Well hello family. Whats up with the Hola?? You know I don't speak spanish, ano ba ayen?? Your week sounds pretty normal haha. Schools back in session huh? weird. Does rachel start school monday? I'm sorry to hear about uncle dick, but it's probably a blessing that he is going to go back to Heavenly Father soon. Dad sounds like he is having an awesome time, I'm jealous, but I'm also having a great time, I just can't wait to go to the philippines in 2 weeks from today! I get my flight plans later this week, it's exciting! Well this past week has definitely been the hardest one for me so far. On tuesday, Elder heywood and I went with elder crowley (the one with colon issues) to the hospital to get his colonoscopy done. it was weird being in the real world and out of my little bubble in the MTC. But everything turned out well with E. Crowley and he should be leaving tonight or tomorrow. Tuesday night, Elder Holland came and spoke and gave an amazing talk! He doesn't mess around thats for sure. He was pounding the podium with his fist and everything it was awesome. Wednesday, one of the elders in my zone had his lung collapse so he had to get a tube put in his chest, and then wednesday night his companions grandpa died. Also wednesday we got 19 new missionaries so i had to show them around and explain everthing to em and what not. You know, zone leader stuff. Thursday we went to the hospital with Elder collapsed lung and they took the tube out of his chest. Everything looks good but he will probably get reassigned cause there is a 1/3 chance it could collapse again and he would need surgery and he probably cant get that where he is going. But maybe in Manila, or they have Tagalog missions in California and stuff. So yeah just a long busy hard week for me, I only got to go to class once, so my Tagalog wasn't so hot this week, but it's all good. Well I better get going, mahal ko kayo! Love Elder Andersen

P.S. I might also need you to send me some more deoderant and contact solution cause I hear it's hard to get sa pilippinas.. and some earplugs for my 30 hours of plane riding. . Bye!

Hello Family! Don't even trip! (thats what sister Vaipulu the new zealand tongan sister in my district always says, she's hilarious!) I just put a letter with pictures in the mailbox, so you should be getting that Wednesday or so. Well sounds like everything has been going pretty well with everyone except Aunt K and Uncle Dick. I will pray for them. I think there is a fire around here somewhere too cause it has been super hazy today. But we have gotten a few storms here, but nothing really serious like you were talking about. I'm excited for dad too, that will be awesome. Ha don't be offended mom, but I don't really care that lydia hill got engaged... and I don't even know who trevor weeks is. Rachel is getting married huh? Not following in the footsteps of her brothers? Haha. Well good for her. Umm i think i might want like a microfiber towel thing before I leave here. I feel like I'm going to have to throw out a lot of stuff. Being a zone leader is good, I gave you details to all your questions in my letter so you'll just have to read that. Nope not dreaming in Tagalog yet, I would go crazy if I did. We went to the temple again today, it's really nice to be able to do that every week, I'm going to miss it when I leave in only 3 more weeks! After our session, Elder Heywood and I noticed they needed some help in the laundry room so we went in there and folded socks with these 2 down syndrome sisters for like an hour, it was so fun, and they were hilarious! My former zone leader before elder Heywood and I, Elder Crowley, is supposed to be leaving today, but he can't cause he's getting a colonoscopy tomorrow cause he's been having some... Issues, so elder heywood and I get to go with him to the hospital to the real world tomorrow cause he's assigned to us until he can leave. We're excited to get out and see the real world but I feel really bad for him and his district is leaving today and everything. Hopefully everything works out for him so he only has to stay like an extra week or so. There is a Tongan elder that got hurt playing volleyball that has been here for 5 months and is finally leaving this week. Well, thats all for me, Mahal po Kayo! Love, Elder Andersen

