Say a Little Prayer

Hey everyone, happy Memorial Day!!

So this week has been great! We started off  Tuesday with an awesome
Zone Conference! During interviews President asked me to study the
Doctrine of Christ, and that was something that was touched on a lot
during Zone Conference. So that was cool. I got so much awesome
revelation at Zone Conference and l really enjoyed myself.

Also Elder Smack was there, and we had a great time just chilling and
talking about the good times in McPherson.

We've been working a lot this week with John, and occasionally his
wife Laura. John has been going through a lot this week. His sister
has been in an out of the hospital with cancer and John is not doing
well with it. We gave him Alma 40 to read, which talks about life
after death and the resurrection. We haven't followed up on the
reading, but hopefully he read it and found some comfort in it. John
is also struggling to find his answer about the church, we think part
of it may have to do with living the word of wisdom. Hopefully as he
tries to live this commandment he will have the spirit to let him know
what is right, and to find some comfort. We also watched the
restoration movie with him, so that was cool.

We tried a lot of potentials this week just a ton of people we hadn't
tried or had never seen. We met a few people but it wasn't the most
successful.

We did an awesome hike as a zone, and near the end we had a big
thunderstorm. We barely finished he hike when the heavens opened and
the rain just started coming down. It was a pretty great storm.

When church came around this week we were hoping for three or four
people to come, but each one had a reason, or excuse why they
couldn't. John unfortunately got sick, so he had a pretty good excuse.

Today we had a super awesome Memorial Day! We went to a member's house
for lunch and we did a lot. We played spike ball, bocci ball,
basketball, and had some fun with water balloons. It was us and the
zone leaders, cause they are also in our ward.

Not a whole lot to talk about this week, but I had an awesome week of
studies and learned a ton. I love my mission so much and am grateful
for my chance to serve!

Have a killer week!

- Elder Andrasko

What a Wonderful World

Well this week was another great one! We had interviews with our
mission president, exchanges, and a great week at church.

Tuesday we did exchanges and I got the opportunity to go to Hiawatha
on exchanges! It was an hour and a half drive up, and on the way was
the only 711 in Kansas! So I got my first slurpee since I was last in
Utah! Then we went to Falls City, Nebraska! So I left Kansas for the
first time in 14 months, it looked the same as Kansas but a lot more
Nebraska license plates. There was an odd experience during dinner, a
kid came in with blood all over his face. He crashed on his bike and
got pretty messed up. But all in all it was a good exchange and we
found a new investigator!

We worked a lot with John  and his family, in fact almost
everyone said they would pray about getting baptized. And we're
committed to coming to church. We showed them a lot of conference
talks and they thought it was awesome. We talked a lot about the Plan
of Salvation and the Doctrine of Christ. They are starting to
understand the Plan and have lots of great questions for us.

There is a woman  we have been working with, we have a
standing appointment every Tuesday and Thursday at 5. They love us
coming over, but it's hard to be able to teach a solid lesson because
of how hectic everything is. But they were committed to church this
week!

We taught Eddie  the Word of Wisdom this week, he understood why we
have it, but not sure if he is willing to live it yet. He wasn't able
to come to church this week, he said he had a lot of things to do
around the house. He's kind of a hoarder so there's just a lot of junk
around his yard and house. But we'll continue to meet with him and
help him live the WoW.

This week was interviews! It was so awesome, I was the first one from
the district to be interviewed and I was in there for like 45 minutes.
No I didn't do anything wrong, but he gave me a lot of advice on
construction stuff!! He talked to me about it for like 30 minutes. It
was awesome, but a lot of information to take in all at once. So I'll
have to talk to him about it some more later.

So church came around this week and he were hoping for like 7 people
to come. But unfortunately John said his family wasn't feeling to well so 
John came by himself. One investigator didn't come, but one came with her 
3 young kids.

I taught Sunday school, so that was fun. I was still a little sick so
I tried to have it be as much of a discussion as possible.

