Second Letter from Philippines

Hey family!

How was your week? Let me tell you mine was long and hard. We worked so much and this last week I was still adjusting to everything, the living conditions, lifestyle, missionary work, and everything. But thankfully I feel like i am fully adjusted now. That was sweet to get a little message from Matt! I cant believe he's giving his farewell that came up so fast! What date does he leave? He's going to be an awesome missionary. And thats so cool that Logans back. I dont even try to think of what time it is there because its so confusing but you'll probably get this on Sunday and here its 10:00am on monday haha. But I wish I could be at Matt and Logans talks, thats going to be sweet.

So my address to send stuff to me is just the mission home address. Its:

Osema St., Arevalo,

Iloilo City, 5000

Philippines

Sorry but I have no clue what my address to my house in altavas is. But its like on the mainstreet of altavas. Maybe i'll take a picture of it this next week so you can see the front of it. Its just a concrete house haha. So yeah just send everything to the mission home because they get all the mail and packages there then they send it out to our areas. We only get mail and everything once a week so yeah haha that should be fun. Also, I dont have that much time to write letters to people during the week so everyone dont be offended if it takes awhile to get a letter from me. On Pdays we have to take an 1hr bus ride to Kalibo and we email here, get our groceries and do our stuff here then we stay in a town called Banga, like 15 minutes away from Kalibo, on Monday night because we have district meeting in Kalibo at 8am on Tuesday. So I dont have that much time to write letters on Pdays and I am busy on the other days of the week too. Our mission president never gave us a set time for emails and I didnt see anywhere in the white hand book that said a set time for emails so I have a good amount of time to email so if Rachelle wants to email me and Taylor that would probably be fine. Ryan already emailed me so that was nice to get an email from him. But im going to keep the email time reasonable because we need time to do other things on pday. Last Monday on Pday it was pretty fun. We went to a church and played basketball on the court outside, then we played a game of football. So after that I played catch, with a baseball and a glove with Elder Stacey. Hes serving in Banga, the area next to us. He plays baseball for BYU and he brought 2 gloves and a baseball on his misison so we played catch. It felt so good to throw a baseball again hah it was awesome. Also, I was able to talk to him about baseball and about possibly trying out after the mission for BYU. He said I defintiely could but it just depends because I will be getting home in November and thats kinda late. But we talked about High schooll baseball and stuff so that was cool. He's from Crescent City, CA a tiny town up north by the border of Oregon. He plays 3rd base. Also he said that BYU finally fired Coach Law haha, finally...They hired the coach from Dixie State. Anyways yeah it was a good Pday and it was pretty fun. Oh also last Pday I bought a Kobe Lakers jersey for $5! Its not 100% authentic but it looks real. Yeah and it was $5 haha so cheap! Also I saw a Mark Sanchez Jets jersey too and it was 100% authentic for $5 too haha so cheap. Everything is super cheap. I will send you a pic of my with the Kobe jersey. Its funny I have seen like 20 different people wearing Laker apparel. Its so cool to see that here haha. 

So about the missionary work. We work pretty hard. When we would come home everyday I would be so exhausted. Some nights it was hard to keep my eyes open when I was writing in my journal. Its so hard bcause I am just always tired. We walk everywhere and our areas pretty big so we walk a few miles a day. This last week it rained everyday so all the trails and everything was super muddy. Everday we walk through the jungle and it is just thick mud. My shoes and pants just get so dirty haha. I have to clean my shoes off every night because there is so much mud but its fun. I bought an umbrella so I used that this last week a lot. Im so glad I brought a flashlight because every night we're walking through the jungle and if I didnt have a flashlight I wouldnt know where I am going at all. The first night walking through the jungle was pretty sketchy but Im used to it now. So we taught probably on average 4-5 lessons a day to investigators and less actives. We have one investigator, Rodil, who is close to being baptized. The rule to be baptized here is you have to go to church 4 Sundays in a row, do 1 service project, and keep all the committments with word of wisdom and everything. Rodil has been coming to church every week and everything so we're close! He is seriously the nicest humblest man ever. He is always smiling and hes always laughing. Its so cool to teach him because he understands everything so that makes it way easy. Also, we have about 15-20 other investigators that we're working on right now but theyre not that close to baptism. So yeah its nice to have a lot of people to teahc and its good that we are always busy. This last week we got 5 new investigators so that work is going well out here. Everyone here is sooo nice. Like im walking down the road and everyone smiles and waves and says "mayad hapon" which means good afternoon. I have yet to see a mad Filipino haha I swear theyre all so happy and nice and always laughing, its so great. So at church we probably had 50 ish people there. There are 220ish members but only 50ish go to church. So there are A LOT of inactives. So we definitely need to be working on that. Yesterday at church I was able to understand a little bit more of what everyone was saying. Im slowly getting used to the accent and I can now interpet different words in the sentences and stuff haha. But it is still so difficult. Oh I have a story about a less active from this last week. So His name is Lito and we teach him because he rarely comes to church but his wife and kids go every week. So he was saying how he cant go to church because he needs to work to provide for his family and he cant go to church and provide for his family. So the Spirit told me to share 1 Nephi 3;7 with him and I explained how God has commanded us to go to church every Sunday, and that with that commandment he will help us follow and keep that commandment. So I told him that if he went to church God would help him provide for his family and he will recieve blessings from going to church. The Spirit defintely helped me in that lesson because I wouldnt not have been able to say all that in the language without the Spirit. And he understood everything. The Spirit was way strong in the lesson it was great. So we committed him to go to church and he said he would. So then Sunday came and he showed up! I was seriously so stoked to see him walk into church. It was the best feeling ever! We just need to make sure he comes every week! It was seriously the coolest thing! 

