Week 4: Christmas Week

I hope everyone had a merry Christmas.

On Christmas, we had a party at the church, and I got to Skype my family! I enjoyed talking to them.

Since they were in Utah, I also got to talk to my grandparents (mom's side), and a few other people they telephoned. It is hard to describe those types of phone calls. I had so much to say, I did not know where to start.

The party was pretty good. A couple of investigators came. The food was great. The Chinese branch always has good food. I got to see Elder Eyring's family over skype, including his grandfather President Eyring.

I am getting transferred this week. I don't know where I am getting transferred, they just tell us before P-day so we can pack. Elder Wang is also getting transferred. Elder Eyring is staying in the area. He has been in North Melbourne since the beginning of his mission.
Getting transferred is exciting, but it happened right when our area was doing really well. Just a few weeks ago we had no progressing investigators. Now we have at least 3 really good investigators.

Before I started my mission, I believed I might experience only a few miracles during my whole mission. Boy was I wrong. Miracles happen much more often than that.
A couple of days ago, we were teaching an investigator, Michael, the first lesson. Michael is a college student. I believe he is from Hong Kong. He knows 3 languages, and he is very smart. During the lesson, we recited Joseph Smith's own words about the first vision. "I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head . . .". The spirit was so strong. When he heard Joseph Smith's first vision, he asked us to repeat it because he wanted to tell it to his family. That usually doesn't happen during the first lesson.
Another investigator is Tony. He was definitely prepared to be taught by us and receive the gospel. He soaks it up like a sponge. He likes reading. He's from China. I couldn't understand when he said this, but apparently he said the Book of Mormon was "the book he's been looking for"
Wow. And all of this happened after only 3 weeks in the field.
--
Thanks,
Elder Andersen

Week 3: Australia

Sheng dan jie kuai le! (Merry Christmas!)

I can't believe Christmas is coming up so soon. On Christmas day, we are going to have a party with games, a fireside, food, and other activities. We have a few investigators coming. I will get to call my family. We are all excited.
This was a good week. We did a bunch of street contacting (as usual). We did the most street contacting in our district last week, and since we are in the city, and city missionaries street contact the most, I wouldn't be surprised if we did the most street contacting of any companionship in the mission for that week. But I'm not sure.
Because of the street contacting we did, we got some people to come to the church, gave them a church tour, and taught them "lesson zero" which is about God, Jesus Christ and prayer. We got quite a few numbers, and we have at least 5 investigators that are coming to the Christmas party.

Lesson zero is one of my favorite lessons, because I like hearing people pray for the first time. It is such a cool experience to see someone pray and communicate with God for the first time. Besides inviting the spirit, their prayers also help you to discern their needs.

All of the missionaries I have met here seem to be very obedient and diligent. We also did a couple of exchanges this week. Both times I made a new friend, and we learned things from each other.
The language is coming along slowly. I still do not know what is going on a lot of the time, but I can tell my Chinese is improving. I have this notebook of words I don't know, and I study it whenever I have some spare time waiting for the train, or while we are on the train.
The Australian Open (tennis) happens to start on a p-day, so we are going to try to go.

Out of time. Until next week.

Week 2: Australia

Wow. So much has happened in the past week.

Most of the work we do is street contacting (talking to random people on the street). Most of the people we teach are from China, attending college in Melbourne. Right now it is their summer break, and they are almost all traveling back to China. So things are slower than usual. We don't have that many lessons or investigators. Since we don't have many lessons, we spend tons of time street contacting. It is hard, but I am getting better at it.

Some days you get a lot of response, and other days, you spend the whole day street contacting and get almost no response. One day we were not getting much response, but Elder Wang told me not to get discouraged. The next day, the first person we talked to gave us their a number, and scheduled a time to come to church. The Lord works in strange ways.

The branch here is not what I am used to. Our meeting building is a level on an office building. There are few families. Most of the people are young. The ratio of missionaries to members is very high

Today is my Preparation Day. We had lunch at a senior missionary's house; Elder and Sister Troy. A bunch of missionaries were there and the food was amazing. Chinese of course.

That is one of the good things about being in the Chinese branch. We have had a couple of Christmas parties and the food is always amazing.

We had a Christmas Music devotional yesterday. I sang in the choir. All of the performances were amazing. There were 4 soloists, and some of them were professional singers. One of them was in a Les Miserables play. They were amazing.

