Week 33

The new area is so great! District Leader is super fun! We collect numbers and do lots of other stuff like interview baptismal candidates. There are no sisters in Guyana. We have the nicest apartment in Guyana! My new companion is so cool! He is from LA and we are getting along great! We are far away from the Peterson's. My old DL is in my district, so he helps me a lot!
Love,
Elder Andrus

Week 32

7 and ½ months. That’s not a long time. However, I do feel like I’ve been here for about “a long time”. LOL I’ve been given the assignment to move to Parika! It’s a long way away! I’m excited for the change. My companion is Elder Nuttall! He is a funny guy! I think President Egbert maybe has lost his marbles a little bit, because he has asked me to be the District Leader. O.o And we are also opening a branch there! We will see all the adventures to come! But I am very excited and optimistic and ready to work hard!

This week was really exciting. We met a really cool guy named Stephan. We talked to him. Contacted him. Taught him the first lesson. Gave him a Book of Mormon. He read it as we were riding away! It was a really neat experience to see him use so much faith! I wish I could stay and see him grow more. But that’s ok!

This week was a little (lot) sad saying goodbye to all my friends I’ve made over this short time. I felt bad that people feel sad. Sheena bore her testimony and really testified of Christ. Even though she hasn’t’ got baptized yet. We have done EVERYTHING imaginable. So it’s not our time, it’s God’s time. Which is a lesson in and of itself. But it is exciting. I know she will be baptized when God needs her to be.

These last 5 transfers and 4 companions have really helped me learn and grow. It’s been exciting! I love you all so much! Nest week you’ll hear from me from Parika! 

I love ya'll!

-Elder Andrus

Week 31

Well, this week was certainly an adventure! Maybe not the most fun kind unfortunately…but that is ok! We learned a lot this week. Stay tuned for adventures at Rosehall.

Tuesday: Exchange. And District Meeting. I was with Elder Cooper. All of a sudden I feel a need to go potty. Then disaster struck. Double Dragon.

Needless to say we didn’t do much that day. We did however have a fun time sleeping, talking, listening to music, and watching conference. That night before bed I asked Elder Cooper for a blessing. As he was giving me a beautiful blessing I had the distinct impression that the blessing was promised on my faith. As I pondered my faith, and what builds faith, I remembered that Book of Mormon. We don’t know if it’s true or false, we must have faith in it.

I felt healing when I pondered the reality of the Book of Mormon. I know that it is real, that it is true, that it is sure. It truly testifies of Jesus our Savior. I love him. He can heal us. I know it!

I am all better and unfortunately, Sheena was not baptized on Saturday. Hopefully this Saturday. {I really don’t like how the government makes it so hard for people to get married. It really is a bummer. I won’t be baptizing her, the rule is that members do the baptizing because it creates a better relationship and it is more lasting.} But wish us luck and pray your hearts out for us! {I really like praying! People here always ask us to pray for them. So we teach them that they can pray for themselves.}

I love you all so much!

Elder Andrus  

{these are excerpts from William’s letters to us}

Week 30

Week 30

Hello family! Thanks for all of your emails and love! This week was pretty awesome! We’ve had a ton of success in our “Designated Contacting Area”. Pretty much a village that we talk to every single person in. It’s been fun!

The highlight of this week is Sheena. We visited her on Tues, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday! But it was so awesome to see her progress like she has. Every day we talk to her she takes one or two small steps toward baptism. It was so incredible to see her conversion process.

This week is the exciting part! Saturday is her baptism. 1:30 if you want to come. Lol. We are so excited and have faith that she will make it.

The coolest part about this whole process is to see the influence of the Book of Mormon. When we first started teaching Sheena she didn’t read. But when she started to, we could really see her conversion. Sheena is totally awesome. It’s so exciting to be a part of this great work! I know that it is real.

I love it here! Even though it is butt hot every second of every day. LOL

I do know that the BOM is real. It’s true. It really does testify of Christ who is our Savior. I know that he lives! He lives for each of us.

I love you all so much! Havre a fantabulistically amazing week! Wish us luck on Saturday! I love you!

-Elder Andrus

Tanya, a member in Guyana sent these. Not sure who the woman is in this picture, I'm thinking it's Sheena. 

William with a cutlass. :)

Week 29

Week 29

This week was a blast! We had Zone conference in Gtown Just an update of the week.

Tuesday we had an awesome BOM lesson with the Marks.

Wednesday we mapped out a whole village and used a rubix cube to teach the Apostasy.

Thursday we went to Gtown to get the package! It was all sorted dout and wasy to do!

Friday I was a little sick on the bottom end today, we had to stay in a bit. But I’m all better know! Don’t worry about me!

Saturday we had another awesome BOM lesson with the Dass family!

Sunday we were walking to drop something off to a member in the rain. As we were walking a taxi car splashed us with a ton of water. The thought popped into my head. Do you forgive him? My response was no. Then the question came again. Who do you want to be like? And Do you forgive him? Then my attitude changed. I am supposed to be like Christ. He would forgive him. It was an interesting way to have an attitude change. However, I wouldn’t have felt that if I was not in tune with the spirit. That is way we need the Book of Mormon. It helps us to change our life when we are not in the right. I know that it is true!

Have a great week every one. I love you!

