Many Mighty Miracles (MMM) :)

Hello Everyone,

It has been a pretty good week :) On Monday we had our District P-Day. We went to the Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis overlooking the Mississippi and then went to a trendy icecream parlor called Izzy's. We took pictures near the Mill City Museum where the old General Mills Factory was, but we did not have time to go in and tour it. It was $11, and we had 30 minutes before we had to head home. Oh well, we will have to hit it up some other time. In the evening we had dinner with the the family from my home ward one last time before they journeyed back to Utah, and we found out that the sister knows Kayla really well. That was pretty exciting! My little sister is more popular than I am. We went out joint teaching and taught an investigator family. We talked to them about faith and endurance. I just don't understand them I guess. We have spiritual lessons with them, we invite them to do things, they commit to do them, and then we follow up with them and they don't do it. AHHHH! Agency is a good thing... I just keep telling myself that. I am sure that I have frustrated a few people in my lifetime, but at least I tried to be honest with people.

On Tuesday we had District Meeting, which was really great! During District Meeting we discussed ideas for our Zone P-Day the following week. Everyone wanted to play kickball and other sports, which is fine. I thought the whole idea of having District and Zone P-Days was to experience our Mission Boundaries, but getting together with everyone is fun regardless :) Maybe with extra planning next transfer will work out better! After District Meeting we biked over to a dentist which took up the entire afternoon. My companion had a crack in one of his teeth, and so they investigated the situation. I guess a filling that he got on a cavity was cracking, but they can't do anything until it breaks completely. In the evening we went out with the Stake President. We had a lesson with a member on the gospel of Jesus Christ. We mostly in our lesson talked about the Atonement and faith. The brother identified that faith is one of his biggest challenges with religion, and that it was going to take some extra effort for him. President committed him to read the Book of Mormon for 5 minutes every day, and to pray daily. He committed to do it, and committed to attend the President's Fireside this Sunday as well!

On Wednesday we had New Missionary Training in Bloomington, Minnesota. We borrowed the Sister's car again, and picked up the Elders in a different area. New Missionary Training went really well! It was a lot less stressful this time, not being the new missionary haha. I learned a couple of really cool things though :) President Forbes also told us that our Zone would be proselyting outside of the Book of Mormon Musical, and that he was talking to the Church Public Affairs team for ideas on application. It opens up in a few days, so we will have to see what happens! In the evening we went out joint teaching. We had a great lesson with a new member on Lehi's dream and doing missionary work. We talked to her about how she can more effectively reach out to her husband, and she committed to be a member missionary. To finish off the evening we visited with the bread lady which was fun. She is such a great lady! Hopefully with all the additional fellowshipping she is receiving from our Church, she will choose to take a chance and investigate. Small steps!

On Thursday we had to go over to the Church with Bishop. He was meeting with a Sister to plan a funeral for her Grandfather. While they were meeting, I decided to try out the organ in the chapel for the first time. Yep, and organ is definitely different than a piano :) It was super weird, but kind of fun. Afterward we went over to the library and had mormon.org time. I watched some really good videos, one of which is called "deep beauty". In the evening we went to a member’s home to help them out with their move. They are moving to St. George, Utah. It was a super sad experience, but a good one at the same time. Yeah, that didn't make any sense. They got a truck that was far too small for all of their belongings. We ended up packing some things away, and they are going to figure things out when they get moved in to their condo in Utah. It took up our entire evening, but the good experience that I was talking about was that the ward really came together and helped them in their time of need. It was really cool to watch the gospel in action :)

