping over it! And so that's what Sister Dowe and I are doing! We are literally going to leap over this standard because we know that we can! The way that this area has progressed so rapidly so quickly, we know that we can raise our expectations even more. As long as we continue to raise our faith and our diligence too, we can literally fly over the standard!

These kids were in the street selling hermit crabs
 for 5 pesos to get a little extra money.
I have absolutely no idea where
the heck they got them from though..... 

Ang cute niya diba 

This is Hermie.
He would be my pet if it wasn't bawal to have pets.

So good news!! Jason came to church yesterday so we didn't have to kill him! What relief! Becuase we really like Jason and that would have been a shame. Haha we give him SUCH a hard time and he just takes it. He's super duper awesome! AND a wonderful wonderful miracle happened! Our ward mission leader found Jason a new job!!! I can't remember if I told you or not but Jason is a driver and so he takes stuff all over the place and sometimes he'll be gone for a few days and sometimes he has to drive on Sunday. But!! Brother Roger found him a job where he would only have to drive around places here in Cogeo and he won't have work on Sunday!! That's like the best idea anybody has ever had!! So pleeeeeeeease pray that Jason will be able to get the job! And that he'll have the courage to quit his other one. Because right now, he's in a tough situation where it would be hard for him to quit this job. So PRAY!

#skillzzzzzzzzz #photography #itsmycalling #justkidding #itsmycamera

So I have two wonderful stories this week! The first one, we extended a baptismal date to Rocky....... ELEVEN BLOODY TIMES IN ONE LESSON AND HE STILL ONLY SAID THAT HE'LL THINK ABOUT IT! Hahaha it was actually kind of hilarious. Rocky is a very interesting human being. His main concerns about baptism is that one, he can't swim, he thinks we might try to drown him, and he doesn't want us to hit him on the head with a baseball bat........ Yeahhhh...... But we're using this as our motive for the week! If we can extend a baptismal date 11 times in one lesson, we can sure as heck extend it 11 times in one week! The other great story is that I OYM'd James Bond!!! So there's this grocery store right by our house that we always go to to get our stuff and for like the past 2 1/2 weeks there's been this guy there that has normal clothes on but we could see that he had one of those FBI earpiece things and so we were really afraid of him and kind of made a big deal about him to ourselves. But then I was like, we need to talk to James Bond! Everyone needs the gospel! Even James Bond! So we went to go get our groceries and when we had finished gathering all of our food, we were heading towards him...... and then went down a different isle because we got nervous! And that happened like 7 times! Hahaha it took us like 10 minutes to finally get really close to him. And then Sister Doweand I walked past him because we got nervous again. But this time.... I stopped and turned around and just started talking to him and it was the scariest thing of my life because HELLO! He's James Bond! But actually it turns out that his name is Edwin and he's really really nice and he'd be willing to listen to us when he gets a day off! Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? #hollaatyourgirl#imatruemissionarynow #sup Seriously, it was probably the accomplishment of a life time. So we're super duper excited because we're going back today to see if he read our pamphlet and talk to him more. Everyone, pray for Edwin! I seriously think he'd make the BEST Young Men's president everrrrrrrr!!! So that was a great OYM. We're also basically OYMing every tricycle driver in Antipolo. Every time we get in a tricycle, we talk to them about the gospel. Life is GREAT.

Aaaaaaand we just got a new ward mission leader who is fresh off his mission and we had our first meeting with him yesterday and we're sooooooooooooooo excited about this! He's going to be so great because he knows EXACTLY what we need!! So we're really expecting this area and this ward to grow like it never has before! I can't tell you how exciting this all is! It's the best thing in the world!! 

Anyway, thank you all for your letters and support and prayers and love!! I love you all so much!! You're the best!! Congrats to Joe!! Welcome to the best church ever!! I'm just so bloody excited for you because you've been going to church for years and basically doing everything that members do except for now, you get all the glorious blessings that come from being a part of the Lord's true church! Gah! My heart and soul are literally just SO happy right now!! Congrats!! Now get ready to serve a mission! The people need ya out there! Thanks again for everything! You're all the best! Have a great week and I'll talk to you soon! LOVEYOUUUUUUUUU!!!

