Sept. 24, 2013

Dear Family,

I'm staying with my comp another six weeks, that was a super fast change. I'm starting to feel robbed. My time is running away super quick. I am not happy about this, haha. I'm gonna try to send you guys a package next week that will have some uruguayan goodies and a flash drive with all my pictures so far, and I do not know how much that costs or anything, but I guess I'll find out. 

I am being very frustrated, because I seem to be trying as hard as I can to help these other areas in my district, and they are absolutely unresponsive. BUT. Elder Francis is coming to my district! That's right, my old friend from the MTC! So he is gonna shake things up, I imagine. 

It's gonna be weird. Pretty soon you're gonna have two double digit girls in the house. I still am denying that Ellie is twelve. I used to be twelve! As far as I know, she might turn sixteen or twenty someday! This is not good.

I hope you all get better and that the Lord gives you what you deserve :)

I pray for you guys every night, love you tons!

Andy

September 16, 2013

It's been raining for like a week straight :( We had a very instructional week. Also our poor investigator is trying to break my heart, and the bishop is driving me nuts. Poor alva had the hardest week ever. She prayed us to her door again. I have no clue how she does that, but she had kicked out her son and her daughter in law because the daughter in law was blatantly robbing them and taking advantage of living there. She is so sad because her son said a bunch of awful stuff. And then when we left their house the crazy daughter in law cornered us and told us a whole bunch of lies about alva and her husband, and asked me if I thought their behavior was appropriate for people who claim to be seeking god. I looked her in the eyes and told her that God is just, and that much I know. Then we walked off like a couple of bosses. But actually things got pretty crazy. She was so desperate to go to church that on sunday she walked there in pouring rain. And she's legally blind. ¡Que locura, che!

But yeah, this week I had a really cool moment, I got probably as discouraged as I ever get, mostly because we were just wandering around in the rain getting rejected. But then, I felt the reality of how many people are praying for me, I really felt it. Then we decided to be missionaries who work miracles, instead of missionaries who shamble around getting ignored by rich people. So we did some miracles. Still working with a long term drug addict. He's doing good.

Yeah, I actually would appreciate the other pair of shoes, if you're willing. I don't think my pair is gonna quite make it. And I'm good on pants.

Love you a ton!

Andy

Here's the picture from the baptism a couple of weeks ago.

September 9, 2013

Happy P-Day to all!

 

Happy anniversary as well! I realized today that I don't think I ever told you guys happy anniversary last year, so sorry. I bet that was a quick 21 years. Life is insane. I thought of the story of you getting mom pots and pans for christmas the other day. That made me laugh.

 

I actually had a really cool experience yesterday where one of our investigators with a really sick husband used her huge gigantic enormous faith, asked the Lord to send me and my comp to her house, sat down and told her husband, Bueno, vamos a esperarlos. And you guessed it, about that moment her face pops in my mind, we go over immediately, weep with them, and the whole time I was just feeling that they need to experience the power of God in their lives. We shared the story from alma 15 and gave the husband a priesthood blessing. I hope he gets better, cause that would make an awesome story. I love those dear viejitos so flippin much. I have really gained a testimony of this principle. The Lord loves his children.

 

You know, I've gone a whole year without a stake conference. I have been jumping areas right before stake conference every single time. But I like that. That just means I get to take the sacrament more, hahaha! I really can't express how important the sacrament has become to me. It is so essential. And fasting. A little trip through Isaiah 58 rocked my world.

 

But yeah, I love what it says about a succesful missionary in preach my gospel in chapter 1. I'm trying to do that stuff, and one thing that I feel I have learned out here is to recognize the spirit at least. Following is a little harder. We'll get there some day.

 

Elder Zuniga is going to teach me to be a yoyo master today. I hope this picture works, it's of Karen(in white), her nonmember family, and us.

 

Love you all a ton!

Andy

September 2, 2013

Hello all

I've been good this week. It's starting to become spring here in uruguay. It's super nice. Quite beautiful. We as well are feeling the Lord's blessings. We had my first baptism in this area last week, and next week I'll send the picture, because I forgot my camera cord today. It was quite miraculous though. Me esforcé por vivir el Evangelio a un nivel muy alto y vimos las bendiciones. It was really a cacophony of seemingly unsolvable problems being solved by miracles. No baptismal clothes, the water heater not working, the ward mission leader basically resigning, all overcome by pure spiritual inspiration. We did it! And we had a ton of people come to church too! I really saw the miracle of these peoples progression as I worked hard on my own personal righteousness.

But dang. This place i'm sitting in just started playing thriller. 

I had a super unique experience this week. You should ask me to tell you about it when I get home.

