On December 7, Bill and I were able to pick up Elder Andrus in Pennsylvania at the Mission President's home.

My first hug from Tyson! It was hard to stop me from walking at a fast pace to finally reunite with my son!!

We got to meet many of his fellow missionary friends, his mission president, eat dinner and participate in a wonderful testimony meeting. It was a spiritual treat and one of the best nights of my life.

Tyson's last email as a Missionary. 12/3/09

Well Family just as most of you have noted, this is my final email to you as missionary.
First I will start with the sad note so then I can talk just about the good stuff. Sorry to hear about the Utes game. Sounds pretty rough.

Now on to the other things of life. As much as I have tried to avoid it this has been quite the time of reflection. I cannot believe that it is basically over. Our schedule is pretty packed so time will fly by. Mom made a reference in her emails to the question of, “what if I had not served a mission?” The funny thing is that I have been thinking about that. I know I would not be anywhere near who I am today, that is for sure. I might just be semi-active in church and have a very faint testimony. I cannot believe the difference in my head when I compare the two different versions of myself. The one that decided to serve a mission and the one who justified his way into not serving a mission. With the one that did not go, all I see is a kid that is full of missed opportunities, self centered, and to be honest no real idea about his purpose in life. A kid that fills his time with distractions and the unimportant things of life. May I just bear my testimony that Jesus truly is the Christ the Savior and Redeemer of the world. He truly did snatch me from the lost state that I was in. I am just blown away with what has taken place in my life over the past two years. Who I am today is nowhere near who I was two years ago. How I love this gospel and how it is mercifully given to us. I am grateful for the sacrifices of those that have walked my path before me to pave the way. Many have given their life to this message, including the Prophet that was chosen by God to restore the precious message of the restoring of Christ’s very church to the earth. But what I am most grateful for is the Atoning sacrifice of my Savior Jesus Christ. I cannot believe how much He has done for me - to allow me to overcome so many weaknesses and to be so patient with me. I have so much love for my Heavenly Father, My Savior Jesus Christ, and absolutely I am grateful for the Holy Ghost which testifies of their divinity. I am amazed at the things I have seen over the past two years. Someone asked me recently "so what do think your parents will think when they see you." I said "I hope they don’t recognize me" and after a pause I then was taught by the spirit and I said, "But I hope My Father in Heaven can recognize me more fully now." I was taught something very important by that comment. I am in the process of becoming the true potential of what my Heavenly Father knows I can and should be. I love this Gospel and I am so grateful for it. I will never be able to repay what I have been given. I will always be in debt, isn’t it wonderful?

I love you all.
May God recognize you more fully.

Love,
Elder Andrus

Elder Andrus Update November 19, 2009. TWO WEEKS LEFT!

Well hello family.
Yet another week has passed and time quite has not felt to real lately. it is a weird mix of emotions. This past Saturday we were able to have a conference with Elder Russell M. Nelson on Saturday morning. It was an incredible experience. For those of you that do not know Elder Nelson is part of the quorum of the twelve Apostles. Just like Jesus Christ's Apostles of old like Peter or John. It was great to shake his hand and to receive direct instruction from him. The spiritual strength of that man will be something that I will always remember. He went through such a string of things it is hard to relay. I will have to show you guys when I get home. So hopefully you remember to ask me about and I will be happy to discuss the notes. His knowledge of ancient scripture just amazed me. He was so easily led by the spirit, he answered a lot of questions that the missionaries did not even voice. It was great to learn from direct revelation. He is truly a man called of God, there is no doubt in my mind of his divine calling to be one of the Lord’s Apostles. What a great thing it is to have the Lord’s church restored on the earth! We also had the opportunity to hear from him again at a Sunday Stake Conference. The funny thing about that was that he came to visit the Reading Stake. If I had not been recently moved here I would have not been able to see him twice. So I consider that quite the blessing. In that session he spent a lot of time focusing on the children and some serious parenting tips. It was great I was heavily reminded of Jesus Christ and his desire to bless the children. 3 Nephi. I was also able to see a lot of the people I served with in Reading 1st ward and Reading 2nd. After a couple weeks of straight knocking doors we finally have some people we can teach on a regular basis so that has been great. I kinda ran myself into the ground though I think. I got pretty sick on Tuesday night, but luckily we were able to get back out the door by Wednesday afternoon. I can still feel a little bit of the garbage inside of me but it is going away so that is good. Well family I love you so much. I hope all is well at home.
Love,
Elder Andrus

November 12 - Letter from Tys. I cried all the way through it!

