Dec. 9, 2013

Dear Pops,

Yeah I'm still sticking around here in montevideo, being district leader is driving me insane lately, there's a couple elders that aren't getting along in my district and it's killing the spirit and killing everyone's morale. I am tired. But I still enjoy the peace that comes from putting in a lot of effort I guess. But sometimes that's just not enough. As I've said before, sometimes I really hate agency.

In other news, yeah I'm also starting to go a little crazy just from lack of change, but it's not too bad, just enough to make things interesting.

I thank you all for your prayers and stuff, sorry for the lack of news, I seriously have no clue what to put today. All I did all week was try to learn to rebuke with sharpness, a somewhat new skill for me. Gotta be done though. I learned a lot about the purpose of missionaries in the plan of salvation, reading in jacob 5 and a talk by alvin r. dyer called For what purpose. It is pretty good. It inspires me and I try to shake off discouragement. I also enjoyed a lot of promises made to those who are in the work of the Lord in DyC. I've been studying it a lot lately. I really like the one in DyC 84:80.

Take care, love you a ton

Andy

Dec. 2, 2013

I feel out of touch, haha. Are you telling me I'm gonna have three married cousins when I get home...? Who is in charge of all this nonsense. I specifically told Kate to not get engaged a mere two weeks ago. Kids these days...

Yeah, we're having changes the week before Christmas, so that's gonna be really tough to coordinate the call, but we'll be able to do it, cause about half the mission will have the same problem, so there will be a solution.

We had a mixed emotions week. We had to work really hard for Alexis to get baptized, he's an awesome guy. He needed a special interview, and for some reason, the president assigned one of the senior missionaries who doesn't speak spanish to do the interview. This guy is about 75, served in Missouri however many years ago, and totally filled with the spirit. When the moment arrived for the interview, he asked me to come in and translate and proceeded to do the entire interview in spanish. I was starstruck. Or dumbstruck. But yeah, it wasn't super super great spanish, but he only asked for help like 5 times. It was a miracle. Really cool.

Yeah, they love christmas here, but it's not the same. It's a lot louder. It kinda makes me trunky. I miss quiet peaceful christmas with the family.

I love you guys a bunch, and am equally excited to see you on Christmas!

Andy

Nov. 25, 2013

Dear Dad,

Well, our people are having a rough time, living here in montevideo, it's hard for them to find time to receive us. The old lady brenda fell sick and couldn't make it to church on Sunday, but our boy Alexis made it to church after a birthday party on saturday night, no small feat in uruguay. They take birthdays really seriously, all birthday parties last at least eight hours, so when adults are involved and they have to start after work, they're up till like six in the morning. Alexis is a champ. He's getting baptized on Saturday.

I thought it was really interesting what you said about my spiritual gifts, because lately I feel like I've become psychic. I am a flippin mindbender. The other day we met a kid on the street and were teaching him a bit, and suddenly the spirit inserted a bit of knowledge in my mind, and suddenly I just asked him, "Who died in your family?" This kid was stunned, but he said his brother died, so we taught him about the plan of salvation. The mission has really been good for my psychic gifts, gracias a Dios.

I am really hungry just thinking about thanksgiving. Enough said.

Basically I'm just marching along, evrything is going fine. 

Love you all, enjoy your turkey, lest you someday find your self in a country where they don't eat it.

çAndy

November 18, 2013

Dear Dad,

May I present the best week of my mission. I don't quite know what brought it on, it all started with a scripture. 1 Chronicles 28:20, it's kinda different in spanish. In english it says Be strong and of good courage. In spanish it says anímate y esfuérzate, which translates to something like, get happy and put forth an effort. So we did that. We had a lot of faith, worked hard all week, and then on saturday we found a sweet old lady named Brenda who was just sitting in her house with a broken ankle waiting to be baptized. She had already been taught everything but could never get baptized because her husband didn't want to get married. Her husband passed away, she stopped going to church, and eventually everyone forgot about her. She fell and broke her ankle, bought a little dog for companionship ( a chihuahua named willie) and sat back for a year. Then we showed up and slapped a baptismal date all over the situation. This was the very first day of my mission that I got all the daily goals, took long enough, but it's finally been done, haha. Also we found a mother and daughter that same day who were very interested. I was stunned, it was so miraculous. I didn't believe there could be a repeat. Sunday we found a family of four, also had been taught everything, all very intelligent, they have some girls about ellie and bekah's age, we hit it off super well. All complete miracles. My testimony about personally living the gospel grows yet again. When your personal commitment to follow the Savior is high, you will accomplish His purposes, whether that means baptize a bunch of people or become a convert yourself. I am too happy this week. I learned so much, and so much of it came from having a good attitude. We're gonna try to get a little more miraculous in the week to come.

