March 24th and March 31st Emails and Pictures

 March 31st

Kamusta!

Ahh thats so crazy sui's finally on his way out to his mission. Thats so exciting and i bet he super excited and ready to go because of all the waiting he had. it seems like yesterday though that you told me about his call when i was in the mtc and april seemed so far away haha and now its here! so fast! but i wish i couldve been there for his farewell I bet he gave an awesome talk. and the story about brother billings was awesome, that was so nice of him. and i will write a, email to my mission president and ask him if that would be okay. a lot of members, at least in my ward, dont wear white shirts to church. usually its just a collared shirt and they never wear ties. so that is a super good idea but the only thing that im thinking might be hard about that project is shipping. but if they can do what i did and talk to fedex and try to get them to sponsor it, then that would be perfect! and the shirts here are super small bedause everyone is just tiny so probably kid sizes. and yeah we have cell phones so we can call the elders in the office and the mission president too if its super urgent. and i havent gotten the package yet but we dont get our cargo until tomorrow so it might be there tomorrow. hopefully! and did you send that other package yet? because this last week i was just thinking of things i need and i need some deodorant and 1 or 2 more journal books. the deodorant here is weird and it isnt as good and i only have one more journal book left so if you guys could send that that we be awesome! but if its too expensive i'll find someother way or something. So yeah tranfers were this last week so we werent able to teach as many lessons as usual but it was still a good week. Elder Shingleton transferred and my new companion is Elder Harris. He actually just came from the area that Louie is assigned to. But he seems cool so far. he's from ogden utah and he likes pretty much everything i like so we should get along well. and he's a hard worker so im excited to get to work with him. Ive already seen a difference with him in the lessons from the last 2 days. and Elder Harris saw Louie at the transfer meeting and got some stuff from louie that he bought for me in the MTC but unfortunately i wasnt able to see louie at all. and it might be a few months or so before I see him which stinks. looks like you guys had a sweet easter. Sebastian looks so cute in his suit! that suit is so baller. i want to get a suit like that and we could match when I get home haha. his shoes are sweet too. that kids a chick magnet already. and i've met that Filipino lady that was at church. I went with the missionaries and taught her daughter a lesson back in like october or something and i talked to her about the philippines and everything. she's way nice and thats good she came to church!
      So yeah this last week was a little slower with lessons because of transfer week. so we went around on tuesday wedneday and thursday to members houses so Shigleton could take pictures with them. so we did that and we taught some of our investigators in between to so we were pretty busy. but another week we werent able to teach bautista family, and then we went to vilmas house 3 different days this week in the afternoon and at night and she wasnt there all those days. it was way disappointing. so yeah this last week we were punted a lot so it was super disappointing but we just kept on chugging through. but on Saturday, the other elders in our area had a baptism of sister Breileen. I dont know if ive told you about her or not but I taught her a few times when i first got here then the area split and the other elders picked her up. so yeah she was baptized on saturday and Elder Tafiti, the new elder, baptized her. it was his first baptism and it was his birthday too on saturday so he had the day of his life on saturday it was awesome. but her testimony is so strong, she's going to be an awesome member of the church. her boyfriend is serving a mission right now too in the Philippines. anyways yesterday, sunday, was a pretty hard day at first. Elder harris and I went out and we were punted from 6 different people that we planned to teach all in 1 hour. it was ridiculous. and we walked way far to get to there houses too so it was discouraging. but we kept on going and we started tracting and the first 4 houses werent insterested but then finally we found a house that let us in and we taught a husband and his wife and it was a good lesson. it was such a good lesson that they fed us a little snack after haha. they gave us crackers and juice and this stuff called ube which was way good. its this purple like cake type thing. i dont know its hard to describe. but they seemed super interested to we are going back to them this next week.  then after that we went and taught our investigator Samantha. shes the neice of the relief society president and shes 17 years old. and she was our only investigator that came to Breileens baptism. so we followed up to see if she read and prayed about the book of mormon and she said yeah and she received an answer that it was true. so we were so stoked when we heard that and I was pretty surprised because she has never really seemed interested in our lessons but last night she was a totally different investigator. and so then we asked her to be baptized and she said she wants to but her mom wont let her. so we were way bummed about that but this next week we are going to try to teach or talk to the the mom so im hoping for the best. also this last week we had a super spiritual lesson with our investigator Sammy. He's probably in his 40s and he has cataracts so he cant read so its kind of hard to teach him. but we watched the Restoration video with him and the Spirit was SO strong during the movie and after it too. and we committed him to pray to know Joseph Smith was a true prophet so hopefully he will. anyways we had no investigators at church AGAIN. it is just so frustrating because I am trying my hardest to get people to church but they all have their agency and they dont choose to come. Ronel promised us last week that he would come this week but we went to his house yesterday to pick him up and he said he had work to do, of course. so i was way bummed. we might have to drop him soon because he isnt coming to church which is sad because I know he has the potential. but none of our investigators can progress unless they come to church to it is super frustrating right now.
      so yeah thats my week. and I would love ryan spencer matt louies emails. if you could send those that would me awesome!. but i love teaching this gospel, especially teaching people about the book of mormon. i love the book of mormon so much and I love how i have to the opportunity to share this awesome book with everyone and allow them to receive the billions of blessings in their life from the book of mormon. I know that no matter who the person is or what their situation in life is, the book of mormon can help the. and I know that anyone, anywhere can read, ponder, and pray to know the book of mormon is true and they will get an answer. like it says in the introduction of the book of mormon, "we invite ALL men EVERYWHERE". Everyone needs this book in their life and I know that the book of mormon is the word of god. I am so grateful to have it with me at all times and i love reading it everyday. Well, I hope you all enjoy your week and I love you all!

