...Continuation From Last Post and A Great Week This Week!

(Continued from last week)

Brother Archuletta also sang the song Glorious, from the movie Meet the Mormons. Excellent performance.

Then Brother Wilcox gave a talk about birthrights. Super interesting, though I do not remember all of it. First he talked about the Jacob/Israel's Birthright, and his sons. The Abrahamic covenant is sometimes hard to understand, but he said it so simply. Basically the youth in this church have a birthright. Since we are given much, we also have increased responsibilities, one of which is sharing the gospel. 

I tried to find the talk on the internet without success, but Brad Wilcox is the man. He has spoken a lot at BYU and his other talks can also be found on the internet. 

This week was great. The best week of this transfer so far. We attended a double baptism (two people being baptized on the same day). Originally, 5 people from our area said they would attend. Then 3 canceled. But one of them that did not cancel, brought three friends. So we met 3 new people, and after the baptism, we had a lesson with one of the new people, and he is super good.

Also, earlier this week, we met with an older man named Jack. His situation is not typical of most Chinese people we teach. He speaks almost no english, he has a son in the US, and he works here. So we taught him about prayer, and families being ordained of God. He accepted everything very well. He really wants to learn more and be baptized.

Today is zone P-day. We will go to a church building, and sister McFadden, a senior missionary, will show us how to make cake. Then we will play some games, maybe Mahjong, and then another missionary will cut my hair. I hope he doesn't mess up.

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

Listening to one of our past American Idol, David Archuletta.

Hello everyone!

This week went by super fast. We had a special event at the mission office. We heard from David Archuleta, Brad Wilcox, and Elder Dudfield. 

So first David Archuleta sang "Be Still my Soul". Then he talked about that song, and how it helped him on his mission. Then he told this story from his mission that I can really relate to.  He was on a bus with his companion, and they were about to arrive at their destination. The spirit told him to invite a girl on the bus to a YSA event. He resisted because the bus was almost there, and she had tattoos and stuff. The spirit told hime to talk to her again, and he invited her, and the bus arrived, and his companion was waving him to get off the bus. (he told the story much better).

Later, that girl was baptized by other missionaries. Her family was also baptized, and she served a mission. 

There are many times finding, when it is easy to make up an excuse to not to talk to people. An example for me is that older Chinese people are usually pretty set in their ways, so I sometimes don't talk to them. But I really should. 

I am almost out of email time! The rest will have to wait until next week.

Sometimes people wonder if they are feeling the Holy Spirit, or their own feelings. If anyone has ever had this question, please watch this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkOVbT2oxnI

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

A Slow Week!

Hello!

This was a good week even though not all that much happened. Jamie, a guy we are teaching, has not been answering our calls. A few days ago there was a baptism. We called people for close to 3 hours and were not able to get anybody to come. The work in this area feels slow. We do a lot of finding on the street. When I started my mission, I hated talking to people on the street, but now I am ok with it. 

We did exchanges this week with a missionary named elder Jiang from Taiwan. He is newer. I really enjoyed being with him. Lessons go a lot smoother with a native companion. But no worries. It is safe to say that I can use Chinese for normal communication now. Maybe. 

Last week my companion and I went shopping. The issue is that we don't have money, and all of the clothes here are more expensive than the US. But luckily the Lord led us to a super cheap clothes place, and I got some sweaters and shoes.

I would like to get more creative with the finding, but can not think of many good ideas. I welcome your advice.

Until next week

-Elder Andersen

Training Future Missionaries

Hello!

This week we got to train a new missionary.  Well not really.  Every year some wards hold a "mini missionary" activity where members can live with us for a couple of days and see what missionary life is like.  Almost everybody in our zone got mini missionaries, including us.  His name was Brother Basil.  He is a local Australian, 17 years old.  Even though my companion and I are 19, he looked taller and older than us.  He was super solid.  We set up as much lessons as possible, so we had a few lessons with him.  We had one member lesson in English and a couple other lessons in Chinese.  He did no understand the other lessons, but that is what the true experience is like.  He also got to experience a little disappointment because one of the people we had a lesson with texted us later saying that she could not meet with us anymore because her grandma is a Protestant.

