Life of a Missionary in Calamba City - May 31,2010

From California! Sometimes it just seems so far away and then sometimes it doesn’t. So things ended up happening and we didn’t go to the amusement park but I did buy a curling iron instead to see if I could do anything different with my hair. Random. Haha

Then we went to our appointments and one we were punted. What is new haha? Sister Gepiga and I talked about the fact that we get punted all the time in this area and that it is hard, because after getting punted we tract or just do some contacting and even if people are nice to us they usually don’t have time so we set a return appointment and then go back and are punted again. So now a billion (that is an exaggeration haha) people have restoration pamphlets but they don’t fully understand what they hold in their hand. So our plan was to give out 50 pamphlets and we got close but we didn’t get them all out but we were able to finish today. Sister Gepiga went to the eye doctor and we talked to two people there even though they don’t live in our area we were able to give the Elders a referral! So that is great. This area really is hard and the people aren’t very receptive but I know that even if all the people here hated us if just one listens it is worth it. 

Happy Birthday Sister Andreasen!

So my birthday was kind of sad. We did weekly planning and we went teaching. We were teaching this lay minister and he would be such a great strength to Tatay (Father) Filipie, so we went back on my birthday and he pretty much told us to leave if we still say that the Sabbath Day is Sunday. Then he tried to fight us with scripture, we calmly showed him a scripture in Acts and he said that we don’t need to follow that? I don’t know I think they really do have brain washing in his church he really won’t listen to the spirit! It is so sad! He could know the truth and it was right in front of him. He tried showing us this book and said if we won’t believe the book he won’t believe the Book of Mormon. He tried to give it back. So he end up just wanting to fight so we left sadly. That was the first appointment of the day. Great start! Then we were punted twice in a row. We were able to teach one family and I think that one of the daughters will progress her name is Liezel and she has a friend that we teach too but we want to split them up because her friend is a boy who wants to be a girl So we need to teach him about that. But the lesson for them went well. Then we taught Ramil! So cute and we had a pre-interview for his baptism which was on Saturday and went great! He is so awesome and it was really neat because his family was excited, it is his aunt and cousins and one of his cousins is the one who baptized him. I am sending pictures of the baptism this week I hope.

Last week I wrote that I was sending pictures and then I couldn’t get them all downloaded it was the Internet or computer I don’t know but it wasn’t working. Anywoo, Daryl is the cousin who baptized Ramil. Then we have a picture with Ramil and we are doing the "muscle pose" because we asked him what the word of wisdom was and we said it was the law of "muscle pose" then he said the law of strength? haha.

The Muscle Pose

We laughed and said the law of health. He is super fun and super sweet and I love his cute little dimples!

So we keep tracting and working hard to help this people know the truth. It reminded me of Lehi even though the people wanted to kill him he still told them the word of God! I know that the Lord will lead us to those people that are searching for the gospel even though it might be a long search. We keep studying and we keep teaching. We were teaching Tatay June but now he is in Singapore and we weren’t even able to teach him all of lesson one :( but his granddaughter said he is planning to come back so I hope that we will be able to finish soon! We had two girls with a baptismal date and they fell through because they haven’t been coming to church and when we go to teach them they aren’t home so I hope they will be there soon so that we can continue to teach them and their families. So we just keep trying and working hard and have faith and hope! 

Your letters give me such strength! Thank you and I know that you are a big help to the youth in seminary! I miss seminary! It is so crazy that people are home from their missions! Time goes so fast and I feel like I should still be going to high school. I always wanted to grow up and be like my sisters. Of course I still want to be like my sisters but I don’t want to grow up! I want to stay young I want to be able to do so much more before life comes! Ahhh 22 I don’t think I should feel this old haha. Maybe it is the sun that is killing my face in this area. Wow! Sorry this letter is really random. I do feel old though. By this time Kristy and Heather were married with, what, at least one baby! Ahh I cant even imagine! I guess I'm not as strong as they are I still have a lot to learn and a lot of it is here on the mission! 

I know that even though this area is hard it is a great learning experience for me, to grow and to have faith, and to keep going! Diligence! I like studying the Christ like attributes in Preach My Gospel and reading the scriptures they have for them. We have been talking about charity right now in the mission and it is so helpful to work on developing Christ-like attributes it gives you more drive to get up and do the work, to share the love and truth with people! 

