Last Missionary Post: Bittersweet!

Wow it is quite surreal that this is my last p day. Olivia's baptism went well. She spoke during the baptismal meeting and she really has a testimony and wants to endure to the end. Then during church, she was really involved and answered a lot of questions where as before she would be doing things on her phone a lot. Perhaps the gift of the Holy Ghost at work. 

I have learned so much on my mission and met so many wonderful people and received so many blessings that I sometimes feel I don't even deserve. Bella, the girl that got baptized 2 weeks ago is doing well. We met her dad for the first time and he is really kind and supportive. Unfortunately he works every day and gets back at 9:00pm so it is hard to catch him and he can not go to church. We will continue to work with the mom. It is interesting that the 11 year old daughter can be the fellowship for her mom. 

Elder Dang and I just hope that the new missionaries will work hard and take care of the people and work with the members (a skill set that a lot of the Chinese branch missionaries lack). Oh yeah, Elder Dang will also move, and 2 new missionaries will move in. I want to go more into depth about my testimony and experiences on my mission, but I might have to write more when I get home, on a computer that is better. 

Leaving is really a bittersweet thing. I will miss so many people, and most of all, I will miss being able to serve my brothers and sisters full time. But I am also very excited to see my family and friends. 

Oh yeah, one more thing; we had ward conference this Sunday and I really liked one of the talks. The speaker talked about Hope. Everyone will experience negative things in their life. But there are so many positive things, it just depends on which you decide to focus on. You don't want to be so focused on the negative things that you are like an unbalanced scale. We all can have hope, especially people who truly understand our religion. Jesus Christ gives us hope, no matter what happens. I am really excited for all of the things that the future holds for me. I am excited for the next chapter of my life. It will not be a step down from before, but a continuation of things that I learned on my mission. I know that God loves us, and he has a plan for each one of us, and I know that because he sent Jesus Christ to the earth. No matter what kind of person you are, or where you come from, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is beneficial to every one. It is salvation.

Elder Jordan Andersen

楊長老

76 Cathies Lane

Wantirna South VIC 3152

Australia

August 14, 2016

Hello everyone!

This week was a great week. Sorry we have not had much time to write recently.

First of all, Bella got baptized! 

I found Bella and her mom and sister street contacting at Box Hill (where all the Chinese shops are at). That day we were out pretty late, usually we would be back home at that time. So finding them was kind of like a miracle. The mom got baptized in China, but she really likes our church, and was very supportive of Bella being baptized. I think the mom will be baptized into our church someday, but now she is holding off because she likes the priest she had in China a lot. When we have classes at church, the mom often answers other people's questions, and one time she even bore testimony of the Word of Wisdom to another member. So the mom is awesome. Bella was awesome too. She is really smart for her age, and remembered almost everything we taught her. It was a little hard for the two kids because we only have English primary, but they are making friends who speak Chinese and can help them understand what is going on. 

Today we will go bowling for Zone P-day. And this Saturday, Olivia is being baptized! I am so glad that God let me witness two baptisms during the last two weeks of my mission!

I am really excited to see my family and friends in a week and a half. Thanks for your support and prayers.

Elder Jordan Andersen

楊長老

76 Cathies Lane

Wantirna South VIC 3152

Australia

July 31, 2016

This was a great week. 

Yesterday church was great. We had 5 investigators come to church, including WuMin and her 2 daughters. We went down to the primary to help her two daughters understand what was going on. WuMin invited us to come over after church, so we went to her house and played with the kids, and then she made us some really nice noodles and fish. The kids also had a friend over. Even though the two daughters do not speak much English, they still had a lot of fun with their indian friend. Then we had a lesson with them. We taught the plan of salvation, and they were really receiving. The older Daughter, Jia Rui, agreed to be baptized on the 13th of next month.

 They are our most progressing investigators right now. We are also hoping the mom will get baptized, but she thinks that might disrespect the priest that baptized her in China. But she is understanding more and more. I am on my last month now. It would be really cool to baptize a family! Anyway, thank you for your prayers. Got to go now. My companion has to take an English test. 

Elder Jordan Andersen

楊長老

76 Cathies Lane

Wantirna South VIC 3152

Australia

July 24, 2016:

Hello Everyone!

Box Hill

Even though things have generally been picking up because I am nearing the end of my mission, this week was a little bit slow. Many of our investigators were not able to meet for some reason or another. But we did have a few people come to church. Wumin and her daughters came to church. They do not understand any English, so we tried to get the daughters to talk to other Chinese kids. Wumin joined our Gospel Principles class. We have not taught her about commandments yet, but somehow we started to have a conversation about the word of wisdom and the law of chastity. She sounded a little hesitant at first, but as the conversation progressed, she started to support what we were saying, and told us how some old people she knew had a physical addiction to tea. We were pretty surprised at that, because normally people who reject these things do not change their own mind that fast. let alone start bearing testimony for us.

