G'day y'all
Hey this is my first email from Tamworth. I just want to explain a little bit about Tamworth. Tamworth used to be the place where missionaries got sent because they were bad. So now under President Scruggs he is trying to change things around. So a lot of people don't really trust missionaries because of the past ones. Tamworth was just reopened 3 months ago so there is not much going on here. Right now we are just trying to build up our teaching pool, we have a couple people we are working with, one of them we were able to get to church with us this last week. There hasn't been a baptism here for over a year and the ones then are all less active they just liked the missionaries so they got baptized.
Things are going pretty well though Elder Weston and I are getting along great. He has been in Tamworth for 3 months. oh the ward here is tiny at church there was about 30 people there 75 % of the ward is less active. I just pray that we will be able to help the ward here. They have a big chapel because the ward used to be big.
And just to answer some questions; yes i am still senior comp, and yes we have a car, oh and the money........ at the start of the mission you get a credit card and each month the mission puts your disbursement in, it is usually about 300 AUS dollars . Mum thanks for the b-day package the ties are good. I haven't tried on the shirts yet but one of them said generous fit ? does that mean fat fit or slim fit? the CTR thing i thought that it ran out of batteries then one day it just started flashing.
OOOppsss I still haven't sent my memory card yet please forgive me I will send it today with some pics of Tamworth.
well better get going love you heaps !!
love Elder Andreasen
Sunday, September 21
Sunday, September 14
Email from Sept 14th (Transfer to Tamworth)
Blake is being transferred to Tamworth, Australia. Its about 4 1/2 hours north of Toukley were he is has served for the last 4 1/2 months. He is also getting a new companion Elder Weston who is from Western Australia from a town call Albany. This is the big guitar he mentioned in his letter.
Hey mom got some news I am getting a new companion after being with Elder Vogel for 4 1/2 months and after Elder Vogel being in Toukley, for 7 1/2 months we are both getting moved with new companions. For some reason the Lord needs me to serve in Tamworth it will be pretty cool though because it is like the Nashville of Australia, I guess when you drive into town there is a big golden guitar. I am going to really miss Toukley, I got pretty close to the ward mission leader Bro Rolf Geerlings, and others. So today elder Vogel and I spent most of our time cleaning the flat because sisters are getting transferred in. My bags are getting pretty heavy i will probably leave a lot of stuff when I fly back so I am not too worried about that. oh yeah my new companion is Elder Weston he is also from Western Australia from a place called Albany. He came out a transfer after me and he is already in Tamworth so he will know the area better than I do.
Oh yeah Suzie, for Elder Vogel and I's birthday, she bought us some awesome didgeridoo? ( i can't spell) they are so cool and it sounds a lot better than the one i made out of toilet paper tubes.:)
If i didn't say last week already "Thanks for the package. i loved it well the past couple of days have been really nice it got up to about 100 degree's on Saturday, i think summer will be really hot. everyone says it gets hot in Tamworth ( just look Tamworth up on the Internet and Google earth).
to answer some questions
i have heard from Collette in a while and i did get bishop's letter it was crazy to hear about that crazy bike ride.
I get an occasional note from siblings but not to often i think since i have gotten email the have each written me once about?
and i am sending the memory card this week.
well better get going i am looking forward to be able to serve in the country music capitol of Australia with elder Weston. i know i will be there for a reason thanks for everything love you heaps!!
-Elder Andreasen
Hey mom got some news I am getting a new companion after being with Elder Vogel for 4 1/2 months and after Elder Vogel being in Toukley, for 7 1/2 months we are both getting moved with new companions. For some reason the Lord needs me to serve in Tamworth it will be pretty cool though because it is like the Nashville of Australia, I guess when you drive into town there is a big golden guitar. I am going to really miss Toukley, I got pretty close to the ward mission leader Bro Rolf Geerlings, and others. So today elder Vogel and I spent most of our time cleaning the flat because sisters are getting transferred in. My bags are getting pretty heavy i will probably leave a lot of stuff when I fly back so I am not too worried about that. oh yeah my new companion is Elder Weston he is also from Western Australia from a place called Albany. He came out a transfer after me and he is already in Tamworth so he will know the area better than I do.
