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