We also had a Christmas devotional, just for the missionaries. That was a lot of fun. We got to see How to Train Your Dragon 2.

People have asked me a lot of questions, and I will attempt to answer them.

Are the people there receptive?
It really depends on the person. When street contacting, a lot of people say they have to go do something, but that is expected. There is a surprising lack of weird people in my area. Most people are very nice. When we teach a lesson, we usually have people come to our church which is actually a level in an office building in the city. It's weird, but it works. A lot of people cancel and things like that, but I expected that.

How is the teaching?
I still don't understand a lot of what is going on during the lessons, but I participate in them. As I said, we don't have too many lessons right now.

Are you learning the language and the lessons?
I am slowly learning the lessons and the language. Sadly, most of the day we are not speaking Chinese. But the people who are older than me seem to have picked it up anyway, so I hope I can study and pick it up too.

Also tell us if you have a car, or how you get around?
The public transportation here is very good. We use the trains/subways and trolleys to get around. The missionaries in the suburbs have cars.

How do you find new people to teach?
Almost all street contacting.

We also wonder what the weather is like, and if you have the right clothes. Have you had to buy much on your own?
The weather here is not that harsh. Some days it is hot and humid, and it has rained a couple of times. I think the weather is not bad at all.

Where do you live?
10 minutes outside the city in a small apartment.

What is your apartment like?
Small. I will try to send a picture soon.

What are your impressions of mission life?
It is hard, but fun. some days are better than others. Nothing has been extremely hard yet.

Does you mission have a lot of special rules?
No, but no instruments, even on P-day :(.

What is the mission president like?
He is very nice. Don't get to talk to him all that much.

What is Australia like?
The city is very similar to the US. It is very artistic, and a lot of the architecture is very cool looking. It's very diverse.

Do you like your companion?
Yes! As I said, I have 2 companions. I described them in my last email I believe.

Do you love the place and are you enjoying the food?
Yes. We never really eat at member's houses. We maybe eat at a restaurant once a week. Luckily my companions are good cooks.

Do you get a chance to work out or not too often?
We jog every morning for not that long.

That's so sick you're in a trio with Eyring, isn't he President Eyring's grand son or something?
Yes.

Love you all!


http://elderjordanandersen.blogspot.com/

Elder Jordan Andersen
76 Cathies Lane
Wantirna South VIC 3152
Australia

First week in Australia! My new address is in this weeks blog..

Hello Everyone,

Wow it feels so good to finally be in Australia. The keyboards here are slightly different so I keep making typos, and I am in a library. The computers here log you out after one hour. So I apologize if I don't write that much.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that my experience at the MTC was awesome. No matter how much I complained, the time I spent in the MTC was so special. I learned so much about the Gospel, people, and Chinese. I met so many good people that I will be friends with for the rest of my life. My testimony grew a lot. I want all you from my old district to keep me updated on your visas, reasignments etc.

Leaving the MTC was bittersweet. A ton of people from my zone came to say goodbeye to me at the last minute. We missed our train, but that wasn't an issue. I traveled all the way to LAX with some missionaries headed to South America (My memory sitnks). They were super nice. On the train ride there, the train host told us these stories about crazy people on the train. After that, we took a tram to the airport. It's really dificult to carry around 2 large luggages and 2 carry ons. Anyway, we had Cafe Rio there. People were talking to us left and right. If you're a missionary in Utah, you're like a celebrity.

I met this very nice member at the airport named Brother Saunders. He took some pictures of me and sent them to my parents. He talked to me about his mission.

After LAX was the long flight to Sydney. I was all the way at the back of the plane, but I got a whole row to myself, so I laid across it and got some sleep.

The Sydney airport was the most intimidating part. I needed to do all this paperwork, and go through customs, get a shuttle to the domestic airport, and re-check my baggage. They never debriefed me for this, but I am here now, and that's what matters.

On the ride from Sydney to Melbourne, my seat was next to the same Brother Saunders that I met at the Salt Lake Airport. Wow. There are no such things as coincidences.

A missionary couple named Elder and Sister Wardle picked me up from the airport. They are related to Wardles in my home ward. They told me a bit about Australia. They were so kind.

