February 10, 2013
Dear Family and friends,
Weeks
are flying by—at least they seem to be for us.
We can’t seem to keep up with all that is coming at us. We are truly enjoying being busy,
however. We are busily preparing for
another round of zone conferences starting next week. We are putting together a safety training
skit on cleaning bathrooms—to the tune of 2001 Space Odyssey. We are hoping lightening it up a bit will
bring more compliance. We have some
pretty nasty bathrooms out there. Now that
more Sister missionaries are coming and taking over some of the apartments that
have had Elders in them for a long time, some rather negative reports are
coming our way. Some of the Sisters are
rebelling. I can’t say I blame them in
some cases, however in many they just need to buck it up a bit. The apartments are so much better now than
when I was a missionary. I know, I know walking up hill both ways
syndrome. I better go somewhere else.
We had
a wonderful experience on Saturday.
Elder Russell M. Nelson is presiding at a stake conference in Charlotte
this weekend. He wanted to meet with all
the missionaries as part of his assignment.
President Craven invited all the missionaries in the field to come to
Charlotte for a two hour plus meeting with Elder Nelson. He insisted on shaking each missionaries
hand—what a great thing for our missionaries.
He was especially gracious to the senior couples and to those
missionaries from other countries. We
have three or four from Mexico—one from the Congo and one from one of the
Caribbean islands and several from Canada.
We were instructed by Sister Craven, Elder Giddons from the Seventy and
then the remainder of the time from Elder Nelson. Most of the meeting was a question and answer
type format. President Craven had prepared
the mission well with what was appropriate for questions as well as proper
protocol. Everything went well. We enjoyed learning about the process of
selecting a new member of the seventy as well as a new member of the
twelve. He shared with us in rather
detail the process of announcing of the age requirement change in missionary
service. He asked those who were present
to stand if they were here because of the announcement. We had about 15 stand. He indicated this was the ripple—the wave is
coming he said. He answered questions
regarding how his study of medicine had strengthened his belief in God and the
plan of happiness. He shared stories of
special conversion experiences with medical professionals around the world. He
spent time detailing the repentance process using his knowledge of the root
words in Greek, Latin and Hebrew describing what repentance is all about—how
the very air we breath must change to become truly repentant. Very insightful. Needless to say it was a glorious experience
for our mission. We are so pleased. He is presiding at the South Charlotte Stake
conference. This is the stake whose
president is Ladd Hall. Many of our Perry friends remember President Hall. I had a pleasant conversation with him on
Saturday. He is a wonderful and well
respected church and business leader here in the Charlotte area. President Cheney, a counselor in the mission
presidency, was the former Stake President of the Charlotte South Stake and we have
had the opportunity to be together in several settings and have enjoyed our
President Hall stories. Sister Andrus
and I are on our way to the Sunday session as we speak so I better close up and
get this sent.
We love
you all so much. We wish our sweet
Rachel a happy 6th birthday.
Have a great valentine’s day. We
have been enjoying a “Heart Attack” month opening a special heart package each
day since February 1st. What
a clever and special way to remember our family. We thank Kappy and family for this. We also are enjoying special valentine
packages from several of you—all of which are decorating our home with lots of
hearts. We will have to face time and
share our “heart wall” with you.
See you next week!!
Elder and Sister Andrus, Grandpa and Grandma, Dad and Mom,
Don and Ruth.
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