29-July-13 <---SCARY

Hey ya'll :) I am doing well. Thanks for asking. Thanks for praying for "just one more" It's working. Mandy, Ethan, and Kirsten are our only hope. The others have been voted off of the "August 17th" Island. (they didn't come to church) It's really ok though I have no doubt that they are accepting the gospel and they will be baptized and join our Yorktown ward family sometime just after I leave. I'm still just as excited about that. But back to "JUST ONE MORE" man we have been trying to stay focused and work hard. The past 4 days have been especially hard. I have decided to use this time as an opportunity to learn all 13 articles of faith. Every time I think of home I memorize the articles of faith from 1 to 13. I started this morning and I have 1-6 memorized. (wow is the reply I'm looking for) that means that I can use my trunky thoughts as a springboard to memorize stuff! Cool! I should have the whole book of mormon memorized in 3 weeks!!!

Also I've eaten almost all of those seeds already. My companion probably hates me but I love those seeds. Gotta get practiced up. 

OH hearing about your goodbyes to Tanner made me want to CRY. I already miss him....haha funny I haven't seen him in 2 yrs. It's like another wave of missing him. THAT sucks. OH well. I sure loved reading his Email. I wrote him today too. Is there a way to write written stuff to him? GOSH THAT KID IS COOL. HE'S IN AFRICA...........

What is my subject going to be on again? Or maybe it will change. That's crazy we are getting two new wards. I can't believe that. How many units are in our stake now? 

So Ethan and Kirsten, the ones who whistled at us and told us to come over and then we took them on a church tour, they are awesome. I honestly thought that they would be the least likely to come to church but they came! Chelsea and Penny  spoke at church and it was about the restoration. Chelsea's brother Carragan (spelled wrong I'm sure) is dating this girl named Mandy that we are teaching. Also, their father Jesse is not a member and he was there. We go over there all the time for dinner and talk to him. He's way cool. The grandma was there too. Not a member. they bore testimony of the restoration and that the gospel blesses families. It was powerful. The talks were so perfect for all of our investigators. Those are the first three investigators we have had in church since I have been here. Including the other Yorktown Elders. It's all Elder Horne, he came in here and the area has EXPLODED!!! So the talks in church were perfect, then some youth got up and bore testimony about a trip to Palmyra and that Joseph Smith was truly a prophet. SWEET. Also, Bishop Marlowe got up and pounded the pulpit for a minute about temple recommends, hahaha that wasn't too hard to explain later though. After church we introduced them to a bunch of people and Chelsea and Penny walked Ethan and Kirsten out the door with us. It was so good. Chelsea got Kirsten's number and they were all chatting. PERFECT!!! Man they are good missionaries. Then we were setting up a lesson and Sister Banks goes "just come do it at our house! We'll do dinner. Tuesday night!" so we are having dinner and a lesson with Kirsten and Ethan. I'm so stoked. that is the perfect fellowshipping family for them. They are also friends to Mandy and her Mom. Hopefully things start moving there, not much has happened.

We have been contacting a lot of referrals this week from the blitz. NOt much success though. It's been slow tedious HOT work. The bike ride to that area every day just about kills me. Heat index 105 one day this week. That's been rough, no joke. I am afraid of getting heat stroke sometimes but I am even more afraid of being LAZY.

I am just trying to stay focused. Nothing too hard. We all like to joke around and talk about being trunky and how hard it is but it's no different than when I left on my mission. Take it one day at a time. I'm a little nervous, super stoked, sick to my stomach, but life goes on. It's like waiting for Christmas when you know you're ONLY getting green socks.

I love you all!!! Be safe this week. Pray hard! It works!!!

Love,

Elder Andreasen

P.S. I choose CHRIST

Happy 24th

Hello to my fellow pioneer heritage lovers!

Thanks for the seeds! I like that. I will think of all of the seeds that have been planted throughout the past 2 years. Make me all sentimental.......HAHA and everyone was laughing so hard when all you said was "see you soon!!"

