Hey family. It's me again. That one kid in the Philippines. So, this week has been good. It's been super hot lately, cause it's hot season now. Hot season goes from about April, till June. And basically it's just really hot all day every day, and no rain. The other season is rainy season, where it's still hot, but it rains every day. So yeah. Been sweating a lot. I think I drink like 4 liters of water a day. So this week was holy week. Yipee! And 90% of the population of our area is Catholic, so that pretty much didn't help the work very much.. The people here in Negros Occidental don't do anything too crazy for holy week, but in other parts of the Philippines they have these giant processions where guys whip themselves with these whips that have razor blades and stuff on the ends of them, and the crucify some people, and do all sorts of crazy things. Here they just had a giant procession of all the Catholics walking and doing their little memorized prayer chants and following these big statues of like Mama Mary, and dead Jesus' and stuff. Kinda weird, but whatever. I don't really have too much to say this week cause we didn't really get to work that much, plus most of our investigators weren't there. Oh, it was Elder Malit's birthday on the 20th. That was fun. We just went to our branch presidents house and we had all this food and just had a little party with the members. Our branch president is still sick, but he's getting surgery tomorrow I think. Somehow they got government funding or something to pay for most his surgery, so they'll be all right. Sounds like everything is going well for you all. Oh yeah, what do you want me to do for calling home on Mother's Day? Thats coming up pretty soon. But I don't know Mom if you're even gonna be in America on Mother's Day.. Also, what gender of baby is Paul having, no one seems to tell me details like that. What is Rachel's last name? Why are Andrea and Barrett living at the house for a year? Where are Miriam and Damon going when their time is up with the Air Force? What grade is Lara Jane in? And how old is she? Are you guys ever gonna email those pictures I asked for like... 6 months ago? Dad already left for Europe? Wow. it feels like I haven't been to America in like 7 months or something. Well thanks for all you do. Love you all! Love Elder Andersen

Well hey family, don't worry about me, I'm still alive and kicking! Sounds like you guys had a busy week! I did as well, but then again thats just become normal for me. So the news is I'm staying in Himoga-an for at least another transfer with Elder Malit, so that'll be good. Some bad news though, our branch president has been in the hospital this week. He has a stone in his gallbladder and needs surgery, but the problem is they don't have money to get the surgery. He looks bad, like he aged 20 years. so we're just praying for him. He has an appointment today in Bacolod to see whats up and if there are any other options than surgery. But things will work out I'm sure of it. Our investigators are doing well. We have this one family that is basically amazing. I don't know if it's allowed to have favorites, but if it is, they are my favorites. The mom of the family is the daughter of the branch president. She got married before their family was taught by the missionaries, so she wasn't baptized. But now we are teaching her and her husband and their son, and like I said they are just so cool. And so prepared to receive the gospel. They went to all sessions of conference even though they couldn't understand a word. So I'm really excited for them to be baptized and everything. This place is starting to feel like home to me now. Well hope you all had fun at the wedding and what not. Thank you all for everything! Love you! Love, Elder Andersen

Hey everyone, it's Elder Andersen again! (in the Philippines) This week was really good, but really busy. Last Monday we went to this old like mansion/plantation house for p-day. It was really really cool. It used to be 7 stories, but now it's only 4 cause some of it fell down. But yeah, basically its been around since the 1800's and was owned by this rich family who had all these sugar cane fields. Pretty much it's exactly like an old plantation house you would find in the south. Only its in the Philippines. Anyway, so we were able to just walk through it and look at all the old stuff they have in there. It's not a museum or anything, but they are trying to kind of make it in to one and preserve it. If they sold all the stuff they have in there they would probably make a lot of money, cause they have a huge library of all these old books, and magazines. I think they had the complete set of Newsweek magazines from 1960-1961. So yeah I was able to see a lot of neat things. Later in the week we had zone conference in Escalante. Those are always good because we receive new training and everything we need to become better. Then we had general conference on Saturday and Sunday. It was really good. I love hearing from the prophet and apostles and getting a refresher of what I need to do to improve. I was able to see the little segment on the church world news thing about the dedication of the new building on campus. So I got to see Rexburg, and even some people I knew! But we missed the Saturday afternoon session, so I wasn't able to see the combined choir from BYU-I. Oh well. And that was basically the week, cause we were hardly in our area this week with all the meetings we had and stuff, so we were only able to teach our investigators once this week. Kind of a bummer, but it's all right. Later today we find out who is transferring. Yes, it's been another 6 weeks! I don't want to transfer cause I want to see the people I've been working with for 3 months, baptized! But I feel like Elder Malit and I will both stay another transfer together here in Himoga-an. Well hopefully next week I can send some more pictures and stuff. Maybe some of that old house, and some of my area. OK well I love you all. Good luck with all the wedding stuff. Love, Elder Andersen

