Letter from April 25, 2008

Dear Family,
I am still loving Australia. Although it has been raining alot it is still really fun. I love seeing all the birds around. The most common bird, but the most annoying bird is the cockatoo! They are white birds with a yellow mohawk things. The bird that sounds the coolest is the Cookabana ( i am not sure how to spell it) it makes a monkey sorta sound. Well enough about the birds.
General Conference was awesome!! I got to wwatch it the next week so the 12 & 13 of April. I went to all the sessions so we were at the stake center for ages. Thats how they watch GC they boradcast it to the Stake Centers. I really enjoyed Elder Holland's talk. I guess because we get that all the time. People say "The B of M adds to the bible & it says not to" I also liked Elder Bednar's talk.
Well Elder Harrison & I are doing good. We still have a car, so we havent gotten too wet yet. Elder Harrison drives the car, because he is senior companion. It kind of sucks though cause he doesnt know the area & I have been here for 3 months. Oh well, I think driving here is easy, they have heaps of round abouts & less traffic lights. It still is kinda weird driving on the other side of the road.
The work is starting to pick up here in Pennant Hills. This past Sunday at sacrament mtg there were heaps of non-members there & Elder Sybrowski pretty much invited all of them to get baptized in his talk. It was a good talk though. He is going to talk to our mission this Thursday too. So that will be good.
For preparation day today we are going to pick some pizzas up & go to the chapel with some other elders and watch some church movies or something. So i just ordered the pizza & we are going to pick it up in 20 min so I have to be quick
I started trying to make food this week. Since, Mom you said you were not impressed with my cooking skills. I made fried rice with veggies, soy sauce & eggs in it. That was pretty good. Then last night we ran out of food in the flast so I made rice with beans. That was good too. I will take pictures of my master pieces and send them to you. I bet you would be impressed. Well gotta run and get pizza from Pizza Hut its only $5 today, I got BBQ meatlovers, Yummy!
Love ya Heaps
Elder Blake Andreasen

Letters from April 18, 2008 (finally) :)

Dear Family
Transfers were just last week. My new companion is Elder Harrison from South Jordan. He has only been out 6 weeks longer than me. We are in the Dural Ward so I am staying in this area at least another transfer. Elder Harrison is senior companion, but I know the area. He was in Bathhurst before this & it is a country area, so being in the city is alot different for him. We got a new car, its an '08 Camry, too bad I cant drive. Only the senior companions can drive.
Well everything is going good in the area. We are still mostly in the finding stages. But we did have a lady at sacrament meeting last week. She didnt stay the whole time, but we went & visited her Wendesday & she didnt like how children were in the meeting. She looked on Wikipedia about some church history. Hopefully we can resolve her problems and start teaching her. Other than that there is not much going on here. It is starting to get chilly over here. Alot of the members are over in Utah now, so Sacrament Meeting attendance was heaps fewer than normal.
Well I think you are listening to Conference right about now. I hope you are enjoying it. I am watching it on reboradcast next week. It will be good.
We have dinner with Bishop Krok tonight so I better get ready. Bishop is awesome. Hey look up Matt Krok on the web. (thats his son) Good family, well gotta go
Love ya heaps
Elder Andreasen

Mom
Thank you for that package with all the goodies & toys. Elder Brown has never had swedish fish so he enjoyed that. They dont have very good candy in Australia. Some stuff they dont have, that I miss is, Reeses, Swedish Fish, Tootsie Rolls, Yummy!! Thanks for sending Brent's letters they make me smile. It sounds like he is going to do good in Cape Verde.
Sis Scruggs brought over some homemade cinnamon rolls, (they dont have them in Australia) they were really really good. It made me miss yours, but yours are heaps better.
Can you send some more contacts for me. I am on my last pair after I got poked in the eye. I need more socks & garments, but I can buy them here. That is about all I need. I dont need Oreos or Top Ramen or anything. :)
Thanks, Love you heaps
Elder Blake Andreasen

(this little note was written last and makes me feel a little bad)
I found some writing paper in the flat and I also found some pens. Well I think something went wrong with the mail a couple weeks ago we got new office missionaries and I think they messed up bad. The past 3 days I have gotten 10 letters, but they were written ages back, like over a month ago. So please forgive me for not writing as much as you.
Thanks for all the letters though.
Elder Harrison & I are working hard & trying to find people that will listen to us.
Yea!! we get to watch GC. We get to go to all the sessions. I hope you like the paper and pens.
Love Elder Andreasen

Blake sharing his bird noises and showing us things in his apartment

Blake showing us his cooking skills

A TOAD in a HOLE

Elder Andreasen

Creatures from Downunder!!