Hello family,
Well this week has been full of miracles yet again. We were out knocking doors and something we have to pay close attention to when we are tracting is the presence of the holy ghost. So when we were out tracting and after a couple of doors we could feel a serious vacancy in the spirit. So we then bowed our heads and said a quick prayer. The whisper of a street name came into mind and so of course we went to that street even though we had knocked most of the doors around there last night. As we started to knock doors. Someone was going up and down the street on a BMX bike doing tricks around the neighborhood. As we were knocking the guy yelled across the way, "hey what are you guys doing?" We yelled back "we're missionaries man, sharing the gospel with people" So he started to ride over to us. To make a long story short we ended up talking with this guy for about an hour. He ended up explaining how he has read the bible two times through and he has been to almost every church in Lehighton and has not found one that has fit what he has read. We went on to explain the message of the restoration with the falling away from Christ's church after he and his apostles were taken from the earth and how a prophet was called to restore that truth back to the earth. The lesson went great and you could tell he was absolutely prepared by God. He went on to explain how he is not from that that town and he gave us his address. His address is in a place I know - we would have never knocked on his door. If this is not proof that God exists than honestly I do not know what does. We were again sent to a place at a certain time because that was the only way we could find this person; that has happened time and time again on my mission. GOD IS REAL, please know that. We also were led to a cool family as well that night.
So I guess I have alot to write about this week. Yesterday was my last Zone Conference. Of course it did not really feel like it but I guess it had to happen some time. It was a powerful meeting that I was glad to be a part of. Near the end they asked the couple of us that were leaving that transfer to give a testimony at the end (a testimony is bearing our witness of Christ and the truths that we know). I will miss the opportunity to do that in that kind of setting in front of a room full of missionaries. The spirit is so strong during those meetings. You can truly feel the dedication of all those wonderful people. It is a true opportunity to be a part of that. Afterwards I had a small one on one talk with President Murray. He is an incredible man and I have been grateful to learn from someone like him over the past two years. I know that a huge part of why God sent me here was of course for the people I would meet and the missionaries I have been with, but also the opportunity to learn from a man truly called of God.
Well Family that is enough of my ramblings for the week. I love ya and I hope all is going well for this week. I pray for you all.


Love,
Elder Andrus

Elder Andrus Update November 5 2009

So I just finished writing my mission president, so I will include a portion of what I wrote him about this week.

This week in Lehighton has been one of polar opposites. On Monday we had a great meeting with the Branch President, President Keller. We were really able to connect with him and build a trust very quickly. He has great desires to build his branch but as of late he has felt like he has been a failure in that department. We were able to bear testimony one to another and the Spirit was able to give him some revelation of new angle he could take on helping the Branch up here invite more people to Christ. After that meeting though it seems as though Satan is working overtime, we have had a rough time finding and teaching so far this week. I don’t know what the deal is but experience has shown me that when things like this happen that means that something fantastic is around the corner whether I see it while I am still here or not it does not matter, but as long as it comes for this area that’s what matters. I hope I can help move it around the corner faster.

So that’s the portion that I sent this week. I don’t know what I really have left after that. E. Santos is doing great his English is coming along. Life has been a little crazy every time we see any branch member they ask me if I am "trunky"(meaning am I getting a little restless about the thought of home) yet. So that kinda bugs but I just smile and say, nope too much to do to get trunky. They are a group of really good people I just pray that we can help them while I am still here.
Well family I love you dearly.
Love,
Elder Andrus

Fun Halloween Pics - Thanks to Aubrie!

Must see halloween pictures of my darling Grandkids!

I think they are the most beautiful children in the whole world -- Very objective on my part :)

New pics of Tyson and Update 10/29/09

Tyson with Bruce (a man they are working with - left) and with Elder Stahlli.