Palangga ta kamo!
Elder Anderson

ps. So im am sending pictures of the baptism. and then we did a church service project at a members house this last week where we picked weeds so i have pictures from that where i climbed a tree and im eating some sugar cane.and then i have a picture of samantha, me and samanthas aunt, Sister Pagiou. then we had a FHE at a memmbers house and it was soooo fun and i have some picutres with that family. The balboa family. I hope you like them!

March 24th

Kamusta pamilya!

So sounds like a busy week for you guys this last week. Two funerals in one week thats nuts. But the funerals sound like they were awesome, especially with the amount of non member that we got to the church. I remember when I was in Brother Fullers seminary class he told us that funerals were the best meetings in the church because of all the non members that attend them. So who knows, maybe some investigators will come from those funerals. Hopefully! That picture of Dad and Sebastian is awesome haha wish I couldve been there on the hike with you guys. hah and gosh I miss in n out so much, you guys are lucky dont take in n out for granted! Sebastians getting so big its crazy! Isnt he almost 1? Dang it seems like he was just born, time goes by so fast. So this last week was a solid last week with Elder Shingleton before he leaves. He hasnt received the transfer call yet but its like 90% certain that he's transferring because he's been here for 6 months. But we were able to teach a lot of lessons that was good. I think 23 lessons total and we found 13 new investigators. So the work here in Altavas is progressing its great. So we taught Vilma and her son Brian this last week and that went well. And it was great again to teach in English haha, it was so easy. But her son Brian, he's 20 years old, is super smart and he knows the bible really well. so its great to teach to investigators that have a religious background because there are a ton of people that dont understand anything that we teach. Like we try to explain to them what the gospel is and they dont get it at all and we have to go over again and again until they get it so thats pretty frustrating. But every once in awhile we'll get a solid investigator with a religious background so thats always good. But Vilma and brian said they were going to come to church and of course they didnt show up, so we went by their house yesterday and they werent there so we never found out why they didnt come to church. So Ronel we were able to teach twice this last week and that went well, but he still hasnt fully stopped drinking so thats really frustrating. Also, on sunday morning before church we went to his house with the Primary president to have her convince Ronel that it is okay to bring his kids to church. so we got there and the primary president was trying to convince him to come and we were so close to getting him to come and then he said "I promise I will come next sunday". So we were way bummed about that because I thought for sure he was going to come with the help of the primary president. But hopefully he keeps his promise and comes next week! Then we taught Rodil once and we just taught him about baptism again and he told us that he wants to feel excited about his baptism in order to be baptized so he is going to pray and have God help him become excited about baptism. so hopefully he committs to a date soon! So on Saturday we went out to Man-Up Batan (an area in Altavas) and went with a member of the branch presidency and two other members in our ward and went tracting. The members names are tatay inlusido and harold inlusido and theyre father and son and we went tracting by their house so they knew everyone and they just went and talked to eveyrone asking if we could share our message with them and from that we got 8 new investigators so that we sweet to go out with them and get their help. Especially because we arent the best at the language. But they all bore awesome testimonies of how this gospel has blessed their lives because they are all converts so that was awesome for them to do that. We have return appts with them on Wednesday so it should be fun and im excited to go back and teach with them. And while we were out in Man up, we tried the baustista family and they werent there again so we didnt teach them all week again. So frustrating! They were going sooo great and all the sudden we havent been able to teach them for 2 weeks. Such a bummer!
