Good Morning!

This week has been somewhat of an odd one. Firstly, it has been cold here... HOW WEIRD IS THAT!? I had honestly assumed that cold was something that I was going to go two years without. But apparently every year there is a cold front and for a few days it is pretty cold. I even had to get a blanket so that I could sleep without being cold. Secondly, we received news that a missionary ran away. President called Elder Soza early one morning to say that if a certain elder asked for his passport (to pull out money or any other excuse) that he should tell this elder to pass by the office to get it and that he should call him immediately. Apparently the elder called President to set up a time to meet, but he didn't show and he is still missing. Today is day 4.

In brighter news, Elder Soza and I found a new family this week! WOOHOO!!! We had received a reference from a gentleman, and he told us to pass by his house. 3 days of looking and we still have not found the house. I personally think it doesn't exist. HOWEVER, in looking for his house, I asked a man sitting outside his house if he knew the guy or if he knew where the house was. He did not, but I asked him if we could come by and visit him sometime and we set an appointment. He let us in, and he asked his wife and fourteen year-old daughter to come in and listen to us. The first thing they said was that they were surprised to have us in their home because never in their lives have they let someone in to talk about religion. Not the evangelicos, not the testigos, NO ONE. They told us up front that they are catholic, but that they were willing to listen to what we had to say. We taught the restoration, and Elder Soza asked them if they would pray about what we had taught. Silence. Then, the daughter said that she would, and she told us about how never before had she heard someone tell her about religion without criticizing catholicism. She said that she honestly really liked what we had to say, and that she would pray about it. Her parents agreed as well, and they committed themselves to come to church next sunday(they have some commitment this week). We have only met with them once, but we have already established complete trust. It is amazing how that happens sometimes. Anyway, we have SUPER HIGH HOPES for them, and we are going to do EVERYTHING that we can to make sure that they accept the gospel. So this week, pray for the Sanchez family. I have already been praying hard for them. We have a few other investigators still, but we need to focus on familia Sanchez right now because from what we have seen, they don't have anything holding them back (like probation sentences or drinking problems, etc.). 

 Mom, I will try to repent and start taking more pictures. I normally don't keep my camera in my backpack, but I can start now. We haven't had any problems, and I know that I need to take more pictures. It sounds like things are fun around the house right now. Keep helping the missionaries! Give them references, visit with them, talk to their investigators. Ask the missionaries how you can help them. Pray for them and for their investigators *by name*. I love you guys. I hop you are having fun and having success. Today we are going to play soccer with the youth of the ward, so that should be fun. I'll try to get some pictures. No promises though. Love you! Have a great week! See you in two!

Elder Andreasen

NOVEMBER 22ns


Good Morning!

Another week gone. This one was quick because we started prepping for changes. Yesterday was Elder Soza's birthday. It was a crazy day. We had the truck yesterday, and on the way to the office we got in a wreck! Just a little fender-bender. Elder Albrechtsen rear-ended some guy in a truck while we were in a roundabout. He was looking back to merge, and a police officer walked in front of the other truck to stop it and we hit right into the back of it. Our license plate was a bit bent, and the other truck had a little bit of damage. But the first thing the cop said was 'don't be nervous' to Elder Albrechtsen, and he just told us to figure it out with the other guy. He said that $20 would be sufficient. We thought it was too much, so I said that I had 5 and Elder Albrechtsen said that he had $10, so we gave him $15 and it was over. Yesterday, we also went to a place called Price Smart to buy a few things for changes. We got memberships, and it is EXACTLY like Costco. So now that we have memberships, we might do a little shopping there every now and again when we are there. The craziest thing by far that happened this week was that we found a snake in our house... Elder Silva saw it first, and it hid itself before anyone else saw it. He just kept saying how "enormous" it was and he was freaking out. It was just a little guy, maybe 20 inches long, but we did NOT want to go to bed with a snake in the house. I was in the shower when they got it out of its hiding place,and I just heard screams and shouting. By the time I got down there, they had it trapped. From a picture Elder Soza took, it looked like it could be venomous, so we killed it. It still took me a while to get to sleep, which is weird because I usually am not afraid of snakes... So thanksgiving is coming up! I'm sure you guys are going to be staying in the same house up in Deer Valley, and that everyone will be coming to visit. Should be fun! Take pictures! We are going to spend thanksgiving with President and Hermana Glazier. So that should be fun too. This week was a little bit...frustrating. Gilma came to church on Sunday! Woohoo! We were walking up to her house to go get her, but she was already walking down! Anyway, she chose to sit in the back by the door. We now know that that is not a great idea. It was crazy. I didn't even know how crazy it is back there because we always sit up towards the front. People were coming in and out, there were kids running all over the place (and there moms running around after them). And in the middle of the meeting, Gilma leans over and asks me, "do you think it is okay what they are doing?" I looked to where she was looking and there was a couple in the ward cuddling with each other. I tried to defend them and I told her that they are recently married and that he was only trying to show that he loved her. She quickly told me that those are things that are to be done in your house and not in the church. Later in the meeting, he kissed her a few times, and I was just so frustrated. I had to pray for forgiveness a few times in that meeting because of how mad I was at him. But on top of all that, she said she will come again this week. So we will make sure to sit on the other side in the front to get away from all of that. We also found another family this week. Familia Lopez. It sounds like they are a lot like the family that is going to be baptized there in Redlands. Hermano Lopez is a single father (his wife ran off with some other guy, which is depressingly common here...) with 7 children. SEVEN. He doesn't have a job, so he spends his days searching for scrap iron and other things to sell so that he can feed his kids. It was so sad when he told us that, becuase he said that he could go 3 or 4 days without eating and he wouldn't mind, but he has to do everything he can to feed each of his 7 kids. We have taught him one time, and we are going to continue. They NEED the gospel in their home. And 5 of the 7 kids are older than 8, so that family would be 6 baptisms, which is what our ward needs because members are a little bit discouraged because the ward hasn't baptized in a while. Well dudes, my time is running out, so I guess I´ll chat with you next week! Love you dudes! Say hi to the Matt's for me. See you in two!

Elder Andreasen


NOVEMBER 15th
Good morning!!

