God does his own work.

Hello Everyone,

This week has been a little all over the place, but it all worked out in the end. On Pentecost Monday we had a District P-Day. We went to Downtown Minneapolis and saw the sculpture gardens, toured the St. Mary's Basilica, and went to Sebastian Joe's Ice Cream Parlor. It was amazing! I absolutely love sightseeing, and I especially enjoyed touring St. Mary's Basilica. I loved the gorgeous architecture and the peaceful feeling of the Basilica! It was amazing :) The only downside was that while we were out sightseeing, my camera started to break. The wrist strap fell apart, and the power button is starting to get really loose. I guess it is an older camera now, but it frustrated me none the less haha! In the evening we went out with a member of the ward, and contacted a bunch of mormon.org referrals that we received. It wasn't a super fruitful evening, but we had a good time.

On Tuesday we met up with the Zone Leaders, because an elder was going to the mission home to conclude his mission. We went on a temporary exchange with an elder from Kayesville, Utah, and covered two areas for the day. We had a bunch of accountability calls, and then met with a man that the Zone Leaders had an appointment with. We taught him the restoration, and had a great lesson with him! Later in the day we had a lesson with our investigator family, and talked about Church attendance. We watched an AMAZING Mormon message called Mountains To Climb. Definitely recommend watching that one! It was an interesting day, kind of crazy, but it worked out.

On Wednesday a member from the ward called us up and asked us if we could help someone move some furniture. We helped her move a big dresser, and coordinated moving efforts for her later in the month. Afterwards we went over to a home and mowed their lawn, sprayed for weeds, and weed whacked. Afterwards we had lunch, and the new elder arrived. We were walking down the street a while later, and a woman yelled out at us and told us to meet her down at the next street. I felt a little apprehensive. People yell at us ALL THE TIME, but they never want to meet up with us. I thought we were about to be thrown down, but it was a woman. We met her at the next street, and she told us that she wanted to give us a McDonalds receipt that she just got with a coupon on it. She also mentioned that she dated a Mormon and almost married him, and that she was interested in investigating the Church again. We later found out that she made up the McDonalds thing on the spot to rationalize why she was stopping us. SUPER COOL :) In the evening we went out joint teaching and started off by meeting with an investigator. He was in the back yard fixing a lawn mower, so it was a different kind of a discussion. We talked to him about Church and some of his beliefs. He invited us back another time when he was less busy. We finished off the evening stopping by the bread lady. We had a nice discussion with her, and went home to plan for the next day.

On Thursday we had a lot of work done on our apartment. Our apartment sucks, and it is pretty much falling apart. It is definitely a humbling experience for me. I have never really had to deal with ghetto circumstances. In fact my apartment in college was a BIG adjustment for me, and it was pretty nice! Now that I see the comparison, I was living in the Ritz Carlton of neighboring BYU apartments. Now I am living it up in a ghetto Super 8 Motel. It is definitely eye opening. Anyways, one of the workers came over and was fixing up our bathroom, and our sliding glass door, and our air conditioner, and our molding wall, etc... We started to strike up a conversation with him, and he began asking us questions about our Church. We began to teach him the restoration, and he was super accepting of it all! In the evening we went out with a member, and had an appointment with a new member. He got called into work, but his wife was there with her friend so we talked with them for a little while. We got to know her friend who is from Ethiopia. She talked to us about the search she has been on to find a good Church, and so we taught her the restoration. All this week we have had miracle after miracle. People has basically been coming to us, asking to be taught. It is definitely true that God can do His own work! She accepted the baptismal invite, and is excited to learn more about the Church. Our new member invited her over Monday evening to be taught in her home. Awesome! Afterwards we went over to visit with an investigator. I knew she wasn't going to be home, because it was a Thursday evening, but I felt restrained to share that with everyone. We went over to her home, and her niece answered the door. We talked to her for a little while, and taught her the restoration. She was interested in learning more, but brought up a brain injury she had a while ago and mentioned that her memory is not very good. She wants to learn though, so we can help her along the way! It was an amazing evening :)

On Friday we weekly planned, and went out joint teaching. We saw an investigator on the street and stopped to talk with him for a while, and then went over to see a different investigator family. We followed up on our lesson about Church attendance, and invited them to Church on Sunday. They committed to come, so all was well! We taught the 10 commandments and Sabbath day observance. They seemed to really enjoy the lesson! Afterwards we taught the woman that stopped us earlier in the week. She was really eager to learn, and was excited to read the Book of Mormon. She accepted the baptismal invitation, and committed to come to Church. It was incredible!

From Wednesday - Friday my companion and I were on a 3 Day Military Diet that he has been using on his mission. I am not a big fan of fad diets, but I decided to just suck it up and do it with him. No bueno. It was awful! I have never been more exhausted, more crabby, and more hungry in my life haha. We both lost 5 pounds, but it totally wasn't worth it. I feel like a healthy diet, and exercise is the best way to do it, but he is determined to lose a bunch of weight. I guess he doesn't fit into most of the clothes that he brought with him on his mission, so he needs to change. I guess my biggest beef with fad diets is that once the 3 days were over, he was back to eating normal foods and snacking all the time, and chowing down on doughnuts. It just doesn't teach you to live a healthy lifestyle. He wants to do it once a week, and basically told me that he needs me to do it with him, so I will... but I certainly am not going to enjoy it. I have never felt such an urge in my life to take a bath in ice cream and rub cake all over my face, and eat french fries and drink gallons and gallons of Diet Coke as I have on this diet.... actually maybe I have had the urge to drink that much Diet Coke ;) But it isn't good.

On Saturday we had a Zone Service Project in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. We cleaned up at the 50th Annual Tater Daze Carnival. It was nice to break up our regular missionary efforts, but there were way too many missionaries for the amount of actual trash they had. There was a lot of standing around, with not much to do. The whole time I was totally wanting to go on some carnival rides, but I restrained myself. Once I get back from my mission though, "I'm going to Disneyland" like they used to say in those old Disneyland commercials haha. Afterwards we went out joint teaching. There was a super bad lighting storm though, so the evening did not work out as we had planned. We were eating dinner at their house, and lighting struck right near their home and the power all shorted out. Kind of dramatic! I have never seen lighting that close before! At the end of the evening we had a mission conference call starting a fast for gratitude on Sunday. Yep... three day diet, one day break, mission fast on Sunday.... yikes!

Sunday was pretty great! The only downside was that of all the people that committed to come to Church, not a single one of them followed through on their commitment. Rude. It was Father's Day though, so maybe another week will be better. It was an interesting Sunday though! One of the Salmon kids is in my ward now, I certainly wasn't expecting that. I don't really know him very well, but it was a fun surprise! In the evening we attended President Clements last Presidents Fireside with our neighbor. He drove us there and everything! Kind of cool. We moved him into our apartment complex a few months ago when my companion had just recently arrived here, so it was cool to see our service efforts come full circle! It was a great evening, and we had some interesting conversations with Will. Such is the life ;)

Thank you all for all of your love and support! I hope you have an amazing week and that all is well back home :) Talk to you soon!

Best Wishes,
Elder Kyle William Andrews