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

Another Week in Paradise!

This week was just another week in paradise.

We've definitely had our ups and downs but overall we had a good week.

We had specialized training this week, which is where the president and his assistants would come and give us a training and help us to be better missionaries. It was super awesome because it was Manhattan and Salina zones, so I was able to see a lot of missionaries I've served around before. Afterwards we all went out to get food, it's always fun to see the people I served around. The mission is like a huge family so every mission get together is like a family reunion.

So last week we met this really awesome lost sheep member, Angie, who was baptized when she was a teenager in Las Vegas but stopped coming when she moved to Kansas. Anyway we were able to get in this week and start teaching her husband! They are so nice and they have two young kids.

We also met a few other part member families this week who have a ton of potential. There is Brother Delgado, who is basically a member already, he comes to church every single week and obeys all of the commandments. He just says he doesn't want to be baptized because his family was devout catholic and he thinks being baptized would betray his family.

Then we met the Waremans, the father is a member and his wife and three children are unbaptized. The mom is super into girl scouts with her daughter, then one son plays soccer, and the other plays football. The father is out of town until the 15th, and they have a crazy busy schedule so they are very hard to stop in and see.

We met a couple other cool people this week, this lady named Hannah told us she was looking for a more family oriented church and we stated telling her about our church. But she told us she didn't want to be a Mormon, I thought there was no way we were going to help her progress, but that's when Elder a Stirling's greenie fire kicks in and somehow she agrees to take and read a Book of Mormon. Which she has been reading. We also met Heather this week, we just walked up to her as she was sitting on her porch. She is a really nice lady who is also really super busy, but she is super open to us coming by and sharing a message.

Well today was pretty lame, we had to drive up to Manhattan for a zone p-day. We were the first ones to arrive so we were just sitting out and waiting, then when a few other showed up we were messing around with a volleyball, I was pretty weighed down with a bunch of stuff in my pocket so I took it all out and put it on the car. Then when it was time to go I hopped in the car and drove away, forgetting that I put my stuff there. Luckily we got the phone back, unluckily I lost my wallet. So that's lame, but other than that I had a good week! [NOTE: He got his wallet back! Someone found it and turned it in to the police department.]

Love y'all!

- Elder Andrasko

Under Pressure!

This week was stressful!

So to start off the week we went on exchanges, so I stayed in the area
and Elder Stirling went to the DLs area. It was a really awesome
exchange and we saw a ton of awesome miracles. During Zone Pow Wow the
ZLs started a little contest to help motivate us, "The Hunger Games".
So how it is played is that every two hours each companionship needed
to invite to baptism at least once, and if you didn't invite during
those two hours you were out! So by the time we got back from the
meeting, cause we live super far, we had 30 minutes to find someone to
invite. Then we met Pat! We seemed really nice and open to the
message, he even has a ton of friends who are members, we invited him
to a date and he accepted! Then we set up a lesson in the church for
Saturday! We were doing really good in the games, we invited during
the 2-4 block and the 4-6 block and the 6-8 block, but we didn't get
the very last hour so we were eliminated. Oh well.

There is this really cool guy we met not too long ago, his name is
Greg, we've been stopping by every so often to see him and follow up
on reading and what not. And we stopped by again this week and we met
Jerry, his father? In law? Something. And he was really awesome! He
told us of all these people who he knew that was members and was
interested in what we believe. We haven't been able to see him since
we met him cause he went out of town, but this week we'll follow up
with him and see if he is still interested!

Saturday we had two lessons in the church set up, one at 11 and
another at 2. But we had service  in the morning, which we had to
leave early to go to the church. Unfortunately our 11 appointment
didn't show and he wasn't home and so that didn't happen, then our 2
o'clock appointment also didn't show, they said they were busy. But
they told us they would come to church!

So Sunday we call to make sure our peeps are still coming, and a
family said all of their kids should be there, and there is 5 of them.
So we were waiting anxiously for them to show, which they never did.
We were sad about this. But some good stuff did happen this week too!

After all of the disappointments during the weekend we went out Sunday
night determined that we were going to find someone. So we headed out
after dinner and talked with EVERYONE until we finally found someone
who would talk to us. We met this cool guy named Norman who is one
year away from retiring from the military. He was born in the
Philippines and moved when his dad joined the armed services, that's
when his family became Christian. We got a return appointment for
tonight! So hopefully all goes well.