Love, Sister Andersen

*OYM=Open Your Mouth 

PS: To answer your questions last week, I've been studying Jesus the Christ in my personal study every day. This transfer I've just really been trying to get to know my Savior more. Not just know who He is and what He's done but know Him and why He did what He did. Just become best friends with Him. And part of that is studying about His life. And so I've been diligently reading that big book. Ya'll should read it too. It's awesome!!!!! And with Preach MY Gospel, don't just read through it. Read it, look up the scriptures, ponder the scriptures, write down impressions or understandings, TALK ABOUT IT WITH OTHER PEOPLE! That one's huuuuuuuuge. You learn a lot more when you study personally and then with someone else. So that's my advice there.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014~Week 39

Antipolo; 2:45 PM Wed (PH); 12:45 AM Wed (US)

Olo. {Megamind reference for all you who are undereducated in such affairs}

TODAY

Well first off, IT WAS SO WONDERFUL TO SEE ALL OF YOUR BEAUTIFUL FACES ON MOTHER'S DAY!! That was the best ever!  My favorite part about skyping is that everyone is still just so themselves! It just feels so natural to talk to everyone and be there in the house. And the best part was, after it was over, it was so easy to just get right back to work! Like honestly, that was such a relief to me. Don't get me wrong! I LOVED skyping with everyone but I felt so good about the fact that I could just finish and then go to the appointment we had planned. I feel like that's kind of an indication that I'm doing okay out here!

The Skype with my family! :)

So it's been a while since I've actually told you about our investigators and so I'm gonna go ahead and do that because we need prayers for miracles to happen! So we have an investigator named Jason and I LOVE him! Oh my gosh he's probably my favorite investigator I have EVER had! He's 25 years old and he's soooooo funny! Like, in the way that everything he does just makes us laugh. He's hilarious! And he's ALWAYS telling us to eat food! Like he'll literally just text randomly to remind us to eat lunch or breakfast or dinner. It's freaking hilarious! He's the one that we told we were gonna kill because he didn't come to church. Anywayyyy his job is he drives a truck around with products to different places. Sometimes he doesn't go very far and sometimes he goes reallyyyyy far. But he has to do it every single day. So for Jason, we need everyone to pray that on Sundays, he stays close or he'll be able to leave at like 9:30 am so that he can at least attend sacrament meeting four times. He's SO ready to be baptized and he wants it SO bad. He's so so awesome and he just REALLY REALLY REALLY needs to be baptized! So everyone just pray really really hard for him! His baptismal date is now June 7!

All creatures of our God and King!
 (aka this cute little butterfly bumblebee thing)

Next we've got L. Now L. is an investigator that's more active than most of the members. The only problem is, she's not married to her boyfriend who is a member of the church but less active. And in order for her to be baptized, she needs to get married or move out. Here are the current problems though. N., her boyfriend, doesn't want to get married because he's scared of the responsibility {they have one child} and L. doesn't want to force him to marry her. She wants him to be ready and willing to get married. Which makes sense. So the other option: move out. Well she lives with N.'s family. And she doesn't have any money. And so the chances of finding a way for her to move out somewhere are very slim. So in other words, WE NEED A BLOODY MIRACLE! Her baptismal date is May 31and it HAS to happen! We KNOW that it can happen and we're doing EVERYTHING we can to make it happen but we need lots and lots and lots of prayers! L. is so so amazing and she wants to be baptized so bad! She needs the blessings that come along with baptism! So everyone, PRAY FOR HER!

Those are the two main investigators right now. We have sooooo many others though. This area is truly amazing! Like, I can't even explain it! We hardly have enough time in the week to visit all the investigators and less actives and recent converts that we need to! It's crazy! I love it here! This is by far the best area I've had! We have been so blessed to have found so many prepared people! Next week I'll tell you more about some other investigators! I need to tell you about Angie, Paul, Sally, Annabelle, Juni, TinTin, AJ, Joy, Mae, and probably more! But for now, just pray for them! That's all I can ask you to do!

I loved going to the temple today! The temple is literally the greatest thing on the planet earth! 

Temple Day!

I challenge all of you who are worthy to enter, go more often! All of you who aren't worthy, get worthy and GO! It's sooooo beautiful!!  

Me and Sister Wilson at the temple!

I should probably pursue photography
because clearly I'm amazing! :)

Maganda di ba??

I FINALLY saw the new temple video and there were some things I really loved about it. It's amazing how you can pull entirely different things out of the same words. It's super great! Loooooooved it! {That was the voice of Wheezy off of Dragon Tales.} Anyway, the temple is always the best part of the transfer and so it was a great day! 

 9 months down in the mission?
That def deserves a Crunch bar.
 #obvi Aug 14-May 14

Not to mention that it's my 9 MONTH MARK! What da heck?? I don't know when that happened but I've literally been gone for 9 months now. Weird. It's been a great 9 months though and it's gonna be an even better 9 months!  It was super fun to talk to you all!! I loved seeing everyone's BEAUTIFUL faces!!

Mother's Day with Sister Andersen!  :)

Jake and our friend Joe;
Being baptized May 15th
on his 17th bday!

Jannie 
Called to serve in the
Uruguay Montevideo Mission!

My brothers and father are so handsome and mother is a beaut and Jannie is a gem and Joe is a stud and OH MY GOSH GOOD LUCK JOE AT YOUR BAPTISM!! I'm so proud of my other little brother!!! You're the beeeeeeeeeeeeeeest!! Love you Joe!! Love you all!!! Thanks for everything!! I'll talk to you next week!! LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!

