Well sounds like you all have been getting some pretty intense weather! Sounds like here! The weather here this past week has been either really rainy/windy/stormy or just super hot. Today it's just super hot. Tomorrow it'll probably be pouring rain. Who knows. Well this week has been really good! To start off with I guess, Mom, your prediction about me going to the Philippines and eating dog was correct. I ate dog this week! And I have to admit it was pretty delicious! His name was Mateo. Anyway, we also had a successful baptism and confirmation this week! Brother Romeo Alvez. He's been coming to church for over a year now, and all the rest of his family are members, but he couldn't kick his cigarettes. Well, he finally did, and so he was able to be baptized. He was really happy to finally be a member along with the rest of their family. It was their dog that we ate, I guess in celebration for his baptism or something. Our other investigators are doing well. Especially the Reqiron family. They are some of the nicest people I have ever met I think. They are very simple people, but they are so willing to accept the gospel. They never have a problem with anything that we teach them, and they keep their commitments that we give them. It's always so much better to teach people that are truly prepared, instead of just trying to get people to listen to you. Our main focus right now is working with part member families, and unordained male members etc. That is the revelation President Tobias has given us. Rather than spending time tracting (basically wasting time) Look for the part member families on the CMIS and in the process we can find lots of people to talk to and therefore have many more investigators. It also helps the units organize their records much better. But that's not the whole reason for it. It's mostly so we can talk to all these people and get new investigators without having to go "tracting" So we have quite a few part member families we are teaching. Also a few of the members have really been helping us out with the work,and giving us referrals and other things. It's amazing how much of a difference they make! So I'm attatching a few pictures for you all. These are all of the baptism of brother alvez. So we have the Alvez family first, then Brother Alvez with Elder Groves and I, and then we have a big group picture of all of us at the baptism. I'll send some more of mateo. and also this week we saw some guy chopping up a karabaw that had died, so I took a picture of that as well. One cool thing we do here is we take showers from the rain pouring off the roof of the house. It's almost like a real shower! All right, well I guess that is all for me this week. Thanks for all your love, and everything else. Love, Elder Andersen 

 

 These are just a couple of me showering in the rain, and then one with the Elders quorum president and his family. All right guess thats it. Love ya!

  Well the first two are the ones of the karabaw getting cut up. CAUTION: NOT FOR THE WEAK STOMACHED. The next one is Mateo, the dog. Or I guess what was left of Mateo. The last one is one of Mateo before he got eaten!

Hey family. Mom, come on, you know I don't speak Spanish! I'll forgive you though. So yes! I did transfer! My new area is called Caduha-an. It's pretty much just a small place with nothing more than a small market a few churches, and then people that live there for some reason. Mostly for the sugar cane farming I think. Either that, or they just commute to bigger places to work. Anyway, it's a cool place I really like it. Kabankalan was a hard place for me to leave, I really came to love the people there. Transferring is always bitter sweet. Especially because you don't know if you will ever see those people again. But that is part of the mission experience. So yeah, my new companion is Elder Groves. He's from Petaluma, California. By the bay area. I like him and we get along well so that's good. We live in a house of 4 again. We actually live in a place called Manapla. It's pretty close to our area, we just ride a bus out there everyday. The work is going well. We are going to have a baptism next saturday! Also we got a referral this week, who are really good. We were teaching them and we gave them an invitation to be baptized, they accepted, then the father asked when they could be baptized! Pretty neat! I think there are six of them in the family, but only 3 of them are old enough to be baptized. So if everything goes according to plan they will be baptized on September 17th! We have some other investigators that are doing well too. Rain. Well pretty much every month out of the year is rainy season except may and june. Or April and May. I forget. But yeah, it rains a lot. And we work even if it rains. Sometimes we are wet for most the day. But other times we just wait in people's houses until it dies down a little bit, and then make a break for it. Yeah, there are less bugs when it rains. They have a hard time flying when that happens. My feet are fine. No, I don't have foot fungus. My shoes are ok. I just need to get some insoles for them and they'll be great. The little cushion pad thing is wearing out. But other than that, they are just fine. Uhh I can't just really answer your other questions. I don't really like sharing all my spiritual experiences with the world, ya know? Those are kinda just for me.. I do know corrine mosely. Not well, but I went to high school with her. So, I'm the only one out from the ward now huh? Coolio. Yeah, missions really do change people. There are a lot of things I didn't understand before I went on a mission, but now I realize a lot.. I'm not sure I'm gonna recognize anyone in the ward when I get back. Good thing I won't be going there long! All right, well I gotta go. I think I've answered the majority of your questions for the week. Thanks for all your love and support! Love, Elder Andersen

