Monday, August 26, 2013

Year 2 - Letter 13 - Baton Rouge, LA

Alma 32:26 Now, as I said concerning faith—that it was not a perfect knowledge—even so it is with my words. Ye cannot know of their surety at first, unto perfection, any more than faith is a perfect knowledge.

Hey everyone!

Well, This week was pretty interesting.  Wednesday was awesome!  We went out with Elder English, a senior missionary that helps in our branch.  We got a lot done in the three hours we went out.  First we stopped by Bany and Blas, because Blas is having surgery today.  He was shot in the jaw a year ago and they are replacing a piece of plastic in his jaw with bone from his hip.  We read in Mosiah 24 and shared that things might be difficult after his surgery, but that if he would rely on the Lord, and pray to him, he would be strengthened in his trials.  Elder English, with me translating, said that Elder Drollinger and I are men sent from God to help the people here.  Bany was also a part of this conversation.  They both seemed into it, and committed to come to church, but both didn't come.  We will stop by this week and see what happened.

After that, we went to knock on a less active that we had seen around and he wasn't there.  Elder English then said that there was someone who lived next door that President Estrada had married.  So we knocked, and another guy answered, and told us that he was drunk and didn't want to talk about Jesus when he was drunk, but he took a Libro de Mormon and was reading it on the porch as we left.
Next, we went to Juan Rodriguez's home, where we shared with him el Libro de Mormon.  He seemed kind of into it.  We will stop by to see if he read.

Thursday and Friday we had service for Specialized Training.  We went to an observatory on Highland road and scrapped paint of the old poles all around the parking lot, and repainted them.  It was fun, and awesome to be able to serve the community.  There were some people there from BREC, the local park organization, and they were really impressed with what we had done.  That was cool.  

Saturday was a really slow day.  We knocked on literally every door, and it was terrible.  No one answered.  We came for a water break at three and we were both like, "today has been such a long day" and then we realized it was only three.  Well, we kept at it anyways, and at 8:30 we went and knocked a door, and Jose from Mexico answered and we started explaining our purpose on his doorstep and he then randomly asked us if we wanted to go the next day to eat at his house.  We just kind of looked at each other and said yes.  We went by Sunday and they had to reschedule, but it was still pretty cool.

Oh, another cool thing!  We had helped an older man cross the road a few weeks ago, and we saw him again, and so we had a conversation, and I couldn't remember his name,. and so I asked him what it was, and he said Gary.  Then I remembered that when I first got to Baton Rouge, me and Elder Thomas had looked for a Gary Ridley and couldn't find him.  He had moved.  All we knew was that he worked at the ball parks on Gardere.  So I asked this Gary if he worked at the Ballpark, he said yes, then I asked him if his last name was Ridley, and it sure was!  That was crazy!  He told us we could stop by to visit him sometime.  He is awesome.

Well, that is pretty much it!  Life is great!  Thanks for all the support!

Love,
Elder Scott Turner Andrews

Monday, August 19, 2013

Year 2 - Letter 12 - Baton Rouge, LA

Alma 36:27 And I have been supported under trials and troubles of every kind, yea, and in all manner of afflictions; yea, God has delivered me from prison, and from bonds, and from death; yea, and I do put my trust in him, and he will still deliver me.

Hey Everyone!

