Week 78

Week 78

Wee, this week was awesome! I'm so grateful that I had the chance to spend this years Christmas in Trinidad. It was so awesome. I love the Egbert's so much. We had a great time at our Christmas party.

On Monday we went to their house and had a White Elephant gift exchange that was fun! I got an awesome picture from Elder Vance. He is so funny, the picture is attached. LOL  (ooops! I attached that photo to week 77)

But what was most special was that we watched "It's a Wonderful Life" and it is! It helped me to realize how important family is and how special they are. I love my family, I miss them a lot, but I'm happy to be here with my family in Trinidad.

It's been an amazing spiritual experience to feel of God's great love for me and these I serve. It's also been amazing to feel my family's love.

My hope is in Him, out Master Jesus Christ. I love you all and thank you for all the love and support. It's a wonderful life.

-Elder Andrus

Elder Andrus during our Skype call!!

Best day ever!!

Opening his Christmas package!

Week 77

Week 77

Merry Christmas! Well, everyone this week actually was really pretty normal. We didn't have to spend that much time in the office which means, because of our lack of a teaching pool, we spent most of our week contacting! Which is awesome! We contacted a ton of people which has brought back my nice, "Golden Brown" that I lost in the office. :)

Something exciting that did happen this week was the Ward Christmas dinner! #trinifood #iamfat

Elder Rose and I sand "O Come All Ye Faithful" It was legit. But the coolest part for me was a small piece of Revelation that I had that day. The morning I read, 4 Nephi 1:15-16 which talked about how to be happy and that is to have the Love of God in our hearts. I was pondering and thought, "Well, what is the love of god?" (I've had this thought lots) but 1 John 4:6-10 explains that God's love is shown to us by the gift of his Son. Christmas time is when we celebrate this gift. Let us all have a Happy (Merry) Christmas this year by giving and loving all who are around us. Or the way that the Master says it, "Light the World." We have the brightest light around. Don't hide this great gospel. Give it to those who you love. I'll do my best to do that too!

Merry Christmas! I love you all!

-Elder Andrus  

Elder Andrus got this for a White Elephant Gift. Best gift ever!

Week 76

Week 76

Well, this week was pretty exciting! We have been in the office most of the week yay. :/ I want to go teach people! Lol 

We have been going through every baptism record and we’ve been making all the names into a list with some other info as well. Then we’ve been checking in they are in the system and stuff. It’s been good until those naughty missionaries haven’t been turning in their records. Then President has asked us to compile a bunch of handouts and stuff for all of the branches. He sure is nice. Then we checked our list twice. And found out that WE messed up a bit and we really have lots of nice missionaries. Sure does put me in the Christmas spirit and mood! 😊

We also taught a good lesson at Zone Conference. Everyone seemed to like it. We also had interviews and spent the night with the Elders from Tobago. It was a lot of fun! Well, it’s been good. Wish us luck! We have a lot of work to do! Merry Christmas! I love you all!

-Elder Andrus

Week 75

Week 75

Well, this week was nuts #Gottolovetransfers It’s been fun though! It’s cool to meet all of the new missionaries and feel the “greenie” vibes.

I cant wait to be taught and not be the teacher. But I love being a teacher. That is one of the names that Christ has. Teacher. That is one of my favorite names that he has. He is a perfect teacher! I'm not even close. 

Transfers was this week. it was nuts. I sent you an agenda as to what was supposed to happen. It’s just crazy because there is always someone without a companion, without enough seats in their car, without the right keys, without the money and then throw on top of all that, car problems LOL it’s good fun.

