Thursday, June 25, 2009

Tyson's update

Well family a new transfer has officially begun again. We have an extremely young zone again. About 75% of the zone is under a year. 3 of our companionship's are training as well so we have a lot of humble youth. It is a great thing to have. Pres. Murray gave us the opportunity to go to Broomall for transfers and speak to our new zone for about 10 min before they split into their new areas. It was great to set expectations that we have and pump them up for their new areas and companions. The spirit was strong and the missionaries are excited. We will try to do everything that we can to help them achieve their goals. Its weird when I was a younger missionary I felt like I knew everyone but now it seems like I know nowhere near as many missionaries in the mission. Just more and more young guns come in and the people I know keep leaving its kind of a weird feeling. We have leadership training and Zone Leader Council tommorow. It feels like we have spent this week in the car. On Tuesday we went to Broomall for transfers, on Wednesday we went to Hometown about an hour and half drive for a district meeting to get to know some of the new missionaries and tommorow it's back to Broomall again. We have been very busy getting ready for this new transfer. I love you guys Love, Elder Andrus

Monday, June 22, 2009

A few new photos to share


To the left is Hailey and me at Liz's reception - a perfect contentment for both of us!
Below are the newer pics of Gavin. He is now 2 months old!!





Thursday, June 11, 2009

Tyson's letter this week. Love it!

Well Family This week has been pretty good.
This past Monday we had Zone Training and it was great. We had a lot of fun doing it and the missionaries are doing better than they have in a while. Transfers are coming up and I had the opportunity to talk to president and it looks like every single companionship in our zone is going to be changed. We will lose an elder out of each companionship to other Zones. So we will have a completely different Zone next transfer and a couple of our Elders are training so it will be a fun next transfer. Other than that things are pretty basic.

Well Russ Olsen asked me to send him my testimony so I copied it I will just put on this email as well:

I would love to write you my testimony. The funny thing is that last week I just had the opportunity to give a talk on missionary work. This is a huge opportunity to get your ward motivated man so don’t mess it up :). Something that has been weighing heavily on my mind was the fact that I think if you ask members what message we bring to the world the would probably tell you "the restoration". That answer is in part true but on the other hand that answer only scratches the surface of our message. Members need to ask themselves okay so we have the restoration but what exactly has been restored? The center of any message that we share should always refer to the Atonement of Christ, because without that nothing else truly matters. The true meaning of the atonement is what has been restored. I invite you to read Luke 22 and try reading that chapter without the knowledge that you have gained through this church. Once you have done that. Ask yourself why was he bleeding? Why did god send him an angel? What was the point of that whole thing? Without Gods truth most of Christianity is left up to speculation. Wow what a thing to miss out on!!! Now read Mosiah 3:7 and Alma 7:11-12. With the gospel being restored we know EXACTLY why Christ suffered to the point of bleeding from every pore. Through this church we know what the true nature of who god is! The fullness of the mission of Christ. The plan of Salvation. What greater truth could we carry to the world?! Only when you know your Creator and his plan for you can you start to connect with him. It’s hard to connect with something you don’t know. I invite all members who say, “I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet” to actually think about why they say that. Why is that important? Joseph Smith is not the object of praise but a stepping stone to truth. We need to remember that as a church. This church has our Heavenly Father Truth in its fullness. It shares the true mission and divinity of Christ. The atonement is Real. That’s the message we bring! His name is the name I bear and I testify of that in the name of our only true and living savior JESUS CHRIST AMEN.

I hope that helps. That is probably a little more than you wanted.
I love ya brother and I hope the marriage is going fantastico.
Love Elder Andrus

Well that’s about it for me this week I love ya guys

Friday, June 5, 2009

Heaven or Hell?

Bill passed this on to me and I felt like sharing it - Short and to the point!

A holy man was having a conversation with God one day and said, ' God, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like.'
God led the holy man to two doors. He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in.
In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew, which smelled delicious and made the holy man's mouth water.
The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished.
They were holding spoons with very long handles, that were strapped to their arms and each found it possible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful.
But because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the
spoons back into their mouths..
The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering. God
said, 'You have seen Hell.'

They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same
as the first one.
There was the large round table with the large pot of stew which made the
holy man's mouth water.
The people were equipped with the same long-handled spoons, but here the
people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking. The holy man
said, 'I don't understand..'
It is simple,' said God. 'It requires but one skill. You see they have
learned to feed each other, while the greedy think only of themselves.'

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Elder Tyson's update this week

Hello Family,

This week has been a pretty good week. We had the opportunity to have a great meeting with the Bishops this past Sunday. The spirit was great and hopefully it put a little fire under them to get some things moving. It was also a great opportunity to learn from how President Murray works in a different setting. We also had a great discussion with Pres. Murray afterwards about how the meeting went. I was able to soak in a lot and learn. We have had a lot of blessings happen to our area and our zone this past couple of weeks. It's incredible to see how merciful God has been to the missionaries here. Some of the missionaries, the biggest problems, receive some of the greatest blessings. Just an example of what I mean is that one of our weakest missionary companionship's was really struggling. But at one of their lessons the member was the one that took over the lesson and set a baptismal date for the person they are teaching. The woman accepted the baptismal date and she is progressing towards that date now. God is so merciful, it’s great. Well Zone Training is upcoming this Monday and things are looking great we are getting really excited with the thing we have ready. Including a little companionship unity game that will be fun.

Well family I love ya, it’s been raining like crazy over here.

Love,
Elder Andrus

Family Fun

Kelly Corrigan - We will Transcend! Must Watch!!