Kumusta pamilya! Well sounds like everyone has had a crazy week. Good thing Lara's wrist isn't broken. Is school really starting next week? Wow time flies. So to answer your questions my companion is Elder Jared Heywood from Gilbert Arizona and he's really cool. We're basically the same only he's a couple inches shorter than me but is built bigger, he played volleyball and football in highschool. We get along really well. We both have 6 kids but his family is the exact opposite of our - 2 girls and 4 boys. Oh yeah and we both got called to be zone leaders yesterday so we'll be the zone leaders till we leave. Basically we just have to babysit all the other missionaries and keep them in line, go to a bunch of meetings, and welcome in new missionaries and stuff. But it'll be good for us, I think it'll help us focus more and become better because everyone looks to us for an example, and if the zone leaders do it, they can do it, so we have to follow the rules pretty strictly haha. Only speaking Tagalog is hard, but it helps us learn a lot better, and we can understand more than we can speak. That is if they don't speak too fast, some of the teachers here are rocket mouths. Yeah I'll try to send some pictures of my district and stuff. We haven't had any apostles or anything come, I think the highest up person we've had come was elder Gene R. Cook and that was a while ago. Last nights devotional was pretty cool though. Stephen Jones, Thomas Durham, and Newell Dayley all came and talked about the hymns they wrote for the hymnbook and the power of music (When Faith Endures, With Humble Heart, and Lord, I Would Follow Thee) It was really funny when Newell Dayley got up to speak, because Miles Burgener gave the opening prayer and when brother Dayley got up he had him come up and was like would Elder Burgener come up? My home teaching companion is Elder Burgeners father, Kelly Burgener. Apparently he and sister Dayley are doing a service mission at BYU-I. Rachel, Thanks for your email, I don't have time today to really reply to it, but good luck this week and with school and everything, Andrea, Thanks for your letter, it always is nice to get letters! Well my email time is spent, but I love you all and thanks for your support and everything. The church is true. Mahal Kita! Until next week, Love Elder Andersen

Hello Family! My week has been good I suppose. It sounds like you all have been busy with the garden and stuff. I'm glad you found a new home for the plant. So uh, whats happening with the rest of the family other than just Mom, Dad, and Lara Jane? What is going on in the world? I've almost been here a month already, just one more to go! Next friday we have to start speaking only Tagalog in class and teaching appointments and church and stuff. It's going to be hard, but I think it will help a lot. Well our zone got 2 new districts on wednesday so right now we have 5 districts total, it's kinda crazy. We can't even all fit on the same floor in our residence hall. But we'll have the 2 oldest districts leaving in 2 weeks, which means we'll be getting 2 new zone leaders and a new district leader. I'm know my emails are short and not very descriptive, but I don't really know what else to say, so if you have specific questions you'll have to ask them and I'll answer them. I mean, I do the same thing everyday basically so thats why I don't really know what to write. I just go to class, study, gym time, and sleep. And I say a lot of prayers here. We start and close everything with a prayer, not that it's a bad thing by any means, we just pray a lot haha. I hope everything is going well. I'm good, the church is true. PAT (thats CTR in Tagalog) Mahal kita
Love, Elder Andersen

Hey everyone! Yeah time does go by really fast for me. the days feel like weeks but the weeks feel like days. I know that sounds dumb and cliche but it's true. Well it sounds like you all have just had a blast this past week! Sounds pretty busy though. I'm glad you all had a good time. And I'm glad the tent trailer didn't kill you, you better sell it and get something cool like a motorcyle for me to ride when I get back or something. Or get dad a Dodge 1500. That is neat that President Christensen remembered me. Well basically I've just been doing the exact same things I told you about, class, study, gym, teaching etc.. I can tell you more about it in a letter or something, I only get a half hour for emailing... We're getting 2 new districts in our zone wedensday, so 18 new elders and 6 new sisters, our zone is going to be huge! We'll have 5 districts. And I think some of the ones coming are going to Bacolod as well, they must be doin work there cause there are a ton of us going to Bacolod. My district is really fun and we all get along really well with each other and stuff. I think you have to have a good time here or you will go crazy. It's weird to think that if I was going to an English speaking mission I would be leaving today.. But I'm here for 6 more weeks. I think it'll go by really fast though, it already is. Yesterday was fast sunday and it was a killer cause they feed you so much and so often here, even when you're not hungry you feel like you have to be eating. I haven't gained any weight though so that's good. Today we went to the temple again and that was nice. Oh and Mom, I did get your package, thank you! The cookies were great and not smashed. Sorry for not giving you too much information, if I have time I'll try to get a letter home this week. Mahal po kayo