I love you all, thank you for your birthday wishes! Packages! Money! Everything! You are all so good to me and I don’t deserve a family as good as you but you are a great blessing from the Lord to me!!!! I thank him for you everyday! I love you all so much!

So I hope these pictures download. 

So the pictures are downloading and I hope you get them all. I think I told you about zone conference. Then the baptism, if you have any questions about the pictures just ask. :)

I love you all and thank you so much for your help, strength, love, and prayers!

I know that this is the best work ever and that no matter what the Lord wants all of his children to come back to Him so we need to work hard to prepare ourselves and work hard to help others understand their purpose here on earth. I love you all! I know that the gospel is true and I am grateful for my testimony and the strength that my Heavenly Father gives me each and every day! I know he loves you too! I love you so much!!!!

Love, Sister Andreasen! 

Happy Birthday To Bethany on the 27th - May 24, 2010

So it is good to hear about the family and how everyone is doing! That is so exciting that Heather and Paul got the house!

Thank you for the birthday wishes it will be a different birthday this year. I think it will just come and go but we have a lot of birthdays in my zone this month and 3 of us have a birthday on May 27^th so we are going to the amusement park here called Enchanted next p-day that should be fun. Ha-ha. So I will send pictures.

This week has been great! Sister Gepiga and I are really close and I have had a lot of help from Heavenly Father to know how to handle this change.  She is different from other Filipinas and so I just needed to know how to show her my love and I think we have worked it all out and so I think she is really going to be one of my favorite companions here on the mission and I think we need each other in this area. Because it is tuff and we just need to stay positive and she helps me do that and I hope that I am helping her too.

So we have a baptism this Saturday and I am so excited, his name is Ramil and he is 11 years old and supper cute! I'm really excited.

Pakil  zone.

Pakil District

I have a picture of a little girl named Harvey.
She would just randomly walk into our apartment sometimes and just start talking to 

us it was really weird and cute so I took a picture with her. 

I am trying to have more hope in this area because it is hard and in Pakil I had hope everyday, we lived on pag-asa which means hope :) ha-ha. 

I have a picture of Sister Annabel’s baptism:

I just heard that her daughter in the picture got baptized too :) yay! So that was great! 

Then a picture of their family! I love them so much! Tatay is still struggling with some things but I hope that they will all progress more and more in the gospel! They are great!
There are pictures from transfer day, it is fun to get to see people you don’t see all the time,

I have one with two Filipinas and two Filipinos and they are my batch missing two and then the Americans.

With Sister Clave it was so good to see her again! 

Then we have the baptism of Tintin my first baptism here in Calamba. She is a sweet girl! 

Then rice. random but I just thought that you would like to know that they first bake the rice 

in the sun in the middle of the road and that is what we cook and eat ha-ha. 

I have a picture with Sister Gepiga at an investigators house and it was just a really cool view. 

Then we have pictures of my new zone at service. 

Then on the way to our investigator Tatay Filipe there are these 

really ugly camels and Sister Gepiga wanted a picture with them. 

We met this guy who had a sheep and took a picture with it and a lesson one pamphlet because there is a sheep on it. It isn’t very good and my camera died so we couldn’t get another one. 

We have pictures with Jerome and Ivan two investigators. They pushed us on this railroad cart thing it was way cute! The girl with us is a YSA named Jessica, she works with us a lot and is really helpful! 

Me and Sister Gepiga at a school service.
They gather up all the trash and then burn it. No matter what it is they just burn it all, 
which I do think is good but I don’t know for sure so I just go with it. 

Then my apartment. 

Then my new zone. fun fun! 

Then at zone conference which was supper fun as always. 

Elder Park is an AP and he is supper nice and the caterers made him a cake and he didn’t know why but it is because he is leaving, he goes home this Saturday, it is sad to see nice missionaries leave the mission. 

Then the four elders "preaching" are our APs in the mission they are awesome!

Sister Iverson, the blonde, she wrote me my first pouch 

in the mission and is just a super sweet girl. 

Then me and a bunch of Elders. 

Me and Elder French

Then me and Sister Smith and Elder Laudato and me

 Elder Laudato is the new companion of Elder French

Sister missionaries! So much fun! 

Then I have pictures with Elder Trebes.

I tell Elders that they should give me ties and then I am going to make a tie skirt when I get home, so Elder Trebes wanted to get some dramatic pictures of him giving me a tie ha-ha he is funny. We might be going home at the same time and he is from California. Too. :)

Sister Macabenta and her new companion Sister Capate

The area is doing good just working hard and trying to do are best.

