kamusta po kayo mga pamilya ko? sobrang magandang dito this week was great so many great experiences! hopefully i can get this down good. ill start off with whats most heavy on my mind.

we have an elder in our district has name is Sailosi Tomale. he is from tonga, he is the only member in his family, he doesnt speak english very well and since were learning tagalog in english im sure you can imagine the struggle. he writes his family but they dont write him. he doesnt recieve news or letters or anything from home and its... well its just too much.

he has probably the most faith out of anybody i have ever met in my life i cant imagine what hes going through. but anyways i knew him and another elder in my district was having a hard time so me, elder tomale, elder moore, elder yost( elder tomales companion) and elder mansfield went into a class to read scriptures together. i wasnt sure what i was going to say to help encourage but somehow the spirit led me and us into an amazing esperience.

elder tomale opened up to us on how much he loves us and how he needs our help and then he told us it makes him happy when he sees up open mail and get packages because we are happy, but it makes hiim sad because every day theres no mail for him. i very rarely have seen a big stong tongan cry and open up like that but this leads me to my point...

i need you guys to send him something. i dont know what whether its food or a letter of encouragement you know what missions are like anything that you would have appreciated. his address will be the same as mine, just change my name to sailosi tomale and unstead of phi- cau it will be phi san. hes going to the san pable mission.

i cant stand knowing that he doesnt get mail and it just well i just want to help him hes such a good person. and also i dono if this is possible, but president monson gave a talk in general conference fairly recently where he told a story about a missionary he met that wasnt recieving mail, and he told him to write his family every week and eventually his family will write him. if at all possible would someone find that talk and see if you can print it in tongan? kevin your a genious online i have faith in you. if not in tongan though english will be great.

i got to go to the temple today, man was it great to be there. we did a session then some innitiatories and then we ate breakfast. i cant think of anything better than going to the temple after some hard weeks theres real power there and i feel so blessed to have been able to go so often. elder rostedt who is from australie told me of when he used to have to travel 24 hours to get to the temple in sidney and it kinda put things in perspective,

anxiety is still a daily battle but now that im fighting it with the big guns im doin a lot better. dropped 6 pounds and that is crappy but oh well. too bad i dont have some protien and a bench set!

so ive decided me ald elder needs are somehow the best companionship, its weird cause we are both so different as far as people go but when it comes to teaching and the gospel we use each others strengths and are able to teach surprising welll even though we ( well hes great im not so good ) arent too great at tagalog. he knows and remembers so much and i feel like im pretty in tune with the promptings of the spirit so those two strenghts together we have been able to teaach some great lessons. we have 3 progressive investigators ( brother day, brother welsh, and sister sorensen) that we are teaching and everyone else got dropped by their first one im not bragging or anything its just kinda cool how you can still bbe affective when you dont know how to say anything other than alam ko po na ( i know that )

alam ko po na totoo ang simbahan at alam ko po naw buhay si jesu kristo. i m outa time i was gonna bear my tagalag testimony but i guess next week. i do appreciate letters so so so so so so much. thanks for your love and suppert. mahal kita talaga! Elder Landeen

okay so lets see if i can do this....

to start of lets say i have had a breakthrough on wednesday. i was getting progressively worse everyday and i thought for sure i couldnt handlle it anymore. so my branch president told me to go talk to a counsilor and when i did it was exactly what i needed.

he told me i have definate anxiety and he called it like over analysis chronic thought or some kinda think like that where basicaly one random thought that comes to mind out of nowhere for no reason is over analyzed and branches out into a million different things then eventually you have a blurred perspective on reality and it is your reality and ya but i thinki have had quite the reality check so until next week i will be trying to tell myself to shut up everytime i start thinking. but i have to do this while im thinking non stop all day about tagalog and the gospel. and when the thought that comes to your mind is you dont have enought faith to do this and your supposed to telll yourself to shuty up when you think about that while at the same time your talking about faith all day.... i think you know what im getting at. quite the talk at hand. good thing god loves us right?

with that out of my chest ill just go to sharing something good.

yesterday at the trc it was awesome i still have no idea what i am doing and i just throw out random crap but i honestly feel like the random crap i throw out is still being guided by the spirit. i dono much but one thing i do know is how to follow a prompting and to not question it even if it doesnt make sense to you.

each companionship in the district has had a progressing investigator in that they are teaching every day or two, and its all in tagalog. it helps you understand what it means to rely on a companionship as a team effort and definately rely on the lord for guidance. im not bragging when i say this but the other companionships that were teaching konrad ( its really brother day but his character is Konrad, someone he taught on his mission) has been dropped because he lost interest. but me and elder needs have been teaching him and he has actually been progressing. our lessons seem terrible to me and yesterday i had to slip and use english but the thing we have is the spirit and i know that withouut it wed be sunk for sure.