This p-day we are in the city to visit some sites and some museums. stay tuned for some pictures next week. 

The last 4 p-days I have are pretty much booked now. 2 of them will be doing fun things, and the other two will probably be spent packing and preparing.  President has been helping me out; letting me go to the city a couple of times before I leave. I am really thankful for that. 

People playing Pokemon Go.  We try to contact them.

I love my mission. Never again will I have the chance to help people 24/7, through teaching them about the gospel. I am making the most of my remaining time. At the same time, I am excited to see my family and friends back home. I wonder how many notifications my Facebook will have when I open it up for the first time in 2 years. What? haha. 

Doing service

Elder Jordan Andersen
楊長老

76 Cathies Lane
Wantirna South VIC 3152
Australia

July 10: Another Baptism

The past two weeks have been very eventful.

We got transfer news, and I will "die" in my current area, Box Hill.  My companion will also stay.  I am happy about that, but I hope president lets me visit some people in the city.

Our new mission president is great!  Elder Vidmar is the man.  Before he came, President Maxwell showed us some videos of him in the Olympics.  He competed in gymnastics, and one of his routines got a ten out of ten which is very rare.  I am sure that the video can be found on the internet.

We had a meeting when the new president came, and he talked about his mission, and his life, and his testimony.  He also talked about obedience.  He had some colorful socks, adn said that he wanted to be the cool mission president and wear those socks, but then had ha us read the white hand book which says socks must be a solid color.

We had zone meeting a couple of days ago, and he also popped in.  He was wearing a sock tie and a slim suit.  He just came in to say hi.  My companion and I did a training at that meeting.  We had people line up in two lines, and then the people would come up and do role play.  The fake investigator started out as a 1 out of 10  on the interest scale, and slowly moved up to a 10.  We tried to teach that by small and simple things, people's interests can be changed, and sometimes that is all we can do.  Teach them little by little.

Yutting got baptized!  Her baptism went very well.  A few missionaries came from the city who had taught her before; Elder Padillia, Jiang, and Yang.  Elder Padillia and I gave talks.  Elder Padillia's talk was very good.  He talked about how they had to teach them using object lessons, and one of these lessons  was with a Rubik's cube.  The two kids love the Rubik's cube, and you use algorithms to solve them.  Basically the algorithms are like the commandments and the gospel.  My talk was about repentance and forgiveness.  I shared this story:

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/10/remembering-in-whom-we-have-trusted?lang=eng&_r=1

This Sunday there was no one to translate for sacrament meeting so I had to translate, which sucked.  The worst was when one of the speakers told a story about astronauts and space ships, and I did not know how to say either of those words.  But I think I got at least half of the sacrament meeting across.  Haha.

This is going to be a good last transfer.  There are a lot of people who have a lot of potential to be baptized.  I really love this area and the members are helpful.  I am so thankful for all of this.  I will also try to use the last few p-days I have to go places I have not had a chance to go yet.

The twins at game night.

Elder Jordan Andersen
楊長老

76 Cathies Lane
Wantirna South VIC 3152
Australia

June 19, 2016: My Birthday Week!

This was a super fast week.  Elder Dang and I both had a birthday.  Our birthdays are a day apart.  I cannot believe I am 20 already.  On my birthday we went to the Wang's family house to teach them and we had a good time.  

Game night was pretty lame when we came here, but we invited a lot of people, and members brought their friends and last week we had a great activity.  A lot of xiao pengyou.  

Overall a great week.  A lot of people have been inviting us out to eat recently, and we have been very busy with our investigators, and trying to coordinate the activities, and lessons, but I like it better when we are busy and have a lot of things to do.  

Thanks for your birthday wishes.  If you forgot, I cannot blame you because I forgot it was my birthday until a couple days before.  

Elder Jordan Andersen
楊長老

76 Cathies Lane
Wantirna South VIC 3152
Australia

June 13, 2016

Hello everyone!

This was a great week.  At church I taught a lesson on priesthood organizations in Chinese.  I still do not remember some of the names of the priesthood organizations in Chinese, but the Chinese people sometimes say them in English anyway.  So, my Chinese is still not too good.

On Monday we had a big meeting with a few of the church leaders in the primary, general relief society as well as our area seventy and his wife. It was very enlightening.  It made the rest of our p-day better.  The speakers shared a lot of their experiences of their mission with us, and talked about our purpose as missionaries.  When I was in Tasmania, I started studying the purpose of missionaries a lot.  It has changed my attitude on my mission a lot.

We often recite the purpose which is: Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus 
Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.

My birthday is in a couple of days and I almost forgot my own birthday so I do not blame others for forgetting.  Happy Birthday Jacob, Kaitlyn, Grandpa and soon Aunt Verna.

Elder Jordan Andersen
楊長老
76 Cathies Lane
Wantirna South VIC 3152
Australia