I love his smile and glow!!

Hello family,

Last week I moved to my new area for the final six weeks. I am in the Lehighton area. It is a little weird because it is in the Reading zone so it is a area that I was Zone Leader over. The area was intensely disorganized so we spent the first couple of days just cleaning everything up and organizing everything so we could get to work. Spiritually and very much physically.

My Companion is Elder Santos, he is from the Philippines and is still trying to learn English. So communication has been a little bit of a barrier. Especially with trying to figure out who they were teaching before I got here. Needless to say it has been quite the project since I got here on Monday afternoon. But I think we have a lot of the loose ends tied up and we can get down to some serious work here in this area. It has been pretty funny the way that E. Santos introduces me to the members up here "hey this guy only has six weeks left." I was hoping to not let them know that too fast so I could build a trust with them but I guess they had to know eventually so E. Santos helped me out with that one :). Lehighton is just a small branch of about 30 people and it sounds like some families are planning on moving out as well. The Branch president of the area does not even live within the boundaries of the branch but is here on assignment. So needless to say we have some work ahead of us here, its fantastic! I'm glad to be organized now, it is a little bit easier to tell what i am doing so that really helps. Our address up here is 600 Franklin Ave. APT #17, Palmerton PA 18071.

I was sad to leave the great people that we were working with in Scranton but I know they were well on their way to coming unto Christ, so I am not to worried about them.

Well family that is all I have for you this week. Love you all

Love, Elder Andrus

Disney - part two

On the rockets and at the parade...

Princess Time

Watching her twirl in her dress was so fun. She was enchanting - just couldn't believe that she was wearing a Cinderella dress! So cute.

And then, Cinderella clock struck 12 and she was out cold!

What a great day!!

Hailey on the left with the Disney map! So excited and ready to go.

Our first ride...Dumbo baby!

Goofy was our first character to see. Hailey was excited and scared of the life size goofy in his halloween custume.

Chip freaked Ms. Hailey out. After that, all characters needed to keep a 3 ft radius! We had a blast. We rode a small world twice in a row and Hailey was mesmerized by the whole thing.

Tysons Update - October 22, 2009

Well hello Family,

This week has been another great week. We were able to go on some great exchanges with some elders on Monday. It was a spiritually powerful exchange. I have loved the opportunity to help other Elders come unto to Christ. The great part about that is as we try to bring others to Christ we come closer as well. Well we had our Interviews with Pres. Murray yesterday. It is pretty close to official - Pres. Murray told me that this will be my last transfer as a Z.L. So Last Monday was the last exchange that I will go on in this position. For me it is a pretty sad thing because I love helping other Elders so much that it will be weird to not do that anymore. I have truly loved the great experience that this position has given me. It’s amazing to me how much I have changed since I was put in this spot. I have learned so many important Christ like principles. Helping expand an Elder’s vision of who he is and what he can truly accomplish with Christ is something I will always hold dear. It’s an incredible thing to watch a missionary you have stewardship over have an aha moment. For example, this last exchange I had a fantastic talk with an Elder about consecration and what else he could give. It was so lead by the spirit that I was so extremely happy to just be a part of it. Last night that elder gave me a call and told me of the miraculous things that are happening in his life already. I am so grateful that this is the Lord’s work and not my own. There is no way that I would have been able to know what this elder needed on my own strength.

I will miss having that frequent opportunity with so many Elders. But my final assignment will be going with an elder that I can focus all of my energies on and we will just go to work. I hope I can still be an instrument in God’s hands for my last transfer. The great thing about God is that I know as long as I depend on him all things are possible and "Nothing is Impossible." I will truly miss Scranton. I have no idea of where I am heading next so we will see. I have made some very deep friendships up here and met some people that are strongly making their way toward Christ and his true church.
Love You all!

Love,
Elder Andrus

Gavin is 6 months old in 5 days!

Gavin was over for awhile today and I took a few pics!












He is almost 6 months old, sitting up on his own and having a good time with toys!
Love those blue eyes and blonde hair!


