Hey everyone, wow a new bishopric huh? Well Wade will make a great bishop, and Alan a great 1st counselor. I never really got to work with Clint, but I'm sure he'll do awesome as well. As for me, this week has been pretty good. We're just focusing on all that stuff I explained last week. It's been going well. We had at least 5 inactives come to church, just by teaching them this week. The problem is getting them to keep coming to church. We're doing our best to help the branch get organized and be unified and fulfill their callings, which includes home and visiting teaching. All I can say is I'm grateful for how smoothly the Church runs in America. Sometimes I just get tired of having to do the job of everyone else haha. But it's good. This week will probably be my last here in Caduha-an. It's been a good 6 months and I love the people and have learned a lot of things, but I'm excited to get a new start somewhere else and get to know and love those people too. It's kinda crazy for me to think that my next area could be my last! But you never know what will happen. Did you guys find me an awesome high paying job yet? haha. Our investigators are doing well. Jun-jun couldn't come to church this week cause his wife had a seminar in Bacolod, but they said they would go to church there. He will be baptized in a few weeks, too bad I won't be there! That's mission life. This week I went on exchanges with Elder Tu'ikolavatu. He's a Tongan-American and grew up in Tonga until he was 9, then moved to Salt Lake. He plays defensive tackle for the Utes. Big guy haha. Right now he's skinny and has lost about a hundred pounds since the mtc. Right now he weighs 275, but when he plays football he weighs 312. I wouldn't want him angry at me haha. But he's a good guy, and it was fun to go on exchanges with him. All the little kids were scared of him. But yeah, we're just continuing to work with the less actives and inactives, with a focus on priesthood holders. The weather here is just the same as usual. Blazing hot, and then rainy. Some days it doesn't rain though. If it does rain, it's only usually for a couple hours, and then it's blazing hot again, unless there's a baguio, then in just rains all week. We're gonna go play basketball later so I can work off my rice belly. Well I guess that is it for me this week. Thanks for everything, you're all number 1! Love, Elder Andersen

Hey Fam. Nope, I'm still here in Caduha-an. I have been here a long time, nearly 6 months now. But I should transfer probably on the 1st of next month. My how time flies. Well things this week were good. The Area Presidency gave a broadcast for all ward and branch councils on their goals for 2012. It was pretty amazing. I could definitely see that these men are inspired and are doing the work of the Lord. First off they just gave all the statistics of the Philippines area, which are a little pathetic and shocking. Like how only 150,000 of the 600,000 + members here are active. or how in 2010 only 600 + young men accepted mission calls while 20,000 did not. They compared the Church to the allegory of the olive tree in Jacob 5 how the servant notes that the branches have grown beyond the trunk(Strong Priesthood holders) and roots (Church Leaders) , so that when the storms of trials or whatever come, they cannot withstand, and souls are lost. But then they explained on how they expect us to change here. Their goals are 1 Strengthen Families: Every Family has daily prayer, scripture study, and weekly family home evening. Each member has his/her own scriptures. Increase number of temple recommend holders. 2 Daily scripture reading (2 Nephi 32:3) 3 Save the Rising Generation. Increase the number of young men serving missons. Incease YSA attendance. 4 Establish the Church. Increase the number of active Melchezidek Priesthood holders. Increase Sacrament Meeting attendance. 5 Rescue the One. Each member rescues someone this year. Every ward council prepares and maintains 15 names for acitvation for members and missionaries to teach. So thats it. They stressed that they are not after the numbers, but the souls. They also stressed how we need to be united under one vision for the work here to be effective. President Teh restated what he said last year during the jubilee celebration. "We have seen nothing yet and the best is yet to come." But he also added this will not happen if the people do not work for it and strive their best to rescue their brothers and sisters here in the Philippines. That is why the whole process of our missionary work has changed here. So we have our work cut out for us. It feels just as good to help someone come back to activity in the Church as it does to baptize someone into the Church. We have one member we have been working with the whole time I've been in this area. It's been so cool to see how the gospel has changed his life. again. When I first got here, he and his family never came to church, he had problems with the word of wisdom, and smoked, and was a drinker. We'd stop by his house and he'd hide his cigarettes and stuff. But after a while he let us in to teach his family. He is now fully reactivated, smoke and drink free, comes to church every sunday, and reads the scriptures everyday. He said to us yesterday when we were teaching him that because of his reading it makes him want to come to church every sunday and do more. His wife and kids can only come sometimes cause they live far away from the church and their children are still young. 