Hey family. Well shoot, sorry Mom I just don't what to say about how raspberries you have coming out of your ears! And just so you know you didn't ask me a single question! Thats cool that dad got a new motorcycle. What does it look like? And when you say old, how old do you mean? His other one was pretty ancient! I'm glad you had a good time in D.C. When I get home I'd like to go visit all my siblings, but I'm afraid I won't have the time or money, since I start school again a month after I get back! Things have been going well here. We got the news though that 2 missionaries here in Kabankalan are being pulled out, cause apparently the mission has a shortage of missionaries right now. Right now there are 4 of us assigned here, so there will only be two left, but we won't know until tomorrow who is transferring and who is staying. Our work this week was made a little difficult this week with the ridiculous amounts of rain we got. Some places were flooded. Not too bad, the worst I saw was about up to the knees. One of the members died this week and I was asked to speak at her funeral! Don't ask me why, cause I wasn't even particularly close to her, but I spoke nonetheless. She was only baptized about two months ago. And I'm not joking when I say she looked like she just came out of a concentration camp, but she still came to church every sunday even though she was sick. It was a nice service. Funerals here are a little different though. And then the "burial" isn't really a burial cause they don't put 'em in the ground, they just put them in a cement box. But yeah it was good. OK well I gotta go, thanks for all the love and everything else. Love, Greg

Hey family! Well this week has been all righty. I'm really enjoying the work here in Kabankalan and wouldn't mind staying another 6 weeks. Things are going well here and I'm excited about it. We've got some good investigators that are progressing towards baptism, and a lot of new ones that hopefully will get to that point as well. We're really trying to get the ward excited about doing missionary work/ retention and getting them to work with us etc.. I can't think of any awesome experiences cause I have them everyday and they all just kinda get mashed together! But I love this place, and I love the work. Yesterday we had a zone activity. We pretty much just played basketball for like 5 hours. I got fried! My upper arms and shoulders did really bad cause my white shirts come down to my elbow almost, so everything above that got burned crispy. It hurts a little bit but I'll pull through. I feel like my emails get shorter and shorter every week... Is there anything you guys wanna know about the mission or the Philippines or anything? All right well thanks for all the support, prayers, and everything else you do! Love you! Elder Andersen

Hey Fam, what's crackin? This week has been a pretty busy one for us. We had zone conference, and we also had this Jubilee exhibit thing at the stake center explaining all about the church and everything, it was really cool. They gave tours and at the end we would answer people's questions and it was just really good. They said they had over 430 visitors attend throughout the week! It was a great way to find new people to teach! We got a referral from it that we taught yesterday and they are really good. Their daughter is actually a member, cause she married a member guy in Dubai, and they are visiting right now. Not that that has anything to do with anything. But they did say that they church has meeting houses now in UAE and Saudi Arabia and some other countries. But they said it's weird to see missionaries cause they obviously don't have those there in their wards. Anyway, so most of our time was taken up with our meetings and stuff. Our investigators are doing well and we should have some be baptized at the end of this month, and if not, in September. Time flies! In a couple of weeks from now I'll already have a couple of friends back from their missions. Crazy bus. It's been raining a lot here still cause of the Baguios. We're lucky here cause they don't really cause any damage, but up in Luzon, there's always people that die and their houses get destroyed and stuff. Things are going well though, and I'm enjoying the work. I got interviewed by President Tobias at zone conference, and he was like, "So half of your life is over here on the mission. Who is Elder Andersen today?" I just sat there for a few minutes and looked back at the past year, and everything I've experienced, how I've changed personally, and just everything. Before I know it, I'll be back home. But I know that the church is true, and I'm so grateful to have it in my life, and I've seen the power it has to change lives. So I guess that is it for me this week. Thanks for everything! Love you all! Oh and yes I did get my package this week. Thanks! Love Elder Andersen

