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
Showing posts with label Thanksgiving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thanksgiving. Show all posts
Monday, December 1, 2014
Monday, December 2, 2013
Thanksgiving a la Black Friday and the first sign of snow
Monday, December 2, 2013
Hello Everyone,
This week has been different with Thanksgiving, but has definitely been great! To start off the week, we had an exchange with the Buffalo, Minnesota Elders. I was on exchange with an Elder from Logan, Utah. Originally both sets of Elders were going to be in our area, so we arranged two meal appointments for the evening. They had an important appointment arise in their area, so they had to cancel the blitz. We received really sweet voicemails from the families feeding us, so I didn't have the heart to cancel last minute. So... we had two dinners. Absolute madness! One dinner at 4, and another at 5. We were stuffed, but it all worked out in the end. In the evening, we were working in Ramsey, Minnesota with a brother from the ward. I kept feeling like we needing to go somewhere else though, and then I thought of a mother and daughter who live in Otsego, Minnesota. We usually don't like to drive all over the place when we are with members, but I kept feeling like we HAD to go see them. Finally we went over to their home. The mom answered the door, and was absolutely stunned! She said "this is crazy, I was literally just thinking about you two seconds ago, and then you knocked on my door!" It was really cool to see how everything worked out, and then we were able to talk with her for a while, and teach her about the restoration of the church. (The difficulties her family is currently facing are worsening, and her daughter a day earlier was admitted into the hospital for mental health problems) I feel like we are going to have the opportunity to really help their family, it just hasn't completely taken off yet. But it will!
On Wednesday we taught a sister, and her kids again. Their mom is really gravitating towards our church's teachings. As we taught the Plan of Salvation, she said that it really resonated well with her, and it felt like she already knew everything. Each teaching we have shared, has been something that she already believed, but her church has not ever had it as a doctrine. They again didn't make it to church on Sunday though, so we still have a lot of work to do.
Thursday, Thanksgiving, was our P-Day last week. In the morning we had a mission wide conference call at 7:00 AM, and then we went along with our normal P-Day activities. At 1:00 PM we had dinner with a family, and they gave us seriously like hundreds of take-out boxes of food. At 4:00 PM we had dinner with another family. Luckily this time we had some time between the two meal appointments, but still kind of crazy! At 5:00 PM we had to do our shopping for the week, bad. Very bad! Walmart had their first Black Friday event at 6:00, so the store was absolutely crazy! We were just getting regular groceries, but the Black Friday shoppers were EVERYWHERE! Walmart was SUPER disorganized. When you walked into the store, they were handing out maps. They reorganized the entire store, and had video games and iPads in the grocery and produce areas, so it was insane. The Black Friday shopper in me kicked in though, and it was great! The only problem though was that people began to follow suit, even though we were just dashing for things like eggs and chicken. I only had to throw elbows a few times haha ;) I really wish we could have been regular Black Friday shopping, but with sacrifices come blessings.... I had an adrenaline rush for the rest of the evening though, it was great :) With this time of the year, also comes my one year anniversary! One year ago, I broke my collar bone on Black Friday and had to go through surgeries and craziness. I can't believe it has already been a year! Unfortunately I do not have any crazy stories to report, and luckily no broken bones, but it was still a good year. For the rest of the evening, we were with the family we live with doing service. We set up Christmas decorations, and talked, and had a great time! It was fun :) Thanksgiving was definitely a blast! And... in two more Thanksgivings I will be back to Black Friday Shopping haha!
On Saturday we met with a mom and daughter again. The daughter is back home from the hospital now, and is doing well! A family came with us to joint teach, and the sister (Young Womens teacher or president.. not sure) was able to really offer some great advice! We talked about For The Strength of Youth, the Broken Vessel talk from Elder Holland, and this sister gave the mom contact information for a great counselor in St. Cloud. It was a really great lesson, AND I made Lehi Roller Mills blueberry muffins to share, so it was even better :) Don't ask me how that muffin mix made it here to Minnesota, but it worked out perfectly! A member must have given it to the missionaries forever ago, and I am the only one apparently that knows how to make muffins.
Yesterday after church, we had dinner with a family. They just recently moved here from Provo, Utah, crazy! I saw this brother in church a couple weeks ago, and he looked SUPER familiar, but I dismissed it, because he lives here in Minnesota. I mentioned that he looked familiar when we were over having dinner, and he said that he had the same thought. Turns out, he used to work at Nordstrom in Fashion Place Mall in the Men's Shoe Department, my second home. Small world! But it gets even better. His wife grew up in Provo, Utah. She went to Timpview High School. We were talking about our families and everything when this brother and I were trying to figure out how we knew each other, and Sister Wilkinson said that my grandpa, William Bancroft, was her stake president back home. Apparently her dad and grandpa are good friends. She also told me that she went to school with Wayne. Small world! It is cool to have a family here with so many connections to my life back home :) We were also able to talk shoes for a while, which was AWESOME!
