Lots of Growth - December 14, 2009

Hey mom! I am glad that your week was so good and that you received the call from Elder Hunt, yes you were right. I haven’t gotten the Christmas package yet but I think that I will probably get it on the 18 because that is transfer day which I am happy because I will get the package but sad because we are losing so many missionaries. Sister Clave and I are the only ones not transferring and I'm so sad because they are pulling out the missionaries in Sister Smiths area! So that means that she will be leaving even though she should still be here for two more transfers! Ahh. It is okay though because it is the work of the Lord and we will get the Elders in the Paete area which is exciting and the ward will not split so that is good! I will get to go to every baptism that the Elders have too and they will have some because we have already prepared some people for them! yay! Our baptism didn’t go through. Jonabeth is the girl but she is getting baptized in two weeks she had to go to Manila because of a death in the family but she is so excited. The work is progressing. We met a family who are members of the Church but haven’t been in years! We were not where we had planned for that day and we actually didn’t know where we were going. But I know that the Lord knew where we needed to go and he lead us to that family, the young adult girl and her brother both cried when we shared a lesson with them and then the boy was able to come to Church on Sunday! I'm excited for them to come back to the Church! We also had two really good appointments but I couldn’t really understand or express myself the way I wanted and I knew that they were asking really good questions and the spirit was so strong I know that they felt the truthfulness of our message. We also had a really good experience at Sis. Susa's house! We shared about the law of chastity and she agreed with it. Then we asked about her reading and she said that she hadn’t read from the Book of Mormon but she was reading the pamphlets we gave to her and she read about the plan of salvation and that after this life we can live with are Father in Heaven and Savior in a state of happiness and rest, she started to cry and I know she knows that the Church is true she is just having a hard time because her husband won't listen to the missionaries and she wants to change her life but he doesn’t and she is so great and so sweet. She wants to be baptized but is scared because her husband isn’t changing with her but I know that the Lord will give her help! She is so awesome. I shared my testimony about the plan of salvation and about finding happiness in this life too and she cried more and of course I cried! And then I hugged her after and told her I love her! She is awesome please pray for her! She is in Paete so we might ask the president if we can finish teaching her because I don’t think she would feel comfortable with the Elders but if it has to be the Elders I know that all will work out how the lord wants it!

The Church is so true, the Lord is guiding this work and helping  me to say things! I know that I had the spirit with me and I am glad that I was able to share that with her and to bring that spirit even if I can't always understand. The work is going great! I'm struggling everyday in Tagalog but I think it is because the Lord wants to give me so many blessings and wants me to show my faith first!

Thank you for all your support tell everyone I love them! I can’t wait to talk to everyone! I will have sis. Agras phone on the 26th so that you can call me. I'm so excited! That will work just fine :)

Well we are at a slow internet place so next week I will download more pictures and will write about what some of them are. There is a picture with me and a senior couple and those are the Hunts! They are awesome! The one with president is of the Santa Cruz zone but there are three zones at the conference. Well I hope you have another good week thank you for everything! Tell Danielle I love her and am so happy for the two of them, they are so cute together! Tell her she needs to send me pictures after things slow down! Give her a hug for me. Thank you! I love you all so much and hope that life just keeps getting better everyday. I hope everyone that is sick will get better soon!

Oh and I was looking at an old Ensign in our apartment and it was talking about the Church in Nicaragua! It made me think of Michael please just tell him that I love him and am so grateful for his example of a great missionary and I know he worked hard and I just love him!

Well I love you all! until next week!

mahal kita!