Oh yeah Suzie, for Elder Vogel and I's birthday, she bought us some awesome didgeridoo? ( i can't spell) they are so cool and it sounds a lot better than the one i made out of toilet paper tubes.:)
If i didn't say last week already "Thanks for the package. i loved it well the past couple of days have been really nice it got up to about 100 degree's on Saturday, i think summer will be really hot. everyone says it gets hot in Tamworth ( just look Tamworth up on the Internet and Google earth).
to answer some questions
i have heard from Collette in a while and i did get bishop's letter it was crazy to hear about that crazy bike ride.
I get an occasional note from siblings but not to often i think since i have gotten email the have each written me once about?
and i am sending the memory card this week.
well better get going i am looking forward to be able to serve in the country music capitol of Australia with elder Weston. i know i will be there for a reason thanks for everything love you heaps!!
-Elder Andreasen
Sunday, September 7
Email from September 7th (Blake's Birthday)
G'day
HAHA that's funny to hear about Mysti. I hope she gets better though. That is also cool to hear about that lady from work. It is so much fun to be able to share the gospel. Its kinda like an adrenaline rush and you just want to keep doing it over and over. It's just cool to be able to share not just your beliefs but your testimony with others it kind of addicting. I just wish the members here could find that same addiction and joy. It is pretty hard to try to find people to teach the best way is to have the members find them and the missionaries teach at members homes. Hopefully Elder Vogel and I can help the members here catch the drift.
Well everything is going pretty well just kinda the same me birthday was pretty much the same as any other day. Just some people said happy birthday. Suzie said she had something planned for Elder Vogel's and I's birthday because his is 2 weeks later she is doing something on Friday for us.
Well transfers are coming up and it would be highly unlikely if things didn't change. I am pretty sure Elder Vogel will finally get moved from Toukley cause he has been here his whole mission 7 1/2 months. so i will probably get a new comp here. We will see though its just whatever the Lord wants.
Oh and yes i got the package thanks for that its great to be able to have some good candy. Candy here is really expensive. hey just next package you send. just the only thing they don't have here that i miss is stuff made by Hershey's. like Reese's anything sticks, pieces, cups. hey a member gave me a secret to get jerky over hear. don't write it on the paper that goes on the front of the box and wrap it like it is a birthday or Christmas present.
thanks for that just saw the time and gotta run love ya heaps!!!!!
-Elder Blake Andreasen
HAHA that's funny to hear about Mysti. I hope she gets better though. That is also cool to hear about that lady from work. It is so much fun to be able to share the gospel. Its kinda like an adrenaline rush and you just want to keep doing it over and over. It's just cool to be able to share not just your beliefs but your testimony with others it kind of addicting. I just wish the members here could find that same addiction and joy. It is pretty hard to try to find people to teach the best way is to have the members find them and the missionaries teach at members homes. Hopefully Elder Vogel and I can help the members here catch the drift.
Well everything is going pretty well just kinda the same me birthday was pretty much the same as any other day. Just some people said happy birthday. Suzie said she had something planned for Elder Vogel's and I's birthday because his is 2 weeks later she is doing something on Friday for us.
Well transfers are coming up and it would be highly unlikely if things didn't change. I am pretty sure Elder Vogel will finally get moved from Toukley cause he has been here his whole mission 7 1/2 months. so i will probably get a new comp here. We will see though its just whatever the Lord wants.
Oh and yes i got the package thanks for that its great to be able to have some good candy. Candy here is really expensive. hey just next package you send. just the only thing they don't have here that i miss is stuff made by Hershey's. like Reese's anything sticks, pieces, cups. hey a member gave me a secret to get jerky over hear. don't write it on the paper that goes on the front of the box and wrap it like it is a birthday or Christmas present.
thanks for that just saw the time and gotta run love ya heaps!!!!!
-Elder Blake Andreasen
Monday, September 1
Email from August 31st
Mum,
Its Monday morning about 10:20 here in Australia. This is about the time that I email every week. Today is preparation day and you guessed it we are going to play rugby again. I am pretty tired because we live in Flats 2 in 1. But anyway the flat next to us was having a big party. I think about 3am I woke up and I don't think I got back to bed till about 5am then had to wake up at 6:30 just like every other morning. At least i got a laugh out of it. I was able to here a lot of the conversation.
