September 16, 2013
Hello Everyone,
This week has been one of many interesting experiences! On Monday, we had the opportunity to teach a couple about baptism and prayer. The man is starting to understand that it is going to actually require effort on his part aside from meeting with us to figure out if the church is true. It was a really great meeting, and we started to make some headway!
On Tuesday, after District Meeting, my companion and I went contacting downtown Sparta and pretty much no one was outside! People around here go to work, then go inside their homes and watch TV. Despite this trend, we were able to meet one person downtown. The senior missionaries that used to be in Sparta taught him while they were here. He was on his way to work, but we got his phone number and address, and we will hopefully be able to continue teaching him! We have stopped by his house many times, but have not quite caught him there yet, but we will keep trying.
On Wednesday, we taught a woman who is in her twenties, and works at Taco Bell. She has a girl in second grade that lives in Chicago with her father, and she was pregnant (with her current boyfriend) with another girl a few months ago, and miscarried for no apparent reason. She has faced a lot of challenges in her life, and knows a few LDS people, one of which attended the Sparta Branch before he died. We taught her the restoration, and she showed a lot of interest! She is really amazing, and I hope she continues to meet with us and to express interest in our religion.
We also taught a former investigator. She has been taught for years, and goes through peaks of interest. We brought chalk and drew out our lesson for her and her kids, and it went really well! She agreed to come to church on Sunday, and she lives right in back of the church, so it would be perfect. Unfortunately when we went to their home on Sunday morning, no one answered the door. We will just have to try again next week.
On Thursday we had a really cool experience in Tomah, Wisconsin. We got a mormon.org referral forever ago that we have not been able to contact in Tomah. It only provided his address, but no phone number. On Thursday we decided to go stop by, and he was home! He was outside putting sealer on their destroyed driveway. It had cracks everywhere, so this was a huge job for him! He wouldn't let us help him, but he allowed us to talk and teach him as he sealed the driveway. We had a really great lesson, and at the end (after he agreed to be baptized) we invited him to come to church with us on Sunday. He informed us that he was moving to El Paso, Texas on Sunday so that wouldn't work, but that he enjoyed meeting with us. His fiancee in Arizona that referred him is meeting with the missionaries, so hopefully the missionaries in Texas will be able to continue teaching him!
We also got to see another male investigator on Thursday. The family from the Sparta branch invited us over for dinner and our investigator wanted to come as well! He is really good friends with them so everything worked out perfectly :) We ate dinner at Cancun Bay (a Mexican restaurant) and then did a service project at the members house afterwards. We realized that becoming friends with our investigator is the most productive way of teaching him, rather than having regular rote lessons. He is showing amazing potential though :) We are officially undropped!
On Friday we met with our ten year old investigator and his father, and talked about his new baptismal date. They are not particularly active, and did not come to church last Sunday, so he was not baptized on September 15th. We discussed different dates, and hopefully he will be getting baptized on September 29th. October 5th is conference, and October 13th is stake conference, so pray for the 29th!
On Saturday, nothing was really working out. None of our appointments were home, and things just weren't going well. At 8:00 PM, my companion prayed that we would be able to experience a miracle, and that we would know who to stop by. We thought of three people to go visit. First, we went by a less-active members home, but he was not home. Then we stopped by another investigators home, but she wasn't home either. We were kind of frustrated, but I had thought of one more person to go visit, a part member family in the branch. We stopped by, and they were home! We were able to talk to them and set up a service opportunity for this week :) God likes to try our patience sometimes, but when we endure, everything works out perfectly.
It has been another great week, and I have learned quite a few lessons. Most importantly though was to be patient, and to stay faithful (something that I struggle with). Thank you all so much for all of your love and support! I love reading all of your letters, and getting pictures of you in the mail :) Missionaries lives revolve around mail haha, it's kind of funny! I love and miss you all, and hope you have a great week :)
Best Wishes,
Elder Kyle William Andrews
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