MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Otra vez!

Well We get to e-mail today, so I figured I'd send some pictures home. I don't really have too much to say because we talked yesterday, and nothing new has really happened. Yet. Well I hope y'all enjoy the movie today and have a great NEW YEAR. 2010 WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Alright. The first picture is of me, my companion, and Elder McCollum who was with us for a week to teach us how to work better with the English wards. He was my first Zone Leader too. The second one is the MTC district, most of it, at the Mission Christmas Devotional with Elder Ringwood of the Qof70. The third one is from the ward Christmas party we had. It was great fun. Very Christmas-sy. The fourth one is me on Christmas with all of my presents. This is the one that should be in a Macy's magazine, or Kohl's, or Wal-Mart. You get the idea. And the last one is the normal one of me with the presents. Hope y'all have a great day/week. I'll write to y'all again next year. January 1, 2010. Feliz Navidad y Prospero Año Nuevo! Love y'all and miss y'all!

Taloofa!

That's hello in Samoan. Well anyways, man it's too bad that I won't be home for Christmas. But Mom's favorite son will be there with Tiffany, so no se precupe. Haa. And as far as the missionaries, just make sure y'all are a fun house. Those families are always better. There's one that everytime we stop by the give us brownies and dessert and all that. I'm getting fat because of them. But oh well. I'll just lose all the weight after the mission/ in the last 6 months. They're in the english ward. It's kind of hard for me to get to know the spanish families because I'm still working on my spanish. But it's all good. There's one that's pretty fun. But I get along with most of them. But I get along easier with the english families. Oh and as far as the missionaries just make sure they aren't using the phone while I call. I'm still not sure what day we call if it is Christmas day or Christmas Eve. So I'll let you know about time and all that next week. Yesterday we had interviews with the president. I was the last one and he asked me how my spanish was going and I said it was getting better. And he said that he heard it was great. And then asked if I would be able to teach the 4 lessons completely in Spanish. So that's kind of scaring me.


The work here is going well. We had a lesson with a family and the wife has a smoking problem. But she's trying to stop. So we've been working with her on that. And last night she agreed to kneel down and pray while we were there and make a commitment to God that she wouldn't smoke again. I promised her that as she did this she would receive the help she needs to quit, and overcome the temptations. The Spirit was so strong. Then another family, the one I had the dream about, finally started to read the Book of Mormon. I had them tell me something each would be interested in learning about and gave them chapters based on that. They're finally reading and believing it's true. Hopefully they will come to church on Sunday. We're working with another kid that we have on date for the 26th. We are starting to teach his whole family. His little sister is taking lessons from the JW's. So we're trying to help her with that. I think that's all. I don't know I can't think about anything else that's new.

MERRY CHRISTMASSSS!!

It looks like y'all got my Christmas gift! I've been hearing that it's snowed/ been snowing in Houston. Unfortunately, that's probably the only gift I'll be able to send. The only place we go shopping is Wal-mart so it's kind of hard to find good cultural gifts I could send y'all. But I was reading a talk by Elder Holland and he said that Christmas is about celebrating the birth of Christ, and the Wise men didn't show up until after the birth. So giving gifts on Christmas day isn't that important, but y'all will get them during the year.
So did y'all watch the Christmas Devotional? It was pretty good. It made me miss home too. It took me back to the days when y'all would make me go, but I wouldn't want too. What a bad kid. I bought the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas cd today at DI for $3. I'm excited to have some Christmas music to listen to.

I've been reading the "Discourses of Gordon B. Hinckley." Elder Pearl is getting ready to go home so he gave me both volumes. Because they take up a lot of space. But I read the talk where he got his letter from his dad saying "forget yourself and get to work." So that's what I'm trying to do. Yesterday we shoveled snow for 3 different people. It took like 2-3 hours. We ended up missing the dinner appointment. But it was worth it. Helped me warm up, AND got my mind off of home. When we got into the house last night after working I checked what the temperature was, and it was 8 degrees. But it didn't feel that cold. So thank you for praying for me and that I would be able to stay warm. It snowed so much here lately though. yesterday we got like a foot of snow. There was enough of it to go up to the bottom of my knee. Way too much.

Well the other day we were talking to some of our investigators and we invited them to be baptized. The didn't say "yes," but they did say that they had been talking about it that day. And they came to church the next day and everything. We're hoping to get them baptized on the 26th of December. So hopefully that will be able to be done.

Decemberrrrr

Thanksgiving here was pretty good. We had dinner with a bishop in a different stake but we had fun so it was good. We went out with his son and were able to teach 4 or 5 lessons. and luckily for us we only had to eat 1 dinner. We didn't have a bunch of families forcing us to eat.

I'm sorry the weather is cold there. It's good for a little bit, but when it starts dropping into the 20's and teen's it's not so fun... But it could be worse. I could be in Wyoming. My MTC companion got sent there, and I wanted to see what the weather was like so I called Tell Me and it said it was 5 degrees. Toooo cold for me.

Well updates with what is going on with me. I'm no longer with Elder Gudino any more. Which is kind of bad. He was a good companion. My new companion is Elder Guillen. He's from Paraguay. He's been out for like 8 months or something like that. But he can't really speak english so I'm making sure he speaks it in the house. Because he doesn't want to work at it all his last companions just gave in and spoke Spanish. But I can do it. He's a little annoying.. I don't know it'll be an interesting 6 weeks. I'm still covering the same area, but they took away the Spanish branch so now I just cover 1 ward. The branch they took away is the one that didn't really have any work in it, so I won't really miss it too much. One of my friends from the MTC got transferred to the zone I've been in for the last two transfers. So when I heard I was staying in the area I was excited, but then I found out even though I'm staying I'm being moved to a new zone. This zone isn't as good as the one I was in.. But oh well. That's how the mission goes sometimes. Oh, and they're changing the e-mail system so My e-mail is going to be Kyle.Andrews@myldsmail.net. I think. OH and we were able to have our 4 baptisms this weekend so that was a good way to end the transfer. And for the first time I got in the water and baptized somebody. All 4 of them seem like pretty solid converts so that is good. Hopefully they'll stay active.

