Happy

This week was amazing, one of the most amazing of amazing weeks ever!

So this week was Elder Mitchell's last week here, which is really sad, so we planned on going harder than ever before. Which we did, we went out everyday doing more than what is expected and expecting miracles. Elder Mitchell went on a lot of exchanges this week, so he was only able to work in our area for about half the week.

We did a lot this week to prepare for the Pierce family's baptism. We asked them who they wanted to baptism them. The 8 year old  asked me to baptize him,  the 11 year old  asked Elder Mitchell to baptize him, and the mom asked Elder Porter to baptize her. So we would all be dressed in white for it! The last thing left to do was the interviews! We went over the BIQs, (baptismal interview questions),
several times to make sure they would all be able to pass. They were solid!

Friday Prez came down to interview the mom for her baptism, which she passed!! And the Zone Leaders interviewed the kids, and they passed too! So the baptism was good to go. After the interview Prez stayed and went out to work with Elder Mitchell. They were able to find a new
investigator and put her on date!

Saturday was the baptism! So the first half of the day was spent running around and rounding up investigators to attend the baptism. After a good chunk of time doing that we went to the church to get everything ready.

The church was packed with members from the ward and investigators from nearly every companionship in Topeka. Before the baptism there was a talk about baptism and the Holy Ghost given by one of the most solid recent converts ever. He got baptized last month and is already
preparing for a mission. It was a really awesome talk. After, we made our way over to the font, then they were baptized!!

Sunday in church the same people who baptized them confirmed them. It was my first time confirming, so I was a little nervous. But it went great!

I found out today that I will be transferred, so it will be hard to say goodbye to that family. But I'm excited for my adventures in Wichita! My new zone leader will be Elder Colemere so I'm excited to serve around him again.

- Elder Andrasko

The Best of Times

This past week was crazy! We had so many meetings and so little time to work. But despite all that we still had an amazing week!

For P-Day we had a crazy water balloon fight with the whole zone! The water balloons had color in them and so they would temporarily dye our clothes. We ran out of balloons in like 5 minutes. It was a ton of fun.

Tuesday we had zone conference, which was like a 9 hour meeting where we learn how to be good missionaries, all 4 APs and the mission president gave trainings. It was super awesome and I learned so much!


Wednesday we had our weekly zone pow wow and district meeting. We had trainings from our zone leaders and our district leader, we did role plays to practice what we learned in zone conference, being COEO, which means being able to capitalize on every opportunity. We did several different role plays where there was a million different
things going on and we had to do whatever we could to capitalize on it. Afterwards we were able to go out and work.

This week we've really been focusing on A_____ and her family, it's been amazing to see their progression and A_____ has been able to live the word of wisdom for almost two weeks. So if all goes well she and two of her sons will be baptized at the end of the week. What is awesome is that our whole trio is going to be able to baptism someone
in the family, so we will all be dressed in white! The only thing that could hold her back is her interview. She has to be interviewed by our mission president Friday.

One of our other investigators, L_____, basically dropped off the face of the planet. We stopped by his house every single day. Near the end of the week we found out that he had moved a few houses down. When we stopped by we found out he had a cyst that he got taken out of his back. But he promised us that he hasn't smoked or drank all week.
Unfortunately he wasn't able to make it to church. So hopefully we can find him a ride to church this Sunday and he can progress to be baptized on the 9th.

S____y we had to pass off to the sisters, but we were able to help her find a new place to live, and she should be moving in any day now!! We also found out  her aunt has been a member for the past 25 years and was telling her how much the church could bless her life. So the sister have a golden investigator.

This next week should be huge for our district, at least 7 baptisms! Since it's Elder Mitchell's last week he wants to go really hard, quadruple standard! So needless to say this next week is going to be the best week of my entire mission.

Love you all hope you have a good week!

- Elder Andrasko

Feed My Sheep

My first full week in Topeka was awesome! We have been able to find and teach so many great people.

This past week we started teaching two families.

