Week 11: A Great Week

What a great week!

I got transferred and got a new companion. Well sort of new. I have been companions with Elder Eyring before, and I am back with him again. We do very well together. And I know someone is going to ask me this, so I will just say yes, he is Elder Henry B Eyring's grandson. Since we are both newer missionaries, we are studying the language super hard and doing tons of role plays to practice teaching.

We switch off a lot more since neither of us are . . . well . . . fluent. But speaking of the language, I feel my Chinese improved a ton with Elder Bassett. The biggest problem is still vocabulary, but I am much more comfortable street contacting and making phone calls in Chinese. Some missionaries from the Chinese zone went home during transfers.

Zhan Jie Mae and Hsu Jie Mae went home. They were really funny sisters from Taiwan. Everyone misses them. Also, the Lins went home. They were a senior couple from China. Apparently they were the first senior missionaries from China to serve a mission. They were so kind, and they always helped us with the language, and accompanied us for some of our lessons.

Our zone is a little smaller now, but we did get a couple more elders, including my MTC companion Elder Padilla! He had to visa wait for a little, but he is here now! We still laugh about things that happened at the MTC.

That member that I baptized moved into our area. She is opening up a small business, so she is going to be super busy with that and taking care of her daughter. We are going to visit her tomorrow and mow her lawn.

We had dinner with Niel a couple of days ago. He is a recent convert that got baptized right about the time that I came to Australia. He moved back to China. Last week he visited Australia for a few days. We had dinner with him at Dominoes Pizza. He just left back to China today, probably forever.

Since we got "doubled in" to a new area, we are calling all of the investigators and trying to set up times to meet with them. This week we only got to meet with one investigator twice. Her name is Bonnie. She is a College student. I remember her because she came to an activity once, and they shared a spiritual thought and asked some questions about the gospel, and she answered all of them like perfectly.

I don't know if I mentioned this, but in a few weeks we are going to have the privilege to hear from Elder Bednar. He is going to speak, and he asked us to prepare some questions to ask him. Super excited! On Thanksgiving, he gave a talk at the MTC. He is still one of my favorite speakers.

Week 10: Getting Transferred

I'm getting transferred! We just got transfer news, and this transfer is going to be crazy. My companion said this is the biggest transfer he's ever seen. It's odd. Some people stay in places for 5 transfers in a row, and some people get transferred very often. We have transfer meeting tomorrow at the mission office, and that is where we find out what part of Melbourne we are being transferred to, and who is our new companion. I really don't know where I'm moving to, but I will miss Footscray, and my companion Elder Bassett.

This morning I was reading in the Book of Mormon, Second Nephi Chapter 2. That chapter explains why we need an atonement, and that chapter in particular talks about agency as well. There is a large Islamic population here. The ones I have talked to while street contacting have said that they believe in Jesus, but not that he was God's son. I had a good conversation with this one Islamic man about Jesus.
He said something like "Why would God sacrifice his son for us? I have a 3 year old son right now, and I would not sacrifice him to save other bad people".
It is intersting to look at the atonement that way. The God sacrificed his first born Son in order for us to be able to be forgiven and return to His presence again some day. What a great sacrifice and huge sacrifice. The cleansing power of the atonement is such a great gift, and I am working on using it more often.

Another thing I am going to do next transfer is to set goals and make plans for as many things as possible. We already set goals for a lot of things. The key is setting goals and making plans to achieve our goals. We set daily goals, weekly, monthly, and revise the goals often. Setting goals and making plans is one thing I have really improved on during my mission.

Oh yeah, last p-day we went to the Shrine of Remebrance and the Botanical Gardens. That was super cool. The Shrine of Remembrance is a large stone building that you can go inside and on top of, and it is to remember all Australians who have served in war. The botanical gardens were good, but they didn't have a bunch of tropical fruits like the botanical gardens in Encinitas (CA).