Here are some pictures from this last week. The first two are from the baptism of Ivet, her son Issack, and daughter Daniela. Her uncle (Hermano Sarmiento) used to be a bishop and she is living in the house with them, so she should stay strong. The third one is of the person I baptized. Alicia. She's been coming to church for 2 months or so on her own so hopefully she'll stay strong too. Then the last two pictures are of me and Elder Gudino messing around With the Sarmientos and Ivet. We had a pretty good time.

Six Months

We went to the temple with some of our investigators this week. They felt the Spirit so it was good. Yesterday we had 3 of the 4 people interviewed and they passed to be baptized. So we're planning on having our 4th one tomorrow. What else... For Thanksgiving we're going to do nothing. I'm going to play in some Turkeybowls and we might go to some houses for dinner if we get invited. Tonight we're going to a members home for Pie Night. They make a lot of pies the night before and eat them because they're to full to eat after Thanksgiving. So it should be fun. I can't really think of much that's gone on this week. We're tr;ying to go to Temple Square for Friday night. So that we can go to the first night of the lights. It seems like we do the same thing everyday. Teach, eat and you know. Well I bought "Joseph: A Nashville Tribute to Joseph Smith." So I'm excited to listen to that. I'm getting ready for transfers on the 2nd. I've already been out for 6 months. CRAZY.

Snow

Things here are pretty much the same. We're planning to have a baptism in a few weeks. On the 28th. We for sure have 3 people being baptized that day, and we're planning on adding another 1 or 2. So it should be a good day when it comes. I can't really think of much to update y'all on. Nothing too much has changed.

Man it's cold. Probably a lot warmer in Houston than here. We had a big snow storm on Saturday and that was not fun to walk in. But anyways... the Spanish is coming along pretty well. I can't wait till I don't have to try at it though. Some day. We have dinner with the Americans on Mondays and Tuesdays so it's pretty fun. I can actually communicate well with them so it's a nice change. I can't really think of anything that I can say or any stories. But next week I'll have more to write about. Or When things happen I'll write them down so I don't forget them since I can't think of them right now. Well this Friday we have interviews with the mission president. Yup.

Enjoy the pictures...Well the first picture is from Saturday. We walked from 6000 West to 7400 west. It was a very long and cold walk. Which leads to picture number 2. I think I'm going to buy one of these hats so I don't die in the winter. They're from a stake multi-cultural activity we had. The guy served his mission in Russia so we tried on some of his hats. And the third picture is just us messing around.

21 Day Promise

Well things here are going pretty well. Like I said the spanish is getting easier. I still have to focus while listening to it, but I can understand a lot. We have some pretty solid investigators right now. The one that has been coming for like a month, who I think I mentioned last time, we put her on date for the 21st along with her daughter and son. And then we have another family that is living with her cousin or uncle who attends the English ward. We put her daughter and son and her on date for the 28th. So we're hoping to have some baptisms coming up pretty soon. There's potential for 6 or 7 baptisms. Then another one of our investigators, Alejandro, recognizes the blessings of the priesthood and that come from us teaching him. But he hasn't accepted a baptismal date. So last night I committed him to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. Once he does this we'll be able to get him on date. I'm pretty excited about that. We had 9 people at church last week, and taught 24 lessons. I'm trying to push and get 30 lessons in a week.

I'm trying the 21 day promise out too. Elder M. Russel Ballard and Robert E. Wells gave to all the people living inside of the boundaries of the Salt Lake City mission. You make a list of your friends or family that are less active or non-members. And after you make that list you pray for them every morning and everynight for 21 days straight. And they promised that at least one person on the list would accept missionaries into their house and take the lessons. So I'm excited to see how that works.

Well the next transfers are on December 2nd. I'm kind of worried about Thanksgiving. Because I don't want to get fat. So we'll have to see how I do with that. Oh and we went to the High Councilmans house for lunch on Sunday and watched "An Unlikely Mormon." It's Glen Beck's conversion story. Y'all should probably watch it. It's pretty good.

Time Is Flying By

The time is going by really fast. I already almost have 6 months in the mission. It doesn't seem like it's been that long. My Spanish is improving a lot. I can understand most of what is being said. And I'm still working on speaking. But it's getting easier. So I'm excited for that. I'm doing pretty good. I don't know I'm still me. But man, this weekend we had a baptism of this lady. She was so prepared from the first visit. We left her at church because we thought she left, but she just went to change her baby. She still came again the next week. I probably told y'all that before. But I could have performed my first baptism, but I figured it would be better for someone in the ward to do it. We change every 6 weeks but the ward members stay and they'll be the ones that keep them active.

There's another investigator that we added last night. She's been coming to church for the past 3 weeks, but we've never been able to get her address. We finally got it on Sunday and visited her yesterday. We're planning on committing her to be baptized on the 14th. She seems like a golden investigator too. We're still working on the family of 6. We had a Zone Conference on Thursday and it was so good. The Spirit was so strong during the whole time. The ward that did the lunch for us did an amazing job. They had some pumpkins carved and lit up (see below). But anyways after lunch we always sing to the people who prepared the lunch. And the Spirit continued during this. We sang "Armies of Helaman" and I had to hold back the tears. All the ladies we're crying and even the Stake/Branch President was tearing up. He was a big polynesian guy. He shared us a story about his nephew who is one of the top ranked high school football players. But after we sang that we sang "Called to Serve."

For Halloween we couldn't really go out at night so we had a Zone activity and had a chance to watch the movie. I told everyone we should watch the Hannah Montanna Movie. Pretty much all of them were making fun of me and saying that it would be a stupid movie. But 2 or 3 said they would and they rented and brought it to the activity. During the movie everyone was into it and liked it by the end. So it was funny. I think that's about all that's going on with me.