I will clue you in on the story.
AJ and Scotty had a little argument. People were trying to separate them and calm things down. They took AJ to the balcony (which is right next to our balcony from our room) and they were trying to calm him down. This took quite awhile because as you can imagine a couple of drunk guys trying to calm down an even more inebriated guy would take awhile. After about 20 minutes of this they finally convinced him to say sorry to Scotty, so i assume AJ was at fault?. so they call for Scotty and after about 5 min of trying to get someone to get Scotty, the word comes that Scotty doesn't want to talk with AJ because he is still upset. This just makes AJ even more upset then he was at the start. Then the rest of Story i don't think i caught quite enough of it because it didn't make sense to me. Something about how AJ has to go home but i guess he didn't go home because after waking up, and starting our study the party was still going and AJ was still there. Pretty interesting eh!
I wanna know how and why AJ stayed?
So even though i didn't get much sleep i still enjoyed last night.
Hey sorry to hear about the accident going to Grace. Speaking of Grace Elder Callister is now in our Area Presidency his wife grew up in Grace I don't remember her name though.
Oh, sorry to hear about Mysti maybe she is in a suitcase. I remember once she got in my suitcase then she wasn't able to get out?
Oh last Saturday was Mormon Helping hands day. It was pretty fun because the 3 wards in central coast went to the beach and planted trees. That was fun Suzie and 1 of her daughters came. There was a BBQ after 3 hours of planting trees, everyone ended up having a good time. All the missionaries did too because we were on the sand for about 3 hours :-) Well we have to catch the train down to Gosford soon so I better get going.
Oh but i will answer questions first I am not sure if Australia gets Hurricanes i haven't heard of any ever hitting Australia but i don't know. but i did hear about the one headed for New Orleans just yesterday from an investigator that's pretty crazy they are telling every one to evacuate.but a hurricane would be pretty bad were we are . i guess last June there was a bunch of flooding here not from a hurricane just from rain.the weather is generally nice its kinda of and on Saturday was sunny as Sunday was rainy today is sunny again but its usually nice well gotta go thanks love you heaps!!-
Elder Blake Andreasen
Its Monday morning about 10:20 here in Australia. This is about the time that I email every week. Today is preparation day and you guessed it we are going to play rugby again. I am pretty tired because we live in Flats 2 in 1. But anyway the flat next to us was having a big party. I think about 3am I woke up and I don't think I got back to bed till about 5am then had to wake up at 6:30 just like every other morning. At least i got a laugh out of it. I was able to here a lot of the conversation.
I will clue you in on the story.
AJ and Scotty had a little argument. People were trying to separate them and calm things down. They took AJ to the balcony (which is right next to our balcony from our room) and they were trying to calm him down. This took quite awhile because as you can imagine a couple of drunk guys trying to calm down an even more inebriated guy would take awhile. After about 20 minutes of this they finally convinced him to say sorry to Scotty, so i assume AJ was at fault?. so they call for Scotty and after about 5 min of trying to get someone to get Scotty, the word comes that Scotty doesn't want to talk with AJ because he is still upset. This just makes AJ even more upset then he was at the start. Then the rest of Story i don't think i caught quite enough of it because it didn't make sense to me. Something about how AJ has to go home but i guess he didn't go home because after waking up, and starting our study the party was still going and AJ was still there. Pretty interesting eh!
I wanna know how and why AJ stayed?
So even though i didn't get much sleep i still enjoyed last night.
Hey sorry to hear about the accident going to Grace. Speaking of Grace Elder Callister is now in our Area Presidency his wife grew up in Grace I don't remember her name though.
Oh, sorry to hear about Mysti maybe she is in a suitcase. I remember once she got in my suitcase then she wasn't able to get out?
Oh last Saturday was Mormon Helping hands day. It was pretty fun because the 3 wards in central coast went to the beach and planted trees. That was fun Suzie and 1 of her daughters came. There was a BBQ after 3 hours of planting trees, everyone ended up having a good time. All the missionaries did too because we were on the sand for about 3 hours :-) Well we have to catch the train down to Gosford soon so I better get going.