It has been a pretty amazing week overall, even though it snowed for like two seconds today for the first time. Luckily it did not stick though! I am SUPER paranoid about the winter here... hopefully I won't kill anyone with my little to no winter driving experience. (No sarcastic remarks Mom!) I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and that this week will be excellent as well :) Thank you all for your love and support, I couldn't do this without you.
Best Wishes,
Elder Kyle William Andrews
Hello Everyone,
This week has been different with Thanksgiving, but has definitely been great! To start off the week, we had an exchange with the Buffalo, Minnesota Elders. I was on exchange with an Elder from Logan, Utah. Originally both sets of Elders were going to be in our area, so we arranged two meal appointments for the evening. They had an important appointment arise in their area, so they had to cancel the blitz. We received really sweet voicemails from the families feeding us, so I didn't have the heart to cancel last minute. So... we had two dinners. Absolute madness! One dinner at 4, and another at 5. We were stuffed, but it all worked out in the end. In the evening, we were working in Ramsey, Minnesota with a brother from the ward. I kept feeling like we needing to go somewhere else though, and then I thought of a mother and daughter who live in Otsego, Minnesota. We usually don't like to drive all over the place when we are with members, but I kept feeling like we HAD to go see them. Finally we went over to their home. The mom answered the door, and was absolutely stunned! She said "this is crazy, I was literally just thinking about you two seconds ago, and then you knocked on my door!" It was really cool to see how everything worked out, and then we were able to talk with her for a while, and teach her about the restoration of the church. (The difficulties her family is currently facing are worsening, and her daughter a day earlier was admitted into the hospital for mental health problems) I feel like we are going to have the opportunity to really help their family, it just hasn't completely taken off yet. But it will!
On Wednesday we taught a sister, and her kids again. Their mom is really gravitating towards our church's teachings. As we taught the Plan of Salvation, she said that it really resonated well with her, and it felt like she already knew everything. Each teaching we have shared, has been something that she already believed, but her church has not ever had it as a doctrine. They again didn't make it to church on Sunday though, so we still have a lot of work to do.
Thursday, Thanksgiving, was our P-Day last week. In the morning we had a mission wide conference call at 7:00 AM, and then we went along with our normal P-Day activities. At 1:00 PM we had dinner with a family, and they gave us seriously like hundreds of take-out boxes of food. At 4:00 PM we had dinner with another family. Luckily this time we had some time between the two meal appointments, but still kind of crazy! At 5:00 PM we had to do our shopping for the week, bad. Very bad! Walmart had their first Black Friday event at 6:00, so the store was absolutely crazy! We were just getting regular groceries, but the Black Friday shoppers were EVERYWHERE! Walmart was SUPER disorganized. When you walked into the store, they were handing out maps. They reorganized the entire store, and had video games and iPads in the grocery and produce areas, so it was insane. The Black Friday shopper in me kicked in though, and it was great! The only problem though was that people began to follow suit, even though we were just dashing for things like eggs and chicken. I only had to throw elbows a few times haha ;) I really wish we could have been regular Black Friday shopping, but with sacrifices come blessings.... I had an adrenaline rush for the rest of the evening though, it was great :) With this time of the year, also comes my one year anniversary! One year ago, I broke my collar bone on Black Friday and had to go through surgeries and craziness. I can't believe it has already been a year! Unfortunately I do not have any crazy stories to report, and luckily no broken bones, but it was still a good year. For the rest of the evening, we were with the family we live with doing service. We set up Christmas decorations, and talked, and had a great time! It was fun :) Thanksgiving was definitely a blast! And... in two more Thanksgivings I will be back to Black Friday Shopping haha!
On Saturday we met with a mom and daughter again. The daughter is back home from the hospital now, and is doing well! A family came with us to joint teach, and the sister (Young Womens teacher or president.. not sure) was able to really offer some great advice! We talked about For The Strength of Youth, the Broken Vessel talk from Elder Holland, and this sister gave the mom contact information for a great counselor in St. Cloud. It was a really great lesson, AND I made Lehi Roller Mills blueberry muffins to share, so it was even better :) Don't ask me how that muffin mix made it here to Minnesota, but it worked out perfectly! A member must have given it to the missionaries forever ago, and I am the only one apparently that knows how to make muffins.
