Sept. 30,2012

Dear Family and friends

Wow—a full month has passed since we arrived in North Carolina.  It seems like so long ago yet only yesterday.  What a great month.  We are so grateful for each of you.  We pray for you daily and continue to ask Heavenly Father for your safety and success.  We continue to be assured we are where Heavenly Father wants us to be. 

We were with President and Sister Craven during the testimony meeting of the missionaries who are home now.  President shared a reference in the Book of Joshua that I would like to share with you.  I have reflected upon it considerably since Wednesday of this week and believe it can help all of us.  He indicated the pattern outlined in Joshua is a template we can follow that will help us always remain steadfast and immovable in an unchanging world-- a way  we can stay active in the gospel and be useful tools in the Kingdom of Heavenly Father.  In Joshua chapter three Joshua is leading the children of Israel to the promise land—Jordan.  In order to do so they must cross the Jordon River—the question was asked by the Priests how they were to carry the Ark of the Covenant, their equivalent of the temple, across the river.  Verse 7—“And the Lord said unto Joshua, This day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel and that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee.  And thou shalt command the priests that bear the Ark of the Covenant, saying, When ye are come to the brink of the water of Jordan, ye shall stand still in Jordan.  And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, Come hither, and hear the words of the Lord your God.”  The priests went, as instructed, to the waters’ edge carrying the ark.  Verse 13- “And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bare the ark of the Lord. . . .shall rest in the waters of Jordan , that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above; and they shall stand upon an heap.  Verse 15—And as they that bare the ark were come unto Jordan and the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, (for Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest,) Verse 17—“And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan”.  Joshua 4: 10  “For the priests which bare the ark stood in the midst of Jordan, until everything was finished that the Lord commanded Joshua to speak unto the people according to all that Moses commanded Joshua;  and the people hasted and passed over.  And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over that the ark of the Lord passed over and the priests in the presence of the people”.  The message President Craven shared with the departing missionaries was: 1—always carry the ark.  (Have a current temple recommend. 2—Be first in the water—Be first to volunteer and don’t be afraid to get your feet wet.  3.  Remain steadfast on dry ground until everyone has past.  Participate and stay active in the mainstream of the programs of the church and family.  4- Be last to leave.  Stay and help cleanup.  Put the chairs away—be of service –look for ways to help and be of service without being asked.  I echo this council to my children and grandchildren.  I remember the promise of Elder Bateman to the saints of the Willard Utah Stake saying very similar things and then promising exaltation in the Celestial Kingdom if we did.  Oh how Sister Andrus and I pray we can be together as an eternal family.  The plan of happiness is for everyone—including the Don and Ruth Andrus Family.  It is also for our dear brothers and sisters and their families and our wonderful friends and associates in the kingdom and their families.  We love all of you so much.

We begin our “solo” assignments tomorrow and are so looking forward to being on our own.  We have been well trained and believe we can make a difference for good.  If there is one thing we have learned is that office work is important for the success of spreading forth the Kingdom of Heaven.  It is an important work and needs to be done efficiently and effectively so the work of saving souls can move forward without problems.  We are honored and blessed to have this opportunity to serve.  President and Sister Craven are so grateful to Sister Andrus and I and are looking forward to us helping them bring a new generation of ideas and success.  We are humbled and believe and know this is what Heavenly father desires of us right now. 

Transfer week was so busy and so exciting.  We already love the new missionaries—so prepared and ready to work.  Sister Andrus is amazing with them.  She is so like a mother and helps them feel so good.  I am so proud of her.  It’s great to be her companion.  I taught the High Priest Group today—I was asked to help the group leadership formalize a prospective Elder rescue effort.  It was enjoyable to put to use my experience and facilitate a great discussion.  We still have much to accomplish but have a good start.  We took a prospective elder to church—the same one we did last week.  He is making progress.  His name is Til.  We also were happy to greet Tim—recently baptized.   A few weeks ago we helped him set up for him an appointment with the employment missionaries.  He was so happy—he has an interview today.  We so hope he is able to get the job.  He is the one we also introduced family history work with.  He is so thrilled to be finding his “roots”.  We really feel rewarded in our ward assignments also.  The Reedy Creek Ward is a good ward.  It is our ward for now.  We love these good people.  We feel at home with them. 

We miss you all but trust the Lord that He will keep and protect you in our absence.  Thanks again for your faith and prayers in our behalf.  We so enjoyed the face time with some of you and look forward to similar time with all of you.  Just enjoyed some face time with Ben and family.  So good to see everyone.  Have a great week

Love

 Elder and Sister, Mom and Dad, Don and Ruth.