Today we are in writing early so that we can have some time today to do something different. I think we are going to play soccer with some of the jovenes in the ward. Should be fun. This week was pretty busy... Saturday and Sunda we had killer days in the area. We had a very powerful lesson with Gilma, whose baptismal date is in December. She is weighed down by her past, and she really needed to hear about baptism and repentance. We taught and testified, and the Spirit was there so strong it was incredible. The difference in her was amazing, and we testified and promised her that she could feel the way she felt in that moment all of the time if she is baptized and receives the Holy Ghost. For once, I noticed how stong the Spanish language can be (usually I find myself complaining about its inability to express things that I want to express). But subjunctive was the winner in that lesson. There's just something powerful about saying "cuando usted reciba el Espiritu Santo..." instead of just "recibe". Dad can explain the difference there. Elder Soza and I left that lesson walking tall and feeling great. The week, however, was not so fruitful. We had a multizone meeting this week, which was great. But the preparation that we had to do for that meeting and the other multizone meetings that took place this week was extensive. Wednesday night we didn't even get home until 8:40ish, and it is not even changes week! But changes week is coming, so it looks like the next few weeks could be a little bit rough as well. Last night we met with Mauricio. We haven't taught the word of wisdom yet, but he told us that he fell again this week and drank again. It is sad how trapped he is by his addiction, and how much it robs him of his self worth. He still believes that God doesn't listen to him because he was cast out. That makes me want to hit whoever told him that. Well, I wouldn't hit them, but I would give them a nice little machete (of words of course, we use that word a lot here...it means to chew someone out) and let them know how the Lord feels when they exercise that kind of assumed authority over good people like Mauricio. We stayed and chatted with him after the lesson for 5 minutes or so before we left becuase it was raining so hard. Water was coming into his house like crazy, but he wanted us to stay until it passed. We told him we had to be home by 9, and we left. Umbrellas did not help us at all... In other news, this week we had Noche de Hogar (FHE) with our ward mission leader and his family, and it was humbling to see the conditions that they live in. It makes my heart hurt that people have to live like that. But it always amazes me how they are so happy. It just goes to show the happiness that living the gospel brings. I wish people would just accept it and be happy! But they have the power to make that choice, not me. I love you guys. I hope you are praying to have missionary opportunities and that you are praying for the missionaries there in our ward. I am going to work with them like crazy when I get back. At least until I have to go back to school. Have a great week, and I'll see you in two!

Elder Andreasen

NOVEMBER 8TH

Good morning!!

Today we are in writing early so that we can have some time today to do something different. I think we are going to play soccer with some of the jovenes in the ward. Should be fun. This week was pretty busy... Saturday and Sunda we had killer days in the area. We had a very powerful lesson with Gilma, whose baptismal date is in December. She is weighed down by her past, and she really needed to hear about baptism and repentance. We taught and testified, and the Spirit was there so strong it was incredible. The difference in her was amazing, and we testified and promised her that she could feel the way she felt in that moment all of the time if she is baptized and receives the Holy Ghost. For once, I noticed how stong the Spanish language can be (usually I find myself complaining about its inability to express things that I want to express). But subjunctive was the winner in that lesson. There's just something powerful about saying "cuando usted reciba el Espiritu Santo..." instead of just "recibe". Dad can explain the difference there. Elder Soza and I left that lesson walking tall and feeling great. The week, however, was not so fruitful. We had a multizone meeting this week, which was great. But the preparation that we had to do for that meeting and the other multizone meetings that took place this week was extensive. Wednesday night we didn't even get home until 8:40ish, and it is not even changes week! But changes week is coming, so it looks like the next few weeks could be a little bit rough as well. Last night we met with Mauricio. We haven't taught the word of wisdom yet, but he told us that he fell again this week and drank again. It is sad how trapped he is by his addiction, and how much it robs him of his self worth. He still believes that God doesn't listen to him because he was cast out. That makes me want to hit whoever told him that. Well, I wouldn't hit them, but I would give them a nice little machete (of words of course, we use that word a lot here...it means to chew someone out) and let them know how the Lord feels when they exercise that kind of assumed authority over good people like Mauricio. We stayed and chatted with him after the lesson for 5 minutes or so before we left becuase it was raining so hard. Water was coming into his house like crazy, but he wanted us to stay until it passed. We told him we had to be home by 9, and we left. Umbrellas did not help us at all... In other news, this week we had Noche de Hogar (FHE) with our ward mission leader and his family, and it was humbling to see the conditions that they live in. It makes my heart hurt that people have to live like that. But it always amazes me how they are so happy. It just goes to show the happiness that living the gospel brings. I wish people would just accept it and be happy! But they have the power to make that choice, not me. I love you guys. I hope you are praying to have missionary opportunities and that you are praying for the missionaries there in our ward. I am going to work with them like crazy when I get back. At least until I have to go back to school. Have a great week, and I'll see you in two!

Elder Andreasen

Nov 8th

Good Morning!!

I hope this email finds all of you awake and busy! That shouldn't be too hard for you guys though, I'm sure Zach is off to some class *cough, chem lab* (just got your email...) and that Alix is sitting in some class bored and that Dad is in the middle of a surgery and that Mom's fingers are flying just as fast as mine to get in her email before my 30 minutes are up. This week was a good one. To start off: some crazy news. Last night we had a visit with the familia Rodriguez. They are the greatest people, but they are struggling to keep commitments (dang it!). We visited them with our ward mission leader and we left after having taught the Evangelio de Jesucristo. Elder Soza and I headed down the hill a bit to go to our next visit. Shortly after entering Mauricio's house, Hermano Rodriguez called me. Even though we were in our next appointment, I answered. He started rather worriedly by asking "are you guys ok??". I told him that we were fine and that we made it to our next appointment without any issue. He then told us that 6 or 7 shots had been fired into a pupusería (one that we visit frequently) down the road and that someone had been killed. As we had just left their house and were heading in that direction, they were very worried about us. Such great people!! But luckily we had passed a few minutes before and didn't even hear the shots. In other news, a less active single mother that we visit is a great person also. She had remembered that Sunday was Mom's birthday (even though I only mentioned it in passing), and when we visited Sunday, she had a little cake and everything! We celebrated a little bit and watched the Restoration video, as her daughter has not been baptized and we are working with both of them to get them back in church. It was an awesome visit. I have pictures, but they are on my computer and I forgot the key to the back financial office and I am writing on Elder Soza's computer. I'll send them next week. In shorter news, our meetings with Elder Duncan of the Area Presidency has been delayed until January. Apparently he has been super sick and was not recovered in time :(. One of my favorite parts of this week has been something Elder Soza and I have been working on. We have been having trouble with people keeping commitments, so I was studying in Preach My Gospel and felt that we haven't been giving them enough motive to keep commitments. So this week we have been including in our planning and in our lessons blessings to promise them if they keep commitments. It is AWESOME! When we promise specific blessings to investigators who really need those blessings, they really listen and we can see greater commitment in them right in the moment of the invitation. It has gotten away from me a little bit, though, as I find myself daydreaming about promising blessings to our investigators. We do still have a few investigators who are struggling with accepting the gospel, and one who is a little bit held down by his past beliefs (he was a Jehova's witness, but he was expelled/excommunicated because he had/has alcohol issues). He is a great guy, but he is going to need a lot of help. Anyway, I love you guys and I pray for you. I hope that you are feeling the Lord's loving guidance in your lives and that you are trying to be what He wants you to be. Be good. Have a great week!!

