Kamusta family? Things are going well here. It was good to hear about
your thanksgiving and other adventures. So it's starting to get cold
there huh? I'm gonna miss skiing again this year. Oh well, There will
still be winters to come. Well this week we've had a bit going on as
well. On Thursday we had this big training, and they announced to us
what the new 2012 Philippines Area Presidency's focus and expectations
are. A lot is changing! But it's all for good. Well first off, the
Philippines is pretty much a miracle! It's one of the smallest
countries, the Church has only been here for 50 years, but it has the
4th highest population of members in the Church! Whereas if you
compare it to Finland for example, the Church has been there for 70
years, and there are only 6,000 members! The only problem is, out of
those 645,000 in the Philippines, only 114,000 are active. That's
531,000 souls that are lost! In the last 5 years the Church has seen
tremendous growth here. There have been 77,000 converts. Again the
problem; Only 14,000 are active! That means that there are 63,000
souls that are lost just from the last 5 years! It was a really
painful and sad experience. They had us think about our recent
converts, and then, for example, if you had 30, they said only 5 or 6
would remain active in the Church. The other 25 would just add to that
enormous statistic of inactives. So the Presidency's focuses all
revolve around 2 Nephi 32:3. I'll be a little disappointed if you
don't all know that one.. They have 4 major focuses, and they are as
follows:(1) Strengthen Families. (2) Establish the Church. (3) Save
the Rising Generation. (4) Rescue the One. Then we had some training
about how we are to do that. The biggest one for me was using the Book
of Mormon effectively. Here especially in the Philippines, it's so
important for converts to have a testimony of the Book of Mormon, and
to be reading it! Because I've seen, from sad experience, that as soon
as they stop they start down "forbidden paths and are lost". People
here are really shy/ashamed so if they do something wrong they won't
come to Church cause they are too ashamed or afraid. They encouraged
us to visit as many members possible, especially the inactive, less
active, and recent converts, and teach them the lessons again, and
teach them as if they are investigators, because for some people, they
pretty much are. This puts a lot of weight on our shoulders, but I am
really excited for it. They told us there is now NO TRACTING. Rather
than tracting, we are to use all the time we would have spent
tracting, in visiting and teaching these people. It definitely added
to my testimony that the Lord is at the head of this church, and that
he has a great work in store. This is just the beginning. In January
the Area Presidency is going to have a satellite broadcast about this
as well for everyone here. It's just like Elder Teh said back in May,
that the work here is going to explode. It's a good feeling knowing
you are serving the Lord and to participate in such a great work. I
love you all and thank you all for your prayers and everything else
you have all done/are doing for me. Love Elder Andersen

Hello family! I guess I better give a happy birthday shout out to my big sister Rachel, and to my amazing mom, Mom! I love you the both and wish you the best on both of your special days! And to everyone else, Happy Thanksgiving! Guess you won't have to cook as many mashed potatoes this year since I won't be there! Just wait till next year! Sounds like things are going well with you all. Things are going well here as well. We have found some new people this week that have been willing to listen to our message, so thats good. A lot of part member families, and people that live close to members. I don't know exactly what to write about this week, I've been here so long and with Elder Groves for so long, weeks just seem to mesh together! We're doing good work right now. Like I said we have a lot of part-member investigators right now. The thing the mission has been stressing for a while now is using the lists (CMIS, Unbaptized members, Unordained members, Part-member families, etc... We can pretty much make any kind of list we want to using MLS.) This not only helps the units clean up their records, and know where everyone is and what's happening to them, it helps us a great deal because we get to talk to most everyone on our list, and know who all the members are and their situations etc.. It also is a great way for us to find new investigators, because lots of times the address will be very vague. For example, it'll say they live in Hacienda Lilia Dos. Ok, well Hacienda Lilia Dos consists of 300+ Hectares, so of course there are lots of people to work it. And because of that we are able to talk to lots of people and ask if they know the members we're looking for, and whether they do or don't we invite them to be taught about the restored