But all in all it was a good week, fun and productive.

Love ya!

- Elder Andrasko

Called to Serve (reprise)

Hello everyone, and happy Mother's Day! This week was, mostly, great!
We had awesome lessons with our investigators, we did some really fun
service, we had someone come to church, we got to talk with our
families, and I got sick. So like I said, mostly awesome week!

So Tuesday after district meeting we went to visit a few of our
investigators and one of them wasn't sure about modern day prophets.
And so we showed a talk I had downloaded, "safety for the soul" by
Elder Holland. And after Elder Holland testified boldly of the Book of
Mormon, we followed his lead and testified. I can't remember that last
time I was so bold in a lesson.

Well the next lesson someone similar happened while we were teaching
our investigator  about the Plan of Salvation, it was a
really awesome lesson and we helped him understand it better. And he
committed to pray, read, and come to church. Unfortunately his
grandson had a graduation this week so he won't be able to come until
next week. We saw him and his wife again during the week. And
before the wife had voiced concern about the role of women in the church,
so we had a cool lesson about that and we listened to the talk
"Certain Women" by Sister Linda K. Burton. Afterwards she said she
has no question that women play a big part of the church.

We had a cool service opportunity this week with NAMI (national
alliance on mental illness) Kansas. They were doing a 5K walk/run, so
no we did not do the 5K, but we helped with the take down; chairs,
tables, etc. We also took pictures with a bunch of people and had them
hold up pictures of Jesus.

We were able to work a lot with our investigator Eddie. His blind cat
got hit by a car this week, so it was an opportunity for us to teach
the Plan of Salvation. He was able to make it to church son that was
cool. Later we had the chance to Skype our families, yay! I later was
sent to the doctor by the mission medical coordinator because I though
I had pink eye, but it turns out my eyeball just got scratched. But
then it turns out I had a fever, it got pretty bad and I had a
miserable night last night.

But all-in-all it was a great week! Saw some great progression in our
investigators and had fun working and doing service! Looking forward
to another great week!

- Elder Andrasko

Home on the Range

Hello one and all!!

Well here I am back in Topeka, and man did I miss it. I am serving in the Colly Creek Ward and it is so cool, we have probably the coolest ward mission leader ever and the members are the bomb.

So the beginning of the week was filled with fun times and goodbyes. On our way to say bye to a member we saw wild buffalo! So of course we had to stop and take lots of pictures. There was a lot of goodbyes to say, and it was sad. But I'm sure Elder Jordan will take good care of McPherson!

So transfers come along, and I got to see a lot of familiar faces, like Elder Colemere and Elder Stirling!! It's always fun to catch up with people that you served with. Then I found Elder Thompson and off we went to Topeka!

Well things started getting pretty messy right away, not in the companionship we're pretty good there, but the car started overheating! So we had to pull over, and I watched as all of the coolant disappeared from the car. So we bought some more and drove to Topeka very very slowly. A trip that usually takes 2 hours took nearly 7! So we had to put our car in the shop, turns out it had a leaky water pump, and it took a few days for them to replace. So it was bikes for us.

So there are a few really cool people that we are working with, we currently have three people working towards a baptismal date. But I haven't had the opportunity to meet one of them.

One is an 8-year old from a part member family, he turns 9 on the 26th of this month. So if he comes to church 3 times he can get baptized on the 27th.

Another is a 19 year old who the missionaries have been working with for awhile. I have yet to meet the other person who is currently working towards a baptismal date.

So a cool thing that happened while we were trying to get people to church. We went to go see Isaiah, the 19 year old, to see if he wanted to come to church. He said he'd probably come, but he didn't want a ride so he was going to walk. So we suggested that we walk with him, it's about 2 miles, so we started walking. But it was hot and a long walk and it was looking like we were going to be late, but then a miracle! The 8 year old was riding his bike and he went and asked if he wanted to come to church. Then we got a ride from his less active mom, so us, a less-active member, and two investigators who want to get baptized were all in the car on our way to church! it was so awesome!!