I can't believe Tanner is out of here. Just like that. I haven't realized how weird that is going to be to come home to no Tanner. I am going to miss him so much. My big brother radar is going off like crazy. I'm like worried about him catching his connecting flights and all of that hahahahah. Tell him that I KNOW the Lord will protect and strengthen him. I KNOW it. I'm praying for it!!

This week was extra crazy! We found a bunch of people to teach. Elder Horne kept us OUT ON THE STREETS and finding those that would receive us. The Lord blessed us.

This week we met again with Shay and Barbara. We had left the restoration video for them to watch and Shay watched part of it but not the whole thing so we turned it on and BOOM the spirit testified to them that it was true. When the video was over they both looked over at us with wide eyes. We immediately expounded all things unto them from the beginning and testified that Jesus Christ has restored the truth for them to partake of it. They loved it and both agreed to be baptized if they come to know that it's true. They both promised to come to church but didn't :/ That's ok. They said they would be baptized on Aug 10th or Aug 17th.

We also met Ethan and Kirsten. Ok quick story. Elder Horne and I were biking back from finding pretty close to our house. E. Horne felt impressed to stop at a certain house on Cavalier st. Nothing, but the guy across the street took a book and wants us back. Well, we came back to cavalier to see him and ended up finding a less active lady who hasn't been to church in a minute, got her name and number and her two friends were interested (both of them in our area) we sat on the grass and shared some scriptures, said a prayer and left. Tracted into another lady who set up an appointment with us. Then as we were walking away we heard some guy whistle at us from the end of the street and waved us down. As we were walking over I turned to Elder Horne and said "ok, this will either be really good, or we're about to get beat up. Don't worry I brought my brass knuckles." haha. His name is Ethan. His girlfriend was in the car. He asked us if Mormons were Christian and we set him with a baptismal date for Aug 17th. Oh, his girlfriend too! What happened? THE SPIRIT happened. We actually parked our bikes and asked him if he would want to take a church tour right now. He agreed and drove us with his girlfriend to the stake center and we walked them through the building. He played the piano a bit. Then back to that awesome picture of Moroni burrying the plates. We taught them the whole time and then invited them to be baptized. They agreed. They didn't come to church though. DRATS! We will meet with them this week.

On Saturday we had a blitz. the 26 missionaries in the zone came to our area with about 6 members and we split the area up and said "GO!!" everyone worked hard and we had over 50 people to go back and see. Our Zone Leaders are so inspired, along with our District Leader. They plan to do a blitz in every area in the zone, one blitz every saturday for 6 weeks. Ours was first and it was so successful. we have a lot of work to do this week following up with all of these people. I'm going to be so tired...

During the blitz Elder Horne and I actually had a lesson with Rob and Shayna. (They hadn't brought any shark teeth dirt, hopefully soon) and we had an awesome restoration lesson. MAN it was so powerful. Shayna is so intensely committed to God, but in a non-denominational/"I don't need church organization" kind of way, and usually that means that "when they are learned, they think they are wise" but as we talked with her and asked her how she felt about religion, she opened up and admitted that there were some missing pieces in her opinion. That opened us up for the most inspirational lesson ever. The spirit was guiding us, but not only that, it was guiding Rob and Shayna. They were asking all of the right questions and the spirit was testifying to them. They had that light in their eyes! They got it!!!! OH I live for those lessons. They agreed to be baptized on the 17th of August. Does that day seem important to you yet?

We are overwhelmed and impressed by what the Lord has done in this area this week. Seriously, Elder Horne and I feel like instruments in his hands. I am learning that the goals that we set, when we work for them with all of our heart, the Lord is enabled to show us miracles. I am so thankful for this gospel. I can't ever remember being this happy. (or this stressed)

I love you all. Remember that Jesus loves you!!