Happy, happy, happy!

Tyson's Update October 15, 2009. Great!

Well it’s that time of the week again,
This week was another great week. We are teaching some miracle people. It’s amazing the fulfillment of the scripture "ask and ye shall receive". One morning we were going to knock on doors and we prayed for a miracle. So we felt prompted to go to a certain street on our map and as we pulled up to it we saw a street that was not on our map. We felt we should go and so of course we did. We knocked on a door and here comes a man named Bruce, he grew up in Washington and grew up knowing some kids from our church. He then went on to invite us into his home, which always kind of throws us off because very rarely do people invite us in before we actually ask to come in. Plus on top of that, very few people allow us in anyways. But to make a long story short he came to General Conference and loved it and then he prayed to know if the Book of Mormon is true he received a "You bet ya" (in his own words) plus the very warm feeling of the spirit, which only God can give. Then soon after that we invited him to be baptized and he said he would but he would like to ask God if he should. We followed up with his prayer and he received that same warm feeling with the simple prompting "Do". So now he is preparing to be baptized.
Another miracle that is happening up here among the many is that a recent converts mother came to General Conference at the invite of her daughter. Her name is Janet and she is in her mid 60's. She told us after Conference that she had questions answered in two hours that she has had for her entire life. She talked about the peace that came from having her questions answered in such a simple but profound way that no one has been able to answer before. She has gone from church to church trying to find those answers, but she could not find them. She was amazed that they were finally answered. She came again to church again last week and she is loving every moment of it.
Well family the work is great and I am grateful for every moment I have been given out here. It amazing how many great ways God is giving me to deepen my understanding of him and also the opportunity to deepen myself.
Love ya family,
Love,
Elder Andrus

Tyson's Update: October 8, 2009

Well family this week has been truly exhausting, luckily we are finding more and more ways to give of ourselves in the work. I am so grateful that this is the Lords work and that he gives us the strength to accomplish the things he needs us to accomplish. It’s funny anytime I decide I am going to have a simple talk with the District leaders that night, something always comes up and we spend most of the night on the phone.
We have been planning our Zone Training this week and it looks like things will be great. We are excited about what the Lord has showed us. We know it can really help our elders. I have such a great love for these valiant servants of Christ I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to serve them. It has been such a blessing to my life. If there is one absolute and eternal truth that I have learned is from Mark - Ch 8 verse 33, I believe? "If any man will seek to save his life he shall lose it, but if any man seek to lose his life in the service of the Lord he shall find it." Now I know I seriously paraphrased that scripture but I hope you get the gist. I hope all of you will look up the scripture and study it. Then ask God how you apply it more fully. Now that might not be the exact scripture but that should get you close at least. I am grateful that I don’t have time to focus on myself because that is the only way to true joy. I can testify to that. I love this work so much family and I hope all of you can feel it as well and surpass me in that feeling.
Another small thing I have to ask of all of you is not to worry about writing me about how much time I have left. I love the notes of pushing until the end and giving everything I have left. I truly do appreciate that and I am so lucky for having such a wonderful family like you! Just one favor that would be great is just now references to how much time I have left. That would be great. Again please don’t get offended by this. I love your support and I understand the excitement that I feel from all of you. It just makes it a little bit harder to focus. Thanks family I love you so much! I look forward to your emails next week they mean so much to me. Thank you for taking the time to do that for me I love you all.
Love,
Elder Andrus

Tyson update - 9 more to go!

Well family, another week has past and it’s time for another email. This week has gone very well. I had the great chance this week to learn some very important lessons. We went on exchange with some elders on Monday and I love these opportunities to go with other elders. With the President telling that this is most likely my last transfer in this position, I have realized a serious feeling of urgency. We had the exchanges with the Assistants of the President on Tuesday and we were talking about all the things that our elders needed training on and how all of them need to make steps to commit a little bit more to Christ. All I could feel as we were discussing these things was that there is no time to wait to train all our elders down the road. The Lord’s work is too valuable to waste time and also the very salvation of those who God has trusted me with (including other elders) to wait. There is still a lot to accomplish and plenty of distance to go, but there is still not enough time. With the little time left in this transfer I pray that God will help to boost the desire in our elders and those that the elders are teaching. Isn’t it a great and wonderful thing to be overwhelmed! Why? Because it gives us the important opportunity to know Christ. I hope all people will feel overwhelmed so they can realize how much we all depend on God. Imagine if this life was just a breeze, no one would look up for help.