One day we were riding our bikes towards an appointment and there is this lady on her porch enjoying a nice cigarette, when she calls out and says, "Y'all got any literature I can read?" So of course we stopped and started to talk about the Book of Mormon, then her husband steps out and starts listening and asks "Can I get me one of those too?".  They have 4 kids and love learning about Jesus. Unfortunately we went to talk to them one day and the husband told us he was interested in what we believed so he googled us. He ended up finding a lot of anti Mormon stuff, we sorted it all out, but they don't seem nearly as interested as they were before. So we'll see what happens.

The Pierce family is really super awesome! One day we went out to see a potential investigator, but he wasn't home, we ended up talking to his mom a little bit and she told us of one of her friends who needed
help moving. We of course said that we would help, hopped on our bikes and rode a few blocks and helped her out! The mother is a single mom with 4 kids, and they are on date for the 25th!! She even gave us her
cigarettes! And yesterday at church she bonded with a lot of the ladies in Relief Society, she walked out telling everyone she'll see them next week! So if all goes right they will be Elder Mitchell's last baptism, and my first family!

So we were driving down the street when we were stopped by this guy who looked a little crazy. He proceeded to ask of we were Mormons. When we answered in the affirmative he told us about how we was meeting with missionaries before and how much they were helping him out. We stopped by the next day, committed him to live the word of wisdom and proceeded to put him on date for July 2nd! He is a cool guy who used to be a minister, he told us how much he likes our church and seemed genuinely interested.

We went to see the lady who we put on date last week who we gave a blessing to, we hadn't been able to get in contact with her for awhile. But we saw her yesterday and she said she was looking for a place to rent, and it turned out we knew of a place. We were able to talk to one of her friends, who turned out was meeting with the missionaries before he moved. He told her how much we could help her out. And they both accepted to be baptized on the 2nd! I am going to
have a busy birthday!!

Anyway those were the highlights of my week.

Love, Elder Andrasko

Poker Face

 Posterity coat and tie

No bed!!

So new address is 5209 SW 12 Terrace APT 4 Topeka, KS 66604.

It's a decently nice place, not as nice as my last house. But that was one of the best houses in the whole mission.

Topeka is going pretty good, I have had to ride a bike once so far. We borrowed it from the Spanish Elders. There's a lot going on up here right now. Our whole district has a lot of potential to baptize this month, but in our companionship we had a problem yesterday getting people to church. We had 7 people that we could have had at church, but we only had one. So this week we are going to  really focus on spirituality progressing our investigators so they will be ready for church.

We had this crazy guy who was supposed to be baptized next week. This guy has a really bad mouth and he likes to tell a story of when he was in a coma for several months. During his entire time in a coma he played poker with Jesus, but he lost all 864 hands, because Jesus always had a royal flush. Anyway this guy hasn't been seen buy us or his brother for a few days, and it's kinda sketchy cause his brother looked at us straight in the eyes and told us he wanted to kill his brother. So...that's kind of a scary thought. Hopefully we'll see him soon.

We helped this family move, and they invited us to come over and teach them today. And the 9 year old kid said he wanted to be Mormon! So that's neat. A crazy thing also happened this week, we went to go talk to this guy, Nick, and apparently he got baptized when he was 16! Apparently his GF is also a baptized member, he has 4 kids and 3 are at baptism age! He said it was something he wanted for them, so that could be a miracle.

We had another cool miracle this week, we felt like we should go see this couple and so we started over there. We tried them but they weren't home, but there was some potential investigators who lived across the street, so we went to try them. When we knocked, this lady came from around the house and said she heard us knocking. So we started talking to her, she had a lot of golden questions, all were plan of salvation questions. Then she invited us into her backyard, she had a gun sitting on the table and was asking us why bad things happen to good people. I guess she was contemplating suicide and stuff. We then were able to give her a blessing and left her with a Book of Mormon and a pamphlet on the plan of salvation, and she accepted to be baptized on the 25th. We went back Sunday to talk to her, and she said she was about to read it with her Catholic mother, so we'll see what happens.

