28 April 2014

WOW its been a very busy busy week!

 Haha i think i say that in all my letters, but we had a lot to do preparing for our two family baptisms! The Salve family and the Baracuso family! Two very special families that have seen the light, and have walked through that gate way, being baptized last Saturday ! It was funny, after their baptisms, the two little kids in the photo with me, were scared and practicing their testimonies in the toilet while getting changed into  their dry clothes! 

It was awesome, have the chance to baptize PeeJee, the father of the Salve family! And I really felt the spirit raising my hand to the square, saying," Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost"! W hat a beautiful opportunity I had to do this! I love it and i love these people!
Little experiences like these I love and will cherish for Eternity!

TOMMOROW we have Tacloban conference in Tacloban! President Nielson will be talking! Im excited! And i get to see the rest of my batch!  I will send a batch photo next week!

Love you family, just a short one today!

Elder Anderson

Missing Pepe...

Again:) another fabulous week of the Lords work!

I have two experiences this week that have made my testimony stronger.

So first experience:

I don't know if I told you my family, but a few weeks back, me and my companion and another two Elders from my district were playing basketball on p.day, and the game got faster and faster! Next thing I know, my companion is on the ground, with his shirt over his face finding it real hard to breath! 

We stopped the game to find out what was wrong. He said he was allergic to eggs and chicken - which we had eaten that whole week! He said he had been through this before and needed to go to the hospital! So we asked the bishop to take us and he did.  We walked him in, and he needed all these injections and the doctor told us if this gets any worse, he will need to go to an upgraded hospital! So within 20 minutes we came from playing a happy game of basketball, to a hospital! After about 4 hours waiting, he was fine.

 

Then last week, last p.day,we played touch.  He survived it, there was no problem, until when we got home. 

He started to puff up again  all over his body  and began to breath really deep.  I said, Elder, lets go, we need to go to the hospital before this gets worse! He said to me," "No" Elder Im fine! Im really fine, I can handle this". I said back, "no elder we need to go"! 

As I started to get things ready, something told me, "he needs a blessing" I listened to the simple,calm and gentle feeling and I said," before we leave Elder I will give you a blessing"! He agreed and I gave a blessing that I knew came from  God through me. 

 5 minutes later he was fine, the swelling had gone and his breathing calmed down. Both me and my companion and other missionaries saw a simple miracle from God.

This experience is like the experiences of the prophets of old all through the Book of Mormon, Nephi sees the spirit of the Lord in 1 Nephi chapters 11 to 14, the sons of Mosiah and Alma the younger seeing the Angel in Mosiah 27 and the brother of Jared who saw the Lord and was brought back into His presence in Ether 3!

And I know  I had a similar experience, I saw the power of God work in front of my very eyes and my companion was fine. The priesthood is the power of God and I'm truly grateful for this experience.  I will cherish this memory for the eternities.

Second:

Lately I've been really missing my little Pepe!  Despite the many challenges we missionaries have everyday one of my hardest challenges is not seeing my little sister. I've been really missing her to the point where I have been praying to Heavenly Father to give me a dream about her or with her. 

 It didn't come in an instant but a couple of nights later I had a dream that I was at home.  I was lying down in my room and I was pondering.  As I was pondering on my bed I heard a noise, a noise that sounded familiar to me, but in my dream I couldn't really recognise who it was! 

     As I lay down on my bed  the voice become louder, and I could understand her voice.  She was speaking fluent English! Pepe came speeding around the corner as she does and started speaking to me! 

I said, "kinsa man ni"" which means "who's this?" in Cebuano - and Pepe said, "it's me - Pepe, your younger sister"! 

I woke up that night, very happy and blessed to have that dream! That dream mean't to me that Pepe will be speaking English to me when I come back home! (and maybe understand cebuano :/ haha) I loved that small simple dream, and it built my testimony that Heavenly Father really answers our prayers!

Family I love you as always, and I just want to testify that all I have said is true! God loves us, and I know and feel it every day!

Love you

Elder Anderson

The Spirit of General Conference

Hey family, I love you

Hows everyone going?? Man how was General Conference? Awesome I know, First time I watched all of them without falling asleep or getting bored and zoning out!! haha

They are the most powerful speakers on this earth! Did you  feel the Spirit?? I did, and it was saying in my heart, that everything they were saying was TRUE!! I can testify of that ! 

They were all chosen speakers to touch the hearts of the children of men! It really touched my heart and life,  to listen to how I can clean my weaknesses up, become better, and continue to always strive to become like Him, even our Saviour Jesus Christ! 

