Week 7 ... Crooked River

Hello fam and friends,

This week has been fun!

Monday was P-day so I didn't do anything useful until dinner we ate with a super awesome family and had a lesson on the restoration because Gage who is one of the kids is a new member so we get to teach him and his non member step mom a bunch so that's cool, but that's the only time we taught pretty much all week so yeah it's awesome!

Tuesday we had done conference which was super awesome but it was a seven hour meeting so YEAH. Yeah it was super long so I'll just say the best thing I got out of it, with the priesthood or our calling we are given authority from the Almighty God to access the power of the priesthood we must be righteous and obedient to God's commandments. After that we ate dinner with the Shaffer family and brother Shaffer is the funniest person alive and that's all I can say if anyone wants to know more on that you can ask in a personal email or ask after the mission but he and his family are the best and super missionary minded!

Wednesday we had to go service the car so Elder Beck and I took a trip to Kansas, I didn't know that till we got there cause I fell asleep in the car, I know I'm a sinner I've repented, but that took a bit and we got to get some Krispy Kreams and see the largest mall in American Legends Mall ad we drove by do that was super awesome! We ate ribs at the Rose house and after we unloaded tons and tons of wood at the Thomsons, they are a less active family but want to come back so we enjoy being there. Brad Thomson is a super funny guy and we hung out with him and did service at his house like 4 times this week and he made like the time machine thing from doctor who life size in his garage and I'll see a low quality pic of that from my trashy phone.

Thursday we adventured out to Plattesburg Missouri and did some tracking where nobody answered except for one get nice African American lady who told us she loves Jesus but didn't want to talk to us. We also saw a bunch of African American kids so we will deffinelty go back cause Elder Beck is crazy good at basketball and we want to get in with those people cause they are the best out here, they are super vocal on their love of Jesus so we want to get to know them and get back there a lot. That night we did some more awesome service for Brother Thomson unloading more wood, cause he bought like 2 tons of wood from the Amish here in Missouri, I want to meet some Amish while I'm here, so we did that for like 3 more hours.

Friday in the morning we helped pay down a bunch of time for some people building their home and later that night helped brother Thomson finish unloading his wood with the help of the sisters

Saturday we took a trip to Lee's Summit which is like a hour away with Brother Cooperrider to grab his new fridge and freezer, we then ate sandwiches at his house and helped him unpack and organize tons of stuff in his storage room. After that we spent the rest of the day and night with Brother Thomson cleaning up all the wood left over, organizing his stuff and getting rid of all his trash and we had a super fun time with him and he and his daughter treated us with subway that night so it was an awesome day and we were in service cloths the whole time and I loved that a lot haha 

We got to teach a lesson yesterday on the Sabath Day and it went super well and I'm so grateful for Sunday and the Sacrament it trumps the rest of the week along with our priesthood lesson we had on the priesthood haha the talk from last session of conference The Preisthood and the Saviors Atoning Power by Elder Renlund of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostiles. He compared the priesthood to a rocketship, and explains that we need to be worthy and not have any minor defects because if a rocket has any minor defects then it will malfunction and not perform it's duty. He also explains that the purpose of the priesthood is to help and serve others and invite all to come unto Christ. Anyone that attempts to misuse the priesthood for selfish use won't get anything out of it and if we are worthy to use it then the authority we have will be accompanied with power from God. Some of the brethren in the class shared experiences where blessings were given and some individuals left the church because something they promised didn't happen, but they then admitted to have ignored the spirit. Others shared experiences of following the spirit, which sometimes didn't offer the expected blessings, but in the end all promises came. 

I experienced this a little when I gave my first blessing over someone who was very sick my first week in the MTC. A sister had been throwing up all night and asked for a blessing, I was extremely nervous because I had never given a blessing before and I didn't feel ready, and during the beginning of the blessing I stumbled through. The moment I gained enough confidence to follow the Spirit my mouth was filled and I had never felt or heard that sort of strength of confidence come out of me before and that's because it wasn't really me. In the scriptures it talks about feeling the spirit like a fire in your heart and I felt that during that blessing, I will never forget that experience or that feeling. I love the priesthood, and I'm so grateful that God has enough trust in us to let us use his power.