Sister Andreasen

A Call From The Philippines - December 10, 2009

I received a call from the Philippines the other night...it was from Elder Hunt a senior missionary serving in the Philippines.  He said he wanted to tell me how much they loved having Bethany in the mission.  He said that she is healthy, working hard, doing great and loved by all.  He told me that he thought she was a wonderful young woman.  When I told him that she has been a missionary all her life, sharing the gospel at work, at school and with everyone that would listen he said that he could tell that she loved being a missionary.  He told Bethany that he was going to call and she wrote a message for him to read to us.  Needless to say this was a treasured phone call and one that I won't forget.  When he read the note I just started to cry because it was just so Bethany.  His phone call was so thoughtful and I am so grateful for Bethany's service to the Lord.  What a blessing she is to our family.  So thank you Bethany for your goodness, your smile and your desire to serve.  The light of Christ is in your eyes.  And thank you to kind brothers and sisters who care enough to take the time to call and lift a mom who misses her girl.

Going Forward with the Work - December 7, 2009

This week I don’t have a lot of time because I was able to down load the pictures on Walgreens but it takes forever! I don’t have a lot to say about the week because we had a lot of conferences so we were gone from our area a lot. But the conferences were really good so that was nice. Oh and I can see pictures on Walgreens so if you want to randomly download some of the family and the kids. The first conference was just for our zone, which is the Santa Cruz zone, and we talked about numbers and concerns and had a workshop. The other one was a Christmas party thing we went with Pres. Anderson and we had talks and lunch and games and a gift exchange. It was way fun! But it lasted all day so we didn’t do any work that day :( so I have good news.

First- this one starts out as bad news. My first baptism- Ronnie, we thought he wasn’t going to be able to get baptized the day we planed for because he couldn’t remember the last time he had coffee and they have to wait 30 days. So we were so sad and canceled his interview with the district leader. Then we were talking to him and said you really need to remember when you last had coffee because it is going to change you baptismal date. Then he said I can’t remember but it was when Sis. Hanks was here which is the sister before me and I had been in the Philippines for 30 days! Yeah! so he was able to get baptized on the planed day. He is 18 and he was super excited! It was so cute, he was baptized by a recent convert that goes teaching with us and it was just awesome.  
If I have enough time to send all my pictures today and you see the ones of the baptism Ronnie is the one closest to me and Francis is the one who baptized him and he is closer to Sister Clave. He bore his testimony after and I understood a lot of it because it was short and simple but it was great and so sweet! The spirit was so strong I loved it!

Two- this is a little bit sad but mostly happy for me. They are splitting our area! We have so many referrals they are bring in Elders to Peate, which is a part of my area, and our area will now be smaller. So I have to give up some members and some investigators that I love and I'm sad about that, but I am super excited because the work is growing and it is amazing!!!!! I’m so happy that will happen on transfer day, which is the 18th.

So I hope everything is okay with Paul and the Browns! And that everything else is going well at home! I love you all so much!

About Christmas I was going to give you some options but if you can call me that works out great! My mission president talked to us about it and he said we can call whenever we want that week so you decided what will be better when everyone can be there and everything like that Christmas the day before or the day after whatever works best for you! Just let me know so that I can have the phone that I need to get. I will just use a members phone so I will get the number and send it next week. Just let me know when your calling (in my time) it is up to you! Really I want everyone to be there and be able to talk and I can do it whenever. I can also talk for as long as we want! Pres. just said don’t stay on the phone because you can but have good converse with everyone. He said you can’t put a time limit on family! He is so awesome! Next week I will give you the number and if I don’t get all the pictures I will do that too. I love you! Sorry I don’t have a lot more to say but I have do get these pictures going.

Oh one other thing I will have to tell Sister Smiths mom to go on missionary moms because I love Sister Smith. She and her companion stayed over at our apartment the other night because they live farther away from where we were going the next morning so we had a sleepover haha. It was funny and we made smores and Sister Smith talked to me about the struggles of Tagalog. haha I’m not the only one having a hard time. I just need to put my trust in the Lord he will guide me all the way! The work is amazing and the Church is true! I love it!

One more thing, I committed my first investigator to baptism and he accepted! yay! But he is in Peate so the Elders will just have to make sure it goes through! I will let you know.

So I love you! take care and thank you for all your love and support!

until next week!

Love, Sister Andreasen