Elder Andersen

Hello everyone! Yes, I do get to email (obviously), it's pretty nice. Except I always have to do it in the laundry room and it's hot and sweaty down here. So much so that my fingers are just slipping all over the keyboard because they are drenched in sweat. But not really. But seriously, it's really hot. Wow, so our house is that much closer to keeping up with the times now! Mom, my shoes are the orange saucony's and they were in the garage by the garbage cans on that mat, so I hope those are the ones you sent me. I guess I will find out. I'm sorry things didn't work out with Rachel and everything, I'm glad you all still go to go to the playmill. I'm glad everything is going well with the fam. Lara says it is quiet. Damon, Miriam, Hannah, Myah, and Elie, thank you so much for your package you sent me! The cookies taste great, a little crunchy, but tasty :) The shirt is nice too, I can never have too many T-shirts! And Hannahs picture really brightens up my desk space! I hope everything goes well for you guys moving into your new house! This past week has flown by, all the days seem to mesh together when you do basically the same thing everyday, which is class, studying, eating, and just being my goofy weird self. In answer to Lara's question about what we do on sundays, yes we do have a fireside and learn about gospel things. Basically it's like every other day here except we don't exercise, and we have more meetings. First we have priesthood meeting, then district meeting, (Elder Heywood and I had to teach the lesson for district meeting yesterday and did really well) sacrament meeting, and then we get to go up to the temple grounds and just relax and take pictures or whatever for 3 hours. Then we have dinner, and then the fireside. Yesterday the speaker was the guy that is in charge of all the church T.V. commercials, and her showed us a bunch, mostly really old ones from like the 70's, and 80's. They were pretty funny. After that they show 4 different movies we can watch. After our movie we just go back to our residence halls and write in our journals, plan, etc... It's weird to be writing in a journal everyday and I kinda feel like I write the same things everyday. We took some pictures yesterday at the temple so I'll try to send you some. The Provo temple opened back up today so we got to go and do a session, it was really neat. Well I gotta get back to my laundry so I'll write more next week. Love, Elder Andersen

Hey Family! It's your favorite elder, Elder Andersen! The MTC is pretty great, and things have been going pretty good. I'm just doing my laundry right now, they have computers we can email on in here. My companion is Elder Heywood from Gilbert, Arizona. He's pretty awesome and goofy like me, and we get along really well together. There are 10 of us in our district, 8 elders, 2 sisters. All but three of us are going to Bacolod. And there are I think 6 elders in the other zone that are going to Bacolod as well. We were talking to them and they said the district before them that just left before we got here had 6 or 8 elders and sisters going to Bacolod too, so apparently they are sending an army there. Everyday we just go to class and either learn language, or how to use Preach my Gospel. Tagalog is coming along ok, the elders that have been here a while always say stuff to us and we can't understand them so we just smile and say "Mabuti!" The days are long but they are starting to go faster. Sometimes when I'm writing in my journal at night I can't remember what I did all day because we are always busy doing something. The food is pretty decent, but it was hard to get used to getting fed so much and so often when you just sit here and don't really do anything. We have gym time everyday, but it's not like you get a good hardcore workout playing sand volleyball or whatever. I can see how people gain weight here. Especially since you can eat as much as you want. How is the family? Rexburg? Everything? I don't have Andrea's email address so I can't send her this for my blog, so if you would send that to me when you write me back I would appreciate it. Could you also send me my running shoes and another T-shirt? Just one of those Nike ones. Yesterday it was really nice because we just got to go up to the temple grounds and relax and stuff for three hours or so. I forgot my camera to take pictures, but I will try to send you some next week.

Love,

Elder Andersen