February 24, 2013

Dear Family and friends,

                Another memorable week has passed and it’s once again time to pen a word or two to those who mean the most to us.  We think of you often.  We miss you, however are so very thankful for the privilege to serve as full-time missionaries in the North Carolina Charlotte Mission of Miracles.  We rejoice with you with the announcement of 58 new missions opening.  We are told our mission will be affected, however we do not know any particulars at this point.  We are so pleased with the calling of President and Sister Reeder to preside over the Philippines Naga mission.  For those of you who may not know, the Reeders have been long time friends who live in Perry.  We have worked together extensively in various church assignments over the years and know both of them as faithful, obedient servants of the Lord.  They are young, willing and able to serve and many are and will yet be blessed for their service.

                We completed another series of Zone Conferences.  We dodged the rain and sleet quite well and were successful inspecting the vehicles and providing safety training to our missionaries.  President Craven called us into his office on Thursday and informed us that 13 new missionaries will be arriving this coming Monday.  Wow what a flurry of work this entails.  This is in addition to the 27 new missionaries coming the following week.  Sister Andrus has been working non-stop as all of us have under her direction.  We are so pleased to have the new office couple here to help.  We also welcomed Elder and Sister Checketts this week.  They are serving in the employment center whose offices are down stairs in our building.  The 13 new missionaries are what we call “visa waiters”—missionaries called to other missions but are awaiting their visas to enter the countries.  According to President Craven, the church is experiencing an ever increasing challenge to keep and send missionaries into the various countries of the world.  Our “visa waiters” are mostly called to Peru and Brazil.  We typically will have them anywhere from two weeks to 6 months.  A few actually are reassigned to just stay with us for whom we are always glad.  President Craven insists we treat them just like they have been assigned to us and provide the training and treatment just the same including the training booklets, which keeps Sister Andrus hopping to prepare this 70 plus page document.  We typically place these missionaries with current companionships creating threesomes.  You can only imagine what this does to all the functions we deal with in the office e.g. housing, furniture, financial arrangements, bicycle and other transportation needs to mention a few.  But as said before—that is what we do.  We are also in the process of changing all the missionary expense cards from the JP Morgan / Chase banking systems to Bank of America.  This has to be completed before March 1^st.  Needless to say our plate is full this coming week.

                Last Wednesday President Craven asked me to assist him during the evening which necessitated Sister Andrus handling the Book of Mormon class herself.  She did wonderful.  Many of the participants informed me how wonderful the class was.  I am ever so proud of her and her increased capacity to serve in ways she says she can’t.  She is learning she can not only accomplish the assignment but does it so well.  I think we call the process “making us equal” to the calling.  We attended two baptisms this week from our Reedy Creek ward.  These are two excellent candidates who will be powerful additions to the ward family.  I had the opportunity to conduct the baptismal interviews for one of them and was so impressed with the conversion process.  These are people who have been involved with gross disobedience in the past who have been touched by the Sprit of Christ and the Holy Ghost and have experience a might change of heart and have put off the natural man.  What a privilege to be involved with the process.  I interviewed another candidate yesterday who likewise has made the commitment to change her heart.  Not only her but her husband is also making the same changes and both will be baptized in the coming weeks.  This is a family who our sister missionaries tracked out.  I asked her why she let them in.  She said she usually doesn’t, however it just seemed like the right thing to do.  Our missionaries are trained to offer the Saviors peace and blessings approach as they meet people for the first time.  Within a five minute period of time the missionaries are kneeling with the entire occupants of the home and offering a prayer for the family.  They are calling down the powers of heaven to these people and it becomes obviously apparent whom the Lord has prepared.  Those who react favorably are challenged for baptism while still on their knees and it is amazing to realize how powerful the spirit reacts to these settings.  We are seeing an increase of teaching opportunities by about 50 percent.  This approach quickly identifies the need to be exactly obedient on the part of the missionaries.  Those who struggle with this are quickly identified and President Craven works with them to resolve issues keeping them from being all they can be.  What a exhausting effort he makes to help our missionaries be obedient.  He and his wonderful companion are so excellent with this.  The key indicators are moving upwards and we truly feel the Lord is blessing our mission.

                We rejoice with Dean and his family for the new addition to their family.  Congratulations to Camille and family.  We enjoy the reports from our “Far-eastern correspondents” Elder and Sister Beus and reports from Sharon in Salt Lake.  We continue to, and often express how wonderful it is to be in North Carolina as we look and hear of the mounting snowpack in Utah and Idaho.  Maybe someone ought to suggest a special prayer to stop the moisture from coming.  I bet our snowmobile friends are enjoying the snow. We are thankful that Richard survived the mud obstacle course he participated in yesterday.  Please be careful.  We express to Uncle Greg our congratulations on his receiving the Silver Beaver award.  He has been and is a wonderful scouter.  We love you all and continue to pray for you.  Thanks again for your faith and prayers in our behalf.

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