Well it's great to hear that I'm an aunt again! Hope all is going well with Kim and little Lucy Mae! Well this week has been pretty good. We had a specialized training for our district on saturday, and it was really good and I think is really going to help the work progress. Then this coming wednesday we will have zone conference. More training! So that'll be good. We're just continuing to hasten the work here. Also this next week we will have to go to Binalbagan to the stake center because they are doing a Jubilee exhibit for the stake all about how the church got started here in the Philippines. It's mostly for investigators and people who are not familiar with the church. We've been asked to attend so we can answer questions and things like that. Because of the Jubilee exhibit, we had a senior couple come to church with us yesterday from Manila, from the Church's public affairs department or something. They were here to help set up the exhibit and everything. It was a cool experience, because they don't speak Illongo, so I had to translate a lot for them, it was just weird cause I guess I never realized what a gift it is for me to know the language and I can just translate without even thinking about it. I hope sometime in the future I can be assigned in a Cebuano speaking area so that I can learn Cebuano as well. I'd also really like to learn Tagalog. The problem is, it's so much harder to learn if you don't hear people speaking it. Maybe I'll get a Filipino companion some time that can teach me Tagalog. So yeah, the work has been going well. We had one of our investigator families come to church so that was exciting! Hopefully our other ones come next week or we might have to drop them.. But anyway, things are going well. No, I haven't gotten my package yet, but hopefully this week. Hope you all have a great week and thanks for everything! Love you all!

Hello family. This week has been pretty good. I guess some interesting news is I survived a 6.2 magnitude earthquake this week. Before you freak out, let me explain. Yes, it was a 6.2, but nothing happened, nobody died, and everyone is just fine. Even peoples' little bamboo shacks didn't fall down. The worst damage I heard about was like peoples flower pots breaking and stuff. It was weird cause I've never felt one before. It woke us up at 4:50 in the morning, I kinda just sat up in bed and had to take it in for a few seconds to make sure it was real and not dreaming. But then my companion sat up too and was like, "What's going on" and I was like, "I think it's an earthquake." "Ok cool." And we went back to sleep. Or tried to, but it was hard cause there were all these after shocks that kept shaking our beds and keeping us awake. One of the missionaries in our house didnt' even wake up! I really don't know how. If it was a more serious earthquake and our house was falling down, he'd be a goner for sure. Anyway, the work here has been going pretty well. We've been able to go to a lot of people I haven't been able to go to yet, cause we split the area now and so that has been really helpful. We've found several investigators that are part member families. They are what President Tobias wants us to focus on. Part member families, and unordained males. So we've been working to find them, and see if we can help them receive the gospel/return to activity etc.. The weather has been a little crazy cause there are 2 baguios in the Philippines right now I think. So during the day it's super hot, but then around 5 or 6 it'll just pour rain for an hour or longer. We definitely got soaked this week on Wednesday. One of the ward members was working with us in this more mountainous area with rice fields and sugarcane fields, stuff like that, cause in that area there are about 300 members, and maybe 25 or so active. Anyway he had his 8 year old son with him, Nikko, and we were walking back towards civilization, and it started to rain. So we started walking really fast, cause when it rains here, it pours, and doesn't stop! So I scooped up Nikko in my arms and we all just started running in the rain, down this path that was basically just puddles and mud.We ran for a good mile before we got to Sister "Ping"s house. She is one of those members that is like a mother to the missionaries and she's awesome. She gave us some towels to dry off, and every time we come over she insists on feeding us. Her house is the one we ate snails at. She's a good cook. Then she cut up this pineapple, and Elder Aubrey and I ate the whole thing. The fruit here is amazing. I'm attaching a couple of pictures for you to see.