Dear President Wall, Transfers?

President,
Hey President, this week was really good. We have been working really hard and  really  enjoying the work. Elder Vaughn and I are doing really well and doing lots of work. Our District Unity is at an all time high! It is really making life enjoyable. 

So at our interviews you said that this might be my last transfer or that I could stay here and train(so I don't really have any more information than i started out with but you probably did that on purpose) I was a little shocked when you told me that I would train. Please do not take that as a sign of resistance. President I am here and I will do whatever the Lord and yourself would like so please don't ever feel like you don't want to do something that will make me uncomfortable. I would love to do whatever you have in mind, I am here to serve in whatever capacity you and The Lord have in mind.

Love you, Praying for you,

Elder Andrews 

God Has Turned Me into an Optimist

God has turned me into an optimist. We had 29 lessons scheduled this week and in total we taught six lessons, despite that it was a good week!  Numbers don't matter yada yada ya (people here  always say that.) We have been searching through the 29 page immense BRANCH roster.  It gives us a huge job and it is fun because most times the address that a family is supposed to be living at is some field or in the Mississippi!!! It is pretty funny.

 

We were trying to find this lady on Saturday and came to a door with three different numbers on it.  We didn't know if we were in the right place. So we knock on the door and this black guy answers.  I looked at him and could tell that he was not Dominican so I spoke to him in English.....Blank stare....I tried again in Spanish assuring him that we are missionaries not cops (because now that we've had a car for two weeks everyone thinks we are cops).  He was a really nice guy and turns out we wasn't Dominican but from some tribe of Africans.  He came here on a slave ship, but the ship got marooned in Brazil and they all speak Spanish now. Anyway we contacted him and are going to go over there this week. 

 

We are working hard.  Nothing really new and exciting.

 

Love y'all,

 

Elder Andrews

November 18, 2013

This week was great! We had interviews with President Wall.  He scared me to death by telling me that I will be training soon! He also asked me how my Spanish is.  I have had lots of people ask me the same question and this is my answer: MY Spanish is bad, but the Spanish that the LORD lets me borrow from Him everyday is actually really good. I say it like that not to prove to you that I am humble or anything like that.  I say that because God has made it painfully apparent that my Spanish is bad and that by myself I am in trouble but with Him, it is a breeze.

 

Anyway we have been teaching Jendric and he is progressing really well. Good guy, really good guy. Missions are crazy and Louisiana is crazy so my life is absolutely insane!!

 

So we (Algiers) have had a car for two weeks because one of the sisters in the area had to go home.  She was sick.  So we have a car and it is so nice but I miss biking.  It has really been nice this last little bit because the weather has been so bad.

 

So I am sorry these emails are just everywhere but I don't have a lot of time so this is what you get.

 

Love,

Elder Andrews

 

P.S. If you have question that I am not answering in my very well-thought out emails just ask....Love y'all.  :)

Love, Serve, Teach

November 4, 2013

So something that I am just going to tell all, while it is on my mind, is that we have a theme for this mission and it is going to be the theme for the rest of my life in everything I do:

                                    LOVE, SERVE, TEACH

I really like it. It's simple but profound because that is all you ever need to do to share the gospel.

OK this week. This week was slow. It was transfer week I am still in Algiers with Elder Vaughn so that is good. there was a lot of changes in the district but we will adapt. I have come to realize that I don't like it when people leave it sucks.

We did a ton of service this week. we spent like six hours building a fence for a widowed sister in the branch it was actually really fun. And surprisingly the fence is still up!! Three days later!!! Man the Church is true. We got two visa waiters in the West Bank now and they are Green as can be.  They do not know what is a good use of time and what is a bad use of time. Jake actually gave me the best advise about your trainer he said, "Be nice to your trainer.  All he is trying to do is fill a day and he has this yippee little kid that thinks he is the laziest person on the planet."

It is hard to fill a day especially because people love to cancel. Oh my, do they love to cancel. We will have a packed day where we have to hurry everywhere all day, we are planning on seeing 9 people in one day and at the end of the day we will have seen one.  Maddening yes, but we deal with it.

Anyway this email is pretty random but life is good.  Mission is Good. Mission is fun. People are funny. Church is still true in spite of what all the people at Wal-Mart say (starting to really think that is funny) Questions? Good.

Love,

Elder Andrews

Dear President Wall, B of M in Spanish

Author: Andrews, Zachary Jacob

President,

This week was great. We have been really busy. I wish that we had more time in the day!!! We could probably be smarter with our time; but then again we can always improve. Anyway companionship unity is good we work well together. I can't say that we are the best of friends and that he is my favorite person all the time but Elder Vaughn has some very good qualities. And he is a good guy. I am very blessed because of that. Our district unity is fantastic!! We all love each other.(including those in the English District) We are heart broken to see Sister Salorzano go, but I guess that God has a different path for her. We wish her the best. 

Okay so I started to read the Book of Mormon in Spanish and as daunting as I thought it would be it is actually not too bad!! Tender Mercy!! Anyway it has been interesting to start it over and sorta focus on the small things like what a word means or what a sentence means or a verse. One thing that I have noticed is that the beginning is really good,(not to down-play the value of the rest of it). The beginning is like the introduction of a paper. It has to be the best and have some serious power to it so that people will want to continue to read.(Sorry that i did not learn lesson very well) Cause lets face it if they started the Book of Mormon off with the Isaiah chapters that would be ruff. No, instead of that we start out with a bunch of people running into the wilderness because an entire city wants to KILL THEM!!!! Exciting! Anyway to what I learned......I get distracted in these emails and then end up writing a big old paragraph, sorry; but it is okay because you are teaching me stuff without even talking! So one of the most famous scriptures is 1Nephi 3:7 "I will go and do......." really famous and really powerful. I know that we all feel like this when we are asked to do something, like go on a mission for example. We start singing the primary song....and off we go with a smile on our face. Then difficulties and failure catch up to our enthusiasm, and we become discouraged and say 'we I went and i did.....but now i am returning and rethinking this' but Nephi covers his bases. In 1Nephi 3:15(my personal favorite) he basically says:(allowing me the right to some personal interpretation) 

I am still alive and we all know that God is still alive so what gives us the right to stop, what gives us the to say that what he asked us to do is too hard, we will not stop. We will not give up. Ever. Because we know that God is there. Because we know that He loves us. We will do His will. I will do his will. Always.

Love ya President Wall, I guess I'll talk to you tomorrow.

Elder Andrews