Sister Bethany Jo Andreasen

Sister Ganaden and Sister Andreasen 

Thank you for your letter I love hearing from you each week it gives me strength to keep going.

I had an amazing week! We contacted some new investigators! One we went back to and she doesn’t want to talk to us. So sad day but it is okay we have hope for the others. So we met Evelyn. She is so amazing. We asked if we could share a message with her and she said yes, come in, she was so excited! We just spent the first little while talking with her and getting to know her. She has two young sons and she is supporting them on her own because just recently her husband left her for another woman. She started to cry and she was so sweet and just so open with us we shared about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and how they love her and have a plan for her. She is super sweet and I think she wanted to come to church but we didn’t have the normal service this week.  So we finished the lesson and after her father came up and he too started to talk to us, then they told us that missionaries came and gave them service, they gave them wood for their house when the big storm came a while back. So it just shows that service opens the heart of people so we are hoping to teach Sister Evelyn and her mother and father! We are excited. We also met sisters and they were a little hesitant but they were nice and let us come in and they had questions about our lesson and were really interested! So that is exciting! It is so exciting when people progress. Then we had another investigator Liezel she hasn’t been able to come to church and so this week she was planning to come but we didn’t have the normal service so I think she was sad she couldn’t go to church so I think it just showed her that she needs to go. So we are hoping next week she will come for the first time :) we are also coming close to the members in our ward and we have a plan to learn the houses of more of the member’s active and less active! I love the work.
So the Book of Mormon, I read it in English and Tagalog at separate times. Because reading it in English is faster not just because I know all the words but also because Tagalog is longer!!! But it is going really well and I'm learning a lot, I love it! The Book of Mormon is so true! This last time while I was reading I just saw how it testifies of truth and that if the investigators will read it truly wanting to know for themselves if it is true they will know.
So now the moment you have been waiting for.... the temple dedication! Yes we were able to attend! And it was so very amazing! We were also able to attend the cultural event with one of our investigators, Rizza. I think she will be getting baptized soon and I think it was really good for her to get to this uplifting, spiritually activity.
The cultural event was amazing! They had so many youth dancing and all different types of cultural dances from the different influences they had a Muslim dance and Spanish dance and even dances coming from America because so many different cultures have influenced the Philippines. It was amazing! Then at the end they had the youth come out holding flags with all the young women values and they sang, it was great. And our young women investigator noticed all the different flags and that it was for young women and she was excited. She is so awesome! Then President Monson gave a blessing for the youth and said how happy he was that they could have events like this in the church for youth to come together and grow and mingle with other youth. It was so neat to learn more about this beautiful country that I love. It was also cool because that was on Saturday the 12^th, which is the independence day of the Philippines. The dances were beautiful. And you know me I love to watch stuff like that so I was just loving it! And the spirit was so strong! We felt the spirit, even though it was just a broadcast it was just a wonderful feeling when the living prophet walked into the room and we got to tell Rizza that is the living prophet! It was a very special experience.

Attending the Cebu Temple Dedication Broadcast

Then the next day we were able to attend the temple dedication! It was gorgeous! The spirit was so strong! It felt as if we where actually in the temple and the talks were great about strength and about how wonderful it is to have temples so close and that the Lord has answered the prayers of the people to have another temple and now they need to us it! It was so amazing to be apart of the great missionary work. Here I am in the Philippines working on the "proclaiming the gospel" and now these saints have an opportunity to "redeem the dead" I am so grateful that this gospel is going forth to all people. The prophet and the other speakers just kept saying how nice the people are here and it is so true they are a good people and so open to excepting the gospel. This area is hard but I know that the people are the same we just need to find the ones with that open heart! I have such a greater desire to go to the temple and to do work! I wrote down my feelings so I won’t forget that when I get home I want to go to the temple as often as I can! I miss it so much. It was nice that in a way the temple came to me. It also made me excited for the time when I can go through the temple and be sealed to my future family. They talked about the joy and blessing of family sealing’s and I am so grateful that I am sealed to my family now and how wonderful it is to know that we will be together forever if we endure to the end. I am excited to prepare myself for the time when I will be sealed to my eternal companion and my future children. But right now it just gives me drive to tell other families that they can have this! They can be together forever and can find happiness even in a world that is getting worse and worse we can have a safe place in the temple. It truly is heaven on earth. How I love the temple! I am so grateful that we can enjoy the fullness of the gospel on the earth today! I am so grateful for it! I know that this is the true church I am so grateful for a living prophet. He expressed his loving side as he gave a really long talk just talking about his feelings and so much of it was his charity for other people, for his wife, for the Lord. I love him! I love being able to share this true message here in the Philippines! The Lord needs me here and I am grateful for his trust in me! At the cultural event President Monson said this " God gave us memories that we may have June roses in the December of our lives" I know that this time I have to serve here and the memories I have gained, am gaining, and will gain will be with me through out my life to give me comfort, help and strength! How I love the Lord and I see his blessings in my life everyday. We can always see the miracles of the Lord if we have faith and open our eyes to what the Lord has done for us! I love you all!
Go to the temple! I love you again and am thankful that we are a forever family through the temple!!!! I love you!
Love, Sister Andreasen

PS, I sent two new pictures of my comp and me and some elders right before we went to the temple dedication! Yay!!!!! I loved it I can’t even explain how strong the spirit was! The Lord truly loves his people and wants them to have the saving ordinances! How grateful I am for temples and for the tender mercies of the lord to be here in the Philippines and share this wonderful time with them! It is amazing how much the spirit can teach you if you are listening :) I love the gospel of Jesus Christ with all my heart and I know without a doubt this is the true church on the earth! I love the song If You Could Hie to Kolob! There is no end! These blessings go on forever and if we take advantage of our time here on earth they will be magnified in the eternities to come. I love you all!