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.