Mom, of course you can send me pictures! Did you just barely figure out you can email pictures? OK well this week has been good. It's been really hot, and sunshiny. Elder Malit says to tell you guys how awesome he is. Anyways, I'm really excited for our investigators. we have 8 investigators with a baptismal date for the end of April, and then maybe a couple in May. So I'm really hoping I don't get transferred so I can see these people I've been working with for 3 months baptized. You get pretty attached to people when you put so much effort in to help them. On tuesday we had companionship exchanges, so I was working in Cadiz, while another elder was working in Himoga-an, and I guess they went to this one family's house to teach them, and the little girl who is 14, but really really shy started crying cause she was scared that I wasn't there haha. What can I say, it's hard not to love me! Just kidding, I think it's just because I'm white and have blue eyes. I'm really not that cocky :) I have to tell you guys about this one investigator though. His name is Pedro, he's like 70 something, and he's hilarious! I don't exactly know how to describe him to you, I just want to take a video of him and send it to you, but I don't know if that would work. Anyway, so we were teaching him about the word of wisdom, and we told him all the things that go with that, and we were talking about illegal drugs, and then he was like, yeah those are really bad, and then proceeded to tell us this story of how he was in Bacolod, and all these people were smoking marijuana in bongs, and smoking houkas and stuff, and was like acting out how they smoked from bongs, and then said they were drinking alcohol and how they were all crazy and stuff ha I basically died laughing. The thing he really struggles with is prayer. He's a former catholic, so every time he prays, he prays to Jesus, and then says some memorized prayer. We explain literally every time we are there that we pray to Heavenly Father, and that prayer comes from the heart. We even had our branch president explain in VERY thoroughly and simply, pray the way we pray, and then asked him if he understood how we pray and asked him to explain it to us, which he did, so then we asked him to pray, and the first words he says? "O Ginoo, Jesucristo!" (O Lord, Jesus Christ) And then said his memorized prayer! Elder Malit and I just looked at each other and were holding back laughs, and we look at our branch president who has his eyes closed, but has this huge grin on his face and was also holding back laughs. So yeah, we're still working on that with him... But he'll get it one of these days :)  I have definitely learned how to be humble here on the mission. I've learned a lot of things, and I've only been out 8 1/2 months! Crazy! Well we didn't watch general conference here cause we watch it a week after you all do in America. So I'm excited to watch that this week. Ummm.... in other news, I now have a genuine rice belly. and weigh 160 pounds. But I think I'm done gaining weight now. I'm really out of shape now. I did 20 push ups this morning and then had to take like a 5 minute break! Pretty pathetic, but thats what happens on the mission. If you're working your hardest and stuff you are just tired basically all the time. But I don't mind it cause I know I'm doin the Lord's work. OK well things are awesome here, I'm loving the mission and loving life. Thanks for all your support and prayers! Love you all! Love, Elder Andersen