I apologize for how this letter jumps all over the place, but someone asked me if my tech skills have come in handy during the mission. Other than changing watch batteries, I don't think so. Our mission is very very low tech. We all have very old Nokia cell phones. And if you're a district leader you get a . . . wait for it. . . Fax machine! Wow! They told us we might get iPads soon, but people aren't counting on getting them soon.

Someone asked me if they celebrate Valentine's Day here. They do, but apparently they don't celebrate Halloween.

Until next week.

Week 9: Short entry, but many pictures.

Thanks for the letters...

My email time is almost gone. I will not have the chance to write much today because I actually got a lot of emails this week, so thank you so much!


This member who owns a restaurant fed us this week at his restaurant. He made some amazing Chinese food. We went with senior missionaries. When they tried to give him money, he shook his hand with the money in it. The Chinese member pulled away his hand quickly, and said "Ay Ya" and the money fell to the ground. It reminded me of gong gong (Grandpa Yang).


Elder Jordan Andersen
76 Cathies Lane
Wantirna South VIC 3152
Australia

Week 8: Australia Day!

Happy Austalia Day!

I am writing this letter on Australia Day. We have some secret zone P-day activity later today because of Australia Day. Probably games and a few other things.
Last week we had almost no lessons. This week was much better. We got some referrals, and had a few lessons. A coupe of the investigators are pretty interested. One is named Irene. She is middle-aged lady from Singapore. During the first lesson, she was so engaged, and she took 2 pages of notes on our lesson. I've never had anyone be that engaged before. A couple days later, we did a 24 hour companion exchange, so I did not get to teach her, but apparently that lesson went very well too.
Earlier this week we also got to go to the temple, and do a "New Missionary Review". The temple here is so small compared to the other temples I have been to, but it is so beautiful. I did an endownment. Then we had meetings for the review, and had some trainings on various things.
Every Suday we have been taking the Sacrament to Chen Di Xiong, an elderly Chinese member. I always look forward to visiting him. We give him the sacrament, discuss the gospel, and other random news he tells us about. It is a great chance to practice my Chinese. And apparently some crazy things are going on in the world, but I couldn't understand all that much because my Chinese is still not good. But it is improving. As is my capacity as a missionary.

Anyway, I hope everyone on the other side of the world is doing well. Feel free to write me. Until next week.

Week 7: Australian Open "Auzzie Auzzie Auzzie....Oy Oy Oy"

Well, I think I take for granted how nice the area is that I serve in. Today is preparation day. We just got back from the opening day of the Australian Open (Tennis), and now I am emailing all of you from the State Library, a huge library with museum exibits in it. Last week we went around and saw a couple of the exhibits. One was a journalism photography exhibit, with some very interesting photos of fights, disasters, and super difficult-to-take photos. Another was an exhibit with super super old bibles, and other old books. Both were really cool.
Most of our zone went to the Australian Open. It was a lot of fun. The event is a huge deal here. I never knew how fun it is to watch tennis. So fast paced. We had to leave early, but when we left, an Australian guy was playing a German guy, and the crowd was going crazy, and shouting things like "Auzzie Auzzie Auzzie. . .. OyOyOy".

Besides the baptism, our area has been super slow. We did a ton of contacting again. We got a few contacts, and a few referrals, but almost all of them for some reason or other weren't able to meet with us. The Lord has odd ways of doing things. We just keep working, because we know that we are furthering the work, and things happen, but we just keep working hard and the know that blessings will come.
We also had an excellent devotional from Elder Pearson, a member of the 70. He is a super good teacher and speaker. That day, I wrote more in my spiritual notebook than I ever have before. Unfortunately I do not have that with me right now, but he talked a lot about how to be a better missionary, how a mission gives you Christlike Attributes, and how to feel the spirit more. Before he came, we did a survey that asked about lot of aspects of missionary work, and I think he used that as a guide for how to talk to us, so he helped out our mission a lot. He stayed an hour over (with permission) and answered questions and talked to us some more. He was awesome. I felt that a lot of what he said was directed towards me.