gospel. It works so much better than just simply going door-to-door. It really helps to get the members involved as well, because then they will trust you and give you referrals of their friends and neighbors. We've been seeing great success in that. We've really been trying to let the members know we care about them and are willing to help them with anything. So it's getting there. It's also really nice because we are assigned to the home branch of the Stake President. We're really trying to help the branch get organized and excited. We're trying to help them correlate with us so we can help each other, and to organize the home teaching and visiting teaching etc.. They know they're supposed to do it, they just don't know how, and are shy. We've been working really closely with the Elders Quorum President and helping him with his responsibilities. I know they have problems in the Church in America, just not problems like this. I guess that's what happens when the Church has only been here for 50 years. Well, and here in Negros it's been here for like 40. But it's getting there. Elder Groves and I are still getting along well, although it's a little more boring when it's just 2 of us in the house. Lately after nightly planning he's been teaching me how to do origami. I can now make paper cranes! And flowers! We've got them all over the house haha. Or sometimes we just update our journals. We also have dvd players to watch training videos and other church movies on. The new Doctrine and Covenants one is pretty neat. Well I hope you all have a wonderful thanksgiving, and I love you all! Thank you for all your prayers (unless Barrett forgets to pray for me :) ) and continue being the best family ever! Love, Greg

Hello family! Another week gone by! Well this week we really hit the streets (dirt roads) and did our best to share the gospel with everyone that we met. We talked to lots and lots of people. Some listened, others didn't, but I'm not discouraged. I know we'll find the ones that are being prepared. We've also been doing a lot of work this week in trying to strengthen the branch, especially the leaders. We've been coming up with ways to help them understand what they are supposed to be doing without directly telling them and being overbearing. We always have to just keep in mind that they are the key holders, and the ones chosen by God to hold the calling they have. It's just a challenge sometimes to help the leaders know what their duty and responsibilities are. They really have to trust you first. We have seen a lot of good things this week with the Elders quorum President. He finally knows and is excited to do what he should be doing as president of the Elders quorum. I'm really excited for what we're seeing happening in the branch right now. The past two weeks we've had higher attendance than I've seen the whole time I've been here. And I'll hopefully see a lot more progress because I'll probably be here until February. Elder Groves didn't end up transferring, so we're together another transfer (kind of rare to stay 3 transfers with one companion, but not unheard of), which means I'll be here for two more because they don't usually pull two out at the same time. So there is the possibility of me only having one more area in my mission. Crazy. Time flies when you're doing work I suppose. So yeah, this week is just going to be full of talking to people and finding new investigators, because right now we don't have any super solid ones. We do have some potential referrals, so those will be great. It's always better to teach people that you know want to listen to you, and not just listen to you cause you're tall, white, and have blue eyes. But you can never tell if a person is elect until you teach them, so we teach anyone who is willing to listen. Well Manny Pacquiao won his fight yesterday. Apparently it was a really close one. It's amazing what happens to this place when that man is fighting! It's a great excuse for everyone to get drunk earlier! Oh well, not even Pacman can stop the work from progressing. All right, I suppose that is all for me this week. You all sound busy this week with the new carpet and painting and everything. Hope it turns out all right. Love you all and am grateful for all your prayers and everything else on my behalf. Love, Greg

Wow Mom, I'm impressed! You are really on top of things! I just hope I
remembered everything I wanted! If not, then oh well. I'll live haha.
Things sound cold there. Yikes. Good thing I get home in July. I get
cold here just when it rains, and even then it's still like 70
degrees! How was Halloween for you all? You should send me some
pictures of the little chillins all dressed up in their costumes. So
things have gone pretty well this week I suppose. We had 2 baptisms!
Those are always awesome! We completed 2 part member families. This
week I almost felt more like a psychiatrist rather than a missionary!