Yesterday after church, we had dinner with a family. They just recently moved here from Provo, Utah, crazy! I saw this brother in church a couple weeks ago, and he looked SUPER familiar, but I dismissed it, because he lives here in Minnesota. I mentioned that he looked familiar when we were over having dinner, and he said that he had the same thought. Turns out, he used to work at Nordstrom in Fashion Place Mall in the Men's Shoe Department, my second home. Small world! But it gets even better. His wife grew up in Provo, Utah. She went to Timpview High School. We were talking about our families and everything when this brother and I were trying to figure out how we knew each other, and Sister Wilkinson said that my grandpa, William Bancroft, was her stake president back home. Apparently her dad and grandpa are good friends. She also told me that she went to school with Wayne. Small world! It is cool to have a family here with so many connections to my life back home :) We were also able to talk shoes for a while, which was AWESOME!
It has been a pretty amazing week overall, even though it snowed for like two seconds today for the first time. Luckily it did not stick though! I am SUPER paranoid about the winter here... hopefully I won't kill anyone with my little to no winter driving experience. (No sarcastic remarks Mom!) I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and that this week will be excellent as well :) Thank you all for your love and support, I couldn't do this without you.
Best Wishes,
Elder Kyle William Andrews
Monday, November 25, 2013
Thankful
Monday, November 25, 2013
Hello Everyone,
This week has been different, but good. At first nothing whatsoever was happening. We did a whole bunch of tracting, and still... nothing. Tracting (knocking doors) is about the least effective thing you can possibly do while on your mission, but the MMM is a tracting mission. When we do not have investigators to teach, we more often than not will be out tracting. President Clements has told us that this will continue until the members begin to do missionary work themselves. Hopefully that will happen sooner rather than later ;) One night after I was fed up with tracting, we decided to stop by some former investigators. We stopped by a woman that the sister missionaries in this area found a while back. She invited us into her *warm home, and we were able to talk with her briefly about the Book of Mormon! It was definitely an answer to a prayer, because I was SO done with tracting in the cold haha.
Last Sunday we received a referral from the Bishop. A man from Utah called him and told him that his daughter lived in this area, and that she was going through a really tough time. She was going through a divorce, and friends and family members were turning on them after years of friendship. To make matters worse, her daughter who is in high school was beginning to be cyber-bullied, and was suffering from depression. A few days ago we were able to stop by their home. We talked with them for a while and got to know them better, all the while I felt something special while we were talking with them. We talked about prayer, and later offered to give them a blessing. The daughter asked for a blessing as well. We were able to give them blessings of peace and comfort, and she mentioned that she felt the spirit throughout her blessing, and explained it as "getting the chills through her body". I was amazed! As we talked a little bit longer, I was struck by the spirit. I realized as I was talking with them about my own experiences that I had been prepared from the beginning to teach them. I have been wondering for a while now why I needed to serve in this area of Minnesota, and this was it. It was an amazing feeling, and I am SO excited to be able to visit with them in the future!
A few days ago in my morning studies I came across a quote that I really liked. "A candle that lights another loses no light itself." - Anonymous. It reminded me of a training I received from BYU Athletic Director Tom Holmoe in my student leadership class at BYU. He talked to us about being "fire-lighters". We need to be the kind of people that share our light with others, and light others fires. Like that quote says, as we share our light, we do not lose any light ourselves. If anything, we gain light from sharing it with others! I hope that one day I will be able to be a successful "fire-lighter".
So, awkward story time! A few days ago we were stopping by a less-active member, and we tracted his neighborhood afterwards. I had to grab an extra coat and gloves and everything from the car before we went tracting though, so I grabbed all my stuff and got ready to head out for the next hour. It was ABSOLUTELY freezing, like 15 degrees with a whole bunch of wind. In Minnesota they have this weird thing called wind chill that makes it WAY colder than the thermometer says, not cool. Anyways, so we went out and did our thing until it was about time to head off to our dinner appointment. As we approached the car, I felt around in my pocket for the car keys. You guessed it, they were in the car! Actually, they were in the back seat of the car. They fell out of my pocket as I leaned over grabbing all of my stuff. We called the mission office, who told us to call a locksmith, so I called 411 for an emergency locksmith and I waited on the phone for like 30 minutes for the man to say that the nearest one was 2 hours away. By this time I just gave up momentarily, mostly because my whole body was frozen, and had to make the call of shame. We had to call the member who we were having dinner with, the Hogan's, and ask him to pick us up because I locked the keys in the car. On the ride over to his house, we found someone to come unlock the car after dinner, and all was well. They broke into our car in about 10 seconds, and we were on our way!
