Waffle Day and I had waffles for breakfast...1.5 waffles, I was HUNGRY

Hey Ya'all!

I have been in Eastern Shore since yesterday, we went down there to talk to the missionaries and hang out and go fishing. We caught two sand sharks, one sting ray, a bunch of crabs, and some cool photos, I'll send them soon. I kissed the shark on the mouth.

I am dead dog tired. Last week was a blast. Esmerelda didn't get baptized because her grandma-in-law died in Arizona and they were planning on leaving Friday night to go to the funeral. Then we see them yesterday at church and I guess they brought the grandma back to life? They said she was dead for 2 hours and they revived her. WOW. I don't know. Anyway she is set to be baptized on July 7th. yoohaa

I can't wait to get home and see this balloon in the house, maybe YOU have stolen the fizzy lifting drinks.

If you have more of that suit, send it on over! I love it so much. I have been very sad without it. Don't get me wrong, I love my other suit, but that one just GETS me, ya know? I would love to have the other one too :) Thanks. And that wear on the pockets was from my planner, I've started putting it in my shirt pocket, but then my pockets start to sag. I don't know, either way, two years will be pretty hard on all these clothes. I'll figure something out though.

Maybe if we are close to Kohls I'll look for that tie for Elder Miller, so don't worry about it. If I can't find it it's whatever.

Dad, my hands smell like fish still from earlier, I miss the smell of fish. It was cool today you would have loved it. We just bought some minnows and squid and put bottom riggers on. I caught the first shark then nothing else but it was probably one of the biggest fish I've ever caught. It was small for a shark but it was a fight coming in. Anyway sorry about the fish stories....

Esmerelda, July 7th. Woohoo! Margie and Felicia, still July 7th. Woohoo! We thought we were gonna lose em but it was cool how Elder Narramore really felt some inspiration on the matter. Margie, during our lesson, had said that she didn't feel comfortable being baptized yet and that took away from Felicia's strength too, so it scared us. We know they will be baptized, it's just a matter of when, so after the lesson we confirmed with Felicia that July 7th was the day. Her boyfriend was going to do it too but he hasn't come to church yet so there's not too much effort there but he does read with Felicia so there's something there. Elder Narramore said we should back off of Margie and just teach Felicia and I was a little torqued. After all we had done and said to get them here we just back off? He said we had been too pushy with her and it wasn't good to let her be baptized just to let her be baptized. I knew that, but It didn't seem like a good Idea, because with Margie if we don't say it she never will. In preach my gospel it says "people will not likely change unless invited to do so" and I am more of a "find the need and teach to it" type of guy. I really didn't want to, but we planned to just teach Felicia and not Margie. GRRRRR. We prayed that the Lord would soften Margie's heart and that as we talked to Felicia and taught her, Margie would follow and desire to be baptized with her daughter. (ELDER NARRAMORE IS SO INSPIRED) Well, we get there, and Felicia isn't there so we just taught Margie. It was cool though, because we didn't teach her anything about her baptism or what she would need to do. We just had a whole lesson asking her how her life has changed and what blessings she had seen since she started coming to church. It was great and the spirit was there. As we neared the end of the lesson, Felicia came home with Josh. We talked to Felicia a little bit about how excited she was that her dad is going to be able to baptize her and she is excited for July 7th, and then we asked them to kneel in prayer with us. Right when I started saying something to end the lesson, Margie started talking too, so we ended up doing the eh.... I.... you go... no you go... thing haha.(Again, me jumping the gun)  I just stopped and said "we want to hear what you have to say, sorry for interrupting"  She said "how do you know when you are ready to be baptized?" I just looked at Elder Narramore, and he gave a beautiful explanation of the requirements for being baptized. We bore testimony of how ready we knew she was, and asked, "so is that something you would like to do?" she said yes, we asked "when would you like to be baptized?" haha completely changed around, just because she came to us. Very cool experience, and we are back on track for the 7th.

Real quickly, we went to "Our Lady of Perpetual Help Byzantine Catholic church" on Sunday at 8 am and attended with an investigator in the YSA branch named Daniel. What a guy. Cool experience, incense, singing, wine, haha don't worry we just watched. It was cool because he was so touched that we would come with him and he came to the YSA branch and loved it. All of his problems are melting away as he reads the Book of Mormon. That's the way it's supposed to be. He keeps saying, "It doesn't matter what the commandments and teachings of the churches are, either what I believe is true, or what you believe is true. Either the priesthood continued and the Catholic church has it or it didn't continue and the Mormon church has it." He's right. For a long time he was looking for the book answers and facts on page to prove it, but he understands very well (we tell him every day) that his answer will only come from the Holy Ghost. He is so tight. We feel very blessed to have investigators who understand. The LORD is PREPARING His PEOPLE!!! Even a recently converted Catholic can be converted by the power of the Book of Mormon, fellowship, and the spirit of the LORD.

I am glad to hear that you are doing missionary work. It is the only way, I mean what else is there to do when you really think about it. We have the responsibility of ushering in the second coming, and that won't happen until EVERY member is a missionary. I have a strong testimony of doing missionary work and the strength it brings. Strive to share what you have, study in the morning then when you have an encounter throughout the day (and you will have them if you pray and look for them) use that scripture or concept that you have become recently converted to. I love you all so much! Thank you for your support and love and for all of your service. Keep on keepin on and remember

CHOOSE CHRIST BY THE MINUTE!!!

Love,

Elder Skyler Mark Andreasen

p.s. I choose Christ