Also just to finish up, if you ever have a question ever that you need an answer to, Elder Bednar says to write it down and continually think about it as you read the book of Mormon. I read like non stop. I restarted the Book of Mormon about a week and a half ago and I'm 2/3 of the way through Alma and this time through I have gotten so much out of it cause I'll have a question in mind, then just read and that question is answered! When I say ask any question I mean any question.  2 Nephi 32:3- Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do. 

The words of Christ will tell you ALL THINGS which you should do. Whether that's a super deep doctrinal question or where you left your keys ask and ye shall receive, from the words of Christ. If you don't believe me Sister Nelson wife to the prophet said the same thing in her new book, I can't remember the name of the book so you'll have to go find it but I invite all of you to read the Book of Mormon daily, and questions and if you ask in faith you'll get answers. Sister Martino shared that idea from Sister Nelsons book with all the missionaries at the MTC and I tried it and it is stupid cool cause it works haha

Anyways I know the Book of Mormon can change your life cause it's changing mine every time I read it, also read conference talks in prep for GC in like three weeks! I know President Nelson is a prophet and that this Church is true, in the name if Jesus Christ amen

I love all you guys and I pray for you all often so I hope you feel that, I'll send pics in a bit and I'll talk to y'all next week

Elder Andersen 

Week 6 ... Crooked River

Hello People,

So last Sunday I forgot to say, we had a special fast to help weaken and remove the influence of the adversary on the ward members, less active members and investigators, because there are tons of problems in the ward with tons of stuff so the Bishop wanted us all to fast for them so we did and I'll talk more about that later.

So Elder Beck and I had a lot of fun this week, we have to take the car in for service, get an oil change and on like Tuesday we got a crappy flat tire so that was awesome! We were driving on a doughnut tire for like 2 days and we then drove down to Kansas city, went to a firestone to fix the tire and then waited for five hours for the whole thing to get done! We had one flat, then they put 4 new tires on and 're aligned the car so it was crazy boring and we wasted the whole day haha so that was super cool and we still need to go back to KC this week to get the car services and an oil change so that will be fun going back

So the Rose family in our ward had us over for dinner on Wednesday and then invited us for breakfast on Friday with the bonus to go visit some of their neighbors that we haven't been able to meet with yet so we totally said yes, breakfast was awesome and several of the neighbors said they couldn't meet that but one that Brother Ross was super excited to meet with was home and we had a nice chat with him. He is a 84 year old man and he lives on his property alone. Sister Rose gave us a gift bag to give to him so things were looking good. 

We pull up and out he comes, he says "Oh I've been waiting for you to come back here cause all you want to do is fix me!"

He then just goes on and on about people trying to convert him his whole life and how he doesn't think that is right. 

Brother Rose tryed to explain that wasn't our intention we just wanted to meet him and see if he wanted any help, Brother Rose just wants to be a good neighbor 

This grumpy old man kept saying, "Oh I don't believe that at all you just want to chase me around, argue the bible, stir me up to convince me that only you can 'save my soul' because if I don't get baptized in your church I'm going to hell"

This old man was flailing his arms everywhere, pointing fingers and accusing us of disturbing his peace. May I add that we haven't brought up religion, we brought a gift basket, and all we wanted to know is if he wanted help with anything cause here in Missouri that's really the only way for people to even talk to you is with service in my experience. 

Elder Beck gets pretty fed up with this guy attacking brother Rose so he very simply says that we aren't here to chase you to getting baptized and we haven't even brought up religion, we don't want to argue about the bible we are here to help and brother Rose is here to be a good neighbor, I can say that quiet him down really fast and he settled down and said if he needs help he will ask and we went back to the Roses house. 

Brother Rose was shaken and so was I a bit cause that old guy went crazy but in the end I got a good story out of it and hopefully that old guy will soften up and receive our help one day so it was a good experience 

That night we got to finally go meet a less active family, we did some service hauling wood in our white shirts and ties but it was a good experience. They lost their son about four months ago and we are just trying to get them to church and they want to come but it's super hard because last time they were at the church building was their sons funeral, it's just a sad situation so please keep the Thomson family in your prayers so that they will meet with us more and we can do some good for them.

I feel like my emails are long so I'm sorry if they are, but I got some more to say haha

So back to our ward fast, this Sunday at sacrament meeting tons of less active members and members that has not been to church in weeks came and Elder Beck and I set up some meetings with them so that was a super cool miracle that took place yesterday and the testimony meeting this week was super good too.

