Hello Family. Long week this week. I have never walked so long or far in my life. Or at least on my mission. But I really enjoy it cause it's like hiking. The only downside is you're in your church clothes. Too bad we don't have bikes or it'd be like mountain biking! Well i have no more worries about that science foundations class cause I switched it to an online one. Now I don't even have to go to class. Sweet. Well some good things have happened this week. Our attendance went up from last week, but of course still not as much as I want it to be. You can never be fully satisfied in this work because if you do you become stagnant. Anyway, so we had a leadership training this last week. It was really good, and for a lot of the elders there, their last time to see President Tobias, cause they are going home on July 1st. But I will see him again this week cause we have another meeting to go to. Also he said he and Sister Tobias are going to meet us in Manila and go to the temple and stuff and maybe even take us out to eat! What a swell guy. I really like him, and he has done miracles in this mission. When I first got here, the Bacolod mission was not a very high performing mission, and other missions would kind of make fun of it, but now, out of the 17 missions in the Philippines, we are a steady 1st and 2nd in all the numbers, overall making us probably the best performing mission in the Philippines. It's really amazing. Well I'm really just trying to give my all these past 3 weeks. I get real sad sometimes thinking about leaving here and not seeing these people, and having to go back and face reality. I could be happy staying here for the rest of my life. But life must go on, and so it does. I think it would be really cool to get some kind of job where I can come back here and master Tagalog and Cebuano. Then I could get around anywhere in this country. Well I only have a few weeks to go. I have a lot of mixed feelings. I'm not too excited about my 4 hour layover in Seattle, but that's life. I tried to send you a picture, but this ancient computer wouldn't let me. But it was a picture of a magnum bar and the stick. I discovered they now have those in the Philippines! Who would have thought? Ok well I gotta go. I love you all tons. Love Elder Andersen

Hey Fam. This week has been all right. There's a Baguio right now, sow it's been pretty rainy all week. But today the sun is out and it's as hot as always. The work this week has gone ok. We've been going out to some really far places this week to try and find some of the members on our CMIS list. We've done LOTS of walking. I'd say on average 7-10 miles a day. It actually feels like hiking for the most part since we're up in the mountains/jungle. I'm not really sure how some of these people were found and taught by missionaries/went to church long enough to be baptized. We have had some success with it though. This one old man that lives way out in the boonies came to church yesterday for the first time in probably like 10 years. Maybe longer. Attendance was low yesterday cause of the rain. Filipinos are scared of rain, and don't leave their houses if it's raining. One of those culture things that needs to change. We've just continued to do a lot of work with our less actives. Things are going well. I can't believe I only have 1 month left. It just doesn't seem real to me. Well still no requests of what you people want, so I'll probably bring you all some back scratchers. Well my classes don't seem like they're going to be too hard.. I'm only worried about the science foundations one. And a little bit about the first aid one. But mostly the science foundations one. I have not heard good things about the teacher. Things like, "Key in on this! DO NOT take this class from Bro wall. He does not prepare you for the tests at all, he talks about things that don't even pertain to science, and he teaches solely from power points which is not helpful. Avoid him at all costs." "Bro. Wall is a nice guy but his teaching is not very helpful! I feel like he doesn't know the material himself and the questions on the test don't have anything to do with what he teaches or what is in the book. I would not recommend him for science foundations." "He's one of those power point teachers. He's a nice guy and means well, but he just reads off the power point and doesn't explain things. I found his teaching method frustrating." So I don't know how I feel about that one. I might be able to survive it haha. Also where am I going to get a guitar? It's funny, I was just thinking last week, "If Mom still has those dining room chairs that squeak and creak every time you move when I get back, I'm going to kill myself." Haha cause my chair at my study desk is the exact same way and it drives me CRAZY! I cannot concentrate at all. Also if we still have the same internet I might kill myself as well. So hopefully Larj gets those things all fixed up. Well President Tobias goes home in a couple weeks, so we're gonna be having all these trainings and conferences and things. Busy last month! Also, I still didn't get your package... So it might be in neverland by now. Was there anything valuable in it? But my companion told me his package took 4 months to get to him once. The only problem is I don't have 4 months left. Oh well. Ok well thanks for getting all my stuff ready for school and everything else. It's kinda fun trusting your life and decisions into somebody else's hands haha. Ok well I better get going. Love you all! Love Elder Andersen

Hey all, well there have been a few things that have happened this week. I now have a new companion, Elder Phelps, who is from Arizona as well. He's also my last companion, and now I'm in my last transfer. Crazy. Well this past week has been really busy with transfers and everything, but it's gone well. On sunday we had stake conference. Elder Ian S. Ardern of the first quorum of the seventy, and second counselor in the Philippines area presidency visited. We had quite a good turnout, even though Manny the pacman Pacquiao was fighting at the exact same time. Elder Ardern spoke about paying tithing. He said there is too much poverty in this country. The Lord has given us a way to escape it and that is through paying our tithing. He was pretty bold with them. I'm just afraid that the people that needed to hear it the most were not able to understand him. But I guess that's what we're for. He also touched a little bit about reading the scriptures. He said, "We're not asking you to study 2 hours a day like the missionaries, or even 1 hour. Even 15 minutes a day is 15 times better than no minutes." So that was really good. That's the first time I've ever had a 70 come to stake conference on my mission. President and Sister Tobias also came. It was their last stake conference. They're going home July 1st. So I'll get a new mission president for a little over two weeks. The work has been going ok. Not as well as I would like, but I can't force people to make good decisions. Well I hope everything has been going well for you all. Dad's trip sounded really neat. I wonder if I'll ever get to come back here. I'd really like to. So I guess that's everything for me. Last call for souveniers! Tell me what you want people, or you're not getting anything! OK well love you all. I attached a couple pictures. One is my zone with Elder Ardern, and the other is just a view of what I see everyday. Love, Elder Andersen

Hey family. Well first off, yes I need you to register for me if that's ok. I have no idea what I want to take, I've been trying for nearly an hour now to look at the course catalog and stuff but the stinkin computer won't load it! Needless to say, I am REALLY frustrated! So basically I just need at least 14 credits. I still need to take a lot of foundations classes and stuff, so yeah. But I don't want my first semester back to be too hard, cause I have forgotten a lot about pretty much everything, so I don't want to kill myself that first semester. Just use your best judgement in some classes I need to take and also ones I would find interesting and enjoy. Thank you, you're all the best. Also one of my friends from the mission emailed me and wants me to live with him, and he's trying to get it taken care of this week before all the apartments get taken. I would really appreciate it if you could work something out with him. He's the one from Salmon. His name is Nathan Stokes. His email address is sto09009@byui.edu. I don't know how it's all gonna work out, but it's ok if everything doesn't go perfectly I will forgive you haha. Well I've used up pretty much all my internet time trying to get that stinkin thing to work, but this week was ok. We didn't get to work very much cause we had meetings for like 2 days straight and other stuff. Attendance dropped a little bit, but it was still good and we had a lot of less active folks come out to church. Well transfers are this wednesday, so my companion Elder Winfield will probably be transferring cause he's been here a real long time. This will also be my last transfer, and last companion. I can't believe it's almost over. I'm just trying to work hard and give it my best these last 6 weeks. I know I don't give too much information, but I can give you all you want in 6 weeks. I just hope you guys can see the change that has taken place in my life and that you can see I am a better person. I love you all and thank you for all your support. Love, Elder Andersen