Our meal calendar in this area is absolutely insane! Basically every night we are fed by a different member family. It is awesome! In my last couple areas we were generally fed 2 sometimes 3 times a week, so this is a major upgrade. A couple days ago we were eating with a family who moved from Utah a little while back, so we talked about Utah for a while. I asked them where they moved from, and they told me that they moved from Saratoga Springs, Utah. I told them that I had a friend from there. Turns out my friend and her family were in their stake, small world! This man is a CES coordinator here, and teaches institute at the University of Minnesota, which is what caused the move out here to bitterly cold Minnesota.
On Sunday in my studies I came across D&C 64:33 in the handbook to overcoming addictions from LDS Family Services. Kind of a long story, but I was reading it because EVERYONE in this mission either smokes or drinks or does some kind of drug. Anyways, It talks about how great progress comes from little steps. That really rang true to me as I thought about my mission thus far. It feels like progress is coming EXTREMELY slow, mostly because I am impatient, but I remembered that from these little steps "[my] missionary experiences will build a solid foundation for the rest of [my] life." My patriarchal blessing has said this the whole time, but I never quite got it. I still probably don't completely get it, but I am making progress haha ;) Patience is a virtue... I just sometimes want to give up and scream "I DON'T HAVE ANY VIRTUE!" But that would be bad.
A few days back we stopped by a family whose records were just transferred over to the ward. As we stopped by, we found out that only two members of the family are members of the church. A 16 year old, and a 14 year old. The 16 year old boys friend in Alabama invited him to church, and he eventually converted. His little sister became interested later, and she converted as well! No one else in their family is a member, so I was absolutely stunned at how their situation has all worked out. We met with the two members, and eventually their Mom came in to listen. She said that she really didn't know anything about Mormons, and that she wanted to at least know what her daughter believed. Her daughter (the 14 year old) then proceeded to begin teaching the first lesson. WOW! We were able to teach about the Restoration, and invite the Mom who is "Catholic, but first and foremost a Christian" to church. She readily accepted, and is excited to continue learning about her daughters church. She so far has said that everything makes perfect sense! Unfortunately they were sick on Sunday, but next week they will all be attending.
Sunday was interesting. Sacrament meeting was nice, but Sunday school was absolutely awful! There was some contention. It was not good, and the spirit certainly was not there. I think Heavenly Father was secretly blessing us this week by not having any investigators come to church. Hopefully this will only be a one time occurrence!
Today we have an hour to email, but our P-Day is officially on Thanksgiving, which will be awesome! We will be spending Thanksgiving with two different members of the Ward, possibly three if time permits. It will be interesting to see how it all works out :) Luckily we will not be tracting on Thanksgiving though!
Thank you all so much for your love and support. I am so thankful for you all, and for everything you do for me! I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday :) Have a great week!
Best Wishes,
Elder Kyle William Andrews
Hello Everyone,
This week has been different, but good. At first nothing whatsoever was happening. We did a whole bunch of tracting, and still... nothing. Tracting (knocking doors) is about the least effective thing you can possibly do while on your mission, but the MMM is a tracting mission. When we do not have investigators to teach, we more often than not will be out tracting. President Clements has told us that this will continue until the members begin to do missionary work themselves. Hopefully that will happen sooner rather than later ;) One night after I was fed up with tracting, we decided to stop by some former investigators. We stopped by a woman that the sister missionaries in this area found a while back. She invited us into her *warm home, and we were able to talk with her briefly about the Book of Mormon! It was definitely an answer to a prayer, because I was SO done with tracting in the cold haha.
Last Sunday we received a referral from the Bishop. A man from Utah called him and told him that his daughter lived in this area, and that she was going through a really tough time. She was going through a divorce, and friends and family members were turning on them after years of friendship. To make matters worse, her daughter who is in high school was beginning to be cyber-bullied, and was suffering from depression. A few days ago we were able to stop by their home. We talked with them for a while and got to know them better, all the while I felt something special while we were talking with them. We talked about prayer, and later offered to give them a blessing. The daughter asked for a blessing as well. We were able to give them blessings of peace and comfort, and she mentioned that she felt the spirit throughout her blessing, and explained it as "getting the chills through her body". I was amazed! As we talked a little bit longer, I was struck by the spirit. I realized as I was talking with them about my own experiences that I had been prepared from the beginning to teach them. I have been wondering for a while now why I needed to serve in this area of Minnesota, and this was it. It was an amazing feeling, and I am SO excited to be able to visit with them in the future!
