Monday, September 29, 2014~Week 59
Cainta; 12:26 PM Mon (PH); 10:26 PM Sun (US)

Hello there family and friends and fans and others! #ha #joke

Well this past week was a good one! First of all, let me tell you about the little miracle that happened on Thursday. So we all know that HannsBoNanns has been sick for quite some time now so Sister Revillo sent me to an actual hospital that morning and we got there and I already felt so much better because it was clean and organized and beautiful and happy!

#selfies

So we went to the doctor's office where Sister Revillo said to go but the doctor was all grumpy and not very nice and was like, "We don't start until 1 pm." (It was 10:00 am) So I asked if there were other gastro doctors available and they sent me to a different doctor and it was a tender mercy! We get there and he saw me right away and he was sooooooooooo nice and he listened to me talk and then said immediately, "Well it sounds like you've got an amoeba! Don't worry though, we've got medicine for that and if that's really what is, we can get this fixed in a week!"   So he prescribed two pills for me to take 3 times a day and then sent me on my way.

This is the view from the bathroom at the hospital
and you can see our cute little temple!

So that was already one miracle! Before I had gone to the hospital, Sister Revillo told me that the consultation alone would cost 800 to 1,000 pesos. But when I went up to the secretary to pay she said, "Okay na po. Walang bayad. Mga misyonero naman kayo. Ingat po! :)" That is to say, "It's okay. There's no fee. You're missionaries. Take care! :)" I was like ummmm wait come again? And then when we walked out I was still a little bit in shock. I was like woooooooooooow. Heavenly Father LOVES me so so much. So that was my miracle on Thursday:)

Yeah so sometimes my eggs are orange instead of yellow..... 

#welcometothephilippines #wherestormsliketohappen
 #justgettinourdailydoseofrain 

Hello beautiful.

We like it here in the Phillies. 

On Saturday morning we got to go do a service project as a district and it was so fun! We had to hike up this huge mountain and I was dead tired by the time we got to the top but I'm so grateful for the experience. Because the member that we went and did the service for is a convert. She was baptized three years ago. And every single Sunday she walks up and down that mountain to go to church. 

Every. Single. Sunday.

The door straight to heaven.

I just can't get over how gorgeous this place is! 

She told me that since she started investigating the church, she has NEVER missed a Sunday. EVER. And let me tell you, that hike about killed me. It was HOT and it was STEEP and it was LONG. But she goes all the same because she knows that that is where she needs to be. She's amazing! She's the Gospel Principles teacher too in her ward. We kept saying how she should be featured in the Liahona. It just goes to show that if there's a will, there's a way and we should never have an excuse not to go to church.

 He has a nice life. He just sits and basks in the sun
 while I sweep the dirt. #whatadog

 Elder Ruadil!
The cutest little District Leader ever!
 (He's carrying Sister Wiradi's bag because
she was tired.  #sweetchild)

So our service project at her little house was cleaning up her yard. So her yard is basically just dirt. And we got out the cute little brooms and we started sweeping up the dirt and I remember thinking to myself, "Haha Hannah.... you're sweeping dirt!" But then I got to thinking and I thought about the fact that if my yard was just dirt, I would want my dirt to be nice and pretty too!! So I got a little humbled there and put more purpose into my sweeping of that dirt! Haha #bethouhumble #inthyweakness #hymn130

Goat! 

 Oh Sister Wiradi.
{She's holding a broom and slowly
inching towards it trying to get close.} 

I mean really. Does it get any more beautiful?

I don't know why I'm obsessed with the goats here.
Whenever I see a goat, I take a picture of it.
 #sorrynotsorry #theyaresoadorable

On Saturday night, we held a Family Home Evening at the chapel for some of our investigators. Our main focus for that was the Solomon family because we really want them to start building relationships with the ward because they are SO getting baptized in October (As in, we taught word of wisdom and they have NO problems! #preparedbytheLord) But we had other investigators there too! And then 7:00 pm rolled around and the other investigators came but the Solomon family wasn't there. 7:15 and still they weren't there and so we decided to start and Sister Wiradi and I were so sad. And then.... half way through the opening hymn.... one of their kids poked their head in through the door and I FLEW out of my seat! I was soooooooooooooo excited!! THEY CAME!! THE WHOLE FAMILY!!! And then on Sunday, they all came to church!! It was amazing! It truly was just such a miracle!! Heavenly Father really answers prayers when we're doing what we're supposed to do! They don't always come right away, but they come. It's like Bryan always tells me, "God honors those who honor Him." It's the truest thing I've ever heard and I'm so grateful to have had so many experience here in my mission to testify of that.

