The Work Moves On

Hello Everyone,

This week has been great! On Monday we had our P-Day, and then we had Family Home Evening with the a family in the ward and their friend. He met with the sister missionaries a while back, but didn't receive the answers he was looking for. Some time has passed, and he is ready and willing to try it again. For our message, we shared the restoration and watched a short movie about the restoration. He seemed to really enjoy it! He is going out of town for the next few weeks, but he would like to meet again when he returns home.

On Tuesday we stopped by part-member family, and shared the talk, "Obedience Brings Blessings." A while back the dad had a health scare, and is still recovering. At times he gets a little discouraged. We talked about how his obedience will help him as he recovers, and he readily agreed. He asked us to keep him in our prayers, and to pray that his spirit might be uplifted. Super good family! In the evening we went out joint teaching and had Family Home Evening with another part member family. We played the card game "B.S." and had a message on prayer. Everyone was really involved, which was great!

On Wednesday we had District Meeting. I gave a training on "We Invite, They Commit, We Follow Up." Lately our District has been lacking boldness and persistent follow up. At the end of the training, I shared Alma 18 with everyone when Ammon is a super boss missionary and causes King Lamoni to fall as if he were dead. The point of it was to be bold and powerful in extending commitments and follow up so that our investigators will be astonished and "ROLO"ver (yep.. we had some rolo's) into the baptismal font. It was kind of a stretch, but it worked! Afterwards I went on exchange with an elder. We helped a woman move some things into a storage shed, and had a lesson with an investigator in the evening. Since he had surgery he has kind of fallen away, and they have had a tough time helping him to progress. In our lesson with him we watched Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration and talked about all of the trials and challenges that he faced as the Church was being restored. Not fun! We set a baptismal date with him for February 7th, and he came to Church on Sunday and is doing great now. Good things are in the works with him.

On Thursday morning I interviewed one of their investigators for baptism. My first baptismal interview! It was really cool to hear his conversion story and all of the changes he has undergone. He is super excited for his baptism on January 24th! In the afternoon we exchanged back and went and did some service at a thrift store. They have not had as many donations lately, so setting up displays was kind of a stretch. Normally they have some cool things that you can decorate with, but not these past few weeks. It is a process haha! And bless his heart, my companion has the hardest time getting the displays coordinated and looking good. In the evening we went on splits with ward members. Originally we had a lot more appointments planned out in the evening, but a few of them fell through. I went and had a lesson with the part member family. We finished teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and read through 2 Nephi 31. We answered a few questions and then talked to their son a lot about the young men's program. My joint teacher is the Young Mens President, so it worked out perfectly! The son is excited to get involved in the young men's activities, including the Pinewood Derby this upcoming week. We arranged to get a Pinewood Derby car for him, and everything is set!

On Friday we had our Weekly Planning Session, and then we went over and visited with a member. We shared with her the First Presidency Message in the January Ensign on following the Prophet. She is such a sweet lady! This last visit was a little bit depressing though. She was talking about how sooner or later the people in the ward will forget who she is, and no one will know about her, but the God at least knows her. Sad! We assured her that she is well loved in the ward and that she has not been forgotten. Later we went up to a different part of our area. It was pretty cool actually! We didn't have a dinner appointment for once, and so we went to Subway to use some gift cards that we had. While we were in Subway the lady helping us asked us where we were from. We both answered, "Utah", and she told us that she used to live in Salt Lake City. Turns out, she is a Mormon! She was telling her co-worker about the beautiful lights at the temple around Christmas time, and how she hasn't been able to go to Utah for the past two years to see her family. We invited her to come to Church and gave her our card. Hopefully this won't be our last run in with her! In the evening we visited with a family briefly and talked to them about goals and progression. Later we visited with the a different family and shared a message with them about prayer. All in all it was a pretty good day!

On Saturday we visited with an investigator and shared Ephesians 6:11-12 with her and talked about putting on the whole Armour of God. She talked to us a little bit about the importance of being a good role model and withstanding temptation. It was a super good conversation we had! Her husband wasn't home, so we were just chilling on the porch with her. Later we did service at a thrift store. We helped move a few things around in store for them. They mostly have us do all the heavy lifting. Afterwards we went and visited with family who’s children are now all off in school at BYU-Idaho, and He (who is not a member... but comes to Church every week and has a calling) is having a hard time with it. We talked about progression, and how growing up is not easy. We related it to how God must be with us. I can't imagine it was easy for him to send us here to earth to be tempted, and to fail, but he saw that it would also be a time of great growth and accomplishment for us. There is opposition in all things, but with all the bad comes a lot of good. It was a fun visit! Afterwards we stopped by the two other families. We shared a quick scripture with both of them and headed over to our new member’s home. We talked to them about Teaching and Learning in the Church. We discussed preparing for service in the Church (i.e. callings, home teaching, visiting teaching, etc...) the dad was just called as a Deacons Quorum Adviser, and the mom was just called as a Gospel Principles Class President. Exciting stuff!

On Sunday we had Ward Council in the morning and discussed the February 7th Ward Baptism date. So far progress has been very slow, but hopefully it will pick up a little bit this week. Members of the ward have been assigned to extend the baptismal invitation to their friends, and so we are kind of in an in-between stage. We don't want to step on any toes, but we also want to get the ball rolling. We shall see what happens! After Church we went and visited with an investigator. He told us that his week was much better, and that things are going well. We talked with him about agency, choice, and accountability. He discussed a few family matters with us, and how that principle has played out these past few weeks. We talked about how you can't make decisions for other people, but you can try and help them to make better decisions. Agency is the greatest gift we could have ever been given, but sometimes agency is a little bit frustrating as well! In the evening we had a lesson with a family on missionary work, and then a lesson with a part member family on the ten commandments. Three of their kids unfortunately were not there for this lesson, but they will be there for our next lesson!

All in all it was a pretty great week! Thank you all for all of your love and support. I hope you have a great week :) Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!

Best Wishes,

Elder Kyle William Andrews