Halloween

There's not too much to update on right now. We're still working with the same people. There hasn't really been any real big changes. We're still going to have a baptism this Saturday. Umm me and Elder Gudino are still getting along alright. We were talking with an Apostolic pastor assistant and he asked us if we celebrate halloween. So I said yes and he started playing a CD about the "origin of Halloween." And it talked about how it is to celebrate the first lie told on earth by satan. It was pretty weird and full of a bunch of non scriptural stuff. I think I'm going to get a copy of it.

Today we went to Kohls and they had a Texas sweatshirt for $25 and I bought some sweats. Because I didn't really have any cold stuff. Only basketball shorts and a pair of jeans, and one long sleeve shirt. We had the first snow storm of the season yesterday which wasn't really too fun. I think that's about all that's really going on.

I think that we should be able to baptize every week this month. Hopefully we can. We have a lot of good investigators in one stake. But the other one is kind of dead. The members don't really help us out at all, and so we don't have any investigators. The work in this area is mostly with the help of members, because tracting doesn't work out too well here. That's why we have so much success is because we have a lot of member support. I can't really think of any experiences that I've had this week that really stand out. I'll try to think of one. Last Sunday we were at the library trying to get some books because we had to teach the Gospel Principles class. And the librarian is a white lady that isn't very nice. So Elder Gudino asked if we could take all the Spanish Book of Mormons and Bibles because she only gave us 3 gospel principle manuels. And when he asked she said "HELL NO!" So we were surprised at that and now we joke around about saying that when people ask us questions. It's pretty funny when it has the mexican accent. Well that's about it for now and I hope y'all have a happy halloween!

PBJs Aren't Good Enough

My spanish is getting better. I've realized that I shouldn't worry about mistakes. Because as I worry about that, I speak less. And the less I speak, the less opportunites I have to improve. Well the work here is going good. We should be having a baptism on Monday, and then another one on the 24th. Which is after the transfer, so it might not count for us if we change places, but it's another soul helped. I had a few good experiences this past week. The first one was with some older members of the church. We went over to their house because we didn't have a dinner for that night, and Elder Gudino said he knew some Samoans who would have some food. So we went over to their house to see if we could just make some sandwichs or if they had any left over food. But she said that she didn't cook any food that day, so we asked if we could just make peanut butter and jelly sandwichs. But she wouldn't let us make sandwichs because she said "it's not good enough for you." Everytime we tried she just kept saying that. It made me start thinking about how I need to live up to that respect that she has for us, and that other members have for us. It's not really for myself why I should do the best I can, but so that I can be worthy of the members. The good members at least. It's tough in Utah. We'll be talking to people about the church and then they'll tell us "I work with someone that's a member..." or "I know some members..." and then they go on to tell us about some members that aren't doing what they're supposed to. There's a lot of problems with that here in Utah... It makes the work a little tougher. Everybody notices everything we do as members of the Church so we need to always be a good example. On another note, we were talking to the Samoan family and they were talking about all the help and donations have been received to send to Samoa, Tonga, and the Phillipines. It's good to know that people are still living their religion and helping others in this tough time. Not only in the Islands, but with the economy here too. Then the other day we were walking on the street to an appointment and we saw somebody walking towards us. He wasn't really walking straight. So we figured he was drunk. And we decided to try to talk to him anyways, if he wasn't too drunk. So as we got closer we started talking to him. As we talked to him we found out he was homeless, and by looking at his lips it looked like he was on crack. He had white stuff on his lips. But I started talking and testifying to him. I talked about how he is a son of God, and that he really does care about him. As I was talking he began to cry and say "I can't be forgiven" and "Jesus can't help me now." So I started talking about the Atonement. We gave him our number, and a copy of the Book of Mormon. We haven't seen him since. But hopefully he'll read it and know these things are true and change his life. Well I think that's about all that is really new. At least that I can think of. I've been thinking a lot about how I was before the mission lately though. And I'm ashamed of how I was. I was so selfish, and thought about my self most of the time. And I know that I probably still am, and I have a long way to go until I can be where I want to be. But I'm changing and trying to get away from what I was before the mission.The experiences I've had so far on the mission have helped me realize these things. And I hope I can learn to focus less on myself and more on others. Well I think that's about all for now.

Great Conference, Great Week

We went back to the house that we visited that one night last week, and have taught the lady living there 2 more lessons. We committed her to be baptized on the 24th and she accepted. So we should be able to get her and at least one of her 2 sons baptized. But that will be after the end of the transfer. She's a pretty golden investigator. The family of 6 we had a lesson with last Thursday that went pretty well. They still seem pretty interested. We went by last night with the Daily Dose missionaries to give an English lesson. We go back tomorrow to teach them again. We have another 2 investigators in the same ward. His name is Alejandro, and we're teaching his wife too. They both are pretty solid investigators and we're planning on committing them next time we teach them. So, in that ward we have a lot of people we're teaching right now, that seem pretty good for baptism. Then in the other ward we're working in, we don't have that many people we're teaching. But we're going to the temple tonight with one of our investigators in that ward. He's 12 and plays a lot of soccer. We've been trying to get him baptized, and he finally said that he might get baptized in a week or two. That's about it for the investigators we have so far. But the work is going pretty well right now.

General Conference this weekend was pretty amazing. A lot of the talks focused on helping others. With the way the economy is right now it's tough on everybody. But what I got from conference is that we need to treat others good even though the times are tough. I always like listening to Jeffrey R. Holland and his talks. His one Sunday morning was good about the Book of Mormon. We had pretty good seats for most of the sessions. I know that they really are Apostles and Prophets.

