Email from July 27th

G'day
We went to the temple today so that is why I am emailing a day late.
WOW! I cant believe my little sister is getting married.
I completely forgot about the 24 of July. Elder Bybee and I were on exchange and he reminded me right before we went to bed that night. One of the weirdest and another crazy experience , Elder Bybee and i were walking down a road and long story short we saw a drunk all drugged up, so we called and got an ambulance. You will have to ask me about this story so you can get the longer better version.
OHH I heard ICE Age 3 came out how was it?!!
Sorry I am not very good at writing, I just don't know what to write and sometimes don't think..
DID you remember if Elder Bybee has the same eye problem as Me.? I told you what it was last week.
I really wish you could send Cafe Rio, but since you cant maybe just Swedish fish, jelly belly, ???????
Thank you for everything! All is well here, and i am loving it!
Love you Heaps!!
Love Elder Andreasen

Email from July 17th

G’day the weeks really seem to fly by!!
Thank you for the update on everyone, I pray for you all every day.
I will answer those questions first so I don’t forget

1. What is the weirdest or interesting thing he has eaten? (I was guessing it was the Kangaroo when you first got there, if not let me know)
The weirdest thing that I have eaten, it wasn't in a meal, but it was a thousand year old egg. I am pretty sure it’s not thousand years old but it looks like it, I guess it is some Chinese food. Boy was it nasty it’s like a hardboiled egg but it’s BLACK!! You peel the shell ITS STILL BLACK!! I had to eat it though, it was like a challenge that a few missionaries had to do, a few of them were gagging not me though, and it was hard to hold back.





2. What is your favorite thing about Australia?
Well right now it is being able to share the gospel, and the people that you are able to meet, but about Australia.... it is cool to see all the different cultures that are here, oh can I say one of my least favorite things. The men wear short shorts, it is so weird

3. What work have you done... that’s meant a lot to you?
The greatest thing that you can see is others, whether they are active, less active or non members, be strengthened by the gospel,

4. Funny or interesting thing that’s happened?
Wow being a missionary, I think it is impossible to go a day without something funny or interesting, man some of the people we meet, the dogs, oh did I tell you in my first area I got chased by a massive Rottweiler (SP?) I am loving it here.






OH I am still in the same flat with 4 missionaries, E. Savage, E. Bybee, E. Kat. Ha-ha elder Bybee, is cool he is from St. George; I think he has the exact same eye problem as me. He says it is called strabismus. Is that what I have?
We are doing well thank you for everything Love ya heapss!
Love Elder Andreasen

Email from July 12th

OOpss!! I just wrote you an email and it got deleted ugghh!!
Hey things are going well here. Elder Savage and I are doing well he is a really smart guy. I was able to get to know him a little in the mtc. Right now we are just working with a few of the same people and we are trying hard to build up our teaching pool.
This transfer I was called to be the district leader over Ryde district, and you should be getting something in the mail saying that. Oh one of the first things that I had to do was pretty crazy. .... The sisters are supposed to call in each night when they get in just to make sure they are safe it gets to about 10 and I call a few times and they don't answer so after calling the zone leader they said if they don't answer by 10 30 they will call president to see what to do. So of course they don't answer so president say that I and elder savage need to go to their flat to see if they are home. we get to their flat at 11 and start ringing the bell no answer we rang for about 10 minutes still nothing so we call president and said that he is sending over someone with a key then and that moment the lights go on in the flat.. Well they were asleep and left the phone on silent in the other room. That was fun :(
Oh I never got anything about SLCC or the Jazz in the mail yet.
Hopefully it will come soon.
Well love you heaps thank you for all your support. I am loving serving the Lord here in Australia Love you Heaps!!
Love Elder Andreasen

Email from July 5th

WOW everyone is moving, well we got transfer calls and I am not moving. My new companion is Elder Savage; he came out the same time as me. I asked him if he knew any Savages in Sandy and he said no. He is from Colorado but he has lived quite a few different places even in the Dural ward when he was young.
Well we have had a really good week this week we have been able to find a lot of people to work with and we hope that we will be able to get some of them to progress.
Just really quickly, I think I would still like engineering but I thought you just had to take generals because that is what the U requires?
But things are going well here
Thank you for everything, hopefully everyone can get settled and stop moving
Love,
Elder Blake Andreasen

