April 7th Letter

We are actually going to watch conference this coming Sunday because of the time difference and whatnot, but I’m pretty excited for it. And what the Heck is going on with N. Korea???? I’m so far out of the loop. I heard that they turned down some nuke act and they are targeting the US.

So guess what? I’m being transferred... :( but its OK I know the Lord needs me elsewhere. Just kinda sad about it. A Lot of great people in this area. Well I hope all is well. Thank you for your prayers. I LOVE YOU ALL! :)

March 31st Letter

Things are going great out here, loving everyone. Having a lot of fun with my companion and having fun with our shenanigans (at the right times) Today we’ve got zone P-day and we're gonna have a BBQ. I’ve been taking good care of myself and drinking water although I do have the sniffles at the moment. Don’t worry I’ve been taking meds and been doing good. I’ve even been drinking that awful alka seltzer stuff (sour sprite). But that’s been helping also and I’ll also have you know that I’ve been eating my gummy vitamin every day. Is there anything I can do for you? I miss you and hope you have a wonderful Easter day!

March 24th Letter

My week has been going well. We have just been doing a lot of finding due to a small teaching pool. Exchanges are good; I always learn a lot when we go. My district leader is a Samoan named Elder Siale, he’s the man. I don’t really have a favorite part yet of the mission, just simply being able to help so many people in so many ways while feeling the spirit is amazing. Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes and for all your support! Is there anything I can do for you?

March 17th Letter

This week was good, really hard at times but good. We had a baptism and it was Awesome!  Her name is Lorina and she is Merushious (iiii caaant speeeell). She had me baptize her! It was such a wonderful experience! The talks were great and we ended up singing, "When I am Baptized" for her. I baptized and my companion confirmed.

My district is awesome, I love everyone in it. We've got six in ours. We’ve got a Sister from Sidney, a Sister from Pakistan, an Elder from Samoa, an Elder from Tonga, my companion is from Zimbabwe and I’m from America. Can’t get very much more random then this and yet when we all get together we can’t stop laughing. I love these guys and without even asking, they really helped me out through everything. I don’t know what i want as far as b-day goes, just whatever ya know?

 I should be getting close to filling up my memory card with pictures soon so I'll be sure to send that along sometime soon.

Oh BTW there has been an update in the rules about email! We can now email our friends! Cool eh?

I saw some kangos a while back. It cracks me up every time I see em hoppin along. This gospel Rocks. Can’t deny it. Loving my mission and all the people here. Well I love you SOOOO much! Have a wonderful day!!

Editor's note: 

Elder Anderson's email is phillipa@myldsmail.net and please excuse his spelling he really can't spell :)

Elder Anderson Pictures

Enjoy!

Elder Anderson Singing with Dipinthi "Dipsi" Divakar

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10200716473979795

March 10th Letter

My week has been great!. I hope all goes well for Easter. Everyone should have fun in Arizona for Easter, wish i could be there to see the kids have at it. It doesn’t seem too long ago since I was running around that backyard. I’m all good for my b-day can’t think of anything I really need. My companion is awesome; we’ve been having lot of fun and of course working hard. We’ve got a baptism hopefully this week! I l I loooove you all!!!!! :)

March 3rd Letter

I’m doing great! I’m loving my new trainee companion. He is awesome! His name is Elder Nyanhamo and he is from Zimbabweea! (not sure how to spell zimb... but you get what im saying) Training is going great, not as hard as I thought (knock on wood). We’re having heaps of fun and working really hard. Yeah the mission is going great! I am still in Frankston! I love it here. About half way into my mission, I will be getting a new mission president. I love you all!!! :)

February 24th Letter

Hey everyone!
It is still very hot here and very weird to hear about snow. If any family is getting any friend requests from random people, they’re probably just people wanting to tell you that I am doing well, as long as it says they're in Australia or something like that, just wanted to give you a heads up. Oh, wanna hear something crazy? I’m going to be a trainer for a new missionary in 2 days! My head is kind of spinning so keep me in your prayers if you will. Does anyone have any advice? I hope you have a wonderful week. I love you all!!!

February 17th Letter

This week has gone pretty well, handing out Book of Mormons like crazy. It's definitely not the easiest thing to be a missionary, but I still love it just the same. Our baptism had to be postponed due to lack of church attendance but that’s ok. I hope the ward is hard at work (which I’m sure they are) extending that had to bring the less actives back. I keep on hearing that that was one of the main things the Presidency is really pushing for. V-day was ok, not really different from any other day. I hope all is well back at home! Have a wonderful day! Toodles! :)

February 10th Letter

I can’t believe Jackson is already 6, and I can’t believe Huddy is almost 2! I miss being able to go to the temple often. I really miss stake choir too. Although ward choir here can be pretty fun and a recent convert asked me to sing a duet with her in sacrament in about 2 weeks or so, we’ll see how that goes. I’m doing great and having a lot of fun with the work. Recently we’ve had a guy with us who’s on his mini mission so we’ve been showing him the ropes and such. We have a baptism set date with an investigator for February 23^rd. We just can’t wait to bring up W.O.W., this lady always has some kind of drink sitting out. But she is Merushon and I’m pretty she’s just a social drinker. You guys are in my prayers. Well I got to go, is there anything I can do for you? I love you all!!!! Have a wonderful day!

