Year 1 - Letter 13 - MTC

Hola todos los personas!

Como estan?  Este semana fue loco!  First things first, our investigators are coming along quite well.  We are up right now to about five or so.  The biggest news is that we have made three baptismal dates in the last three days!  It has been incredible to see how some of our investigators are so ready to accept the gospel and change the way they live.  

The first of the Three was Mandy Knab. I think i have told you guys about her. She is the one that the first time we met her on chat, the bank she worked at got robbed. She had quit the day before.  She is going to a YSA ward, and is super excited to be baptized and live the Gospel.  She is keeping commitments we give her, and is now talking with local missionaries, which is our goal.

The next one is Cory Sweeter.  He is in high school and came on wanting to know more about our gospel.  He is reading the Book of Mormon and is super excited to be baptized as well.

Last, but certainly not least, is Maruf.  He is from Bangladesh and lives in England.  He is super excited to learn more about the church.  He is going to talk to his boss about getting Sundays off, so we hope that goes well for him!

I am exhausted!  Which is somewhat crazy... all we do is sit and chat in front of computers.  I guess that even though we aren't walking from door to door, and not getting physically tired, we are constantly answering questions like "why are you polygamists", and the very broad "what do you believe?"  That and the fact that they say that only every one out of ten chats is actually serious, it means that we are getting very good at answering questions.  That is one blessing that i have received in the Referral center.  I thought that i knew the bible alright before the mission, but now, i can answer most questions i get, or how to find the answer i need quite quickly.  

I can't wait to get to Louisiana!  However, i am kinda glad that i am missing Hurricane Isaac.  I will probably be there just in time to help serve.  I've just been praying to bless the people there in Louisiana to be safe!

This Sunday, Brother Anderson, who is high up in the Media and advertising part of the church, and had a part in writing Preach my Gospel spoke to us Sunday.  He talked about following the rules, and helping your companion to do the same.  It was awesome!  I know that if we remember that we are first loyal to God, over anything else, we will be fine.

It has been great to see Hillary around!  She is going to be an awesome missionary.  Her district is awesome, and is doing a good job of caring for her as far as i can tell.  I know that this is another blessing that has come from my ACL injury.  It is so good to be able to see her!

Everything else is doing fine!  I am healing incredibly fast, and the doctor gave me a clean bill of health, so all i need to do now is rebuild my quad muscles, that disappeared after my surgery.  A well.  They will come back with time.

One thing that is really cool that the RC does is what we call a mighty prayer.  In Alma 6:6, which says:  Nevertheless the children of God were commanded that they should gather themselves together oft, and join in fasting and mighty prayer in behalf of the welfare of the souls of those who knew not God.

Two times a week, my mission gathers together, to join in mighty prayer.  Each companionship chooses two investigators that need help.  Then we pray together and ask for help with these individuals, or to give thanks for things that have happened.  As my mission has done this, it is awesome to see the miracles that have been brought to pass among the investigators that we teach.  I love this work!  I love being able to help people from around the world!  I know that the experiences that i have had in the RC will help me throughout my life!

Well, thats all!  Thanks for all your support!

Elder Scott T. Andrews

Year 1 - Letter 12 - MTC

Hi everyone!

This sure was a crazy week!  The work is going well and so is my recovery!  First things first.  I was discharged from physical therapy Monday!  That was crazy!  Kinda mixed feelings about that, but i was able to bend my knee to 145 degrees, and my extension is pretty good as well.  Really all i will be doing on my own is strengthening my quad muscles doing a various amount of exercises.  So all i have now is to heal!  

This week was a really successful week.  We still have our investigator Pedro who we are having trouble getting in contact with, but everything else is going well.  We have an investigator whos name is Mandy, from Indiana/ moving to Virginia.  The day she came on she had quit her job at the bank that she worked at.  She was nervous about moving and still learning about the gospel.  We helped her and have taught her a few times.  Whats crazy is that we learned that the day that she quit her job, around the time she was talking to us, the bank she worked at was robbed!  Her testimony is pretty strong after that experience, and she really wants to be baptized and find a good husband.