Email from June 28th

G'day Things are going well here in Australia I Have another companion with me just until transfers. Next Monday I will tell you what is going on with transfers I will find out on Sunday. MY new comp for this week is elder Qualls from Texas. After thinking about it has been awhile since I have had a comp from America the last one was with Elder Vogel and we left each other in September wow. I think I have lost almost all the American in me; I am probably more Chinese than American ha-ha.
It will be weird coming home, oh and about that I am not too sure how many classes I should take. Because I am not sure how much money I will have when I get home so maybe I will need a job? I don't know maybe I will just bum off you for the first semester? Tell me what you think; I don't know what 15 hrs means how many classes is that? I will probably do that if that is what you suggest? OH and about a car I don't know or really care as long as it is good at getting me place to place good gas mileage easy to take care of, ask Brian what fits those categories. I know he says Honda’s are good?
OH and about the didgeridoo the mission sends out a thing when your mission is coming to an end about how to take them back, I think you can just wrap them in bubble wrap and just tape it to your suitcase?
Hawaii!! You should wait until I get back ha-ha/k, I would like to visit Hawaii some time. Elder Ucunibaravi has 2 brothers going to school at the BYU there. And I think a couple of the missionaries here are going to go there?
Well things here are going well we are starting to find people that we can work with and we are working on finding more.
Thank you for all of your support and prayers Love you heaps!!
Love Elder Blake Andreasen
Oh I got you package by the way. They brought it to interviews and I opened it there and the Swedish fish were a big hit I haven’t opened the Reeses yet and I try as hard as I can to savor the jelly bellies. Oh and thank you so much for the shirts

Email from June 21st

G'day
Sorry about last week I just thought that you didn't want to write to me anymore so I decided not to write you. HAH J/K I didn't get your email though and I was really busy last week as well. Today I am emailing late because we were helping a family move into the ward. One of the boys just got off his mission. He served in England he said he knew Elder Jeff Wilson, so that was cool to be able to talk a bit about him. But the boy that returned from his mission is from South Africa and his family moved here to Australia when he was on his mission, so his home coming was not really a home coming. But he is really keen on doing missionary work so hopefully we can work with him and get the ball rolling here.
We are not teaching too many people right now just trying to find, and the people that we are working with are going a bit slow. Things will start to pick up though.
Tomorrow we are going to the temple as a zone then we are going to have a zone activity. I will try to get a pic to send you next week of all the missionaries; we have Tongan, Samoan, Chinese, Aussie, and Americans, pretty crazy.
On Thursday we have interviews with President Scruggs.
Oh and next week Elder Ucunibaravi is leaving but it is a week before transfers so I will not know who my new comp is for a little bit. In the meantime I will probably just be with the Chinese Elders. We will see what happens.
I will try to answer some Q's
Elder Ucunibaravi is from a place close to Suva Fiji he says I have to come visit Fiji because it is paradise there.
He is excited to go home.
That dance is from New Zealand it is the one BYU does before their games; I don't remember how short the Chinese Elder is he got moved to Newcastle a couple months ago.
I don’t remember offering that sweatshirt to him but if he wants it I will give it to him when he goes home if he does I will tell you so you can send me one. Because he will go home before it gets here.
Sorry again for not writing much last week. And if you have that stuff from SLCC send it again because I think my mailbox was too full last week.
Thank you, Love you heaps!!
Love Elder Andreasen

Email from May 31st

G'day
I don't have much time this week, We are playing volleyball again hopefully i don't get smashed in the face again. And elder Ucunibaravi needs to get a hair cut. He has the natural curly hair and he is getting a little afro so we are getting his cut. This week has been good the lady we have been teaching came back from China on Wednesday and we had a lesson on Saturday and she also came to a baptism in Ryde were this Chinese uni student was getting baptized. Hopefully after watching the baptism she will have a stronger desire to get baptized. Hopefully before Elder Ucunibaravi goes home.
Oh before i forget I want to ask about school. When does the tuition discount come into action at the U. I want to try to go to school in January probably just at slcc though until the discount kicks in. Can you figure some things out for me??
Thank you for everything
Thank you for your prayers
Love you heapss!
Love Elder Andreasen