Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam

This week was sick, lots of miracles were seen.

Tuesday we did exchanges, so the District Leader and I stayed in my area. We went to the town of Milford to see a Part member family, the wife was baptized in 2013 and her husband comes with her to church every week and watched all the sessions of conference. But for some reason he won't get baptized, so that's something we are definitely trying to work on. He's what we call a "dry Mormon" or someone who lives the gospel but just hasn't been baptized. So gotta find a way to build a burning desire within him.

So this week we had to go to he Army Base to change the hours of our passes, so we can get on the base early to work out. It was a pretty big hassle, it took an hour and they basically interrogated us asking why we need to be there so early. So luckily we were able to get our new passes without getting kicked off the base.

Wednesday we mowed the lawn of an older couple, I burnt my finger pretty bad though. Got a big ol blister and everything. It kinda hurt, but at least the lawn looked good. The couple is a part member family, but the member has a difficult time getting to church because of her health, and the husband is too stubborn to even give it a try. But they are really nice people, they even fed us this week. The wife is from Germany and makes really awesome authentic German food, I ate quite a bit when we were over there.

One thing that we've started doing with the district leader is to make a daily MBC (mutual binding commitment) on one thing that we wanted to accomplish for that day and promise the Lord that we will accomplish it. So that has been pushing us every day to be the best and to try our best!

We've seen plenty of miracles from doing this daily, we've met a lot of cool people too. One of the coolest people that we met is Ryan Stanley. He used to live in the apartment directly below us and talked to missionaries in the past, he is super down to learning more and working towards baptism. So hopefully we can keep working with him.

Not too much going on right now, we have interviews with the mission president coming up, so that will be awesome. But the week was great, and looking forward to this next week that will be better than ever!

- Elder Andrasko

Called to Serve

Sister Widenmann and Elder Andrasko - Pinehurst Ward Pride!

This week was super rad!

We saw tons of miracles this week and met a ton of super cool people.

So since transfers were this past week and one of the Elders in the district was leaving we all went to IHOP on Tuesday for a district breakfast/goodbye. It's always sad to see friends leave, it was even more sad when we got a call from one of the assistants and was told we would have to bring one of the cars from Junction back to Wichita...

The Grill Masters!

So on Wednesday we had to take the only Chevy Cruz we had and drive it all the way to Wichita. Now instead of biking one out of three weeks, we have to bike every other week. But that also meant I got to transfers and see people! I got to see a ton of friends I have all over the mission, and I even got to see Laura! She is going out to Garden to Elder Colemere's zone! Then came the long drive back to JC, so we were in the car for about 4 hours that day, but hey at least I didn't have to drive out west, that's a long trip!

We have been trying to work a lot with a part member family, but they are crazy busy all the time so we hardly get to see them, but when we do they progress so much! Hopefully we can find some time somewhere to get something done.

The District

This week we met a super awesome guy, he is military and works at the gate at the base. He told us how he was at a point in his life where he needed to change and he always saw the missionaries coming onto post so he asked them for a card, then he called! That was a weeks before we got to junction, but we finally got to meet him this week. He is a super huge dude, like super jacked, and hairy. He looks like a bear. But he is from the Bronx, and is a classic Italian New Yorker, big Yankees fan. Anyway he told us about everything that is going on in his life, and we testified hardcore about the atonement and baptism. He told us he wanted to get baptized! So we have to work super hard to help him overcome his trials, especially the Word of Wisdom, but he'll get baptized for sure! Plus we are gonna work out with him all the time, he can get us to the gym on the Army base for free!

Almost a tornado

Legs are pretty dead this week, Elder Stirling's bike keeps getting flat tires, so we resorted to walking this week, and boy was that a mistake. I thought biking the hills in Junction sucked, but walking is way worse, I got blisters! But luckily we'll be driving this week.

Super awesome stuff coming up here, just have to keep working hard to overcome challenges and trials! Super excited for the new transfer and the next 6 weeks I get to be here!

Love y'all!

- Elder Andrasko

A Day in the Life

Conference Week is always a good week, especially for missionaries.

So this week is actually transfer week, and for the first time since my first transfer week I am staying in my area!! I'm glad I am not getting moved yet, because I don't feel like I have done hardly anything since being here. But we have cleaned up the area a little bit and have found a ton of new people to teach. We actually have a couple cool progressing investigators.

So last Monday I had lost my wallet and I was pretty upset about it, mostly because I lost it due to my own absentmindedness, but while at family home evening that night I was talking to a recent convert about it, and he told me that he knew somebody had turned it in to the police. So we got the number I needed to call and made me promise that I would call them at 8:00 the next morning.

So the next morning at 8 I call them, and lo and behold they have a wallet. So on the way down to district meeting we stopped in at the police station and I was able to retrieve my wallet. Yay miracle. The cool thing was nothing had been taken or stolen from my wallet, not even the lone dollar that I didn't know I had. Yay miracles.

So on Tuesday we went on exchanges with the district leader, I stayed in my area with the DL, and Elder Stirling went to the other area with another greenie. We had a pretty good time, and we met some people that seemed pretty solid, so we will see them in the coming week(s) and hopefully we can help them progress towards baptism.

The next day we actually went on exchanges again, but this time with the zone leaders. So I had the opportunity to go up to Manhattan and find out what it's like to serve in a college town. In Manhattan there is a college student about every three inches, and sometimes they will stop to talk to you! But most people either were in too much of a hurry to be able to stop and chat, or just weren't interested. And then that night we went for a run with one of the recent converts there, unfortunately I had a pizza for dinner, and pizza grease with running doesn't mix well. So that night I didn't feel too hot.

It was kinda weird being back with Elder Stirling after a few days of not being around him, but exchanges were a super awesome opportunity and we got to learn a ton from a few different people.

We started working with this really cool part member family, the dad is a member and his wife and 3 kids are not. So the other day when we stopped by we were talking with the oldest, and he had a lot of plan on salvation questions. So we showed him a super awesome video that summed it up fairly simply, and we talked to him a bit more about it. By the time we were done this 16 year old kid was crying and told us that he loved God's plan for him. We invited him to be baptized and he said he really wanted to and was going to talk to his parents about it right away. 

Not much else is going on right now, I did fall victim to my own absentmindedness again though. Unfortunately this morning while shopping I set my Ipad down while checking out all of my items, and I guess I forgot to pick it back up. And so the hunt for my Ipad is still on, hopefully I can have another miracle with that. I guess I will just need to talk to Ossie again about it.

Everything here is going great, I love Kansas and enjoy every second of being out here.

Love,

Elder Andrasko