4 boys all under the age of 7, the youngest being only a couple months old. But they still come sometimes. So this is the work we're doing, and I'm sure here not too long there will be hundreds of more stories like his, because that is what all 16 missions here in the Philippines are doing. The area presidency said one day Filipino missionaries will be the ones teaching their asian brothers and sisters, because the Philippines is the doorway to Asia. I can only imagine what the next 50 years will bring. So I guess that's it for me this week. Hope everything is going well for you! Really sad you don't have any snow. We don't either haha. Love, Elder Andersen

Hello family. Wow, Dad's packin some heat now! Well this week has been good. Only rained a little bit this week. For the most part hot and sunny. We have seen some progression this week in the area, since we've had a chance to really get out in work. The best thing we have seen is some inactives start coming back to church, since they are who we are really focusing on. I don't know what changed, because I've got to these people before and they wouldn't let us teach them, but now, they've let us teach them, and are starting to come back to church! They aren't coming every sunday, but it's a start. Really all we are teaching these people are the missionary lessons, especially focusing on the Book of Mormon. It's a little unnerving to go to some members that have been members for 10+ years, and come to church, but don't have a testimony of the Book of Mormon! I don't know why they keep coming to church every sunday! So a lot of the people we are working with are "active" on paper, but in reality, don't have the attributes an active member should have. They come to church, but they don't read the scriptures, or pray, or just other simple things we need to do everyday. When I get home I know how important it is to keep up my study of the scriptures everyday! I think last April General Conference President Monson spoke about that. We really just gotta do the simple primary answers and we'll be ok. But if not, thats when things start to go downhill. We also are working with investigators as well. We have a couple that are doing pretty well so far. The first is Mamerto "Jun-Jun" He is the husband of a member. One of the members that is technically active but really isn't. So it's good because we get to teach them both. They are both really nice and have one child. He is a member of the Barangay kagawad, which is kinda like city council or something like that. We taught him about the plan of salvation last time and he got excited when he heard the families can be together. The other is named Jonathan. He lives on a Hacienda and works in the sugarcane, just lik 90% of people in my area right now. We've only been able to teach him twice, and they were far in between visits, but he has read a lot from the Book of Mormon and understands a lot of it and really likes it. His wife was there last time as well, so we were able to teach them both. She also likes reading the Book of Mormon, which is way good, cause usually people don't really read when you ask them to, or they only read a little bit, but they are good at reading so that's exciting. So we're just keeping busy and working hard. February 1 is our next transfer day, so I'll probably transfer out of here cause I'll have been here for 6 months. Crazy how fast time goes. Well I love you all and am thankful for everything you do! Love, Greg

Hey Family! Well this week has been good. The first part of this week was really rainy, and it flooded everywhere. The river in our area rose about 60 feet and flooded some places. The church in an area about 45 minutes away was flooded really badly. The water was about 6 inches from the ceiling. Lots of towns flooded cause they don't have good gutters and things here, they're full of garbage so the water doesn't flow out of them. But yeah, nothing too bad happened, and nobody died that I know of. I mean floods are bad, but not as bad as the floods that were in Cagayan De Oro that killed 1000+ people and destroyed everything. Here it just flooded, and the water flow was slow so people's homes weren't destroyed. But the last part of this week has been blazing hot. Thats how it is here. We did a service project this week, and helped a member cut down bamboo, carried it to his house, and made a fence. It was pretty intense work. It was about a half mile walk from his house to the river where the bamboo is, and it was just mud about knee deep. We didn't even bother wearing sandals or anything cause they would just get sucked off and be way slippery. So we cut it down, and then I carried 90 pounds of bamboo 1/2 mile in knee deep mud to the guys house. 