TODAY

#cuties 

Anyway, it was just a super great week full of miracles big and small! Our numbers were not that great this week honestly. But we still worked hard and saw the fruits of our labors. I'm so grateful to be here. I love being a missionary and I love the Philippines! There's no where else in the world I would rather be! Thank you all for the love and support you CONSTANTLY give! I couldn't do it without ya! :) Hope you all have a fabulous week! Go bless someone's life! Share the gospel! Miss you! LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!

Love, Sister Andersen

Wednesday, September 24, 2014~Week 58 

Cainta; 4:38 PM Wed (PH); 2:38 AM Wed (US)

Helloooooooo everybody! This was probably like one of the greatest weeks ever for like 101 thousand dumb reasons.

We're darling.
 {Kabahays a year ago, same zone now.}

 Haha So first of all! Yes there was a nice little monsoon that swept into the Philippines last Friday and yes Cainta got SOAKED. As in, the floods in some areas were above grown men's shoulders . Like all of the homes of members, less actives, and investigators were flooded. But it's okay because everyone lived and everyone's houses survived. All is well there:) BUT! Sister Doucette and Sister Garcia are Sister Training Leaders and they had gone on exchanges on Wednesday and Thursday with the Sisters in Cainta 1 and they had spent the night there and there were supposed to come home early Friday morning but SURPRISE! It was raining real real hard and then water decided to sneak into their house and within a few hours the house was flooded! The water was knee high inside the house and shoulder high outside the house in the street. So basically they were trapped there for two days.

Sister Wiradi is a cutie. 

But Sister Wiradi and I were beyond safe! Haha we're on the 10th floor of our condominium and even down below on level one there was like....nothing. Honestly, if no one had told us that there was a monsoon and the whole world was flooding, we would have just thought that it was raining pretty hard and wasn't stopping! Aaaaaaand that's basically my story with the floods! :)

#selfielyfe #selfies4ever #thishappenstobeduringthestorm
#lockedintheapartment #hollerrrrr 

Daaaaaaaang look at that hurrrrrrrr.
It be gettin' loooooooooong.

Look at the growth my hair has made.
 #proudmama 

But now I've got a real story to tell! Sooooo last week our investigator told us that he had a friend who wanted to listen to us and meet with us so we were like oh yeah sure no problem! So he came to church on Sunday but we didn't get a chance to really talk to him that much but we set up an appointment to teach him and Ariel on Tuesday at a member's home. And first of all, just a quick side note, when I asked him what his name was, he tells me that it's Angelo. (An-jel-oh). And then when I introduce him to a member that's about the same age as him, he tells Troy, the member, that his name is Jerome. And I looked at him and was like what? You said your name was Angelo. And he goes, "Oh... yeah! Angelo!" I was like... okay that's weird. Anyway, so Tuesday rolls around and we're at our appointment and then we're introducing him to the members and he introduces himself as Angelo (Ang-hel-oh). So now I'm like.... okayyyyy this guy doesn't even know his own name. Fishy fishy fishy. So we start with the lesson and we ask him at one point if he has any questions or anything that he wants to know and the first thing he wants to know is if we have a Spanish Bible. I was like ummmmm no? Why? He goes off about he wants to learn Spanish and he really just wants a Spanish Bible. And so we tell him no...sorry! Any other questions....about the gospel of Jesus Christ? And so he tells us that he wants to just know about the doctrines of the church and who Joseph Smith is because he's heard that name and what the Book of Mormon is, etc. So we start into the lesson and then Sister Wiradi asks him to read something from one of the pamphlets and he starts to "read" it but it's so completely clear that he's got that whole entire paragraph already memorized!! Because he wasn't even looking at it half the time and he was saying it so fast! And after he "read" it I asked him again what his religion was and he says, "Iglesi-- Ay Catholic!" What he was about to say was Iglesia ni Cristo. Now here's something you have to understand about Iglesia ni Cristo. The guy who founded it used to be LDS and if you wanna hear his story, go look it up on google. But basically, in their church and in their church materials, they use all of the LDS stuff! They have our Gospel Principles book, the missionary pamphlets, and other church materials and they study them and then love to debate because they know everything. And so by now I've figured out that his intentions were different and so I ask him to basically just be honest and tell us what he knows about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and the doctrine and yeah..... he knew e v e r y t h i n g. Sooooo long story short, it was a rough lesson where he was basically asking all these random questions and talking about how the church was super rich and stuff yata yata yata. We ended the lesson after inviting him to pray and that was that. Tapos! He came again to the lesson that we had with Ariel on Thursday!!