Elder Leitch started his mission this transfer. Elder Leitch was formerly known as Kiefah (from Rosehall). It was a blast to see him and catch up with him. He is going to do great! Well, we only had 2 lessons this week. That is ok. We taught the Maughn Family again. It was great! They are so ready for the Book of Mormon nest time! It’s going to be awesome. So the other thing we’ve been doing this last week was going though all of the Baptism records and making sure the numbers are in right and stuff like that. It’s been so cool. We have found 1 person that was baptized and wasn’t submitted properly and now they are. #savin’souls It’s actually been really spiritual. I’ve given out a lot of referrals and most of them have been baptized we all have very far reaching effects. I know that God loves us that is why he sent his Son as a baby. Merry Christmas everyone! I love you all!

-Elder Andrus

Week 74

Week 74

Keep them in your prayers. The Maughn family.

Hello everyone! This week was great! And full of food. 

On Monday we went to Sister Persaud’s house. She is a very wealthy member. Se made a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner for us. It was great. She has a really cool house and she is very nice. 

Tuesday we actually went to District Meeting, wow! We went wth President and Sister Egbert. Thant was great too. 

Wednesday we worked in the office to get ready for Thanksgiving and MLC. It was fun, we had some time to go contacting and we met and amazing family named the Maughn family. The Highlight of my week was that we finally found a family to baptize. I really think that we are going to be able to do it! They are so awesome. So in like September, I talked about our White Christmas in the Caribbean. And the only way to do that here is to baptize a family. So Elder Rose and I have been fasting and praying to find this family. And we did! Pray for the Maughn family, please! We can’t do this without faith and God’s hand. We are so busy and we barely have time to teach. Please pray for us and the Maughns.

Thursday we had Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving, it’s great. Sister Egbert cooked an epic dinner. She is the BEST. We love Sister Egbert so much. If there ever was an Elect lady as God calls Emma Smith it is certainly Sister Egbert. We had turkey, Gravy, stuffing, mashed taters, and the lot. It was great! We all missed our families. 

Friday we had MLC and it was great. I conducted and we did it over skype. It was fun to actually be able to see and hear everyone. 

Saturday we made the transfer plan. We got some driving to do. LOL. Next week is going to be nutso. LOL.

Keep me and the Maughn’s in your prayers. I’m dreaming of a white Christmas. I love you all. I know this work is God’s. We can all save our Brother and Sisters. 

Love-

Elder Andrus

Week 73

Week 73

Well, this week flew by! I'm feeling better. We are back up and running full steam ahead! its was just some nasty something that got into me LOL I'm feeling 100% now!  

Our area is probably one of the coolest in the entire mission. We have all of Northern Trinidad. So all of the mountains and hills and stuff if you look at a map. It is so beautiful. Almost as pretty as Tobago. Its really nice. We can see the ocean and stuff when we go to church and its really a nice place. I wish that we were ever there during the day and I'd take some pictures, but we area always there at night cuz all of the stuff that we do has to be done during the day. 

Our next project is a MLC on Friday and after that we are going to have to work out transfers and everything like that. Should be awesome. MLC will be fun. They are over the computer because it's a pain to fly everyone every transfer, so they have 3 or 4 of the fly in ones a year. It's pretty awesome. I've been on 15 flights since I've been set apart. Pretty crazy! 

Monday and Tuesday I was still a little bit sick. We took it easy and just did office stuff and some contacting! It was awesome to do some normal missionary work for a few hours! LOL 

Also #HAPPYBIRTHDAYDAD

Wednesday was awesome we actually taught an investigator!! That was CRAZY haha! AP life is crazy. 

Thursday was such an awesome day. We flew to TOBAGO rated one of the most beautiful islands in the world. And they are not wrong. Everywhere has a great view. Elder Cook and I had a great time. We also got POURED on by an epic storm. 

Friday we flew back and had a meeting with President Egbert. We finalized transfer plans and talked about some upcoming things. It was great. 

Saturday: Today we gave out transfer calls! We called all 105 missionaries in the mission. It's surprising how tiring calling so many people is. LOL

We were also blessed with the opportunity to go and witness a baptism. It was amazing. The lady that got baptized (Shania) is such a wonderful woman. She has come such a long way and the Elders that taught her did such a great job. Its kinda funny we don't have any instigators right now. 