See you in two,

Elder Andreasen

Nov 1st
Hola Friends,

Ok, first, the bad news. Bad news is first because it is the limiting factor of everything else. A new rule in from the area presidency is that we only have 30 minutes to write our families...... I bet you can tell how I feel about that. BUT, a new rule like this is a new opportunity to show the Lord that we love Him and we love to obey him. So my fingers are literally flying across this keyboard! This week was a little bit depressing in terms of the field-work, and super busy in terms of the office work. That juxtaposition of success and struggle still throws me for a loop. I guess we are the "jacks-of-all-trades", but haven't quite become master of either. But, it is always nice to be able to hear words of gratitude and love from President and Hermana Glazier. They pretty much think we are super heroes. The conference that we were supposed to have this week was postponed. Elder Duncan has been sick (I bet you can guess with what.....GRIPE!) for the last 2 weeks, so we have pushed that back until the 14th of November. In other news, this past Sunday was the Primary presentation in the ward. If you think primary presentations are funny and awesome in the states...you HAVE to come check one out in El Salvador. We were seriously trying not to bust up laughing at times. They had primary kids doing everything. There was one kid who led the whole thing, and he got up there and just started off, "Tenga muy buenos dias cada uno de ustedes y bienvenidos a la presentacion de la primaria. Esta reunion esta siendo presidida por el obispo Carlos Villalta y dirigida por su servidor, Kevin Caceres...". That is EXACTLY how the bishopric members start the meeting. In few words, it was a riot. There were kids crying, singing with all of their hearts, reciting scriptures. It was quite the experience. I could feel the Lord's love for me and for those kids in that Sacrament meeting. Mom, I did get both packages this week. The white box arrived and everything made it ok. I have been enjoying that treat every morning. It is as good as I expected it to be! Thank you for that. Also, thank you for the Halloween treats. We had a little bit of fun with some of the stuff in there. I made a little treat package for each of the other office elders, and one for President Glazier. It definitely made a day of very exhausting interviews a little bit brighter for him. The Frankenstein mask was a nice touch too. This week has been a little bit tough in our area. We now only have one baptismal date; December 7th. However, President Glazier has challenged us to baptize in November. So...let the headless chicken running begin. We need to find someone that is ready to go. So we'll get on that. Our other investigators have stopped progressing as well. It seems like they always hit the wall of faith, and they don't exactly have the desire to square up and climb over it. Maybe its because we haven't taught them how well enough, or maybe because they won't let themselves open up to taking the big question to the Lord. Either way, we will be helping them this week, and after we have done everything we can to push them up and over the wall, we'll see if we continue with them or if we'll let them have some time to work on it. That is a euphemism for dropping them. However, the area presidency has always said that one of the biggest misuses of time for missionaries is working with investigators who are not progressing. We did meet a new guy this week. He was drunk when we found him - that doesn't bug me too much, Hermano Jimenez was drunk when we found him in Apopa and we ended up baptizing the whole family - and he was drunk again when we passed by a few days later to visit him. He is a really great guy. His comments and questions are more insightful than most (even though he was drunk...), and he has had a hard life. He "was" a Jehovah's witness, but they kicked him out for not being able to overcome his drinking problem. He says occasionally he goes to their meetings and listens from the doorway - they don't let him in, and they ignore him completely. His biggest issue (aside from the drinking) is that he is pretty studied and stubborn with regards to JW doctrine. So that will be a challenge, even bigger than the word of wisdom challenge in my opinion. We had a cool experience this week, Elder Soza and I. All of our plans had fallen, and we were basically just wandering around when we decided to visit a family of members. We went in and shared a quick thought and invited them to share the gospel with those around them, so basically what we normally do with members. However, at the end of it all the hermana started crying and told us that we had showed up at exactly the right moment and that they are going through some hard stuff with their family, but the Spirit that she had felt in that moment helped her to feel better and trust in the Lord. She asked that we pray for their family. It was a cool experience, because Elder Soza and I had been praying that we would be guided to those who needed the Gospel in their lives, and we had felt that we were still wandering because we were expecting to be guided to new investigators. It just goes to show that we as members of the church have needs too, and the Lord has us in mind as well as his other children. Well, that is basically a short summary of the week, I hope I am not forgetting anything important. I love you guys. I love being able to write and talk to you. 30 minutes isn't much, but I am grateful for every one of those thirty minutes. I hope you are all feeling the power of the gospel in your personal lives, and that you are finding answers to your personal concerns in your prayers and in the Book of Mormon. Keep reading it. Let's finish by the end of the year. I have to read my butt off to do that, I am not even through Alma yet... Love you guys. Have a great week. See you in two!

Elder Andreasen

Buenos días queridos! 

This week was fairly normal (not so normal for us, but normal for missionaries). We had time to study 4 of the 7 days, which makes this week a record-setter. It is so AWESOME to have time to sit down and study the gospel for a few hours. I could literally feel the difference those days. We also had time to go out and work in our area. Elder Soza and I learned something a little bit sad this week. We had gone so long without contacting anyone in the street that we were actually a little bit scared or intimidated to do it! That was definitely an attempt by Satan to try keep us from talking to people. One day our plan and backup plan fell through and we were left with basically an hour with NOTHING to do. So we just walked to our next appointment contacting like crazy along the way. It was hard at first, but it got easier and easier. I figure it is like riding a bike. If you haven't done it in a while, you just have to get on and go. We ended up getting 6 references that day, which is a fairly decent number even for missionaries who are in their areas all day. That just further backs up what Mom always says: "I can do hard things". Our investigators have been a little bit tough this week. That is probably because we didn't visit them for a while, but we are having to work our butts off with them. Wilfredo has, as preach my gospel puts it, found himself backed up to the wall of faith. He is still actively involved in his catholic church, even though he doesn't believe that their doctrine is all true. He believes that there is no true church, and that Christ came to do away with all churches. He has fallen into the seemingly universally accepted misunderstanding that "we are the church", and that any group of people that talk about God is, in that moment, Christ's church. So now it is up to him. He needs to pray about it, wanting to receive an answer. Our other investigators are progressing, just really slowly. They aren't coming to church yet because of "other commitments" on Sunday, and we will just have to keep chugging along with them. Also, something crazy happened this week. We were in our correlation meeting with the bishop (the ward mission leader has recently inactivated) and ward leaders when someone came in and said that there was some kind of fight going on outside. We all went out and there was an inactive hermana who was just ripping into a nonmember teenager who was there. We didn't get involved at all, and we didn't completely know what was going on, but basically she didn't want her kids anywhere near this other kid. She then took her kids out of the mutual activity and they left. We had been passing by to bring those kids to church (they're members) and the other companionship had just started working with their family, so we will see what happens. It is a shame that social stuff like that can get in the way of what is important. Anyway, in happier news, Elder Duncan from the area presidency is coming to meet with us here in the mission. We have put a choir together in our zone to sing a special number for that meeting, and we have had to be at the stake center at 7am two days this week (2 of the 3 days we have missed study time). We are singing "La Luz de La Verdad" (I think it is called Hark all ye nations in english), and Elder Albrechtsen, Elder Soza and I have a special part along with one or two other elders. It sounds awesome, and it should be pretty cool. That meeting should be pretty amazing too. That is pretty much what I've been up to this week. When you send a package next Mom, will you put a bike tire patch kit in there? just one of the little ones we had somewhere in my room or in Zach's room. There is a tiny hole in my waterproof backpack, and I want to patch it up. Water doesn't get in or anything, but I want to prevent that from happening. Also, send pictures of our family. Lots of them. That is one thing that I don't really have enough of. You can send them by email if you want, I can take them to a Kodak some P-day and print them all off. That would be faster. I'm glad you guys tried pupusas!! You guys even get to eat more than we do. We can't eat revueltas or chicharron, and we can't eat curtido either. Apparently those are some of the biggest causes of parasites in missionaries here. But find a good pupusería there so that I can eat pupusas and chat with the pupusa ladies and cry about not being in El Salvador when I get back. I love you guys, and I hope you have an awesome week!! See you in two!