Well family I think that is all from me for today. I love you all and I hope you all feel God's love as well.

Love,
Elder Andrus

Sunday fun with Chica and Bill

The trees were really turning red and yellow last Sunday in the Canyons.

Chica and me. She is a great friend

I love her!

.

This just cracked both Bill and me up. Chica just jumped off my lap and decided to take the wheel on the way down the mountain! She loved it.

Tyson's Missionary Moment Spot Light (thanks to Loie!)

To view this, click on the picture and you will be able to read it!!

Tyson's update September 24 with photos!

Picture of the zone leaders, President and sister Murray and Elder and sister Lynn G. Robbins. Tyson is on the right side, on the end. On the right, Tyson and Elder Claussen.

Love this picture! What a great smile!!

Well family this week was another good one.

I had the opportunity this Saturday to be a part of some personal training from Elder Lynn G Robins of the first quorum of the seventy. We held a Zone Leader Council where he gave us about a 4 hour training on a variety of subjects. It was one of the most fantastic things that I have had the opportunity to be a part of. Some of the things that we were trained on was the understanding that we as a church know the doctrine of having been given by God 100% Agency and we accept that. But what we often look over is that 100% Agency also equals 100% Responsibility. He spent three hours of the four training us on this so it is a little hard to relay that information to you as well in a quick email. But in short it was some the most important training I have received, not only for my mission but in every aspect of my life. He gave us examples of what people do as a reaction to avoiding responsibility. We came up with a list and after we wrote down the things we could come up with for possible ways to get out of responsibility, he wrote on top of that list " The Anti-Faith list". It was a pretty powerful lesson taught. O how I wish I could have all of you sit in a room and relay all that I learned so you could understand in portion what I learned. Sadly emails just won't do what I learned justice, but I hope you understand it in at least a small part. My mind was about to explode after that training session so that was great. So much to learn so little time.

Luckily we have had the great chance to train some other elders on it through exchanges and in a District Leader Training we held with our District leaders right before Zone Conference on Monday. So it has helped me to ingrain it into my mind a little deeper. So like I mentioned in a previous statement we had a Zone Conference on Monday afternoon. It was great, both President and Sister Murray gave training, as well as Sister and Elder Robins. So as a Zone Leader I was just able to sit back and learn as much as possible. Again the statement rings true so much to learn so little time. It was great the spirit testified of the truth of what was being taught to all of us that evening. Directly after that we went straight to some exchanges with some other elders. (Exchanges are where we as missionaries go to another elders area and give some training and see how we can help them). We have been running around like crazy this past week, it has been great.

Well family I believe that is all I have for you this week.

P.S. worldly note it was sad to hear the Utes and cougs lost to teams outside the conference what a bummer.

Love you,
Elder Andrus

Last of Summer - Alas!

My final pictures of Hailey and Gavin swimming (most likely) this summer! We had a great summer in the pool. Gavin just hangs out and loves kicking in the water.

Hailey is so fun. You can see here that she is swiming with Ariel. She has daddy flounder and baby flounder she likes to swim with also! What a riot.

Tyon's Update - 12 more weeks!

September 10, 2009

Well Family how are you this week?