 Second hour we had to teach because the teacher didn't show up, so we taught on the sacrament and the importance of preparing yourself for the sacrament, always being worthy and keeping you covenant that you made at baptism. It went super well, a sister that I had not met prior asked how she could best prepare for the sacrament so that she could feel clean and feel the power of the Holy Ghost because she struggles gravely with depression. As a class we discussed the power of scripture study, prayer, and staying busy. I felt inspired to share Elder Holland's talk from the October 2012 General Conference titled The First Great Commandment, one of the best talks ever btw. I shared that if we love God and keep His commandments we will welcome his help and if we also live the second great commandment, love thy neighbor then we will no longer feel our pain, but the love we feel for those we serve will cast out all our doubts and fears. Moroni 8  16- Wo be unto them that shall pervert the ways of the Lord after this manner, for they shall perish except they repent. Behold, I speak with boldness, having authority from God; and I fear not what man can do; for perfect love casteth out all fear.

And perfect love is charity, serving your neighbor. Hartman Rector Jr said that Charity is love plus sacrifice, sacrificing what we what to help and serve others. 

When I was set apart as a missionary my stake President blessed me to obtain the gift of charity, and Moroni says in Moroni 7:48 that we must pray with all the energy of our hearts to be filled with this love and I have been praying since I got here and I will invite all of you to do so also because when I'm serving others, nothing else matters and I'm happier then I could ever be otherwise. 

Needless to say at the end of the lesson Elder Beck bore his testimony and most people in the class were in tears and it was awesome.

We also had an amazing lesson on grace third hour with the bishop but I'll save that for later because I have already shared a lot, I love all you guys so much! Every member is a missionary so pray for the gift of charity and get out there and serve, I'll do the same I know that we will bring forth miracles as we grow our faith by loving others and I say that in the name of Jesus Christ amen

Elder Andersen 

Week 5 ... MISSOURI

I made it to Missouri. It's super cold and there is freezing rain and everything's ice but it's awesome! Seriously there is no snow, just ice out here!

Hello family and friends, as you can tell my p-day is now Monday so that's awesome and feel free to email me back :)

So, Wednesday morning was the worst thing ever! Everyone heading to Missouri woke up at 4 am. We went to the travel office, got on a bus and they gave us instructions on how to get the bags of 30+ missionaries on and off a train, onto the trax thing, and to the airport, and I can tell you the whole thing was a mess. We had one minute to unload like 75 suit cases from that train and it was insane, but we did it. 

Anyways we got to the airport and checked in our bags and my grandpa GP was waiting there for me that silly guy we got there at about 7 and he had been there since 5, that little bum haha. But we got a good pic and I got to say goodbye so it was great!

After we got to our gate I called my parents and it was very much needed but the calling card thing they gave me sucked so bad cause it cut me off at 5 minutes and we were just about to talk about the good stuff! It was alright tho cause I had to get on the plane, so it all worked out.

The first thing I noticed when landing in Kansas City was NO MOUNTAINS! 

I have no sense of direction out here, but hopefully I'll get used to it.

After landing we met President Love and Sister Love, we grabbed out bags and headed straight to the temple took some pictures. The main things I noticed was that the grass was ice and it was 30 degrees but felt like -10 it's freezing here, after that we went to Liberty Jail.

We had lunch and they gave us a small tour of the Jail which was amazing! It's such a cool place and it had a special spirit, it was my first time there but it was awesome. The weirdest part for me was that we ate lunch next to the Jail and that not to long ago Joseph and his friends were thrown into the Jail for the beliefs him and I share and that wasn't too long ago, but being there gave me a greater appreciation for our Prophet of the restoration and that was a great blessing to be there.

After that we went to the Independence visitor center and that was pretty cool! I got some pictures in front of the sea shell temple. haha

We then went to the mission home and ate some dinner which was great and had orientations along with President interviews and I love President Love he's awesome and I'm excited to serve with him a lot. 

Transfers the next morning were pushed back a couple hours because of frozen rain, it's the weirdest thing in the world when the rain hits the ground it all turns into ice and everything is super slick and travel is impossible so we had to wait a few hours till heading to the Independence stake center which is right next to the visitor center to meet our new companion. 

