Year 1 - Letter 21 - New Orleans, LA

I LOVE MISSIONARY WORK!

Hey everyone!

Life is great here in the Big Easy!  Starting to get a little bit cold, but that is ok, i'll get used to it!  Pretty good week!  WE HAVE SOMEONE WITH A DATE!

Daniel, one of my first contacts, has a date to be baptized the 17th of November!  I am so excited for him!  I love teaching him, and from what we can tell, he loves learning, so we always have a good time over at his place.  I will let you know how he goes.

Dora is doing well.  We had a Halloween party for the ward, and she brought her family with her, so that was awesome!  We haven't taught her lately, but she is coming along well.

Virginio, has been really busy lately, so we havent seen or talked with him at all, which has us a little worried.  We left him on our last lesson with him on a positive note, so we aren't sure whats up.

Other than that, not much else has gone on this week.  The Halloween party i mentioned earlier was fun!  I liked one family that where dressed in chef costumes, and the dad had a pot with their baby dressed as a crawfish in it.  Quite funny!

Haven't had the opportunity to attend a crawfish boil, but the food here is still good!  The po boys are awesome!  I love having a good salami or shrimp or roast beef po boy!  The Hispanic food is really good as well!  The Hondurans make baliattas, which are flour tortillas, with eggs beans, that awesome white cheese, and Honduran cream, and the rock!  We also have a Venezuelan sister that makes arrepas, which are corn tortillas that are like 1-2 inches thick, with meat, cream, cheese, beans, or whatever.  It is SO GOOD!  I can't wait to show you all!

Well, my time is running short!  Gotta Go!  

Love, 

Elder Scott T. Andrews

Year 1 - Letter 20 - New Orleans, LA

First Transfer Over!

Hey everyone!

This is crazy!  My first transfer is over!  AHhhhh!  Where is the time GOING!?!?!!  I have almost been out for SIX months!  AGH!  Ok, ok, enough.  of that!  Life is going well over hear in New Orleans!  thankfully, i am NOT getting transferred, and neither is Elder Gillett .  If he left me now, i would probably die.  My spanish is getting better!  Poco a poco, i'm getting to where i want to be.  I guess it's kinda like conversion.  You start out not quite knowing anything, but little by little, you learn more and more, until... you die!  You won't ever stop learning, or improving!  So good to know that Hermana Andrews is FINALLY helping the people of Santa Rosa California!  She will be awesome there!  They won't even know what hit them!

Well life is good!  Our investigators are coming along well!

Virginio is doing quite well!  The last time we where over there, we where talking and his, well, i guess she is a girlfriend, was there too.  Her name is Carmen.  We have known they where together, but she isn't usually around when we are.  Anyways, we where over there and, pretty spontaneously, Virginio says something which roughly translates to "We should be married.  What do you think?  Yes or no?"  We kinda thought it was a joke, because he kept winking at Elder Gillet, and he is kind of a jokester, but no, he was serious!  He said they want to be married and baptized, so that is good news!  Taught them the word of wisdom and they where super into it.  However, they still didn't come to church, so we will see what happens!

One of our investigators that did come to church is Dora, with her two children.  She really has desires to follow Christ and serve God.  I am sure we can help her with that!  Our other investigator that came to church is Daniel.  He is excited about the Gospel, and we are teaching him el Plan de Salvacion right now.  We will see what happens with the both of them!

Life is good!  Last Sunday we had the stomach flu, or something, and where down and out, but thankfully, we are up and going again!  It is amazing to see the hand of the Lord in our lives!

Something interesting that i read today was the story of the brother of Jared (Mahonrimoriancumur).  When he asked the Lord to touch the stones, the Lord touched the stones, and then he saw the finger of the Lord, Jesus Christ.  He saw the stones lighting up, his faith grew, and became so great, that he saw the Lord.  I know that if we will look for "the finger of the Lord"  in our lives, our faith will grow too!  I know that this church is the church of Jesus Christ!  I am greatful to be able to serve full time in this work!

Love,
Elder Scott T. Andrews

No letter today.

We checked throughout the day hoping to find Scott's weeky letter, but not today. I will post it when it does come or let you know if we hear anything. Love, Ruth (Scott's mom)

Year 1 - Letter 19 - New Orleans, LA

Awesome week!