Things are going great up here in Scranton. I thought I was going to wait till I knew for sure, but I will just let you know right now. I talked to President about two days ago. He said, that the thought process that this will be my last area was a little wrong. It looks like I will have one more transfer up here in Scranton and then for my last six week I will be put somewhere else and that is all I know. I am not sure I will be in leadership or not, but I will go where the Lord wants me to go. I will be receiving a new Companion and his name is E. Claussen. He came out with me in the MTC so that will be an exciting thing. We have been great friends since the start of our missions. I am excited to tear it up with him as Zone Leaders up here. But of course since we are the same mission age, you could not leave us both up here for the last transfer and then have a double vacancy for Zone Leaders. That is a little too much for someone to handle. So I will leave for the last six weeks. Now of course for those of you that know me I don’t really like to talk about compliments I receive and put myself up, but president told me something that I feel I could share with you. He told me that I was one of the anchors of the mission. That was an interesting thing for me to hear because I don’t really think of myself as such but I thought you would be interested to hear that as well. I'm sure that most of you have already thought this but it just struck me that I only have twelve more emails left. That is a crazy thought. Well on the secular news...wow BYU beat Oklahoma that is incredible! I'm glad to hear the Utes won as well. Well family I love all of you dearly and I thank you for your support. One commitment I will leave with all of you is to pray we can find someone that is ready to receive the fullness of the gospel and act on it. Also I will leave all of you to teach someone that is not a member of the church and teach them a restored truth and identify that it as a unique teaching to our church. For example the depth of the Atonement of Christ (Mosiah 3:7, Alma 7:11-12).
Well family I love you
Love,
Elder Andrus

August fun with the grandkids

I had so much fun with Hailey at the park this month. She loves the swing - the first picture is a little blurry - she was swinging fast! (and lovin it)

Check out Gavin's cute smile - 4 months old!! He is such a good baby.

We went to Beauty and the Beast, Hailey's first play. It wasn't Broadway, but it was really good. We had so much fun and Aubrie is the best mama!

Christ's friend - Tysons update this week

Tyson, I love your thought provoking words and wisdom. Here is his email note from this week. We are almost to the 100 day count down. I am so proud of him and grateful to the person he is and the privilege of being his mother.

Wow well another week has gone by and it is time for emails. This week was very busy we went to exchange with a district leader and his comp. on Monday to Tuesday afternoon. After that we went straight to another Elders Apt. to Exchange with them for the night. Now when I say exchange I mean that we go to their area and I go with one Elder and my missionary companion goes with the other. The reason why we do this is to train the other missionaries and to learn their area a little bit better so we can guide them a little bit better. After that we went to Zone conference on Wednesday. Now a Zone Conference is where we meet with other missionaries from our zone and some other zones. The training that we received was great and I was able to see a lot of things I need to recommit on. We also had the opportunity to give some personal training for our missionaries which was really important. The feeling of the spirit was really strong and I love that feeling of peace and joy that comes from the spirit of god. It is a very special thing to experience. It is something that the world just cannot give. A scripture that I felt prompted to turn to during the meeting was in the bible John 15 I believe verse 16? where Jesus talked to his Apostles and says ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I have commanded you. That really stuck out to me. What a privilege to be able to call Jesus Christ your friend. What does that mean to you to be able to call Jesus Christ your friend and to have him call you friend as well. What an incredible gift that is. this might not strike you too deeply but I was taught a lot of things through the spirit on this scripture and I invite all of you to study this scripture and ask yourself what does that mean to you and pray and ask god to reveal a deeper meaning to you as well. I promise you it is a wonderful thing to be led by your loving Heavenly Father.
Well I think that’s enough of my rambling. I love you guys.
Love,
Elder Andrus

Just saw Julia and Julie

Just a quick post to tell you that the movie Julie and Julie is really great. I actually found it very inspiring and I am still cooking on creating an incentive like that for myself! If you saw the movie let me know what you thought and what if anything inspired you!

Hailey at Lagoon! August 2009 - First time!!

Look what a great little driver she is..both hands on the wheel! Good girl! :)