The old zone leader elder partridge is about to ship out to manilla next week and i see a lot of myself in him. he seems absolutely terrified but at the same time excited. his tagalag isnt the best in his district but i can tell he understands the workings of the spirit- at least as well as any of us. but the reason i say this is man he has been a great zone leader and he understood what i was feelin and has been able to give great advice.

just so everyone knows my district will be performing nearer my god to thee in tagalag in front of the mtc and i found out how much i enjoy singing. weird to me but it is what it is im gonna try to develop that talent for sure.

if anyone thats learned a language wouldnt mind writing me a letter with study strategies of how to get better that would be helpful cause i dont thinki know how to study very effectively and i needa learn that before im in the jungle.

its cool seein josh here amd its going to be interesting to see how jason is his first couple of weeks hopefully by then i will be in joshs shoes and be able to give him good advice ha

im so excited to be able to teach real people. one thing for sure that i have loved the whole time here is teaching no matter what what i practived teaching at the trc or just whenever i really enjoy it because i keep thinking about how i will be able help people and ah man im just about outa time. sorry if this letter told you nothing good!

a couple things... when you respond to emails will you use dear elder? that way i can read it and dont use email time to read. wheni get to the fiend itll be different but as for here i found that dear elder is the fastest way cause it gets there the same day so its just like email.

well i love you all thanks for the letters and love

mahal kita, Elder Landeen

kamusta po kayo? its miini p day and it feels great to have a little time to catch up on language. its a lot harder for me to remember things than i expected but thats alright. im keeping super busy and i like the structured days. i love it here. home was great but the spirit here is so strong all the time and you cant beat that. my kasama elder needs is really smart so he helps me and is patient with me so thats great. i saw josh the first day he was waITING for me in the cafeteria and it was great to see him, i havent seen him since though. so i have a couple more things i forgot... sorry if i just keep asking for things i dont mean to but i think i came very un prepared. i need toenail clippers and a nail file, and mom if you could make me a big stack of flash cards with like a ring or something holding them together that would be great ive been making them out of index cards that i rip in half and its getting really tiresome.

so far ive learned to bear my basic testimony and i have got that down pretty well, we are goin to learn to pray tonight, and we have learned like a thousand vocab words and how to basically greet people. tagalag sounds so weird im ecxited to talk jibberish to you when i get home.

i have to confess its a little discouraging when everyone seems to get the language quicker than i because im usuall one of the brighter kids but im pretty sure humility is exactly what i need so humility is what i will be working on. even though it is hard its amazing to me waking up and remembering things which the night before i had no idea so the gift of tongues is real.

my district is great, there is twelve of us total, the companionships are elder rostedt(he is from australia) and elder Nay, elder Dickie and Elder Mansfiels, Me and Elder Needs, Elder Christian and Elder Zeigler, Elder Johnson(he is the district Leader) and elder Moore, and Elder Tomale( he is from Tonga and he speaks basicaly no english, i feel bad for him but i can tell he is a strong person because he doesnt seem to be discouraged) and elder Yost.

our zone leaders are Elder Partridge and Elder Wong. Elder Partridge seems to be a lot like me in how he was his first week and they are both very helpful and supportive.

The Branch President is President Stott, His councilors are first, Brother Jesse, and second bro Gurney. we have only met them once as of yet so i dont know all that much about them.

I love having all you can eat food and that great, i found out the weight room doesnt have free weights so im kinda upset about that, the gym is closed right now though anyways because the floor is being re surfaced, and the temple is closed too which makes me a little sad but i guess ill just have to be patient.

if i dont writhe much letters please forgive but dont stop writing me, i told dad i wont tell you if im having a hard time but i really needa put everything into catchin up with people on tagalag.

mahal kata ang pamiliya ( i love you family )

tty when i do, Elder Landeen

E-mail

allen.landeen@myldsmail.net

Addresses

Here's Allen's info... he leaves for the MTC today:

Elder Allen Glen Landeen
MTC Mailbox #161
PHI-CAU 0907
2005 North 900 East
Provo, UT 84604-1793

usa_footballer@hotmail.com

elderallenlandeen.blogspot.com