On Friday morning we finished helping with the move. We packed it up in a trailer, and they hauled it to a storage unit. They were really stressed out and emotional, but they really appreciated all of the help they received. Afterwards we went home and did our Weekly Planning. We talked about our crazy week and how we hadn't really taught very many people, and so we committed to work super hard for the remainder of the week to make up for the beginning half. We went over for a lesson with an investigator, but we missed him by minutes. On the way back there was a guy who's car was broken down in the middle of a busy street. My companion started pulling over to the side, so we went over to help. I know zero about cars, so he was on his own! His battery wires apparently weren't working and so my companion tied a sock around it so it would work. Honestly, I have no clue how any of that works and how it worked with a sock tied on it, but he was able to drive away :) The sock that they found in his trunk apparently was super oily and nasty so we went to a gas station afterwards so he could clean up a little bit. On our way home I decided that we were going to stop by a guy I met at a bus stop a couple months ago, but he has not been home any of the times we have stopped by. This time was different. Kind of interesting though. We found out that he lives in a group home, so we had to go up to his room for the lesson. His room was pretty messy, he had clothes all over and it smelled like body odor. I remember as I sat down on the floor having a distinct prompting to talk to him about how the gospel will help him to improve his state of living, and that it will bring him an inner joy like he had never before experienced. We taught him the restoration, and he committed to be baptized in September. I have been working with my companion on extending baptismal invitations, and so I just stopped and looked at him when it was time to invite him to be baptized. It was a little awkward at first when he just stared back at me, but then he got the hint ;) We left the lesson on a spiritual high and then saw that my companion bike tire was flat. Not good! I have never had a flat tire on my mission, so I didn't really know how to help him. We don't have any bike places near by, so we called a member and he took us to the bike store. In the evening we went out joint teaching. We had a couple lessons fall through, and then we went over to visit with a less-active member. We talked with him for a while, and then his brother came in from a bike ride. His brother is not a member, and doesn't exactly appreciate our Church very much. We talked with him for a while, and he talked with our joint-teach about homes and things because they both build houses. When he was about to take off I asked him if he had met with missionaries before, and it really caught him off guard. He talked to us a little longer about religion and things, and how the Mormons that he has worked with have all been really hard workers, and that maybe he would visit with us sometime. Our Joint-teach laughed on our way home about the look on his face when I started transitioning into the gospel, but he was surprised to see how well it worked out! Friday was also my 15 Month mark on my mission... crazy! Apparently it was also a holiday of some sort called "assumption"... never heard of it.

Saturday was interesting as well. My companion was putting his bike together when he looked over at my bike and noticed that my back tire was flat. REALLY?!?!? This is what I get for telling him that I have never had a bike problem on my mission! So we went back to the bike store with a member and fixed up my bike as well. It was pretty insane! After our bikes were all fixed up we went out and worked. On our way over to some apartments we met a man from Liberia. We taught him the restoration and he talked with us about how important the gospel is. He is Pentecostal, but is interested in potentially meeting with missionaries. He lives in Brooklyn Park, so he will be referred to other missionaries. After our lesson with our investigator, we went over and attempted to have a lesson with some other investigators, but a woman that I have taught previously came out and wanted to talk with us. She appeared to be pretty drunk, and then she plopped herself down on her chair, and began sipping her wine glass full of vodka. Yep, totally wasted! We briefly talked with her, but clearly she was not going to retain much. We prayed with her and then she got super emotional and came over and started hugging us, and was all up in our business. Drunk people are not fun to be around! This is why we have the Word of Wisdom :) She has talked to me about a particular pink tie that I somehow wear every time I see her, and she started tugging at it and told me that I need to give it to her. I decided to depart with my tie and head out! We of course had to take a picture beforehand though, so I could always remember our odd lesson. Riding home was super weird without a tie though. In a way I kind of felt naked. It was a fun experience though, and the tie was starting to fall apart anyways. In the evening we went out joint teaching. We had a lesson with an investigator family and watched "The John Tanner Story" with them. We talked about faith and consecration, and how if they are going to progress, they need to actually do something about it. They committed to come to Church not this week, but next week. We will have to see what happens.

Sunday was really great! An investigator came, and the the new members had their baby blessing for their son. They were able to have their other son there, who they are having a custody battle over. He is not allowed to be with them on Sundays so they don't indoctrinate him with their religion, but he was allowed to be their for his brothers baby blessing! After Church we had correlation with out Ward Mission Leader and Ward Missionaries, and then had our weekly meeting with Bishop. In the evening we we went to the President's Fireside with an investigator family. This fireside was particularly impressive! One of the concluding speakers was really engaging and talked a lot about his struggles with faith, which is exactly what Brother Vevea had talked to us about. He told us about his religious journey which was quite humourous. He was on a traveling basketball team, and a teammate pointed out to them that in their hotels they have a Gideon Bible and a lot of people hide their money in it and forget about it. Sure enough over the years he has collected quite a bit of money using the Bible! One business trip he was on he opened up the nightstand drawer, and there sat a Book of Mormon. He must have been at a Marriott! He said there was no money hidden inside, but he decided to read a few chapters. He ended up taking it home, but never continued reading it until years later the missionaries knocked on his door. Super cool experience!

It has been a great week full of Many Mighty Miracles (MMM) :) Thank you all for all of your love and support! I couldn't do this without you. I hope you have a great week!

Best Wishes,
Elder Kyle William Andrews

Here is a super good article I read this past week during our mormon.org time! Anthony Cannon, one of the people featured in the article is our Assistant Ward Mission Leader. Pretty cool :) http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/missionary-experiences-shape-future