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