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Monday, September 8, 2014

Everything is awesome!

Hello Everyone,

This week has been pretty fantastic! On Monday, Labor Day, we had our P-Day and then went out joint teaching with a member. Yeah, Labor Day wasn't exactly the highlight of the week, but the rest of the week was awesome! We seriously stopped by millions of people, and no one was home. I don't know where everyone went, but there must have been a pretty impressive barbecue or something. Rude that they didn't invite us.... On the plus side though, our apartment finally fixed our electronic lock box thing on the outside of our apartment, so when people come to the door we can buzz them in. (They updated our name on it too. Now it just says "Missionaries". So if you send a package to our apartment, make sure it says something like "Missionaries - Elder Andrews" or something like that.)

On Tuesday we had accountability in the afternoon, and then did a few stop by's. We were riding our bikes, and while we were biking I closed my eyes and offered a quick prayer that we would be led somewhere that we were needed. By the way, not a good idea to close your eyes while you are biking. Almost crashed my bike haha! We biked through a couple of neighborhoods, and then finally we pulled onto a street that I had never seen before. We locked up our bikes and knocked on a couple of doors. All of the sudden a woman yelled, "Sir, can you come help me?" We walked over to a woman and an old man that was sitting on the garage floor. Apparently he had fallen, and she couldn't get him back up. Haha that reminds me of life alert. "Help! I've fallen, and I can't get up!" We walked over and asked him if he was in any pain, because we didn't want to break the poor old man! He told us that his shoulders hurt a little bit, but that he was okay. We each grabbed a side of him and lifted him up into his chair.

You could feel his whole body popping while we were lifting him up, but apparently he was still okay. Nothing broken! We tried to transition into sharing the gospel with them, but he just wasn't interested. We knocked the rest of the neighborhood, but I soon realized that we were sent there to help the old man. No one else was home! In the evening we went out joint teaching. We talked with a woman for a while, but she wasn't able to meet with us. On our way to someone else's home, we saw some people pushing their car down the street. We offered to help, and they gladly accepted! They had run out of gas, and needed help pushing their car to the gas station. Luckily they were only a couple blocks away from a gas station, so we didn't have to push it too far. After we got the car to the gas station we asked if we could come share a message with them sometime, and they were really excited and agreed. We exchanged information, and will hopefully be able to meet with them sometime in the near future! We finished off the evening stopping by a mormon.org referral we received. His family are all members of the Church, and he is here temporarily in a rehabilitation center from a hip surgery. We got to know him a little bit, and set up a time to come and meet with him. It was a pretty great day!

On Wednesday we went to the Family History Center and learned how to use family search and all of the family history resources that the Church has to offer. President Forbes wants us all to start using family history in our contacts with others. He told us all that before we talk to people about it, we need to learn how to use it. It was pretty fun! As missionaries we can't really do a whole lot, but it was good to be able to kind of figure out the system. Afterwards we were contacting people outside, and met a nice woman and taught her the restoration and have a return appointment on Monday evening. She was really accepting, and was pretty amazed to find out that Mormons believe in Jesus Christ. We will have to see where things go! In the evening we went out joint teaching. We had a great lesson with a member and her family on Prophets and Service. It was pretty hilarious, because last Sunday the Sister Missionaries were telling us that her daughter, who is 4 years old, has a HUGE crush on me. During our lesson at the that was confirmed. She always wants to be my helper, and she always insists on sitting next to me. Kind of cute! Wait till she finds out I am 20 ;) We finished off the evening with a great lesson with a recent convert that just moved from Eden Prairie, Minnesota. She talked to us about her conversion story, and we talked to her about enduring to the end. Taylor wants to serve a mission, and go to the temple, and read the standard works. She is on fire! It is always so amazing to see all of the changes that take place when people join the Church. She used to be a drug addict, and was homeless, and now look at her! Pretty cool :)

On Thursday we went to PRISM. I love service, but sometimes PRISM just feels like a job. I have learned that I would not enjoy working in a grocery store, but once a week is generally okay. They really appreciate our service, so that is all that matters :) In the evening we went out joint teaching. We had a great lesson with an investigator on the Plan of Salvation. Most Liberian apartments are pretty toasty, so my companion was dying haha! I don't think he said a word during our lesson. It was kind of odd, but our investigator really liked learning about the Plan of Salvation. Afterwards we contacted a mormon.org referral we received. He attended the Book of Mormon Musical downtown, and was really fascinated by it. He said that he wanted to learn more about our Church and the Book of Mormon! We taught him about the restoration, and gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon. He said that he would need to ask his parents for permission to attend Church with us though, so hopefully we will be able to meet with them soon. A member works with his dad at the fire station, so we will see how things go :) Their family is Jewish, but apparently they are pretty open to learning about other faiths. After meeting with him, we met with a different investigator again and taught him the restoration. It was pretty apparent during the lesson, however, that he was not really interested in our religion. His family just wants us to visit him and make sure he is okay. Maybe some time in the future he will show a spark of interest though!

On Friday we had Weekly Planning which is always fun :) We reorganized our Ward Directory, and found some new less-actives to focus on in the upcoming weeks. In the afternoon we met with an investigator and taught her the restoration again. She has been gone for the past couple months, so it was good to start fresh! She accepted the baptismal invitation, and we set up a time to come and visit with her again. Later we stopped by a member and shared President Monson's talk, "Obedience Brings Blessings." We talked about the value of obedience, and how the commandments and principles of the Church protect us and help us. It was a pretty great discussion! In the evening we went joint teaching, and had a lesson with an investigator. We taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ, and he committed to come to Church with us on Sunday. Later we had a lesson with a different investigator and we taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ as well. He is going out of town for the weekend, but he said that he would like to come next week. Progress!

On Saturday we went to the library and watched some Mormon Messages. While we were there an investigator popped in, so that was pretty exciting :) Later in the afternoon we met a guy and taught him the restoration. He was fascinated by our religion, but not super interested in learning more. He didn't want a copy of the Book of Mormon, but he said he would check out mormon.org. We then stopped by an investigator and her daughter. Saturday was her daughter's 6th birthday, so I of course brought her a wrapped present. We only had Christmas wrapping paper, and packing tape in our apartment, so it was a pretty attractive package. She loved it though! In the evening we did a teaching evaluation with members. We taught them the restoration and then talked about member missionary work. I shared a super cool scripture with them in Alma 13:24. That scripture talks about how Angels are preparing the hearts of our friends and family members to receive the gospel. If Angels are going around preparing people, then the odds are, someone we know is prepared! We just need to find out who that is, and invite them to learn more :) To finish off the evening we stopped by a new member and watched "The Mountain of the Lord" with him, and talked about the temple.

On Sunday, an investigator came to Church with us! He stayed for all three hours, and really enjoyed it. After Church we had correlation and our weekly meeting with Bishop. Not only was it Fast Sunday, but it was also National Grandparents Day! Yay for Grandparents! In the evening we went out joint teaching and were able to visit with in investigator. We talked to him about service, but he didn't have a ton of time to visit with us so we set up another time to come and visit with him again.

On Sunday I also discovered a fun new quote from a ward member. "Everything is awesome!" Apparently it is from a new lego movie that is super awesome. I thought it applied nicely for our week though, because "Everything [was] awesome! " I just made sure that everything worked out this week, and greatly reduced the amount of time that we went tracting. Much better than last week :)

Thank you all for all of your love and support! You are the best :) I hope you have an amazing week and that all is well back home. Talk to you soon!

Love,
Elder Kyle William Andrews

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