One Day More . . . Bring Him Home!!!!!

Hey Everybody,

Guess this is it, the end of the road. I can't believe that this is the end if my two years, but it was a really amazing experience for me. I'm so grateful for this experience I had and the way my mission has shaped me.

Anyway we had a pretty awesome week. We got two really awesome, solid, member referrals and one of them is on date for baptism! So we had a dinner with a member and they invited their neighbor, whom we have taught before. After dinner we had a really awesome lesson and set up a church tour, where on the church tour we put him on date. The other referral is from the local LDS chaplain, who is in our ward. While he can't proselyte, he can answer questions which led to him inviting this guy to church, we have a return appointment with him tomorrow. So there is a lot of things going on here in Manhattan. 

My ankle is still pretty banged up, the doctor said I may have fractured my heel. So that's exciting. 

I really have loved my time in Kansas and will miss it a lot.

See y'all soon. 

- Elder Andrasko 

Hey everyone!

So this was a great week, well for the most part, I kinda got injured playing basketball I'll attach pictures.

Not a lot to talk about this week. We did a lot of tracting, we met a guy named John. John said he knew Mormons from college, he said that Mormons were the guys who would go on two year missions then school you in basketball. John was nice, he had a good restoration lesson with him. But when invited to continue learning, he declined and said he wasn't looking to change religions.

It got pretty cold this week, but it'll be warning up a little this week, before it drops back down. Kansas is strange like that.

Sorry I don't have much to say, but I did have my departing interview with my mission president on Wednesday. It took almost the entire day, but it was good and I received a lot of advice. 

My last full week as a missionary, so it'll be a good one. Love you all!!

-Elder Andrasko 

Pictures.

1: Manhattan, Kansas. Also this picture makes me look like an old man

2: Like I said, it was pretty cold haha
3: My Ankle :(

 

All is Well

Hey everyone!

It was a good week! 

Early on in the week we got a referral for a guy who was a former youth pastor. So we gave him a call and set up a time to see him. So we go to the institute with the ward mission leader, didn't think he'd show up,  but he actually did. So we spent the first little bit figuring out what he knew, everything he knew was from the Book of Mormon Musical. So not a lot. Then we go in and teach the restoration, he had lots of questions throughout. Good thing we had our ward mission leader to help us with the harder questions. Afterwards he said, "well you guys didn't convince me" we explained that we aren't trying to convince, he just had to read from the Book and pray about it. 

We did some tracting in a nicer part of town and it was really good! We didn't get a lot of investigators from it, but the people we did meet have really awesome potential! 

We met this lady, Lori, who just left the Catholic religion. She said she was on the subway in Chicago and met a lady who read to her from the Book of Alma, and she told us she recently watched Meet the Mormons! We're really working at getting back into contact with her, cause she would be a definite kingdom builder! 

There was a lady we met and said, "I didn't think millennials still believed in God" she said she went to Catholic school for 13 years and said that religion closes your mind. Elder Bassett asked her if she wanted to expand her mind/knowledge and learn more, she said no. We had a good laugh about it.

We taught a guy from China, he doesn't really believe in God. We taught the plan of salvation and he said he really liked it. He said he liked it more than what other religions taught. When asked if we could meet again he said he was okay with what we taught him then, and if he wanted to know more he would call us. 

We have interviews this week, it'll be my departing interview. So that'll be weird. 

All is well, love you all!

-Elder Andrasko 

Workin' My Way Back to You

Hey everybody!

This was a great week, some bittersweet stuff but great. Tuesday was the last zone conference of my mission. It was really good zone conference, we talked about knowing and understanding the doctrines of the missionary lessons. Along with other stuff, but that's mostly what I got from it. Then at the end all the missionaries who leave at the end of the transfer bear their testimonies - so I got to do that. 

Thursday we went to a small town just outside Manhattan called Ogden. We went to and tracted an area we hadn't been before. We had a lot of success, in a few hours we were able to find 5 new investigators! All had return appointments on Saturday.

So Saturday is our day without the car, so we switched having the car Friday and Saturday. 

