Love For My Savior

Hello Everyone,

This week has been amazing and exhausting, but great :) On Monday we went joint teaching. We had a lesson with the miraculous phone call woman I mentioned a week ago. We taught her about the restoration. Unfortunately her mind was a little pre-occupied as we met with her, and she was really concerned about some projects that she needed help with. Hopefully after we provide the much needed service for her, she will be able to devote more time to the gospel. After the lesson we went on a quick church tour, and she met a less-active woman that she knows. It was really great for her to connect with her again, and to recognize that she would have friends in our congregation. Maybe it will even reactive her ;) Afterwards we went over and stopped by a less-active recent convert. She talked about how she needed help finding employment, and that she was having a really difficult time with it. The joint teach talked with her for a little while about some customer service jobs that he was aware of, and tried to help her out. Later in the evening we stopped by the home of a less-active family. They are NEVER home, so it was kind of a shot in the dark. Amazingly, one of them was home. We talked to her about coming back to Church, and she was thrilled! She has to work on most Sundays, but she committed to make an effort to get at least one Sunday off a month.

On Tuesday we had an apartment inspection. I am never overly concerned with these inspections, because I am kind of a neat freak. I am quite bothered sometimes when I am transferred to a new area, and the apartment is a wreck! That was definitely the case with this apartment. Slowly throughout the transfer though, I try to fix up the apartments that I live in. I feel like it makes a HUGE difference for me at least, so it is more than worth it! Afterwards we went to our District Meeting. In the evening we went joint teaching. We had a great lesson with the our investigator family! The wife is a member, and their daughter is getting baptized in December. We taught about the restoration, and talked a lot about the Priesthood authority, and that the father could baptize his daughter in December if he himself is baptized and receives the Priesthood. He really liked that! We also talked about how their family could be sealed together in the temple, and be a forever family. It truly was an amazing lesson! Afterwards we stopped by a referral we received from our Zone Leaders. They were busy that evening, but he really wants his kids to learn about the gospel. We set up an appointment for Monday, so hopefully everything will work out!

On Wednesday we stopped by a less-active member. We got to know him a little better, and he talked about government and politics, and hunting and fishing, and everything you can imagine. There were a few moments that I had to bite my tongue, but it worked out great! We shared a message about the Atonement with him, and then he said that we had to take off because Dancing With the Stars was coming on. OH MY GOSH!!!! I love DWTS :) He is old school, so he has to watch everything live, so I totally understood. We talked briefly about how amazing the ballroom dancers and the celebrities on the show were, and then we were off. I never would have imagined that he would be a DWTS fan! Kind of cool :) We updated our Area Book, and then went joint teaching. We stopped by our investigator, the former drug lord, and taught about the restoration. He really liked the message we shared, but I realized that he was more interested in learning about all the different churches so that he can borrow different ideas and create his own church. He kind of missed the boat, but we can recover with him how this is the ONLY true church. We will have to see how things go! We finished off the evening by stopping by the bread lady. She is awesome! We mentioned that we had transfers coming up, and she wasn't very happy. She told us to text our Mission President and tell him no. I felt like jumping up and down and yelling "she likes me, she really likes me!", but I decided not to. She is a tough nut to crack! I never know what she is thinking.

On Thursday we had a Zone Service Project planned, but it rained a lot so it was cancelled. We had to completely re-plan our day which was quite eventful! We ended up going the food bank to do our weekly service instead. In the evening we stopped by an investigator’s to talk about an African Culture Night that we heard about. She confirmed that there was in fact an African Culture Night on Saturday evening, and that she was completely overwhelmed with stress because of it. She is not your typical African! She likes things to be planned out, written down, and scheduled. I love it! Most Africans are completely opposite. We offered to help, but the other ward that was involved needed to get back to her first. Hopefully we at least were able to help her to de-stress!

On Friday we had weekly planning. It was kind of interesting, it is always kind of weird planning for the week of transfers. You never know what is going to happen! I was pretty confident that I was going to be transferred, but I was not particularly thrilled about it. I realized that no matter what happens, it will be great! If I am transferred, I will most likely get a car. AWESOME! If I stay, I get to keep working with all the people that I know and love here. So either way will be just fine. Afterwards, I decided that we were going to work on the ward directory. We went through and called everyone that we didn't know to confirm phone numbers and addresses, and to try and set up appointments to meet with them. We found a bunch of people that have moved, phone numbers that no longer work, and we even scheduled an appointment to meet with someone on Sunday evening! It was awesome :) I love little projects like this! Okay... brace yourselves. We were making dinner, and I realized that not everyone knows basic food handling and food safety techniques. I was cooking chicken, and had the raw chicken on a cutting board. To avoid cross contamination, I went to the sink and washed the cutting board while the chicken was cooking. I then put the cooked chicken on the cutting board and cut it into pieces. I was combining the chicken with some pasta that I had made earlier, and I noticed that my companion was using the knife that I used to cut the chicken to cut some butter on the cutting board that I had used to cut the chicken. GROSS! So we had a little lesson on food safety and food handling :) I am SO grateful that I was able to be involved in FACS courses while I was in high school, and to learn how to cook at home as well. Little things like food safety help so much when you are out on your own! Hopefully I was able to help my companion, rather than bother him, but it was kind of fun to be a mini FACS teacher for a moment. Thank you Mom, Mrs. Draschil, Mrs. Cluff, and Miss Williams :)

On Saturday we had a service project in the morning with a family in the ward. We moved a futon and replaced it with a couch, and then transported the futon and arranged it in their house. Afterwards they told us that all the missionaries have tried to unicycle at their house and that it was a requirement to try it while they video tape you failing. It was an interesting experience, but I certainly do not have a future in uni cycling! (You might be receiving that embarrassing video sometime in the future.) They later had us try their low rider bikes that you sit all the way down in. Those were kind of fun! Afterwards we went out tracting and met a really nice Jehovah's Witness man. We got talking about the gospel, and we realized that he was trying to convert us! He invited us to their service on Sunday, but it overlapped with our Church service. Maybe we can attend a later service sometime... not sure if that is the best idea though. We will see! In the evening we attended the African Culture Night. It was in honor of the the senior couple, because they return home from their mission on May 12th. It was awesome to be able to take part in the African culture. Their food is super spicy, but their music is pretty cool :) The senior couple were even gowned in official African clothing which was really cool to see!

Sunday was SUPER rainy and cold. We had Fast Sunday, because next week is Stake Conference. We went joint teaching, and stopped by a less-active member that we set the appointment with over the phone. It was cool! We talked about his involvement in AA, and how the Word of Wisdom is a blessing in our lives. He committed to come to church in a few week which will be awesome! We then stopped by another less-active member. We had a lesson with her about the Plan of Salvation. They are a really kind family, but her husband is fairly anti about the Church, and so she doesn't come. Hopefully we can help him to overcome that so that she can return to activity in the Church. We finished off the evening stopping by a few people, and were informed about a sketchy neighborhood that we should avoid in the evenings. Last week a pizza man was shot and killed on someone's doorstep, and another man on that street committed suicide. Not a good street this week! The weather is starting to warm up, and so the crime and murder rate is increasing. Not good! Otherwise, it was a great evening!

We got our transfer emails today, and I am staying in the area! :) My companion is being transferred, and I will be serving with another elder. I am excited to see what this next transfer has to bring :) Thank you all for your love and support! You are the best :)

Best Wishes,
Elder Kyle William Andrews