July 20, 2015 Found a New Family

We were really grateful to find a good family this week to bring to church for the first time. It is a little family of 3 named the Family Medina Ben-avidez. It is kind of weird bringing people to a little kind of run down house of prayer for church, but I am grateful to have a building. We will make this little branch into a ward.

Also this week please pray for María Agustina as she is the blind lady looking to get baptized this Sunday.

I will also be sending more pictures of the beautiful area out here and of the house of prayer with the sweet baptismal font in the back of concrete. I love it here in Mexico.

My message come from Doctrine and Covenants 105:38-41 this week. It says, "(38) And again I say unto you, sue for peace, not only to the people that have smitten you, but also to all people; (39) And lift up an ensign of peace and make a proclamation of peace unto the ends of the earth; (40) And make proposals for peace unto those who have smitten you, according to the voice of the Spirit which is in you, and all things shall work together for your good. (41) Therefore, be faithful; and behold, and lo, I am with you even unto the end. Even so. Amen. 

I love this scripture because although it says the word peace I like to also think of that as love. We need to be good with all others. There will be people that smite us and mock, but we need to respond with love. We love all people whether they are bad or good because we are all children of our Father in Heaven. And if we can love all people, as it says in verse 40, all things will work together to help us. And He will be with us unto the end ,or in other words, forever.

I love you all very much and I hope that we can all focus on what brought us to this world and that is love. And if we love everyone, we will have peace.

Elder Andrews

P.S Sorry that the pictures are so small. Accidentally didn't change the setting back on my camera 

July 13, 2015 First Week on Bikes!

So as you know, this was my first full week on bikes, and it was actually super fun. I will have to admit that my legs are super sore, and I will have to get used to it. However, I am looking forward to having some really strong legs in about a month. 

We have a few people here that are getting ready for baptism, and they are great. I have realized that we teach a lot of interesting people here haha. One lady that we are teaching is blind, has one leg with 6 toes, and 12 fingers. She is really awesome though, and her name is María Agustina. That is probably the most interesting person that we are teaching right now, but we do need to find a lot of new people to teach. We have faith that we can find these people that are searching the Gospel but do not yet know it. We will bring them the truth. 

My message this week comes from Doctrine and Covenants 101:59-62. It says, 

"59. And the servant said unto his lord: When shall these things be?

 

60. And he said unto his servant: When I will, go ye straightway, and do all things whatsoever I have commanded you,

61. And this shall be my seal and blessing upon you - a faithful and wise steward in the midst of mine house, a ruler in my kingdom.

62.  And his servant went straightway, and did all things whatsoever his lord commanded him, and after many days all things were fulfilled."

I really like this scripture because it teaches us 3 lessons. (1) First of all when we ask, "when shall these things be?" we need to realize that it is always in the Lord´s time. For that He says, "When I will." (2) We also need to do all the things that the Lord commands us because obedience is the first law of Heaven, and we need to prepare ourselves as such. However, for that obedience we will receive many blessings. (3) And last, we need to do the things that the Lord asks of us now or "straightway." As we fulfill the commandments and wait for the blessings patiently, "after many days (the blessings will be) fulfilled." All we need to do is do as the Lord asks and do it diligently. We need to forget everything else and serve Him. As we do this we will see the blessings, maybe not immediately, but after many days they will be fulfilled.

I love you all very much and hope you all have great weeks!

Elder Andrews

P.S We found and bought hammocks. Best idea ever. 

July 8, 2015 To Maravatío, Michoacan!

Well I am writing today on Wednesday because I moved across the entire mission to Maravatío, Michoacan. It is a small pueblo with a house of prayer because there is no church. I already really love it here, and there is like a sweet tourist plaza which is really different and cool. I am so glad to be away from the city and in clean air. And I also feel like a regular missionary now. Why? Because we have bikes haha. My new companion is named Elder Costello, and I had met him before. We already get along super well and joke around, so it should be a great change. 

