Week 52...Lasam Philippines

This week we kept steam with the pagsasuper-sayan or the kasuper-sayanan or in english, super-sayanness? Except my comp kinda has been fighting me a little bit cause he is still scared of men, BUT I AM NOT! I FEAR NO MAN! So I am not the chillax/friends with everybody missionary anymore that I used to be..Or whatever. Now I am the missionary that is on the Lord's errand that only has 1 year left to go and that DOESN'T CARE WHAT ANYONE THINKS ABOUT ME because the only opinion that matters is the Lord's. Now don't be so quick to judge me as the self righteous/arrogant/stubborn missionary that it sounds like I have become. I am still way imperfect and I even slept in past 6:30 twice this week. I am not claiming to be perfect or anything but, I really am trying my best to Love the Lord and feed His sheep. 

At the zone conference in Laoag, one of the missionaries gave his going home testimony and talked about hypocrisy. You can fail and fall on your face 1 million times and get back up on your feet a million more and you are still not a hypocrite. Hypocrisy is willfully going against the Lord and His anointed, and the laws and commandments that you have agreed to abide after having hands laid on your head and after you put that name tag on. That is hypocrisy.  

So this week I am starting to sense a bit of resentment from my comp and our fellowshippers because I think they feel uncomfortable, but that is their problem. I can't make my companion Love the Lord and fear no man and follow the rules. That is between him and the Lord. I am doing everything I can to make me and myself right with the Lord and that is all I have control of.

We found a ton more investigators and we have 5 new baptismal dates, but they weren't able to come to church :(  I plan on giving a lot more baptismal invitations this week so I  hope and pray that these people will feel the Spirit of the Lord and decide to serve the God who created them.

What else happened this week? OH YEAH! I got a pigsa. I think in English, that means boil, but yah I am not sure. But a pigsa is a huge nasty and painful zit and it sucks so so so so bad haha. I got it on the side of my buttocks. I last Monday, and it was just a small itchy bug bite looking thing. But over the next few days it grew and turned into a nipple! Seriously it looked like I had a big old nipple on the side of my bum. HAHA. It hurt so bad. It hurt to walk and to sleep and to sit but I still went super sayan cuz I love the Lord more than my pigsa. But yah, the nipple turned out to be a zit and finally on Friday it was ready to be popped.  I went in the bathroom and squeezed all the crap out of it and there was tons of blood and goop it was nasty. After everything was out, there was the huge gaping hole and it was pretty narly bruh.  But to my fam who tend to be rather paranoid, please do not bother the mission president or his wife because it is completely under control and I have notified them and I have medicine so please calm yo selfz.  Apparently pigsas come when the weather is changing from hot to cool interchangeable and rapidly and that is what is happening here in Lasam right now and it sucks.  Lots of other people are getting them too.  

I have a picture of the pigsa and also some others but I am having problems with my camera again so sorry about it. no pics this week. Plus the pigsa is pretty much on my bum so I probs wont sent it to all of you haha. I love you all! Love the Lord!

Love,

Elder Andersen

Week 51...Lasam Philippines

 

This week, we went SUPER SAYAN. Like the thing that Goku does on dragon ball Z when lights and energy is shooting out from everywhere and the veins in his neck look like they are gonna explode. That was me this week.

 We had our zone conference on Tuesday, and it was about John chapter 21 when Peter and the Apostles decided to go fishing, and then Jesus appeared on the shore and asked Peter 3 times if he loved Him. The APs showed a Jeffrey R Holland talk that he gave in the Provo MTC. This talk was similar to the one he gave in conference about the exact same chapter a couple years ago, but this one was a little different and it was SO POWERFUL. I cried while watching it.  It was about leaving your fishing nets behind and loving the Lord. I felt the Spirit so strong and had a seriously big time call to repentance. Another part of the zone con was about crying repentance and so I applied that this week as well.

After Tuesday, I decided to let everything go. All my pride, all my excuses, all my favorite sins, all my passions, and habits and wants and desires, and everything else. I decided to just cut the strings that are keeping me from giving it all to the Lord, that are keeping me from reaching my potential as a missionary.  I decided to learn the lesson that Peter learned in John chapter 21, when he finally left his fishing nets and became Peter the Great Apostle, when he became the Peter who consecrated himself to the Lord, the Peter who no longer feared man, the Peter who did great and mighty miracles in the name of Jesus.  Because in reality, we all have to learn this lesson. Because we covenanted to do this when we were baptized. For men, this covenant was enhanced when we took upon us the Holy Priesthood of God, and for all of us who have been endowed in the temples of God have been bound even tighter in our covenant relationship with the Lord.  I decided to be like Peter and to leave my fishing nets behind, and for good. Just like Peter the fishermen was no longer a fishermen when he became an apostle, we also are no longer what we used to be. But sometimes, just like Peter, it takes us a little longer than it should to actually give up the old man we used to be and become the person we covenanted to be, which is a disciple of Jesus Christ.  All it comes down to is' "Lovest thou me?"  DO WE LOVE HIM? Do we love Him more than what we do (for Peter that was fishing)? Do we love Him more than our phones? Our Playstations? Our favorite sports? Our favorite music? Our favorite pass times? Our money? Do we love Him more than being comfortable? Do We Love more than EVERYTHING? This week I decided to finally answer,"YES!"  

