February 6, 2012

Woo! 5 Months. Feels like I left yesterday it's scary. Am I really getting everything I can out of this? I read through some of Elder Anderson's letter last week and Elder Lawson's. Oh man I miss the wazoo boys and Elder Lawson and Elder Richardson and everyone at home I have so many dreams about working at tony's with the tg crew. When Elder Lawson would take us for rides in the Golden Steed. Haha

 The Baptism didn't happen. Neither will the 11th. What a sad, crazy week! Let me tell you all about it. I'm going to stay positive!!

Monday-cancelled appointment after Preparation day. Had dinner at home and we are always having fun so it cheers us up to just sit down and have a meal.

Tuesday-we only taught one lesson, but it was a good one. We taught Thomas (fiance of a less active member) about faith and what he can do to get out of his addictions and be a spiritually minded being. He is progressing so well. We had to fix some bikes and whatnot so we didn't get to do much missionary work till about 3 o clock and we went to contact some formers. Good stuff. Ended up setting up some lessons and re sparking some fires.

Wednesday-We had some referrals to contact across the james river bridge and that was cool. A lot of biking but we can handle it. we came back and Sister Jones picked us up to teach Teresa and help her prepare for her baptism. We were already going to have to postpone till the 8th because she hadn't been to church enough times. We planned on doing the lesson at the church and we were there and ready with a member who is her friend and Teresa didn't come. So Sister Jones took us to the Dry Cleaners so I could put some stuff in and we did end up contacting this guy we had met before so he wants to meet. He didn't show to his lesson 2 days later though so boo. Went to Thomas's again that night and had dinner. They are very nice and he came to church because something told him too. we set up a lesson to meet thursday, 3 days in a row, so he must like us at least a little. We left thomas's and the Branch Presidents wife was waiting for us, we read the Book of Mormon with our next door neighbors. We felt strongly that Sis. Pettaway would be great for them and It worked out so well. Her testimony touched them in a way that we couldn't have done. Then we went to bed

Thurs- So we set up a lesson first thing with Teresa at Sister Jones's house. Another extremely spiritual expirience. We taught her the word of wisdom and she loved it. She committed. She is ready to be baptised. Had a table time with the sisters in our district (E.Case is the District Leader) Sister Ogwang, (Uganda), is training two new missionaries and we set up some goals with them. I was able to bare my testimony on some things that have helped me be a better missionary. The sisters always always do well so we should be learning from them. Haha. Then we got our dry cleaning back and had dinner at  a members home. We went back to Thomas's to teach him and he loved the Resto. He says our church is a pure church and he can see that it is God's. I have a hard time saying that people are prepared because we have been let down by promising people so much but he at least seems to love it. That's a start. He has been to church twice now and he loves it every time.

Friday- Zone Meeting. So good. President Perry showed up unexpectedly at the end and thanked our Zone for the work it's doing.  I got like 4 pages of notes. It's so good. He has been an area seventy and He will undoubtedly be an apostle. Watch and see. We had our two lessons cancel today, one was Kim. She is dropping us. The other was Teresa, blew us off. After all that's happened with her? She went over our heads and called the Branch Pres. to tell him she needed to postpone her baptism. She hasn't talked to or met with us since. My heart is truly broken and Elder Richardson is blown away. Elder Case is a powerhouse and keeps us going so he's like big deal keep working, so we do. Then we planned for the next week.

Sat-Had the couple missionaries over for a comp study and learned to teach the plan of salvation better (at my request) I have a hard time having as much of a spiritual expirience with this one. One good lesson with Tron, taught him the Gospel, two fall throughs, and Thomas again :) He is truly progressing.

Sun-Great fast and testimony meeting, Thomas got up and told everyone his story and said how thankful he was to find these things. He felt the spirit prompting him to get up there! Good man. We also had Jose Mendez at church and he loved it too. Good stuff. then we met this 90 yr old less active who has the highest voice I've ever heard and a dog named Peppy. She is a southern black woman to the max. I love her. She yells at that dog so much and rightfully so, he almost bit my leg off. He ripped a pair of my pants. HAHA OH WELL DON'T CARE!!

This week has been a trying one. It's hard not to get discouraged. Preach My Gospel says we may be dissapointed, but tells us never to get discouraged. Still learning that one.

I have been blown away, though, by the things that I am learning about the priesthood and about the spirit. If we are exactly obedient we become worthy vessels. It's an amazing blessing to be able to hold the spirit and to have the Priesthood restored to the earth. I also learned this week that to really learn something, you need to live it. Ether 12:6 says we get a witness AFTER the trial of our faith. This is no different with obedience. We obey a law, and after we understand why. We may have even understood before but now we have our witness. Faith, Knowledge, and Understanding. These are only strengthened by obedience. Faith is a principal of action. It leads us to DO. If I have faith in the Savior I want to get more knowledge, If I want to get more knowledge I need to study, if I apply the things I study and I ocey the principals I learn, I really understand. Then it starts all over again. It cooreates perfectly with the seed in Luke 8 and Alma 32. The seed feels good so you expirement and plant the seed, your expiriment goes well because you see it growing and now you have a perfect knowledge that this is at least a good seed. But your faith is now dormant. You KNOW so you need to again act and obey to grow. Now you put your faith to action again and you nourish the seed, you study the word, and you obey the things you learn. You feel it swelling inside of you and you see it growing. Again your faithful acrion becomes a perfect knowledge IN THAT THING and you now understand. The end result of all of this work is the beautiful mature tree, rooted in good soil and digged about and pruned by the good word of God. The end result is a final and complete knowledge and understanding when you can pluck the fruit of Eternal Life off of that tree that you worked so hard to nourish. Keep letting your belief and faith in God propel you towards him. Obey his commandments and study his words, learn who he is and strive every second of every day to choose him. You will be blessed with two of the most powerful gifts that the spirit will undoubtedly give you, knowledge and understanding. These things are key and I have enjoyed this analagy. I hope you can make it personaly meaningful and applicable as you study it. If I had the resources, Id show yo the picture that goes with this concept. It really makes sense.

The point is, obedience is a hard doctrine for a reason. It makes us grow.

I love you all so much and I hope you are all doing well! Dakota is doing just fine in doggy heaven.

Wazoo,

I Choose Christ,

Elder Andreasen.