Watch an apostle of God's testimony of the resurrection of Jesus Christ by clicking on this link

Our weeks have been really busy!! Hard but busy! We have tonnes of people to teach!! We have been teaching tonnes of people in Spillway and other places.

We had another baptism, Brother Jullito, he's another special son of God. His baptism was special, and I felt the spirit as I usually do.

 I love him and glad he is where he is now!! We just now need to give him the priesthood:)

A little experience: 

We made friends with this American that owns a shop near our house, We took this friendship to the point where we got a teaching appointment with him and one of his little Filipino workers! 

His name is Dennis and the workers name is Eilyn. They spoke English, so my "first lesson" ever teaching in English haha very, very hard and it sounded weird! She is seventh day Adventist, so it was a good experience for me! 

We opened our lesson about the restoration and she fired out all these questions. Questions about the Mosaic law and a lot more random ones. We answered all of then, and then she said to me, "Do you think your gospel is true?" 

Without any hesitant and even thinking about my answer, I said " Sister Eileyn, I know its true" We came out of the lesson, having set another teaching appointment and my companion said, "Did you see her when you said you know it was true? She was shocked and I saw it.  I didn't realise it, but I know that wasn't because of me, but the Spirit. It's amazing feeling and watching the Spirit guide our investigators to our Savior! I'm not afraid at all to say that.  I'm not only not afraid, but I LOVE sharing it with everyone :)

Thats just a little bit from me ,my family, I love you and will always love you!

Serve the Lord at any opportunity  and pray for missionary opportunities and I promise the Lord will put someone in your way.

Love you

Der Anderson

Here's a picture of my bath. Its a nice bathroom but the waters not running!  Every night I heat my water and have a HOT bath.

I sit in the black tub and put my feet in the red bucket! The BEST:)

21 investigators at church....

Hey everyone, sorry about last week and the short email but p.day has come around and yay I get to email my family!!

WOW tonnes of missionaries going out Dad, thats super exciting and awesome!

Just a few questions:

-Can i have my family history chart please?

-Was there a typhoon in New Zealand?( I heard there was)

-How many temples are there in the world?

Chalamat ..

So so so..

Here in Kananga we have a brand new apartment, I mean brand new and its nindot kaayo!!!

I love being in a nice apartment and its good because its just me and Elder Minorias!! We have a shower, but it doesn't work yet, but it has HOT water, yay and we have a tap to wash our hands and clothes and a tap at the sink to wash our plates instead of always walking out to the well and filling up bucket with water outside and always calling my companion" companion I need help with the water" about 50 times a day haha.

But that's what makes a mission fun and memorable!! We have a brand new iron and ironing board, brand new curtains, Everythings brand new!! And I'm very happy haha I feel I'm in a brand new world until I walk outside and there's no houses.

The people here speak tagalog and waray waray, and I cannot understand any of it!! 

Hopefully by the time I finish my mission I will know it, and can speak to Jeremy.

 Anyway - Kananga!!

Well our ward is lovely, the members are really nice and the bishop is very nice and a Diligent Bishop!! Reminds me of you Dad. I had to speak on our first Sunday, and I was really frightened and started to eat my words. I guess i was entertaining when they were all laughing at me , but i know they got what I was saying through the spirit.

 They love us missionaries so much and express their love to us, because they haven't had missionaries in a very long time!! We started our area - just opening it  after the typhoon and had NO area book! Man wasnt this just so hard!! We had nothing, and it was really stressing me out, Then our president said we have to be back in the home by 5pm everyday, because there are no street lights and some rough people about.  So this stressed me out even more, because I know that 5 till 8 are the peek hours where everyone's home and there's tonnes of teaching!! So it was hard coming from Bacolod to here - but through the simple commandment of prayer, I realised that I needed to just relax, stop stressing out, know that we are only beginning  and to simply just enjoy the journey that will soon put us back on a roll again!

 

So in the last few days we have had a lot of work - we had 21 investigators at church!! Man tonnes, partly resulting from the typhoon. Most of the investigators are the fathers or mothers that are not converted and through the storm they have all been really humbled and are flooding in!! We then found our area book that wasn't even updated, ahah but it will be now!! 

This story reminds me of Alma, when he baptizes tonnes of people at the waters of Mormon - people are truly flooding to be baptized which is super exciting!! We have no font so our baptisms are in the creek!! Makes Alma's story come to real life even more haha!

 Me and my companion are different!! Very very different. When we became companions we knew we had different personalities, different interests and styles of teaching. Hes from Mandanao and is 24!! My last companion Elder Doverte was 26!! So Heavenly Father loves putting me with older people!! I love my companion.

We have been doing much service , building the foundations of homes - diggin diggin and diggin!! Work Work Work , I Love to Work! Love You Family - Be Safe

Love you

Der Anderson

Just arrived in Kanangan, Tacloban Mission...