February 3rd Letter

I’m good this week and I am enjoying my second transfer! I can’t believe I’m going to miss the Anderson Family Reunion that’s being held in my birthplace! But whatevs, doing something more important, lol. I hope it goes really well and that everyone has a great time. Thank you everyone so much for your encouragement. I promise to try my best to stand in holy places at all times. It is so wonderful to have to opportunity to share and remind others about the Savior’s atonement and redeeming love for us. I hope all is well with the family. :)

January 14th Letter

Thank you soooooo much for the Christmas package! I LOVE IT! So much Cholula! I love the pictures too they’re so awesome! The kids sound great, I miss them a lot. I miss you all very much. I appreciate all that you do for me, I really do. Thank you very much, especially for your prayers. Thank you for emailing me, do you think you can get some other people to write me too? I love you all soooo much and I am praying for everyone. Have a wonderful day!

Elder Anderson's address:
Elder Phillip Jonathan Anderson
Australia Melbourne Mission
76 Cathies Lane
Wantirna South VIC 3152 Australia.

December 31st Letter

It was great to talk to some of the family on Christmas. I hope Christmas went well for everyone. It is so odd to hear about snow, it has been so hot here. LOL. Cute girls should write to me! ;) I haven’t heard from anybody but my immediate family. I love everyone. I really hope you have a great week. TTFN!!!!!!!!!

December 24th Letter

Christmas is a wonderful time. People really are a little more open about talking about the Savior, which is really nice. People seem to be a lot more charitable around this time, which is kind of saying something especially for an area quite like this. I am happy to know that I am bringing the same knowledge to others that makes me so happy. Thank you for keeping me in your prayers I really do appreciate it. I can assure you that the gospel is going boldly and nobly to all! I love being a missionary! Merry Christmas! :)

December 17th Letter

I miss you guys a LOT! I love being a missionary! I am almost 3 weeks in the field and I’m already in love with it.I get to help people every day! And I’m learning so much! I’ve been able to teach quite a bit and am getting better as I progress.  At times, it does get hard, but the things I expected to be hard aren't really all that difficult. It’s more of the thoughts of just being away for so long from everyone. I miss everyone very much. I can’t explain how grateful I am that I can be together with my family forever. Thank you everyone for all that you have done for me, I really do appreciate it.

Anyway, my companion is great and we get along very well. He is from Logan, Utah.

Oh, as far as Christmas goes if you send something I can’t guarantee you it will get here before or even by Christmas day. I hear it takes packages forever to get here. Anyway, my Christmas wish list is for everyone to have a wonderful, happy Christmas filled with love and joy.

I hope you guys have a great Christmas. We should be busy on that day; a Lot of the members have invited us over that day. I can’t wait to talk to you and really tell you more. Well I have to go, have a great day and I will talk to the family on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. :)

December 10th Letter

Hey everyone,

I’m doing good! I’m loving everyday out here. I love being able to help people out a lot more every day. I am so very grateful for everyone’s prayers and am praying for you guys all the time. I get help someone in so many others ways everyday! I love that!!! I'm still getting the hang of teaching but according to my companion, I’m doing rather well. Australia has a lot of atheists and I mean a LOT. But the work is still progressing rapidly and just about always have someone to teach. We even have 2 committed baptisms (one is kind of a maybe because she’s visiting from china and is scared of the government finding out but she really has expressed that she want to get baptized). I love the ward members. They're really kind and they are feeding us constantly.

It’s pretty weird and doesn’t quite feel like Christmas without the cold; actually, it’s been quite hot lately. But I still love it.

Well I want to tell you more but unfortunately I only have a limited amount of time on here and I’m slow at typing as it is. I hate sending letters through mail by the way. It just seems so unreliable and it really doesn’t help that I’m on the other side of the globe.

Love,

Elder Anderson

December 3 Letter

Hey everyone!  How are things?  How is everyone?  How was Thanksgiving?  If I forgot to let you know what area I’m serving in, the town is called Frankston.  Everything is going really well and I’m having a blast.  Still getting use to the differences like driving on the other side of the road and such but it’s going great.  I love my new ward and they seem really to like me.  I bore my testimony in sacrament and that went well.  I’m having a lot of fun teaching and doing service.  Street contacting and tracting aren't too bad.  Everyone’s pretty chill over here.  I'm not having too much of a hard time with the accent but apparently mine is pretty thick to them.  I haven’t seen any kangaroos or anything like that yet but maybe later.  What would you like to know?  There’s a lot more immigrants over here than I expected like Chinese, Tongan, New Zealand... etc.  Met with my Bishop yesterday he’s pretty cool.  He is defiantly the youngest I’ve ever seen, he’s like at the most 40 years old.  Elder Davis is great, I’m defiantly learning a lot from him, and he’s a great trainer.  The food is pretty good, haven’t really tried anything too different yet but I will.  I am defiantly running a lot more, every morning.  I’ve been feeling the spirit every day and meeting a lot of new people.  I love my mission president he’s really cool and his wife is so nice.  It does get really hot by the way; the first day we went tracting it got up to like 110 in Fahrenheit.  I am still trying to figure out Celsius and such.  But don’t worry I’m staying hydrated and got sunscreen.  I miss you guys so much.  Anyway, if you want to send me something just send it to my mission home office.  My address is:

     Elder Phillip Jonathan Anderson

     Australia Melbourne Mission

     76 Cathies Lane

     Wantirna South VIC 3152

     Australia.

Oh and if it’s not a Christmas gift then you need to write on it "Not For Christmas" because they are keeping all the packages and we're all going to open them on Christmas day.  Are you guys excited for Christmas by the way?  I bet the kids are.  Anyway, I’ve got to go.  Stay safe and take care!  I love you all!