Tuesday, April 27, 2010

"Bank of Bad Habits"

Madame Onestas is hanging in there...thank you for your prayers. She came to church last week and loved it...she is such a sweet MAMMIE...every day for the last 10 years she has taken dinner to her son who is in the hospital. She lives with and takes care of her brother who is handicapped and she is just great. She is older though and real worried about damaging relations with the only people that matter to her. It's really unfortunate, but we have faith that all will go as the Lord wants.

Sometimes it seems that Guadeloupeans are just so hypocritical and numb to the word of God because they are preached it since they can walk. But because they have not received the true gospel, but an empty one, given by those that do not live what they teach, they are a little insensible to what we have to say sometimes.

Clean the cabin sounds like such a great activity... I would love to get my hands dirty and work on that cabin...I have been dreaming about the cabin for a year...as much as I miss Utah...I miss the cabin even more...so that works out great..everyone works on it and makes it look good for me when I get home!

HAHA...My siblings are such brats...sorry....I always tell my companions about how sorry I am for being such a turd before my mission...I always tell them of how I was a huge jerk to my family before my mission. But I have to say...I never had too many PPIs....maybe you should just bring back the spankings.

Well, I love you all...you are the best...Elder Shwab and I are getting along just great! He is a stud from Seattle...we definitely don't have a lot in common...but that doesn't matter. In fact I have always gotten along better with companions least like me...I think because I try and pray harder to have a good relationship, knowing that if I don't there might be a problem.

Hahah the other night I got him so good! We were in an area where I had been last week when I was with Elder Evans. It was nighttime and it was real dark when we passed by a huge tree of bread fruit. And as I went over to pick one, a huge dog jumped out of no where and scared the crap out of me haha...so when I realized Elder Schwab and I were in the same area and it was dark I decided to be a huge jerk and scare him...Elder Schwab being all excited about Guadeloupe was starving to try every native fruit and food he could. So, naturally he was pretty quick to run up to the tree and grab a bread fruit.. almost on cue the dog jumped out and went after him as if it was gonna kill him...hahaha I have never seen an Elder run so fast and scream so much like a girl haha.....

It was fun...I love the mission...its just great!

Well I got to go...but I'll catch ya next week

LOVE YA

Andy's Letter to President Gamiette:


Bonjour President,
Thank you for your email that boosts my spirits and lifts my hopes every week. This week although physically demanding, and spiritually draining, ended in a great way! Although the first two days of the week were extremely difficult to get things done(Elder Evans was sick) it seems Elder Schwab and I are off to a great start. Thanks for putting me with such an incredible elder. He is an incredible worker, doesn't complain, and has already an exemplary love for the people. This week has been a week of working through difficulties with investigators. We have one, Sister Shermain that should have been baptized this coming week. As soon as we heard the message from our zone leaders that you wanted all the missionaries to fix hard baptismal dates for this week, we went out and did it with her. We taught her the doctrine of the restoration. We helped her understand the restoration and its necessity to our salvation today. After we bore testimony, the spirit was there to push her to say yes to a baptismal date. Those teaching skills we worked on in conference are really working; we fixed two other soft dates this last week(yes we need more, and we will have 10 this week), but unfortunately with Shermain as we have come back to teach her again and again, she seems less and less ready. The change of heart has not yet occurred. We have been finding many new investigators through her however...this last Sunday we passed by her apartment and in the hour we were there we had 4 new investigators!

Our other investigator who had a BD for this Sunday is still facing family controversy over her baptism...they are all against it. We have taken President Kasaongo by to try and help...and we did succeed in befriending the children that were there. But they are still against it, and the solution lies in the faith of our investigator..she has a decision to make...

The returning members we have been working with are going well too...we are using 40 days to make them stronger and help them practice the traditions of Zion. We are slowly seeing the priesthood grow in Abymes and it's exciting...with more patience and continual hard work we will see some baptisms soon. I firmly believe that our success depends on our personal righteousness and our imploring the Lord for his help. We in Abymes and everywhere need HIS power to advance HIS work.

1 comment:

neffgang said...

Every time I read one of Andy's letters, I want to throw a few white shirts and ties into a suitcase, buy a plane ticket and go join him in the mission field.

(Fortunately, we can have missionary experiences right here at home, every day, if we choose.)

What a magnificent opportunity it is to invite others to come unto Christ and receive the blessing of forgiveness combined with the ordinance of baptism. What an absolute joy it is to see Andy changing lives and bringing his chosen brothers and sisters home to the gospel.