Sept. 22,2012

September 22, 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

                Once again it is time to reflect on the happenings of the past few days here in North Carolina.  Sister Andrus and I continue to be busy, happy and healthy.  Many of our missionaries have had the flu.  Sister Andrus was a little ill yesterday.  She stayed home and feels much better today.  The missionaries whose jobs we are learning are going home this next week.  We feel really blessed to have been tutored by them for the past month.  We both feel ready and look forward to taking over our office duties.  This next week is our first experience with transfer week.  We feel its business already.  Much work in the office centers on the coming and going of missionaries all of which takes place next week.    We are planning on 10 arriving and 11 going home.  We pray we are prepared.

                We have been able to move forward in our proselyting activities this past two weeks.  We were able to speak in Sacrament Meeting last Sunday.  We were assigned to speak on the restoration.  What a wonderful missionary topic.  Preach My Gospel is so wonderful and we are to use it as a source document along with the Standard Works.  Sister Andrus did a great job—only took her 5 minutes however leaving me 40 minutes.  Needless to say I wasn’t very successful in using the simple, abbreviated versions we were counseled to use at the MTC.  We were able to introduce ourselves and feel we are fitting in very nicely as members of the Reedy Creek Ward.  We have attended two baptisms—one each on the past two Saturdays.  Wonderful converts.  The ward is very missionary minded.  I think I shared with you our plans to attend ward council—well we did and wow what a meeting.  Everything was on missionary work.  We are scrambling to keep up with the assignments we are receiving.  We are a little concerned as the sister missionaries are being transferred out of the ward this next week and having to transfer their teaching pool to the elders.  Sister Andrus and I have to step up to help which is really stretching us with our duties during transfer week.  We are going to make it somehow.  We took an investigator family to the ward activity on Friday evening—a pig pickin barbeque--Great food with great people.  They were really great with the investigator family.  We are anticipating taking them to church tomorrow—we are awaiting a phone call from the missionaries.  We are also bringing another family to church tomorrow.  They are from Nepal.  Speak very little English—they were baptized in Virginia and have moved here for work.  As we were visiting them, we discovered they are living with three different families—all in the same apartment.  They are so loving and kind.  We were hugged and fed (I hope we don’t get sick) only three are members of the church—a father and his 16 year old daughter and 13 year old son.  The daughter and son can communicate very well.  The Father is doing OK.  His name is Til.  He wants us to be with him as he teaches his family.  If they have questions he will ask us and then he will communicate in Napali with them.  We are hoping to get the Elders to be there with us.  Anyway we are picking them up tomorrow for church—we need a van.  We as Reedy Creek Missionaries meet each Saturday at 11:45 am at the ward mission leader’s home for lunch and correlation meeting.  The ward mission leader has to be prepared for PEC each week with the missionary activities going on.  Then every other week all the missionaries meet with the ward council and give our report.  We are then excused from ward council so we can greet our investigators’.  Really a fun and busy experience, however we are hoping to get some help with the transportation.

                How did the cultural celebration turn out?  The Dedication will be tomorrow.  We are missing our home very much right now with all of these wonderful events.  We so appreciate being included in the emails from our family and friends who are involved with the Brigham City Temple activities.  Please keep them coming. 

                We have a couple of missionaries from our area—Elder Jeppeson from Willard--one of Sister Melba Munn’s grandsons.  We have met him and visited with him.  We also have Elder Penrod from Brigham City.  He is one of Bart’s sons—Dallas and Joann’s grandson.  We have not met him yet; however have met him on paper.  Both, I believe, are good missionaries.  We met and visited with Sally Hall—Pres. Ladd Hall’s wife.  Pres. Hall was called a couple of week ago as stake president over the Charlotte South Stake.  Sister Andrus and I are in the Charlotte Central Stake. We met Sister Hall at a fireside which was for all of the stakes in the area put on by the General Relief Society and Primary boards.  

                We are so grateful for this wonderful experience.  We are so happy to be here.  We miss our family so much; however know we are where we need to be.  We are so proud of each of you.  We pray for all of you every day.  We find our prayers are getting longer and more meaningful—there is so much to be grateful for.  We also have so many needs to pray for.  We are so grateful for the Atonement of our Savior.  We love sharing the message of the atonement with the people of Charlotte.  They need it so desperately.  We all need it so desperately.  We have your pictures on the wall and it is so good to see you everyday—you all are smiling so good.  We now have the internet—we need to set up our Skype and Face time.  I will let Sister Andrus work out the details. 

                We love you all—have a great remainder of September—we will check in later.

Elder and Sister Andrus, Dad and Mom, Grandma and Grandpa and Don and Ruth.