So this is where his real interest came out and it's actually a very funny story if I tell it in person because I have to do the actions and voices and everything just right but man. This was a dang funny lesson. Basically what went down was this, he started asking about the missionary program and the cost and he especially focused on the training center and learning new languages and going to different countries and the prophet and everything about the missionary program. SO. Angelo's, or whatever his name is, real interest is thus: he wants to become a Mormon so that he can go to a different country, namely France, learn to speak Spanish, (I don't know if he understands that they don't speak Spanish in France), and find a wife (because he questioned about whether the "government," meaning the Prophet, would find out if he had a relationship while he was out on his mission). Sooooo yep! That about sums up him. And that's when I looked him straight in the face and told him, "Brother, the purpose of missionaries is not to learn different languages or go to other countries. The purpose of missionaries is to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with everyone so that they know what they need to do in order to be able to return to the Kingdom of God. That's it." (But in Tagalog.) And after that, he didn't really wanna listen anymore because he knew I was onto him. And that my friends, is the story of Angelo. And when I get home, I'll act it out all out to you because it was funnyyyyyy.

Yesterday morning sunrise. 

#yes 

Other than that, it was a great week! We went to the temple today which is always refreshing especially since it's been 2 months since I last went!!

Sisters Panis & Tibungcog today.

I feel so so blessed to have a temple in my mission. I know that Heavenly Father was looking out for me when sent me here. I can't live without the temple. So challenge this week: Everyone go to the temple! If you're endowed, go do a session! It's such a wonderful experience! If you're not, go do baptisms! I miss those so much and that is also a very wonderful experience! Don't take the temple for granted! You don't know how lucky you are to have one so close to you! So everybody! GO!! Haha no but really. Go. I'll follow up on temple experiences next week!

TODAY

Welp! I gotta go now! Thanks for everything you do for me! I miss you more than words can say! Tomorrow I hit my one year mark in the Philippines which is insane!! I'll be home so soon and there's still so much work to do!! Thanks again! Have a great week! LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!

Love, Sister Andersen

Monday, September 15, 2014~Week 57 

Cainta; 1:43 PM Mon (PH); 11:43 PM Sun (US)

Hey there! So fair warning! This email is going to be shorter because I had almost finished my letter when I accidentally pushed delete and lost it all. Sorry! :(

Fried riiiiiiiiiiiiice. Yummmmm. 

There he is. My buddy way up in the sky. 

So this past week was a gooooooooooood week! We had Zone Interviews on Wednesday and they were just the best! I would just like to publicly proclaim my love for President and Sister Revillo! Sister Revillo gave us a workshop during interviews on how to give ourselves facials! Haha is that not the best thing ever? What other mission president's wife do you know that does that? Haha she cares about her missionaries. Skin care and all. I just love her. :)

Sister Revillo loves us :)

But my favorite part of Zone Interviews was, of course, my interview! This was my favorite interview that I've had with President my whole mission! I love looking back at my first interview where I wasn't really comfortable with anything yet and I was kind of stiff and probably a little bit plastic. We all know that fake, plastic laugh and smile that HannsBoNanns used to do sometimes when she'd be talking to adults right? Yeah that's probably how that went. But now! I just go in there and I just talk to President about anything and it's great! I really honestly feel like he's just my father here in the Philippines. He's always ready to give love, counsel, comfort, guidance, and laughs! Unbeknownst to many, President is actually quite the character! He constantly just makes everyone laugh with these random little remarks here and there and then when we play games with him or something, he always wins because he's so competitive and just downright good! Haha I just love President Revillo!

 A member in the ward gave us some new
 pajama pants. Haha cute teddy bears right?

So this happened again for the second time on
 my mission. If you don't have a straightener,
 you always have the iron!

Ummmm I honestly don't really remember much of anything else that happened this past week. All I know is that Sister Wiradi and I are excited for this upcoming week! It's going to be so good! We have a new goal to really really focus on 3 families this week. The Solomon family, the Villasenor family, and the Cos family! So your added prayers for them would be great! We're hoping to get these families baptized by October!! So pray hard!! I know that we can do it! They're all ready and prepared and if we work hard and have a lot of faith, I know that we can do it! We're really excited! With these 3 families and then one other investigator, Ariel, we could have 13 baptisms in October!! That's 13 souls saved! So pray HARD!

TODAY

Sister Wiradi!

 Sister Doucette!

Sister Garcia! 