Love,

Elder Andreasen

P.S. I choose Christ

NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEXT MONTH

WOOT this week went by like a flash. Gotta stay focused...gotta stay focused....

We have been working so hard. GOSH it feels good to just bike 20 miles ya know? We went to places this week that some of my previous companions refused to go to. I love Elder Horne. He is so down for anything. We contacted so many people and we are working towards that goal of one more before I get home. I don't know who it will be yet. 

Adam went out of town this week to CALI and we can't teach him till next week. He is doing well. He finally came to the realization that he does feel it's true and good but he doesn't belive that religion is important right now.....(that's a cop out) and SOOO, we have a fun lesson planned. We want him to know that the Atonement is for him. It is for TODAY. It makes us happy NOW. That will be pretty fun to teach and we have some good scriptures to back it up. His deal was "well, religion will probably be important when I have kids, so I'll wait till then" We are praying that the spirit can help him to realize that living the gospel is essential now, and in the eternities. 

Elder Nielson and I met with a man named John B. this week. He's Catholic. Very very nice. Both of his parents died this past month and he moved into their house. The zone leaders were looking for an area to tract so naturally we told them "tres leches" where we found Mary Lou. They found two way solid people for us. John B. And Robbie. 

Robbie is the man. We went up and he was in his swimsuit in the garage and invited us to go boating with him. (obviously I told him I would in 5 weeks) He's such a stud. Just a good ole' boy. He is going to get us a bucket of dirt from North Carolina this week and we are going to sift through it to look for shark teeth. That is his favorite hobby. HAHA!! 

John's lesson was typical of a lesson with a catholic. We brought up almost right in the beginning that we were not there to bash and he thanked us. It was a very nice encounter. He said he has seen Mormons before but that he let us in because he could tell by our attitude that we wouldn't try to tell him he was wrong and make him feel bad. Well, we didn't :) We just uplifted him in his time of great sorrow and shared some good scrips from the sticks and had a grand conversation. We got to a good  point in the lesson before we ended. Basically the poing that "it's either the Catholic church or the Mormon church" this idea that we are the only two churches with any sort of claim to holding authority from God. Either the Catholic church is true, and the authority was passed down from Peter to Linus, or the Church of Jesus Christ has been restored along with that authority. Every other reformed church either broke off of the true Catholic church and therefore is false or they broke off of a false Catholic church and are still false. No one else has a claim to any authority.

Jesus Christ said that in the last days we should beware of false prophets. (we like to tell our friends that we meet in VA to keep in mind that he didn't say to beware of prophets, just false ones) He said that "by their fruits ye shall know them" Well, as we know, the fruit of Joseph Smith and his claim to be a prophet of the Most High God is the Book of Mormon. It is a witness of Christ. If you come to know that the book is true, the fruit is good, and you know that Joseph Smith is truly a prophet. 

John B. shared some pretty interesting fruit of the Catholic church with us. He handed us a pamphlet. We read it. Let me share one tid-bit with you. 

"Do not be afraid to love Mary too much. She is the Co-adjutrix, a co-redeemer with Christ. She is the Mother of all living by way of her sacrifice, the sacrifice of her son on the cross. THE KEY IS: God wants to save sinners by means of the Immaculate heart of Mary"  

To me, this fruit is very telling. The plain and precious truths of the gospel of JESUS CHRIST have been removed, the true ordinances have been corrupted. This was a sickening witness to me of the work that the adversary is doing today. Please note that I am not bashing anyone, as we will not bash John B., but we plan on lovingly sharing that doctrine with him by highlighting the worth of Jesus Christ and his atonement in our lives, NOT by bashing the falsehoods and nasty lies that he has been taught. What an EYE opener. I had never realized what it meant when they said they worship Mary. To be honest, I wonder if THEY realize what they are doing when they worship Mary. The first commandment is to worship God THE FATHER and none else. 

