October 21, 2013
Hello Everyone,
It has been another crazy week! On P-Day I finally watched "The Testaments", a movie that missionaries rave about and are stunned when they hear that I have not seen it.
On Tuesday we had Zone Training in Rochester, Minnesota. President and Sister Clements are so amazing, I always love being able to spend time with them and to hear from them. President Clements shared an interesting quote with us that I really liked about seeing the big picture. "What are you doing?”, I asked a man. “Laying bricks”, he said. “What are you doing?”, I asked another man. “Building a wall”, he said. “What are you doing?”, I asked another man. “Building a temple”, he said. Okay, so I didn't copy it down exactly, because he said it quickly, but you get the idea! I never really thought about seeing the big picture quite like that. I often get stuck in the mindset of laying bricks, and building a wall, but I need to look at the big picture of building a temple, to relate to the quote.
After Zone Training we had to go have our car serviced at Valvoline in Rochester, Minnesota. The church has an account with Valvoline, and that is the closest one to our area! We pulled in to Valvoline, and the service man asked me what we needed done. We had written down everything that needed to be done on the car, so it should have been a smooth and simple experience. I am not car savvy, so I have to put a little extra effort into these ordeals ;) I opened my mouth, and without even referring to the list I had made, I uttered "We need to get our gas rotated." Everyone in the car burst out laughing, and I realized what exactly I had just said (We had the South La Crosse Elders in our car). I corrected myself, and told him that we needed our oil changed. We had a whole list of things that we needed to get done, but I only mentioned the oil at first, because my brain decided that after that little experience, it was done working. The service man asked me to pop the hood of the car. I could not for the life of me find the lever that popped the hood! As I was pulling on the parking break, the man who now surely thought I was an idiot opened the car door and found it for me. In my defense, it was extremely well hidden, and I probably would have never found it. He then asked me to turn on the bright lights on our car. I have used the brights many many times, so this should not be a problem! Nope, windshield wipers and cleaner came shooting out. Try again, right and left blinker. Nope, try again, okay finally I got the brights on. It was awful! Later, when my head decided to start working again I was able to get everything else done on the car, and it all worked out in the end. I am NEVER going to be the driver when we go to Valvoline again though :) I know my car knowledge is bad, but I am not that bad! It was quite a funny experience though.
A less-active member in Sparta works at O'Reilleys (something like that). I thought it was a grocery store, but apparently it is a car part store. I realized that we HAD to share this story with her! She loved it, she would not stop laughing! We visited her a few days later, and she informed me that she had told everyone that she worked with -- first of all that -- I thought O'Reilleys was a grocery store, and my Valvoline experience. Looks like I won't be visiting O'Reilleys any time soon either ;) She is funny though! We are hoping that better developing this friendship with her will help her to desire to come back to church.
We contacted a mormon.org referral this week at the VA Hospital in Tomah, Wisconsin. He talked to us about the challenges that he is facing, and some problems in his family right now, and we talked to him about how we can help him, but more importantly, how the gospel can help him. He really liked meeting with us, and invited us to continue meeting with him! Unfortunately he is not able to attend church, because the VA does not allow certain patients to leave, but we are excited to see where things go. His daughter who referred him is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and when he leaves the VA he will most likely be going to live with her, because of marriage problems he is facing right now. I think this will be the perfect opportunity for him to continue to improve and to grow, and to strengthen his faith. We will just have to see where it goes!
We met one of our teenage investigators again this week. We have not seen her FOREVER, so re-establishing contact was amazing :) We set up a time to meet with her next week when she is not so busy, but she is excited to meet with us again! It was kind of fun though, we met her in the commons area in Tomah High School. I have not been in a high school for a long time!
We met with a less-active family this week as well. Two of their children have not been baptized, and they want to become more active, and to have their kids baptized in the near future. They are crazy busy though, but we will be persistent in meeting with them and hopefully getting them to church here soon. They could fill in a lot of gaps in the Sparta Branch!
I received the package from Grandma and Grandpa a few days ago, and it completely transformed a seemingly terrible day! The Ricola cough drops, and doTERRA supplies were very timely. You can only spend too much time with a sick companion before you become sick yourself. I am surely sick now, so these things will help a lot! The ties were great as well, when you wear a tie every single day, you tend to get quite bored with your current selection, so that was amazing :) Holy cow though, I now have SO much candy! I guess it is a good thing that we can't go trick-or-treating ;) I loved the kleenex as well, I'm definitely using Kleenex now! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!
On Saturday we attended a really cool wedding reception for two members in the branch who got married! They had a ton of non-members at their wedding reception in the church, and they had a little overview about what their marriage was like in the temple, and the signs were all up from the open house in the branch, so people that wandered around learned a little bit about our religion. It was a really fun ordeal :) The bride’s brother flew in from Utah (attending BYU) for his sisters wedding, so it was fun to see him again, and talk about P-town and BYU.
It is starting to get FREAKING cold here, but hopefully it will not start snowing any time soon. I absolutely hate the cold, but it is a reality that I am starting to have to face. Things are going well though! Thank you all for your kind words of encouragement, and for all of your emails, pictures, and letters. I love hearing from you all! I love and miss you, and hope you are all doing well :) Talk to you soon!
(I don’t normally include his personal notes to me but this one is priceless! It proves that these amazing letters are coming from the Kyle we all know and love!!!)
Mom,
Have you heard of the iPhone 5 C yet? I just saw an ad at Walmart, so we will have to see what the latest model is when I get home! Maybe they will have an iPhone 7 S or something. Gotta love technology! By the way, I saw in your email last week that you mentioned a Christmas list. I am far ahead of you, and already have one in the works, so no need to worry! I will have it completed in soon time so I can send it home to you. Thank you so much for all you do!
Best Wishes,
Elder Kyle William Andrews
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