Tyson's answer to the last post

So I guess I better start off answering the Question that I posed last week. The funny thing is that I forgot about the question until I just sat down today. The great thing about this question is that there is no right or wrong answer and I was grateful to read your insights this week. So why does God let imperfect instruments be a part of his work?
Well first we need to obtain the vision that god has for all of us. Moses 1:39. Okay now that we have that, let's thinks of our own life. Think of kids growing up - what would happen to those kids if they never had to do any form of work especially anything hard to do? How would they grow up? Basically they would grow up to be ungrateful punks. Now imagine how grateful we would be for the gospel if we did not have to carry it to others. Now all of us are not perfect and everyone takes the gospel a little lighter than they should but we would not respect it at all. Another reason: How can an instrument know if it needs to be fixed if it is never played? You could leaved a beautiful Violin left in the closet and an old broken down violin right next to it. If there is no one to play either of them they are of the same worth, which is no worth. Now the funny part about it is that we are all the broken down old violin that most people would never want to touch. But luckily, Our Heavenly Father is the Musician and has a great vision for all of us. When we are picked up by the master's hand to lay a note that is when we are able to feel his incredible love and also the great opportunity to realize what is out of tune. That is why I am so grateful for the atonement like sister west mentioned. There is no way we could be a part of this work without the atonement. There is also no way we could really realize the atonement without this work. Pretty interesting thought isn't it? One last thing to mention is that if all of Our Father's joy comes from his family returning to live with him that should give us a pretty big hint on where our joy should come from as well. Great shall be our joy if we just bring one soul to him. Being a part of this work(missionary or not) is way over any of our heads. But this is one of the most pure and true joys we can experience. I am grateful to be a small instrument in the grand plan, which our Heavenly Father calls our life here on earth. So I guess that is my answer to the question I posed.
Well other than that family I am officially going up to Scranton to be a Zone Leader up there on Sunday. I will let you know the mailing address for up there next P-day. This will probably be the place that I finish my mission. So family I love ya. I hope all is well at home.
Love,
Elder Andrus

Tyson's updates of the last two weeks!

July 23, 2009

Yet another week that has flown by. We were able to hold our Zone Training last Monday. It was a ton of fun we were able to keep up the energy and the other elders did as well. All of the missionaries were able to learn some things that they wanted to apply. I love the elders here they are a great bunch.

We also had quite the experience Tuesday night as well. One of our families that we are teaching had a pretty big blow out. We were walking up to the home to the yelling and crying. We walked in, we asked if we should leave but the husband asked us to stay. They were having some serious relationship problems over a multitude of things. One of the reasons being over how quickly they can be baptized, the husband wants to be baptized now, but the wife is dragging her feet. They are both great people. But they had huge yelling fest when we arrived. After the husband sat us down, they continued to yell. But after some time they both sat down and we were able to help them council things out. It is just crazy what our heavenly father lets little kids take care of. Both Elder Hofer and I are only in our 20's and we were counseling on marriage advice for a couple in their 50's. It just does not make sense the things God lets us be a part of. It is just a crazy thing to take a step backward from and analyze. God has to be a part of this work because i know by the worlds standards we are some the worst people to take advice from especially about relationship counseling. But this, luckily, is Gods work and the spirit gave us t he words to give them some serious council and they are both on their way to being baptized again. After the experience I was just overwhelmed with the thoughts of , "Why does God let imperfect instruments be a part of his perfect work?" I have an answer for that question but I am curious to see what some of your answers would be, then I will let you know my thoughts next week.
Well family, I love you very much.
Love,
Elder Andrus


July 16, 2009

Well family, I don’t know if I have very much to write this week but we will see how it goes.

We went on some more exchanges with the newer Elders in our zone. Some are very good and others are little scared but they will be fine. I was impressed with their humility and how much they want to learn. If older missionaries were this humble including myself the mission would be 100 times better. I am so impressed at how prepared some of the missionaries are before they leave for their missions. If there was anything I could pass on to those that are thinking about missions it would be to start learning and practicing now. You can tell who prepared and who did not very quickly and it has a huge impact on how fast they can hit the ground running. We are planning for Zone Training right now and we are pretty excited with what we have planned. It should be very good for our zone. We have a couple that we are working with. Their names are John and Kathy and they are doing great- they have a long list of things to overcome but they have a lot of fire and testimony. It is enough to help overcome what they have to accomplish. They have set a plan to quit smoking and get married and of course baptism. It will be long after I leave this area probably but they are well on their way and they are a great couple.
Love you all.
Love Elder Andrus

A few more pics of Montana Trip

Hailey and I played hair and make up. I love her cute little profile!

She has some really great lip gloss on here, but you can't see it - what a doll!