Family, a very short one. 

We just arrived in our apartment here in Kanangan:) Five things I want to state:

1) I have a brand new apartment thats so clean and has nice tiling inside.

2) we have 2 new fans

3) we have a new ironing board and iron

4) new shower and bed and everythings new

We have no area book and are just starting from the basics!! So its new but good!!
Love you guys!! Have a beautiful week, keep the photos coming and letters.

Love you

Elder Anderson

Hey family, Im here in Tacloban :)

After I emailed you we went to President Lopez' house and there he bought us a feed and we got to eat all the ice cream we wanted!! YES so delicious!! I havent had ice cream in a very long time!! After that he talked to us and discussed us all the things we learnt from this mission, and how we can take it with us and its OURS!!  

Both him and sister Lopez dropped us off at the airport and he gave us a hug. He's so good family. He has taught me about the mission, and in his mission vision, has helped to change me. 

We checked in and I was 10 kgs over and had to spend a tonne  but I got on the plane which was the important part!! 

We traveled to Manilla and stayed in the hotel there.  As we walked into the hotel, we saw our old batch mates from the m.t.c and gave them all a big hug and had a good catch up!! 

Our flight to Tacloban was 4 in the morning. So early we got no sleep. We traveled to Tacloban and I was super excited. We got there and the airport was just smashed up and  the airport was so so small. 

We met with President Andaya and sister to and they welcomed us and took us all to the mission home. On the way to the mission home, my mind was just BLOWN away. Seeing the destruction that took place here 5 months ago, it feels like the typhoon hit this place only yesterday. It looks like the land desolation in the Book Of Mormon. It made me sad.. There are wires EVERYWHERE so I watch where I walk. 

We then had a  breakfast, then a devotional, then I met my new companion, Elder Menorias from Mindanao here at the bottom of the Philippians.  He's fluent at every language which is good. He is going to teach me tagalog.  

There are seven languages here.  We got told that our apartment was not yet finished and we have to stay in the mission home for a week. Im fine with it because theres a washing machine, a dryer and showers:) hehe and our apartments are new, theres showers and toilets that flush:):) YES!! this made my day!! Im assigned in Ormoc. Which is Cebuano speaking - which is good for me:) Today we got a p.day and we went to the soldiers monument, which is the photo I had on my facebook before I came out on my mission!! One of the statues broke in the typhoon.

This mission is WAY different from  my old one, different vision, people, language and everything!! But I love it and am going to enjoy it here. I feel I'm only going to love my new mission even more!! 

I love you and I'll write you next week. Fams. Just letting you know im safe!!

Love

Elder Anderson

I'm so excited, my fingers are struggling to write!

WOW!! I received a call yesterday from my old companion Elder Burnett - that I am transferring back to the Tacloban mission!  I'm super super excited right now!!

I have actually left my apartment in Stop Alginado!!  My last good byes to my beautiful apartment!! My last look back to this beautiful place and members and memories.

 We had a baptism this week and I told the investigator I was leaving. He texted me and thanked me for all i did to bring  this beautiful gospel into his life!!! This was very touching and I love him.  I said goodbye to my companion Elder Doverte and gave him a big hug.  A big hug that showed to him, that I was grateful for all he did for me.  I love him heaps and will come back here to visit him. I traveled  from Stop to Bacolod which was 4 hours and I came here with my batch friend Elder Wheeler , man we are just so excited to move back to Tacloban!! 

Ii was thinking in my head the whole trip back, "Im really going back?? This doesnt seem real!" haha Being out in the mountains for 5 months is a very big change to here in the city!! Theres "CARS" haha it was really mind blowing!  I arrived at the office here in the big city Bacolod, and saw my old companion.  It was so good to see him and I'm having a good chat to him now.

MAN I've been blessed so much to have had two solid trainers with whom I've learned so much!  So Im in the office typing this to you.  I'm so excited my fingers are struggling to write because of my excitement!!

We meet with President in a hour which is going to be so cool. I will show him my love for the example he has been in my life.  I will give him your love too Mum and Dad!! WOW super excited!!  I'll be in Tacloban either tonight or tomorow , not too sure on the facts!! I'll send some photos on p.day!!! I love you family!!

My Heavenly Father has helped me so much in my life and I'm grateful for it all!! I love this church so much, 

 Sa simbahan ni jesu christo sa mga santos sa ulihing nga mga adlaw!! This is the true church!

Love you - here in Bacolod, soon to travel home to Tacloban!

Yours Der Anderson

P,S Pepe - give my little nieces kisses for me okay! Love you little sis