Week 8 Traveling to Manila Philippines

Kumusta ang mga kaibigan ko!!.....

Dumating ako so Manila safely!! Dito kami na! 

So yeah I'm here in the Manila MTC! I'm safe!. I would send some pictures but I cant figure out how! Its way humid here, pero gusto ko siya! The plain ride from San Fran to Hong Kong was pretty long. I slept for most of the 13 hour flight so that was good. The plane stunk like Indian food the whole time haha pero ayos lang!  It felt super weird leaving the U.S. It was a little scary, and especially since everyone on the plain was Asian and Indian (including the flight attendants), didn't speak English very well, and weren't Christian!  Everyone was watching all these super good movies on their TVs and also there was lots of good music that I could have listened to. They had the whole Alt J This is all Yours album and I WANTED TO LISTEN TO IT SOOO BAADDD! But I just studied Tagalog, read the BoM and slept for 13 hours sooo AYOS. Also we were flying with the sun so we had lots of daylight, I just slept whenever I was tired and I'm doing great! Landing in Hong Kong was weird,  but we quickly went to the boarding of the plane to Manila and I immediately felt so happy and excited when I saw all the Filipinos! I said Kumusta po kayo everyone that I could, and a couple were like Mabuti! Kumusta ka elder!? So sweet, but most of them smiled and looked at us weird because we are white people that are all dressed up going to the Philippines trying to speak there language. So awesome. 

The Plane ride from Hong Kong to Manila is about 2 hours. It was about 8 at night when we got on the plane and about 6 am in Utah for most of y'all. We sat down and down at the end of our row of 4 was a Filipino guy, he talked to Elder Child's from the other district. he asked us who we were and what we were doing, then he told us that he was from some Christian religion, and he told us that we call ourselves Jesus Christs church but that we don't even believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior, or something like that hahaha. I wish I was sitting closer to him, cause I could really talked to him so I kinda just listened. But Elder Child's told him that wasn't true and then the guy changed the subject and talked about something else, and then fell asleep for the rest of the plain ride hahaha. Then a little later, one of the Flight attendants who is Filipino, came down and asked us who we were, and then she asked us what the difference between us and Jehovah's Witness was. I told that we have the BOM and then she said, Oh yah! I've seen that play in NY! It was hilarious! And then I said, well this is not quite the same, and then I told her about how its another testament of Jesus Christ and stuff, and she just smiled and said " oh I know, I know." and yah hahah she didn't want to her about it. Then she asked us just like where we were going and for how long and exchanged some Tagalog phrases and stuff and then resumed her flight attendant duties. She was way nice! That darn BOM play is annoying! Oh well. We landed in Manila  I was sooooooo excited! We landed and the MTC president was waiting for us with these Filipino members that greeted us and helped cause get all situated. They were sooo funny and cool. they all made fun of us and told us how to say cool Tagalog slang words and they were so fun! I love the Philippines! I said Kumusta to everyone in the airport and some said Hi Elder! and yah, so fun already.

So then this morning we were granted extra time to recover from Jet lag and then we ate breakfast. It was just rice, fried eggs, and these hot dogs.....and it was SOOOOBRANG MASARAP (so very delicious) I love the food already. It reminded me of the Filipino restaurant my family used to eat at in San Ramon.  The milk on the other hand...... so gross. I think it was like baby formula or something. The Manila MTC is much smaller, but its sweet. Its soo pretty here! I cant wait to send you guys pics! Were only here for 3 and a half days, then we are getting shipped to our respective missions. I'm soooooo stoked! We get to go proselyting in Manila for like 4 hours today and you can sure bet that im gonna open my mouth and MAG-USAP NA MAY LAHAT NG TAO!!! I'm soooo stoked. Well I'm sure you are all just as excited as I am for me to be here in the field. Its gonna be an adventure.

Alam ko na totoo ang simbahan nito. At na buhay si jesucristo! Sa pangalan ni Jesucristo amen!

Paalam na!

-Elder Andersen

Week 7 Provo MTC

So not a whole lot in the past few days...

Elder Langeveld and I were released as zone leaders on Sunday. We are scrambling now and packing and doing laundry so it's kinda nuts. We leave the MTC travel office at 3:30 am tomorrow :I  I bought 3 Aklat ni Mormons in English to give in the airports and stuff, so that should be cool. 

Ingat for now. 

-Elder Andersen

Week 6 Provo MTC

So its been an interesting week...