It seemed like everywhere we went, all the members and investigators
and problems and they would just tell me all about their problems and
then asked me what they should do! People really look up to the
missionaries here, even though we are just 20 year old kids. It
definitely has helped me mature and grow, and also remember how
important this calling is, and that even though I'm just a 20 year old
kid, I can do miracles if the Lord requires it. It was nice this week
not having to ride a bus to get home and being able to work longer and
get to more people. On Saturday we helped a member dig the foundations
for his house. I thought I knew how to dig back home, but here it is
probably 3 times harder! The dirt here is so thick and sticky and
heavy. You go two inches into the ground and all you're digging is
straight clay! I don't know how they do it all day! Filipinos have
amazing endurance. Anyway, so like I said things are going well. We'll
get transfer announcements tomorrow, and my companion, Elder Groves,
is probably transferring and so I'll have a new companion. Lets hope I
like him cause it's just gonna be us two in the house haha. It's been
very rainy this week. I have had a hard time keeping my shoes dry! I
rotate them everyday usually, so once the one pair gets soaked I have
to put it in front of the electric fan all the next day and hope they
are dry before I have to use them again! Drying clothes is a challenge
as well, but we make do. We still don't have a stove in our apartment
so we've been cooking with charcoal, just like real Filipino's! We had
to drop one of the investigator families we were teaching because they
just would not progress! It was sad, but that's life as a missionary.
The parents just wanted their kid to join the Church so he would be a
good kid, but they don't want to change themselves. The parents are
Catholic (so they say, but here loads of people say they are Catholic
but never go to church or even know what their own doctrine or
teachings are) and they said they aren't going to join the "Mormons"
church.  I told her, "Sister, this isn't the "Mormons" church, this is
the Church of Jesus Christ." She just kinda went quiet and then said,
Well I'm content in the Catholic church." And that was that. So we're
just working on finding new investigators and really help this area
progress. We had 90 people at church yesterday, which was really good.
Usually we range from 60-80. Hopefully that number will just keep
going up! The Church has only been in the Philippines for 50 years, so
all the processes don't work as well as they should, but they're
getting there. This branch could be a ward right now if they just had
more members paying a full-tithe. Tithing is really hard for them here
because one, they're really poor. And two, because they live day to
day here. A lot of them have never heard of the concept of saving
money. They just live off their daily income. Members that have been
in the Church are better at it than newer ones, but everyone is
learning. Yesterday in Elders' quorum the teacher asked the question,
"Why is it important to teach the gospel?" I looked around at every
single person in the room (about 20) and saw that all of them are
converts. None of them were born into the Church. If no one had taught
the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I'm afraid just Elder Groves and I would
have been at Church. Really helped me see how great a work this is,
and even if I don't see the immediate fruits of my labors, they will
come eventually. I learn so much everyday, I love it! Well family, I
suppose that is it for me this week. Love you all and am grateful for
everything! Love, Elder Andersen

Hello everyone, and Happy Halloween! this week has been all right. We didn't get to work a lot due to meetings, and we transferred houses and just a lot of other things. We're struggling with our investigators a little bit, in trying to get them to commit themselves to living the gospel. Again, the problem is the parents don't want to change and the children do. If the parents keep that up we're going to have to drop them and find people that do want to change their lives instead of spending a lot of time making people elect, rather than finding elect people right off the bat. We did get a referral this week though. We talked to the dad and he was super nice. The mom of the family wasn't there, so we set up an appointment for this week, and we are constantly talking to other people we meet as we walk places, etc.. We had our zone conference this week. It was pretty good. It's always a good thing to receive more training and mold yourself into a better missionary. President Tobias wasn't able to speak to us because he had an emergency, so that was a little disappointing, but it's all right. This week we also moved into our actual area! We've been going home to Manapla, which is about a 15-20 ride from Caduha-an. Unless there is traffic due to construction. One time we waited for over an hour. It was a real hassle to not live in our area, so we were happy to move to our area! Our house is pretty nice. It even has a working shower! Thats only my second one on the whole mission! The only problem is we don't have anything else haha. They left us with our beds, desks, a fridge, and a rice cooker. So today we went and bought a lot of the other stuff we needed (they'll reimburse us) and then they'll bring stuff hopefully later this week that we need, like a stove and and iron. We're getting along all right though. You'd be surprised what you can cook in a rice cooker! I didn't know those things even existed until I got here. So hopefully this move will help the work move along here. Now we can work in the morning, and later into