Well my dearest family and friends! I'm sorry but I'm afraid it's time for me to get going! Thank you for all the love and support that you constantly give to me! You're always in my thoughts and prayers and I'm so grateful to have so many wonderful people behind me whenever I may need you. Thank you so much! You have no idea how much that means to me! I've seen so many people that don't have it and I'm so lucky to have so much!! I hope you all have a great week and spread the gospel in any way you can! We're all missionaries here! Go invite someone to church or seminary or mutual brothers! Parents! Go visit a less active! They need it more than you think!! Thanks for EVERYTHING!! I miss you all but it's okay! I'll see you in 5 months. ;) LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUU!!

Love, Sister Andersen

Oh hello. I hit my 13th month mark yesterday.
 #swag #selfielyfe #ohcrap #only5monthsleft
 #thatstoofast #idontknowwhatshappeninginmylife
#soijustpretendtobeahipsterandrollwithit 

Monday, September 8, 2014~Week 56
Cainta; 1:35 PM Mon (PH); 11:35 PM Sun (US)

Hello there! First of all!! I'm okay! I'm going to live!

TODAY

I went to the doctor and it's just a small problem that can be fixed with some good ol' medicine and prayer! So all is well. And I promise you that I'm going to put some weight back on for two reasons! One, the medicine and stuff. And two, it is literally the goal of the members here to fatten me up. Ever since I arrived here, they're all just like, "Sister Andersen! You're so skinny! Why?? We need to feed you!! We will make you fat again!" So yay! I'm gonna leave this area fat! Haha {Let's all pray I don't get obese though because that would be just as depressing....}

 Chicken Feet! A Filipino delicacy!

BIG NEWS!! Our mission has a goal of hitting 100 baptisms every month and we've never been able to hit it all the way this whole year. BUT for the month of August...... 124 BAPTISMS!!! WOOOO HOOOOOOO!!! That's huge!! It's such an achievement! Miracles are really starting to happen here in our mission and I love watching it!! The Lord is hastening His work and I think our mission as a whole is finally starting to keep pace with Him! :)

AP pala ako eh.

#wearecute 

We love Family Home Evening games here. :)

Anyway! Two cool stories this week! First one! We went to teach this less active in our area named Alice. She's SUPER old and sooooooo cute. And she's blind. She can't see a dang thing anymore. She just walks around with her eyes closed. Haha anyway, it was our first time going to her and so I was introducing myself to her and we were just kind of talking and getting to know each other. And then when we were about to start the lesson, she stopped us and said "Wait I forgot to ask you! What province are you from here in the Philippines?" BOOMPANES! This adorable little old blind woman thought I was a Filipino Sister! I told her I was actually from America and she was like, "What?? I thought you were Filipino! Your Tagalog sounds so natural! You don't have any accent!" I promise I'm not trying to brag here. I just got a little bit excited because I feel like that's an accomplishment of some sort. Soooooo yes. I'm officially Filipino. Actually, I really do feel like a Filipino because I literally eat rice at every meal. When we go to McDonald's, I buy the chicken filet with rice while everyone else is buying burgers. {Partly because I can't eat the burgers.... but mostly just because I want to eat rice and chicken!} And yes, they sell rice at McDonald's. End every other restaurant here. McDonald's, KFC, Jollibee, etc. Filipinos love their rice!:)

Me and Sister Wiradi! 

Second cool story! So we went to another semi-less active in our area whose husband is not a member and I guess the missionaries have been trying to teach him for forever and he listens and everything but he still won't be baptized. Anyway, so we went over there to teach and he came to listen and we taught the Restoration and about Joseph Smith {which is obviously like my favorite thing EVER to teach}. And we get to the part where Joseph Smith tells about his experience. And I just sort of paused and waited a second until he was looking me in the eyes and then I recited to him the first vision without losing his eye contact ONCE. It was like the world had just paused for a whole minute. After I recited it to him, I bore my testimony of the Restoration and of the church and of our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and we still had not lost eye contact. After I finished, Sister Wiradi bore her testimony too and then he started to talk and he said that he felt like when I was looking at him, I was staring straight into his soul. And then he paused and just said, "Nga nga." It's an expression here that just means you're absolutely speechless and you don't know what to say. And then he went on to tell us that it's just not his time right now and he feels something but he doesn't want it right now. I was SO sad. It breaks my heart when you KNOW that people feel the spirit and they still choose to reject the truth that's being offered to them. It's really really hard. But at least I know I've done my part for him. I brought the Spirit and testified with everything I had of the truthfulness of it. I can be disappointed and heartbroken, but I don't have to be discouraged. And ya know what, maybe it really is just not his time. Maybe one day, he'll finally open up his heart.

