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

June 5, 2016

This week is great, but I do not have much time to write.  

We had transfers.  I will stay here and then I am back with Elder Dang again.  We have had not much time to do finding this week because we have been preparing our old flat to sell and cleaning out our new flat.  I have also been dealing with some things for BYU.  We also went to the city for a baptism. 

We did a tree planting service project a few days ago.  It rained and we thought no one was going to come, but then a bunch of people from our church came.  I also went to this service project last year.  The trees that we planted last year had grown quite a bit.

Church was pretty good.  There was a very old Chinese lady that bore her testimony.  Her testimony was super powerful.  I am out of time now.  Until next week.  

May 29, 2016: Time is flying by quickly.

Hello Everyone!

This week is the last week of the transfer.  My companion Elder Jiang will be moving to the city.  I will serve with Elder Dang.  I have served with him before in the city.  He was a good companion, and has a lot of potential.

I know my return date now.  I will return in about three months and start school immediately.  I can't believe time has flown by this quickly.  I still have a lot of time left though and there is still so much to do in this area.

We are not able to meet with a ton of people this week because there are exams at the local university.  Everyone has to study.

There is a recent convert here named Sam.  He has twin sisters who also recently joined the church.  They are really awesome members and you can tell how their progression has helped them and their family.  Sam blesses the sacrament almost every week.  On Sunday he bore his testimony and it was such a great testimony.  During the second, another awesome member named Phoebe taught a lesson on the atonement.  She had us read this talk which is one of my favorite talks.

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/the-mediator?lang=eng&country=au

The atonement is real.  It is the only way to repent of our sins.  Many really do not use it enough, but it is really the foundation of our religion.

We will be moving into another apartment and the apartment we are moving into is super nice.

Until next week.

Elder Jordan Andersen
楊長老

76 Cathies Lane
Wantirna South VIC 3152
Australia

May 22, 2016

This was a pretty good week.  We had exchanges. I went to Waverly .One thing I learned was that the protein powder that I bought has way way too many carbs and will make me fat. So I exchanged it at Chemist warehouse (pharmacy). 

We are working with a lot of part member families. 

I really want to help those families more than anything. 

We probably won't have a baptism this transfer. There is only one more week. I hope I do not get transferred. I will try to write more next week.

I saw this animal on the side of the road.

Mothers Day Skype, May 15, 2016

Hello everyone. Sorry for not writing as much lately.

The main thing that has happened recently is still skyping the family on Mother's day. I love you all! I love you Mom!

We had a zone p-day and played a version of Mafia which was fun. It is a group strategy game. 

There is this really cool family that invites us over to eat often. The Wong family have been in this ward for a long time. Yesterday we taught them a lesson on how to invite people (friends, less active people, family) to come to church and I made up this saying. It is I HELP!

The I stands for Invite

H = Help

E = Example

L = Love

P = Pray

These things can be used to help people come learn about the gospel. You can try it!

I still do not know my return date yet.

Until next week!

Elder Jordan Andersen
楊長老

76 Cathies Lane
Wantirna South VIC 3152
Australia

Hello everyone,

I do not have much time to write. I am getting transferred to Box Hill, one of my favorite areas. I served there a while ago, only for a transfer. I still remember a lot of the members and investigators. It will be a lot of fun. I will miss my current area. I will be able to come back to the city for Cici’s baptism, the girl we have been teaching here.

So I will spend half of the day today with Elder Vang, because he is ending his mission, and then we will go back and pack.

Artists painting an advertisement

-- 

Elder Jordan Andersen
楊長老

76 Cathies Lane
Wantirna South VIC 3152
Australia

General Conference

Hello Everyone,

Sorry, I am pressed for time this week. General conference was great. 

This was one of my favorite talks

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/04/he-will-place-you-on-his-shoulders-and-carry-you-home?lang=eng

We had to move Cici's baptismal back because of General Conference, and her exams at college. But she will get baptized on the 23rd. She came to conference yesterday and she was telling her friends that she was being baptized on that date and they were all very excited. She is very awesome. We are also excited for her! I just hope I do not get transferred! Transfers are in a week. We had an 8 week transfer.

Anyways, these are the main things that happened this week. Until next week.

Elder Jordan Andersen
楊長老

76 Cathies Lane
Wantirna South VIC 3152

Super fast week and 3/4 mark!

We had hotpot this week with some other missionaries. How come I have never seen hotpot in the USA? It is the best thing ever. 

Well, just as the title says, this week went by SUPER fast and I hit my 3/4 mark. 6 more months left.

We had interviews with president this week. He is always a little pressed for time, but we had a good talk about my area, and what goals I have for my last 6 months. 

When we picked up Elder Padilla from the office, there was a sealing that just finished, for someone that I knew from Box Hill. And someone had a drone to take photos.

We had a couple of people come to church this Sunday. Cici, the girl who can get baptized soon came. Also a new person that Elder Padillia found came. Since their school brake ends today, they are busy again, but we will find a chance to meet with them again.

Thank all of you for your support. I really enjoy your emails, even if I do not get a chance to respond. Our time spent on the computer is really limited. But I do read all of the emails I get and I appreciate every one.

​

--

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

This Week in Melbourne

Eureka Skydeck is the tallest building in Melbourne.

View from atop the Skydeck

The time has been passing super fast since I have gotten back from Tasmania.

I do not have much time to write today because I will be picking up another missionary and we will be serving in a trio. That missionary is Elder Padillia! I have already served with him twice before; once in the MTC and another time in Melbourne.

