Manhattan Bound

Hello one and all!

Well transfer week is here once again, and it looks like I will be headed out of Sherwood. It's been a good 3 transfers here and I sure will miss it. And after 5 transfers I am leaving Topeka, I've been here since May, so it'll be strange to leave. I will be heading off to the city of Manhattan, Kansas! Home of the Kansas State Wildcats!

Anyway, as you all know this past week we changed our P-day to Tuesday so we could attend the temple, which again was so amazing! We did a lot of tracting at the beginning of the week, which had some good results and we met some pretty nice people. A couple that we met and left with a pamphlet we went back to invite them to church. Their door was open when we arrived, but as we were walking up to their door it quickly shut. Bummer, but things like that happen. As a missionary you really learn how to not let rejection bring you down. If you got hurt after every time someone rejected you there would be no time to be happy! Can't imagine having a sad mission.

Thanksgiving was this week!! So the Elders quorum in the ward was supposed to have a "Turkey Bowl" against the Elders quorum in another ward, so we show up at the appointed time and place only to find out that they cancelled! Bummer. But we had one as a zone a few hours later and that was loads of fun! We did Senior Companions vs Junior Companions, needless to say the seniors dominated the competition! Later that day we had not one, but two dinners! My only regret is that the dinners were scheduled too close together, didn't have time to digest before we went back to eating. But it was really great, had a smoked, fried, and baked turkey! Can't decide which I liked the most.

Anyway, we just continued to trek on and look for miracles in the work!

One great miracle, there was a baptism in the ward this week! I interviewed someone the sisters had been teaching for baptism, I always love baptismal interviews because it can be such a spiritual experience. Since I've grown up in the church it is so cool to see others experiences and views on the church and the gospel. So he passed his interview and even asked me to baptize him, or as he said "dip him"!

So a few weeks ago we had our own baptism, but due to Stake Conference he was unable to be confirmed. We were a little worried cause he was going out of town with his family for Thanksgiving and his original plan was to come home Sunday night, but he was able to make it back Saturday and make it in time for his confirmation! Which was pretty great!

So the Topeka stake does a big thing for Christmas called "Nativities and Noels" where a bunch of different people bring their nativities, people from any religion anywhere in Topeka. Then they set them up all around the church and like tour the church and look at the nativities. Then while they are going around people are performing music, or they'll have the Tabernacle Choir Christmas performance playing. Then Sunday night it ends with the First Presidency Christmas devotional. So a cool way for people to be introduced to the church. Kinda sad I'll miss it.

Things here are good, I am super excited for this upcoming transfer, new area, and new companion.

Love you all tons and have a great week!!

Elder Andrasko

The Best of Times

Zone Conference with Elder Stanfill

Josh's Baptism!!!!!

At the Kansas City Temple

With my good friend Elder Smack

Hello everyone!!

So I am writing today, Tuesday, because we changed our pday so we could come to the temple! Which we just finished with. We left at 9:30 to make it to the 11:30 session. But it was the first time I was able to attend my entire mission! The only time I will attend on my mission.

Anyway this week was amazing because...Josh got Baptized!

So this was a really busy week, we had a visiting General Authority Seventy, Elder Stanfill! He came and had zone conference with us and the Manhattan and Lawrence zones. He has thoughts and words to share with us, and at the end we had a full hour for Q&A. It was pretty amazing, and I learned a lot of new things.

We had three days of interaction with both him and President McCuistion because of Zone and Stake Conference.

So we spent a lot of the week out finding and we met this really cool guy named Eric! We had a good first contact and he told us that his grandparents were Mormons and he invited us to come back. When we came back he said he told his mom we came by and he found out that she was also baptized a member, we invited him to stake conference but he didn’t make it. Anyway he is super open and hopefully we can continue to teach him.

Yesterday, Monday, as we were out proselyting, which was weird, we met a cool couple that said there were looking for a church to go to and their 7 year old was at the phase where he was asking a lot of questions. So we talked to them about the church and how it benefits families, and a little bit about the restoration. They seemed cool, hopefully we will see them again.

