Week 51

Week 51!

President Egbert has been on his mission for 2 years. We are the last missionaries that will serve their whole two years under him. I'll come home 2 weeks before him. I want to go to his homecoming!

Georgetown is just like any other metropolitan city. Tiny streets, no traffic rules, dangerous at night, really awesome and amazing people, you know, the usual. I can get all the things I need here. 

LOL This week has been crazy...Elder Thompson and I are in charge of transfers. Yo, Elder Thompson is a bro and also a mountain man. One time he literally lived in a cave for a week just cuz. We get along really good. He has been on his mission for almost 2 years. This is his last transfer. 

Tuesday Elder Thompson picked us and we did some local transfers (missionaries staying in Guyana). We tried to proselyte but only had about 40 mins. Then we had to go do some foreign transfers (missionaries coming to Guyana from other countries). they landed at midnight. We drove the hour away and we dropped them off and "gaf" (talked) for an hour. Then we went back to our house. That puts us back at about 2am. Which is great! Then we realize we are locked out of our house. Some other missionaries were staying there, so in our sleepless and partially drunken state, we convinced Elder Spujt (one of my best friends) to drive us to Kaieteura Falls. (one of the biggest waterfalls in the world) So we drove around for like another 30 minutes or so because we had 1, nowhere to sleep, and 2, Elder Spujt is hysterical. We finally made it back from to the office and fell asleep on the ground for about an hour. Because we had to get up at 4:30 to take Elder Peterson to the airport. (he is home now!) Oh! And someone called us in the middle of the night to print something too. So we took Elder Peterson to the airport.

After that we did some more local transfers till about 3pm when we were back at the airport to pick up some new Elders! But we read the flight itinerary wrong, and they didn't land till 4, so we were bored out of our minds. LOL Then we took him all about to where they stay. 

Thursday, *Note at this point in the week we have had a total of 6 hours of sleep and 1 hour of teaching* We had to get up early to do some drivers licencing stuff.  I'm going to get mine. Yay! Then we were all finished at about 5pm, and taught 3 lessons. We also had a baptism this Saturday as well. We did a district meeting and a baptismal interview

Friday, *Note, still no personal study* We had MLC, luckily is was just a skype one so it was ok. Then we were able to teach the rest of the evening. 

Saturday, we had Evan's and Granny's baptism! One of the most touching I've ever been to. Evan is like 72 and Granny is 97 years old. She can't walk very well, so Elder White (the elder that had taught her everything) literally carried her into the water. I snuck a picture and Elder White looked like an angel. The spirit was so strong. I could feel an outpouring of love from our Father in Heaven. 

Wow, I'm still dead, because there aint no rest for the assistants! But I know that God is pleased with the work that we do. I love to be a missionary. It's my favorite calling I've ever had. I know that Christ lives and I know that God loves me. And I love you all! 

Love, 

Elder Andrus

P.S. I still don't know all of my responsibilities yet, but it's awesome! 

Granny with Elder White. So sweet!

Joey and I went to Las Vegas to see Elder Hardy's homecoming talk! He was one of William's first companions. 

This is the Kaieteur Falls William was talking about.
This is a picture from google. :)

Week 50

Week 50

Everything is going great this week!

About the picture of the dog covered in mud...It had mange and the mud kills the mange or something. Actually, yes, they do eat dog here. I don't know if I ever have eaten it or not. There was a time when I asked what we were eating and he said that I don't want to know. So maybe? They do have them as pets too.

You know, I thought President Egbert threw his last curve ball at me. But I was wrong. This week was transfer calls.

*Ring ring*

Pres, "Elder Andrus you're moving to Georgetown."

Me, "Awesome! Anything else?"

Pres, "Ya, your companion is Elder Thompson. You're blanking that area." (Moving both past missionaries)

Me, "That sounds fun!"

Pres, "Oh ya, you and Elder Thompson are going to be my assistants in Guyana."

Me, "Wait what? I don't know anything about being an assistant."

Pres, "Yep. Neither does Elder Thompson, so it will be a great learning experience for both of you."

So ya. I guess I'm an assistant? An hour later Pres called back and told me that our official title is "Teaching Assistant". But we still have to do all of the other administrative stuff. Really awesome!

We've been teaching this family called the Singhs. They are really awesome. Sis Singh (grandma) and her grandson Fineman. Both came to church last week and loved it. Fineman had to work this week but Sis Singh still came. It was awesome!

You know something cool? Missionary leadership isn't sustained because we aren't set apart for DL ZL stuff. We act directly under the keys of the prophet and apostles. So when you sustain our leaders, you are sustaining missionaries as well.

From President Egbert:

"...This past year our mission has seen a great number of missionary increases in Guyana and Suriname. I have prayerfully sought help and been inspired to call "Teaching Assistants" to help increase the effectiveness of our teaching skill and subsequent baptisms. There will be a turnover of nearly 40% of our missionaries in the next few months and I want to make sure that our effectiveness in teaching in the Savior's way stays at the same standard of excellence.