This week was hard because we had zone conference and then we were punted so we had a lot less opportunities to teach but we just help each other stay positive. It was hard but we have come up with a plan to find new investigators who won’t hate us and we are going to try and give out 50 pamphlets this week so I am excited.

Ramil is progressing for baptism and we have another youth her name is Rizza and I think she will progress to baptism so that is cool. We weren’t able to talk to Tatay June this week which is really sad because he is awesome! And we weren’t able to talk to Tatay Filipe so we will have to wait for this coming week. It should be a better week.

Thank you for all the birthday wishes I love you all so much. I also received my birthday package and it was great thank you so much! I love you and you know what I like and are so willing just to make me happy! I love you all so very much! I truly do thank you for your love and support it keeps me going and I know that our family can be together forever and I get to share that with people here.  I love the people and I am excited for this area to progress more.

I love the cd player! it makes the days so much better having good songs stuck in my head all day and being able to sing! Thank you so much!  I love you and am so grateful for your willingness to me! I love you all! have a great week!

Love, Sister Andreasen

The Ups and Downs of Mission Life - May 16, 2010

The ups and downs of mission life. So the work here is different for sure! It isn’t as easy just to talk to someone but the work is moving forward and we are striving to do our best.

I got an email from Bajeck a girl in my last area and she got her mission call, it is in the Baguio Mission and I hope that she will be companions with Sister Lapana or at least get to know her they are both supper nice! So I was excited for that. She also told me that they had 7 baptisms in the branch so I know that I have taught all of them because it hasn’t be 4 Sundays and they need to go to church for four Sundays, so I am super excited to find out who and see pictures! Which I will get to do this Thursday because we have zone conference. So that made me super excited because I know that people are coming into the waters of baptism even if it isn’t in this area. However, even though the work is slow here we have investigators with baptismal goal dates. I am so happy for them one is Ramil! and he is my favorite. He is 11 and super cute! He will be getting baptized the 30th and he is progressing so well. He reads all the assignments we give him and he really likes to learn. I asked him if he had a journal that he could write in for when he reads the Book of Mormon and learns new things he said he didn’t have one, but then quickly replied but I will buy one! Haha! So cute! Then we have two young women who really like the gospel they both said that they prayed about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and know it is true. They sang in church with the youth for Mother’s Day and even though they aren’t sure if they can be baptized yet because of their parents they are trying really hard and talking to them about it all the time and we have a plan to teach their parents too. We have already taught one, Nora the mom of Daisyreen. The other girl is Camela and her mom is always gone but she said that we could come and teach her if it is in the afternoon. So we are hoping to go back. We are teaching this older man and he is a little crazy but supper nice he knows a lot about the Bible and is two steps away from becoming a priest in his church.  So he always has a lot of questions and his concerns always seem to change but we just taught him about the first vision and the Book of Mormon and he said he would pray about it to know if it is true so we are really excited for him. He is hard to teach and I think it will take a while but if he gains a testimony he will be so strong and do much good in the church! However, it was so funny we went and taught him yesterday and we had a member with us who is good friends with him and the lesson went well then we were finishing up and one of his friends came by and he is like one of the priest in this guys church and we could tell he just wanted to debate with us so we closed quickly and then left. And then the member said that she thinks it would be easy for Tatay Filipie, our investigator, if "Satan wasn’t their, haha. It was so fun and so true here we are trying to teach truth and then in walks this guy who wants to fight our testimony with what he clams and "history" ahh. So we are just praying hard that he will have an open heart when he prays and that he will read the Book of Mormon and be willing to except something new. So we met this guy June and we were just tracting after being punted for like the gillionth time and he seemed really nice we shared a pamphlet with him and he said we could come back he also told us that his sister is a member in the US. So I wasn’t sure after that first visit how he felt or what was going to happen but we went back and he asked a lot of questions, he studied the pamphlet and went to the questions in the back, they have scriptures and he looked them up in the Bible and the Book of Mormon and wrote his feelings and then he told us that he wanted to know about Joseph Smith. So we talked and it wasn’t really an official lesson we just answered a lot of his questions and told him to keep reading the Book of Mormon. We taught about prayer and told him he should pray to know the truth even though we haven’t taught him that much then we invited him to come to church and set up a time to come back. We went to church yesterday and weren’t really expecting anything new. Then for "some reason" we walked out to the front of the church and he came walking up! My heart was so happy and that is when I thought there truly is opposition in all things. The work is hard and we don’t see a lot of progress but seeing this man come walking up to the church made my heart feel so happy! All the sweat, mean people, rejection, and hardships are all worth that one moment of seeing someone come closer to knowing the truth about the gospel of Jesus Christ! How grateful I am to have this opportunity to be a missionary and to feel the great joy despite the hardships. I love this work it is moving forward. So I hope that these investigators will continue to progress! I know that our Savior is mindful of us and that he lets us struggle so that he can help us grow. I'm so grateful to have the savior in my life to know that I will never struggle alone and he will always lift me through the struggles.