So basically I'm very excited. I'll let you know when the birthday package gets here. I'm so grateful for this opportunity to serve the lord, and I continue trying to not let it go to waste.

Love, 

Elder Pyper

Aug. 26, 2013

Dear Family in general,

I honestly can't believe how things are going lately. It was a challenging week, and this district is especially challenging my leadership skills. But this week will be incredible. The Lord has been preparing me through inspirational thoughts from friends and family. Honestly what I've learned about personal revelation on my mission has changed the way I think about everything. I've wanted to be a chiropractor forever, but I've learned that when you are giving all your attention to the Lord, he directs you. I've been feeling a lot of attraction towards helping people find healing and relief from their pain mentally in my mission. I've honestly been kind of puzzled lately because of this. My bendicion patriarcal talks about success in my mission. I have time and again found all the people that are steeped in drugs, alcohol and other serious sins. Very rarely have I baptized anyone that I have found myself. But I feel the spirit work through me to help these people break their addictions. I feel him work through me to comfort broken hearted spouses and give them hope. I watch families come together again. I think I've found a new love in life. I love just listening to people and helping them ease their pain. Obviously the way to do that is coming unto the Savior. The Lord has given me sooooooo many opportunities to do this. The other day I received a super strong impression as I was reading about a woman whose life was destroyed by her husbands addiction. Sooo is the Lord directing me? Probably. Not sure if it's like a career thing or not, but I feel like it is. So I wrote it down and decided to at least check it out after my mission.

<obviously this week I'm also having my midlife crisis. I've been evaluating who I was and who I am. I think there's a little difference. But one day the reality of how much my father in heaven knows me came crashing down on my head, and I realized he knew exactly where I was gonna be right now, and he's ready for me to speed up my progress. There are new challenges. But there is always a solution. It's called the atonement of Jesus Christ. I can't begin to describe the reality of it. It's a sweet relief, an enabling power. It gets me through every day and helps me to have the energy to keep going. It's real.

I love you guys, try to stay strong with all the changes. Heavenly father has a plan for us. I'm proud of you all in my dear Enid Ward!

Love 

Andy

August 19, 2013

Dear Family,

My area is awesome, also my companion is too. Elder Zuñiga is my third companion from california. I'm still surviving without a single companion from utah. He's a good hard worker and he's ready to see some success in this area. That's good, cause so am I. This is a really different area because it's a bunch of rich uruguayos. That is soooo different from what I'm used to. We get a lot of really hateful rejections in between the good people we've found. So I've had to change my strategy. I proposed an idea to my comp, and we ran with it. It looks promising so far. We're trying to make the members do the missionary work, and it feels miraculous. It feels like they've all just been waiting for a missionary to come ask them to do the Lord's work. We've had some tremendous bonding moments with the members, and they all have their assignments to share the gospel with their friends. The Lord is blessing us in this path, and I know this is the way he wants his missionary work to go. It's been awesome.

In other news, the Elders in my district are really awesome. We're half latino, half american. My trainer came to this zone with me again, haha I really can't get away from that guy. There is a rampaging bishop that keeps shutting down baptisms even though he's not allowed to though... but he's in another ward, so yeah.

I am stunned to hear that Rachel is leaving home. That's some nonsense. But she'll have a lot of fun, and I can honestly say that the Lord prepared me for the rest of my life at BYU. He's got big plans for rachel. It is so inspiring to be a part of this historical period in the church's history. Also, I can clearly see the blessings of the Lord on our little Enid Ward. How many missionaries are in the field? Five with one freshly returned, right? 306 is a ridiculous number. I am going to tell that to my new bishop here to inspire him. More than ever, in this ward, I feel that the Lord placed me exactly where he wants me. 

The work is true. Share the gospel, friends!

Elder Pyper

August 12, 2013

Dear Mom,

Thanks for the email. I like your emails, they're totally inspirational, and they don't worry about things that really aren't important. I found out where I'm going this week! I'm headed farther in to Montevideo. I was on the very outskirts in a suuuuuper poor area. Now I'm headed to downtown. We're gonna see what it's like, because I have never worked in an area even slightly like that before. I already know my companion, his name is Elder Zuñiga. He's about my age in the mission, a little younger, and we are going to tear it up. I feel very strengthened by your prayers and stuff. Thanks a lot for the package! I'm almost out of room on my camera, so I think I might just send you guys one of my flash drives and then you can keep it and I'll just take the new one from the smaller package that's coming. I really don't know what to expect yet, but I'm excited to work. My Korean informant in the offices told me where I was going like almost a week before I was supposed to know, and that really affected me. Moral of the story, I never want to know early again. Haha, I'll send off the package with the pictures and stuff in about two weeks, I'm gonna wait till I get to the new area so I don't have to lug so much stuff around.

Love, Andy