So, this week has been a week for the books.  
1.) I passed a kidney stone.  That was nuts.  During the week I had had a bit of pain in my lower right stomach, and didn't really know why.  Then, Thursday night, I didn't sleep at all, and spent most of the night in the bathroom.  Friday morning I waited for Elder Drollinger to wake up and then we called Sister Wall.  She then told me to go to an urgent care.  So we were picked up by Elder O'donnell and Elder Page at 9AM, and we all went to the closest urgent care, and it didn't open until 3PM.  The next one didn't open noon.  The third one didn't exist.  We couldn't find it.  So, we called sister Wall and she gave us another one that was open.  So we waited in there for awhile, and there was this crazy show on TV called "Dog the Bounty Hunter" and there was an episode that had a bunch of Mormon references in it, and even had footage of missionaries biking on the road.  We got a lot of funny looks from the others in the waiting room.  It was quite funny. 
Then, I finally went in, and they took my height and weight.  I am officially 5'7" and 156 lbs.  After that, they took a urine sample and it came up that I had a lot of blood in my urine, and high glucose, which I figured was because there was blood in my urine.  The Urgent Care doc came in, and she was this huge black lady.  She came in freaking out.  The words out of her mouth were "Your blood sugar is over 1000, you have a ton of blood in your urine, you need to go to the ER right now or you are going to die!"  I told her my blood sugar was not over one thousand, I had checked earlier and I was only in the low 200's.  I knew that if there was blood in my urine, that was probably why it would look like my blood sugar was over 1000 from a urine sample.  she finally tested my blood sugar and I was 198.  That calmed her down a bit, and she told me to go get a cat scan to see if I had kidney stones.  So called Sister Wall to see if that was good, and she told us to go and get something to eat and then go to the ER, because we would be there for a while.  The guys got some food (I wasn't too hungry)  and we went to the ER at Lady of the Lake hospital.  We got there and checked in, and it was a super fancy hospital.  My room was this cool room with one glass wall that looked out to the nurses' station and had a curtain.  Pretty modern looking.  Anyways, a nurse came in and gave me a shot that was an anti inflammatory and helped with the pain.  Then I waited for the CT scan for a long time and had a good time visiting with the Elders and nurses.  Then I had the CT scan and waited for results.  They said that I had a kidney stone that was pretty much through the worst of it, and gave me a strainer and sample cup to catch it when it came out.  We left the hospital at 7:30PM.
2.)After the hospital, we went to Elder Drollinger's Birthday party!  It was his Birthday through all of this.  We went to a Mexican grill where some Mariachis play that we know really well, and Sister Burns, who played on a mariachi band for several years, played a song with them.  It was fun, and really good food.  It was a place called Zapatas. 
3.) We had a good lesson with Bany and David.  We watched the Testaments (thanks mom and dad for that!) and they really were touched by it.  Bany had a really hard week and gave in to drinking the day before.  We are planning on going over and talking to him more and help him know we all make mistakes, but we can repent and be forgiven though the atonement of Jesus Christ.
4.) I got a package from home!  Thank you so much for that Mom, Dad, Sadie, and Peter!  That was so kind of all of you!  They sent me a vegetable steamer and we have had a blast steaming our vegetables!  the cookies are great too!

That is more or less what happened this week.  We will be meeting with a less active this week to help him stop smoking.   That will be interesting.

This week has really helped me understand that Christ knows what we are going through.  He will give us help!  I love you all!  Thanks for all the support!

Love,
Elder Scott Turner Andrews 

Monday, August 12, 2013

Year 2 - Letter 11 - Baton Rouge, LA

Alma 40:10   And when the time cometh when all shall rise, then shall they know that God knoweth all the times which are appointed unto man.


Hey everyone!

My time right now is very short, so i am only going to get to send this short little email.  Life is good here in Baton Rouge.  I am training Elder Drollinger.  He is from Colorado Springs.  He is awesome and we get along really well.  We have been having fun letting him get to know everyone and it has been kind of sad to tell everyone elder Thomas is gone.  LIfe is great!  Sorry this has to be short!  The computer is going to kick me off in a minute!  I love you all and thanks for all the support!

Love,
Elder Scott T. Andrews
A picture of the old district.


Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Year 2 - Letter 10 - Baton Rouge, LA

1 Nephi 17:3 And thus we see that the commandments of God must be fulfilled. And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them; wherefore, he did provide means for us while we did sojourn in the wilderness.

Hey Everyone!

Tuesday Preparation Day!  Well, for transfers, it wasn't crazy exciting because Elder Thomas is going home, so we all knew that there would be changes for us here in the south.  What was more exciting is the call I got from President Wall telling me he called me to be a trainer.  So, I will be training again.  He told me there is another Elder Andrews coming in, but sister Wall wouldn't let President Wall put him with me.  I thought that was pretty funny!

Well, overall, not the most crazy-est weeks we have seen.  We did have an awesome lesson with Jason and Abi, some people we started teaching when I first got here.  Abi had a problem with the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith.  She wanted to see Joseph Smith in the Bible.  We watched the video God's Word Never Cease.  We then testified that the Book of Mormon is the word of God.  I then felt that I needed to share Alma 32:27-29.  That has to be one of my favorite scriptures to use.  If you want to know if something is true or not, you will never really know unless  you give it a shot.  She says that she will read.  Jason had to leave early.  I felt we made a lot of ground with Abi.  Before, we didn't really understand her concern, but I feel that we know what direction we need to go with her.  

We also had an awesome lesson with one of our less actives, Jose D.  BTW there are A LOT of Joses' here!  Anyways, we have been trying to help Jose read in the Book of Mormon.  So we talked with him about what was going on in his life, and then read in 1 Nephi 2 helping him apply it to himself.  It was AWESOME!  He said he wants to read with us every Wednesday!  We told him we could help him read whenever he had the time to. 

Well, I am pretty excited for the transfer meeting tomorrow!  It is really weird!  I feel like an old missionary now.  Probably because I am.  That is weird.  I can not wait to meet my new companion!   Sorry this is pretty short this week, but we have pretty much just been saying goodbye to everyone.  I love you all!  Thanks for everything!

Love,
Elder Scott Turner Andrews