We got to the mission home, and I saw my companions for the first time. I am in a trio. They are Elder Wang and Elder Eyring. They are great companions. Elder Wang is from China, so he is fluent in Chinese and English. He is mellow, but has such a good spirit. He cooks the best food (we don't really get fed in this area). Elder Eyring is awesome. He is very outgoing and funny. Elder Dorius knew him and told me about him at the MTC. What are the chances I would end up being his companion? Once again there are no such thing as coincidences.

When the Wardles dropped me off at the mission home, they were holding a training meeting. We had dinner there. Someone made Cafe Rio style food, and it was delicious. Then we went to the flat(appartment), and I had a chance to unpack. I was worn out form all the traveling.

Right now I am on my fifth day. The past 5 days have passed incredibly fast. Faster than any of my days spent in the MTC.

Melbourne is an awesome city. Every day when we go into the city, the buildings near Flenders Street and RMIT never fail to amaze me. Look those up on Google. The city is also very diverse. In our area, Australian born people are probably in the minority. There are tons of Chinese people, which is perfect.

Anyway, the first half of our day is similar to the MTC. We do personal, companion, and language study. And right now they are training me which takes an extra hour. Then we take the metro into the city where our church and our area are located. Our church is a floor on an office building. Its small, but it gets the job done. There is 1 Chinse branch and 1 English branch, so everything is very tight knit. If we don't have a lesson, we usually go out street contacting, and try to get them to take a tour of our church. Then we sit them down and offer to teach them the first lesson.

I can't say I like street contacting. It can be very akward. I am already getting a bit better at it though, and the less akward it gets, the more enjoyable it is. I got someone's phone number yesterday. Since Christmas is coming up, we usually talk about that and the "Christmas Initiative" (christmas.mormon.org). Many of the people are college students, so you can also ask them about that.

We also had a Christmas party, and we are going to have another one later this week. Our branch is Chinese, but most people can speak English to an extent. The people I met at the party were very nice. Everyone made delicious Chinese food.

I am out of time now. I have included my new address below. Until next week.

--
http://elderjordanandersen.blogspot.com/

Elder Jordan Andersen
76 Cathies Lane
Wantirna South VIC 3152
Australia

This is Jordan's Mom. I have added the nice message and pictures that Brother Saunders emailed to me after meeting my son while traveling to Melbourne. I'm so thankful for him and taking the time to talk to my son, take pictures and email me. I hope to receive more as Elder Andersens journey begins.

Hi,

I'm *** Saunders. I have 2 sons currently serving (Helsinki and Cusco) so I know what an occasional photo means to the family at home. I'm traveling on business to Melbourne and ran into your son in the SLC airport and also found myself sitting by him now on the flight from Sydney to Melbourne. We are just getting ready to push back from the gate. He literally radiates light and goodness and I'm sure his impact in Australia will be significant. I've enjoyed talking to him. He is a fine young man. He told me he had a row of seats to himself on the flight to Sydney so he was able to rest on the long flight. May the Lord bless your family through your son's service. It's great to join with you as a family with missionaries on this great work.

All the best.

*** Saunders

LAST DAY! So long MTC, next stop Melbourne, Australia!

I am leaving the MTC in a couple of hours. Wow.

I have a ton to write about, and I may not cover everything in this week's letter. I am the second person from our whole zone to leave since the Taiwan missionaries still do not have their visas. Anyway, on Thanksgiving I got to see one of my favorite speakers speak; Elder Bednar. He passed out cellphones and did a huge Q and A session. I summarized some of the questions:

Why would God give Adam and Eve contradictory commandments?
He didn't, he gave them a choice.
How do members of the 12 have so much energy?
This work is energizing
What is the best way to get through trials without losing faith?
you receive witness after trials.
Why was the missionary age changed?
People in some other countries have had the choice to go at 18 for awhile due to different schooling schedules. So they just decided to let everyone have that choice.

I will try to write more of my spiritual impressions in my next email. They are in another notebook.
A few people in my district and I joined the choir and we got to sing for Elder Bednar. That was one of the best moments I have ever had in the MTC. We sang the mormon tabernacle chior version of Come Thou Fount. It was amazing. Then we did a service project which was making microwavable soup for the Utah food bank. Our district did about 2000 bags I believe. I saw Elder Bednar as I was leaving the project, and I got to shake hands with him. Then we watched Meet the Mormons! It was pretty good. The young man in the movie gets his missionary clothes from the same exact place as me, and the same exact employee was helping him out. Then we had a devotional, which was quite different from our other devotionals. The missionaries did a skit, and we got to see an amazing harp performance.

