Transers and Thanksgiving

Hello Everyone,

This week has been great! On P-Day last week we were all over the place because of transfers, but it was fun :) We had Family Home Evening with our recent convert and his family. They are really warming up to us now that he is baptized! We played boggle with them, and had a great time! After the activity we had a quick spiritual thought, and they were really open to it. Good things are happening in their family!

On Tuesday we had an opportunity to help out with a pretty unique service project. We were sheet-rocking a ceiling! Kind of nuts. I remember watching sheet rock go up in our old house before we moved, but I never would have thought of helping out with some dry wall. I am not particularly good at it, but it was kind of fun to learn. We were helping out a less-active/part-member family by sheet-rocking their ceiling in their main room. They have an interesting family situation, but they are great. Our investigator is renting the house and fixing it up for one of his friends. His Mom and Step-Dad and Step-Brother & Sister just moved from Las Vegas a few months ago, and moved in with him. Our investigator’s Mom is related to a family in the ward, and used to be a member. They are a really awesome family! Hopefully we will be able to start teaching them the lessons. The kids are already coming to mutual, so it would be great if they started coming to Church as well! In the afternoon we did a lot of goodbye visits. We met with a couple people, and in the evening we went out joint teaching and met with our investigator family. We shared Elder Dube's General Conference address about looking forward and believing. It was a super great lesson! The wife mentioned that she had been working on her paperwork to change her last name, and that it was almost complete.

On Wednesday we had transfers. Of course it was on the day that it snowed and was super icy, so everything happened a little later in the day than we had originally planned. My companion went to Buffalo, and I drove up to Bloomington with another Elder. We attended the transfer meeting, and then I met my new companion. He is from Manti, Utah and has been out on his mission for 6 months. He is just like his trainer, but white. It is kind of interesting to see the influence that a trainer can have on their trainee. His trainer is home now in Utah, but he has had a lasting affect on his greenie. Luckily for me, he is a little bit better than his trainer. The only big thing that I have noticed is that he does NOT like leadership in the mission. his trainer had a really hard time with leadership. He did not like any District Leader, Zone Leader, Assistant, or Mission President that we had. He was convinced that they all had ulterior motives. My new companion has the same struggle. He doesn't really like the fact that his companion is the District Leader, and he certainly does not like our Zone Leaders even though he has not met them yet. Kind of interesting. Things are all going to work out though! I have learned that each transfer, each area, each companion is inspired. Inspired does not always mean that it is easy, but you sure do learn a lot! After unpacking and everything, we went out and had a lesson with an investigator. He is the man that my previous companion and I had the "fun" cat experience with in the evening about a month ago. We had a quick lesson with him, because he was really tired, but we had a great visit! He has a really strong faith in Jesus Christ, so he has a great foundation.

On Thursday we had Thanksgiving! We started off the morning early with the 2nd Annual Ward Turkey Bowl. It was -4 degrees and freezing, so it gave you a great motivation to run ;) Around 12:00 we had our first Thanksgiving with the investigator family! They are amazing :) The wife has submitted her papers, and is waiting to find out if she got a grant to pay for the paperwork. We shared a video that the Church produced about Thanksgiving and gratitude, and then we went around the table and shared things that we were grateful for. It was a really cool lesson. Around 3:00 we had our second Thanksgiving with another family. Holy cow, we were stuffed already! They had two different kinds of turkey. Both were super good! One was a regular turkey, and the other was marinated in Pumpkin Beer. Super fun! Then we played a game with them called "Life On The Farm." The point of the game was to get 60 cows. We totally lost, but it was fun :) To finish off the evening, we went over to an investigator family for our last Thanksgiving. Luckily we just had a light snack and played some Boggle with them. We shared the same Thanksgiving video with them and talked about all the things we are grateful for. Gotta love Holidays :) #HappyThanksgiving

On Friday, Black Friday, we had Weekly Planning, which went really well! No black friday shopping or broken collar bones, however, we got a lot done, which was awesome. We have a lot more to plan now that I am the District Leader, so it was good to get everything organized. I love organization! In the afternoon we had a lesson with a ward member. We shared a message from the last Ensign magazine title, "The Reality Of Christmas". It was a super good message! You should all definitely read it. I am the first to admit that I get way caught up in Christmas, but it is always good to remember the reason for the season. To finish off the day we stopped by the family we helped eariler this week with sheetrock and set up another time to help them finish their sheet-rocking project. We had a little lesson with them on faith, and shared Alma 32. It was really cool!

On Saturday we had accountability with our Zone Leaders, and then we went out finding for a while. We went tracting in a trailer park, and found an 18 year-old girl. She was really interested in learning more about Jesus Christ. She attends a Lutheran Church (like everyone else in Minnesota), but she is open to learning more. She is moving though, but we will at least be able to refer her to some other missionaries! To finish off the day we had a lesson with a member. We shared that same Ensign article, "The Reality of Christmas". She shared a few Christmas memories with us, and we had a really great discussion. She is such a great lady! The Church has this new video campaign kind of like the one they had last Easter (#BecauseOfHim). It is called "Because Of Him". It is a super great video! We have been given special "Because Of Him" mormon.org cards, and we are sharing it with everyone this month! #ShareTheGift

On Sunday, St. Andrews Day, we had Church. We had a really good combined lesson on family history. I don't really know much about family history, so it was good to learn a little bit more! In the evening we went out joint teaching, and had a lesson with the investigator family. We watched the Restoration video and gave them a copy, and then we talked about baptism, and set a baptismal date of December 26th, the day after Christmas! They are going to be married and baptized on the same day. It is going to be awesome! We are super excited :) Afterwards we started our new member lessons with our new member, and taught her the restoration as well. We watched a Mormon Message called "Origin" that is a modern day example of the Restoration. It was super great! An awesome way to end the week :)

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and Black Friday weekend! Thank you all for all of your love and support. You mean the world to me! I am #GratefulFor you all. I hope you have a great week, and that you are surviving the cold December weather! Have a great week :)

Best Wishes,

Elder Kyle William Andrews