Andrea is in Montana : February 24, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

Well this week has been great. Well it was great during and then we looked at what we did..and well it was not a lot..so this week we want to do a lot better. Sister Austin and I love each other, but we have noticed we have gotten quite comfortable, and not so on our toes with each other and the area. That is not a good thing cause we are doing good, but we really have not pushed our selves this week, we know we could do so much better. I love Riverton so much and thinking about leaving the people here really breaks my heart, but I want to do better, and so in some ways I really hope I will be transferred next week. 3 transfers...so like 4 and a half months..is a lot of time in an area haha. I don't know maybe it's not, but it feels like I have been here forever, which I have, half of my mission so far haha.

I am so happy Josh enjoys the Bulbasaur shirt. You should take a picture of him in it and send it. Does it even fit him? I loved the little valentines package thanks for the mascara, I needed some. I am almost out of that cover up stuff. And I have so much chap stick and eyeliner it is nuts...so I don't need any more of those for the rest of my mission haha.

Ok so last week I told you that I was going to the Karikers house and make king cakes. Well I did...and it was ...SO SO FUN! I have so many pictures to send home. So we each decorated a king cake and so did Sister Kariker, and her granddaughter Kaylee. So 4 king cakes haha. They gave us masks and it was adorable. I decorated mine with all the colors of Mardi graw and sprinkles and beads and feathers :) so much fun. One of the best parts was after we had decorated them, Brother Karikers calls us over, because he was in the living room, and says "Now I know it's great to have fun and all, but we know you have a purpose, so will you share a message with us" :) I could have squealed right then. I was so excited. Sister Austin and I talked about it after. Brother Kariker loves us and is so great. They are not members and they love to talk to us and have fun and think of us as grand kids. We have tried to teach them, but he especially says he doesnt want to be converted. It was so awsome to have him recognize we are missionaries and that he wanted us to share a message.

This week we also had exchanges. Sister Sheratt did exchanges with me for 2 days and Sister Austin went with Sister Omealy. Sister Sheratt is a sister training leader. She is actually a temple square missionary. We had a blast, at least I did hearing all about her temple square mission. I think it would be so cool to serve there for just a transfer! She has access to tons of stuff that normal people don't haha. Plus it would just be cool to be at temple square

So yesterday! Was such an amazing Sunday. There is a less active, Connie who we have been working with since coming here who has not been to church in over 5 and a half years. Well when we first met her, honestly we were so frustrated with all of her excuses, and so for the first while we just called her to repentance. Then we took a different approach and listened and really loved her, excuses and all. So guess what happened? She came to church on Sunday! People in the ward and other missionaries have been working with her forever and she finally came out. She has a lot of health issues and when we saw it was snowing on Sunday we were so sad thinking she would not come. She told me when i was on exchangs that she would be there this week. She even had us look at her dresses and help her choose what to wear. Then she actually came! WOW! I was so so so thankful to Heavenly Father, and I still am. I love seeing those miracles happen. She used to just tell us all these excuses and about a month ago something just clicked and she said, "I need to be at church for me, I need to be there." and she was. I think the biggest thing that helped her have this change of heart was that she kept her commitments. From the first while she did not read her scriptures cause she was sick, or she couldn't ever remember what she read, but finally when she started studying everyday, and praying all the time and acting on that faith, Heavenly Father was able to bless her with a change of heart. Keeping commitments is seriously everything. If someone doesn't keep commitments then how will they learn what we are asking them to do? I think that really applies in normal life also. When we say we will do something we need to do it . Especailly the covenants that we have made at baptism and also when we go through the temple. How can we be blessed by the covenants we make if we don't actually keep them. We can't. We must keep those covenants and be obedient to them in order to grow and learn and strengthen and persevere in the gospel. So many times we run into people who have a stag-nit testimony. They believe but they are not doing, and therefore they have fallen away. If we are constantly learning we will constantly be growing. It's just like school if we aren't learning we are not growing. Also if we only use and apply what we are comfortable with we will never grow either. It just becomes habit and we don't get anything out of it. Just like the gospel, we have to keep pushing our selves to learn and grow. I have no idea if that made sense, but anyways. We need to be keeping our covenants and one of the covenants at baptism is to keep the commandments and one of those commandments is to go to church. Therefore we need to be going to church as well as keeping all over our covenants to be receiving the full blessings of the covenants that we have made to Heavenly Father and the covenants he has made to us. Anyways I loved seeing Connie at church and being able to see the change of heart she has had.

I love this gospel. I know that it is the one and only true church on the earth and that it blesses out lives so much so we don't even see all the blessings. I love my Heavenly Father and Savior. I know they love me as well.

I love you all so much have a wonderful week! I will write you all next week :)

-Andrea

Our fun little King Cake making day! Such a blast! This is Ingrid and Garland Kariker and their grand daughter Kylee and her adorable baby boy Tracen