Elder Andreasen

Hola,

WHEW!! Changes week is officially over. This was a crazy one. We didn't sleep much this week. The average hour of going to bed was about 12:15ish, with one day being after 1:30. There was just so much to do between coordinating new house contracts for the new areas, coordinating what materials are needed in what zones, and helping the missionaries who went home get everything ready to head out. They didn't even show up at our house after spending the day with President until after 11:30... But we survived and everything turned out ok. It always does. There were big changes this time around though. There are several areas/wards that are struggling big time. The church isn't very strong in some parts here. So President made a new program to change that. Now there are special assignments in wards that have more than one pair of missionaries. They are called "misioneros de liderazgo y rescate" or leadership and rescue missionaries. These missionaries train ward leaders how to have successful ward counsel meetings and how to coordinate their presidency meetings with the goal of growing the ward, and they focus their missionary efforts on less-active families. The percentage of members who are active here is pretty low. Our ward has just under 450 inscribed members. Weekly attendance averages in the 90's. So Elder Albrechtsen's companionship has this special assignment. And there is other news there; Elder Cifuentes is training a new registros secretary this change. His name is Elder Silva. He's pretty cool. So we are 5 now in the office. We basically have spent no time in our area in the last 10 days, so we have a lot of recovering to do this week. Hopefully things will be back to normal soon. Sorry there isn't a ton to write this week. I enjoyed getting emails from each of you this week. I'll see if I can find some pictures to send to make up for not having much to say. Love you guys. Have a great week!! See you in two.

Elder Andreasen

Hey guys,    October 4th

What a week! It seems like I was here writing just two or three days ago. The weeks have started to really move. And this coming week is the week before changes, and then the week of changes. So there is no hope that things are going to slow down within the next little bit. But I have gotten used to the quick pace of things, and I kind of like it. Sleep is now only a hardly sufficient, but crucially necessary recharge for a few short hours. It seems like after our knees hit the floor for a few minutes we are up and running; trying to get in a few minutes of exercise (basically just pushups for me), a few minutes of breakfast, a quick shower, a quick study if we don't have to leave early, and then we are out the door. It seems like there is not enough time to do anything. Not enough time to get ready, not enough time to study (that part is actually true...there isn't enough time for that), not enough time in the office to get everything done, and not enough time in the area to do what we want/need to do. But everything always works out. How it all works out is one of the mysteries of the universe. This week we had interviews with President Glazier. Those minutes are precious. This time was absolutely amazing. After I had explained a little bit about how I am doing, and after expressing some frustrations, he just sat back and thought for a good 2 minutes. The whole time, I was just grateful that Preach My Gospel has taught me that silence does not scare me. He then addressed my concerns and just made me feel wonderful. He told me some things that made me see that he sees me a different way than I see myself, and that he is grateful for all that I do. He is truly a man that is called of God. So this week we didn't have a ton of time to visit people. But we still had success. We visited Nelson, but only for a few minutes. We basically just gave his grandma a blessing and invited him to conference. We couldn't find Irma and Manuel in their house (the weird lesson where they were both on completely different pages) this week, so we will see what this week brings. We did find a new family. When we first entered the house, there were kids running around, and it reminded me of our house when there are kids running all over the place. We met the parents, Jose Luis and Edith, and they are awesome. She is the warmest person, and she loves to just talk to us about whatever. We have a baptismal date with Jose Luis, she just isn't ready yet. But we read the Book of Mormon with her last night and she is starting to open up. We also met an older lady, maybe 60-65ish. She cracks me up. She is super direct. She even told us that she likes to be direct. She says that whenever people tell her that they are christians, she tells them that they aren't, because if they were, they wouldn't do the things they do (she specifically mentioned drinking, smoking, and having other women). She said that she attended our church once or twice a few years ago, and she was impressed by our "discipline". She was a chatter, but by the end of the lesson, she was listening more and talking less about random stuff. She accepted the date to be baptized on November 9th. So the work moves along. We are going to have to work and pray and be good like crazy to have these dates work out. But luckily we aren't in charge of this work. That is the job of someone perfect, someone more understanding, more powerful, more loving. He leads the work. We just have the blessing and opportunity to help out for a bit. I love you guys. Be good. Read the First Presidency message and think about who you can rescue. Have a great week. See you in two!!

Elder Andreasen

September 27, 2014

Good morning!

This week was pretty busy. They always are... We have been out of the house before 9 almost every day, whether it be for migration appointments (Elder Soza has to go to all of those, and I go with him) or for helping Elder Albrechtsen prepare and send materials to areas that don't have everything they need, or whatever else. So I haven't had much study time this week :(. And on top of all of that, Elder Soza woke up sick one day... Vino la gripe. Here in El Salvador, there are two kinds of sicknesses. Dengue and Gripe. If you are sick and it isn't dengue, its gripe. It is kind of funny because people have all sorts of beliefs about how and why people get sick, but it almost always boils down to one of those two unluss a doctor says otherwise. Anyway, Elder Soza was struck with gripe. He looked pretty miserable. Two days later, Elder Cifuentes woke up sick. The next day, I woke up sick. And I felt pretty miserable. That was 2 days ago, and the gripe hasn't let me go just yet. But it was a good week nonetheless. We met some new people. One of them is a man named Nelson. He grew up in the States, so he speaks English (almost better than Spanish). In fact, we gave him a Book of Mormon in Spanish, and he asked for one in English "in case he doesn't understand some parts". He has an interesting religious history, and a pretty interesting history in general. He was deported for criminal activity, but has since left all of that behind. Right now he is kept pretty busy between work and taking care of his 87 year old grandmother who is confined to her bed. No one else in his family will take care of her, so he has taken that responsibility upon himself. He is a good guy. Every time we leave I just think, "He is such a great guy!" We also met a couple that has been...interesting. The fist lesson was an unusual and unreal experience. They were on COMPLETELY different pages. She was receptive to everything and he was just being difficult. And they didn't even seem to notice that the other was feeling the exact opposite! It seriously felt like two completely different lessons going on at the same time. I wasn't exactly sure if I should extend the baptismal invitation, but I figured, what the heck, this can't get any weirder. He didn't even flinch. He just started talking about some random other stuff, and to be honest, I wasn't particularly listening to him anymore. As he kept blabbing I just directed the question at her and asked again. "Y usted hermana? Sera bautizada? And she accepted. I then asked if she would prepare to be baptized on the 2nd of November. Again, she accepted. After that, we had to pull the two separate parts back together so we could finish with just one closing prayer, and we left. We met some other people, but that is the news for the most part. I am pretty happy with the results of this week, as it has been a very busy one and we had very little time in the area. The mission is really pushing baptismal dates right now. Our district has 1 baptismal date, and it is the date that we put this week. So we will have to start really pushing and praying and working to get more baptismal dates in our areas. That is pretty much what's going on around here lately. Oh, and last night a missionary in the other mission was shot (in the leg). The area where it happened was the old area for the office elders before the division of the mission. Crazy. But I'm safe and I love you, and I'll see you in two.