Hey everyone!

After last week where it felt like pretty much nothing happened, this week was fantastic!  We had 3 Lessons with members, and 8 other lessons!  It was awesome!  We have quite a few investigators right now, so I'll just talk about the ones that we have taught recently.

First off, is one of our new investigators this week, Hoover (pronounced Oover, no h), and his wife, Tita.  He is from Nicaragua, and she is from Honduras.  They seem pretty cool.  We went over this week and had a "get to know you" talk and answered some of their questions that they had.  They seem pretty interested, but he is a work horse, so finding time to talk can be a little difficult with them.

Next is the Delao Family.  They are awesome!  They always pick up so fast on what we teach, and they are excited to learn more.  Next Sunday, they say that they both got work off, so we should be seeing them at church, which would be fantastic!  Tonight we are having FHE with them, because they cancelled last week.

Virginio, our investigator who is in his 60's is doing well.  We had a lesson with him, and he seems to finally understand authority, which is great.  That has been our main goal with him.  Virginio kinda reminds me of Gramps in some ways.  Except that he is around 5'4".  However, he keeps busy.  We where able to help him re-side his two story home, which he planned to do all on his own.  Him doing it alone would have been a sight to see!

Last but certainly not least is Dora.  She has strong desires to follow Christ and do what she is supposed to.  She showed up at church the other day, and just has a desire to do good.  She has been visiting with the missionaries for quite awhile, so this is an awesome development!

It is such a privilege to be able to watch these people have desires to change, and i love that i am here being a part of it!  In a few of our lessons, it was awesome to have a few members present.  There is nothing like having members there to talk to and relate with our investigators.  The work the members do helps us so much, and it helps so much when the members are there to help our investigators learn!

Life is good!  I have loved going and re-reading the conference talks.  They are so inspiring!  So many questions have been answered, and i have never wanted to serve more!  In Priesthood, i was sitting with a young less active boy.  Right before president Monson talked, i prayed that he would say something that would help this young man out.  I don't think that he could have said anything better.  It was awesome to have my prayers answered right there.

I was reading the other day in 3 Nephi chapter 18 where Jesus institutes the sacrament.  The thing that caught my eye, was how it kept saying that they did eat/drink, and where filled.  What i wondered, is how can, as we take the sacrament, be filled?  It's obviously not physical for us.  You can't be filled by a fraction of a slice of bread, or a tiny cup of water.  What we can be filled with is the spirit, as the sacramental prayers promise.  I know that if we will prepare ourselves for the sacrament, and really think about what the prayers say, we can, and will be filled by the spirit!  

Well, that is all!  I am loving this time that i have to serve the Lord in his vineyard! 

Love you all!

Sincerely, 

Elder Scott T. Andrews

Subject line of another email today.

Elder WATSON!!!!!! I'M in NEW ORLEANS!!!!!! Its awesome! Life is going well, and i tried running the other day!! It was more limping really fast!

(Elder Watson, also injured, was Scott's companion during his time in the referral center at the MTC.)

Year 1 - Letter 18 - New Orleans, LA

Conference was Incredible!

Hey everyone!

This was a crazy week!  One of those where you feel like you did good, but the numbers just don't support it.  Jose y Areli are doing fine.  We weren't able to see them, because of their commitments to work, but we have been in contact with them, and will see them tonight i hope.  Danielle has also been quite busy, so we haven't been able to go see either of them lately.  I hope we will be able to see them all this next week.  Oh!  I just remembered i never told you all about my first door approach!

Well we were knocking on some doors in one of the apartment complexes that has a high hispanic population, and Elder Gillett said it was my door.  I was a little scared, but excited.  So i knocked like elder Gillett does (he has a little pattern he does), and waited.  From inside someone said something, that to this day I am not sure what they actually said.  Elder Gillett thought he heard them say come in.  I proceeded to ask: what?  He then explained that sometimes hispanics run little restaurants like buisnesses from in their homes, so i said ok, and walked in.  First off, it was not a restaurant.  Second, when i opened the door, it swung and hit a lady in a chair.  Third, as i entered the room, i looked to the right, and there where four or so Hispanics just sitting watching the TV,  our, i guess at that moment, they where all watching me.  I turned to Elder Gillett, and informed him that this was not a restaurant.  I jumped out of the room, and one of them came to the door.  Elder Gillett gave him a card, and we left.  It was quite a funny experience.

