I'M FINE

howdy all ya'all!!

This week has been absolutely edifying! 

• I went to Chesterfield on Saturday for the baptism of Jose Cruz, husband of Elizabeth Cruz who got baptized when I served there, that was awesome!!! While we were there Elder Coon and I had the opportunity to get back together for the afternoon to visit some people we had taught. Sadly, many of them are struggling. It is so hard to see converts trying to hold on to the gospel when everything is crashing down around them. The Elders down there are great though and we will keep praying for them!!!  everyone that we saw was struggling. :( 
• Louis was hospitalized on SATURDAY NIGHT. Right before church. He's back now, so this is kind of a joke!!!!! Satan is working so hard on Louis. 
• That was an awesome Idea with the pictures. We were so confused though because we got this random text from wal mart saying that we had pictures ready and no one knew anything about them. I just shrugged and was like "well, I guess we better see what they are" Then we talked to brother Fairbank and it all made sense.
• Flight nurse would be SWEET! Sign me UP! I could be there to take all of the "MIKE KOHLER"'s to provo. "jUst shoot me now!!" "I'll get my gun" "no don't shoot me!!" hah
• I will be going to the doctor again for my ingrown toenail. missionary medical has approved it so I'm just going to tell them to use the whole bottle of acid and GET RID OF MY TOE. 

One thing I learned this week came from Elder Burke. I was having a hard day. I was irritable and angry and I was just tryng to get through it on my own. Finally, I knelt to pray at my desk at about 9:30pm and I locked the door so no one would come in. I just wanted to be alone. All I could think about was "why am I SO ANGRY right now?" Then, someone came rattling the door handle. OOH was I mad. I Stormed over to the door and said something like "I'M TRYING TO PRAY!!!" I opened the door to see Elder Burke poke his head in with that endearing smile and said "HI, how are you?" I said "FINE, I'm trying to pray" He just sat down in one of the chairs in our room and said "what's wrong" to get me talking. And I did start talking. I told him all about my day and he kept asking inspired questions. I told him how frustrated and irritable I was and he just listened. He then said something interesting; "you know you don't have to dig deeper to get over this right? This isn't about you finding your own strength to fight your hardest to beat your weaknesses, just give it to God. Tell him you can't do it and you trust that he will. Then you will feel the strength of the atonement" I'm paraphrasing but the point is, he taught me that I have been trying too hard to do this by my self. That has been my theme since then, and since then every time I have had struggles I just look up and say "Heavenly Father, I am not going to dig deeper right now. I don't know how to do this, but you do. What do you think? What is your will?" Then I go and do whatever good thing comes to mind. I have made beds, prayed, sang songs, and asked other missionaries to help in times of need this past week in the place of "Digging Deeper". That has been a humbling lesson to learn. Really, I'm learning that I can't do anything, I am nothing. Really God is the only one with the power of the Atonement in his hands. As long as we think we can do it by ourselves we never get rid of the self will and pride that is at the center of sin anyway, we just give up one self will to do another one.

As far as school goes, I don't know. All that I can see clearly right now is EMT certification for the first semester and working. I'll get my EMT certificate while working, taking institute, and figuring out my next move. Final decision. As far as future schooling in that field, I'll make that decision when I get back. I really need to make a decision and stop thinking about it. I have been super distracted this week and I want to get back into the groove for my last couple months. Transfer calls are on sunday and President Perry asked me what my favorite area was. I told him. We'll see what happens. I don't know if that means anything, other than i'm probably getting "put out to pasture" as dad called it haha! That makes me sad and happy and confused and I don't want my mission to end but I'm so excited for it to end and I'm confused emotionally but what the heck, I'm just going to take one day at a time.

I will be sending home a box at transfers whether I get transferred or not. I will send home all of the extra books and clothes and things other than my quad, missionary library, and the bare essentials. I am going green for the last couple months. back to the basics. No purse nor scrip. Probably not even 2 suits. I only need one.

Love,

--

Elder Skyler Mark Andreasen

p.s. I choose Christ

"WARNING"

Hey everyone!!

I have 9 minutes remaining. :(

8 now.

I am almost finished with the book "that all may be edified" By Boyd K. Packer and I am so loving it. I have learned about how to teach and edify in the way that the Savior does. I can't say I do it that way yet, but I'm learning and growing every day. This week Elder Moffett lead out in teaching and finding situations and did wonderfully!

Louis did not come to church. Medical reasons again. He walked 24 steps this week, more than he has in a year! He is progressing and the Ward temple trip is June 1. He will hopefully be going. He's a big man in a wheelchair but he gets around alright.

Specifically, I have learned about the teaching skill of "warning" this week. I have used different words in our exchanges with non- members like "we are here to warn the world of the dangers of sin and proclaim that Christ's work continues. It has been powerful.

Miracle this week, we found a man who had no idea why he ended up in Charlottesville at the downtown mall this week from Pittsburg, but absolutely loved our message and gave us address and telephone to come by in PA.

Gotta go ya'all

Peace and chicken grease

Cash Money

--

Elder Skyler Mark Andreasen

p.s. I choose Christ

So refreshing to talk to you all!