It was very odd at the end when everyone at the end stood up and applauded. Apparently we can do that if it is not church music. We also saw some other performances. Then after dark we went outside, and there were tons of lights, and a little nativity.

On Sunday we got to see Vocal Point perform for a devotional. It was super cool. They sing acapella and mix in some comedy.
And then we had to say goodbye to our teachers. Our teachers were so cool. Most of them were college students and returned missionaries.

I will try to write more as soon as possible, but I have to leave the MTC in an hour now. Until next time.

--
http://elderjordanandersen.blogspot.com/

Elder Jordan Andersen
DEC01 AST-MEL
2007 N 900 E Unit 19
Provo UT 84602

(This is Evelyn. I wasn't able to open up any of Elder Andersens pictures that he had included with this blog entry. Hopefully he will be able to resend them to me so I can insert them in. I will also hopefully get his new address soon in Melbourne for those that wish to send him a letter although emails work great too. For those of you that have written him so far, thank you.)

MTC Week 8 - Less than 7 days left in the MTC!!!

A lot of good things happened this week. We got our travel itineraries and reassignments. I got my travel plans along with the missionaries going to Canada. Most people got notices saying that they will get reassigned because the visas are so slow right now. My companion got reassigned to Indianapolis. We don't know why I am going straight to Australia and he is not. I know he will do well in both places. My flight is long, and I have a couple of layovers, but I am so excited. I leave the MTC on December 1st at about noon, and I will arrive December 3rd. Even though the Taiwan missionaries got reassignment notices, they may get their visas if they stay in the MTC for a couple more weeks. It's all in the air right now.
Thanksgiving is coming up. We are going to do a service project and watch a couple of devotionals. There is a rumor going around that David Bednar is going to speak. That would be so cool. We all love him because of his talk "Character of Christ". But it's just a rumor.
I ran into Keenan Kanahele from my home stake. I did not know we were going to be in the MTC at the same time. He is going to Samoa! I was so glad to see him.
We got another wave of missionaries this week and the MTC is so crowded now. There are over 2000 missionaries here now. The 4 square line is so long it wraps around the court, so I decided to spend half of my gym time in the weight gym. I split with another companionship, and we work out. Then we still get to play 4 square a little. It's nice to change up the routine a little after doing the same thing for 8 weeks.
This Elder in our district got bad shin splints, and he chose me to go to physical therapy with him. We went to a hospital way across from BYU. They made him do all these exercises. The weirdest part of this whole experience was seeing the outside world. We passed by my old dorm, the place I got my hair cut right before I went in the MTC (Craig's Cuts), and the place we used to have family evening at BYU (Fat Cat's). It just felt weird.
I got a bye bye shu (book) which is a notebook that people sign like a yearbook. One of the nice things about staying at the MTC for so long is that you make really good friends with people. I am sure many of these people will be my friends for the rest of my life.
One of the members of the MTC presidency is traveling somewhere for business, so we won't be able to see him again. We all love brother Seow.

I saved the best for last. We finally committed one of our mock investigators to baptism. The teachers are the mock investigators, and they pretend to be an investigator that they baptized on their mission. So it is more realistic than you might think. This "investigator" is named Ye Hong and he had no religious background because he was from mainland China. This is why it took us a long time to commit him, but most of the people on Melbourne are going to probably be from mainland China.

--
http://elderjordanandersen.blogspot.com/

Elder Jordan Andersen
DEC01 AST-MEL
2007 N 900 E Unit 19
Provo UT 84602

MTC Week 7: 2 weeks and counting down til departure to Australia.