4 times. Good exercise. My shoulders were pretty sore afterward! But it was a fun experience. Saturday of course was New Year. Filipinos like new year a lot more than they do Christmas, that's for sure. My companion, Elder Capinpin, said they spend about 20% percent of their budget on Christmas, and then the rest on New Years. They love fireworks, and things that make loud noises. They have these big bamboo cannon things and other cannon things they make out of cans taped together. Pretty thrifty. They also cooks tons of food! The fireworks here are way dangerous though. People are always getting fingers and hands blown off and other things injured. They have signs up everywhere with this bloody hand missing a couple of fingers that says be careful with fireworks and stuff like that. You'd think they'd learn after so many people getting hurt every year, but apparently not! We had to be in at 6 on New Years Eve. Pretty boring with just us two at the house! New Years is pretty crazy though. Once it hits 12:00 thousands of fireworks go off and they are so loud and you can't see more than 20 feet because of the smoke. This week wasn't very effective for missionary work however, since everyone was just busy preparing for New Years, or just drunk. So we're glad thats over so we can get some work done. Well, it was good talking to you last week! Thanks for all you do, and all your support, I couldn't do it without you! I love you all! Love, Greg

Hello Family! I guess I'll be saying hello to you in a few days huh? Yeah I'm not sure when I'll call you, but don't worry I'll figure something out. It'll either be saturday sunday, or monday (for me) so I guess just answer the phone if it's a weird number or in the middle of the night! I'll try to call at a convenient time though. Well I'm doing just fine! There have been baguios rollin through, but mostly just dumping lots of rain. It does flood here as well, but not nearly as bad as it does in Luzon. We're pretty safe here on Negros. It's probably the safest island in the Philippines, as far as storms and things go. But thanks for your concern! This week has been good, just been working hard and doin work. Well tomorrow we have transfers. We haven't gotten transfer announcements just yet, but it's pretty positive that my companion, Elder Groves, is transferring, and that I will stay, and be here in Caduha-an for 6 months. So that'll be good. It's always good to get someone fresh in with you so that they are really excited to do the work somewhere you've been working for the past 5 months. So I guess when I call for Christmas I'll tell you all about that. Things have been going well with the work. The members are seeming to catch an idea of what they are supposed to be doing. On sunday the stake president came and gave a training for them and pretty much just told them if they are ever going to become a ward they have got to work for it, and do more than they are doing. We're working with a lot of the branch auxiliary leaders to help them understand what they are supposed to do in their calling. Slowly, but surely. The work we're doing now is a little different since we're focusing so much now on members, but it's good too. Sometimes it's way frustrating when you're working with people that have been members for like 15 years and won't come back to church. Cause if they were investigators it would be obvious that they aren't prepared, and just drop them, but these people are members. They have made covenants, and are not keeping them! And they don't even care! That's why our work is so important because we know what is going to happen to them if they don't come back! So we are doing everything we can to get people to come back. But of course we have investigators as well. We're working with mostly part-member families right now. But President Amarante says he's preparing some people for us that he knows so that'll be good. All righty, well I'd better go, but talk to you soon! Love, Elder Andersen

Hey Family. Well another week gone by, and another closer to
Christmas! This week has been good. The funeral service for Sister
Amarante was really good. I have never seen the church building so
full, and saw many inactives we have been working with, that I never
thought I would see in the church. So that was really good. My
personal testimony has grown a lot because of everything that has
happened. Elder Nobleza of the seventy presided, and was also a
speaker. Funerals and Burials are a little different than they are  in
America but it was good. We've just really been working with less
active, inactive, and recent converts. They are really our biggest
focus. Of course, we still talk to people and teach other people about
the gospel, but if we don't have many investigators, we teach the
members. Things are starting to get rolling in the branch. Slowly, but
surely. We had our first PEC yesterday since I've been here.
Correlation is really the key to everything in the Church. I'm really
sorry I don't have much to say this week, cause I'm really rushed
right now, and can't focus cause the kid next to me in the internet
place is listening to hardcore screamo satan worshipper music and I'm
about to stab my ears out with ice picks! Good thing they don't have
ice picks in this country! I wanna give a birthday shout out to none
other than my amazing father, Dad! Happy birthday Dad! Well I love you
all, and am so thankful for all you do for me and look forward to
talking to you in a couple weeks! Love, Greg

Well you all seem to be doing great, I'm glad to hear it! Ah Cathan?
