Obedience Brings Blessings.

Hello Everyone,

This week has been great :) On Monday, we had our P-Day. Nothing super eventful happened, but it was good to get everything in order and write a few letters. In the evening we stopped by and visited with a guy and talked with him about choices and adversity. He was having a tough day, and we weren't able to talk to him for long, but he said that it was helpful that we stopped by. Later in the evening we stopped by an investigator and shared with her the talk "Obedience Brings Blessings". She really liked it, and relayed the importance of obedience to us and talked about what a great blessing it has been to her in her life.

On Tuesday we met a nice woman and at first we thought she was Muslim, and most Muslim people in the apartment complex are not super big fans of us. We talked with her for a while, and I was preparing for the blow. Finally I started talking with her about Jesus Christ, and she talked about what a great blessing Christianity has been to her and her family. What?!?! So then we taught her the restoration, and she loved it. It just proved to me the importance of talking to everyone, and giving everyone an equal opportunity to hear and receive the gospel! You never know who will accept our teachings. Afterwards we went over and had a lesson with a less-active member. He has been drinking a lot lately, and is having a tough time. We talked to him about the Word of Wisdom and obedience, and he talked about his struggles. We talked about how he can receive help, but he didn't seem super interested. He wants to wait it out for a while. He is going to Pennsylvania for a few weeks, and will get back right before General Conference. Hopefully he will feel a greater urge to be obedient when he returns home. After meeting with him, we met with another less-active member. We talked with him about prayer, and he asked to pray with us before we left. It was pretty cool! In the evening we went out joint teaching. We stopped by a less-active member, and gave her a blessing. She has severe bronchitis, and was having a tough time with recovery. While we were meeting with her, I felt really good about her returning to activity. She would be a great addition to the ward! Well, she already is part of the ward, but you know what I mean haha ;) Afterwards we met with the a family who are active but are struggling with a lot of health problems. We shared with them the talk "Be Ye Converted" by Bonnie L. Oscarson. Super good message! We talked about the importance of living gospel principles, and the value of our membership in the Church. We finished off the evening by doing a teaching evaluation in the mother's lounge in the Church. It was a great way to finish off the evening!

On Wednesday we had District Meeting. It was pretty good. It is always fun to meet all of the new people in our District! After District Meeting we went around and stopped by a few people, and it was freezing cold, so we eventually went over to the library and did some mormon.org time. It was kind of a freak day with the weather. I was NOT ready for it to be in the 40's! In the evening we went out joint teaching. We visited with some members and talked with them about President Monson's talk, "Obedience Brings Blessings." It was kind of an obedience filled week ;) The sister was talking to us about some obedience struggles in their family, so it was perfect timing! After visiting with them, we went and visited with a woman who is a potential that we found in our Area Book a few weeks ago, but we were having a hard time getting in contact with her. Finally we were able to visit with her and have a lesson with her. We taught her the restoration, and the lesson went SUPER well :) She talked to us about all of her experiences with other Churches, and how she fully understands the meaning of apostasy. She talked to us about how difficult it is to find out which Church is true. We talked to her about the importance of the Book of Mormon, and she asked us for an extra copy. We gladly gave her a copy to read! She did mention, however, that she was going to be gone for the next little while. Her son was involved in a drive by shooting a few years ago, and is in prison for 25 years to life. He was the driver, and was apparently unaware that his friend was going to whip out a gun and shoot someone. She is flying to Washington D.C. to go and try and visit with someone in the White House apparently. A bit extreme, but to each their own ;) I just don't think the White House allows you to just drop in unannounced. When I toured it a few years ago you needed to schedule the tour months in advance and get a background check, so I don't know if her trip is going to be super successful. We finished off the evening by stopping by the bread lady. We talked for a while, and she vented about some of the latest drama in the school systems. She is hilarious!

On Thursday we went to PRISM for the afternoon. Thursday was also Patriot Day / National Day of Remembrance. In the evening we went out joint teaching. We went and visited with a sister who was in the hospital for a possible heart attack. She wasn't sure, and the doctors didn't have a diagnosis quite yet. We gave her a blessing, and she said that she had a much greater peace of mind afterwards. Later we went and visited with a less-active member and had a lesson with him on obedience and Church attendance. He is recovering quite well from a back surgery, and said that he would consider coming back to Church. He just isn't sure if he can handle sitting on the hard chairs for an hour yet. To finish off the day we visited with another less-active family. We talked to them about obedience and faith. It has been forever since I last saw them, so it was good to catch up!

On Friday we had Weekly Planning. Gotta love getting everything organized for the upcoming week! In the evening we had a lesson with an investigator on the Word of Wisdom, and he committed to live it! We set a baptismal date with him for October 11th, and he accepted! We then went and visited with a member family. The brother had some weird things happen this past week to his knee. He had a bunch of fluid build up, and he could hardly walk. They gave him a big brace, and they are going to check up on it and see if he needs surgery. He is really concerned about not being able to work for so long, because he is the primary bread winner for his family. He got a blessing last Sunday though, and he knows that everything is going to be okay. (I was looking through some mormon.org referrals that we received, and we got one for a guy whose name looked kind of familiar. Kind of an interesting name. I typed the number into the phone, and it matched up with omeone we’re teaching! I checked all of the address information and it was all the same. Kind of cool! He must have bumped into some missionaries a while back.)

On Saturday we had a lesson with a guy we met last week. He read the pamphlet we gave him and wanted a copy of the Book of Mormon. Last week he was really hesitant and didn't want to accept a copy right then, but he was a lot more comfortable this time. He wants us to hold off visiting him for a few weeks though so he can read it. We tried to arrange a lesson earlier than that, but he was pretty persistent. Hopefully he reads it! Later we visited with a member and watched a movie called Legacy. It talks about the pioneers and the experiences of the early Church. We talked about Church History and everything that the pioneers sacrificed for their religion. We then talked about how we need to sometimes make sacrifices as well. It was a great lesson! In the evening we went out joint teaching. We had a lesson with some investigators again. The sister was the only person home, so we talked to her about obedience and commitments. She said that they had missed meeting with us, and that they want to try coming to Church soon. We are meeting with them this week, so hopefully they will come to Church this Sunday! We finished off the evening visiting with the father of a family in our ward. He is doing well, he is just kind of tired of being old haha! We shared a message with him on obedience and conversion to the Church, and he shared his conversion story with us. It was super cool!

On Sunday we had Church, and our investigator came again! He is progressing marvelously towards his baptismal date :) After Church we had correlation, and we had a bunch of people to report on, which is always fun! A family from Salt Lake City, Utah had us over for dinner, so I of course had to take a picture with them in their Utes sweatshirts! GO UTES :) In the evening we went out joint teaching. We had an awesome lesson with an investigator family on the gospel of Jesus Christ. We went through the repentance pencil activity and everything :) We finished off the evening by stopping by an investigator. He told us up front that he was not interested, but we talked on his doorstep for a while about his son and how he biked all the way here to Minnesota from Utah. CRAZY! He seems like a really nice guy though.

It has been a pretty great week :) Today should be super fun too! We are going to go see St. Paul's Cathedral!!! I will have to send a bunch of pictures next week :) Thank you all for all of your love and support. Hopefully this next week is equally as great if not better :) Talk to you soon!

Best Wishes,
Elder Kyle William Andrews