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!

Another Great Week With Members and Investigators

Wow, this week went by super fast.  We had an unusually high amount of member feeding us.  Almost once a day!

We went to Carmichael's house.  Brother Carmichael and his wife are the best.  Brother Carmichael has this amazing leather workshop in his garage, and he helped me make a cool belt.

Elder Dang found six new people this week too.  All of them are fresh from China.  Five of them came to an English class that we held at the university library.  We were able to use one of their private study room which was nice.  We were able to have a lesson with them using a Mormon message to teach them English.

We had a ward barbecue later that week and three of them came.  We ate sausages, played soccer and they talked with members quite a bit.  It was a great activity.  We are so happy that we received an answer to our prayers from our investigators!

Transfers are coming up at the beginning of next week.  Since I have been out here for about six months I think I will move.  Because I think I will move, we went to the famous Salamanca market again, and I bought a few souvenirs.  I wish I could of bought more, but the things are pricey!  Before I leave I will go to the markets in Melbourne and get more things.  The things I got here were specific to Tasmania.

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

Another Beautiful Week in Tasmania

Hello everyone! 

Even though the weather this week has not been all that good (it has been very rainy), we have still got the chance to meet with some new people. Recently we have been trying to get some new investigators, and we finally got some this week through calling the people we had contacted earlier. One of the people we visited lives in a home-stay, and most of the other people in her home-stay go to another church that seems to not like our church. Elder Dang talked with them for a while, and was able to explain some of our doctrines to them, and we hope that next time we come back, they can become new investigators.

Last p-day, we went to the southern arm, where there are some breathtaking caves and natural features, most of them involving water. That was a lot of fun.

And when we were there we saw this too.

This month we probably won’t be able to do another road trip, because we will have to drive up to the north of Tasmania for Zone meeting, which will use most of our allotted kilometers. That is next week, and I have to drive all the way there and back. When I finish my mission, my time spent driving on the left side of the road will be about the same amount of time spent on the right.

It was also Australia day a few days ago and there were some boat races at the beach near our house.We also had a party/bbq at the bishop’s house. It was a good day. Though the bishop’s barbecue had a lot of other types of food, I really like the barbecues here. All you need is 3 things; sausages, white bread and onions. You put the sausage into a piece of bread and put some onions and perhaps sauce on top. So you can feed a lot of people for very cheap and the food is good.

We went on exchanges last week and visited this investigator that has parrots! Sometimes you can see these outside and in the wild. 

A member lent us their sewing machine and my companion and I have made some awesome ties! 

Thank you for your prayers!

-- 

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

When The Going Gets Tough....

This was a great week. Most of our investigators are going back to China for new year.

Celine, our recent convert, went back to Malaysia yesterday. We had hotpot with her and another investigator before she left. Hotpot is the best. I do not know why I never saw it in the US. We also played a little Ma Jiang. 

We have been praying for Celine's parents not to worry about her joining the church. Her mother is still quite worried, but we hope that when she goes back home, they will see that her daughter is perfectly normal, and will relax a little. Help us pray for Celine and her parents.

We had interviews with president this week. I enjoy interviews with president. We discussed our area and some things that I have been studying lately in personal study.

Today a member was going to take us to a place called Skywalk in their RV, but the RV had problems. Skywalk is basically a place that you can walk on top of the forest on these tall bridges. We will probably go next week. 

Super glad to have the opportunity to serve in Tasmania through another transfer. I anticipate things will get a little harder with all of the people going back to China (hence the title) but we will find people!

Christmas Week

Christmas was really great. We went to 4 people's homes. For breakfast we went to the Thayer's home. They have a ton of little kids and there was so much excitement. They were all opening their presents, and comparing them, and laughing. They made a huge breakfast and we all ate English muffins with bacon and eggs, and I ate a lot of fruit. 

Then we had a gap of time, so we took the English missionaries to another member's home to Skype. The members ended up inviting us in too because we were just waiting in the car for them. Their family is the "musical family", and there were guitars and other instruments in their living room, so I got a chance to play a little guitar. I have not played for a very long time, so I am not that good. 

That afternoon, we drove out to the farmlands, and taught a lesson at another member's house. The Sister missionaries were also there. They invited us because there are 3 Taiwanese people who are living at this member's house and working on the farm. They also had a lot of kids, and a lot of good food. They had Lamb with mint jelly, an Australian favorite.

I wish we could teach those people, and do more finding and teaching in those rural areas, but unfortunately we are the only Chinese companionship on this island. We do what we can do, but usually the English missionaries teach the Chinese people who live too far away. 

Then at about 4pm we went to the Stewarts house. They are the ones who invite us over often, and have a large plot of land with a pony. When we came, they were having a water fight (It was really hot on Christmas), so we joined them. It was a little silly having a water fight in our proselyting clothes, but it was either soak other people, or get soaked. The time passed so quickly. Before we knew it, we had to return home. We made the long drive home, and when we got home, we discovered that members had left some presents at our door. This ward is very good to us. They gave us some Christmas treats, and toys.

We actually ended up opening most of our Christmas gifts on Christmas eve because we knew that we were completely booked on Christmas. I want to thank my family for the gifts they sent. The gift guessing game was a lot of fun. Thanks for the watch! I like it! And all of the other things. In the end I won the gift guessing game. Some of them were puns, so it was harder for my Chinese companion to guess, but we shared the grand prize. 

I look forward to hearing how your Christmas was.

Our car is really beat. Yesterday the side mirror fell off, and the dealership is closed for a couple more days. 

I like my companion. He tells me some crazy stories about his old area and life back in China. Unlike most Chinese people I have run into, he is from the countryside. The people there are more poor. he is not poor, but he basically lived in the ghetto all his life. To be honest I feel like I have gotten a little lazy, especially with all of the fun things we have had recently. But now that that is mostly over, I am looking forward to getting back to work, especially since Celine is getting baptized soon. 

Celine is super keen. She came to church today. She is the girl whose' best friend is serving a mission right now. 

Right now I can hear my companion telling his family about how the cars here will let you enter their lane and let other people in front of them. haha

Last week one of our investigators got a 2 week old kitten. It is super cute, and she has a sock that she often puts it in.

Until next week.