Oh but i will answer questions first I am not sure if Australia gets Hurricanes i haven't heard of any ever hitting Australia but i don't know. but i did hear about the one headed for New Orleans just yesterday from an investigator that's pretty crazy they are telling every one to evacuate.but a hurricane would be pretty bad were we are . i guess last June there was a bunch of flooding here not from a hurricane just from rain.the weather is generally nice its kinda of and on Saturday was sunny as Sunday was rainy today is sunny again but its usually nice well gotta go thanks love you heaps!!-
Elder Blake Andreasen
Tuesday, August 26
Email from August 24th
G'day mum,
Hey everything is still going really well in Toukley. We have another baptismal date for September the 13th. so we are really excited about that. It is really cool that Suzie is already helping us with missionary work.
Let me answer a few questions now.
You don't have to worry about writing a lot i don't get that many emails or letters so its good, Dan just told Jeff to write only a few paragraphs because everyone was writing him.
The weather over here is interesting its coming into spring here but winter is weird it gets cold but they have no protection on their houses from cold (like double pain and insulation) so at night it gets really cold . the past few days it has rained off and on, but i think as we start going into September it will start warming up?
Well you will have to let me know how Dan and Laura went In South Africa because there is a kid going to Johannesburg(i can't spell....) SA on his mission. His cousin from Dural ward is in Cape Town so that will be interesting for that family.
I think during the winter the big spiders hid a little I still see them but not as many any more. the biggest ones I see are Huntsman spiders that are harmless. the most deadly ones i see are little red back spiders if you get bit your chances are slim. I still haven't seen the Sydney Funnel web spiders those ones i think are the most deadly in the world, and i guess they are big and aggressive. Right now the only things that i really see are birds you will have to look up what kind of noise's they make cause they are weird.
(remember I can't spell)
Coocaburra ......... Monkey noise
Kokatoo ......... annoying cry noise
Oh yeah! then about this time of season there are a couple of birds that start swooping at you when you are in their territory they are crazy.
Well everything is going good thanks for everything and thanks for the prayers Elder Vogel and I are doing well in Toukley Love you heaps!!
-Elder Blake Andreasen
Hey everything is still going really well in Toukley. We have another baptismal date for September the 13th. so we are really excited about that. It is really cool that Suzie is already helping us with missionary work.
Let me answer a few questions now.
You don't have to worry about writing a lot i don't get that many emails or letters so its good, Dan just told Jeff to write only a few paragraphs because everyone was writing him.
The weather over here is interesting its coming into spring here but winter is weird it gets cold but they have no protection on their houses from cold (like double pain and insulation) so at night it gets really cold . the past few days it has rained off and on, but i think as we start going into September it will start warming up?
Well you will have to let me know how Dan and Laura went In South Africa because there is a kid going to Johannesburg(i can't spell....) SA on his mission. His cousin from Dural ward is in Cape Town so that will be interesting for that family.
I think during the winter the big spiders hid a little I still see them but not as many any more. the biggest ones I see are Huntsman spiders that are harmless. the most deadly ones i see are little red back spiders if you get bit your chances are slim. I still haven't seen the Sydney Funnel web spiders those ones i think are the most deadly in the world, and i guess they are big and aggressive. Right now the only things that i really see are birds you will have to look up what kind of noise's they make cause they are weird.
(remember I can't spell)
Coocaburra ......... Monkey noise
Kokatoo ......... annoying cry noise
Oh yeah! then about this time of season there are a couple of birds that start swooping at you when you are in their territory they are crazy.
Well everything is going good thanks for everything and thanks for the prayers Elder Vogel and I are doing well in Toukley Love you heaps!!
-Elder Blake Andreasen
Sunday, August 17
Email from August 17th
G'day
Just to start off with a few answers to questions. Suzie was baptized this last weekend it was an awsome experience, to be able to see some one walk into church and 3 weeks later get baptized. Elder Vogel baptized her on saturday and I confirmed her on sunday, then later that day we drove down to the fireside with Elder Callister( his wife is frome Grace).