the night as well. Although it is a little more boring with only 2 of us in the house now. I don't know if I told you what they do for "Halloween" here. Here it's called All souls day, and all saints day. Technically it's a Catholic holiday, but pretty much everyone participates in it. The Catholics go to the cemeteries and light candles and say prayers of sorts or something and then leave food offerings on the graves and stuff like that. Members of the Church just visit the graves of their loved ones and leave flowers and things. The best part is though, everyone cooks all this amazing food and invites you to come over and eat it! That's tomorrow, and I can't count how many members told us to stop by their house and eat! We're excited for it. Sad to say there's not really anything you can do to help Monique. There would be no way to transfer money, and I'm not even allowed to do stuff like that.. It's sad, but that is life here. I've decided if I ever get rich one day I'm going to come here and help people whose lives could be changed with just a simple surgery such as cleft palette/lip and things like that. Christmas package huh. Hmm all right well I've been thinking about it. I would really like some new socks. Mine are nearly a year and a half old by now and have about had it, and socks here are not good quality. I don't need anything fancy, just some black socks. I would also like some deodorant from America. Old spice as usual. Some tooth whitening stuff would be great so I can get those pearly off whites to change to pearly whites! I could really use a good jump rope so I can exercise in the morning and not get fat. And I think it would be neat if you guys could send me some things that I could give away to people. You know, little dinky things like key chains, and whatever. Nothing fancy or expensive. I just want to give them something. Other than that I can't think of anything, unless Mom wants to throw in some of her famous candy and other Christmas treats. Christmas is my favorite holiday! All righty, well that's all for me this week. Want you all to know I love you, the Church is true, and this is the best decision I have ever made. Love, Elder Andersen

Hello Family, friends? Fans? Sounds like you all have been having lots of fun with those little chillins! It's a bummer I'm probably not the favorite uncle anymore, seeing as I don't even know some of them very well at all! It's all right, when I get back I'll become the favorite again. I'm glad Lara did well and is choosing to run again. Cross country was probably one of the better decisions I made in high school. I had a lot of good friends and learned a lot and had a lot of fun. Well things haven't been as rainy this week. It's pretty much just back to normal weather here now. The work is going well. We are teaching several families, and they are doing well. The problem is, they wanted to listen to us so that their kids would change. They have problems with their teenagers and stuff and so they want us to teach them so that they will change their lives and become good kids. We explained to them that they as parents need to set the example for them and change as well. Change isn't as easy for older people I think, but they'll come around :) The preaching of the word of God, after all, has a more powerful affect upon people than the sword, or anything else. They also have some really good fellowshippers, so it's only a matter of time. It has been really neat though. A mother from one of the family's we are teaching has already given us two referrals! The work is so much easier for us when you teach people that really have an interest to listen! So that has been really good. We're continually trying to find new investigators and new people to teach, reactivate members, get active members to qualify themselves to go to the temple, etc.. The list goes on and on. I love my job! Probably the best one I'll ever have! I wish you all could experience what living in the Philippines is like. It's really just a wonderful place. Last night we rode home on a 40 ton sugarcane truck! We were just standing there waiting for a bus, but this truck came and stopped and told us to get in, so we did! Just another experience to add to the list! It's kinda bad though cause things don't even phase me anymore cause I'm so used to it. The other day we just saw all these guys driving around on mopeds in the middle of nowhere, and each one of them had an m16 strapped to them. Apparently they were chasing some guys through the sugarcane that had just robbed a bunch of people. Pretty much just an everyday thing here. Ok mother, I'll have a list of stuff I want for Christmas next week. Can you wait that long? Well I suppose that is all for me this week. Thanks to you all for your love, prayers, and thoughtfulness on my behalf. Love you all. Love, Elder Andersen             Oh, P.S. I decided to send a few pictures. The first one is just the four of us in our house right now. Four 'Canos! Well, 3 'Canos and one Austrailian. But we're all white. The second one is a picture of Monique. She's a members daughter, and is super cute. She has a congenital cataract and will go blind unless it is removed. But, of course the family doesn't have enough money to get that surgery done. It's one of the saddest things I've seen here. The sad thing is, this is everyday life for the people here. I don't send things like this to make you all feel sad, but to help you realized how blessed we all are for living where we do and for everything we enjoy. It has definitely opened my eyes. The third is a picture of us at stake conference. It's just a lot of members from the branch I'm serving in right now. All right, well now I'm done. Love you all!

