Year 1 - Letter 30 - New Orleans, LA

A wonderful Christmas and a wonderful week!

Hey everyone!  

Early Email this week!  The libraries are going to be closed the 31 and 1 here, so we where told if we were going to email, we had better do it today. 

 

Christmas was awesome!  We had a sleep over and two other elders came besides the ones in our apartment, making it a total of six elders.  We put all of the mattresses in our main big room and had fun waking up early to open gifts.  Then it was right to getting ready and studying.  After that, we went to the Palacios, a set of brothers that live and work together.  They where super nice to let us come over to use Skype  Then I got to Skype my family!  So nice to hear that everyone is doing well!  Peter's voice is getting deep!  That was a little weird.  We then had a call from some members in our area, the Ortiz family, for a early dinner.  So we got there, and the weather was starting to get crazy.  Once we got there, we figured out that there was a tornado warning!  I didn't know that we got tornadoes here!  Our zone leaders texted us telling us to stay inside, so we ended up staying at the Ortiz home for most of Christmas, since the winds and rain didn't die down until quite late.  It was a nice Christmas. We had Tenderloin, that was cooked with bacon on it.  It was incredible.  I played the piano for them, and we had a good time talking about our traditions back home, and what Christmas is all about.

Our investigators are doing well!

The first of our investigators is Daniel.  We had a lesson with him a couple days ago that was so awesome!  We talked about the Book of Mormon, and i gave him a short summary of the story line and stuff.  It was crazy, because I definitely was using words that i hadn't used before, and definitely had the gift of tongues.  Elder Larsen and I have definitely seen that a lot, since we both are far from being masters of the Spanish Language.  Anyways... Daniel loved it!  We talked about how central the Book of Mormon is, and the spirit was so strong!  We are so blessed!

   Next is Dora.  We had an awesome lesson with her the same day as Daniel's.  We taught about prophets, and introduced Tomas S. Monson (in everything Spanish, it's Tomas).   She was super receptive, and committed to pray and attend church in order to find out if Tomas S. Monson is a prophet.  Once again, the spirit was SO strong!  When we said it was time for us to go, she almost looked sad that we had to leave.  Awesome lesson.  Awesome Lessons!

  The Book of Mormon is so awesome!  I know that we can find answers every time we read from it's pages!  One thing I have been doing lately for my studies is taking a cheap copy of the Book of Mormon, and each time I read in it, I write a question that I have in my head.  Right on the page I am on.  Then, as I read, I highlight things that answer that question, and then write a short blurb about how that answers the question I have.  I haven't not found an answer yet!  I know that as we read in the Book of Mormon, we WILL find answers.  Doesn't matter where we read, or what our question is.  He WILL answer!

Love you all!  Hope you had a very Merry Christmas!  Thanks for the gifts and cards and prayers!

Love,

Elder Scott T. Andrews

Year 1 - Letter 29 - New Orleans, LA

Feliz Navidad!

Just a short e-mail today from Elder Andrews, telling us when he will be able to call tomorrow. We are so excited! He is loving the opportunity to serve the Lord in New Orleans during this Christmas season!

Year 1 - Letter 28 - New Orleans, LA

Such an awesome week!

Hey everyone!

 This week was awesome!  We taught a lot, and me and Elder Larsen are working hard!  We have a baptism this Friday for Daniel!  I am so excited!  So many exclamation points!

OK, first off, I'm going to talk about Daniel.  Daniel has been ready for quite some time.  We have been studying the scriptures with him almost every day, and he is keeping commitments.  So we had a lesson with him last Wednesday, and we committed him to study Alma 34.  Elder Larsen then asked him to also study out what it meant to cry out unto the lord.  Friday we had another lesson and he had done it, and he said that when he prays he feels this light come over him.  He said he would peek up every now and then, and nothing was there.  I then asked him "have you been praying about baptism?... si ... and you felt that light, good feeling come over you? ... si ... do you think that is an answer to your prayers? ... si ... will you be baptized the 22 of December by someone holding the priesthood authority of God? ... si"  It was one of the most awesome experiences I have ever had!  We moved the baptism to the 21 though because it worked better, but still, totally crazy!

OK, another cool story relating to Daniel.  So, one of the last things we haven't taught Daniel before baptism is about prophets.  We decided that we should give him the talk "Consider the Blessings" by President Monson this last conference.  This was last Saturday, which was also our bike day, so we biked to the library (not the usual one because the usual one was closed because it was Saturday) and when we got there, I realized that I had no money to print out the talk for him.  I was playing with my wallet (it is one of those Jacobs ladder type ones)  and it was empty.  When I got to my computer I said a little prayer that everything would work out.  I then had this idea that I could use my card to put money on my library card to print.  I got to the machine, and it only took cash.  I then took my wallet out, felt inside, and sitting there, where two brand new one dollar bills.  Just what I needed to print out the talk.  I to this day have no idea where they came from.  Elder Larsen didn't put it there, nor did anyone else.  I know that the Lord provides for his servants.