I have prayed every morning and every night and told God, "Father I love Thee. But now I am going to prove it to Thee."  

This week we found 74 new investigators in 4 days. We plan on giving at least 20 baptismal dates this week and finding 80 more.  I decided this week to stop making excuses and fearing men, and to only fear God. I am talking about walking down a street and talking to EVERY ONE. That is what we did. No matter what they are doing, no matter what they look like, no matter what age. We talked to everyone and invited every single one of them to come unto Christ. Most of them did not seem interested in what we had to teach them, but about 23 out of the 74 seemed quite interested and we plan on following up with and teaching them again and inviting them to be baptized, and in the mean time, finding 80 more new investigators this week. I plan on extending at least 20 baptismal invitations every week for the rest of my mission.

This week I tried to picture what it looked like when Jesus would walk down a street in Jerusalem, or when Peter walked down a street filled with people, or Ammon and Aaron among the lamanites, or Enoch, or any of the prophets, and I am trying to copy that here in the Philippines.

I have wasted almost a year out here in the mission field not giving it all to the Lord and I am sick of it. I chose to Love the Lord, and to prove it to Him.

On Saturday I had quarterly interviews with President Andrada, and I confessed all my sins and then I told him how the work was going. By that point we had only found 51 investigators in 3 days.  When I told him, His face lit up and he couldn't stop smiling and he was super happy all the sudden. He then immediately invited me and Elder Roberto to Laoag today to speak at the Laoag, Laoag East, and Bangui zone conference. He wants us to share our experience and bare testimony. He said that it takes most missionaries in th Laoag mission 2 months to find 51 new investigators. SO we are in Laoag right now haha. I am super nervous to speak later in front of 3 zones and all the APs and President and Sister Andrada. SO I am kinda freaking out right now.

But I am really anxious to get back to Lasam ASAP and get back to work because there is so much work to be done.

I love you all and here are a bunch of pictures. :) Alma 26:22

-Elder Andersen

Week 50...Lasam Philippines

Great week y'all. We had 2 more baptisms this week. Pamela was baptized, and she was the miracle member referral that we found and that I told you all about around a month ago.  Such an awesome feeling to see her baptized and confirmed this week. SO HAPPY!!! Also John Mark was baptized who is the younger brother of John Cloyd, our Recent convert who had the experience when the dark path way lit up on his way home!  

I am super sorry that this email sucks because I am already out of time, and because I have been trying to get my card reader to work and it won't, so I can't send you guys the awesome pictures this week. SO I promise Next weeks email will be much better! FLIP, I am outa time haha.

I love you all and your prayers are very much appreciated. I am praying for all of you as well! Also please email me...everyone and anyone. I promise I will respond, and I would love to talk about anything you want! God is with all of us all ways, but He can't help us if we don't  let Him. He wants to pour the blessings of Heaven on all of us, but we have to chose to let Him. I know this is true for myself and I am trying to figure out how I can let God in more than I have been previously. Sometimes we don't let Him in because of Selfishness, or Sin, or laziness and countless things. But I know if we will humble ourselves and keep the commandments that God has given us for our BENEFIT, and NOT to hinder us, we will feel his presence everyday and we will enjoy countless blessings from on high.

Peace,

-De

Week 49...Lasam Philippines

Chris Mark Daquiwag 

 

Good week here with the Lasamites.  So there was a bit of a surprise this week. There are 2 new missionaries in Lasam, so there are 4 of us again, which means my area got cut in half and we lost half of our investigators, all of our  focus areas which is where we planned to do finding, and 1 of our baptisms to the other area.  (It is really flipping annoying cause this is the 4th time this kinda thing has happened to me here in Lasam). It is like I have opened 4 areas 4 cycles in a row. IT SUCKS. 