On Sunday, the 23rd we zone leaders met with President Howard and we discussed the how the zone was doing. We Split the branch into two 2 zones because of all the missionaries we have. So all was good except there was one new Elder in the other zone. He had only been in the MTC about 3 days and he had already contacted President Howard that he wanted to go home. Don't know why.

I'll get back to that in a second. 

So for our sacrament meetings, President Howard tells the whole branch what the topic is for speaking during sacrament meeting. Everyone is suppose to prepare a 5 minute talk, and then President Howard calls on one Elder and one Sister after we partake of the sacrament to come and speak on the spot.  So Anyway, that day I sat down before Sacrament meeting and the topic was Obedience: The will of the Father. So I opened up the scriptures and decided what I might share. I had a slight feeling I was going to get called on, but everyone does so it's whatever. 

So Sacrament meeting Started and we sang and partook of the sacrament and all that. The time came for president Howard to announce the speakers. The Elder that gets called on speaks first. So about 30 seconds before he announced the speakers, I looked over the scriptures I was going to share again, and I immediately thought of the Elder who wanted to go home and I thought of what I would say to the missionaries if I got called up. Immediately I felt the Spirit overcome my body, and my body began to heat up and my chest began to pound extremely hard and loud and I no joke could see my shirt thumping. I knew I was going to get called on. I knew it, no doubt. I wasn't scared though. I knew what I would say. President Howard then stood up and said "It really is a privileged and a blessing, to have the opportunity to call the speakers this Sunday by the Spirit, Our first speaker will be Elder and Andersen...." 

Wooooowwww soo weird. I went up and I had the Elder who wanted to leave in mind, I could see him in the congregation. I shared D&C 130: 20-21 which says that there is a law predicated in Heaven and that blessings only come on conditions of obedience. Then I shared John 14:15 and 21, If ye love me keep my commandments.....And those that love me keepeth my commandments. Then I talked about how we should love the Lord more than ourselves, then I challenged everyone to repent and become more deeply converted unto the Lord. I said that there may be some of us here serving a mission because it is expected of us or because it was the social standard or all of our friends are doing it, or because of our parents. I then said that I hope we are here because we love our Savior, more than we love ourselves and if that is not why we are here then it's a good time to start loving the Savior and begin now. Then I read from Alma 34:38, which I read while I was taking the Sacrament, Which talks about taking upon us the name of Christ, and humbling ourselves to the dust and then I talked about how all we need is the Lord, I quoted King Benjamin's dust of the earth scripture, and then I quoted Job, which goes something like " Naked I came into this World, and Naked shall 

I go. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away..." I talked about how we owe everything to the Lord, every breath we take we owe to the Lord, and we should love him more than the things of this earth. I bared my testimony and said amen. 

I know the Spirit told me what to say. 'I don't know if I helped that Elder or not, but he is still here almost a week and a half later. So I am glad he is here.

Also I gave two blessing of comfort on Wednesday. One to my companion and one to another Elder in the district. So cool.

Well I cant wait to get outa here. Plane leaves on Thursday September 3rd, CANNOT WAIT. 

Ingat!

Week 5 Provo MTC

Soo yeahhh...

Elder Langeveld and I were made zone leaders on Sunday. Funn stufff. Busy, busy, busy. Were in charge of like 90 missionaries all going to the Philippines.

WE GOT OUR FLIGHT PLANS YESTERDAYYYYYY! We leave SLC at 7:30 am on September 3rd to San Francisco. We have about a 5 hour layover in SanFran, and then we have a gagillion hour flight to Hong Kong, and then to Manila. We will be spending 5 days in the Manila MTC before we head out to our missions. We will get to go to the Manila temple so I am stoked about that! 

ONLY 1 AND A HALF WEEK LEFT IN DA MTC!!!! YESH!

So ready to get out of here.
Tagalog is really coming along this week. I can say a lot more and all the grammar concepts I can understand pretty well. I've memorized the missionary purpose and half of the First Vision in Tagalog. We skyped this Cool dude from Manila named Brother G. He is an English professor in Manila, and we taught him about having faith when we pray, we used the book of Enos. Whenever he spoke Tagalog we had no idea what on earth he was saying, speaks way too fast hahah.   Welllll Can't wait to get out of here haha! I've learned all the crazy Tagalog conjugations that they teach in the MTC already so just lemme leave!  

There are tons of people that I know here in the MTC. More and more people from DHills come to the MTC every week.