So Elder Shingleton and I are getting along just fine. He kind of goofy but he's a super nice kid and he's good at teaching the lessons, so that helps. He's a pretty hard worker so its good to not have a slacker companion. Our apartment isnt super nice but its fine. I took some pictures that I am going to send to you. We have one big room thats our bedroon, living room, and dining room. Then we have a study room. Then a kitchen that is all concrete, even the floor. And the sink is just a concrete sink haha. Then we have a room with our closets and then a bathroom. Our toilet doesnt flush with the flush handle thing, we have to poor watrer into it and it flushes. And we just have a bucket with a little bucket to shower with. Our apartment is one of the ghetto-ist apartments I've heard so I guess if I can get used to this then I can live anywhere. I did laundry this last week and it sucked! It was so hard and it took forever. Everything takes forever to dry out. Haha so yeah its going to be a long 2 years of doing laundry with my hands. Also I bought toilet paper so I havent used my hand at all so thats been good. So our meals arent too special. I just eat oatmeal for breakfast, a few peanut butter sandwiches and some crackers for lunch, and I cook like top ramen noodles and rice for dinner. I dont eat a ton but I get filled up so thats all that matters. Oh and last week I have hot dogs 1 night haha so thats was good. I am definetly losing my MTC weight so thats good. I am always sweating haha. Also we never get fed by members here. Elder Shingleton says that he has never been fed haah so thats a bummer.

Well I think thats about all I have to write about! Yes i got the poem you sent me, that was a good poem. And Yeah Elder Shingleton and I are the only Elders in Altavas and our area is big. Our farthest investigator is like a 15 minute bus ride haha. But we might be getting 2 more missionaries in Altavas next transfer so hopefully we do! Those pictures of Sebastian were great! He's such a cutie! I know this Church is true! I am so grateful for all the love and support that all of you give me. A mission is so hard and it tests my faith everyday but I know with the Lords help I can do this. I know that prayer is real and that through prayer we can receive help to anything we need help with. I know the Lord is helping me everyday and I know the Holy Ghost is helping me everyday. I am trying my best to be the most obedient, hardest working missionary I can be in order to have to Holy Ghost with me everyday but I am definitely not perfect so I always fall short. I am so grateful for the Atonement and how I can be forgiven for all the sins that I have committed and that my slate can be wiped clean. I love you all so much and I miss you a ton! I hope you all have a great week and I look forward to getting your email next week!

Love,

Elder Anderson

PS. So I attached some pictures. Theres some of a bamboo bridge that we cross to get to an investigators house. Its way sketchy haha and it hovers over a kinda big river. Also, I took some pictures of where we prostelyte and teach everyday. Its just green everywhere. Also I took a some pictures at the top of our house, where we put our laundry out to dry, looking out at Altavas and the hills and trees and stuff. 

This is my $5 Kobe Jersey!

So this picture here is of the elders in the areas around my area after we played basketball. The elders bought all those jerseys here haha. But its fun to play with all of them, everyones athletic and we have a lot of fun together. Im going to go play in a few hours so it should be fun. 

Here are some pics of our apartment