So pday was a little boring we just stayed home I wrote letters to some of my old investigators so that was good, we also went shopping at the Waltermart. Yay! So thrilling haha. 

So me and my companion had a good talk last night I think we were both feeling that we were lacking communication and I think it is because even though she knows Tagalog the way she speaks is different because she is from Cebu and the way I speak is different because I am American and still don’t know all the words in Tagalog.  So I think we were just having a hard time communicating and so then sometimes we just wouldn’t talk and it would be weird so we talked and cried and I think things are going to be much better. I feel really closer to her and love her very much. I am hoping to send pictures soon so that you can see her. So we cleaned are apartment this morning and I took pictures so you could see. hehe. Well I love you! I'm so happy! I loved you letter! Happy Mother’s Day again because I just think I need to thank you for all the strength you give to me and how you help me even when you aren’t even trying. I love you all so much! I was so happy to see and hear from you! What a blessing! Well I need to get going. But I love the work and love the people! There are souls to save! Work work work that is the secret! I love you again!

Love, Sister Andreasen 

Working Hard and Staying Positive - May 3, 2010

So it was great to talk to you this morning a little weird too but I loved it! I miss you all very much! So the area here is hard we have a lot of walking to do and our area is pretty big, but the work still moves forward. :) I am starting to love it more and more each day. Last week’s email was probably not as uplifting as it should have been. I love my companion! So I thought she didn’t like me but it turns out that she is just quiet. I love her she has taught me so much in this short time and I am so grateful for her help especially in this area. We have one investigator and we went to teach him and I felt I should ask him if he believed the Book of Mormon to be true and that Joseph Smith is a true prophet and he said yes then I asked him if he would be baptized and he said yes. He doesn’t want to set a date because he wants to know more first so we are just getting him prepared to know that he needs to act in faith and he hasn’t been to church lately because he is partly paralyzed from a stroke. But we are going to try and help him. I am so excited for him, I think he really does have a testimony we just need to get him to act on it. He reads the scriptures all the time though so that is good! We do a lot of talking to new people because a lot of our investigators aren’t progressing or keeping commitments. So we are just working on finding those who are prepared. I know that the Lord is preparing them; we just need to find them. It is a way different area and I know that it will be a challenge but I know that I need to be here and that the Lord is directing our work! Again I love Sister Gepiga she is such a blessing in my life! I know that we were meant to be companions. Sister Clayton wrote to me and told me that sometimes she gets discouraged with the area and to be honest I can see why. She also said that she misses her first area and I totally understand that. So I know what I would want to here when I miss Pakil or get discouraged about the area so I try to stay positive for the both of us. We work hard. That is kind of the report. I think we will commit a young woman to be baptized the next time we go back so I'm pretty excited. She thinks it is true but she doesn’t know it yet so we asked her to pray about it and so I think she will be ready after she gains a witness from the Holy Ghost.

I loved the story about the miracle. It was very cute. Well we have a lot to do today and I know this email is short but I will be sure to fill you in on more next week when we talk and you can get all the answers to your questions. It goes by so fast I hate it! But I know that that is why we just keep working hard and stay happy and positive there really isn’t time to be sad or focus on myself, so I try to always focus on the work. I know that I am not perfect and lately I have seen that even more and I have realized many imperfections. but Sister Gepiga shared a great scripture with me in D & C I think 29 about how the Lord has trust in us because he has chosen us and so I just need to be faithful; and trust that the spirit will guide me and help me and not worry about the fact that I am not perfect especially in the language. If I am obedient and do my best he will do the rest. I love this work even when it is hard! I love you all so much! And pray for you daily! I know our Heavenly Father and Savior love you! I hope you see it in your lives everyday! I love you!

Love, Sister Andreasen