My first cycle in Lasam, I was assigned in Lasam B with Elder Camero. When Elder Camero was transferred, I got transferred to Lasam A or the other half of Lasam, so I lost all of my investigators to the 2 new Elders in Lasam B, in my old area. Then me and Elder Roberto opened Lasam A and we had to build the area from the ground up from where the other 2 Elders that got transferred left it.  So at the end of that transfer, those 2 elders also got transferred and President gave all of Lasam to me and Elder Roberto, but I didn't have much to work with cause all my old investigators from Lasam B weren't taken care of and by now were no longer interested. So then me and my comp rebuilt that area last transfer while still maintaining our area, only for President to place 2 more elders in Lasam B this week, meaning all the rebuilding we did goes now to them. HAHA. Pretty annoying but its all good. I think President just doesn't want me to get comfortable haha! 

It is not that I don't trust other missionaries with my investigators...but I kinda don't haha. So it is kinda hard for me to leave my precious investigators to other missionaries because of the lame experiences I have had so far.  But I know these 2 new Elders are different and won't do that (at least I hope and pray that they won't), so that is good.

But anyway the 2 new elders are cool. Elder Sivo from Fiji who is training Elder Ramiso from Quezon City Philippines.  Haha all the filipinos call Elder Sivo Lebron James cause they kinda look alike I guess.

Also we had a baptism! My boss investigator whose name is Chrismark Daquiwag (Dah-kee-wahg). He is 9 years old and is super smart and mature. He acts and talks like he is 16 or something.  He is visiting his grandparents here in Lasam and after a couple Sundays of going to church in April, told his grandma that he wanted to be taught by us. So we started teaching him a while back and he is such a BEAST!  He keeps his commitments by reading 2 to 3 verses a night  from the Book of Mormon and he prays at the end of every single lesson and asks God if the Book of Mormon is true haha. HE ALREADY KNOWS IT'S TRUE he just keeps forgetting that the Spirit already told him and we keep reminding him almost every lesson haha! Oh and plus he loves coming to church but he doesn't like being with the little kids during the classes.  He is loves me and asked me to baptize him which made me want to cry :,)  His parents live in another part of the Philippines and they are Jehovah's Witness' but they said it is fine that he is baptized in our church if that is what he wants. The sad part is that he might be going home to live with them again soon so it might be hard for him to go to church if he is only 9 years old. But I made him promise that he would talk to his neighbors who are Mormon and to go to church with them every Sunday. Chris Mark is such a boss and he said he wants to go on a mission when he is older just like Elder Andersen :')

Me and Elder Roberto have 2 baptisms coming up this week as well but after that our work is gonna die so we need to really step up the finding this week. We made goals to set 10 baptismal dates for July 9th at the end of the transfer so we have lots of people to find :)

I love being a missionary even though it can be hard and frustrating sometimes, but I learn so much every week and I wouldn't trade this experience for the world.

I love you all and I know the Book of Mormon is blue (and true) :D

-Elder Andersen

Week 48...Lasam Philippines

Guess what! I'm not transferring :D

This was a slow week, and a week full of anticipation, and uncertainty...cuz I was 100% sure that I was gonna transfer since I have been here for 5 months...BUT I'M NOT! The fact that I was anticipating makes it kind of an anticlimactic let down I guess, but  is not at all a actual let down because I love Lasam and I am extremely blessed to have the opportunity to be here for at least 6 more weeks. Also I will have the chance to harvest what I have planted meaning I will get to see the fruits of my labors baptized! We have at least 4 sure baptisms this June, and hopefully we will have lots and lots in July but the trick there is that we have to go find them first. But it is possible with the Lord and I am praying that we will find lots of people this week that we can prepare for baptism in July. 

 Me and Elder Roberto have decided we are gonna focus on and find part member families, college age students, and families who can afford to come to church.  That is also what President has advised us to do so we will see as it goes. One of the hard things here in the Philippines is that we can find lots of families to teach just about anywhere but they're mostly from the poorer farming class of people and no matter how much they love being taught or even tell us that they know our message is true, they just don't take our commitments seriously (meaning they don't read the BoM and Pray and about it) and they don't have the means to come to church. I have had my heart broken by more than a few of these kinds of families but as much as we love them and want them to accept the gospel, if they aren't keeping the commitments then we are actually wasting valuable time that we could be using to go and look for people who will accept and act on the message. It is a hard, sad and frustrating thing but it is the truth.

This week, since I thought I was transferring, we scheduled tons of dinner appointments haha so I could kind of say good bye to the members.  Haha they all kept asking me on Sunday if I was transferring and they refused to believe me when I kept telling them that I wouldn't be. HEHE thanks fo tha FUD!