Love, Sister Andersen

Monday, May 5, 2014~Week 38
Antipolo; 11:19 AM Mon (PH); 9:19 PM Sun (US)

Hello there! Happy Cinco de Mayo!

TODAY! {I should clean our mirror....}

In honor of this blessed day that allows us to eat Mexican food, I will indeed be making tacos and yes I am in fact very excited about it. BECAUSE I MISS MEXICAN FOOD SO MUCH!! You can bet that the first meal I will be eating when I get home will be from Cafe Rio. Chicken burrito, enchilada style, rice, black beans, mild sauce, no pico, no guac, and a drink. YUMMMMMMMMMM. Anyway, have a wonderful day eating mother's grand cooking! I'll be there for it next year!

Happy Birthday Uncle Jerry!!! I hope he got my letter I wrote him. Haha it might have gotten lost somewhere in the world. But Happy Brithday! Hope it's great!

Hoops.

Country Roads.

 I like the tricycles here A LOT more than in Quezon City. 

Aaaaaand, HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALENA ROSE NELSON!!! OH MY GOSH YOU'RE 19 YEARS OLD ON SATURDAY AND THAT'S JUST TOO CRAZY AND YOU'RE GROWING UP SO FAST AND I'M MISSING YOUR CHILDHOOD WHILE I'M OVER HERE IN THE PHILIPPINES!! I wrote you a nice birthday letter but it will most definitely be late and so I apologize for that. #betterlatethannever #itsthethoughttahtcounts #donthateme I hope your day is filled with lots of cake and ice cream and chocolate and swig and more chocolate and more ice cream! You're the most beautiful 19 year old in all of St. George probably so that's an accomplishment! #congrats Love youuuuuuuu.

Sooo this was a really great week! I just want to share an experience I had this week! We have this new investigator named Rocky and he doesn't like speaking Tagalog. He only speaks English to us because he thinks it's more refined or something. Haha he's actually quite and interesting person and sometimes he freaks me out a little bit BUT we went and taught him on Saturday for the first time and it was so great! It was actually really weird teaching in all English but it was truly a very powerful lesson. He is just someone who has had a lot of trails in life. Nothing has ever been constant for him. And so one of the very first things I noticed about him was that he really liked talking about all the bad things that happened to him. He focuses on the trails and how bad the world has become. And so we were able to give a very powerful lesson about how good the world still is because we have a Heavenly Father who loves us very much and a Savior and Brother who atones for all of our sins, trials, heartbreaks, and weaknesses. Both Sister Dowe and I noticed after the lesson that we have never said, "As a representative of Jesus Christ," so many times in one lesson. At one point near the end of the lesson, I was bearing my testimony and he expressed a concern and I said very firmly to him, "Brother Rocky, I can promise you, as a representative of Jesus Christ, for Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father, by the power of the Holy Ghost, that if you will earnestly pray to our Father in Heaven, with a true desire to know if these things are true, and if this is the path that He would have you take, you will get an answer to that prayer. And that answer will be yes." He was kind of quiet and then he said, "Don't say promise." To which I responded, "Brother, I CAN promise you that. That IS a promise." I have never felt the power of the Holy Ghost working through me that strong in my whole mission. It was such an incredible feeling! I was so excited! So we're hoping that we can help this man realize that while everything changes in this life, Heavenly Father doesn't nor does His Son Jesus Christ, nor does the gospel. That is the ONE constant we can ALWAYS count on. Gahhhhh I love being a missionary!!!

 I wore my Easter scarf yesterday and EVERYBODY loved it.
I can't tell you how many compliments I got on it.
Haha seriously, they LOVED it.

So that was my great experience for the week! Sorry that this is kind of a short letter. My heart goes out to my dear Sister, Sister Sims. She's back out there in the beautiful state of Missouri serving those wonderful people and spreading her light to all those who need it. She is my hero and I admire her faith and courage and total, absolute, complete trust in the Lord. She is truly one of the noble and great ones and she has forever changed my life. I'm so proud of my dear Sister Sims! I can't wait to see her beautiful face again when she makes her honorable return home from her mission. God bless and keep her. Thank you everyone for all of your support and prayers and love! I know that it is because of you and because of my Savior that I am strong enough to be out here day by day. So thank you so much!! I can't wait to skype you all next week!!! I'M SO EXCITED TO SEE MY BEAUTIFUL FAMILY!!!!! And ya know what's crazy?? After that...I'll only have one more skype time and then a month and a  half later.....I'LL BE HOME. Whaaaaaaaaaat?? Yeah that's crazy! Anyway! Thanks for everything!! Have a super duper week! See you soon!!! LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!

Love, Sister Andersen