Her baptism dress is the same dress she wore for something kinda like a prom. 2 of the triplets live at home 1 boy 1 girl the other triplet is a girl and the older boy is in the navy in Darwin NT. Well things are going great here in toukley its not every week you have someone like Suzie walk in and want to be baptized and start helping us teach people. the other missionaries envy us now because miracles like that don't happen very often.
Today some other zone members are coming up to toukley chapel and we are going to play some basketball. most of the zone is american now it's kinda weird. usually there are some kiwi's or ausie's in a zone but not any more.
Well time is going really fast for me and i think its only been 8 months not 9? but anyway its seems to fly week by week. Alot of the contacting we do is cold the members don't help us find very often, we maybe get a couple refferals a month.
thanks for the pics of the kids i am going to have to send home my card soon there are some good pics and stuff on it.
Well gotta go love you heap!!
-Elder Blake Andreasen
Cool quote "Hope is the thought before the Faith" -Elder Andreasen "The Bible Ends" -Elder Callister (talking about the apostacy
Just to start off with a few answers to questions. Suzie was baptized this last weekend it was an awsome experience, to be able to see some one walk into church and 3 weeks later get baptized. Elder Vogel baptized her on saturday and I confirmed her on sunday, then later that day we drove down to the fireside with Elder Callister( his wife is frome Grace).
Her baptism dress is the same dress she wore for something kinda like a prom. 2 of the triplets live at home 1 boy 1 girl the other triplet is a girl and the older boy is in the navy in Darwin NT. Well things are going great here in toukley its not every week you have someone like Suzie walk in and want to be baptized and start helping us teach people. the other missionaries envy us now because miracles like that don't happen very often.
Today some other zone members are coming up to toukley chapel and we are going to play some basketball. most of the zone is american now it's kinda weird. usually there are some kiwi's or ausie's in a zone but not any more.
Well time is going really fast for me and i think its only been 8 months not 9? but anyway its seems to fly week by week. Alot of the contacting we do is cold the members don't help us find very often, we maybe get a couple refferals a month.
thanks for the pics of the kids i am going to have to send home my card soon there are some good pics and stuff on it.
Well gotta go love you heap!!
-Elder Blake Andreasen
Cool quote "Hope is the thought before the Faith" -Elder Andreasen "The Bible Ends" -Elder Callister (talking about the apostacy
Sunday, August 10
Email from August 10, 2008
G'day mum,
Hey I have some really good news Suzie that lady that walked in 3 weeks ago is getting baptized this weekend on the 16th. She is really excited. She used to be Catholic but she didn't agree with some of the beliefs. She started searching and that is how she found us. She found out early that the book of Mormon is true. So she has been able to receive all the truths joyfully. She is 44 with 18 year old triplets. Well I am really excited for that as well. She was so prepared it’s not funny. Her baptism is this weekend so this week we will focus on that.
Oh on the 17-19 we get to go to Sidney for some firesides one is with Elder Cook and them some of the area presidency is coming. I am looking forward to that as well.
Today we are going down to Gosford to play rugby again, so I don't have much time to write but to answer some questions:
I don't hear much from other people it’s probably because I don't write back much so that is my fault it’s just hard for me to sit down and write or even type well we are not having a zone conference this transfer because of those fireside's but we should get packages either at interviews which is the first week of September or at transfers which is the 16th of September. so I am not sure when I would receive your package , but could you maybe put some of those slim fit shirts that we got they fit really well. Maybe one of each long and short sleeve. Thanks. Oh yeah my ward mission leader here is really cool he and his family love tootsie rolls. I let them try those ones that you sent oh and I haven’t seen a koala yet just kangaroo's and some other weird stuff, but I don't think you would like a koala they just sleep allot ;-) Hey could you tell me who is on the American basketball team this year. some of the members like basketball so they always tell me that America doesn't have a good team cause they lost last time thinks Woy Woy is a suburb just below Gosford that is where elder brown was serving but now he got moved down to Sydney in Chatswood. That one thing about Australia they have weird suburb names.
well gotta go
Love you heaps!!
-Elder Andreasen
P.S its ok that you got my birthday wrong I don't even proof read mine no time too :)
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