Helping Out in the Temple

Well, I don't really have much time, and not too much to update y'all on. On Monday we went to the Temple to do some service. We got to go up to the 5th floor where the Solemn Assembly room is. We set up for a devotional the First Presidency and Quorum of the 12 and Quorum of the 70 are going to have before General Conference. We set up the chairs for them and put their hymn books on the chairs. I got to look through all the 1st presidency and quorum of the 12 hymn books. They have their names on them. And I sat in the First Presidency's chairs in that room. So that was pretty neat. During the set up we got to go down to the 4th floor. That is the General Authority floor. I got to go into the room where the First Presidency and Quorum of the 12 receive revelations. The guy told us a story that when Gordon B. Hinckley was called to be the prophet he stood in front of each picture of the prophets that are on the wall in that room until he received a confirmation. Then I got to go into the most senior Apostles' changing room. There were 4 lockers for the most senior Apostles, and I took a 130 year old table out of this room to the solemn assembly room. We also got to go into the Quorum of the 70's changing room. In this room is the top of the Holy of Holies. So we got to see the dome of it. So that was a pretty good experience I had in the mission.

Later that night I got a reminder of the reality of the work. As we were going to one of our referrels houses, we were talking about the Virgin of Guadalupe, because they have a big figurine of her inside the house and out on their yard. We talked to the person once and they work with someone that's a member and she wanted to know more so had the member refer her. So as we approached the house, it was really dark. All the lights were off, and it was night time, but it looked darker than houses usually look at night. But the car was there so we decided to go try anyway. As we approached the drive way, I started feeling a little bit weird. But we kept going. Then as we passed through the fence the feeling intensified. Then as we stood in front of the door, it was the strongest feeling I've ever had that we needed to leave. As it was increasing Elder Gudino rang the door bell, and immediately after we pretty much ran off the property. It was as if there was an actual being there. After Elder Gudino rang the doorbell his arm went numb and he didn't have much feeling in it. He told me he had the same feeling too. As we crossed the street we felt like someone was watching us/ following us from the house. When we looked back there was nobody there. It was like what Joseph Smith said when it was an actual being from the unseen world. But it was nowhere near what he went through. So we talked to someone on the street then returned to the house. As we were planning, my head started bleeding and Elder Gudino asked me about it. So I went to the bathroom to get a tissue to clean it up. As I was in the bathroom, Elder Gudino felt something walk from in front of him to the side of him. He said he heard footsteps too. But something definetly wasn't right. We both felt weird, and like something was weighing us down. So we called the ZL's and they came over and we had a prayer, and during the prayer it immediately got better. It made me realize that the adversary is real and that he hates me right now. And that he is going to try and do everything he can to stop me. Everything is good now and I think that experience made me better. Well that's all the things I can really think of that happened this week.

I Had A Dream

Well, this week has been pretty good. We had Zone Conference on Friday. So that was pretty fun. President Sonne said that he was trying to figure out how we could have more success in our mission and he had the idea of a perfect month. So in the month of October, we're going to be as perfect/ close to perfection that we can get. So it should be a pretty good month next month. If missionaries are an army, this mission is like the Green Beret's. It's a whole different level. Most missions are "Preach My Gospel" missions, and we moved past that to a "Zion Mission." It's pretty intense here. If we aren't baptizing we aren't doing our job. Then on Sunday we had Stake Conference in one of the stakes we covered. And that one was good too. One of the temple presidents spoke there. And he made the comment that the Sacrament table is the only altar of the church, outside of the temple. Which I never really thought about it that way before.

Let's see... this Saturday we had 2 baptisms. So now I'm sitting at 7 baptisms for the mission. Which is almost 1 a week. BUT.. I had a good experience this week. Saturday night, I had a dream that we were going to teach and baptize a family of 6. So I thought that it was just me desiring it, but on Monday we got a referrel for a person named "Ilda Orozco." And it was a referrel for a Spanish Book of Mormon and was referred by herself at a Temple Square visit. And in the description it said "family of 6 that wants to know more about the Book of Mormon, Prophets, Temples, and the Church." So we went on exchanges yesterday and we contacted them. And when we got there we were talking and I told about Joseph Smith and the first vision. The Spirit was so strong and testifying. So I asked how they felt and they all said "weird" or "different" and I explained that that was the Spirit testifying. So a little later on we asked how long they have in Utah and what brought them to Utah. They said they have lived here for a year and the mom responded with something like this as to why, "I had a dream a few years ago about this valley. I remember seeing every part of it and thinking that it was a beautiful and important place. And that I needed to go there, or someone from my family. I didn't know if it would be me or my husband, but I know someone would come here." And so the missionary I was on exchanges with said that God has a reason for bringing them here and that this is probably it. And so I left them a Book of Mormon and a chapter to read from it and asked when I could come back. And the mom said that next Thursday would work because she wants to read the Book of Mormon and have the whole family there (her husband was working/asleep. I'm not really sure. One of those 2). But they seem like a real solid family, and I see them getting baptized. And I don't know the dream may sound crazy that I had, but it got me to look out for a family of 6. I think that's about all that really happened for this week that I can think of.

Flat Tires

Not much to write about this week. My tires on the bike are flat so we've been walking around for the past few days. But we've been getting more rides from members. We're supposed to have 2 baptisms this Saturday which will be pretty exciting. They fell through last week, but this week they should be good. I'm still working on getting to know the investigators in this area, which is kind of tough. Our mission song is "Up Awake Ye Defenders of Zion." I think it's hymn #248.

This is the baptism we had on Sept. 1st. The Flores family.

First Transfer

Well I got transferred to a new area. I'm no longer in the West Valley Zone, I'm in the Magna zone. Which means I moved to a different part of the city of West Valley. I'm no longer companions with Elder Pearl, but he is my Zone Leader. My new companion is from Michocan, Mexico. His name is Elder Gudino. He's like 5'5" and 19. He's been out for over a year. For transfers we all just went to a building and hung out for a little bit, talked with whoever, and then they called us over to an area where the ZL's were. Then the Zl's held up signs with the names of the people transferred to their zones.