Not too much more to talk about, but it was a great week! I am really looking forward to my time here in Topeka and all the stuff I have to learn.

Love y'all tons and have a suuuper week!

-Elder Andrasko

There Are Places I Remember. . .

Well it has come again, that time where everyone gets to start over. Transfers. And for me I guess I get another opportunity to move and grow.

I found out this morning that I am going back to Topeka, I will be serving in the Colly Creek ward with Elder Thompson. I am super sad that I am leaving McPherson, was kinda hoping I would be able to stay for 6 months, but instead it's my second 3 transfer area.

Anyway this week was good, we went on exchanges, did a lot of tracting, and found some cool people to work with!

So on exchanges we had a bunch of people that we wanted to try and see, but none of them were home. So I just started going and trying former investigators, less actives, potential investigators, and it worked out pretty well. We were trying a former, who didn't answer, and we see a guy walking down the street. So we ran out and talked to him, apparently he met with the missionaries when he was living in Hutchinson and knows quite a bit about the church, he has even come a number of times. But Dre, that's his name, was walking to work so we didn't have a ton of time to talk so we got his info to set up another time to meet up with him.

Later on in the day we went to go visit Jim and Gayle, well they were out mowing the lawn and asked us to come back. But when we were talking I looked down the road and saw some two year old kid just running down the street by himself, and I said "I don't think that child should be out here alone". So we chased him down and started looking for a possible place of where he could have come from, we found it. We knocked on his mom's door, she hadn't realized that she left the door unlocked and she didn't know he had left. Well the whole situation started because she didn't give him juice. Anyway we got a return appointment with her.

This week Elder Jordan and I did a lot of tracting, we knocked quite a few blocks of a pretty nice neighborhood and got a few return appointments. Then we just started knocking the nicest houses we could find, just for fun, nobody answered.

So we decided to try and contact every single member in McPherson that we didn't know, it took us about 20 minutes to look through the ward roster and find them all, and 10 minutes to try and visit them all. So now I can say that I have visited, or tried to visit every single member in McPherson!

Sunday we had a super fun Dinner at the Kynsaton's house. They are a super cool family, they had a son just leave on his mission and have 3 daughters at home. Brother Kynaston is a dentist and owns a practice in town. They had another family over for dinner as well. They smoked pork for over 10 hours and we had pulled pork sandwiches, they were the bomb! Then we played some games and had some fun getting to know each other.

It was a super fun and awesome week, I really am sad that I am leaving. Especially because of the bonds and relationships I have with the members here. But I look forward to this upcoming transfer!

Love,

-Elder Andrasko

Stormy Weather

These two pictures were taken 20 minutes apart!!

Just another week in paradise!

This week we did a lot of less active work. We drove out to Hillsboro
to see the Willis family. 
We went and saw Brother Robbins, another less active, he had been
working an adding an annex to his garage. But I guess when he was
working his ladder wasn't secure and it fell out from beneath him and
he landed on his side and broke his hip. I feel really bad, we told
him we'd come help him and we came once, but we didn't go back until
after he broke his hip. We are going to come back this week and see
how he is doing and to give him a blessing.

So last Sunday we committed Fabian to church, but we weren't able to
see him during the week because he works. He owns a taco truck that is
open from 8am to 10 pm, so he's pretty busy. But we stopped by his
truck Saturday and he said he would come to church! We had a really
hard time trying to find a ride for him, it wasn't until 9 Saturday
night that someone said they would give him a ride, and we were trying
for days! But  Sunday rolls around his ride goes to pick him up, and
his wife comes out and says he's not coming. So we'll see what's up.

Another person we've been working with is a guy named Mitch, I've
probably written about him before. But he is pretty crazy, we had a
lesson with him and he kept interrupting so it was hard to have the
spirit. But he told us he  going to come by our church, not sure why
he wasn't there Sunday, but again we'll see what's up.