Greetings! All is well. Our district was freaking out a few days ago, and we are still freaking out, because reality hit us. We are leaving the MTC in about 2 weeks! And our Chinese is not that great. For me, most worries are drown out by excitement.
Apparently the New Zealand flag looks very similar to the Australian flag, and we took a picture with the New Zeland flag because it was in our classroom, thinking it was Australian. Haha. I'll have to find an Australian flag.
We have started Skyping members in Taiwan and teaching them. It's really cool. There is still a language barrier, but it's a lot of fun. We now do Skype for TRC. We are Skyping a member later tonight!
Elder Brinton is our new District Leader, and he will have that position until we leave. He is smart, and has a lot of the same interests as me. I'm glad he's our district leader.
The MTC has been a great experience so far. I have learned so much. Even though there are a lot of rules, they keep you safe, and focused on your purpose. I have met a lot of good friends. But I know the best is still to come.
Everybody is excited for Thanksgiving. We are going to have a devotional, and then we are doing a huge service project, which will be making meals for other people. We still haven't had an apostle speak to us yet, so we are hoping that we will have that opportunity in the next couple of weeks.
Apparently the Dear Elder machine is broken, so I haven't gotten any for a few days. If you send me a dear elder, please put my email in the box, so it gets sent to my email, as well as the hard copy.
My cousin Nicole Peng is coming home from her mission in Taiwan soon! I wish I could see her. Too bad our missions overlap.
Miss you all!

Elder Jordan Andersen
DEC01 AST-MEL
2007 N 900 E Unit 19
Provo UT 84602

MTC Week 6 - Besides temple walks, we left MTC campus for the first time.

Hello Everyone,

This week we got to leave the MTC campus for the first time in 6 weeks (if you don't count the temple walks). We saw a devotional at BYU.

The talk was by Elder David F Evans. He talked about being tenacious, or stubbornly determined. Everyone from the MTC walked to the Marriott center as a huge herd. Going back to BYU campus felt weird, but it was a good devotional.

People on my district were spotting their siblings and friends in the crowd. After the devotional, I saw Sister Lonas from my home ward.

Everyone seems to be sick. I have a cough right now. About half of our district is sick. Combined with the lack of sleep, it sucks. Luckily most of us are still are able to go to class.
Oh yeah, and Halloween happened, but we didn't do anything special besides wear fake mustaches.
I was talking to another elder, and I asked him how long he had been in the MTC, and he said "for awhile . . . 7 days". That made me crack up on the inside.
The snow last week was short lived. There was snow on the mountains, but now it is all melted. But it is getting cold and windy. My family sent me a sweet jacket. Thanks!
The language is coming along quite well. We are supposed to speak our language everywhere we go, but that seldom ever happens. But I can now understand almost all of what the teachers say. The language still has a long way to go though.
Elder Bates and I apparently have a good mutual friend at BYU, Josh Quinton. We saw him on our temple walk and talked for awhile.
We saw another devotional called "Missions are Forever by Elder Holland. It was really motivational and made me want to work harder.
It's sad how short my letters are getting. Hopefully I will have more to write about when I get to the field.
-
Elder Jordan Andersen
DEC01 AST-MEL
2007 N 900 E Unit 19
Provo UT 84602

MTC Week 5 - Already more than half way over......

Hello everyone!

My time here at the MTC is more than half way over already. Wow. This was a great week. Today was my first time doing initiatories at the temple. It was an interesting experience. When we were walking back from the temple, we saw snow falling. The weather here is getting cold, so they are requiring all of the elders to wear suits.

We are going to a devotional at BYU tomorrow by some Elder Davis. Apparently this is the time of year we start seeing apostles for devotionals. We are all excited for that.
We are teaching two investigators right now, and they aren't too receptive. We have a hard time finding people's needs. I think we are going to change our method. We are going to use about half of the first lesson just to get to know the investigator, so we can better determine their needs. This method is what we use when teaching less-actives, so we are already good at telling people about ourselves and getting to know people in Chinese, and we know it works.
Another group of Chinese speaking missionaries left our zone. Most of them got called to Taiwan, but they are getting reassigned for a couple of months. Many of them got reassigned to Arcadia, CA. After they leave, we will be the oldest group. It feels weird to already be the oldest group. We also have new missionaries coming into our zone next week, and the week after that.

Every Sunday, two people get called at random to give a talk on the topic of the week, all in Chinese. So every week we need to prepare talks, and church is very nerve racking. They usually call people from the oldest group, so we are going to get called more frequently.
We got new Chinese teachers again. For some reason they change our Chinese teachers almost every week.

My emails are getting shorter, because most of the stuff we do now is routine. I feel like when I get into the field, I will have more to write about. Until next week.



--
Elder Jordan Andersen
DEC01 AST-MEL
2007 N 900 E Unit 19
Provo UT 84602

MTC Week 4 - Quite a few things happened.......

Hello everyone. Quite a few things happened this week.