Overall it was a very good experience.  I think he is very well prepared for a mission.

This week we had an investigator come to church for the first time in quite a long time.  Her name is Alice.  She is our most progressing investigator.  We have only met her twice, but she keep most commitments we give her, and she is willing to be baptized.  Sadly the transfer ends soon.  I hope I can stay in this area.

Today is p-zone day and apparently the activity is cleaning the church.  Yay!

Until next week.

One Baptism At A Time

Not too much happened this week, but someone in our zone got baptized. We haven't had a baptism in a little while, and Bruce is solid. One of our investigators attended the baptism and made some friends. After the baptism we had a lesson with her, as well as Bruce (who just got baptized). We talked about baptism, and she said she wants to be baptized! She will come to FHE tonight. 

Other than that our week was pretty average. We always get lost because my companion does not know how to use a road map, so someone is going to let us borrow their GPS. This will help out our working hours a lot (and companionship unity haha).

Our area has 3 recent converts! I ran onto a guy on the street. He just moved to our area from Taiwan and he was baptized in Taiwan. We told him where the church is. Hopefully he will be able to come. 

One of our members just came back from China and she lives on the same street as us. The street that we live on has 2 members on it. They are super nice and willing to help us fellowship.

The forecast is rainy for the whole week so I do not know what the heck we are going to do. I guess we will do lessons and tracing because people don't want to talk with us if it is pouring.

anyway,

until next week.

Mission Life In The New Area

Well the first few days in this area Elder Padilla and I were struggling, but now we are doing pretty well. We still struggle with Chinese, but our teaching skills are getting better.

The first week we were here, we had 4 total lessons, then 6, then 12. So we did a lot of finding the first week, and now we have found some people who are interested, and are teaching them. The biggest problem is still that the church is pretty far away. So we are telling people that we will take the train with them to church. We will see if that works.

I am not sure why President put us together as companions, but my companion read this talk, and it answered my question:

https://www.lds.org/ensign/2015/06/young-adults/no-transfer?lang=eng

Our area is huge. Yesterday we drove to an area an hour away to visit some less actives. 

My dad asked about what activities we have. This was my answer:

Our usual activities are FHE and English class. For FHE, someone usually shares a short message, then they play a group game, and then we have some snack. We almost never go to English class because it is taught by senior missionaries, but it has 3 levels, and it helps people prepare for this standardized English test.  

Our apartment right now is one of the better ones, though we have to use a wrench to turn the sink on and off, and the concrete walls are always moist when we wake up for some reason.

Sorry that this letter does not follow an organized train of thought.

My old companion Elder LeCates wrote me this week and told me about BYU and all of the movies he has watched since he has been home. That made me a little "trunky" haha.

A Great Week

This was a great week. We had a lot more working hours this week compared to last week.

Yesterday we decided to go knocking on doors. We almost never do this. At the third door we knocked, the man let us in and we had a good talk with him. The guy was named Chen. He is here studying his PhD at the local college, and unlike most college students, he has a wife, and a small daughter. I can't wait to visit him.

I found out at church yesterday that Jessica, a woman I contacted in a train station in my old area, just got baptized. I am supper happy for her, but I feel a little bad because I doubted her at first. The first time we met with her, she was telling us how fun drinking and parties are. But I believe in the Atonement, and the atonement gives us the ability to change for the better.

Elder Padilla and I got some new tags that are super cool. The church does not let missionaries get these tags anymore here, so we used some connections to get them.

I still want a Taiwan pocket one though.  They can not make pocket ones here.

Things are a little hectic for college students right now because they are starting classes, and for some reason a lot of them are moving. (almost all of our investigators are college students that go to Monash University)There is this one investigator we have that says she will believe in God if we help her move. We will help her move this week, but we want her to believe in God for the right reasons.

Thanks for the birthday wishes. I can't believe I am 19 and I feel like I may forget sometimes, when I tell people my age.

Anyway,

Until next week.