Love,

Elder Andrus

(William is having problems with the computer, so no new pictures.)

A sweet member sent this. Love seeing his face!

Week 28

Hey family! This week was super crazy! We are finally done with all of the holidays! Yay. So the emailing will go back to Monday soon. However, next week will be on Tuesday. We have zone conference on Monday!

Wednesday: We had a really fun lesson with Lena. We taught her all about God. For a little girl, she had some intense questions.

Thursday: Today we had some awesome lessons! We taught Claron all about the Atonement. What it is, how it works, why we need it, how it can help us, who it covers, when we can use it, where it works. It was so good. It was definitely a very strong experience.

Friday: Tons of awesome stuff happened today! We rode all around in the pouring rain and got totally mudded out bad! It was awesome! Then later in the day this guy who owns a lemonade factory gave us two big jugs of it for free! It was really cool to see, even though he is Hindu, that people look out for us.

Saturday (mom’s birthday!): Happy birthday! I love you so much mom! Today we met an awesome lady named Abigail! We can’t wait to go see her again. She seems really awesome! We had all of our lessons fall through today, but if that didn’t happen, we wouldn’t have met Abigail.

Sunday: Today we stayed up all night waiting for the new year! Happy 2017 everyone! We had nobody at church…it made me sad. Elder Kyler and I decided the reason for that is this: People don’t read the Book of Mormon. If you don’t, start! If you do, keep doing it!

Monday: EVERYTHING was closed. It sometimes is like that! lol. We cleaned the apartment nice though! We also had a really fun talk with Jonah, our landlord. We talked about everything from drones to rally racing. It was cool. We turned it into a Gospel discussion and bore testimony and left. Hopefully it helped build his faith back. He hasn’t come to church in a long time.

Tuesday: 

“As missionaries we all have the same calling. However, we all have something different to do!” -Elder Cooper

“What e’re thou art, act well thy part.” -David O. McKay. Two awesome quotes for today. Elder Gibbson and I went on exchanges. We stayed up really late. It was bad! Lol

This week was really interesting. I know that my redeemer lives! He gave us the Book of Mormonto bless us So we can do the things we need to do in this life to prepare to meet Him. I absolutely know that the BOM is true, is sure, is steadfast, it immovable. No other book in religious history has ever been picked apart as much. Yet, it stll stands. How? Because it was truly translated by the power of God! I know it’s true. “Lift up your heart and rejoice, for the hour of your mission is come” D&C 31:3

And your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to find out for yourself if the BOM is true! Do it!

I love you all so much!

-Elder Andrus

Week 27

Week 27

Hello!

Monday: Totally normal day. We cleaned the apartment really good so we could do good on inspections. It was a relaxing day!

Tuesday: So President Egbert lets us watch 1 movie a year and we chose to watch “It’s a Wonderful Life”. That movie has become one of my favorites of all time. It is so good! We also went to an orphanage afterward and played with some of the kids there. At first they were shy, then they really opened up to us and it was really special and spiritual.

Wednesday: FULL DAY TEACHING. We again didn’t have any fall throughs. It was so good. Also we are going to have Satie’s baptism tomorrow!

Thursday: Satie passed!! So exciting! We also painted buckets for Tanya. It was really fun to do service. We don’t get to a lot because the people here would rather do it themselves. But that’s ok. Oh yeah, 6 months today!!

Friday: LOL the whole world flooded today! I was up to my knees in water outside of our apartment. It was so bad! It was also super fun! Pres Egbert said to stay inside if it was too bad. We went to the Christmas party and had a good time there, then went home. It was a very relaxing day.

Saturday: Satie’s baptism was today. It was so good! The spirit was so strong! It was special for me because Satie is the first person I found, taught and Baptized. She is so cool! Its only taken 6 months! Never give up on someone! After that, we went up to Carrington and I had the chance to go out in the ocean to be a witness for Hannah’s Baptism. It was really cool! After all that we went around reading Luke 2 with all the peeps.

Sunday: 12:00am we opened the package! It was so much fun! I recorded it and I think I was drunk. Haha It was really fun! Then we had church and did some teaching! We talked to our families! It was such an awesome experience! I love it here so much and I love you guys so much!

Monday: We just hung out all day at the apartment because everything was closed. I also learned that the Word of Wisdom is a gift, not a curse! I had a really spiritual experience teaching Delina, our neighbor across the street, who is 11, about the POS (Plan of Salvation). I explained that the plan is all about love! It was really cool!

Tuesday: Today we had all of our lessons fall through. Yay! It was still good though! We taught Sarah about how important she is! It was very spiritual. She is a daughter of God. I am a son of God. We are all sons and daughters of God who loves us and is here for us!

This week was very spiritual. And it all started with “It’s a Wonderful Life”. Our lives may be hard, they may flat out suck. BUT we all have Jesus Christ who will always be there for us. He cannot forget us. And we also have each other. 1 Nephi 21:15-16

This week I found a quote. “To ease another’s heartache, is to forget one’s own.” -Abraham Lincoln. This is so true! I have a lot of heartache, but when I look outside of myself and help others understand that Jesus is their Savior, my pain goes away. I know Jesus Christ lives! He was born 2000 years ago and still lives!

I love you guys so much! Stay strong!

-Elder Andrus

Flooding!

Skyping on Christmas Sunday!!