    So this last week on friday we were going to a members house (Sister Pagiou) because we teach her neice (Samantha) who lives with her. So we go there and Samantha wasnt home yet but she was coming home soon so we sat outside and waited for her. While we were waiting Sister Pagiou comes up to us and says "follow me, theres a birthday party". so we were like uhh okay. so we follow her to this super nice house and she sits us down at a table and she tells us to eat haha. She told us that it was her brothers house and her neice's birthday and he brother and his wife and her neice were all sitting at the table with us eating and talking haha. So Elder Shingleton and I ate spagetti, bread, chicken, cake, and mango float haha it was so good! Then the dad started talking to us about religion and what we do as missionaries and stuff so I told him a little bit about our message and then I started talking a little bit about prophets. And I just bore my testimony to them about prophets and that we have a living prophet on the earth today like Moses and Abraham. And when I said that they were kind of shocked and didnt really believe it. So then I said, "In the bible it says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, so if there were prophets in biblical times, why wouldnt there be prophets today?" and they didnt really know what to say and they didnt really give me an answer so I asked them if we could share our message with them and they were like "yeah if I have time because im always busy", which is just an excuse that everyone uses here because they dont want to say no to us. So I was kinda bummed that they didnt say yes becuase I thought for sure they would want to learn more about our message. but we'll go try to teach them another time so hopefully! and they invited us back to there house on May 1 because theyre having another party and they want us to come haha so we'll see. But they were pretty rich and they used to live in Canada so if we could get them to be investigators that would be awesome!
     Anyways, thats all for this week. This week is transfer week so Louie will be gettin here on Wednesday. I cant wait! And they havent made the calls to the people that will train so there is still a possibility that I could train him. I am hoping and praying haha! but its been fun with elder shingleton so it'll be weird when he leaves but it'll be fun to change things up. Anyways, I have been reading, "Our Heritage", one of those missionary books and its about the history of our church and it is such a good book! I am reading right now about when the saints had to leave Kirtland and go to Missouri and I am jsut shocked about all of the hard times and persecutions they had, but they still had rock solid faith in God. Those first Saints were studs and I am so grateful for them and what they did for this church. this church's history is so awesome to study so if you have time I would suggest that you go study it. I hope my faith can be as strong as theirs and that I can be as diligent and hardworking as they were. They were the definition of the law of consecration thats for sure. Well have an awesome week! I love you all and Im super jealous youll be going to the beach tomorrow. Enjoy it for me because I miss that place so much!

Palangga ta kamo!
Elder Anderson