Love,

Elder Andreasen

Hola,

How is everything this week? Golf games, mountains to climb, lectures to endure...I always love hearing that you are busy and happy. To follow up; the tropical storms didn't pass this way. They got blown off in a different direction, and we only got some rain as they passed by. Thats too bad....In other news, today marks 7 months for me. Isn't that crazy?? In the office we are acutely aware of the calendar. Regardless of that fact, time still flies. But anyways... This week was another tough one in terms of the missionary work part. Our zone leaders have been pushing and pushing for more baptismal dates. We are just trying to find people to teach! But I am really enjoying myself. Elder Soza is awesome. He is just on top of things. 2 days of training and he is already thinking 2 changes ahead to field any potential migration issues that could arise. His learning and ability to settle right in have been pretty impressive. I am really happy about the office situation right now. We are such good friends now, it really makes work fun sometimes. Occasionally there are...disagreements...in the other companionship, but that just happens because Elder Albrechtsen is a workhorse and he expects everyone to keep up. I like that about him. He is the unofficial office leader (because he is the general secretary pretty much in charge of everything but our more specialized responsibilities), and he keeps everyone on their toes. He is a great guy. Right now our current situation with the area is like a reality tv show. We talked to Manuel, the husband of Lilian. He told us about how things are a bit difficult right now because of his drinking, and that he really shouldn't have come home that way last week. Lilian has been swamped with work (she works in a hospital as a childrens doctor specialized in kidney issues) and we met her son David last night. If we can keep teaching them, things should be awesome. We also are working with a less active family who has a 10 year old who has not been baptized. That situation is tough because the father told us that he was baptized out of curiosity  and that he doesn't really know that the church is true. We have been working with them, and we tried again this week to set a date for baptism, and it was rejected again. So theres more work to be done there. This week we also did a little service project for a family of "investigators". We helped them clean up their house. They are kind of like us missionaries: they only are there at the house at night to sleep, so things get dirty fast. I felt super weird wearing regular clothes, but my nametag made me feel alright. There were cockroaches everywhere and lots to do, but we helped as much as we could. Then they wanted to give us something to eat, but we were already running late. We couldn't say no, so we just ate fast and left. We had to run the whole way, but we made it with a few minutes to spare. I'm still sore though... I got some letters from Dawn and the kids this week. That was pretty cool. It felt nice to hear from people who I haven't heard from in a bit. I don't really have a spiritual thought this week. I haven't had too much time to study this week actually. Between migration appointments and early morning trips to buy stuff for a few areas, we haven't had a full study time this week. But keep reading the Book of Mormon. I have slacked a little bit lately, but I am in Alma 6 and am still on track to finish. I love you guys. I hope that you are seeing the blessings of the gospel in your lives. I am. Things are tough, but I am happy. I have great friends, a great companion, and we work hard. I have opportunities to help people all of the time, and I am grateful for the special assignment I have to serve. Have a great week dudes. Be good. Love you. See you in two!

Elder Andreasen

There's a Storm Comin'

                                                                      September 13th, 2013

Hola,

Weeks are going by so fast right now that it's getting hard to remember things to write! Things have normaled out a bit. The office tasks have settled to the point that now we can really see how things are in our area...not so great. Within the two weeks that we were not able to visit our investigators, things have changed drastically. Both of our baptismal dates have dropped. But more on that later. This week was kind of fun. We found time after nightly planning to do stuff. One night we spent an hour or so cleaning one of the bathrooms. It was crazy. But afterward, it was spotless. We were very proud of our work. Another night we made our own pupusas! That was my first time making pupusas. I only made 2, but I am basically a pro. They tasted good, so we were pretty proud of that too. This week we visited with some less active/inactive members. It has been so sad for me to see how their families have begun to just be complacent and apathetic. The saddest part is that they are complacent in their unhappiness. They don't realize that they can be, and deserve to be much happier then they are now. There is a member kid in the ward named José. He is 12 years old and is pretty much the only active member of his family. He is at church every week (often alone), and sometimes he brings his 3ish year old sister with him. He is a great kid. He reminds me a lot of Coleton. His personality is just that way. Dad, you said in your email that I might be in the office one more change... I doubt it. President really likes his office elders to get to be really experienced, and he often keeps them in the office for 8-10 months. There have been office elders in the past that have been in the office for 9 changes. That is over a year. I honestly don't know how long I'll be in the office, but I figure I'll be here until at least the new year. You also said that President VanCott said that net positive changes are hectic...Because I arrived at the spit of the mission, EVERY change has been a net positive change. The biggest group that has left was 5. The smallest that has arrived was 24. I wish there was a similar time in which we would need to focus on our areas like we focus on the mission during changes. We would get so much done. We would probably baptize! But I need to just find a way to give what I can when I can. For the rest of my life, I am going to have to balance work and family and all of that stuff, so it's good practice. But during that kind of work, especially in work that allows you to meet and talk to many people, much good can be done during the work day in having a positive influence on people and sharing the gospel. Here in the office, with just us 4, there isn't much room for talking to people. I'm glad you went and did stuff for Dad's birthday, even if it was just going to eat sushi with the Lum's. Any dinner with the Lum's makes for a good time. AND in the picture, I could see the Tokyo Sushi lady in the mirror. So that was a good little reminder that not TOO much has changed. And I am glad that you got to eat Wendy's for lunch. I probably need to STOP doing that. I have been gaining weight, and that just adds to my stresses. And was very impressed that you went and did a temple cleaning session from 9 to 11 at night. Not many people would do that. That kind of example makes me a proud son and fuels my "my dad could beat up your dad" mentality that I have had since I was very young. I guess in this case it would be more like my dad could beat your dad in a scripture mastery battle or in teaching a missionary discussion. The result is the same - I am a proud son. Happy Birthday Dad! I got your letter out...this morning. You'll be getting it in a week and a half-ish. So back to our investigators. We found out that one of them is a drunk. Didn't see that coming. But before we knew that we passed by to take him to church. He wasn't there. But his wife was, and we asked her to come and she just said that she needed 15 minutes to get ready. We had never met or talked to her before. But she came to church with us. Then we went by to teach them, and she answered the door crying and explained everything to us. EVERYTHING. The whole story of her life. She said that it is hard to believe that she is a daughter of God when she has asked him to change things so many times and she still has to sit inside and cry because her husband came home drunk again. So we have an appointment with them tonight. Should be kind of crazy, but she could definitely be a great investigator. With another investigator, we just did some service this week. The dad is a member, and his daughter has not been baptized. She is the investigator. And they are hoarders practically. So one day when we passed by, they were "organizing" a little bit because he got a new dresser and they needed to make space for it. So we just cleaned for 45 minutes or so. It felt good. We could at least see the floor when we left. That happened right after we had a rather frustrating encounter with the bishopric of the ward, so that helped relieve a little bit of what I am ashamed to say was anger. They don't respect us. We are full-time missionaries, and they don't have respect for us. FRUSTRATING. But this week, I found a verse in the Book of Mormon that made me see how ungrateful I am for complaining. Mosiah 25:10 says, "And again, when they thought of the immediate goodness of God, and his power in delivering Alma and his brethren out of the hands of the Lamanites and of bondage, they did raise their voices and give thanks to God." I like the phrase "the immediate goodness of God". I think a lot of times I expect certain blessings right now, and I get frustrated when there is no immediate result. But we can ALWAYS

(excuse the interruption, it just sent by itself!) We can always see the immediate goodness of God if we look for it. I need to do better in looking for the immediate goodness and waiting patiently for answers to prayers. I love you dudes. Zach, good luck in school. Study hard. Focus. Alix, same goes for you. You said you'd be at BYU when I am a senior there. Work hard now, and I'll see you there. Mom and Dad, you are awesome. I was reflecting this week talking a little bit with Elder Soza about our families and I realized that you guys are pretty much the best - the best parents, and the best friends I have had. Keep finding time to serve the Lord, whether it be on splits with the missionaries, visiting members of the ward, or just being good influences on people. I will do the same. Love you. See you in two!