I am excited for this week. We have a blitz on Saturday with the whole zone coming to our area. 25 missionaries, and hopefully 25 members, splitting into 25 companionships and finding in the Yorktown ward. That will give us some work to do. 

I want to bare you my testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as it has been restored to the earth today through the prophet Joseph Smith. I KNOW that it is true. It has changed me, and continues to change me today. I am so humbled when I think of the vision of this "marvelous work and a wonder" , "the work of salvation" that we are a part of. It encompasses all of this generation, the future generations, and EVERY past generation of the children of men. We, the members of the Church of Jesus Christ in the last days, have the responsibility of redeeming ALL PREVIOUS GENERATIONS through family history work and ALL NATIONS, KINDREDS, TONGUES, and PEOPLES on the earth today. That is quite a work. It's a MARVELOUS work. It's a WONDER that we even try to do it, but with the LORD's help, all things are possible. I know that is true. I love the Lord. I love his gospel. I love all of you :) 

Be safe. 

Elder Skyler Mark Andreasen

New Mission...New RULES

Fireworks and butterflies eh? For some reason, reading that gave me butterflies.

My week FLEW by. We got a new mission president AND had a mission conference with what is now officially the Virginia Chesapeake Mission.

Funny story for you:
Back story: With the new mission president there are some new rules and some new policies that we are following that make life a little harder on us. For example, the rule used to be that we could have 3 Elders in a home with a single sister, now we have to have another responsible male adult (other than missionaries) for every lesson with a single sister no matter how many missionaries there are. Also, we can listen to nothing but Mormon Tabernacle Choir and music from LDS.ORG.

So Last night all 4 missionaries in this ward were going to dinner at the Martin's home. Brother Martin was cooking steak. He is so funny about his steak and he brags about it all the time. The other two missionaries got to the Martin's before us but we still needed a ride so the other Elders explained that they could not go with Sister Martin to pick us up because of this rule. Brother Martin argued over the rule because he didn't want to leave his steaks with his wife to cook them but he left to come get us with the other missionaries. We got in his van (he was already mad about rules) and we had to ask him to turn off the classical music because of the new music rule. He was joking about rules and how he hates them. Well, we got to the Martin's home with all 4 of us and walked in to sister Martin scraping off burnt steak, hahaha Brother Martin pretty much dropped to his knees and yelled "RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" In an anguished voice like he had gotten shot. MAN that was so funny because all week we had been talking about all of the new rules and stuff. I was rolling on the floor!

Elder Nielson and I set the goal again this week of leaving the apartment at 10 and not returning till 9. We failed. I hate not hitting goals. AAAARGH!!! We almost did it but there were a couple times when we had 30 min or so before our ride to dinner showed up and we went inside to get something and one of us would sit down on our bed or something. I just tried to read the book of mormon or do something productive. GRRR. On sunday we almost did it but Elder Nielson REALLY wanted to take off his suit coat when we got back to the apartment. I guess that's ok.... then laying on the bed again. GRRRRRRRRRR. I really just don't want regrets going home. I want to work my tail off.

This week I studied in Alma about the Anti-Nephi-Lehies or the children of Ammon. MAN they are cool. They made covenants with God and KEPT them. One point I really liked was that in ch.56 v.7and8 when you read that they almost broke their covenant and took up their weapons of war, I always thought that they didn't do it because their sons stepped in and stopped them, but there is another reason! I challenge you to find out why they didn't break their covenant!! Also, the blessings of not breaking their covenant.

Love you..... Pray for baptisms and diligence

--

Elder Skyler Mark Andreasen

p.s. I choose Christ

BOXES HOME

I am healthy and I am happy. I forgot to tell you that two weeks ago they worked on my toes and I just had them remove both ingrown toenails from both big toes. I have pictures. The people at the doctor's office were so funny and the crazy thing is that earlier that day the other Elder Andreasen went in to the same doctors office to get an ingrown toenail removed from the same toe. WHAT?! That was such a weird coincidence. So they are both fixed and healing  :)

Elder Nielson says hello!