My new companion is Elder Beck from Oakley Idaho and he's awesome! We ate lunch at a Mexican place called Ponchos where I got a breakfast burrito and headed to my new area with the Crooked River ward. It's in the boonies and is about 50 minutes from Independence. We dropped of my bags at our house, which really is a house cause we live with members, the Ratliff fam, which is brother and sister Ratliff and their two dogs. I've been told and now know it's true that we get spoiled cause they have tons of food, so imma get fat haha

After we dropped off the bags we met with the Cooperriders and they're super funny people.George made sure that I knew he was a big guy, he had me guess his weight and I was wrong, he's bigger than I am for now and that's what I can tell you. We also talked to his dad Harry and we all call him OTD, or Older than Dirt, just Dirt for short. He's like 84 and is a super funny old man. He challenged me to an arm wrestle which will probably take place next time I see him so I'll let you know about that next week. After meeting with them we ate dinner with the Ratliffs and went to bed so it was a good first day.

Friday was the ward party and Elder Beck and I spent the day giving out invitations to less active and trying to just talk to somebody but not a single success all day so that was rough. But the party was super fun! We had an international themed dance party that I didn't really participate in but was a good time and I got to meet the Bishop and a ton of members from the Crooked River Ward and they're all jokesters and messed with me a lot, but the whole night was a blast.

Saturday morning we got to go play ball which was awesome and then knocked on doors, visited members all day long, so I can say that I'm always tired.

Sunday was great though. I got to share my testimony during sacrament meeting and just got to have fun with everyone in the ward. After church I got to meet some of the Ratliff kids and their kids so that was fun and for dinner we ate the Cooperriders and that's when Dirt challenged me so I'm going to be working out my arm so I can beat him. haha

Wow this email is so long! 

Sorry about that everybody, but I guess you can tell that a lot went on this week and I'm a little overwhelmed and freaking out. 

I'm so grateful to be out here though and wouldn't trade it in for anything. It's starting to warm up so hopefully we will be able to teach some lessons this week or do some service, I didn't know this but there are tornadoes here so I'm super excited to see those in the spring haha 

I love you all and will talk to y'all next week!

Elder Andersen

I forgot to say that my last night in the MTC we saw Elder Holland in I'm going to be a good missionary because of it haha love you all 

2. Elder Engemann and I

3. Kansas city temple

4. Independence visitor center

5. Liberty jail 

Week 4 ... MTC

What's up everyone!

I'm heading off to Missouri tomorrow morning and I'm super excited. I'm waking up at 5 so I can board a plane at 10 so that'll be fun, but I'm just so ready to get into the work. 

Well my body is not ready, but my spirit is so I guess it'll work out.

This week was crazy. My last two trcs (practice investigators) went so good but both started out so bad. With our last TRC Jose, Elder Askelson and I looked into the room and nobody was in there so we waited 5 minutes, said a prayer and still nothing. Elder Askelson looked into the room after a couple minutes went by and said, "oh my goodness! I'm so sorry, we didn't see you in there" I thought he was being sarcastic so I straight up called him a liar, but he kept talking to somebody I couldn't hear in the room. So I glanced in and Jose was right there and he thought I was an idiot. He didn't really look at me the first half of the lesson and didn't like anything I was saying, but completely acknowledged Elder Askelson. At the end I felt the spirit and promised him some blessings from reading the Book of Mormon and he all the sudden opened up and the lesson ended so good, I was sad to leave him for the last time and that was a cool experience 

This past Sunday was by far the best I've had. We had our departure interview. The MTC President, President Martino and his wife spoke together on the impact of one baptism and one conversion for the devotional, and that was so good, but the highlight of Sunday was Elder Hollands MTC talk that we watched after the devotional it is titled "Missions are Forever" 

The best part of listening the Apostles here at the MTC is that they let loose and just say it how it is. The first two talks I watched were from Elder Bednar and they were really good but this last one from Elder Holland was just crazy! He warned of wasting your mission and said if your intention is not to work 100% every day then we should go home right now, and I'm not coming home so hopefully I wont let Elder Holland down. Being a missionary is the closest thing we can be to being an apostle other than actually being an apostle or general authority, this may be the only time in my life that I can have this kind of calling so my goal is not to waste it. 