Hello everyone. Sounds like you are all having a great time doing
everything you are doing! Is it getting cold there now? Still super
hot here as always! Well actually this week there was supposed to be a
big baguio come and hit us, but it went across our island without
raining a single drop! It was a signal one storm, and hit mindanao,
cebu, and was supposed to dump here on negros, but just crossed it and
dumped on panay instead. I guess you could say we lucked out, but I
really want to experience one. Not a bad one, but a signal one isn't
that bad, just a lot of rain. Other than that things have been going
well. Our investigators are doing well, and we are finding more people
to listen to us. Pretty exciting. Oh we had stake conference on Sunday
and that was good. The 2nd counselor of the Cebu temple came and
spoke, it was pretty neat. I don't know why, but everyone that spoke,
spoke in English. I mean, I know the Church really encourages people
to study English, I just think realistically they should speak in a
mix of English and Illongo so that people actually understand the
message they are trying to deliver to. It's not right that only people
that can understand English should benefit. Oh well, at least they
could still feel the spirit. As far as work, well we just keep on
keepin on! I don't have any investigators specifically to talk about
right now cause none have gone to church the past 2 weeks cause it was
way far away. So hopefully they exercise their faith and come to
church this sunday! It's always frustrating when investigators don't
keep their commitments. But things are going well, and I'm excited for
our investigators and the work in general. I guess I'll tell a quick
story. Earlier today we were eating at this place and the owner came
and talked to us and was just talking about the Philippines and the
Filipino people, and he was telling us how hard it is for Filipinos to
get to America cause he's been trying for 20 years or something.
Anyway, he was telling us how the Philippines is kind of a joke and
how unorganized and there is no unity. He said only 7% of the
population controls the whole nation and that is why it is such a
mess. He was like. "there are 90 million people in the Philippines and
only 7% percent is in control!" Really, he's right. I love this
country, but it is really sad to see some of the things that happen to
it. The rich people run everything and there are few rich. Nothing
benefits the poor. The rich only get more wealthy, while the poor
remain in poverty. If you want to get anywhere in this country you
have to be educated, but they can't become educated because they have
no money to do so! Everyone is just stuck in a cycle. That is exactly
what this man was saying. He said that the Philippines should be like
a state of the U.S. like Guam, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. He said back
in the day, most of the people wanted that, but this one guy, Manuel
Quezon, said, "I would rather have a country run like hell by
Filipinos than a country run like heaven by Americans." And the man
talking to us said that this is exactly what has happened to the
country. It was a really interesting conversation. I still love this
country, and always will. So, things are going well. I'm becoming a
pro at climbing coconut trees, cause we have about 5 of them at our
house and I always climb up and get 'em. They are way tasty! Real
bummer that we don't have them in America! Sorry I don't have a really
exciting email for you all! I'll try to repent and do better next
time! Welp, love you all! Love, Elder Andersen