Ok now for the real stuff!!!!!! This week has been phenomenal! Mostly because yesterday I got to go back to Chesterfield to the baptism of Aurora!! You remember the R family right? Well, Aurora is their 11 yr old daughter. When we come back we have to come visit the Swift Creek Ward. That was probably my favorite area. Walking into that building was like coming home to a family reunion. I love those people!!!!! Aurora was such a good example to her family. She looked beautiful. The baptism was Sunday at 9am and she was confirmed at 10 in sacrament meeting. It was awesome to be in the Richmond mission on the last day that it was the Richmond mission. Before President Perry went home this week he told me I was his last exception hahaha. NICE. He sounded sad to be leaving and it was a tender mercy that Elder Nielson and I got to talk to him on his last day. We weren't even hoping for that, but we were on the phone with one of the mission office staff and she said "oh before you go President would like to talk to you". He is a great friend and he told me I had better be at his house in October for his mission reunion so I had better be there in October for his first mission reunion. When they left from Washington for their mission they sold their house but he is now moving to Salt Lake.... 

Anyway at Aurora's baptism and confirmation I was able to meet the Mission President of the New Richmond Mission. He told us that he is trying to attend as many baptisms as possible. He was super genuine. We had some refreshments together and talked about the Richmond mission. It was so funny, Sister Wilson said "We are just trying to see how we will ever fill the shoes of President and Sister Perry" and in my head I could hear President Perry saying "The new mission President and his wife will take this mission to greater heights that we never reached" I could see their potential and I know they will do just that. I was thinking "Sister Wilson you have no idea what The LORD is about to do with you". That was a moment of vision. 

The ward asked them to share some words during sacrament and He and Sister Wilson both talked about Member missionary work and how just this past week they had been in the crowd at the Marriott center for the worldwide broadcast. He told us that last week they had been in a small room in the MTC for sacrament meeting and the only speaker was President Monson. HA!! What a meeting! He shared some great insights into low pressure missionary work.  He said that in doing Member missionary work we need not be doing strange heroics, we just need to follow the spirit to do little things. Like the little boy who handed out invitations for his baptism. That was a power packed sacrament meeting. The baptism was beautiful. There were other miracles as well. :) Aurora's two brothers want to be baptized in the next 2 weeks. I won't be there obviously. :( Brother R and I had a good talk. I love that man.

In our area, no one seems to want to progress. We meet with John tonight and we'll read with him. He's way scared to give anything up. Adam and Kelly haven't answered a call or text :( Mary Lou either. DANG!!! I guess we really counted our chickens before they hatched there, I need to remember to stop doing that. No I'm just joking we still have hope for them and we know the gospel is still what they need so you never know what could happen down the road. 

Elder Nielson and I are the same exact person. We are both yellows if you've read "the color code". Both extroverted and talkitive and unfocused when we get together. The problem is that we like each other too much. Haha it is so hard to do any planning. We get it done but holy cow man Weekly planning is like pulling teeth. FOR 6 HOURS.

Do I still hold the record at the dentist office for most teeth pulled?

I am still loving this. My goal in weekly planning this week is to get lost. I want to figure out how to get back to being in the middle. It's been hard. Focusing is hard. I kid you not I wake up thinking about home almost every morning. I go to bed at night and my stress levels go UP as thoughts of what I'm going to do at home come to mind. Have you ever been fasting when it was around 4:30 and you know you could eat right now or you could wait out the last hour and eat with your family at dinner? That's how I feel right now in my spirit. This is the last hour of my mission and I am just straining not to eat for a while, it feels a lot like enduring rather than enjoying sometimes and that is what I'm trying to figure out. Any advise from anyone??????

I love you all and I hope you have a great week! Transfer calls this sunday will decide where I go for the last 6. WHOOP!!!

Love, 

Elder Skyler Andreasen

P.S. I choose Christ