Next new investigator is Maruf Ahmed, origionaly from Bangladesh, and currently living in South London.  He is awesome!  He works across the street from a church/temple that has a Christus statue, that really has caught his eye over the years.  Recently, he said he had a dream, where he was standing in front of the statue, with Christ's arms outstreched, and saw words ingraved that said "do you have eternal life?"  At first we thought he was trolling, but we kept with him, and he is super excited to learn about the gospel!  We hooked him up with the scripture app on his iphone, a Book of Mormon, and got him the address and time of the nearest church.  He even said he would talk to his boss to get time off to go to church, so that is awesome! We are excited to teach him more!

Along with that, we received 2 or so more investigators, so we will see what comes of that.

Cool part of Scripture study this week was when i read in D&C 18:34-36.  it says:  

  34 These words are not of men nor of man, but of me; wherefore, you shall testify they are of me and not of man;

  35 For it is my voice which speaketh them unto you; for they are given by my Spirit unto you, and by my power you can read them one to another; and save it were by my power you could not have them;

  36 Wherefore, you can testify that you have heard my voice, and know my words.

This was cool, because if we read the scriptures, we can say that we have heard the voice of the Lord.  Kind of a powerful thing to know when you are a missionary!  Well, life is good, and all is well!

Love you all!

Elder Scott Andrews

Year 1 - Letter 11 - MTC

Hi!

How are you all doing?  Life is good here at the MTC Referral Center!  We keep quite busy here.  The work is going on!  We have our new investigator, Pedro, who is awesome!  We met him on chat and he is GOLDEN.  Literally, our lessons go in such a way that we start talking about a subject, and then he explains it perfectly, and we freak out and confirm what he said.  He is great!  BTW, we teach him in spanish!  It is awesome to be able to somewhat speak another language.  The Gift of Tongues is quite real!  We asked "Seguira el ejemplo de Jesucristo, al ser bautizado, por alguien que posea la autoridad del sacerdocio de Dios?"  and he said yes, but he didnt feel prepared.  Thats ok.  Thats what we are here for.  President Evans, the 70 in charge of the missionaries, second only pretty much to the Apostles in what goes on, spoke about this process.  We as missionaries are here to help people come unto Christ.  That means that we aren't making them run faster than they are able.  It was cool, because he talked about how we are also called to lift up those who are less active members, and referred to the painting by Turner which i think is called "The Rescue".  It was interesting.  He focused on how we as missionaries  do help those who are non members, but that we are also called to help less actives come back to the church.  I know the truth of that as we chat with people.  It is so easy once you figure out that someone is a member to kinda check out and not put a lot of effort in.  That however, is not what we are supposed to do.  We are to invite everyone to come unto Christ, and that is an eternal process.

Guess what!  I just went out to eat at Tucanos!  It was heaven!  We only get to go out to eat on P-day, which for us is Wednesday.  Last week, we went to olive garden and had some extra funds, so we decided to go big.  Plus it was sort of a going away for Elder Hansen, who leaves in two weeks to go home.  He served in Bolivia for 21 months, and just got surgery here on his patella.  His knee caps are off centered, so he just had surgery on the first, and will do the second when he is at home.

Life is good here!  The only bad thing here is the food :D 

Elder Watson is awesome.  We are a lot alike, so we get along.  When we have a chat, i don't have to watch him all that much, he can handle himself.  I read this morning in Chapter 11 of first Nephi verses 1 to around 6.  This is where Nephi sees the vision of the Tree of Life.  I looked at the verbs and nouns of the chapter, which was kind of interesting, and really outlines what we can do to receive revelation.  If we will 1. desire to know, 2. believe that the Lord is able to "make known" these things, and 3. to ponder in your heart, and be in the environment to be able to do that.  I'm gonna try to help those that come on asking about personal revelation by studying this chapter with them.  It really just lays it out.  Good stuff.  

Well, i gotta run!  Love you all!  Be safe!

Elder Scott T. Andrews

Year 1 - Letter 10 - MTC

Hey everyone!  

Como estan?  Everything is going well here in the Referral center!  I'm so glad to be able to serve here.  The work is going on!  Me and my companion have been answering chats pretty much constantly.  In our first week here we have had the opportunity to talk to over 115 people over chat.  I didn't know but according to the veterans here, that is a lot for a week.  Most of those however are trolls, or people who come on just to have a bit of fun for themselves.  They are hard to deal with sometimes.  At least they are usually easy to pick out. They start somewhat interested and then ask something stupid, like how do magnets work (which i guess is from a bad rap song, so they say), if the devil punishes the bad, why is he the devil, etc.  Some are actually kinda funny, but the real hard thing is to just find charity for these people that come online, whether it be to troll, argue, or they do have a need and want to learn more.  We had a really interesting chat a few days ago.  Someone came on with the intent to troll using the "why is the devil bad" gimmick.  I then answered his question and asked him if he believed in God.  He kinda started to get sincere, but then copied and pasted some anti-Mormon paragraph from somewhere.  Me and my companion where devastated.  Ah well.