I have been learning a lot these past 2 weeks. Cuz last Sunday I borrowed and Old Testament Seminary Student Manuel from the church and have been reading all sorts of amazing and enlightening stuff about Adam, Enoch, Noah, Melchizedek, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob/Israel, Joseph, Moses and the ever so forgetful children of Israel etc etc. I AM LEARNING A TON. And also I have been called to repentance through my studies of these great ancient prophets. I am learning a great deal about obedience, faith, covenants, sacrifice, and a lot about the beauty of symbolism, and about how the law of Moses and and how 'every whit points to the great eternal sacrifice of the Holy One of Israel' being Jesus Christ, and the tabernacle. I have literally been convinced that it would be better if we were still living The Law of Moses, with all its crazy weird and seemingly pointless laws, rituals and ordinances and practices. In reality, they were given a strict and preparatory law that was designed by the Lord to remind Ancient Israel of the Son of God who would come. And they were reminded almost every minute of every day with seemingly pointless rituals that were all actually calculating symbolically to remind them of Christ. The Law of Moses aka the preparatory gospel is actually way awesome and if it was followed a man/woman  would find himself very close to God. I think we would all benefit greatly from something like that, especially the silly Filipino's, or more especially...ME. But I am sure the Lord fulfilled it for a reason and He expects us to use our noggins instead here in these last days, which happens to be really hard. :(

My advice, the little things matter so much.  Every little choice we make in the course of one day is so important. That is the reason the Lord gave ancient Israel the Law of Moses, so that if followed and internalized, one could go through out a full day without forgetting Lord. Is that not what we covenanted to do when we were baptized, and the covenant that we remake every Sunday when we partake of the Sacrament? To take upon us the name of Christ, and ALWAYS REMEMBER Him, and keep His commandments which He has given us, so that the Spirit will ALWAYS be with us? The little things matter and we can't let little sins that seem harmless and innocent keep us from ALWAYS remembering the Lord, so we can have the Spirit to be with us ALWAYS.  So read the scriptures, pray always with real intent and with faith, go to church, don't listen to bad music, and say bad things, and every other little and seemingly harmless thing that we do in the course of a day. Fill your minds with good and uplifting thoughts, with light and truth, and focus on the Lord.  Do all you can to be the disciple of Christ that you have covenanted to be, and the Lord will carry us the rest of the way to His kingdom, by forgiving our sins and teaching us and making us more like Him day by day, because His grace is sufficient for us after all we can do. 

Sorry for the Shpeel but I know that it is a true shpeel. I love you all and pray for you. Thank you for your support and your prayers. Until next week,

-Elder Andersen

Week 47...Lasam Philippines

RAINY SEASON YESSSSS

Good week. The rainy season is just starting this week so sleep is getting much better! We started off the week really strong and worked our tails off on Tuesday and Wednesday. Then the rain started on Thursday which made work a little slower. The rain is pretty nuts here. Really heavy and loud and literally it takes about 30 seconds from the time the rain starts until everything is flooded, but I love it because seriously summer time was a nightmare.

We had a baptism on Saturday! My home slice Carl Justin Bruce! He is awesome and he is the little brother of Angelo whom we baptized a few weeks ago. His older brother Noel baptized him. We got to have the baptism in the river right next to our house so that was awesome, but I wasn't baptizing so I didn't get to go in. :( It started raining right when we went outside to go to the river haha so everyone was slipping and falling in the mud.  I have seen a difference in Angelo and Justin since Angelo was baptized a few weeks ago. They have been less shy and more brave and they are participating more in their church classes. Plus after Justin was baptized he even bore a short quiet testimony and I was so proud of him. :,)

I want to share a cool experience that one of our recent converts from February, John Cloyd Ramos, after he was baptized by Elder Abonitalla.  He shared this with us the other day.

After he was confirmed a member of the Church he kept having daily experiences where he was being told and led by the Spirit. After he would come home from school he would usually go hang out with certain kids or go to the computer shop or whatever, but now he would come home from school and the Spirit would tell him to ditch his friends and just go straight home. Then he would get home and usually would do whatever, but then the Spirit would be like, "don't do that right now, go sit down and read the Book of Mormon." He would always follow the promptings. John Cloyd kept having experiences like this daily.  Then one night He was coming home but it was now after dark. The path to get to his house goes through the mountains and there are no lights and it is pitch black and there are tons of mean annoying filipino dogs. He prayed for help and he said that he started walking and the path became bright like a light was shining on it. He said there was no source of light anywhere. The path was just bright like there should have been street lights. He walked all the way home and the path never grew dark and not one dog came at barked at him or chased him. That in it self is also crazy cause I have walked that path like a gagillion times and there is ALWAYS dogs. When he got home he said he just prayed and prayed giving thanks to God. We are now teaching his younger brother John Mark who will be baptized in the next 3 weeks and also John Cloyd's cousin Angelo wanted to be taught.  Angelo is usually staying in Magapit so we gave home to the missionaries there and he has been going to church there. John Cloyd told us that as soon as he was taught by us he chucked his cigarettes and hasn't used them since. We hadn't even taught him all of lesson 1 yet haha.  Then John Cloyd told us that a few days back, Angelo was on the Cagayan River, and the wind was really strong and the water was crazy and he thought his boat would sink. He remembered the story that John Cloyd told him about how he prayed and the path lit up. So Angelo prayed that the wind would stop and that the water would calm...AND IT DID!! Isn't that crazy!? I couldn't help but think of when Jesus told the sea of Galilee to be still. Jesus lives and is still calming stormy waters in our day! The church is so true!