This week has had its share of ups and downs. Hopefully we will have
the best week ever and find someone to progress towards baptism!

I love y'all!

- Elder Andrasko

Good Day Sunshine

Things here are going, we have been really struggling this week to help people progress. We have so many awesome people that we are seeing, but almost none of them are progressing. So during is next week we are going to do everything that we can to progress people towards church, because if people start coming to church, then people are going to start getting baptized.

President McCuistion really likes math, and he made the observation that on average every 27 investigators equals one baptism. So he is pushing us finding 3 new investigators a day, 21 a week. And if we do this week in and week out our total baptism count as a mission will increase exponentially. He has also changed the way we set goals, last month our baptism goal as a mission was 70, this month it is 186. It's a pretty high number, but I'm pretty sure it's attainable, every companionship would need to baptize two.

We met a family this week, don't ask their last name cause everyone has a different one. But the previous missionaries had already set up daily contact, so we can see them nearly every night. It's always been a doorstep lesson with two or three people, but there are a few who are genuinely interested. One is a kid, he is 15 and on the JV football team, then there is his brother, he is a bit younger 12 or so, but he also seems pretty interested. Then their dad is a pretty big dude, but very soft spoken and kind. They are pretty cool, we just have to start progressing them and g them coming to church!

One really crazy thing about serving here is all of the military, most of the ward is military and there is a big deployment coming up. So in the next few months nearly all the men will be going to either Korea, Afghanistan, or Iraq. So Junction City is going to become a ghost town. Part of that is the auxiliary leaders are always changing as well. Just this past Sunday we got a new counselor in the bishopric because the other one is going to Korea.

We just finished our two weeks with the car, so this next week we will be on bikes, oh joy. And the weather forecast shows storms coming this next week. So at least it will be nice and cool for us to be on bikes! One of the biggest downsides to bikes is that our area is so large, with so many little towns that are 20+ miles away. It's hard enough getting to them with the car. But there were some part member families we were wanting to visit this next week.

This week we also had Zone Training, it was a really awesome opportunity to learn and see what we could be doing better. Most of the trainings that we had dealt with first contacts, and making people new investigators. I think that as we go out this week and apply what we learned we are going to see tons of success.

The transfer is already halfway over, crazy how fast time moves while I'm out here. Six months has just flown by. Everyday is filled with miracles and I am so lucky to be in the best mission in the World! 

Love Y'all

- Elder Andrasko

Shake it up

(Elder Andrasko experienced an earthquake this week) JC is such an awesome place!

Whitewashing is pretty hard, the last missionaries didn't leave us a lot to work with, but we have been finding a lot of new people every single day! The biggest problem is finding those people who want to progress. We had church tours set up with a few different people, but none of them showed up, which was a huge bummer, and all week we invited people to the baptism on Saturday, but again nobody showed up.

This week we are going to sift through all of our investigators this week and separate the wheat from the tares, and really work with those who are wanting to progress.

One funny thing that happened is we went to visit a former investigator, he was a really nice guy, but he is so stuck in his ways and not willing to change at all. And at the end he was just trying to recruit us to the army, he spent 10 years as a recruiter.

We also found a family this week that is willing to meet with us every day! I'm not sure their last name, because everyone in the family has a different one, but I'm super excited to start working with them. Hopefully we can spark a desire and help them work towards baptism!

There isn't a lot of people that we are working with right now, we are doing a lot of finding and street contacting, which I haven't done most of my mission, so it's a little foreign to me. Hopefully we really get to know the members and start working with them to find people.

It's always weird to get on the army base, we have to get a pass every seven days, then drive to the gate and show them our pass, and every so often they have a random vehicle inspection. So it takes a little bit of effort, but most members in the ward either live in base or in a small town 30 miles away.

Elder Stirling is doing great! It's like I barely have to teach him anything, he always has a positive attitude and is willing to try
anything. Sometimes though I tell him, "alright this is your door" but I then forget and end up talking anyway, I feel bad about that haha. But when I do give him the chance to talk he does super well. Hopefully I can be with him for all 12 weeks of his training, that would be the longest I've been with a companion haha.

Not much else to talk about, hopefully this next week will be full of miracles!

Love Y'all!

- Elder Andrasko

Sorry no pictures this week!