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