So those are some cool stories. We hopefully were gonna have a baptism this coming Saturday with our golden investigator/member referral but there was a misunderstanding with her mom about her getting baptized (cuz Catholics) but she said it would be fine and she just wanted a few more weeks to prepare, so we extended her baptismal date to June 11.  The work is going well, and this may or may not be my last week in Lasam :( I guess we will see.

I love you all and just remember the next time you whine about your trials, remember that you still haven't been tried as Abraham was.

So there is my random advice for you all. Seriously though cause most of us haven't and we will all have to be tried as he was one day so gear up!

-Elder Andersen

week 46...Lasam Philippines

Buko is gud....

Good week really really good week.  So on Monday it was election day in the Philippines and we had a curfew of 3 o'clock p.m. hahahaah. Cuz election day is absolutely crazy and people revolt and protest and shoot guns.

Tuesday was amazing because I got to talk to my family! We woke up early on Tuesday morning and traveled for two hours to Aparri because Lasam has no skyping capabilities.  It was the best thing ever. We laughed and stuff and i told crazy stories about the Philippines and I  got to talk to my Bishop and my neighbor Will and I miss them a lot. I have an accent now apparently! That's lame I don't want to have an accent. They said I really pronounce the letter t and stuff. When I talk I think it is just normal but they all noticed an accent immediately even bishop ughh. HAHA  At the end of the skype, my fam ask me to give a closing prayer in Tagalog and I cried while praying and when the prayer was over my whole family was crying too! It was awesome and sad cause I realized how much I miss them. The whole time we were talking and laughing and then while I prayed I realized that I won't get to talk to them for 7 months :( I felt the Spirit and great gratitude toward my family for there love and prayers and faith on my behalf. 

AS far as the work goes, this week has been great. Me and Elder Roberto have been super diligent and super precise with our planning and we are really trying to focus on these people and their needs. We are setting goals every night and then giving our best effort the next day to achieve them.  Our success this week has not even come from our own efforts though. We have had some tender mercies from the Lord this week through member referrals. We had 5 investigators at church yesterday and 4 of them are from member referrals, and 3 of them we had only met the day before because members referred them to us while we visited them at there houses. All 3 of the referrals we got are from part member families. We went to teach the members and then when we got there, they were like " Hey teach my cousin, he said he wants to be Mormon." So awesome.  That is the most investigators I have ever had at church on one Sunday in my whole mission. We literally taught them the message of the Restoration and they came to church the next day. My favorite part about lesson one is when I get to say the First Vision. I always try to say it slow and real, and I try to look into the investigators eyes while reciting it and really bring the Spirit cuz the First Vision is so amazing. Sometimes you can almost see a light turn on in there eyes while they listen.

 We are really excited right now about what is happening in our work. I don't know if I will be here in Lasam next month, but there is gonna be a good number of baptisms next month here in Lasam. Elder Roberto is gonna have a lot of baptisms. It funny how the Lord just waits for you to start doing your part through planning and he just starts making things happen for your work. Give your best and the Lord will do the rest. This is His work after all, we are just helping. We need to do it His way. 

We have a baptism coming this Saturday, and then another baptism next Saturday. We are so stoked!

So I am also kinda sad right now because transfers is in 2 weeks and I am probably getting transferred because I have been here for almost 5 months. :( I really am gonna miss this people here in Lasam so much. Because after I leave Lasam, I probably won't see most, if not, all of these people again in this life. It breaks my heart.  But I still have at least 2 more weeks here so I am gonna give it my all to help and love these people as much as I can.

Sorry I am a week late but Happy Mothers day to all the Mothers and especially my Mom! And my Grandma's and Aunt's and all them etc etc. 

I love and miss you all and I am thankful for your prayers and faith and support. Thank you all so much!

-Elder Andersen

Splits...
 

Found this masterpiece of art...