We didn't get to see the Nichols family this week, we tried a few
times, but we were never able to see them. We got a pretty cool
referral this week, a mom of a recent convert from a different state.
We texted and she said she'd love to meet with us, we don't have an
address or anything, but hopefully we'll get to see them this week!

We ate pretty well yesterday. There was a baby blessing and the family
invited us over to eat afterwards. So we ate there at about 4, it was
chicken on rice. Then we have a standing dinner with another family so
we ate pulled pork around 6. Then one of my favorite families, the
Travellers, had us over for a steak dinner, that was at around 8. The steak 
was as big as my face, and brother Traveller always makes sure we get 
fed well. So even after we are full he keeps putting food on our plate, then he gave us doughnuts. I'm not sure if I've ever been that full before, so much food I couldn't fall asleep.

It was a sick week, it's the last week of the transfer. Hopefully I'll
get to stay and serve here for six months!

- Elder Andrasko

Great Expectations

Our Mini

Another week in the life of a missionary!

So this week was pretty good, we had some fun times, and some unexpected things happen. But overall it was a good week!

So Monday, P-day, was a good fun day. Elder Jordan and I decided we wanted to start playing tennis. So for a few hours we were at the court playing, and it was a ton of fun! Not a whole lot else happened on Monday.

Tuesday we had our district meeting, so we had to make the long drive out to Hutch. It's pretty lame, for any sort of missionary meeting we have, we drive at least half an hour. When we go to Wichita it is an hour. So it's lame being so far out of the way, but totally worth it to be serving in a small town like Mac. The only thing that it needs is a branch! One day. After district meeting we came back into town, someone said that if  we didn't have dinner plans then to call them. So we made a dinner appointment for that night, it was with the Travellers. They are one of my favorite people I have met my entire mission, I guess we didn't give them enough heads up about dinner, so instead of ribs we got steak. But hey I'm not complaining.

Wednesday we met a pretty cool college student. She was in our area book, but they dropped her as an investigator for a little bit because she was gone for winter break. So we decided to go try and meet her. Her name was Destiny, she was cool, but she is super busy and so it makes it hard to meet up with her. We've also been trying to meet up with a less-active family. But every time we set something up, they have to cancel of move the appointment because of work or something. So hopefully we can see them sometime soon.

So almost all of this week, the zone was talking about how the Wichita stake is doing mini-missions. Because Utah doesn't do mini-missions I will explain. Youth, 16 and older, sign up to become a mini-missionary, which means they go out with full time missionaries from Friday night to Sunday night. So anyway a few people in the zone were told that they were getting mini-missionaries. But we were in the clear. Friday we had a meeting down in Wichita, they had a big thing explaining what we need to do with the mini-missionaries. Then they told us that we were getting one! We had only a few hours notice! We had zero food for him, we barely had enough for us.

Anyway we went to go pick up our mini, the meeting started half an hour late. Then the Zone Leaders come up and say that ours didn't show up so we could leave. So we start driving home, 10 minutes from our house we get a call saying that we have a mini missionary and we need to pick him up! Luckily the Newton Elders drove him to Newton so we only had to drive an extra 20 minutes instead of 50.

Saturday with our mini missionary we went out to show him what missionary work is like. We had one set appointment and a day full of nothing. So we knocked on a bunch of doors! It was kinda fun? But at the end of the night we went to see Jim and Gayle and told our mini missionary, whose name is Thomas, that he had the lesson for today! He was kinda freaked out, but he told the restoration the best he could :) Jim and Gayle also had a visitor, and 8 y/o neighbor. She seemed a little interested, and liked the story of the restoration.

All in all it turned out to be a good, fun, week. We found out that Jeremy, the father of the family of seven, is a pastor. At the most popular church in town. So we aren't really sure why he is meeting with us. And the mother of the Nichols family, Theresa, got a job this week, which she attributes to the power of prayer! The Nichols family is cool, we just have to make sure they make it to church this week!!

It was a great week, with more to great things ahead!

-Elder Andrasko