Well, General Conference was AWESOME!  18 years old for Elders and 19 years old for Hermanas!  That is crazy!  I know that that will help so much!  The ward mission leader, Hmo.  Batlle, was saying how much that will help the ward.  The young men that graduate from high school and then have nothing to do but work wont have to wait to go.  Less will get into trouble after High School. It's crazy to think how that will affect BYU culture!  CRAZY!  I dont think that there was a talk that i didnt really like!  Sister Dibb's was awesome, about "I'm a Mormon.  i know it, i live it, and i love it!"  I loved Elder Christofferson's talk in priesthood as well.  I also liked Sister Burtons first observe, then serve.  Elder Holland's talk was fantastic as well, on Peter and the Apostles being re-commited to the work.  Are we all commited?  I can't wait to get a November ensign and be able to study these talks more in depth!

Life is going well over here!  New Orleans is as crazy as ever!  the other day i got a 32 inch po-boy with roast beef for like ten bucks!  It fed me for a couple days!  Love you all!  I am so greatful for all you do to help me, and i love reading your letters!  Love you all!

Elder Scott T. Andrews

Year 1 - Letter 17 - New Orleans, LA

Third week out! I think . . . .

Hey everyone! 

Its been a good week!  Everything is going pretty well!  The Spanish is still coming along, bit by bit.  I know that all I need to do is be patient, work hard, and the Lord will take care of the rest.  My goal for this week is to be able to just go up to someone, talk, and testify.  I know that if i can bring the spirit into a conversation that takes place less than a few minutes, the spirit will do the work. 

Well, we got one of our investigators to come to church yesterday!  His story is pretty cool.  We had just come out of a visit with a less active member, who, by the way, is really into music, so that was fun!  Anyways, we had just come out of this appointment, and decided to contact someone on the street.  We saw this man, Danielle walking towards us, so we stopped him, and told him what we where about. He said that he had talked with missionaries back in Honduras!  He had attended church a few times, and really wanted to again!  We gave him our number, took his, got him a ride to church, and he showed up!  It was awesome!  Well, we don't really know much about him, so I can't wait to have our first lesson with him!

We also got to talk with Jose and Areli a few times.  They are excited about it all, and yesterday we extended the baptismal commitment, and they said yes!  I was so excited, and the spirit was so strong!  They weren't able to come to church though, because they misunderstood the time we had told them, but they said they are coming the next time for sure!  Tonight we have Noche de Hogar, or Family Home Evening with them.  I can't wait!  We will be teaching about the doctrine of Christ, and use and object lesson.  We will give them four graham crackers, for each of the doctrines, faith in Jesus Christ, Repentance, Baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost.  Then we will use icing to build towers, and then put books on them as we endure trials and endure to the end.  It's going to be a blast!

Last of our investigators that we met with last week is Virginio.  He doesn't quite understand authority, because when we committed him to be baptized, he just said he was, so we will teach him more on that!

Otherwise, life is good!  I love cooking for myself!  Jose and Areli gave us an avocado the size of a small football, and these weird green fruit called Kinep, that look like small limes.  You break them open, and then there is a pit the size of a big marble, and it has a little bit of the fruits flesh on it.  You then just put it in your mouth and chew the flesh off.  They are REALLY good!  Too bad they are hard to get in the US. If you see those around, get them!  Also, one of the families in the ward made us Arepas.  They are corn tortillas that are almost an inch thick, that are stuffed with whatever meat, vegetable, etc. that you want.  Ours had chicken, beans, Honduran creme, which is a mixture of just about every creme you could think of, and avocado.  They where amazing!  I never really liked avocado before, but it isn't that bad!

Well, that is pretty much all!  Everything is going well here in the Big Easy, which, by the way, is the perfect name for this place.  Everyone is just easy going, which makes it a bit hard to get them to do things!  Well, gotta go!

Love,

Elder Scott Andrews