Well our new area is pretty big. We cover 2 stakes, and have a spanish ward and branch. So I don't really know any of the investigators or members in my new area. And I didn't really have a chance to get to know many of the members really well in the last area. We were white washed in, and white washed out. We don't have a car so we have to bike around the area which kind of sucks, because a lot of it is uphill. The house is pretty nice where we live. It's in the basement and we have our own kitchen. The couple that live there are kind of strict, but it's not too big of a problem. My spanish is alright. I think it will continue to get better this transfer though. It will help alot having a native speaker as my companion. More than anything I'll miss Elder Cruz, Morris, and Moors. We were all pretty close, oh well.

Humble Dinner

Well the biggest news to report is that the baptism we were supposed to have on Saturday fell through. The parents moved it back 2 or 3 weeks. But the good news is that 2 of our investigators called us and said they wanted to be baptized. We committed them before, but they said they weren't ready. So last night we had the opportunity to baptize and confirm them. It was a great way to start off the month! I'll try to send some pictures of it. Well for the month of August our zone lead the mission. We ended up with 35 baptisms. Our goal was 37 so we fell short of it but we'll make it this month. This month we have a goal of 45. As a reward for leading the mission we get an all day p-day today, and we got to go to Mr. Mac and get a tie.

We're working with one of our investigators who's seen over 30 missionaries. His whole family got baptized except for him. He said he's almost ready, but I'm gonna try to speed that up. We have a few investigators that are pretty close to being baptized I think. They just need to come to church. It's tough. The members here are awesome though. They help us out so much. Every day we get dinner. And they insist that we eat seconds, if we don't they think we don't like the food. So I should be coming back fat. I feel a little bad though. We have a small branch and so a lot of the families feed us 2 or 3 times a month. And they don't really have much, but when we come they feel like they have to cook a more fancy meal than they usually eat. And they don't really have a lot of money. I had a good experience the other day at a dinner appointment. The person didn't have a man home so we couldn't enter. So we ate on the front steps and she sat inside. She gave us a plate of rice with corn and tortillas. And as we sat there she sang us Christmas songs. It was humbling. It made me think about how it was for the Apostles back in the days of Christ. The willingness and desire of this people to give is amazing. Well we got everything here, the good and the bad.

We've run into a few anti-people. One that got excommunicated and tried to give us proof that the Book of Mormon is false. And then we met a less active lady who said "I believe it with all my heart, I just can't live the standards," as she was drinking a beer. I don't get how she can know it's true, and still not live it. It's tough to see. Well that's about my life. Knocking doors, getting rejected, getting yelled at, and talking to people. That's about all that's going on I think.

A Priesthood Blessing

Well nothing too big happened this week. We've been running into a lot of inactives and less actives lately. It's kind of depressing how many of them there are. Now I have somewhat of an idea of what Mormon was saying in Mormon 6:17-the end.

Well we have one more person on date. She's being baptized this Sunday. The mom runs a foster care home and they adopted her, and she wanted to be baptized so the parents wanted her to take lessons first. It's interesting because we teach her in English and Spanish. The mom is from Puerto Rico, and her Uncle designed the Conquistador. I thought that was pretty cool. Speaking of Puerto Rico, a lot of people here think I'm from Puerto Rico or have Latino blood in me. Puerto Rico and Brazil are the top guesses of where I'm from. Anyway, we have like 4 more people on date in September. So we're finding a way to progress, even though it gets real hard sometimes. Yesterday I had exchanges with the Zone Leaders. Our appointments fell through but we found 3 potential investigators who seemed pretty interested in the gospel. We found a english speaking kid named Seth, and he's a really cool kid. He's 18 and wants to join the church. He's been taking lessons from the South missionaries, but we're meeting with him now too. So that he can talk to us whenever and it's easier for him to meet with us.

Saturday we had New Missionary Training and we went to downtown Salt Lake and had a street contacting competition. My companion was Elder Orton. He's from Orlando. It was nice working with him. We got a long well and our assigned area was 100 s., Which is basically the Gateway Mall area. We met some interesting people there. One of them was an Anti, who told us we sinned every week by taking the sacrament because we say we'll always remember him. We were talking with a recent RM when this anti came up to us and so they started going at it while me and Elder Orton were standing there. But the RM said he repents everynight. And the anti said that if he truely repented he'd be perfect in 10 days because he would forsake the sin. It was pretty entertaining to watch.

Well, I think the highlight of my week came yesterday. We were teaching a part member family. The wife is a member and the husband isn't. They're an older couple, and he's willing to listen and talk to the missionaries but wants to keep his religion. While we were talking to them, we found out that he hadn't had a job for a couple of months. And so we were talking and started talking about how we can give blessings. So Elder Pearl said that we could come by later with the Bishop and give him a blessing of comfort. But I felt like we needed to give it then. And the thoughts came to me that I didn't have to worry about the language, and that I'd be able to say everything that I needed. And that everything would be provided to me. So I offered to give one right then. So we told him it was based on his faith, and then I gave him a blessing of comfort in Spanish. It was a good experience. I think that's about all I have for this week.

My District

Well, this week was pretty good. I can't really think of anything real crazy that happened this week. I got my driving privileges, so now I get to drive the car everywhere. We've done a lot of tracting this week, but haven't got many new investigators. We got about 3 or 4 people with a baptismal date though. So that's pretty exciting. One of them we knocked on a door, saw a 19 year-old kid and asked if he was baptized. Said no, and we asked if he'd prepare himself for Sept. 5, and he said yes. He didn't come to church though so I don't know what's going on there. Then the other 2 or 3 or 4 are from a family where the parents need to be divorced and married to each other. And both the parents want their kids to be baptized. Oh and then Saturday we met a woman who is married to an English speaking man, but she speaks mostly Spanish. We asked where she went to church and she said a christian one downtown, but she was looking for one closer. So we invited her to church the next day. She came with her husband, and they enjoyed it. Turns out the husband was less active, and a high council member went and saw them the week before. So hopefully we can re-activate him and convert her. The Spanish is going better for me. I can understand over 1/2 of what they say. So I'm making some good progress. Well we're having good success in this zone. We have something like 28 baptisms so far this transfer. We're leading the mission.