We got to host new people coming into the MTC, which means bringing brand new missionaries into the MTC. Each missionary gets a few minutes to say goodbye and then we have to tell them that it's time to go, and we carry their luggage, and tell them how good the MTC is. We walk them to all the places they need to go. It was an interesting experience. Some families cried a lot, and some just took a picture and that was it. There was this one elder that got dropped off by his dad, and they both acted like he was getting dropped off at soccer practice. At least that makes it easy for the host. I almost got emotional watching a couple of families, because it reminded me of when I got dropped off.
If you are in the MTC for over 3 weeks, you are bound to get sick, and I finally got sick. Luckily I got over it in 2 days.

A huge group of missionaries from our zone left. Many of them got called to Taiwan, but they got reassigned to states because their visas are not in yet. They think the visas will arrive in about a month. Missionaries going to places other than Taiwan got sent straight to their mission. It was a bittersweet experience to see them go, since they were our role models when we first came in. But I think they are happy to be in the field.
When people move out, we also get hand-me-downs. I got a seat pad, food, stationary, posters, and a bunch of other stuff. We decorated our room with the posters, so it looks a lot less dull. And when people hand down things, they sometimes sign it, and the seat pad I got was signed by Elder Karlinsey, who I knew from Startalk.
My family sent me a package. It had pictures from my sister, Almond Roca, muffins, Hi-chews, and my old watch. Thanks! The picture is hanging in my room, and those are all my favorite candies.
We finally got our full Chinese name-tags, but they put the wrong character on mine. They said they will get it straightened out. I will send a picture anyway.
We had TRC this week for the second time. TRC is when volunteer members come to the MTC and we share a message with them as if we are visiting a member's house. All in Chinese of course. And we just go from room to room doing this. We only got to teach 2 people this time though. It's a lot of fun and we get to meet some interesting people, and work on our conversational Chinese.
My good friend Elder Jones moved to this MTC a few days ago, and he left this morning at 3:00AM to Guadalajara. I got to see him one last time yesterday. Good luck Elder Jones!

MTC Week 3

We got to see an awesome devotional on Sunday (yesterday). It was by Chad Lewis. He played football for BYU and the Eagles. He talked about letting your light shine and he told us some good stories. I love Sunday devotionals. The devotional before that, we got to see Elder Lawrence from the 70.

There were a couple of times this week we needed to prepare a lesson and teach 2 mock investigators completely in Chinese, so things got a little stressful. We usually teach one lesson a day. We have taught a total of about 5 investigators. We really have to rely on the spirit, preparation, and sometimes miming words to teach the investigators. We are getting a lot better though.
I FINALLY got a letter from my mission president. I did not know that it could get down to 37 Degrees F during the winter. Looks like I'll need to get some colder clothes when I get there. It also looks like I will be biking, driving, walking and using public transportation. Unfortunately, he does not allow ipods or musical instruments. This frustrated me a little because the people going to Taiwan said that their mission president loves all genres of music, and will let them have instruments.
We got to do a session in the temple today. I saw one of the newer films. There was a lot of cool CGI. It takes up a lot of our P day, but it was worth it.

In my district, my companion and I are going to Melbourne, Australia. There are 2 elders going to Canada, and the rest are going to Taiwan. The more I hear about my mission and the area, the more excited I get. The Taiwan elders are having issues getting their visas, so they are getting reassigned state-side until they get the visas, which will probably be about a month.

My testimony of the Book of Mormon has really grown since I got here. It's teachings are remarkable. I encourage anyone reading this to read Joseph Smith's testimony in the beginning of the book, or on LDS.org.

--
Elder Jordan Andersen
DEC01 AST-MEL
2007 N 900 E Unit 19
Provo UT 84602

Week 2 MTC - It's a small world and you never know who will know who.........

Well 2 weeks and I am already eager to leave the training center for Australia. Yesterday we saw a fireside by D Greg Droubay. He is in charge of a lot of the media for the church, and he showed us some "secret" stuff that is going to come out on Christmas.

The weather here in Utah is getting colder. In a few weeks there will be snow. There are orange plants growing on the mountains that make them look even more incredible.

For the most part, things here have been same old. We are studying the language hard. Last week I talked about how we were teaching a fake investigator. Well now we have a new investigator, and the old one is now our new language teacher. No one expected that. All the teachers are great.