Oh, my companion!  I'll tell ya a bit more about him.  He hails from Brigham City, Utah, which isn't too far away.  He likes to play Futbol, which is awesome, and was pretty good.  We get along really well.  We are both pretty laid back until we are on chat.  We don't always agree with everything, or every approach, but we are good at finally meeting in the middle.

A pretty good week over all.  My knee is doing great!  I am at least on schedule, maybe even over it.  My knee yesterday reached a full 136 degrees!  That is considered at or past full range of motion, which rocks!  All that is left is to help me get rid of this awful limp i have now.  That is mostly due to the fact that i am now crutch free!  It is great to be able to walk again, even though it is with a brace.  Physical therapy is always fun and all of the therapists fill us in on the olympics, which sound like they are going well.

This week i was studying the book of Enos, which is probably my favorite scripture.  It was interesting to look at how the Prayer of Enos relates to the prayers of a missionary.  The first thing he does is to clear any sins that he has; earnestly praying for repentance.  Next, he prays for his brethren, our our companions/district/zone.  We are constantly praying to help those we work with.  One thing of advice my teachers gave is to even go as far as praying for your companion while he teaches.  The next and final step is that he prays for his "investigators", the Lamanites.  I have seen that so much lately.  When i teach over chat.  I am CONSTANTLY praying that they will understand, and that the spirit will speak to them.

One thing i just experienced was an investigator who would just not try.  It was hard.  If they won't experiment on the word, all we can do is to testify of truth, and hope they do it.  I hope he will eventually "experiment on the word".

Well, thats all.  Thanks for all the letters and everything!  

Love you all!

Elder Scott Turner Andrews

New Address - Sent 8/1/12 from MTC

oh, one last thing that i forgot to share with you guys.

My mailing adress is now this

Elder Scott Andrews

MTC Mailbox # 80

LA-BAT 0917

2005 North 900 East

Provo, Utah 84604

All that changed is that my mailbox is 80 and my code is 0917 which is my scheduled date to leave the MTC.  Well, everything is still going well.  today was a long day.  Unpacked everything which was crazy but it's all in the right place and quite organized.  Well, Gotta go!

Elder Scott Andrews

Year 1 - Letter 9 - MTC

Hey everyone!  This week was absolutley nuts!  So for one, the MTC has me going to physical therapy, which is fun!  My Physical Therapist's name is Anderson, and he is the father of one of the missionaries that was in my zone.  He has been helping my knee a ton.  I can pretty much get around on one crutch now, which is nice, because it gives me an extra hand to work with.  It was kinda annoying having everyone constantly having to carry my stuff.  Monday was sad, because one of my good friends in the district, Elder Belnap, left for Dallas Texas.  He was always kind, one of the first to jump up and help me when i needed it.  I'll miss him.  Then Tuesday i joined the Referral center.  That day included packing all of my stuff, and then getting help from some of my friends in my old quarters and moving it too 2M which has senior housing as well as housing the referral center missionaries.  That was no fun. 

The referral center is really cool!  Yesterday we started chatting with people who get on mormon.org, helping to answer questions.  Today was especially crazy.  The first chat i had today was with a man named Simon Kane, from England.  He was interested in the gospel and so we talked and talked and talked with him for like one hour and 20 minutes.  After that, we got back into the system to wait for another chat and we found Beth, Seth's GF.  She said she was also interested in the Church, so that puts me and my companion up at two investigators!  Tomorrow we will get to go and chat with them on Skype.  I hope that all goes well there.  So we just have that and chatting with others online, just spreading the Gospel as far as we can!

On P-day the missionaries of the Referral center are allowed to go eat of campus, so we went to Costa Vida, which was awesome!  Oh, BTW  my companion now is Elder Watson from Brigham City.  He tore his ACL as well.  So we will be together for our stay here at the MTC.  He's cool.  We get along. 

Well, that's pretty much what's goin on here.  My blood sugars are doing good, so thats a blessing!  Talk to ya later!  Love you all!

Love,

Elder Scott Andrews