We have an investigator who has like 7 kids. So we stopped by to see them, and we found out they her and her boyfriend of like 10 years broke up! So that was sad, we told her we would come back and talk more to her, but she wasn’t home when we came by.

So the highlight of the week was, of course, the baptism of our good friend Josh! It was a smaller service, which is ok, and Elder Fielding was able to perform his 2nd baptism of his mission! Unfortunately due to stake conference Josh wasn’t confirmed on Sunday, so we have to wait until this coming Sunday, so we’ll keep him on track so he doesn’t fall off before his baptism is “complete”!

Again the temple was AMAZING! Super awesome week, and glad for every moment I have to be a missionary, have a great week!

- Elder Andrasko

Missionary Man

Hello everyone!

It was a great week,  lots of progression and some good times too. 

Monday we went bowling! I haven't been for a super long time so it was pretty dope, scored like 113. So not too bad.

So we planned to go to the temple next week, but temple is closed Monday so we are going Tuesday and changing our p day to then. So emailing will be done then! 

Anyway Wednesday was pretty good. We were asked by the young men's President to talk to the young men about how to prepare missionary meals, and things we wish we had known before our mission. It was really fun!

We had interviews with our mission President this week! It was super rad, President called me an old fart during the interview. I also got a new temple recommend! 

We went on exchanges this week! We did lots of tracting and we actually met a few nice people who said we could come back. One was a really sweet old black lady in a wheelchair. There was another family with tons of people who lived there said we could come back after Sunday.

We've worked really hard with Josh thus week, to make sure he lives the commandments and make sure he is prepared for his baptism. His interview is this week so fingers crossed! If he passes he will get baptized on Saturday! Exciting!

Things are really good here and I love the work. We have zone conference this week with a member of the Seventy, Elder Stanfill. It will be a great time! 

Love y'all tons! Have a great week!

-Elder Andrasko 

This week had some crazy stuff in it...including a police raid and arrest.

Hello everybody!!

This week had some crazy stuff in it...including a police raid and arrest.

So Tuesday was Halloween, so we had to be in at 7. Oh also Monday at FHE we carved pumpkins so had that ready for Halloween. Anyway it was super cold, in fact it snowed like all day...So we went tracting for most of the day, then had dinner with a recent convert family. After we got home we did some weekly planning! Made use of the time that we had. 

One thing that I forgot to mention last week, or maybe it was two weeks ago , but we started our annual Christmas Book of Mormon challenge. So as a district we've been reading 8 pages a night. So as of last night we are in the book of Enos!

Anyway, we went on exchanges after district meeting on Thursday. I was with Elder Sheets and we did a lot of tracting. And we had pretty good success! Met a few really cool people. But the real exciting stuff was what happened the next morning. So we all stayed the night at Kaw Valley's apartment, I was on my old bed/mattress topper (cause I didn't have a real bed for awhile). Anyway in the morning while we were studying we hear this loud banging below us with a, "POLICE, SEARCH WARRANT, OPEN UP!" And it went on for a few minutes, we look outside and we see a whole swat team standing outside the apartment. 

Anyway the guy in the apartment below us comes out and he gets arrested. And I guess the cops spent most of the day tearing apart the apartment. So more than likely it was a drug bust. But there was lots and lots of police.

Friday we went to see our investigator Josh, who just started living the word of wisdom so he can get baptized, and he made us a traditional dish from his home country of El Salvador! And he gave us lots and lots of food, I was sooo full. Then less than 2 hours later we had dinner! So much food on that one day...

Saturday! We helped two people move on Saturday, it didn't take a ton of time, but it was a lot of work. At 1:30 the sister's investigator was baptized and I was asked to play the piano for it. So it was nice to be able to use my piano skills.

We were supposed to have a baptism, but we had to push back the date. We hopefully have two coming up on the 18th, but that depends on them and their agency!

Anyways things here are really good, we have interviews with the Mission President this week, so that will be cool! Love ya, have a good week!

-Elder Andrasko