I also had a really frightening moment on Friday. So we were at President's house and we drove to the office to print some things, but we forgot something at President's. So we drove back to Pres. and got our stuff and went back to the office and then home. When we left the office the first time I looked down and I didn't have my tag. I looked everywhere in the car and could not find it anywhere. I was so so so sad. I was praying so hard. Then when we got back to the office I looked up and guess what was sitting on the desk RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME... It couldn't have fallen off and landed there. And Elder Rose didn't put it there. God really looks out for his children. 

I know God loves us. 

I really feel fine. I'm glad to be back on the saddle. It's good to be a missionary. I know that the Gospel is true. It was a great blessing to be back at full tilt this week. And I trust that God will continue to bless me to feel better and better. I know that Christ Atonement has great power. I know that one of those powers is the power to heal. Heal lots of things. But this week my testimony is centered in the power to heal the wounded body. I know that that is true. 

-Elder Andrus 

Week 72

Week 72

Well, this week I was really sick. I have Dengue fever and have been pretty low. That is ok. I'm definitely on the rise now and I'll be feeling better in no time! It started on Monday and we went in the clinic by like Thursday and I'm doing a lot better. Just wanted to let everyone know. We've been inside all week just because the doctors said so. They said that I couldn't go out. But I'm doing fine now! 

I love you all!

-Elder Andrus 

*This is what Elder Andrus wrote to me:

"K so dont freak out.. Prepare yourself. Don't freak out. This week I had to go to the clinic. Don't freak out. They did some blood tests. Don't freak out. I slept a lot this week. Don't freak out. Ive been achy and had a fever this week. Don't freak out. Im totally fine. Don't freak out. Sister Egbert cooked for me. Don't freak out. Im fine.  Don't freak out. I love you so much!  Don't freak out.  Don't freak out. Don't freak out. Don't freak out. Don't freak out. I love you so much momma! you are the best and remember.  Don't freak out."

Week 71

Week 71

Well this week was Crazy! I love it, it's a blast!

Monday: We set up for Zone Conference at the Mission Home. It's always fun to hang around President. I love him!

Tuesday: Happy Halloween! People here don't celebrate it LOL. People are already setting up Christmas decorations. My kind of people! Well, Zone Conference was good. Everyone was like an hour late because a really bad accident on the road, but that is ok! Elder Alonzo was really impressed with us and how we teach. He gave us some really nice compliments! :) 

And guess what? I found out today that I have to go back to Guyana tomorrow. For court! Again...

Wednesday: The only seats left on the flight to Guyana was 1st class...It was so legit. #bucketlistcheck

It was also awesome because I was actually pretty sad that I missed Richie's baptism. So it was a huge tender mercy to be able to see him and talk to him. He is amazing. I love him! He is probably the coolest person on the earth. He called Elder Riggs and I angels when we first met him. 

Thursday: went to court this morning. I said nothing and neither did our Lawyer. We just showed the paper and "Case Dismissed" so lame that we had to fly back for that LOL...But we did get to go to Zone Conference again, so that was cool! It was so good. All about the Book of Mormon. I know that it is TRUE!! No one can take that from me! I love it. We also went and taught a few lessons with Elder Corria and Elder Groenendijk, some of our best friends!

Friday: We flew back and taught a few people and spent some time in the office!

Saturday: We had the National day of Service. We went to a home for handicapped children and pulled weeds in a flower bed. It was awesome. #yellowangels #mosiah2:17

We also went on a teaching visit with elders Johnson and birch. Really awesome!

Sunday: We had a great Sacrament Meeting and fast. I know that this church is true. I know God. I know He loves us. And I love you!

-Elder Andrus

Week 70

Week 70

This week was defiantly an interesting one! Got to love missionary work!

