Just some funny signs. And that big old boa constrictor!

 Just a few pictures! Eating Snails!

Tried to go swimming, but there was no water in the pool!

Hello family! Another week has come and gone! Things went pretty well this week. Except I got a little sick and had to go to Bacolod yesterday so I could get a check up from the doctor so I could get the medicine I needed. But it's fine now, so no need to worry! I can't really think of anything to write about, cause this week we've just been doing a lot of visiting to members and teaching them how to share the gospel with their friends because we need more investigators, and everyone knows tracting is really not effective, so we've been really working with the members and trying to help them share the gospel and give us referrals. I did see some cool things this week and was going to send you pictures, but my card reader wont work so I'll just have to wait till next week. But I saw I giant boa constricor (I know you'll love that mom) and the pictures of snail we ate. And just some other pictures. Hmm this week we ate "Poorboy Soup" Which is a soup containing the reproductive parts of animals, usually cows. And I don't mean just the testicles. Yep. It really wasn't bad at all, it was pretty good as long as you didn't keep reminding yourself you were eating a cows penis. Our investigators are doing well, we're teaching a couple of families that are doing well, and it's always awesome to teach families. But one of our major focuses here is reactivation. There are 700 members in the Kabankalan ward, but only 92 came to church on sunday. So our work is cut out for us in that department. It's sad because we know that if they don't come back to the church, it would be better for them that they were never baptized. The problem here is most of them live out in far away places and it's hard for them to come to church, and so over time they just became lost, and some of them have even gone back to the Catholic church and stuff. It's a sad thing to see. Missionary work is some of the happiest work one could ever do, but at times it is also the saddest. But that's the plan and so that's how it's gotta be. Just gotta keep doing our best. Going to Bacolod yesterday was pretty cool. Makes me feel like I'm back in America almost. Eating at Pizza Hut, going to SM, seeing other white people, etc.. I guess that is all for this week. Thank you all for all your love and prayers. Love Elder Andersen

Well hello family. Another week has come and gone, and it's already June! This week has been good. So Kabankalan is quite a big area, but we don't work out in the far away places, unless we are working with inactives, who are inactive because they live so far away from the church, and because they weren't really converted. I honestly don't know what missionaries were thinking back in the day when they would just go out in the bukid and baptize people, cause now there are sooo many inactives/ less actives. There are about 500 members on our cmis, but only about 110 or so that actually go to church. It's a little ridiculous, so we do a lot of working with them, as well as with investigators. So we have to plan and balance out our schedule of visiting them and visiting our investigators. Right now we have a family we are teaching, and they are really good, and should be baptized in July, but it depends cause the tatay hasn't stopped smoking yet, so he has to stop first obviously. Then we are teaching this other guy and he's in his mid 40's and his wife died a couple of years ago, but he is really a neat guy, and when we meet with him he just really gets things. He always is telling us stuff he sees in other religions that they do wrong and it's just really cool to find people that actually know about stuff like that, because most people are like "We're Catholic and we're gonna stay that way" But they have no idea what their religion is all about. Then you get other people that say stuff like this:"As long as you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you will be saved." So yeah, gotta love it. So I figured I'd tell you all a little funny story that happened this week. It actually happens quite often, I've just never told you about it before. So we were trying to find this less active family, and we went to the house and said "Tagbalay" (thats what you say when you go to peoples' houses) and this girl answers back and said "waay tawo di!" (There's no one here!) So I said back to her, "Te, ano ka, amok?" (So, what are you, a monkey?) Then you could just hear her giggling and then she just said "Wa'ay tawo di!" again! So I was like "pwede kami magpamangkot?" (Can I ask a question) she said "Ano" and I said "kilalala mo ang pamilya so and so" (do you know the so and so family) and she answered "didto sila sa pihak" (Over there on the other side) So we left the house and just as we were leaving some little kids came up and I asked them, "nagaestar kamo diri?" (do you live here?) And this little girl nodded her head yes, and I asked her if her last name was the name of the family we were trying to find and again she nodded her head, so I started laughing and just said, "ok salamat. Maghambal ka sa imo nga ate, nga hindi dapat siya magbulig." (tell your older sister that she shouldn't lie) and she was like "Ok Elder, hambalon ko sia" (ok Elder, I'll tell her). So that was just a little experience. Pretty funny. People always tell you there is no one in the house, but yet they are talking to you. I don't understand it. I don't know why I told you the whole Illongo conversation, it would have been a lot easier to just write it all in English, but whatever. So yeah, things are going well, Elder Jensen and I get along really well and work well together, and have a lot of fun. But not too much :) Thanks for everything you all do for me and all your prayers! Love you all! Elder Andersen  P.S. I ate snail for dinner last night! Yum!