Things are super good in our branch right now. There have been a few baptisms lately, and the Branch President's two kids just got back from their mission. They teach the class that our investigators go to during church, and they are good teachers. They always have us interact, and break up into groups to study scriptures and things like that.

The most recent Baptism was a guy named Lambo. I found him a Long time ago, when I was in another area. At that time, he stopped meeting with us because he had some other things, and then he went back to China. When I came back to my area, I saw him at Church. I later found out that he was being baptized! And then he got baptized a week ago.

Lamo is third from the left.

This is really a testimony to me. The whole time I was in that area, I thought it was one of the worst areas, and we did not meet with many people, and it felt like we weren't getting anywhere. Another miraculous thing was that I found him in a place where we only went finding once, and then never went again.

Last p-day we went to a free film museum. I have been there before, but I was taking my friend Elder Vang since he is going home soon. This is why I have been doing more things on p-day lately. It was super cool and they had an exhibit on Minecraft.

Movie Museum

Add caption

I also learned how to play Sanguosha! A super fun Chinese card game. Still can not read the cards though.

Well we have to pick up my new companion soon. Until next week!

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

Second Week Back in Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road

"The Grotto"

Hello!

Wow we have been so busy lately and so much has happened since I have been back to the mainland. 

We had stake conference a week ago, and also ward conference a couple of weeks ago. So we have been travelling all over Melbourne and it is very tiring. It takes an hour to get from our house to our branch in the city, and to go to these conferences, we have to switch trains in the city and go back out to another suburb. It can take 2 or 2.5 hours! But we shouldn't complain. A couple of the recent converts made the same trip to come to conference with us. That is dedication. Our recent converts are really good. Joe and Elvis, and Mary, but Mary has been a member for a bit longer. 

On Saturday we went to the baptism of a girl named Angel. The baptism was also far away, but it was super good and one of our investigators came. Angel just happened to be a tour guide, so the missionaries rented a bus yesterday and we went to the "Great Ocean Road". It was basically the whole Chinese zone, and an English zone. It was a lot of fun. Special thanks to Angel, and Elder Lan.

So we woke up way early and got to the city before sunrise. We caught the bus, everyone was super excited. The bus ride was quite long. We stopped at a couple of very beautiful beaches. The beaches on the great ocean road have huge cliffs which reminded me of the beaches back home. It kind of has a "Point Loma" feel. Anyway, besides stopping at all of these smaller beaches, we stopped at a very famous place called the 12 apostles. They are 12 huge cliffs in the ocean.

We ate lunch at another beach and then rode home.  

On the ride home, people were playing SanGuoSha (a Chinese card game)  in the back of the bus and singing hymns.  Half of the fun was riding in the bus.

We had to be back by 6:30 for Family Home Evening though. At FHE, 3 of the most respected missionaries in our branch shared their last testimony. Elder Lan, Sister Wang and Elder Su are going back home. Elder Lan's parents came and it was great to meet them. Elder Lan is one of my favourite companions. I served with him a long while ago. His parents got all of these small gifts for us from China, including SanGuoSha, key chains, chopsticks, and lanyards. I really can not thank this elder enough. Not only did he let us go on the bus that he actually rented, but he also got gifts for us, and bore his fervent testimony. These people are true role models for me. I have about 6 months left on my mission, and I hope I can be someone looked up to at the end of my mission, as these missionaries who are currently returning home are to me. 

So I am typing this email on Tuesday. I am feeling a little sick today, but I felt a real motivation boost from these missionaries. So I revised my mission goals during personal study, then we went out finding for a couple of hours. 

There are still so many things I want to say, but the time is far spent. Thank you for all of your prayers. I know that the gospel is true and that Jesus Christ lives. He also resurrected, which is why we will celebrate Easter shortly.

-- 

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

This week was super busy. We had Elder Hallock from the quorum of the 70 come talk to us. He talked about his mission, how much it taught him, and he shared with us about planning. 

The missionaries held a "missionary night" which was a lot of fun. We played a lot of minute to win it games. One of them involved putting a funny hat on and using it to knock down cups. Things like that. A couple of members from our area came. 

Game Night

We have had a few investigators coming to the English class in the city. Lately a lot of our time has been spent at these activities, teaching people, and on the train. It takes one hour to get from our house to the church. 

Anyway, no more time for today. 

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

This is how we park in Melbourne.  It stacks the cars on top of each other.

My companion fixing a window

So Long Tasmania, Hello Moorabbin

Well after 6 months in Tasmania, I am finally back on the mainland. I learned a lot during my time in Tasmania, and got help a few people receive the Gospel and baptism. More than any other area on my mission in fact. They moved us elders out of Tasmania, and moved sisters in. We moved into an area that sisters used to be in. I got moved to Moorabbin. I have served here once before with Elder Padillia. The area is a lot different right now. The sisters that used to be here baptized a few people, so we have some excellent recent converts as well as investigators. School is starting this week which means that everyone is busy, but there are a lot of new Chinese people. 

i really like my new companion. His name is Elder Ju. He is from Ha'er Bin China. He is one of the newer missionaries that came in while I was in Tasmania. He is a good teacher, and no real drama. He became friends with our investigators very quickly. 

They day i flew back to Melbourne, the Assistants drove us from the airport to the city branch. When we got there, an activity was just finishing. So I saw a lot of my friends and other missionaries that I had not seen for six months. A couple people got baptized, that I did not even know about. 

This week we have met with some of the new people. We had four lessons with members present, which is extremely high, but having a member present at your lesson really helps the investigator because some investigators feel a distance between themselves and the missionary. 

Well I have to go now. This computer is about to run out of time. Until next week!