Elder Andreasen

P.S. - I forgot to mention the title of this letter. There is supposedly a big storm headed our way. President wants every missionary to stock up on emergency supplies and be ready for whatever happens in the next few days. Personally, I hope it is HUGE. That would be so cool...anyway, Love you. Be safe.

What a week! This week was something else... It was a crazy week because this change wasn't like other changes. 9 new areas, and areas were reorganized to make a new zone! Zona Sensuntepeque. And that made things nice and interesting in the office. We had to buy and store all of the new materials. To make things worse, the temple office messed up and sent 6 foot refrigerators instead of the little ones we usually get, so we had 18 of those in the house as well (in fact we still do, they haven't come to replace them yet...). We had the entire house literally FILLED with stuff. There was a walkway about 3 and a half feet wide from the door to the stairs, and that was it. The kitchen was full, the livingroom, laundry room, study rooms...Crazy. I wish I would have taken more pictures. And upstairs all of the rooms were filled with mattresses to house the new missionaries and then the ones who finished and went home. We were up late almost every night, and one night we didnt even leave the office until 10:34. We had been out delivering stuff to new areas and had a few things to finish up at the office afterward, but don't worry, President knew and we had permission. We were home just before 11. 

Anyway, in other news, we had changes here in the office, in my companionship! Elder Muñoz left. Elder Soza took his place. He is my new companion. He is from Provo, and he has 5 months in the mission. I remember how I felt when I came into the office, and how I felt when I only got 4 weeks of training instead of 6. Elder Soza got a call Saturdaynight, and was in the office Monday. He was "trained" (if you can even call it that) by Elder Muñoz Monday and Tuesday, and then Elder Muñoz left Wednesday morning after changes meeting. TWO DAYS. He was trained for two days! And so he is still struggling and learning and stressing. But he is doing great. We haven't even left to go into our area to teach since I last wrote. Changes week seems to have that effect. But things will start to even out and hopefully we will be putting the hammer down on finding and teaching this week. We need to baptize. It's been a while. We just need to hunker back down into the somewhat "normal" schedule of being office missionaries and get out to teach at night. We have two baptismal dates still, but I don't know if they have progressed or regressed in the last week, and Elder Soza has yet to meet them. What I have seen this week is how the Lord helps us with our daily lives. I had a few situations this week that I didn't know if they could even work out. But a few prayers, handwritten checks, high-speed trips to President's house to get signatures and high-speed trips to the bank and we made it before they closed. I was so grateful that it worked out that I didn't even care that they could only give me almost a thousand dollars in $5 bills. The Lord helps us and cares about our daily, seemingly mundane wants and needs. But we need to do our part. I am coming to learn that this position in the office is good preparation for life. One day I will have to balance a job, a home, and a family with faithfulness in the gospel. I am starting to see how tough that can be. But that doesn't mean that the demands or expectations placed upon us are any lower. Hard times are given to us for growth and experience, not so that we have excuses. I think I may be making excuses - to my zone leaders, to myself, and to the Lord - because I have responsibilities in the office. My purpose has not changed, it is still "invitar a las personas a venir a Cristo, al ayudarlas a que reciban el Evangelio Restaurado mediante la fe en Jesucristo y su Expiación, el arrepentimiento, el bautismo, la recepción del don del Espíritu Santo, y el perseverar hasta el fin." It is still to find, teach, and baptize. Busier, more difficult situations are only greater opportunities to decide and show what our priorities are, to be diligent in ALL things. I'm going to stop making excuses. President Glazier told me that I was called to this position to baptize. Previous office elders have looked with the perspective that our work "influences" all of the baptisms in the mission, and therefore we shouldn't feel bad that we don't have many of our own. That is true, but President didn't say I was called to influence baptisms. I just need to be more diligent. Mom, Dad, Zach, Alix - I invite you to do the same. Mom already finished the Book of Mormon. Where are we? We can be more diligent, and I KNOW that there are blessings that await our family for doing so. I love you dudes. Dad, I am sorry and sad to admit that I did not get a letter out to you for your birthday. I'm working on it. It will be late, but it will come. I got your letters. LOVED THEM. Alix, go here https://www.lds.org/youth/learn/mission-preparation?lang=eng. Study your brains out. Mom and Dad, go here https://www.lds.org/youth/learn/mission-preparation/parent?lang=eng. This new mission prep stuff is KILLER. And more importantly, I want to hear about how it goes. Will you do it? I have looked some of it over and I can see how helpful this will be, not only in helping Alix to prepare for a mission (if she chooses to go, for life if she chooses not to), but in strengthening our family. Dad, I am super proud of you for going on splits with the missionaries. You have no idea how grateful they must be for having a well-studied member like you in their lessons. Alix, I am proud of you for turning to the Book of Mormon to find answers to your personal needs. Start keeping your personal commitments you made at EFY now. Sometimes blessings are postponed, not lost. There are ALWAYS blessings for trying harder to live the gospel. Zach, I am proud of you for not giving up on your goals. You did something very missionary-like in your letter to me - you outlined your plans, and you also included a 'plan de respaldo'. Keep it up. Work hard. I love you. Mom, I am proud of you for finishing the Book of Mormon, and for being such a great Mom. I can feel it here, and I can see it in your weekly letters. Heavenly Father has a special place prepared for moms like you. I know how busy you are. But that doesn't stop you. Thank you for your example. I want to find parents and help them see how they can be parents to their children like you and Dad were to me. If I could truly accomplish that for one family, I would be humbled and grateful beyond measure. Those kinds of successes, blessings, families, are eternal. I am a proud son, and a proud brother. Love you guys. See you in two!

Elder Andreasen

P.S. This is just one room of the house with extra mattresses. Elder Albrechtsen thought he'd have a little fun amidst all of the work to put stuff into the house.

Buenos Días!!