Here's a picture of my district. The one in the very back, middle is our District Leader, Elder Cruz. He's from Brazil, looks a little like Shia Labuff. Then the 2 on the sides of him are the Zone leaders. And the person next to me is Elder Morris from the MTC. And the Samoan is Elder Morrs, he's from San. Fran. Next transfer is his last. He's going to play football for the University of Utah.

Our Digs

I'm in a Spanish branch. And we only cover that branch out of the whole stake. Place I'm staying is pretty nice. It's like a mini apartment. Well I don't really know what to talk about. I participated in 3 confimations this Sunday so that was a good experience. I didn't really understand much of what was being said. But I'm starting to be able to understand more! It's slowly coming along. I don't know. It still seems like I'll never really pick it up. It's tough. Me and my companion are getting a long all right. It's crazy how fast time is going out in the field. The days are long, and the weeks are short. This time is going by a lot faster than the MTC. Which I'm happy about. Well I don't really have any of my own investigators yet. Like ones that I've found and we've started teaching. All of them are from the previous Elders. But mayble I'll get one soon. Last night we went on exchanges, and we visited an investigator and that took about an hour, then we went to different places trying to talk to investigators but they weren't home. So it was 8:25 and i prayed to see where we should go. And I felt like we should go to the Chapel. I didn't know if it was just me wanting to be with someone that speaks english or what. So we went and there was a less active member that lives next door to the chapel working on his car. So we talked to him, and to the guy that lives under them in the basement. (that's what they do here to get cheaper housing). And the guy that wasn't a member agreed to let us come back. We can't knock the door to this house because they have 2 dogs that are always outside fenced in. So this was the first time we could actually talk to them. Well I got to go write a letter to the Primary kids.

Baptism

Well I've felt the Spirit so strongly and it's been great being an instrument in the Lord's hand. We have a baptism of a 9 year old set up this saturday. His name is Diego. His dad wanted to baptize him, but they had trouble finding the membership records of the dad. And his dad is getting deported next month. It was really sad, but as we set a date for this week I felt strongly that everything would be alright. So I told the dad that, and we actually got a call today that they found his record so that was an answer to my prayers.

The other day we were trying to decide who we should go see, and I felt like we should go visit someone in the area book named Alex that we tried visiting before, but he wasn't there. So I was wondering why we felt like we should go there and started looking for people. As we drove (we have a car, but try to walk when we can) down the next street over we found a guy named Martin who was interested in learning about the Gospel. Also, we were driving visiting people on the Progress record and they weren't home. And as we were trying to leave a house, Elder Pearl forgot his number that we have to enter into a black box (a thing the mission uses to track where we are, if we're breaking speed limit, who's driving, all that stuff). So I started looking for someone to talk to. And all of a sudden we see this teenager walking down the street and gave him a Book of Mormon and got his details. After we talked to him Elder Pearl remembered his number and couldn't figure out how he forgot it. But that's the stupor of thought the scriptures talk about. I don't know if anything will turn out because of it, but we'll see.

This weekend we're set up for 3 conformations, (what counts for the records) but none of them are people we found. But we have one more little girl that was adopted into a member family that runs a foster home, and the little girl wanted to be a member so we have a date for her too. So with these 4 people it counts as 4 baptisms under my name. And we're hoping we can get this one guy who's been coming to church for a while but needs to clear up some things. So the Missionary work is progressing pretty well here. I think it might be because of the Spirit of Elijah. With so many of the temples being built here in the valley, I think there are Spirits helping us so that their work can get done. And as President Sonne says, "when temples are dedicated, Satan's power is deminished over the area". Something like that. So hopefully they keep helping us and help us with these baptisms.

A few random things...we have a mission tour with Elder Christensen of the 70 tomorrow. The area we're at is highly populated by Spanish speakers, We actually talked to a few gang members so that was kind of fun. Umm we do get fed pretty much everynight, unless appointments fall through or something like that. I still can't understand spanish when they talk fast. There's a lot of work to be done in this area so I don't really get to write in my journal as much as i would like, but I try. Well I think that's about it for now.

Finally...I'm in the Field!

Well, I'm finally in the field. My companion's name is Elder Pearl. He's from South Africa. Before he came on his mission he was a High school teacher, he's 27. He's a pretty good companion. He was originally english speaking and had to learn Spanish out in the field. He speaks Dutch too. He's got the type of humor that most British influenced people have. Yesterday, the first day, We went to temple square and learned how to use that as a tool with our converts. I'm in an area called West Valley. I'm living in a member's home in the basement. They don't really talk to us that much, but it's a decent living place. After we got settled in we went and visited with a person that was supposed to be baptized he's 10, and both his parents are members but went inactive... I think. I'm not really sure. I'm able to follow some Spanish but not everything. Anyways after that we had a meeting with our branch mission leader. I didn't get too much out of it. But I couldn't really talk, because I lost my voice. It's a little better now but it's still a little messed up. After we met with them we went and tracted a little bit. First person we talked to was smoking a cigarette on his porch and grew up in SLC. He accepted the book of Mormon and an appointment for Friday. We also tracted into a Latino guy who accepted the Book of Mormon and said he'd let us come teach him and his family and would think about being baptized. We also gave a LDM to a kid who was interested in what we were doing. And was interested in the church. Then, we talked to this lady who has members in her family and been around the church but didn't feel it was for her. And she said she was willing to hear what we had to say. So we got about 4 appointments in about an hours work. The week before I got here they had 82 baptisms. The President said this isn't a seed planiting mission it's a baptizing mission. And they said to expect a baptism this weekend. They had something like 176 last month. It's crazy how fast the missionary work is going here. This morning I woke up at 5 and we went to the English Elders apartment and then went to the Temple with a member. It was a way neat experience going through the Salt Lake Temple. My companion said we're going every week which is good. Our p-days are usually on wedneday by the way. But and then today we went grocery shopping bought some stuff, went to get a copy of the key to the house and while we were leaving a member came up to us and gave us some money for lunch. So us 4, Elder Moors, Beck, Pearl, and I went to Cafe Rio. It was good.