Not much else to write about. But things are good here and I am getting along well with my new companions! Three months into the mission and I've already been in two trios. It'll be weird to be back in a normal companionship next month.

Love ya tons!

- Elder Andrasko

Sailin' On

This week has been slower, but it was really great!

Weather was a little crazy this week, lots and lots of thunder storms, tornadoes out in west Kansas, not here though.

B___has been struggling a lot lately, he isn't really in the best
living situation. He lives with his cousin who is a member, but he struggles a lot with drugs. B___ really hates being there and having drugs around him (especially because of his struggles in the past) so being stressed he started smoking again. But he was able to talk to the Branch President and find a new living situation.

We ended up having a baptism this week! Brooks was this homie we found last week who had been taught 8-9 months ago but totally dropped off the radar. But we found him and he really wanted to get baptized, it took 9 days and hardly anything else. But with his baptism we have been able to reactivate his good friend Aspin. It was such an awesome
miracle.

Not much else to write about, transfers are this week and Elder Colemere got called to be a Zone Leader in Wichita, we thought that I might be staying in Ark, but I am also getting transferred. I got called to Topeka. I am in a trio with Elder Mitchell and Elder Porter, Elder Mitchell is a DL and goes home at the end of the month. He also just got released as an AP so I will be able to learn a ton from him. I am super sad about leaving Ark though, there is a ton of people I
will have to say goodbye to.

- Elder Andrasko

Here comes the Son

Not a lot of time to write today so it'll be a shorter letter.

We went up to Wichita today to drop off Elder Eakle so he can get his
new companion. So after 5 weeks in a 6 week transfer we are out of a
trio that was supposed to last maybe 2 weeks.

This week we had to push back B__'s baptism to the 4th, which was
terrible. But quitting smoking is a hard thing. But he has been living
the word of wisdom for a full week now. So he's still looking good for
next weekend. Unfortunately his baptism is transfer week so Elder
Colemere or I might not be around for it.

A__- doesn't really have a strong desire for baptism, she wants to be
baptized but she is scared to do it. And it's been hard for us to get
down to the root of the problem because she is really nervous around
us. But we have been building an awesome relationship with her. And
baptism is totally possible with her this Sunday. Not Saturday because
W____ is going with the young men to Nauvoo.

We had such a sick miracle this week. We went on exchanges with the
ZLs, Elder Haws served down in Ark 8 months ago so he came down with
me. We went to see someone he had baptized and his friend, who was a
previous investigator. His name is Brooks and when we met up with him
he had a huge desire to be baptized! He has already had all the lessons
is living the commandments and has been to church before, the only
thing left to do to be baptized was coming to church on Sundayy. Which
he did!! So he will be baptized this weekend, it's a one week
miracle!!

Since W____ is going to Nauvoo this weekend and the YM were going to
the temple we were able to give him the priesthood this Sunday! We had
a really sweet week and saw lots of miracles. Sorry I wasn't able to
write more, love ya!

- Elder Andrasko

Hungry Like the Wolf

This past week has been one of the coolest/best weeks ever! There was so much that happened, but there was a ton that needed to happen but didn't.

I'd say one of the best parts of this week is we got fed every single day! I've never had that happen before, but it was definitely a highlight of this week.

But one of the worst parts of the week was all the stuff that happened to S___. The devil is really trying to get to her right now, and she is experiencing trial after trial. First of all her pet goat, Lenard, got attacked by wild dogs, twice! And he unfortunately passed away. S___'s oldest brother had been in the hospital dying and she had to make the decision to pull the plug. Then her dog, Nigel, who was 14 and older than her youngest son was hit by a car on Saturday night. It's been a hard week for her. 

Monday we ended P-Day a little early because we had an investigator that said to come back around 4:30. So 4:30 rolls around and we pull up to his house. When we get up to the front door we see the Book of Mormon that we had left him sitting on the front porch with a note that says, "sorry gentleman but were not interested anymore." it was a bummer. 