Yeah he's my buddy. Don't worry, it doesn't feel too much like
Christmas here either. No snow. But we have had TONS of rain lately! A
couple nights ago, I experienced the biggest storm of my life! The
thunder literally shook the house, and it was pretty much like the
lights were on because of how frequent the lightning was! And then not
even one second after the lightning would flash, the thunder would
boom and shake the house again! I can't imagine what it would be like
to experience that living in a tiny bamboo hut! At church the next
morning, there were 10 people there at 9 o'clock. That's what rain
does here. But lots of people showed up after sacrament meeting.. I
feel really bad cause I fell like all I tell you guys about are bad
things that happen. I don't mean to! There are lots of good things
too! But this week was one of the saddest on my whole mission. I think
I mentioned a few weeks ago that the stake president, President
Amarante, lives in our branch. Well his wife passed away this week.
She was only 39. They have five children, and the youngest is 1, the
next youngest just turned 3. My heart aches for them. Sister Rebecca,
"Bec Bec" was only in the hospital for 2 weeks before she died. At
first, it didn't seem like too big of a deal. A couple of weeks ago
she was having some back pains, and we gave her a blessing. A couple
days later she was admitted to the hospital because her x-rays showed
she had a lot of liquid in her lungs that wasn't supposed to be there.
They operated on her and sucked all the stuff in her lungs out, but
then they discovered a tumor growing on her lungs. They were going to
operate on that too, but she passed away before they could. They found
out from her biopsy that she actually had stage 4 pancreatic cancer
and that it had moved to the lungs as well. It's been really hard for
everyone in the branch. Also for me. We have grown pretty close to
their family since I've been here. We used to go over there once or
twice a week and help them with stuff because President Amarante works
in Bacolod and doesn't get back until about 7, and then on sundays he
doesn't get home until like 9:30. So we would get water from the well
and stuff for them so that when President got home he would have time
with his family. President and and Sister Amarante are some of the
kindest, and faithful people I have met in my life, and I always
enjoyed our conversations. Sister Bec Bec's passing had a big effect
on the youth especially because she was their seminary teacher. She
was also the chorister in sacrament meeting. There were many tear
filled eyes on sunday when she wasn't there to lead the music. It was
really hard for me, because a lot of the members didn't know about her
passing, and I had to be the bearer of bad news. It was like a punch
in the stomach every time I told someone else. I can't imagine what
her family must be feeling right now; what it would be like to lose a
wife or mother at such a young age. I'm so glad that even though I
don't know what it's like to experience that, there is always one who
knows our pains and sufferings, for He too, suffered them. "Surely he
hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him
stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted... But he was wounded for our
transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of
our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." This
experience, and others have made me so thankful for the plan of
salvation and all the blessings we will reap from it, if we can just
endure to the end of this mortal life. I, like Nephi, feel to rejoice
in the plan of our Heavenly Father: "O how great the goodness of our
God, who prepareth a way for our escape from the grasp of this awful
monster; yea, that monster, death and hell, which I call the death of
the body, and also the death of the spirit." It brings such comfort to
know that there is more to this life that what we see everyday. That
there is a purpose to our being here, and that even though someone
leaves this world before us, we can see them in the next. I am so
thankful that Heavenly Father sent his son, Jesus Christ, to make it
possible for us to return to him. And I am thankful for this time of
year especially to remember him. For Christmas, Elder Groves and I are
going to do sort of a secret santa thing like we used to do back home,
and get the members some Christmas presents. The people here need such
simple things like rice, flip flops, paper, pencils, pens, just stuff
like that. I don't know how secret it will be though, cause all the
members know we are the only ones here who can afford things like
that, and also, it's not hard to see the two white guys running away
from your house, even if it is dark. I think our package to the
Amarante family will be packed with some other things as well. We're
going to go over there later and visit. Elder Teh (Philippines Area
General President) has already called and talked to him. The members
are also really supportive. So I suppose thats all for me this week.
Thank you for all your prayers and support I really need them. I love
you all! Love, Greg