Email from April 12th

Thank you for your email, we were able to watch general conference this sat and Sunday. That was really good 10 hours seemed to just fly by. I really enjoyed Elder Hales talk on sat and Elder Holland Easter sermon on Sunday... Last Friday we had the missionaries from Ryde Ward Elder Cia, Elder Kat and Elder Lam move in. We have a really big flat that elder Ucunibaravi and I live in so they moved in, We just got transfer calls and we are staying but Elder lam and Elder Cia are leaving and Elder Kat is training a fresh one from china named Elder Jin, I am learning quite a bit of Chinese because our district is all Chinese except Elder Ucunibaravi and I.
Oh and by the way. Yeah I know Elder Thrift he is pretty cool. He served with Elder Tobiassen and then he served in Dural right before he went home. He came out one transfer after me.
Well I have had a really good week Elder Cia is hilarious so we have had a really good time with him. I really enjoyed watching general conference it is such a blessing to know that we have a prophet in these last and trying days. Thank you for all your support love you heaps!!
Love Elder ANDREASEN

Email from April 5th

G'day mum, this week has been pretty good. I am not sure if I told you about this Chinese lady that we are teaching.. We have invited her to church the past few weeks and she didn't want to come to our ward because it meets early but she would go it the next ward meeting. So the past 2 weeks she has gone to that ward but this week with day light savings and all she came to our ward for all 3 hours I think she liked it. We invited her to be baptized but she wanted to come to our ward first and maybe see a baptism first. She is a really nice lady she used to be a journalist in china and now she is an accountant.
We had interviews with President last Thursday. I enjoyed that because President talks to all of us at once then he takes us and interviews us then while we are waiting we have workshops and stuff.
Oh no I haven’t gotten you package yet I was just pre-thanking you for it and telling you what the stuff was for.
Oh and please no rush but if you really like sending packages I could use some short sleeve white shirts and 1 long sleeve 15 neck size. I have some it’s just they are not as white as they used to be.
Today for zone activity we are going to play laser tag that should be really fun, Elder Ucunibaravi has never been, and I don’t think that some of the Chinese missionaries have been either. I will probably win, I think my natural halo skills will take over and I will waste some noobs. :) I am excited for conference as well. I just got an email for president Scruggs and he said that Elder Holland gave one of the best Easter sermons I will ever hear. We get to watch conference this Saturday and Sunday.
Well I better go warm up for laser tag. Love you heaps!! Thank you for your support and prayers
Love Elder Blake Andreasen

Email from March 30th

G’day this week was a pretty good week. We had a zone conference with 2 other zones. One of them was orange zone so I was able to see Elder Tobiassen and the other missionaries still serving in the bush. Parramatta Zone is one of the biggest zones, when I first came into the mission it was the highest baptizing zone but now it has really slowed down. Hopefully it will start to pick up again. Any way we are teaching this Chinese lady that has a friend that is a member, we usually go over every Saturday and teach her in the morning but this sat we had an elder quorum activities in the morning so we went to her house in the afternoon and had a really good talk with her, She came to church last week to a ward that meets later and she said it was boring but I admit it was. But we were able to get her to come again and she really liked it hopefully we can start to get her to come in the morning to our ward.
Today we went to the temple as a zone so that was really good and on Thursday we have interviews with president Scruggs. Transfers are coming up in a couple of weeks as well.
Well I am doing well and I am loving Australia and especially serving the lord down under Thank you for all your support and all of your love and prayers Love you heaps!!
Love Elder Andreasen

Email from March 22nd

G'day things are going well here in oatlands ward. Time is just flying I can't believe that it has been 15 months already. Elder ucunibaravi and I are doing well together. This week we had to go to a few different places in the zone so that Elder Ucunibaravi could teach Some Fijian investigators. Did I ever tell you how multi cultural it is over here? It is pretty cool because you get to learn some words in all the languages, except it is pretty hard to remember them all.
This next week we have zone conference it starts at 8 a.m and goes till 3 or 4 or sometimes later. It will be good. I always love going to zone conference.
Hope everyone in Oregon is doing well. When does school get out? Over here it works with the year, so at Christmas is when you advance a grade.
Sounds like I have a mini me. It looks like Austin is better than I was though. I hope that all will go well with the house situation.
Oh thanks for the package the cookies and most of the candy is gone already but we haven’t had a chance to use the sauce though. Thanks for the socks and garments as well.
Well I better get going. I love you heaps. Tell everyone that I love them and miss them Love Elder Andreasen

Email from March 15th

Hey I got your package today!! We had an appointment with someone that lives across from the temple that wanted to learn about the book of Mormon. Too bad the appointment fell through. So we went to the mission office and there they had a package. I looked in it but that's about it. I didn't want to carry it everywhere because we are on foot in this area, so I left it in the office and they will bring it to me on Wednesday.
Thank you!!
Well today we are going to go and play touch rugby with some other missionaries in the zone. That will be fun I haven’t played for about 6 months.
The area is going well. We are doing pretty well in teaching. At church yesterday we had 2 less-active members come that we had been teaching, then a couple others that we are not teaching and 1 investigator come. That was pretty exciting.
Well I better get going love you heaps!!
Love Elder Andreasen
Thanks again for the package

Email from March 8th

G'day
My new area is really good we are teaching a few people and the members are really nice. The past 2 days I have eaten more food than any other 2 days of my life. This one guy went out with us to teach then after he asked if we had had lunch then he took us to MacDonald’s and said we each get 2 meals we had a quarter pounder meal and fish fillet meal both large. Then yesterday he had us over for dinner and cooked up a whole heap of steaks. I think I had about 3.
Well anyways things are going well with elder Ucunibaravi and I he has about 4 months left on his mission. He is pretty cool.

Ok to answer the q's.
The guy in the tree was bro Shcyveschcuurder we were helping him cut down some trees. We said he looked like a koala so we took a pic.
Looking over the ledge out over the Blue Mountains, the scenery here is really beautiful.
The pregnant lady is the branch president’s wife; we were playing that board game for our prep day.
That spider is a harmless spider, which is the biggest one I have seen, I forgot what kind it is though, the name will come to me later.
Sitting on the floor was up in lightning ridge at the member’s house up there, the Hawkins.
Go Jazz
Thank you for everything
Love ya heaps!!
Love Elder Andreasen

Email from March 1st & a New Memory Card

G'day
Well I have a bit of news for everyone. I am getting transferred to Dundas. That is in Parramatta Zone. Elder Tobiassen is staying in Dubbo; his new comp is Elder Westover. My new companion is Elder Ucunibaravi. He is from Fiji, I know you will not be able to pronounce his name but it goes a bit like this, Uthooni-baravi. I don't know to much more about him. I stayed at his flat once and he seems pretty cool.
Yesterday was good at church, Pres Ryan's son turned 8 last week so we had the baptism and confirmation yesterday, Pres. Ryan baptized him and I confirmed him. Then at church I told all the members goodbye. The Shcyveschuurder's invited us to come over for a barbie last night there was about 10 people there so that was a good little farewell party.
Well anyways I will tell you a bit more next week about my new area and comp.
Wow Natalie and mike getting married!! That’s big news! I didn't get an email from her but she probably will soon.
Thanks for the updates on everyone. Know that my prayers go to all of you, I all that you do. We have to go down to Sydney today we will stay in Dundas tonight. Dundas is right close to the temple, but is in a different stake than Dural ward was. Dural ward was were the temple was and it was right on the boundary of the 2 stakes.
Well love you heaps!!
Love Elder Andreasen