A few days ago in my morning studies I came across a quote that I really liked. "A candle that lights another loses no light itself." - Anonymous. It reminded me of a training I received from BYU Athletic Director Tom Holmoe in my student leadership class at BYU. He talked to us about being "fire-lighters". We need to be the kind of people that share our light with others, and light others fires. Like that quote says, as we share our light, we do not lose any light ourselves. If anything, we gain light from sharing it with others! I hope that one day I will be able to be a successful "fire-lighter".
So, awkward story time! A few days ago we were stopping by a less-active member, and we tracted his neighborhood afterwards. I had to grab an extra coat and gloves and everything from the car before we went tracting though, so I grabbed all my stuff and got ready to head out for the next hour. It was ABSOLUTELY freezing, like 15 degrees with a whole bunch of wind. In Minnesota they have this weird thing called wind chill that makes it WAY colder than the thermometer says, not cool. Anyways, so we went out and did our thing until it was about time to head off to our dinner appointment. As we approached the car, I felt around in my pocket for the car keys. You guessed it, they were in the car! Actually, they were in the back seat of the car. They fell out of my pocket as I leaned over grabbing all of my stuff. We called the mission office, who told us to call a locksmith, so I called 411 for an emergency locksmith and I waited on the phone for like 30 minutes for the man to say that the nearest one was 2 hours away. By this time I just gave up momentarily, mostly because my whole body was frozen, and had to make the call of shame. We had to call the member who we were having dinner with, the Hogan's, and ask him to pick us up because I locked the keys in the car. On the ride over to his house, we found someone to come unlock the car after dinner, and all was well. They broke into our car in about 10 seconds, and we were on our way!
Our meal calendar in this area is absolutely insane! Basically every night we are fed by a different member family. It is awesome! In my last couple areas we were generally fed 2 sometimes 3 times a week, so this is a major upgrade. A couple days ago we were eating with a family who moved from Utah a little while back, so we talked about Utah for a while. I asked them where they moved from, and they told me that they moved from Saratoga Springs, Utah. I told them that I had a friend from there. Turns out my friend and her family were in their stake, small world! This man is a CES coordinator here, and teaches institute at the University of Minnesota, which is what caused the move out here to bitterly cold Minnesota.
On Sunday in my studies I came across D&C 64:33 in the handbook to overcoming addictions from LDS Family Services. Kind of a long story, but I was reading it because EVERYONE in this mission either smokes or drinks or does some kind of drug. Anyways, It talks about how great progress comes from little steps. That really rang true to me as I thought about my mission thus far. It feels like progress is coming EXTREMELY slow, mostly because I am impatient, but I remembered that from these little steps "[my] missionary experiences will build a solid foundation for the rest of [my] life." My patriarchal blessing has said this the whole time, but I never quite got it. I still probably don't completely get it, but I am making progress haha ;) Patience is a virtue... I just sometimes want to give up and scream "I DON'T HAVE ANY VIRTUE!" But that would be bad.
A few days back we stopped by a family whose records were just transferred over to the ward. As we stopped by, we found out that only two members of the family are members of the church. A 16 year old, and a 14 year old. The 16 year old boys friend in Alabama invited him to church, and he eventually converted. His little sister became interested later, and she converted as well! No one else in their family is a member, so I was absolutely stunned at how their situation has all worked out. We met with the two members, and eventually their Mom came in to listen. She said that she really didn't know anything about Mormons, and that she wanted to at least know what her daughter believed. Her daughter (the 14 year old) then proceeded to begin teaching the first lesson. WOW! We were able to teach about the Restoration, and invite the Mom who is "Catholic, but first and foremost a Christian" to church. She readily accepted, and is excited to continue learning about her daughters church. She so far has said that everything makes perfect sense! Unfortunately they were sick on Sunday, but next week they will all be attending.
Sunday was interesting. Sacrament meeting was nice, but Sunday school was absolutely awful! There was some contention. It was not good, and the spirit certainly was not there. I think Heavenly Father was secretly blessing us this week by not having any investigators come to church. Hopefully this will only be a one time occurrence!
Today we have an hour to email, but our P-Day is officially on Thanksgiving, which will be awesome! We will be spending Thanksgiving with two different members of the Ward, possibly three if time permits. It will be interesting to see how it all works out :) Luckily we will not be tracting on Thanksgiving though!
Thank you all so much for your love and support. I am so thankful for you all, and for everything you do for me! I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday :) Have a great week!
Best Wishes,
Elder Kyle William Andrews
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