First Talk in Spanish

Last Sunday I got called on to give a talk in Sacrament meeting in Spanish. The talk I prepared wasn't the best, but I made it through it. I had a good experience with it th ough. Usually I go into Sacrament meetings nervous because I didn't know who they would call and thought they might call on me everyweek. But this week, I felt calm and relaxed. So I kinda knew it was going to happen but it's all good. So that was a pretty good. We taught the Second lesson in the TRC this week along with the Word of Wisdom. I had more fun with it this week because I wasn't as focused on what I was going to say, but used what I know to answer questions and explain. I didn't have to worry about a written out script i had. Oh and I got my travel plans yesterday. I leave the 29th at 6 in the morning. It's kind of crazy. our teachers are starting to focus more on what we'll be doing out in the field(area book, planning to investigators needs, etc.) and not as much about how to teach general lessons and stuff they focused on before.I'm getting more and more excited, but at the same time I'm getting nervous. Knowing that i'll be in a latino's home in 2 weeks teaching them is a scary thought. It'll be fun though. We finally get to play basketball at the MTC. We played the first day i was here then they stopped because of swine flu, and two days ago they finally allowed us to play 3 on 3. It was a long time without playing real basketball.

Brother Steuer talked to us on Tuesday. Hmm and Spanish is coming along pretty well. I can't think of anything else to say so I'll end by bearing my testimony in Spanish. Sorry for not putting the accents on some of the letters.

Yo se que la iglesia de Jesucristo es verdadera, y que ha sido restaurado en el mundo hoy. Tambien se que tenemos un profeta vivienda en nuestro mundo, se llama Thomas S. Monson. Yo se que Jose Smith fue un profeta verdadero, y que por medio la Espiritu traduccio El Libro de Mormon. Yo se que por medio el evangellio de Jesucristo es posible para nosotros a vivir con nuestras familias por eternidad. Tambien se que cuando seguimos los mandamientos de Dios recibiramos bendiciones. Y yo se que Jesucristo es nuestra salvador y redentor. Y que Dios envio Jesucristo a la tierra para expiar los pecados de nosotoros. Y cuando el fue en la gardin de Gethsemane vio la caras de todos personas en el mundo. Y se que Dios nos ama. Y contesta nuestras oraciones. Digo estas cosas en el nombre de Jesucristo. Amen.

4th of July

Well, nothing really new or exciting to talk about. I heard the Jonas Brothers on 4th of July, they were playing at the Stadium of Fire. We got to watch the fireworks to. So 4th of July wasn't too bad. Brother Abrea talked to us on Tuesday. He gave a good talk. Tuesday I taught the first lesson in Spanish for the second time and I did alright. My companion doesn't think i speak good enough spanish or something, so he felt the need to repeat what I taught, teach his section, then take my next section. Which was kind of annoying. I'm ready to get out in the field, and out of the MTC. Only 3 more weeks. Well I guess that's about it. Here's a few fun pictures of what we do to chill...

A Joke for You

Que pasa? Tengo un chiste para ustedes. (I have a joke for y'all). Que es la diferencia entre una pera y una novia de un misionero? (What's the difference between a pear and a missionary's girlfriend?)(Answer at the end)

This past week has been crazy. The schedule got all mixed up because of the Mission President's training. But Friday night we had a devotional by Jeffrey R. Holland. And it was amazing. There were 7 apostles there. L Tom Perry, D. Todd Christopherson, Quentin L. Cook, Jeffrey R. Holland, David A. Bednar, Dallin H. Oaks, and Neil A. Anderson. He talked to us about the importance of Spirit while we teach investigators. And then last night we had Gerald N. Lund from the 2nd quorum of the 70 come and talk to us. He talked to us about what to do and not to do when we're out of the MTC. After hearing that talk I cannot wait to get out of here. I'm pumped to go teach real people. Speaking of teaching, I taught the first lesson in Spanish yesterday. We made it last over 30 minutes which is pretty crazy. 1 month ago there's no way that I'd be able to say all that. Next week, I teach the other half of the first lesson. So we'll have to see how that turns out. Anyways, it's crazy I've been in here for 5 weeks already. Only 4 more. Sam.. Elder Johnson has the same meal period as me so I see him pretty much every meal. Almost half of our zone left for Argentina this week so it's really quiet now, and a lot of the people we talked to our gone. and the nuevos are really quiet and don't talk to us much.. So it's pretty much 3 districts that talk.

Repueste de chiste: Una pera es pera, pero una novia de un misionero no espera! (a pear is pear, but a missionary's girlfriend doesn't wait) (it's a pun... that only works in spanish. So if you tell it, do it in spanish.)

No Technology Withdrawals

It's wierd that I'm not going through any technology withdrawls. I haven't even really thought about technology or any of that stuff. I didn't find out until yesterday that Transformers 2 is coming out. It's kind of cool how I'm left out of knowing all that. I like it. The only thing that takes us back to technolgy is when we do the language program on the computer and quote movies/t.v. shows, "Babylon" stuff. Oh and we sing Taylor Swift a lot. "Love Story" it's a great song.

There's a lot of excitement around the MTC today because the Mission presidents are coming for training and so a lot of the Apostles and First Presidency are going to be here. My teacher's mom cooked for Elder Oaks when he was in Chile a few days ago and said that he'd find him when he came to the MTC this week. So Elder Oaks might come to our class which would be pretty cool. I taught the 2nd lesson in the TRC yesterday and the Spirit was so strong. At the beginning of the lesson the guy said he read and prayed about the LDM and thought he knew it was true. So at the end after I taught about the Atonement (we only got 1/2 way through the lesson in 30 minutes, there's a lot of stuff in it) I said he knew it was true and received a witness that it was. Then committed him. It felt good, but would have felt better if he was a real investigator.