This week was another hard one, but looking back on it, it was a pretty good one. On Saturday we had a ward activity. We watched a video (To This End Was I Born) about the Atonement and death of Jesus Christ, and then we started to play games. We set up a relay race; first, the teams had to walk a certain distance with an egg on a spoon in their mouth. Then, they had to spin around with their forehead on a pole to get super dizzy and run to the next point. Then, there were bowls filled with flour with 3 gummy worms at the bottom. Then had to get the worms without using their hands. Next, they had to get into bags and hop around a certain point and back (sack race). Then a 3 legged race. Then a water balloon toss. The first team to catch the balloon would win. What ended up happening was a little different than we had expected. The race started out great. Some people spun around with the pole and then fell right over. It was hilarious! The flour part too (see pictures). But after that, the order kind of fell apart and no one knew what they were doing. So once they started the balloon toss, things were wild. Elder Albrechtsen took a water balloon and chucked it at someone. And then there was war. We had made about 70 water balloons, and those went first. Then, people started grabbing the flour and eggs and throwing them at people!! It was so much fun but pretty crazy. Then we passed out a small refreshment and started to clean up.... It was a great activity, and we got the references of a few new families. Also, this week we presented the ward mission plan that the bishopric had asked us to make. They weren't too excited about it (we are going to start PUSHING this ward). They criticized a few things (including our activity saturday...) and basically now we have to prove to them that this is going to work. Long story short, we aren't expecting a ton of help. But the auxiliary presidencies are on top of it, and they are more or less excited. Now we just have to get to the rest of the members. With a bit of time and a lot of work on our part, we can show them that it can be done. This week we picked up a family of investigators that we had dropped. They have committed to come to church Sunday, and basically if they don't come we have to drop them again. We had several committed to come last week and they didn't. We even passed by their houses to get them. One family was asleep and didn't even come to the door after we knocked and woke them up, and another family got mixed up and was waiting for us Saturday in the morning. When we didn't show, they made plans for Sunday morning and weren't there when we did show up. A bunch of things have kept us from getting to our area to teach so it's been a slow week in terms of teaching. For example, we went to get Elder Albrechtsen his driver's license, which took from 10:30 in the morning to 4:30 in the afternoon and then we had to do some stuff in the office after. Anyway, I want to re-extend/remind you guys of the challenge to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year. I haven't been able to read every day (some days I study other stuff), but I have come to see the power that comes from reading the Book of Mormon. Days that I read are better days. I can see and feel a difference. And I love it. So read the Book of Mormon! And help the missionary work in your wards! One of the things we are doing is challenging each organization to give 5 references a month between all of its members. BUT, a reference does not count unless the members personally introduce their friends to the missionaries and are present in one of the first lessons. Just as knocking doors is not the way things are done anymore, we are trying to eliminate references received from members with a name and phone number/address on a slip of paper. The real power in missionary work is in the hands of the members. Go to this page http://www.lds.org/training/wwlt/2013/hastening/special-broadcast?lang=eng#media= and watch the video called ''I'll go where you want me to go''. Learn from how these members shared the gospel with their friends and neighbors, and pray for opportunities and the courage to follow their example. Notice how none of them just started by talking about the gospel. They were good friends and examples. And they found opportunities to love others. That is missionary work. I love you guys. Read the Book of Mormon. And I'll see you in two!

Love, 

Elder Andreasen

Hey guys,

So this week marked 6 months... It is pretty hard for me to believe that things have moved along this quickly. It seems like the last thing I remembered was Zach and Berrett and Scotty and Mike going back to BYU for winter semester. That semester has come and gone, and the new year is about to start. That is pretty crazy. I'm sure a ton more will happen in the next little bit and it'll still be just as hard to believe how fast the time goes. This was a better week. I took the advice of one of the sisters from my MTC district and 'pulled my pants up to my armpits and got to work'. We have really been pushing lately in our area. And we are seeing the fruits of our labors beginning to blossom. This week we found an inactive family (just a father and daughter) who lives in our area. The daughter is not baptized, and the father stopped coming to church because his wife was diagnosed with HIV and the members of the ward basically shunned them. He told us that that was a hard time. He and his daughter had to get a series of tests (both of them tested negative), and on top of the stress of the diagnosis and the testing, the bishop told them that none of them could use the drinking fountains or the bathrooms (even just to wash their hands). As they fell (or were pushed) away from the church, his wife ended up leaving him for another man and took one of the daughters with her. We taught the plan of salvation and how our earthly experiences fit into the plan that our Heavenly Father has for us, and we committed his other daughter to be baptized next month. They are going to come to church for the first time in 8 years on Sunday. We also started teaching a man who we had found in the street a few weeks ago. I learned an important lesson about forgiveness from this situation. When we found him on the street, he started to 'bash' a little bit using his knowledge of the Bible. We decided to do the wrong thing (we were a bit frustrated after days without success, but that is still no excuse...) and respond with our knowledge of the scriptures. We got to the point where he saw that we were 'right' and just gave us his address as a sign of giving up. We tried to contact the reference a few times, but we couldn't seem to find the house. I wrote on our list of references to remove him from the still-active list, but in the moment I felt that we hadn't tried hard enough. I learned that that was a prompting from the Spirit when we went to try again. We found him in the street near his house. He showed us where the house is, and told us he had a few minutes to talk to us in the street. So we taught a very simple version of the Restoration, and he was quite receptive. He told us that he doesn't feel very good in his church, and asked us how he would be able to know that our message is true. Perfect question. We answered that and a few other questions and scheduled a return appointment. In the return appointment, we committed him to be baptized. Now we are focusing on finding more people to teach. We printed 300 invitations to an activity in the ward tomorrow at 6. Yesterday we passed out the last of them. Today we printed another 100 to pass out tonight. We are going to watch a movie about the life of Christ and play games. We are hoping and praying for a big turnout. We have invited pretty much all of the members, active, less-active, and inactive and we told them to invite all of their friends. So hopes are high. We finally have representatives from a few organizations in the ward attending our correlation meetings, and we are starting to make plans to work with the ward a little more closely. Anyway, that is the news here in Los Lencas. I don't have a thought put together for this week, so I am just going to invite you to watch Elder Hollands talk 'the first and great commandment'. We have a version that he gave years ago in the MTC, which is basically the same thing just WAY MORE INTENSE. Maybe I'll put it on a flash drive and send it home. It will change the way you think about a lot of things. He invites the missionaries in the MTC to really think about the question that Jesus asks Peter: 'Lovest thou me?' Do we really love Him? How do we show it? Do we feed his sheep? Or do we simply 'go back to fishing'? I love Him. And I love you guys. That is a big part of why I am here. I hope you all have a great week, and that you reflect on those questions.

Elder Andreasen

Whew. So today was supposed to be P-day. But Elder Albrechtsen and I spent the better part of the day (8am-4pm) at the airport trying to pick up a package for President Glazier. All I really want to say about that is that it was an incredible waste of time and that nobody there had any idea what was going on. But we got the package. But also, I now don't have too much time to write. This week was pretty tough. In fact, it was really tough. My faith has been tried, and I have found out by sad experience that it was lacking. Elder Muñoz and I came home from a day that was completely filled with fallen appointments and absolutely no success. Our investigators, who were few, stopped progressing, and some of them didn't seem to want to let us in. We even decided to drop some of them. Anyway, that night we got home and we were just frustrated. I don't think I have ever felt so discouraged in my life. Elder Albrechtsen chewed us out for having bad attitudes, and that escalated into an argument. We finally decided that we just needed to pray. By the end of that prayer, Elder Muñoz and I were crying. It was quite a humbling experience. Afterward, while we were in the middle of planning, Elder Muñoz asked to borrow my little pocket knife, took the picture of his girlfriend that he kept in his scriptures, and said something along the lines of, 'sorry honey, I'll have time to think about you later.', and he cut it to pieces. I smiled a bit when he did that. I feel like I haven't quite learned the lesson I am supposed to learn yet, but that definitely was a spiritually and emotionally intense night. This week while studying in the Book of Mormon, I read in Jacob 4:10, which says 'seek not to counsel the Lord, but to take counsel from his hand.' I feel like in my prayers and in my desires lately I have been trying to counsel the Lord into doing the things I want Him to do. So now I am going to start 'taking counsel from his hand.' Elder Bruce R. McConkie counseled that our prayers may be made more meaningful and effective, and we might learn and grow more if we change our 'why' questions into 'what' questions. In fact, he said that 'why' questions are actually expressions of resentment and lack of faith. So instead of asking WHY I am not having the success that I desire here in the mission, I might ask WHAT I am supposed to learn from all of this. This week I have been made aware of my spiritual weakness and immaturity. But weaknesses are given so that we will be humble. And I haven't been humble yet. But it is a process. I want to share my testimony again with you guys. It has been a while. So get your Google Translate ready. Yo sé que nosotros somos hijos de un Padre Celestial, y que él siempre está pendiente de nosotros. Él sabe nuestras necesidades. Él quiere ayudarnos con nuestras debilidades e incapacidades. Porque Él sabía que esta vida nos sería difícil, nos preparó la manera para que regresáramos a su presencia para vivir en felicidad eterna con nuestras familias. Envió a su hijo, Jesucristo, para compensar con nuestras faltas. Jesucristo se sacrificó para que acudiéramos a Él para recibir su gracia en nuestras imperfecciones, y nos dio el ejemplo perfecto. Yo sé que Él quiere socorrernos y darnos el poder limpiador de su Expiación, pero solo podemos recibirlo a través de convenios sagrados, tales como el bautismo de agua y del Espíritu. La autoridad para efectuar estas ordenanzas salvadoras está en la tierra, y podemos recibirlas para poner nuestras vidas de acuerdo con el plan que Dios tiene preparado para nosotros, pero este poder solo se encuentra en la iglesia restaurada de Jesucristo. Y esto es La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Días. Los amo muchísimo, y quiero que ustedes sepan que yo sé que Jesucristo vive. Espero que todos tengan una buena semana. See you in two.