I really was sad when I had to leave El Mirador because I had made some good friends there, and it is hard to leave behind people that have had dramatic changes with the gospel. However, a change is always nice. It is nice to say that I left that area with a baptismal date in that area for each Sunday for 4 weeks. I was kind of sad to not see them baptized, but them knowing the gospel is all that matters. 

A scripture that I really liked this week is in Ecclesiastes 8:12. It says, "Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him." I really like this scripture because no matter how much we mess up, we can always go back to God. We cannot sin purposefully, but we do occasionally make mistakes. And as long as we are always trying to improve, do our best, and fear God, we will be forgiven. As we do our best, everything will turn out well if we follow God.

I love you guys all very much, and I will have bike pictures next week!

Elder Andrews

P.S. A nice good head in the cake to say goodbye 

29 Junio, 2015

We had a pretty decent week this week, but it was quite busy. We were helping our zone leaders to get medical forms, so that they could marry people and running for all places. However, it ended up well.

We have been finding a lot of people to teach, and since we only have a week left and it is pretty sure that I am leaving this area, Elder Acosta will have a lot of work and success here next change. We have been trying to find families and also trying to strengthen our ward more and more. However, the highlight of the week was being able to have a baptism. His name is Marcelo, and it was great. We were finally able to get his trust back in the missionaries, and help him progress to this step. Before his baptism, he wife (who got baptized almost a year ago) bore her testimony and how happy she was that her husband was taking this step. She started crying, and then he cried and got baptized haha. It was a very spiritually rewarding moment. 

A scripture that I really like this week is in Doctrine and Covenants 84:75 and 76. In translation it says, "And this revelation and commandment given to you is in effect from this same hour in all the world; and the gospel is for all that have not received it. But I say unto all that have been given the kingdom. It is important that it is preached unto them from you, so that they repent of their wicked prior works." I love this scripture because it says that this gospel is for EVERYONE that has not yet received it. Not only for the people that are super ready, but rather for literally everyone. Everyone deserves to be in the Kingdom of God and not just us as we sometimes think. We were all sent here to return to our Father in Heaven. If we come up short, or if some of our fellow men come up short as well, we have not fulfilled the wishes of God. However, as we share the gospel with everyone, we will be able to save more and more of brothers and sisters that we knew before this life to make sure that we all return back to our God. 

I love you all, and I hope you are doing well.

Elder Andrews

22 Junio, 2015

We had a great week here in El Mirador, and it was quite a blessing with the success that we had. We first of all were able to talk to the husband of a recent convert, and at the end of the lesson he accepted baptism for this upcoming week. His name is Marcelo, and if you could pray for him, that would be great. It was a great lesson though because his wife basically said at the end that she wanted him to get baptized because she wants to be sealed with him in the Temple to live together forever. It was a great spiritual experience. 

We were also able to pass by with the family of a recent convert, and they should be getting baptized the 5th of July, so please pray for Ángeles and Irene. Irene is the wife and her daughter is Ángeles, and they are really great, so we will be helping them to meet that goal. We were also able to talk with the daughter of a member that just got reactivated, and she has been going to church frequently for some time now. And she will also be getting baptized at the end of this transfer in the mission. We had a good week. The ward also continued strong this week with over 100 people at church. 

As we all know, this past Sunday was Father´s Day, so I would like to share a little bit about how important fathers are in our lives. First of all, our fathers are always praying for us, and this can have a grand change in our lives. This made Alma change from a super bad kid to one of the best missionaries ever because it says in Mosiah 27:14 that "he had prayed with much faith so that he was brought to the truth." And our fathers do not just pray for us every once in a while, but always as it says in Moroni 8:2-3 that, "I always have you present in my prayers, pleading without fail to God the Father, in the name of His Holy Son Jesus Christ, that by his infinite goodness and grace that he convserves you in the faith in his name until the end."