Simple and Powerful Hymns

Well, this past week has been amazing. I've felt the Spirit so strong. We teach lessons to fake investigators in the TRC and The Spirit was amazing when I retold the First Vision. I had it memorized in english, but I forgot it because I memorized it in Spanish. So we gave an english lesson, but parts of it in Spanish. It went really well though.

On Sunday we had a fireside, I don't remember who gave it but he had a position in the MTC. But before every fireside and devotional we sing 3 prelude songs, and then an opening hymn. And while we were singing the prelude songs it hit me how powerful hymns are, and I've gained a love for them. But every now and then we'll sing songs from the childrens hymn book. I think these songs are even more powerful than the ones from the hymn book. The lyrics to the children's songs are so simple, but powerful.

In class on Monday or Tuesday our teacher, Brother Penailillo, gave an awesome lesson. He was relating the Lion King to repentence. And how Scar gets him to run away from his life after Simba's dad dies, and he lives the Hakuna Matata life (Eat Drink and Be Merry). And Rafiki is like a bishop or prophet who tells him what he needs to do to get back. I think the most powerful part though is when Simba sees his dad in the clouds and Maufasa says "you've forgotten who I am" and Simba replies with "no I haven't" and Maufasa states "You've forgotten me, because you have forgotten who you are." That statement is very true with our Heavenly Father. As we stop doing the things we know are right, we get farther away from him. I think y'all should try watching the movie with this in mind.

One of my teachers got the flu, and then the person subbing for him got the swine flu, and a few people in our zone have the flu. But I'm still going strong. AND THEN, last night we had a devotional from Elder Bednar. He gave a great talk. It was about not worrying about a profound prompting from the Spirit to act, but to "be a good boy" and as you do the things that are right you'll be guided. He told a story about his General Conference talk. He had one prepared but 2 days before it was due for translation he woke up at 4 a.m. and wrote a new talk that he gave in confrence. All he knew is that he was talking after Elder Oaks and before Brother Stevenson. Oaks talked about serving others in temples, Bednar talked about Blessings of temples, and Stevenson talked about Temples in homes. And Monson closed telling everyone to go to the Temple. They all felt inspired to talk about temples which i think is amazing. Oh, and I went to the temple today and the I felt the Spirit so strong as I was a proxie for sealings. It was goood knowing the joy I could bring the people I was doing the work for.

Swine Flu Lockdown

Things are pretty crazy here at the MTC. They've pretty much quarantined the MTC because of the flu and swine flu. They aren't letting any missionaries leave on their missions, so their departure dates were pushed back. The nuevos (new people) coming in couldn't have their family come in with them, they only had a curbside drop off. The church made a press release about it. There's like 3 people with swine flu and 17 with normal flu. But someone in our zone got swine flu so it might be up to 4 now. I don't know. Other than that the MTC is pretty good. The first few days were really long and not fun. But Saturday we had our first gym and since then things have been going faster. I'm starting to learn Spanish. I can already introduce myself as a missionary, get to know the person, tell them I have a message about Christ, and bear my testimony. I still got a lot to learn though, so it's pretty intimidating.

My companion is alright. He knows a lot about the gospel and Spanish. My district also helps me a lot. We're all pretty close, so that's cool. One kid from Austin, Elder Morris, reminds me of Brad McLea. And Elder Hiatt reminds me of Robert Foran. It's weird. We found a stuffed animal dog in our room, so Elder Hiatt, Elder Watkins, Elder Morris and I took it in and gave it a name. We named her Lavender because she has a purple flower in her mouth. I feel like I have so much to write. My zone is great we're all close.

We have some people who were supposed to leave two weeks ago but have had visa problems and so they've been here for 10 weeks. I worked the Referrel Center for the first time a few days ago. I called people who ordered stuff from the church. One person I called was from Brooklyn, and was real mad that I called because he told the last person not to call back. But the best response someone got was Elder Watkins called a guy and he said "DON'T CALL ME. I DON'T WANT YA AND I DON'T NEED YA!" There was some success though. Elder Hiatt talked to a lady for like 45 minutes. The next day we did chats and I talked to a guy for 20 minutes, but I had to go eat so I had to transfer him. He seemed like he was pretty interested though.

Yesterday we had a devotional from Brother Gonzalez of the Quorum of the 70. He gave a great talk about how to be a better missionary. We also taught our first lesson in the TRC yesterday. The spirit was sooo strong while we were teaching. Our maestra (teacher) would go room to room seeing how everybody was doing, and she said ours was near perfect and that the spirit was very strong. It was a good experience. It's nice being able to have time for personal study everyday. I've been learning a lot, and it's so awesome seeing so many people here who are willing to sacrifice 2 years of their lives. Our Branch presidency is really good too. One of the counselors, Brother Priest, knows so much about the Gospel I try to absorb everything he says. I'm running out of time though so I gotta go.

My First Day

Just finished up my first day at the Mission Training Center (MTC) and it's been pretty overwhelming. There's a lot of information. But it's good. My companion's name is Elder Widenhouse. Two other missionaries that share our room are Elder Coulston and Elder Morris. We are all going to the same mission. Today's mostly been just an orientation, so not much to tell.

Entering the MTC

Before we took Kyle into the MTC we decided that we should send him off with a fully stomach. His breakfast choice was Maglebys! It was a perfect breakfast although Kyle couldn't eat all of his food because he claimed he was too nervous. So, we helped him finish off his chocolate chip banana pancakes.

Mail Address

Starting May 27th:
Elder Kyle David Andrews
MTC Mailbox # 290
UT-SLC 0729
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

Starting July 27th (packages and letters):
Elder Kyle David Andrews
Utah Salt Lake City Mission
3487 S 1300 E West Entrance
Salt Lake City, UT 84106