Hey family. I'm writing you this week from my new area- Kabankalan! I had to travel about 5 hours to get here cause it's pretty far down south, and I was as north as you could get in my last area. It's a pretty good sized city, so it's quite an adjustment coming from tiny little Himoga-an! But I really like it so far. My new companion is Elder Jensen from Bremerton Washington. I'm follow up training him. I like him a lot and we get along well and work well together. I think I've been assigned here to clean up a mess that the elder before me left.. He was here for 6 months, and there's been hardly any progress here for at least 6 months because of that. So we're doing our best to get the work going here! It's just weird to go from a tiny little branch that doesn't even have a chapel to meet in, to a big ward with about 500 members. The problem is only about 120 or so are active... thats one of the biggest problems here in the Philippines. People were baptized back in the day before they had higher standards and things and just became inactive right after they were baptized. Needless to say we do a lot of reactivation work here. Everyday I think of what serving a mission used to be like before they came out with Preach My Gospel and all these things. It's truly an inspired program. I know this email is short, but I've only been here since Wednesday so not a whole lot has happened. But thank you all for all your support and prayers and emails and everything, I really appreciate it and love you all! Elder Andersen

Hey Family. Well this week has been... challenging, but good. First off, our branch president, President Garcia, passed away last monday night. That was a major blow to the branch. It came a little bit of a shock to me as well, I mean he had been in the hospital for a few weeks, but it didn't seem too serious. I guess the Lord needed him on the other side. He was a really great guy, and even though I didn't know him for too long, about 4 months or so, I came to love him. So that was hard. But my testimony has grown in the knowledge in eternal families and that Heavenly Father has a plan for us all. It's really cool to see the difference here between when and LDS member dies, verses someone that is another religion. We spent a lot of time this week with his family, and doing our best to help them, and the branch. Now they basically have no leadership. We have a first counselor, but he has no idea what he is doing. So basically the former branch president is running things, under the authority of the 1st counselor, so for now the branch is ok. But it will be interesting to see what happens. To add with all that, this was probably my last week in Himoga-an. I've been here for 4 1/2 months of my life, and have been through a lot with these people and have come to love them. It'll be hard to leave, but also good. Every time I enter a new area I feel like I learn so much more. This week we did have some good things though. The Abria family was baptized! It was really good. It's a hard feeling to describe to teach people all the way through and see them baptized, but it really is such a good feeling to know that you helped a person find the truth and become that much closer to returning to our Father in Heaven. So hopefully next week I can send you all some pictures of it. Thank you all for your prayers and support on my behalf, I love you all! Love, Elder Andersen

Hey peeps. This week has been good, but really busy. We only got to work about 3 whole days this week due to training meetings and other things. We had our Jubilee Celebration here this week. It was really cool. Basically just the same sort of thing they had in Manila, cultural presentation and stuff. It was fun, we got to go all the way to Victorias riding this bus with our whole branch. We actually rode on top of the bus so we could get some "aircon" haha. I would actually much rather ride on top of a bus than inside it where my legs don't fit in the seats and it's about 200 degrees! But good news, the Abria family had successful baptismal interviews, and are going to be baptized this coming saturday! I'm pretty excited for it! I really don't have much to say about the work,since we didn't get to do much of that this week. But our trainings were good, we learned a lot on how to improve and things. Yes, it really is beautiful here. And yes, that is a fruit bat. It's not alive, but it was about 2 minutes before I took that picture! These guys were just killing em outside of our house with a pellet gun, so I asked what they do with them, and they said they eat them. They said they're really good cause all they eat is fruit, so I dunno. If I get to eat one sometime I'll let you know. Oh it has a hole in its wing cause they stabbed a stick through it to carry it. Ok, well Mom, I hope you enjoy your travels and have a safe trip! Tell pops hello for me, and sorry I didn't get to talk to him on the telephone. So things are going well here. Love you all. Love, Elder Andersen

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