General Conference

Hello Everyone,

It has been another crazy week here in Minnesota, but things are going great! On Monday we had our P-Day, and we went to Cabellas with the other Elders. Two of them have not been through a Minnesota winter yet, and so they were starting to get all of their winter supplies. The other elder and I both served in the area, so it was fun to go back there to go shopping at Cabellas. I didn't realize how relatively close it is in relation to our ward! We are only like 20-30 minutes away. Kind of fun! In the evening we went and visited with a less active member and invited him to watch General Conference. It was a pretty good meeting! Then Dancing With The Stars came on, so it was time for us to leave. I think it is funny that he is so into Dancing With The Stars, I love that show as well, but I would have never guessed that he would be a fan! Afterwards we visited with a member, and watched a movie with him called "Easter Dream". It is a story about a boy that lost his father, and he develops a greater testimony in the atonement. It is a really touching movie!

On Tuesday we had District Meeting. We talked a lot about working with Stake and Ward Leaders. After District Meeting, I went on exchange with an elder from Three Forks, Montana. He and I have been serving in the same District for a while now, probably about 6 months or so, but it wasn't until these last couple of months that we really have developed a great relationship! It was an awesome exchange though. We stayed in my area, and our greenies went to their area. We had a lesson with new member on the Book of Mormon and Prayer. He mentioned that he has had a hard time getting back into the swing of things since his trip to England. We talked to him about the importance of reading and praying, and that that is how he is going to get the answers to his questions. I think we made a lot of progress in that lesson! Afterwards we went over to go see an investigator. At first when we saw him he was kind of angry, and told us to go away. We went and knocked on probably 1 or 2 doors, and then he gave us a call. He apologized for being rude, and asked us if we could come back. We went on a walk with him and he vented to us. He has been having a really tough week! He is living in his daughters home with her husband and children. Her husband is not a big fan of him living there, and so he is making life rather difficult for him. He wants to move out, but he needs to have a stable job first. We talked to him about prayer and Church attendance and that if he will ask God, He will answer his prayers. We also talked to him about the upcoming General Conference, and he said that he would really like to attend that. It was cool to see the change that took place in him as we walked and talked with him! In the evening we went and visited with a member. He is still in a rehabilitation center. My heart really goes out to those people. He is in a hospital bed, and is not allowed to put weight on his legs yet. He reads and watches TV all day, and rarely does anyone come and visit him. He does, however, receive phone calls from his family members, so that is good! We talked to him about General Conference, and he said that he would like us to bring him some talks to read after General Conference. To finish off the evening we had a lesson with an investigator. We taught him the Law of Chastity, and he committed to live it! It was a jam packed day :)

On Wednesday we exchanged back, and my companion and I filled up the baptismal font for a baptism in a different ward. Afterwards we went and did some mormon.org time at the library. For the rest of the day we went out finding and preparing for General Conference. Unfortunately, nothing much happened.

On Thursday our District went to the 10:00 session at the St. Paul Minnesota Temple! It was awesome. I have not been to the temple in a few months, so it was really great to be able to go again! Unfortunately they did not play the newest video that I have not seen. Maybe next time! We went to the temple with a member. He is awesome! After going to the temple he took us to a really cool pizza place called Punch Pizza. I think it is original to Minnesota, but it was SUPER good :) I will have to open up a franchise in Utah when I get home, and then I will have to open up a Cafe Rio here in Minnesota! Pretty sure they both will be a huge hit :) In the evening we went joint teaching, but we kind of had a rough evening. We stopped by a bunch of mormon.org referrals that we received, but we found out that we had a lot of fake addresses. Not good! At least we made some headway on our list though ;) I have no clue why someone would waste their time creating a fake mormon.org referral though. Silly people!

On Friday we had Weekly Planning, which is always great! After Weekly Planning we went out and did some finding. While we were out, a member of the ward gave us a call and invited us to a Memorial Service that evening. I guess a member’s Mom passed away two weeks ago, and they were having a Memorial Service here in Minnesota. It was kind of a last minute ordeal, but it came together! It has been a while since I have been to a funeral, and I forgot about the overwhelming smell of flowers. Instantly I was reminded about past funerals and other things, not fun. We did have a really good experience though! Last minute they asked me to say the closing prayer, so that was interesting. We met a woman afterwards eho was fascinated by our Church. We were able to teach her a little bit about the restoration and the Plan of Salvation, but she did not want to take and pamphlets or anything from us. Gotta love when that happens! It was a good teaching opportunity though.

On Saturday we began the big General Conference weekend. I had a lot of talks on Saturday that I really enjoyed. I really liked D. Todd Christofferson's talk. It reminded me of a talk of his that I read a while ago called "Justification and Sanctification." I also really enjoyed Jorg Klebingat's talk on spiritual self-confidence. It was cool to put everything in perspective and to see what I can improve! I liked Quentin L. Cook's talk, it actually really reminded me of President Clements. He talked a lot about the importance of all of our decisions. I need to be a little bit better at prioritizing my decisions! And then in Priesthood Session I really liked President Uchtdorf's talk about introspection and asking ourselves the question, "Lord, Is It I?".

Sunday General Conference was really good as well. There were three talks in particular that stood out to me. The first was Russell M. Nelson's talk on sustaining Church Officers. I have never really thought about what a big deal it is to sustain someone! I also really enjoyed Carlos A. Godoy's talk on making decisions based on our Patriarchal Blessings! It was funny to hear him speaking in Portuguese. When he came to our mission I thought his English was really good! At least his translator was pretty good during General Conference. The guy who spoke in Cantonese had an AWFUL translator. His voice was super boring and just about put me to sleep. Elder Godoy's translator at least had some inflection! And then the last talk that I really liked was David A. Bednar's talk. It really put into perspective why missionary work is so important to our Church. He so eloquently broke everything down, and I think it will be a great resource to share with non-members and members alike! It was a great weekend of General Conference though :) In the evening we went out joint teaching. We were able to have a really good lesson with an investigator on the Law of Tithing, the Law of the Fast, and Donating Fast Offerings. He was really interested in all of those different elements, and committed to live them after his baptism. We switched up his baptismal date to October 25th, because he he just needs a little bit more time to soak everything in and to get a little bit more fellow-shipping from the ward members. It was a super good day though!

Thank you all for all of your love and support :) You are the best! Today we have a Zone P-Day at Andrews Park, so that should be super fun :) That is also why I am super rushed with emailing today, but it will all work out! Don't know why I added that on my email. BLAH!

Best Wishes,

Elder Kyle William Andrews