In my last round of emails, I went over the time limit (one hour per week), and this time I am trying not to. So I am probably going to end up remembering stuff after I have written this letter. I will do my best to remember everything.

I found out a few days ago that an elder in my district, Elder Dallin Dorius, knows my aunt Verna's family. What a surprise. He is so funny, and I think we'll be friends for long after we leave the MTC.

Every day we get gym time, and a ton of people play four square. I learned how to play it and now it is my favorite thing to do during gym time. I usually get to be king at least once every day.

We got to do "service" a few days ago. We got the "fun" job of cleaning the bathrooms. Luckily I was with the sink crew. We got pretty good at it. First you have to spray this nasty chemical, then scrub, and then dump a bucket of water on all 4 sinks. We got creative with the last step. You have to try to cover all 4 sinks with one splash.

We are getting new missionaries in our district I think this Thursday. Our branch president's counselor showed us pictures of all of the new missionaries, and I recognized Sinclair Hancock from BYU Startalk. So that will be exciting.

We got to walk around the Provo Temple yesterday. It's so beautiful. And today we got to go in, and I got to see sealings for the first time. That was a neat experience.

Elder Dorius showed us a great talk called Safety for the Soul by Jeffrey R Holland. It is quite an amazing talk. It is on LDS.org. Definitely worth watching.


--
Elder Jordan Andersen
DEC03 AST-MEL
2007 N 900 E Unit 19
Provo UT 84602

Week One in the MTC

This week flew by so fast. The first couple of days were rough, but every day things get way better. People say "just make it to the first Sunday, and then things fly". I see what they mean! But really things here aren't as rigorous as some people make it out to be, or at least not yet. The learning started almost immediately after I got dropped off. We went to a few orientation meetings, met our companions, unpacked, and then we met 3 mock investigators, and interacted with them. All on the first day!!

My companion is great. His name is Elder Padilla, and he is from Pennsylvania. He knows a lot about fashion and watches because he used to work at Fossil. He is a hard working elder. My whole district is cool. We are all about the same age. We are one of the few districts with no sisters. Our DL is named elder Matua. All of our church leaders here are very caring. Maybe the most caring leaders get called to the MTC because we miss the love of our family. The food here is also really good. It is much like the BYU cafeteria. It is all you can eat. I sent a few pictures.

The language classes feel a lot like Startalk. They try to immerse you as much as possible, and the teachers barely speak english. So a lot of the time it's like a game of cherades. On just the second day, we taught a mock investigator that only knew Chinese. As you can imagine, we couldn't say that much, and it was very awkward. But that is how they teach the language in 8 weeks. I thought I would have a head start because of my past Chinese experience, but everyone else in the class also has experience, so we are about even. Right now we are learning about how to pray, bear testimony, and say the missionary purpose in Chinese. This week was conference week, so we got a break from class to watch conference. I should have taken better notes. There was a great talk that stood out to me about moderation in all things, with an emphasis on the internet. He kind of called out BYU students about "anonymous Yacking" (It's an app). Another talk I enjoyed was by Todd D. Cristofferson (I don't know if that is spelled right). He talked a lot about why commandments and laws are important. He said "A God that does not make any demands is the functional equivalent of a God that does not exist". Everyone was excited to see the MTC Chior sing during priesthood session. I saw a couple of people I know in it. After conference, we watched a film called Character of Christ. It was very interesting, and I learned a lot about the character and nature of Christ. We also had the oppertunity to hear a kind of modivational talk from a semi-famous Mormon guy named Vai Sikahema. He told us some great stories. Today is Preparation day. We got to go to the MTC store. I wish I would have just bought some of my stuff there, because everything is super cheap. We also got to go to the Provo temple to do as session. There was an elder that explained some of the symbolism, and everything is way less weird if you know the symbolism behind it.

I got to see Brother Dallin Jones for the first time during conference. Unfortunately, he is at the other smaller MTC campus. He is doing well, and it was great to finally see him. I have seen about 6 people that I knew at BYU.

I also briefly ran into Sister Murdock from Startalk. She's going to Korea! I really appreciate all of your letters. I miss you guys. I think I have gotten more letters than most of the missionaries in my district. I keep all of them and try to respond. By the way, if you use DearElder, I get the mail faster than email. -- Elder Jordan Andersen Provo MTC Mailbox/section #19 Going to Melbourne, Australia Leaving MTC Dec 1