Elder Andreasen

Family: Love you derms. I hope this week wasn't as crazy for you as it was for me. I hope you know that I am trying my best to do the Lord's work here. I don't always do as well as I could, but I am always trying. I am still struggling to feel like a missionary when I am pretty much an accountant most of the week. It's like trying to balance a part time job with being a full-time missionary. But I am growing and learning and being stretched by my experiences. I love you. And I'll see you derms in two.

NOW DRIVING IN EL SALVADOR

Buenos Días a todos!! This week was a pretty good week. I have to start out by telling a funny story. We visited an old member couple this week to see if they knew anyone we could teach. The husband is about 75 and the wife is 81. They were sealed last week in the temple here, and they were really excited about that. The funny part is that the husband asked his wife to say the prayer, and in her prayer, she said, 'Padre, no queremos morir todavía...'. Basically, 'we don't want to die yet'. She is a sweet little old lady, but that caught me a little off-guard. But I guess she is really enjoying life, and she doesn't want to see it go just yet. That made me smile. So this week something awesome happened. President Glazier had asked me to separate the taxi expenses of office elders from the rest. We found that within an 11 day period, we spent $423 dollars on taxis. Now, that was with changes week and us going to and from the hospital, but I said to President Glazier, 'President, with this amount of money we could easily make a monthly payment on a car.' He thought for about a minute, then looked at me and said, 'I want you and Elder Albrechtsen to go get drivers' licenses this week. Call the assistants and have them take you.' We were so stoked. First, we had to go get a blood test. They need to know your blood type, but you can't just tell them. So we had to go to a clinic to get a signed, stamped little paper. But the clinic was SKETCHY. The building was just like a housing complex. When we asked for a blood test, they directed us to a hallway that had a picture of a microscope. There was a doorway that had, 'laboratorio medico' written above it in Sharpie. A guy in there was sitting at a desk, and he invited us in. We sat down, wrote our names, and he pulled syringes out of a drawer. He grabbed a cotton ball, dipped it in what I hope was alcohol (it was in a glass, Nestle chocolate milk powder jar), wrung the cotton swab out so that all the liquid went back into the jar, and then sat us down one at a time to draw blood. He wiped the area first, but then he touched it with his finger to feel the vein, and just went for it. There were no gloves to be seen in the whole place. He put the needle in my arm and pulled back on the plunger of the syringe. Nothing. So he just shoved it a half inch deeper and tried again. Success. We paid 4 bucks a piece and we were out of there. We were just really surprised that he got our blood types right and that we didn't have any signs of infection the next day. Anyway, we found out that Elder Albrechtsen's residency documents are still in process of being renewed, so he can't get one just yet. Me on the other hand.....AHORA TENGO UNA LICENCIA DE CONDUCIR!! I have an El Salvador driver's license. I had to go get a million documents to get it, and I had to wait over 3 hours in the equivalent of a DMV to get it, but now, I am able to legally drive here. When I left with my license, the assitant, Elder Earl, asked me 'do you feel comfortable driving?' He didn't need to ask twice. So I drove to Wendy's to eat something real quick (we hadn't eaten and the process took all day) and then I drove back to the office. The car the assistants have is a turbocharged Toyota Hilux. Pretty sweet. Drives just like the Tundra, only WAY EASIER. And my California driving skills have somewhat prepared me to drive here. Basically anything goes. Signals mean nothing. You want to turn or merge, you stick your arm out the window to show that you are going and you go. I felt super weird driving. The feeling of having not been behind the wheel in a while plus the excitement made me feel like I was running from the cops. Anyway, my 'dad', Elder Martin, left this week. He is home now. How crazy is that? Just goes to show how fast time goes. I have learned why being an office elder is hard. We spend the majority of the day in the office, where there is absolutely no spirtual responsibility. The other missionaries have spiritual responsibilities all day, every day. We have to be able to balance both acts, with the hard part being transitioning from one to the other. But I'm learning and maybe one day Ill have it down. So the family we are teaching is doing AWESOME. We taught the Plan of Salvation to them and it just clicked. We taught the father, his 17ish year old daughter, and two sons (10 and 15 years old). The daughter was asking all sorts of great questions, and it just made sense to her. Pray for them. They still have not accepted a baptismal invitation and have not come to church. There was a huge stormSunday night. Elder Muñoz and I were out walking when it started. Within 3 or 4 minutes, we had seen 5 transformers blow. No power in the whole city. A tree fell in the neighborhood in which this family lives, and so their power has still not been restored. But we passed by a few days ago, and the dad was reading the Book of Mormon by candlelight!! So we stopped and had a lesson in the dark, with just one little candle. Elder Muñoz and I shared some of our favorite parts of the Book of Mormon, and we sang a few hymns. It was really special. Other than that family we have been struggling a bit. We only have one other investigator, and he hasn't been progressing lately. Both of them can only meet with us once a week because of work, so we have a lot of time with not a lot to do. But we have made plans with the ward to change a few things (the ward is not at all active in missionary work) so that we will have more support from members and leaders of the ward. I think that pretty much sums up the week. I have been working on that project I told you about last week. It is much harder than I thought it would be. But I was studying the other day and I found a few scriptures that say that we are purified by our faith, or more specifically, the Lord purifies us through our faith. How can we have faith, or act according to our faith this week? What do we each need to do to increase or faith, so that we can be purified and have the constant help and guidance of the Holy Ghost? Just a few things to think about this week. I love you guys. Have a good one. See you in two!

Elder Andreasen

P.S. - One of the missionaries who left Wednesday was Elder Dolbin. He had this picture with all of his others. He knows the girl on the right, her name is Kylie or something like that. But on the right....KENZIE! Apparently they were roommates, Kenzie and Kylie. How small is the world these days!? (See pictures)