Another funny thing this week. On Thursday, one of the sister asked a really weird question about feeling like she is being a salesmen or something, and Brother Cobb was trying to explain to her how we must have no guile and no hint of priest craft, and she couldn't understand what was being taught, so Brother Cobb started getting super passionate and loud and teaching us out of the scriptures about how we can't have any guile, and we must be wise as serpents but harmless as a lamb or something like that. And he was teaching us that if we have any bit of priest craft, that we WILL GO TO HELL. Simple as that. He told that he knew missionaries who did that in the field, and that once you become a skilled teacher it will become a temptation to use priest craft, especially when the investigator are jerks, or they want to bible bash. Scary stuff, but very cool.
 

Favorite scripture this week... 1 Nephi 7:12- "Yea, and how is it that ye have forgotten that the Lord is able to do all things according to his will, for the children of men, if it so be that they exercise faith in him? Wherefore, let us be faithful to him."  If we align our will with the Lord's, Anything is possible, IF we have faith in him.

 May daan, Ang daan ay ni Jesucristo at ni Jesucristo lang. Ipili po si Jesucristo, May pananampalataya po na ipapagaling  Niya Kayo sa pamamagitan ng pagbabayad-sala Niya. Ito ay patotoo ko. Sa pangalan ni Jesucristo, Amen.

-Elder Andersen 

Here's the zone we're in charge of. That's me with my arms in the air:

Chelsea here (Gabe's Mom). I saw this picture on Instagram. One of my favorite instagram/bloggers ever. Stephanie Nielsen (Nie Nie) and her husband Christian volunteer in the MTC and I had really hoped Gabe would get the chance to meet her. Looks like I got my wish! That's him pointing at his eye :) Weirdo. He definitely knows how to make sure we can see him. Haha!

Week 4 Provo MTC

YooooooooOOOOooOOO!

 I've learned so much this week. Lot's about Tagalog but mostly other stuff. The scriptures are so amazing. I've learned so much about the Gospel. The scriptures are so much better, when you study them for the benefit of others. The Spirit is always so so strong here at the MTC. Within the past week I've received a deeper witness from God through the Holy Spirit about Joseph Smith and The Book of Mormon.

Alam ko po na totoo ang Aklat ni Mormon, at, Magpatotoo po ako na totoo propeta ni Joseph Smith! 

Well, nothin super out of the ordinary in the last week. Lots of hard work and study. Were all itchin to get the Philippines haha. Only about two and a half weeks until we depart to Manila. We will spend 5 days in the Manila MTC before we go to our Mission areas. 

Yeaaaaahhhhhh.

Week 3 Provo MTC

 This was the longest and shortest week of my life. It's hard work like I said, and learning Tagalog is so hard and teaching in Tagalog is a whole other kind of hard!  Those elders in the pics left for the Philippines on Thursday. They are going to Naga and Legazpi missions. I miss those guys, the 2 white guys were the zone leaders and they were so funny and were a great example to me! The Spirit is so, so strong here. I've never felt the spirit so often in my life. 

 I'm really developing a love for the scriptures. We usually only get an hour a day for set personal study time, AND ITS NOT ENOUGH. I wish I could have like 3 hours of personal study time. I'm finding so many cool and uplifting scriptures and I feel like Nephi! I found my new favorite scripture for the time being- Mosiah 3:19. So powerful. 

President Russel M Nelson spoke to us on Tuesday so that was cool! 

K peace out 

Magandang Umaga!

Magtagumpay po kayo sa pamamagitan ng pananampalataya kay Jesucristo!

Week 2 Provo MTC

Well guys this week flew by...Tagalog is getting really hard. But its fun at the same time. The work load here at the MTC is nuts, especially when you are learning such a difficult language. I started to get really stressed yesterday and the day before, but we had a lesson on stress management yesterday and I feel much better now! We have to start teaching investigators in Tagalog without using scripts hahahahahahah so kinda scary. I've really been making an effort to learn the doctrine in English super well, which will make turning it into Tagalog much much easier.  My English is already starting to get all messed up and I can't spell anymore. Everything in Tagalog is spelled like it sounds.  We listened to a talk by Elder Bednar on Sunday that is only available in the MTC. It's called "The Attributes of Christ." Life changing talk.

The days are starting to blend together, it's amazing how time flies when you are being productive.  I love the zone. There are some awesome guys in the zone and they inspire me so much! I am really starting to get into a groove and I feel good about my thoughts and feelings and my attitude.  We have 42 new missionaries coming into our zone next week, all Philippines :I crazy.  We will be in charge of them pretty soon.  

Well so like yah, that's this week. My testimony is getting stronger and I am gaining a whole new understanding on what it means to rely on the Lord.

Live by the Spirit, Rely on the Lord, Be humble, we are the dust of the earth. 

Ingat, Magandang Umaga!

-Elder Andersen