So a lot of walking and tracting on the days without the car. So Saturday comes around and it's time for us to go to all of our appointments. And every single one of them fell through! It was a bummer, but we were able to find a few more people because of it.

Things are good here, just been working hard and been having lots of fun! Sorry not much to say this week!

-Elder Andrasko

When You Believe

Hey everybody! Just loving life here in Manhattan.

This week was great! We focused a lot on finding, so a lot of tracting. And since we don't have full time car anymore that means a lot of walking. Lots of miles on these shoes.

We did exchanges this week and I was able to go with my good friend Elder Gilleland. He was in Newton when I was in McPherson so we were in the same ward for a few transfers. So a lot of memories. We had a referral from one of the ward missionaries so we tried seeing him on exchanges, Bruce, he was nice but was heading out so didn't get to talk to him much. 

One cool miracle that we saw, one night while walking home we saw a house with a family inside. Which is prime cause too often we knock on a door and it's college students that we can't teach, anyway we walk past cause it's like 9 PM and we are almost home. But we decided that we should go back and knock on it. And we met Heather! She is a member who hasn't been to church in years, she has 3 kids all over the age of 21 and several grandchildren, nine of whom have been baptized. She's out of town a lot so hopefully we can catch her and start teaching her and the family.

Things are good, zone conference is tomorrow, my last one, I'm excited cause they're always awesome and spiritual.

Hope y'all have a good week!

-Elder Andrasko

A Hard Day's Night

Hey everybody!

Man what a great week, it was transfers so a few things got changed up in the zone, half of my district got switched out as well. 

So Elder Zolik left so Tuesday was full of goodbyes. And Wednesday was the start of my last transfer. Hard to believe that I'm already at this point. But I know I still have plenty of my mission left to enjoy!

So Wednesday I spent the afternoon in my old stomping grounds in Junction City, with my old companion Elder Thompson! I got to see a family that was baptized in Junction while I was there. They are some of my very favorite people in the world so it was fun to see then and to mess around with their little toddler Don again. He let me ride his Ninja Turtle bike so that was cool, he beat me in two races...

When Elder Bassett got here we went hard from day one! We've done a lot of tracting and have seen some good success. Sunday night we were doing some late night tracting and met a really cool guy named Brandon and he was pretty interested! He is now preparing for baptism, so hopefully things continue going good.

This week Alex got confirmed! He asked me to perform the confirmation so that was pretty cool!

Oh something cool cool that happened, we were at Casey's, gas station, and as we were walking out the attendant called us through the gas pump to come back inside. She gives us a referral for her mom and then tells us she is going to come to church, and she did and told us that she'll come next week too!

So pretty good week. Love you all and I'll talk to you later!

Elder Andrasko

Teach Me To Walk in the Light

Hey everybody!!

This week was great, mostly because Alex got baptized!!

So Alex's girlfriend, who is a member, was out of town and he decided not to tell her until she got back. So Wednesday he surprised her and it was great, he said she was crying and everything! She was also surprised to learn that she would be giving the talk at the baptism. Haha.

So a large portion of the week was spent planning that and making the program and whatnot. 

This week we also had the last district meeting of the transfer, one of our zone leaders is going home this week so it was his last one, sad to see him go.

So funny thing, while filling the font I reach down to check the water temperature, and I have the phone in my shirt pocket. When I feel something slip. I thought that it was just my white handbook or something. No big deal cause it's ruined anyway and I have another one. But nope, it was the phone!! I was mortified, brand new(ish) smartphone and it got baptized! So I hurry and grab it and take everything out and dry it off, everything seems to be working. Then I figure out the home button stopped working! Anyway after a day and a half it started working so no harm no foul.

So Alex invited so many people to his baptism, almost more nonmembers than members. And the spirit was so strong, I look over at Alex and tears streaming down his face. It was a nice experience. 

Things here are good and I am so excited for this transfer, my new companion is Elder Bassett, he was Elder Fielding's MTC companion, so I've heard a lot about him. Exciting!!

Anyway I love y'all and have a good week!

Love Elder Andrasko

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