Moses 1:39 "This is My work and My glory" as members of the church we must understand that this is the Lords work and that he's going to make it come about with or without our help but we just to get to be apart of the work and that's so amazing and such a blessing. After we understand that it's His work however then we must understand that in order to help we must do this work His way, D&C 50:13-14 "Preach my gospel" that whole book is meant to understand that we must preach with the spirit. Helaman 5:17-18 we can only teach with the power and authority of God, Mosiah 27:11-12; 18-19 the only way to convert people is to astonish them with the spirit. As a missionary or those with the priesthood we have the Authority of God, the power comes from out righteousness and our obedience. Elder Holland goes on to say, "Why is conversion so hard?'" and his answer was so profound, "Because Salvation isn't cheap ... why should it be easy for us when it wasn't easy for Him?" To truly follow Christ and to truly be converted unto Him we must feel some of what He felt

Pretty much other than all of that what I got out of the talk is that Every Mission is hard so I should not Complain.

Yesterday was cool because we just listened to mission stories from our teachers and one of them served in Iowa which is close to Missouri and it was so awesome, they both shared their testimonies and it was a sad but very spiritual day. 

I feel like this email is too long but I went to the temple this morning and had one of the coolest experiences ever, I read Ether 3-4 which is about the Brother of Jared seeing Christ and The Holy Ghost just testified that his experience was true and in chapter 4 Moroni talks how we can learn the truth of everything the Brother of Jacob saw. After reading I prayed for that witness and as I said before I did, I also prayed for a lot of other things and my words were not my own they came from the Holy Ghost. I know that Christ lives, I know that the Book of Mormon is true and the word of God and I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and also that President Nelson is a prophet. I've only been here for three weeks but my knowledge and love for the savior has deepened so much, and I will not waste my mission! I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

I love you all and thank you for all your support.

Elder Andersen

Pictures 

1. District with Brother Holmes

2. My cousin Elder Engemann

3. District with Brother Muir

Week 3 ... MTC

My messed up hand and pics from the trip to BYU urgent care 

I'm grateful for all the emails I have gotten from everyone! I feel your love and prayers in here. I'm getting more and more use to the schedule and I'm getting the hang of this and I really just want to get out to Missouri! 

The MTC is great though it's amazing to see so many youth all here to serve God, if they are not here for that then I don't know what they're doing because it's hard out here! But of course it's very rewarding, and I feel that I have grown more here than pretty much anywhere else. 

Okay time to get into the nitty gritty...

Friday I was playing a very good game of volleyball and my hand got wrecked by the ball and I sprained my thumb. If that sounds really dumb it's because it is! What's worse is that the clinic here had made me jump through hoops when all I need to do is not hurt it again.  I've been back and forth from the MTC clinic to BYU urgent care and tomorrow I am leaving the MTC to go to the hospital to go to a "hand specialist" so that they can tell me that my hand  is not broken, which I already know because my hand don't hurt that bad!

So yeah I'm going on a little trip tomorrow.

Sunday was awesome though. I became the new district leader and we watched a new Elder Bednar talk on obtaining the guidance of the spirit. The big question was,"How do I know what's from me and what's from the spirit?" Elder Bednars answer, "Quit worrying about it! If you want the spirit in your life just be a good girl or be a good boy, honor your covenants, keep the commandments and keep moving forward." He went on to say that we can't just sit there and expect the spirit to tell us what to do, we do what we're supposed to, and keep moving forward, and God will guide our steps and fill us with His words and by the end of it we won't know why we said what we said or know how we got to the place we ended up. That's because it's not us that said those things or lead us there, it's God through the Holy Ghost.

I've also been reading the book "Expect the Miracle of Conversion" by Hartman Rector Jr and also I've been reading a lot of his talks and I'm being transformed by his words! Reading that book gives me the faith to move mountains and I cannot believe that I'm related to him. Elder Rector and Elder Bednar are my motivators here at the MTC and I'm so excited to go out to Missouri.

We had to say goodbye to the district that welcomed us here today and that was sad. They are all heading to three different St Louis Missouri missions... so that's cool!  It's also super weird how fast you grow to love people on a mission. it's an amazing gift. When the Elders left this morning I was so sad because I grew to love them so much in only two weeks.