Hey Fam. Things were good this week. My companion, Elder Malit, was sick again this week, so we didn't get a whole lot of work done. But the lessons we did get were really good. Anyway, we had to go to Bacolod to go to the doctor. It wasn't anything serious, just an infection. So he has some antibiotics and stuff and he's doing fine now. Ok I'm not sure what questions Mom asked, but I'll try to answer something. It's not like I have all day to sit here and thoroughly read and answer peoples emails though, but I promise I read them! So our investigators. Our most promising ones are the Abria family, and the mom of the family is the daughter of our new branch president, and their family is awesome, and I'm pretty sure they are going to be baptized. We have another family, just a mom who is "divorced" (there's no real divorce in the Philippines, it's kinda weird) and her 3 kids. They are really good too. Then we have this other guy, Pedro, who is just this old guy, but he is interested cause one of his daughters is a member. Anyway, he's way cool and makes hilarious comments that crack me up. Probably one of the cooler old guys I know. Then we have Brother Reginate who I told you about before. We weren't able to teach him this week so that was disappointing, he's trying to sell some land in Iloilo so he wasn't here, but once that is over, he should be good to go. Once he quits smoking. He used to be a chain smoker, but once we taught him about the word of wisdom, he cut down to 1 cigarette a day, and hopefully now he is smoke free. We did a csp at one of the members house, ad thats where I climbed that coconut tree. They are a lot harder to climb than they look by the way! Well I'm not sure what else to write, ha that was basically my whole week.. But I hope everything is going ok for you all there in America, and I love you, and thanks for all your support and everything! Also, can you email me some pictures of everyone in the family, and maybe one of the rexburg temple, Byu-Idaho, anything else you find interesting (landscapes, buildings, whatever) and our house and surrounding areas and stuff, if thats at all possible. Just so I can show people what it's like where I live. Just email them to me, and I will put them on my sd card and print them off. Thats a lot easier than you guys sending them to me via mail. Ok well love you all! Have a great week! Love, Elder Andersen

Hey Family, here's some pictures of me climbing a coconut tree! I tried to send you a video of like the ocean and stuff, but it was too big.. so I'll see what I can do this week to make a smaller one.

Hey family! This week has been pretty good. I guess the big news is our branch got reorganized on sunday! So thats exciting for us/challenging, cause we really have to help the new branch president know what he is supposed to do.. But it's all good. I really hope the former branch president becomes the branch mission leader, cause we don't have one of those, and he is really awesome. For the first time in this branch's history, the stake president visited! (they've been a branch since 2007) Yeah the stake pres. was not such a great guy, and was doing some very not good things, but then the Philippines general presidency came and told him what was up, so he's with the program now. Uh our investigators are good, and progressing, I don't really have much time to write a long email today sorry! I guess I'm just really not that good at writing period. I do hope to write you a hand written letter sometime! And maybe send you pictures of where I am! So yes, things are good. I'm excited for general conference, except we watch it a week after you guys do, and then on May 1st we have stake conference, and it's a satellite broadcast from Salt Lake, so that should be really good too. If i'm still here. But I feel like I'll be here for another transfer. OK well I guess thats all from me this week. Wow BYU made it into the sweet 16? It's a miracle! Ha well maybe they can be Florida. They did last year. Oh mom! That slimy part is the good part of the coconut! Thats the best part! It's sooooo good I love it. What other part of the coconut is there to eat? Oh and dad I was watching this profile of this guy on Mormon.org, Helmut Wondra, he's a concert manager in Vienna, and does a lot of cool things there. You should watch it and then try to contact him, I bet he could get you into some really cool stuff for the Europe tour! Ok well I guess thats it for me. Love you all! THanks for all your support! Love, your son, brother, uncle, whatever else, and missionary Elder Andersen

Hey Family. This week has been pretty great. Done a lot of work,
taught a lot of people, and everything is just going well! It's been
really rainy this week. the road on the way here to the internet place
was flooded up to my ankles. I don't know if it has anything to do
with that Tsunami or anything though. Yeah, we didn't really get
affected by it at all. And I don't think we ever would here in Negros
Occidental, cause It's kinda protected on all sides, so nothing too
bad happens here. So this week has been good. On Friday we went to the
middle of nowhere to these members "farm" to do a service project. It
was really cool. To get there we had to cross this HUGE river in this
tiny little boat that could only take 2 people at a time and the waves
on the river were huge also haha it was quite a trip! The boat guy was
insane and was just always swearing and yelling and stuff, but we made
it just fine. Anyway, so then we did our service project, which
involved chopping wood- Filipino style, which is with a machete. It's
a lot harder than it looks! Then we got all these coconuts and cut em
open and made this drink, it's delicious! You know how I hated coconut
in America? Well real coconut is reeeeeally good. So yeah that was
really fun. We didn't have any baptims this week but it's ok. We have
a couple investigators with a baptismal date and we're really looking
forward to that. Oh yeah Rachel is getting married huh? Well, big
gulps huh... See you later! Love Elder Andersen