I'm happy to be living life large here in Trinidad. Trinidad is pretty awesome. I love the people here. The ward is really strong. The upside with us is that here people have cars and can fulfill priesthood duties. We teach as much as we can. I think the record for lessons in a week is about 9. Not too many. I'm going to break that record. Guess what. We found SUSHI it was sooooo good! I got a California roll. 

Our new assignments is pretty crazy. we have like a 10 page paper on everything. Its kinda "in tents" like Lehi. We plan zone conferences. Help with transfers. call people all of the time. people call us all of the time. Just a bunch of stuff like that. We are in the office a lot on the computer doing referrals and crazy stuff. Elder Rose and I get along great! There is one other Senior couple that works here. But they go home in January and we still don't have anyone with OMP's (Work permits for Trinidad) We will see if we move the office to the Islands or if they make us do it all. 

To start things off this week we have been really praying for a white Christmas. We have a lot of faith that it will snow! JK a white Christmas is to baptize a family during Christmas time. We've been really working our hardest to have that. Pray for us! We have been working in our contacting area really hard to find families. We've found a few, but need to keep looking! Even the prophets had areas Alma 6:7-8 Our contacting area is called San Juan. It's awesome! I love it there. 

We have been preparing to have Elder Alonzo (of the 70) to come and tour out mission. It's been all good until last night when the internet stopped working and we needed to update a lot of stuff. But we got a temporary fix and things should be back up and running just now. But it's because Elder Rose and I prayed that it worked. :)

Next week will be more exciting with Elder Alonzo and stuff. 

Richie a dude we were teaching in Guyana got baptized this week! 

Love you all!

-Elder Andrus

Week 69

Week 69

Wow! This week was crazy! I loved it. We had such a blast! Elder Rose is awesome. We get along really well. He is from SLC, Utah and he loves tennis, Lord of the Rings, adventures and missionary work. He is really cool. A lot happened this week, so I'll give you a day by day.

Tuesday: We had what we call New Missionary Orientation. It's pretty fun. Our mission is very different and its a lot to take in sometimes. That's why we do the orientation.

Wednesday: Today we had what we call a departing devotional. All the missionaries leaving fave a testimony, had a nice dinner, asked "going home" questions, and watched a "movie" of all their mission memories. It was really cool and sad to say goodbye to some of the best missionaries ever.

Thursday: We had a meeting with President Egbert about lots of stuff. In November we are having Elder Alonso (General Authority/gave a talk in conference) come and tour our mission. We are really excited!

Friday: We had another meeting with President. We also spent most of our time in the office doing all kinds of paper work and awesome stuff like that.

Saturday: Office all day!

Sunday: Church was really awesome. We go to the Port of Spain WARD and it was awesome to meet so many new people. We finally taught our first lesson today too! It was great. We learned more about the 1st vision. We read JSH 1:15-16 and analyzed each phrase and learned more about God from each phrase. It was awesome. I love when he says, "I found myself delivered from the enemy". That is possible for all of us too. Because of God and His love. He sent His son Jesus Christ and because he worked out a PERFECT atonement He knows that we need help with and how to deliver us. I know this is the truth. 

I love you all! Being an assistant is scary. A lot rests on us but, Christ makes me stronger.

-Elder Andrus

Elder Andrus answered some questions and I thought it would be fun to include:

How is Trinidad different than Guyana? 50 years of technological advancement. Much more modern! There is a McDonald's here what?!!? and tons of KFC's too. 

Do they speak with the same accent? Mostly

What do you like best in Trinidad so far? We have a car that is really nice. (Rav 4. Her name is Emma Elder Rose) We can buy food. It's fun to get to know all of the Elders and Sisters.  

What do you miss most about Guyana? Besides the people? I miss the branch in Georgetown. I love them a lot. 

Have you found places to use your card? Yes! I bought some more socks and a pair of shoes.

Have you gotten me a nativity? :D Not yet. I've bee looking for a good one. I have one in mind.  

Do you like it there? Why? I like it here because it is a new challenge and it's a fun new life. 

Excited about a McDonald's!