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

Hey Family! Well another one bites the dust. I can't believe another week has flown by! I only have 8 weeks left. Well we've had some good things going this week. We had a really good fireside that will hopefully really help this ward progress, a couple investigators are doing well and will be baptized in June. I'm loving the work. Today Elder Winfield and I got to go with a senior couple all over our zone and do apartment checks. It was cool just to talk to them and learn from them and what life in America is like (they've only been out like 2 months) They said that I had a little bit of an accent but nothing too bad. We talked about cool things though and I learned a lot. The Elder had an Ipad and he let us play with it for a little. It was like being a little boy in a candy shop! I forgot what technology is like! well i've got about 0 time left to email, so I"m afraid i have to leave you here. well i love you all and thank you all for your support. if you vote for me all of your wildest dreams will come true! Love, Elder Andersen

Hey there family. Well it was good to talk to Mom and LJ last week. Sorry if I seemed boring! Or talked weird, or looked fat! Anyway, this last week has been pretty good here in Dian-ay ward. On Sunday, we had 20 more people at church than we have the past 3 weeks! Hopefully it just continues to stay that way. One of the problems we have is that people come in groups. So like one sunday a big group of people from one place will come, but then the next sunday they aren't there and a different group from a different place comes. We're really trying to help them come every sunday. Some cool things that have happened lately. A former branch president that hasn't come to church for around 7 years started coming back with his family! One of the neatest things I have seen from the rescue effort. And a huge help to the ward, because he can now help a lot of the people that became members during his time come back to church. Another thing is about this old woman we are teaching. We just call her Nanay. She is 77 years old, and her son and his family were baptized a couple months ago. She's been listening to the missionaries for a while, but never went to church or anything cause she's had a stroke before, and it's really hard for her to walk. Well for the past 2 weeks in a row she has come to church! She lives relatively close, but it still takes her a while to very very slowly walk to the church. But she has such great faith that she just continues, and she wants to be baptized! We taught her this past week and we taught about the restoration and Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, and then we gave her a commitment to ask God if everything we taught her is true, and then she just started praying right then and there! It was kinda funny, but really cool at the same time. She has a lot of faith. Another cool thing. We bought 2 kilos of fresh mangoes for 120 pesos (around $3) and 4 pineapples for 50 pesos (around $1.10)! Fruit is way cheap and way delicious! I'm really going to miss it when I go home.. Well we've had a lot of other cool stuff happen too. For the first time we know of, we were able to have a priests quorum! There were 5 of them that came to church, and they brought a non member friend. Then we talked about the priesthood, what it means, and what the responsibilities are, and how we can help get the other young men that are less active to church. Way cool. Then on Sunday, we are having a missionary fireside about the goals of the area presidency and how we can apply it in this ward. Things are moving along. There are still a lot of problems, a lot of members offended and what not for whatever reason, but things are continuing forward. No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing! Not even the fiesta and the plaza next to out house where they play annoying techno music from speakers bigger than a car all night long for 3 nights in a row! We're just a little on the sleepy side :) Right now we're in Bacolod cause I had to get a chest x ray. Don't worry, all departing missonaries have to get them. Ok well I gotta go, but I love you all and hope you're all doing well! Love Elder Andersen!

Hey Fam. Soo next week is Mother's day unless I'm mistaken. Is Mom even going to be in America? If not I guess I will just enjoy skyping with whoever is home. I'm not sure what's gonna go down. I'll probably just call you and let you know I'm on like I did last year or something. And if all else fails, I'll see you guys in two months anyway. Well this week has been.. busy! This is probably the busiest time in my whole mission. So I was only with my companion until Thursday this week, and then some elders were having some problems, so I've been working in a different area since then, but hopefully it'll all get worked out early this week. We had 2 baptisms this past weeks. Two brothers. One is 9 and the other 11. Their parents and older siblings were baptized like a month ago, but for some reason the two kids didn't get baptized with them. So that was good. Pretty much I'm just tired all the time. We get up at 6:30 and study, eat, and then we are out of the house by 11 or 12 and we don't get back until 10 sometimes cause there is no mode of transportation back to our house so we walk about 5 miles home. Then we get home, plan, shower, and if we have enough energy, eat. If not, we just sleep, and the process repeats. It's crazy but I love it. I can definitely tell the Lord helps us be able to continue and work like that. Things are getting better here in the ward. It's really cool to just have all this experience now that I can apply to the work here. I wish I knew everything I know now, before my mission! Oh well. I can't imagine not going on mission. I would be real lost I think. I've met some really hard hearted people the past couple weeks, and they've told us that they are never coming back to the church, and if we keep visiting them they will not let us in. It's really sad. I feel kind of like Mormon sometimes when he tried to help the Nephites but they were too hard. Sometimes I feel like standing on top of a mountain and shouting, "O ye fair ones.." But I know we have done our best to try and help these people and their blood is upon their own garments now. It still makes you feel really sad though. It's sad that the hardest hearted people I've met are members. Other Filipinos would never be like that. It's crazy. Well I guess that's it for me right now. Talk to you all next week! Love, Greg