My view every morning when I wake up :)
 {It's only a little bit nerve wracking because we're on the
10th floor and I'm sleeping right next to the window.... }

Anyway, that's all for this week! Thank you SO much for all the emails and pictures and EVERYTHING!! I'm so grateful for all of you and all that you do for me! You're in my prayers daily! I miss you all so much!! Have a great week!! LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!

Love, Sister Andersen

Monday, September 1, 2014~Week 55
Cainta; 6:32 PM Mon (PH); 4:32 AM Mon (US)

Well hello. I don't really remember everything I was going to say because I was not expecting to hear the news about Molly. I'll talk about that later and just give a little bit of what happened here this past week.

So Tuesday, we went with Loren and Eden to the Pinto Art Museum and it was soooo fun!

 We just went around the place and looked at all the art and recreated some of the paintings.

Ummm.... it's artsy. Okay?

Haha it's a really neat place and the art there is all so unique and fun.

 I like to take strolls in art museums.

It was raining pretty hard the whole time and parts of the museum are outside so we got a little wet at points but it was worth it! It was a blast and we had a good time spending our last day in Antipolo with our home girls. :)

Then on Wednesday morning, t r a n s f e r s. Sister 'Atu'ake and I loaded up our stuff on a tricycle and went to the church where we waited for about 15 minutes before we loaded it all into a taxi and went on our way. They took us to the Cainta chapel where I met my companion, Sister Wiradi, and sent Sister 'Atu'ake on her way to Pasig! So, for the first time ever, I'm not staying in a little apartment or a little house. We're actually staying in a condominium! Haha it's so weird! We live on the 10th floor and the place isn't too bad at all. It's not exactly what you would call 5 stars but it's alright. Our kabahays are Sister Doucette and Sister Garcia, the Sister Training Leaders. I'm super excited for this transfer and for the opportunity that I have to be kabahays with them because I know that I'm gonna learn a lot!

Sister Wiradi is adorable! She's 23 years old and she's from Indonesia! We got along right off the bat! She has the cutest little accent ever! Haha she's trying to learn English and Tagalog at the same time and so no matter what language she's speaking, she has this nice, thick, heavy accent and it makes me laugh! Sometimes she has to repeat things 4 or 5 times before I actually understand what she's saying! But it's all good! We get along just great and I'm super excited to be with her! :)

Sister Wiradi

So yesterday, for the first time in my whole mission, AN ENTIRE FAMILY CAME TO CHURCH!! We taught them the Restoration on Saturday and then on Sunday, they ALL showed up! I was like Whaaaaaaaaaaaat???? It was so exciting!! I can really feel that this is going to be a transfer of miracles and I'm stoked! Plus! The ward here is incredible in terms of missionary work! There are a few families here that are just on fire and we gave the lesson yesterday to everyone the third hour about missionary work and it was super powerful and we're just SO excited! I can see so much potential in this ward and I can't wait to help them see the miracles that can happen because of them! (By the way I'm actually in Cainta 2nd ward. Haha oops.)

I had a different schedule today because I had to go to the doctor to get a check up. I'm losing a lot of weight and not doing so well health wise. I'm always tired and feeling kind of weak. So tomorrow I go in for some tests and they're gonna see what's wrong with me. But! No worries! I know the Lord is looking out for me and I'm going to be okay!

TODAY

Now, I'm not gonna lie. Hearing about Molly's passing is literally the worst thing in the world. I think I've felt it this past week. My spirit has just been a little on the low side. And my health went down too. I love her so so much and I'm so grateful that she was my puppy for so long. She was always there for me. I know that seems silly to say but it's true.

Sometimes, when I was sad or stressed or just tired, I would go out and sit with Molly and she would just kind of sit there with me and help me calm down. She just had a way of healing me no matter what the problem was. She's always had that special gift. It's hard to think that she won't be there to jump on me when I get home in February but I know that she's jumping and leaping and bounding in heaven with Huck and Abbey. I love my pup with all my heart and I'm gonna miss her more than I can say. She's one of my best friends and I know I'll see her again someday. Love my Molly girl. :)

Well folks, that's all for today. Sorry for those I didn't respond to. Don't really have the time or the heart for it today. Haha but I'll do better next week. Thanks for the words of comfort from everyone. I'll keep you all in my prayers as well! Molly's grave is beautiful! Thank you Nick for getting her the flowers. They're perfect for her. Thank you all so much! Thanks for taking care of her while I was gone! I hope you all have a great week! Miss you all!! LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUU!!

Love, Sister Andersen