I am out of time this week but I sure hope you all are having a wonderful week. It was so refreshing to talk to you all. I loved it! Thank you.

Louis came to church! YES!! He also talked to the Elders Quorum Pres. and he wants to go to the ward temple trip. That was cool. We will hopefully get him there.

We are losing like half of our ward to the summer (they are mostly UVA married students) so we will be working with that. We also heard our Zone is probably splitting and our ward might get a second set of Elders. That would be sweet. I hope they send me to the second set on a bike.

Not much else going on... sorry.

Thank you all for your support and love! 

Love you all!

-Elder Andreasen

P.S. I CHOOSE CHRIST

WHAT...I'M TURNING 21?

Hey! yes I turn 21 tomorrow... who's asking?

This week has been good. There has been a theme. I like it when my week has a theme. On Wednesday I was feeling really un-inspired and nervous and we had our first MISSION LEADERSHIP COUNSEL which took the place of zone leader counsel permanently. (Side-note: If you get on mormonnewsroom.org and look for the post about new missionary leadership changes you can understand what I'm talking about. It is so cool. I am so excited about the new Sister Training Leaders. Already we have seen blessings of unity in the zone with the new Sister Training Leaders to counsel with. There are a total of 6 in our mission. 2 of them, Sister Moon and Sister Skousen, cover the Richmond side of the mission. 2 more, Sister Banner and Sister Wylie, cover the Tidewater side of the mission. 2 Hermanas cover the whole mission of Spanish sisters (second side-note:I just saw Hermana Camrie George about 10 min ago in the library. She is in our zone, did I tell you that? She has been in two of my zones now) So since the day the assistants called us and told us about it we have been calling it an opportunity for unity. We went to the library and printed off the post and gave it to all of our sisters. We have ten Sisters serving in the zone. That is like UN-heard-of but there are more coming. CRAZY.

So back to my theme this week. On Wednesday we had the first Mission Leadership Counsel and it was awesome. It was just the zone leader counsel with 6 sisters there and everyone counseled and put in their two cents. The sisters were way nervous so we did our best to help them feel included and feel like it was a counsel process. MAN ALIVE they had some good ideas and we are implementing them. It was a wise choice to call Sister Training Leaders. We have already been able to address some concerns that would have been difficult to handle without their help. ANYWAY (can you tell that I'm on board with this whole counsel thing?) So I was super stressed because so much was talked about in MLC and on Thursday I was not getting anything. We had zone meeting on Friday and I was trying to prepare a training about using time wisely (Ironic) and I was like spacing big time. That has never happened. I have been able pray and pray to see what the zone needs and counsel with my companion and DO IT but this time was different. I couldn't put 2 and 2 together. It was so frustrating.

As I studied and prayed, I felt like I should just leave it alone for a minute and study something else. I flipped open the book "we believe" and started looking at the topics and went to light. There was the coolest statement in there from Joseph Fielding Smith (I think) I'm not going to quote it but it said that the Lord cannot give us more light until we are living up to the light we have received. HOLY cow that opened up my soul for questioning. I have been asking myself all week "what light have you received that you haven't been living up to?" I'll have you know that the moment I made a list of things that I hadn't done that I felt like I should, then set goals to implement those things, my mind saw clearly what my training could be on. I prepared for the training and even received further ideas the morning of. I have been doing my best to live up to the light I have received. Those little things are where satan gets us.

Sometimes my intuition tells me to do something really small that seems insignificant. Sometimes when I do it I realize it was a prompting

-- Gotta go times up

Elder Skyler Mark Andreasen

p.s. I choose Christ

Hey that was a sweet Epistle Dad. I really debated just calling you Mark throughout this whole emal but I settled to respect my parents like the scriptures say.

This week was very spiritually draining but it was spiritually uplifting as well. I was able to go on exchange with a new missionary who just came out on Thursday. We had a blast riding our bikes all over Charlottesville and the UVA campus talking to every single person we saw. I had so much fun and Elder Thomas was uplifted as well. He had only been out 2 days and hadn't left the apartment yet so it was refreshing for him to just talk to people. He is 21 and played center at Dixie State. BIG BOY. Teddy bear. Softie for the gospel. I LOVE it.

The Contata went well. Hopefully we will get a dvd of it. Someone filmed it. There were a bunch of people there and some members of other churches. The spirit was strong. I loved it.

I have been working on my studies this week. My goal has been to feel the spirit guiding them more.

Ok I just spent a lot of time looking at my classes and I love what I saw! That all looks good. I'm stoked.

I got the seeds and I loved them thank you. I am still looking through the EMT stuff but I like that too. EMT/Paramedic sounds sweet. I have just always been the first one kneeling next to a hurt person on the scene and I never know what to do. Give me a....scalpel.... or something!!! I feel like that would be so natural for me to be an EMT/Paramedic.

OK I gotta go. Love you all. Louis is still on board to be baptized but not this week. He couldn't come to church. Hasn't been yet. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Love,

--

Elder Skyler Mark Andreasen

p.s. I choose Christ