Email from January 4th

G'day

Thanks for the email.
Hopefully everyone can start feeling better and get around safely. Is there still much snow there? Oh don't be worried that we play rugby, the real sport is pretty vicious but all we can play as missionaries is touch, so it’s like touch football. It is still really fun though. Wow Griff is going to Boston I am sure Brent flipped when he found out; he loves Boston because of the Red sox.
Hopefully everything goes well with that Dr function thing. I am sure it will be fine.
Ok this week was pretty crazy we didn't get much done because there was a funeral and new years in the way. oh and by the way the funeral went pretty well it was kinda weird because I think the only other funeral that I have been to was Great Grandpa Painter which I barely remember. I just talked about how She was always happy and that that happiness came from having Christ in her life, then I related it to the story of Lehi's vision and how when he took the fruit off the tree and ate it filled his soul with great joy and happiness.
I think it went for about 8 or 9 minutes.
Thanks for the Christmas package the rubix game came in use we have a record board for each of the 6 games I think Elder Tobiassen and I have the same amount of records, but really I don't want to make him feel too bad for not having any :) Well for some reason things that you can't have are always the things that you want, I guess that’s the natural man in us, but I really loved the Reeses pieces that I got for Christmas. So if you do send a package those would be nice.
Well sorry I don't have much time this week we are going to President Ryan’s again. OH he is a big San Diego Chargers fan and they are playing my Steelers next week, so that should be exciting for him to watch. This is the best time of the year for sports, and man am I missing it. Oh well it’s not better than doing the lords work.
Love ya heaps
Love Elder Andreasen

Email from December 28th

G'day

Hey it was great to be able to talk to every one on Christmas. After I had talked to everyone we went to help coordinate a Sister's funeral. I still have no clue what to say. She is about the only member in her family so maybe i will try to teach all of her family that are not members. I only have to talk for five minutes but that will still be hard to fill. Oh well.
Well not much else has happened since I just talked to you on Christmas, other than yesterday we were able to go to the family's house that had over for Christmas dinner and we started teaching the mom. She had a baby boy pass away about 18 years ago and she said that was the hardest thing for her to do in her life. Then we taught her and i think she really felt comfort in what we shared. That's what the gospel does though ehh!!
Oh thanks for the pictures I love to be able to see everyone. The branch Pres. has two boys that are 7 and 5 and the have a baby girl on the way so it is almost the same as Andrea and Rich's family.
Oh to answer about the food storage some people have food storage but not much. This one guy in Toukley had a huge fish tank in His garage and would raise and eat fish and he also used his swimming pool for a fish tank as well. He also had a bee farm thing that he would make honey and also candles from the wax.
We don't have much to do on new years but we are probably going to go bowling with some less active members new years eve, other than that all we have to do is deep clean our flats. President Scruggs has told us during the holidays that we have to get our flat clean because we can't really tract or anything during the holidays.
Well i better get going. it was good talking to everyone.
Love ya heaps!
Love Elder Andreasen

Email from December 21st

G'day
Wow that's crazy to here about all the snow and ice over there. It sounds so wierd to me right now because it is so hot here. I think I would rather have a white Christmas. It is hard for me to realize that it is Christmas because I am so used to it being cold.
This week we went down to Sydney for our Christmas Zone conference. That was really fun. we went down Thursday. Then friday we went to the temple had a little temple devotional then we went to a chapel had a big lunch then watched some MOVIES. That was way fun we watched Fred Clause and also Iron Man. Then we received all of our Christmas packages. And that took up the whole day it was great fun. Then on saturday we drove back to Dubbo.
For Christmas we we invited to a couple of different places for lunch we will only be able to make it to 2 of them for lunch. Then yesterday we went to visit an investigator and we were talking about christmas and then they invited us for dinner, and for lunch we are going to some non members house and also for the other lunch a less actives house. Ohhh yeah we also get to sleep in on christmas.
Oh just to answer the q's NO that was not my toe that was Elder Weston's. After about a few weeks of when I was with him he decided to go to the doctors about it so we went and they couldn't remove it till january so he decided to do it himself.
Well we decided to try a new place to email because it is free but this place only has one computer so we have to share . So I am going to let Elder Tobiassen email now, but everything is going really well here in the outback of hot Dubbo.
Love ya heaps
Love Elder Blake Andreasen

Email from December 14th

G'day

Hey we didn't end up going to Lightning Ridge this weekend but I will make it up there this next month. What kind of opal would you like Reddens was just a cheap boulder opal from Queensland. The opal that you can get from LR is black opal it can get very pretty.
just to answer some questions.
Dubbo is the farthest west the mission goes and the branch area is about the size of Utah so Lightning Ridge is part of the branch and there are about 8 members up there and we are to go and give them the sacrament every now and then, then just spend some time with them.
Elder Tobiassen and I are serving as the counselors in the branch presidency but within the next few months I think they will be able to fill the positions with members.
That hotel we stayed at with the dead mouse was in Brewarrina the hotel was right above the pub. So we had to walk into the pub to get our key. haha that was a good night.?
haha the pooping toys were funny I wasn't embarrassed you shouldn't either.
well I better get going thanks for the emails love ya heaps!!!
Love Elder Andreasen.
oh I think the last phone card you bought will still work and it has heaps of minutes

Some New Pictures!

Email from December 7th

G'day mum,

Hey we just got transfer calls yesterday, and Elder Heslop is moving to Springwood and my new companion is Elder Tobiassen.
Elder Tobiassen is from western Australia close to were elder brown was from i guess they new each other before .
this week not much happened, other than transfers.
You will have to forgive me of me typing the keyboard I am using is weird.
this next week we are going back up to lightning ridge and other places so I will so if we can stop again in that little town to email.
the branch is slowly getting bigger out here in Dubbo ( let me know how you were saying it) since Elder Heslop has been here 3 families have moved in, also i don't know how much longer we will have to have the branch presidency positions. Pres Scruggs is coming out this next week for some business so i will see him quickly then head up to lightning ridge.
Well i am excited to serve out here with elder Tobiassen I think we will be able to get a lot done out here. He has been out just shorter than me.
You should get that package sometime this week. I sent some Vegiemite and more tim tams but someone said they don't let that stuff in anymore so we will see what goes through.
well we have to head down to Sydney now to go to transfers so I will take off

Thanks love ya heaps~

Love Elder Andreasen

E-Mail from November 30th

G'day mom
Hey so sorry I don't have any time to write much. I forgot to write Dad last week so I spent most of the time writing him this week.
I am sending a package this week so that can be my sorry present.
Oh don't erase the pictures again
Love ya heaps
Elder Andreasen