How awesome about the activity. It's so weird to think that Ellie is in young women.

I am really excited for Christmas haha, hopefully it's better this time around. Have a good time, my dear family, I am so grateful for all your prayers and support. Hasta la vista, baby.

Andy

November 11, 2013

Thanks for the email mom, it is very exciting. I am a very big fan of what President Gardner said, it really is true. I really learned about learning on my mission. We had a super exciting week too, a lot of miracles that I think are the result of a good attitude and feeling the urgency of this work. Walked a bit faster, talked a bit differently to people, and we get two golden families referred to us by people, a recent convert gives us 8 referrals, it's the best. Really gave me a refresher. I kind of needed it, like I told you, I've only had two companions in the last 9 months, sometimes things start to feel kind of dead because there is not any change. Whatever, I know it's for a reason, God's plan is perfect, I've realized how much he took care of me while I was growing up. It's really quite astounding.  Thanks for the part you had in my crianza! Love you mom, see you at christmas!

Elder Pyper 

Nov. 5, 2013

Dear Everyone,

We had an interesting week. A couple trials. I had my heart broken by a couple investigators. Also the changes came, and for the second time in a row, I am going to have a companion for three transfers. That is hard, no matter who your companion is. It's kind of interesting, I trust a lot in the lord, but sometimes I have no clue what he's thinking, haha.

I am starting to miss a lot of stuff. The top three however, are food, company, and music. Really no one can sing down here. Me and Elder Zuñiga did a musical number at our baptism last week, butchered it hard, and we made like half the congregation cry, haha. It's good and bad at the same time. I would enjoy chili right now as well.

So basically, the challenge of having a companion for so long is you get to know each other too well. It is a little difficult to see your companion as a representative of Jesus Christ when you know all his imperfections. So I'm gonna have to work extra hard to focus up. 

Something that might be interesting for you to know, dad, is that I used to hate numbers when I got here. I swore I would never count my baptisms, have a personal baptismal goal or anything like that. I've now seen that man grows only with his higher goals. I counseled with the Lord and together we set a goal for the amount of souls that I want to bring to his kingdom, and I know this is going to help me to grow to my maximum potential. If I want anything in my mission, I want to become a man who can set a goal, make a plan, and execute it, excercising faith, making adjustments to the plan, and accepting the will of the Lord. Honestly the part I need to work on is the diligence in planning. I like winging it too much. But there's something interesting I've learned out here.

Love you all, have a great week, I will talk to you again on Monday!

Andy

Oct. 28, 2013

Dear Family,

So we baptized the greatest convert ever last week. She overcame more opposition than anyone I've ever seen to get baptized. She is a wonderful old lady, she's almost blind, but can kind of see. It's a crazy story, which I don't even come close to having time to write. But I will write the whole story on paper and send a picture of it or something. But it was my first person that I baptized personally in more than six months, a really special experience for me. I'm trying to send a pic, we'll see if I can get it to work.

It was true, the last week was a little crazy. But we saw a bunch of miracles this week, including the coveted investigator that finds the missionaries. So we invited him to be baptized. He accepted.

I was totally thinking about that halibut the other day. I would love to go fishing, but dang Dad, I have a decision to make. I will get home on the 29th of august, i think. BYU starts the 2nd or 3rd of september. I'm not sure if I'm willing to make that turnaround so quick. Also, within the next three months, you guys need to decide if you want to come get me or not. They're gonna give me the trunky call soon. Well, not soon, but in three months. Just a heads up. 

I learned so much this week about the holy ghost. It is the power through which we are sanctified, and the power through which we keep our covenants. We can keep our covenants through no other power. Not even willpower. Ain't gonna do it. It kinda changed my perspective on keeping the spirit around. Sometimes I'm too funny for my own good and drive the spirit away. But perhaps I have to trade a good thing for a better thing.

Love you all, try to be like Jesus!

Elder Pyper