 Our fathers love us.  We always need to know that because for that love, they are sometimes hard on us. My dad was hard on me, and I hated it haha. I did not know why he had to be so hard on me and expect so much. However in Proverbs 3:11 and 12 it says, "Do not reject my son, the discipline of the Lord, neither get tired of His corrections because the Lord corrects the one that He loves, like the father does to him that He loves." I realized a long time ago that what my dad did for me was the best thing he could do. And he had reason to do it because, "I knew that my father was a just man because he instructed me in his language and also raised my in discipline and warning of the Lord, and blesed be the named of my God for that. My dad could correct me because he was doing it for my own good, and because he had the right to do it because he is a good man and follows the Gospel.

 Everything that I do, and everything that I know is thanks to him and my mom. Because it says in John 5:19 and 20 that, "The Son cannot do anything by himself, only what he sees the Father do; because everything that the Father does, will also do the Son of the same way. Because the Father loves the son and shows him all the things that He does. And greater works than these He will show him." 

I am extremely greatful for my dad and for all that he has done for me. I would not replace him for the world, and I strive to be like him as much as I can. We need to learn from the examples that our fathers place for us, so that we one day can be as great as them. And as we do that, we will live how our Father in Heaven desires. Happy Father´s Day Dad! Te amo.

I love you all and hope you forgive my scripture translations because I only carry spanish ones haha! Have a great week.

Elder Andrews

The zone.

Mexican nights.

15 June, 2015

Wow we had a lot of miracles this week here, and it is amazing how much the Lord is willing to give us. We were having kind of a hard week at the start of things, and we were worried about the people that we were going to bring to church on Sunday. It was also ward conference, so we knew that we had to bring people to church. We passed by for some people in the morning, but no one was there. When we got to church, the people that some members were going to bring were not there. However, almost the entire family of a recent convert went to church. It was amazing. There were 6 people there from that family. Later, a family that we had been teaching but could not go to church because the mom was really involved in the elections, went to church. From that, there were 3 people more. We also had 8 less active members come back to church, and brought 9 investigators to church. To say the least, the Lord blessed us extremely this week, and we know have even more people to teach.

Unfortunately, I did forget my scriptures again this week, but I kind of remember the one that I wanted to share. It is in 3 John I think and says something like, "I have no greater joy than hearing that my children walk in the truth." As many parents know, it is the best when their kids are choosing the right. However, the joy of God is even greater when He knows that we are walking in the truth. It is our choice to do so, and if we love our Father in Heaven, we will do it. And as we walk more and more in the light, we will help others to do so as well through our example. Always walk in the light of Christ because any other way will only be in darkness. 

I love you all and hope that as always all is well.

Elder Andrews 

8 Junio, 2015

Well this week was a rather rough one in the mission because of the crazy elections in Mexico. Sounds like a despressing first line haha but that is what happened! It made it difficult to work, and almost nobody went to church due to the votings being on Sunday. 

We were able to get the baptisms from last week confirmed, and they are now members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It is always a great Sunday when people are confirmed. Besides that, we moved houses on Sunday because our old one was super gross. Our new house has a washer, a super nice bathroom, a super nice backyard, a never ending hot water heater, and the owners (part member rich family) gave me a double sized new mattress. Blessings came really come in all forms. However, I am really glad for the new things because we will sleep better to focus us more on the work.

I forgot my scriptures in the house again this week (sorry), but I would like to talk about valuing the Gospel. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we are in the true church without a doubt, but sometimes we do not always show te respect that we have for what we have in the Gospel. In Church this week, I saw various people on their phones in Church doing who knows what instead of what we really need to focus on: Jesus Christ. Frankly before the mission I did not value the Sabbath Day as I should have, but we can all change and should. We know that we are in the true church, so we should also act like we are in the true church. We should think about the Lord every day, but we are only asked for one day in particular to dedicate to the Lord. Especially at church, we need to remember the reason why we partake of the Sacrament: To renew our baptismal convenant and remember the Lord. If we can make the Sabbath Day a special day, we will enjoy it more and more until it becomes the highlight of our week.

I love you all very much and hope you enjoy these pictures. Have a great week!

Elder Andrews 

Elder Acosta (Elder Andrews' companero)