Sept 2 and 9th

Sept. 2

Dear Family

                Elder and Sister Andrus reporting in—we have had an eventful week. It started with Sister Andrus and I meeting with Pres. and Sister Craven on Sunday (last week) afternoon.  I believe I reported this to you last week.  We began our first day in the office on Monday.  A little overwhelmed with the many duties required, however as the week moved forward we could see we are going to be able to do this.  We have made lots of progress this week.  Tuesday started with meeting Elder Bowen and Elder Carlson and their spouses.  Lovely people—my brothers and sisters will remember “Mr. Music” in Idaho Falls.  Elder Bowen is one of the children of Mr. Music.  One of Elder Bowen’s Daughters married a son of Heber Andrus.  They inspired and motivated us in the office and extended warm greetings and gratitude from Salt Lake City for a job that is usually associated with mundane and behind the scenes, however so necessary in the big picture of bring souls unto Christ.   Sister Andrus and I from the office were invited to join them in Salisbury, NC as they met with half of the mission leadership.  (They had met with the other half on Monday)  They really trained the Zone and District Leaders and Sisters well.  It was very enjoyable to be associated with them and to be taught by them.  The remainder of the office staff and the rest of the missionaries met at 1:00 p.m. for general training.  It again was very inspiring and wonderful to be taught from such capable leaders.  The council was very stern and direct yet so loving and kind.  We all left feeling like we can do better.  We were not feeling like we were beat up on—even though from the outside looking in one would have reported it as such.  Sister Andrus and I are working on a presentation to the office staff on how we can raise the bar in our assignments—both in a personal and in a collective behavior way.  President wants to eliminate the mission slangs e.g. guys, AP’s, ZL’s—he desires the AP’s to be called Assistants to the President or just Assistants—Zone leaders and District Leaders.  People our baptized not “dunked” etc.  We are moving forward changing the culture from our end.

Sept 9, 2012

Sorry for the delay—we have been without internet service and our “Free Time” is filling up.  Office work is just that.  Lot’s to do but very enjoyable because of the wonderful people we are with.  We are learning our duty and enjoying the moments we have with Pres. Craven.  He is a wonderful President and really motivated to do a great job.  It is fun to help.  We met with our Bishop—we have been assigned to attend the Reedy Creek Ward.  Our new apartment is actually within the boundaries of this ward.  Bishop Mattingly is a wonderful Bishop—(are there any bad ones)  He assigned us 105 prospective elders to visit and asked us to be the single adult 31 and over representatives.  We have close to 100 of these people with about 30 active.  Needless to say this is taking all of our non-office duty time.  With finally having a place to call home we believe we can make a difference.  There are 3 sets of missionaries assigned to the Reedy Creek Ward--the Assistants to the President and a set of sister missionaries and us.  We had them over to our home yesterday to go over the prospective elder and single adult lists.  It really helped us prioritized the list.  We fed them lunch—truly a blessing to be with these wonderful missionaries.   Our goal is to meet with the ward council next Sunday and suggest some people they can ask the missionaries to help them activate.  A little back door approach, however that is what the handbook says.  President Craven shared with us the method to his madness in having us assigned to this ward—to help train the leadership on missionary responsibilities.  We, of course, need to be very diplomatic and humble in our approach so the spirit can be the teacher.  It is really exciting to be about this wonderful work.

We so appreciate our wonderful and supportive family.  We have had a busy week which is good so we can keep our minds off of Peach Days and the Temple open houses.  We would really like to be involved with that wonderful event.  We think we are—just a little different than expected.  Our apartment is very nice—we need to set up a Skype / face time tour.  Give us time to get internet installed and get the boxes and suitcases unpacked.  It may take a week or so.  Charlotte is a really beautiful area.  We are nestled in a grove of trees—everything is nestled in a grove of trees—even the slums, however it is really nice.  Our apartment is a gated complex complete with pool, exercise room and car wash facilities included in the rent.  Not bad—a little on the high side for rent; however the Mission President did not want us anywhere else.  We are happy. 

                Pres. Craven has asked me to lead a discussion tomorrow morning in our office staff devotional regarding following the doctrine of the Book of Mormon in our teaching and studying.  He really wants our missionaries to focus on finding the doctrine that will motivate people to make the changes needed for true conversion.  He’s convinced that if our discussions are doctrine based, that will help—especially using the Book of Mormon.  As you all know the regular study of the Book of Mormon will bring us closer to our Heavenly Father.  It thrills Sister Andrus and I to read of our beautiful families striving to read the Book of Mormon each day.  We pray for your success as those early morning or late evening hours seem impossible to keep.  We promise you success as you do your very best.  Sister Andrus and I are finding we have to get up earlier than required to get it all done before our office duties begin at 8:30.  Well it is after my bedtime in North Carolina so I need to close.  Hopefully I can be timelier as our life is settling in a routine. 

                We love all of you and pray for your success and safety every day.  We cannot do this without your continued prayer and support.  Thanks Again

Elder and Sister, Mom and Dad and Don and Ruth