Our other investigators are doing well!  We are going to work at inviting them to the baptism and to the ward party this Saturday. 

 

Well, that is all the time I have right now!  Love you all!  Keep on doing the small simple things!

Love,

Elder Scott T. Andrews

Year 1 - Letter 27 - New Orleans, LA

Second Transfer Meeting!

Hey everyone!

OK, so this last transfer meeting was absolutely nuts!  We got all of Elder Gillett's stuff packed up, and Wednesday morning, we headed out on our our and a half trip to the Baton Rouge stake center.  Well, we got there and Elder Larsen, my companion from the MTC was there!  It was super cool to say hi to him!  So we sat in the chapel, and president started announcing the new companionships.  MY NEW COMPANION IS ELDER LARSEN!  Not a different Elder Larsen.  THE SAME ELDER LARSEN!  It was so crazy!  Working together has been so awesome!  My Spanish is getting so much better, now that we are together.  Before, we where sheltered by our trainers, now, kinda like Hermana Andrews said in her letter, we are all grown up!  It is so crazy that we can communicate in another language   Every time I think about it, it just blows my mind!  We are so blessed by the Lord! 

Well, the work is going well.  Our mission has a mandatory bike day every week.  So Saturday  we decided to bike.  We where so blessed as we where obedient!  We had like 4 contacts as we biked around!  One of our recent contacts, Wilson, even came to church!  He is a young guy that is pretty interested in the church.  When we first met him, we talked for like on hour answering questions.  When he came to church, he could only stay for the first part, but said he loved it and wants to come to the whole thing!  I am so excited to teach him more!  Daniel is doing well as well.  He wasn't able to come to church, so we will figure that out.  He really has desires to follow Christ, he still just doesn't feel ready.  Everyone else is more or less the same.  

It is still just so crazy that I am still with Elder Larsen!  Ha-ha!  I am still just loving being out here!  I know that this church is true!  I know that our Heavenly Father loves each and every one of us, and that he wants to bless us.  It is amazing to see how as people come unto Jesus Christ, we truly are blessed!

Love you all!  Have a merry Christmas Season!

Love,

Elder Scott T. Andrews

Me with this cool wall in New Orleans, LA!

A cool building with a clarinet on it!

A nativity that we went to that was so cool!

The cool wall!

For the "Top Gear" fans.

Year 1 - Letter 26 - New Orleans, LA

Crazy News :O

Hey everyone!

So, this week is transfers, and Elder Gillett is leaving me!  AGH!  He won't be too far away though, he is just going to metaire, which is northwest of New Orleans to be a Zone Leader.  He will be in the same ward still, but nevertheless, crazy!  I will be remaining in New Orleans at Adele Street.  Geez, I don't know what I will do when I have to leave New Orleans.  I love this place.  The people, and the city itself with all of it's twists and turns.  It will be sad to see Elder Gillett go, but its OK.  I will be just fine.

  

Our investigators are doing well!  Daniel is SO CLOSE to being ready for baptism.  He knows its something he needs to do, he is just making sure that it's the right decision.  Dora is doing well too.  Her husband had some questions, so that is what we have been doing with her lately.  She wants to be baptized, just in a year when she is in Mexico with her family.  Virginio is awesome!  We have been helping him with the paperwork for getting married to Carmen.  I am so excited for him!  We had a less active member in our area come to church last Sunday, and he then bore his testimony about how when he took of the sacrament, he felt the spirit super strong!  It was so awesome!  It is even better that he is doing it for himself, and not because we have told him to do it!  I was on the phone with Lourdes, one of the people we are teaching English, and, without warning, asked us about going to church!  We told her we would love it if she came, and she did!  I cant wait to start teaching her more about the church!  It is so awesome to watch these people change, and to be a part of it!  

Otherwise life is good!  Loving it here in New Orleans!  

OK, one thing that we have been sharing at the start of this Christmas season is the story of the nativity, specifically out of the Book of Mormon.  I love Alma 7:10-12.  It so clearly explains the birth of the savior, and what he had done for us.  I know that he is our Savior, and that He loves each and every one of us.  I know that this season is a time to serve, and that we should take all the little opportunities that present themselves!  Love you all, and have a Merry Christmas season!

Love, 

Elder Scott T. Andrews

Me and Elder Gillett opening a Big Shot - a soda that is New Orleans tradition
that has crazy amounts of sugar and that is pretty much all you taste.

                                      

Me with my advent calendar.  THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! That is so cool!

Me with Marta. She lives in an old folks home. They say she has Alzheimers,  but I think she is there
because she speaks Spanish and only a little English.  She is AWESOME!