After that we finished up our P-Day and went to see B___, turns out he had broken the word of wisdom and had smoked, so unfortunately we had to push his baptismal date back to the 28th. Hopefully he can stay away from those death sticks!! Afterwards we headed out to see the Czaplinski's, W___ was in Arkansas till Thursday so it was a good chance for us to have a short lesson with his sister A___. She is one of our top priorities right now, but she is hard to teach because of how shy she is!

 

Tuesday started out with the routine trip up to Derby for our Zone Pow Wow, one of our Zone Leaders just recently got Emergency Transferred, so I got to meet the new ZL. He is a super cool guy, and his first area was actually here in Ark City.

Our first stop when we got back was to see B___, he obviously still has some issues with the word of wisdom and doesn't understand it fully, he thinks smoking pot should be okay. So we've been helping him out the best that we can. Afterwards we headed to Winfield to have dinner with our Branch President. They are the coolest people and it's always fun to go up there. After a little while in Winfield we went to go see the Czaplinski's and see how they are doing, and we taught the entire plan of salvation!

Wednesday started off with a great lesson with B___, we showed him the restoration video, it's about 20 minutes, and had a solid lesson with him. He knows that this church is true and he really wants to try and live the word of wisdom. But giving up smoking after 30 years is hard for him. There wasn't a lot of lessons Wednesday and we were a bit discouraged at the end of the day. But it was 8:55 not time to go home and we wanted to see a miracle! So we parked the car and walked around a block. There was a guy just getting out of his car, so we stopped to talk to him. He had just moved in and he was looking for a church to go to! We were able to leave him with a Book of Mormon! His name is N___ and he is a super awesome dude.

Thursday was the best day this week. We went off to see B__, and he finally gave us all of his cigarettes! There was 12 packs, which is $60 worth! And he told us to get rid of them! We were pretty ecstatic. After we met a new investigator, T____, whose dad died last month in an accident at General Electric, and she is a single mom with two kids. Bit of a tough situation, but she is one of the nicest ladies ever! 

After we went to try and meet up with someone who we meet a few weeks earlier on the street, we pull up to the address he had given us and there was a big, BIG, dog in the driveway barking at us. We are manly so we slowly walked towards the door. We got there alright, but it turns out the guy is in a hospital cause he's a crazy old veteran. We also learned that the dog wasn't even a normal dog, it was a wolf. A full-blooded wolf! I was even able to pet it. But barked at me and I thought I might lose a hand. 

W____ had finally made it back so we went and saw him and had a really awesome time with him, but we weren't able to teach A____. 

Friday was another super awesome day because we had interview with our mission president! Prez Bell is a really awesome guy, and 15 minutes with him is life changing. Afterwards we were able to go and see both of our new investigators, Taylor and Nate, but we were total slackers and didn't invite them for baptism!!! We were all pretty upset that we didn't do it, so the week wasn't as awesome as it could have, should have, been.

Saturday almost all of our set appointments had fallen through. But we were able to take W___ out with us for a team-up and he came and taught B___ with us. It was awesome, he bore testimony, gave him advice, and even prayed for him! It was something that really helped us, W__, and B___! That night we had dinner with the Czaplinski's and they cooked the most tender piece of meat ever! I could eat it every day if I could! We then had an awesome lesson with W___ about the temple and the priesthood. This coming Sunday he is going to receive the priesthood! Then on the 27th all the Young Men are going to Nauvoo! That will be such a neat experience for him.

Sunday a lot of our planned out lessons were busy and didn't really have a lot of time to talk with us. But we did have a cool experience when we went to the Branch President's house for dinner. One of the recent converts was over there, super old lady with very poor health, and she was going to receive her patriarchal blessing! She wasn't able to make it out to Derby for that so instead the Patriarch went there! We had a cool lesson on the blessings and she was really excited for it!

Not much else happened this week, but it was a good and fun week. My biggest goal for this coming week is to put as many people on date for baptism as possible. I know that there are so many people who are ready for us to meet them, and I just can't wait to find them! Missions are the bomb, especially this mission which is the greatest mission in the World!