I wish I had more time to write, but the short letters are good too, right? Until next week.

http://elderjordanandersen.blogspot.com/

Elder Jordan Andersen
76 Cathies Lane
Wantirna South VIC 3152
Australia

Week 6: Elder Andersen baptized his first person this week.

First Transfer
Hello!

Zhou Jie Mae got baptized yesterday! The baptism was great. The spirit was so strong and it reminded me of my own baptism. My old companion Elder Eyring did a musical number on the piano, and Sister McFadden played the violin. I got to baptize her, so that was a first for me. Wow. It was quite the experience.

Besides the baptism, our area is very slow right now. We had about 4 lessons scheduled this week, and all of them canceled. So we went finding aaaaaall day. We got a few numbers, but no one scheduled a lesson yet. When school starts at the end of the month, the students will come back from China, and things will probably speed up.
Family, I think about you every day. I can't thank you enough for all you have done for me. Also my friends and role models back home. Thank You!

Q&A:

Is it difficult to track you finances, take care of food and laundry, etc?
The finances are difficult. Most of the English and Samoan missionaries get fed on a regular basis. I have never been fed by a member. So even though we don't get fed by members, we have the same amount of money for food. It's barely enough. We have a laundry machine right now which is really good. Some people don't and have to use their mission funds. We have a car right now, but we rarely use it. But if we get a ticket, or somethings happens, we have to pay. So sometimes people who get a ticket have to eat a lot of the 1 dollar white bread. We joke about that a lot here.

Are you studying the language a lot?
I try to study it when we have time, and of course speaking it helps a lot. I have a paper full of words that I read on the train a lot. I study hard when I have time.

How is your ward and ward mission leader/missionaries?
The ward leader's name is Elder Troy. He is a very funny guy. We don't have ward council, and our ward here, as I have said, is not a normal ward.

Do you think you are maturing a lot?
Maybe, but it is hard for me to judge that myself.

Until Next Week!

Elder Jordan Andersen
76 Cathies Lane
Wantirna South VIC 3152
Australia

Week 5: Transfer Week

New Transfer!

Pacing car for transfer

I got transferred last week. The way they do transfers is rather odd. They call you a couple of days before transfer meeting to tell you if you are getting transferred or not, so you can begin packing. Then you find out at the meeting a couple of days later where you are getting transferred, and who your new companion is.
I love my old companions Elder Eyring and Elder Wang. They help me set really good precedents for my mission. They taught me a ton. Elder Eyring did not get transferred. Elder Wang got transferred kind of far away and I don't get to see him often anymore.
I got transferred to an area called Footscray. My new companion is Elder Basset.

Footscray Station

Elder Basset is awesome. He has 2 transfers left on his mission. He learned Chinese on his mission, and he knows the language very very well. He can also read and write characters. He loves to help me with the language (Which is coming along well). He is also a great teacher. Teaching skills are so important.
Speaking of the language, up to this point, I have gotten 3 people's contact information completely in Chinese (That number would be higher if people didn't mix Chinese with English, but they often do). I also have done quite a few phone calls in Chinese. The amount that I understand really depends on the subject. If it's church things, I can understand 70% or more. So I still have a long way to go.
Footscray is known as the "dodgy area" but it's honestly not bad at all. It is about 12 minutes west of the city. So it's a lot more suburb-like than my last transfer. There are not many good areas for finding here. We did a lot of finding this week, most of which was in train stations. It is a little easier to talk to someone in a train station, rather than while they are walking. People that are already waiting are more willing to have a conversation.
The weather here is bipolar. Yesterday it was over (40C) 100F. Today it is in the 70s. The other good thing about finding in train stations is that some of them are underground, and we can get from station to station quickly.
And I saved the best news for last. There is an investigator named Chen jie mae. Elder Basset has been teaching her since last transfer, and I got to teach a lesson with here. She got interviewed this Sunday, and she is getting baptized. She is a really good investigator. She is from China, and has a little daughter.
Her baptism is scheduled for next Sunday.

This picture is take at Flinder's Station, a famous train station.

Exoskeleton Car