But I love all you guys and am so grateful for all the prayers, I pray for all y'all too. Talk to everyone next week and I'll tell of my experience at the hospital :)

Elder Andersen 

Week 2 ... MTC

Just a disclaimer I'm not good at writing these yet so I'm sorry in advance!

 But thanks for all your support and I love you all!

The first week of my mission has come and gone and that's crazy because it has gone by really fast, but I guess the whole mission goes fast. I can say that day one was weird, it went by so fast that I didn't realize what really happened until I woke up on day 2 and thought to myself, "Crap! It's all real." And day two I had major anxiety and felt really stressed out and Thursday night, I cried when I found my families letters that they had snuck into my bag. They caught me in a moment of weakness, and all the elders of my zone saw me cry so that was awesome!

Now time to talk about my zone, district and companion. So I love my district! The sisters outnumber us elders but it's alright we all get along and all just want to learn. My companion is Elder Askelson and he's from Washington and he's full of knowledge, he can tell you about any point if history so that's cool. Elder Kotter is the district leader and he's from Idaho, then there is Elder Platter. We've grown very well together here in the MTC and all 4 of us are going to Independence Missouri along with 4 of the 8 sisters in the district while the other 4 sisters are going to Vancouver Washington so that's cool! Okay so the other district in our zone, that have been here a week longer, are also going to Missouri but the St. Louis mission so that's really cool too! Elder Holmes, the other district leader, dumped ice on me while I was naked in the shower yesterday for the "welcome to being district leader" thing and it was supposed to be on Elder Kotter so that's also cool ha,  but our district's and zone are all really close and it has really helped me transition to the MTC life and I'm grateful for that!

The classes here at the MTC are cool but crazy and the teachers are all amazing! But they just throw stuff at you all day then you have another class in the night with a different teacher, and they pretend to be investigators so we can practice teaching and its so hard! So I thought until we had to teach some actual investigators which is really nerve wracking. I've been apart of the church my whole life but nothing is harder than having to teach someone who was never apart any real faith and it doesn't really seem that they care what you're saying. The first lesson with my first investigator went that way, what I learned is that if you just try to teach a lesson then you'll get destroyed by the pressure of teaching. My second investigator was different because I was more relaxed and focused just on the person we were teaching and what the spirit wanted me to say so I felt like Elder Askelson and I really connected with our investigator and he committed to pray and read the book of Mormon so that was amazing! Elder Kotter and Platter on the other hand got a sister to commit to being baptized in the first lesson!!! I don't know how that would be possible other than the church is true haha but yeah this is a special work and it's awesome to see success everywhere.

The MTC is an amazing place also it's all new and there are just inspiring pieces 

of art everywhere and they have really built this new MTC to create the best environment possible for spiritual growth and to truly prepare yourself for the field. My Presidency here in the MTC are really awesome too they have shown great love for me and support that I have really appreciated.

Fast Sunday was so amazing! The whole district fasted for all our families and I felt the love from all of them and grateful for all their prayers, but the best part was the movie at the end of the night where we watched a talk from the MTC by Elder Bednar called "The Character of Christ" where he talked about how we need to focus on others and not ourselves and become fully converted to Jesus Christ, a testimony is not enough because even those with testimonies fall away. We need to become converted! He talked about how in moments where everyone including himself would turn inward and be selfish, Christ would turn to others and be selfless and that is the Character of Christ. He shared Mosiah 3:19 several times, if you're not familiar then go read it.

The summary of the scripture is that the natural man is an enemy to God, and when we turn inward that's usually where we sin and give into the natural man. Repentance means literally to turn away, forsake sin so he compared that to turning outward towards others and to serve and love them, to develop the Character of Christ. If we learn to turn outward instead of in and develop the character of Christ and become converted unto Jesus Christ them we will NEVER fall away and that is exactly what I need to do out here on a mission, but you can all do it at home too.

That was pretty my week, I know that is kind of hard to understand so I apologize if y'all want to talk I can email till about 10:30 so love all you guys and talk to you all later!

Elder Andersen 

WEEK 1 ... MTC

Hello family, 

I made it to the MTC safely and just got settled into the room and everything. 

I have to get back into class, but  my P day is on Tuesday so you'll here from me then.

Love you guys talk to you soon

Elder Andersen