"Teaching Assistants" will be implemented in Guyana and Suriname to help me with the greater influx of new missionaries. Their role is to teach 3-4 lessons with each companionship once a transfer. They are to assist and to learn from each of you. They will still be responsible for their own proselyting areas."

I also got my OMP (missionary permits for Trinidad). Having one doesn't mean anything, it just means that I have the chance to go to Trinidad to serve.

Nothing else to report. I'll get back to everyone more next week as to what the heck I'm doing. Love you all! Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Andrus 

Week 48 and Week 49

Week 48

Wow...This week has been so crazy...We had a blast in Trinidad. It was like a four day vacation that was full of work, but not normal missionary work, so that was a fun change of scenery. I was a little bit sad that I wasn't proselyting. like I've been in my area 2 days out of 8...this is how the story goes.

Monday - Met up with Elder Thompson (Zone Leader comp) and worked the day in his area.

Tuesday - Fly to Trinidad for a ZL meeting

Wednesday - All day in meeting with President Egbert 

Thursday - Fly to Guyana and get home at about 9

Friday - Normal day.

Saturday - Normal day.

Sunday - Normal...*ring ring* "Hey, Elder Andrus, your meeting that you have tomorrow at 9am has been moved to 7:45am." "We live 1 hour and 45 minutes from this meeting, the buses don't run that early..." "Make it happen." So we had to leave our house by 7pm to make it by 9pm so we could get to the next Elder's apartment to stay the night so we could be at the meeting in the morning. I got the awesome privilege to sleep on the floor. I love the mission! 

Monday - In town all day at Zone Conference. All about the temple. It was so awesome. My favorite "When you touch the temple, it touches you."

This week was really fun. I was able to meet up with almost all of my past companions. Elder Cook (my trainer) I saw in Trinidad, he is going home in two weeks! Elder Hardy is going home in two weeks as well! Elder Kyler (son) he will still be in Guyana for a year. 

But what a neat experience it has been to go to Trinidad and to have our Missionary Leadership Council (MLC). And it was just that. We counciled together as missionaries. We counciled about what was good in the mission and what needed to change and what we could do to help. Pres. Egbert was there and participated, but he wasn't really in charge. It was mostly us ZL's and STL's. We all sat around and discussed. It was very cool. 

It is so sweet that Livi prays for me. It can be a little sketchy sometimes walking around in the middle of the night with a bunch of doped up dudes cursing us out holding cutlasses. LOL I don't feel threatened by them, I know God has my back. But we do represent Jesus Christ, and look at what the people did to him...so you know...Thanks for the prayers!

I remember bearing my testimony at camps and things, and it was such a great experience because everyone believed you. It's hard when you stand in front of someone (Muslim or Hindu or skeptical Christian even) in their own home and have to testify of the Savior, and they don't believe you. That can be hard.  

This week was really awesome. It was a lot of administration, but it was really good. I got like no sleep. I get lots of phone calls all of the time, but  I love talking to the other missionaries! We had a lot of fun. I'm very grateful to be a missionary. I love the gospel. I know it's true. It will bless us at all time if we follow it. I love you all!

-Elder Andrus

Week 49

This week was really exciting! I have so much I want to talk about. So let's begin!

Monday: Zone Conference. All about temples and family. I really helped to build my understanding of temples. I was really awesome! I didn't conduct the meeting, but I was a big part of it. So it was a lot of fun! 

Tuesday: We had an amazing lesson with a guy named Fineman (nickname) We started talking about the Plan of Salvation. He had so many awesome questions. Then we asked him if he wanted to be apart of that and he said yes! So we read, 3 Nephi 27:19-21 and he told us that he needed to be baptized! His grandma asked him, "What about your other baptism?" (by a pastor) Then Fineman explained the whole idea of Priesthood authority to her. Needless to say, they both have a baptism date for July! And they both came to church. I love to teach about the priesthood. That is always the second lesson that we share with everyone that we teach. It really is awesome. I am so grateful that I hold this priesthood. 

Wednesday: Today we saw everyone we wanted to see, plus 3 more! It was so awesome! 

Thursday: I went on an exchange in LaGrange. It is a really nice area. But the apartment sucks! I did two baptism interviews. #ZLresponsibilites Which both went amazing. That was my highlight for the week for sure. 

Friday: Was Crystal's b-day. She has been doing really good. She wanted to move her baptism date which was a good decision. She is awesome! 

Saturday: We saw the Khans. Love that family!

Sunday: Like I said Fineman came to church and his grandma, which was awesome. Seeta (Momma) came as well which is awesome! And the Dyals, a part member fam! (7 investigators, 19 total)

I tell people all of the time, if you pray and ask God if the BOM is true, it WILL change their life FOREVER! Ask those hard questions later when we can understand the answer and just move on in faith. That is how I feel about the mission is sometimes. It's out of our control. Just move on with faith, and make the best of what we've got. It seems to work for me. :)

I love this work. I can see people's lives change. And mine too. I know that Jesus is the Christ. I know that temples are amazing. I can't wait to go there again! Don't worry about me. I'm healthy and happy. I love being a missionary! I love you all and have a great week!

-Elder Andrus