Week 3

We don't think we are going to get a letter now until next Monday.  Here is the letter and picture we received from Aaron's Mission President.

Dear Brother and Sister Ashby,

What a pleasure it was to welcome Elder Steven Aaron Ashby into the Utah Salt Lake City South Mission.  His first day with us included breakfast and orientation at the mission office, a training session, lunch and of course, meeting his first companion. I am impressed by his desire to serve.  He is well and in high spirits as he anticipates the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.  Please be assured that we will be watching over him while he is here.  I'm attaching photographs taken as he was welcomed at the mission office.

After prayerful consideration, an excellent missionary, Elder Costa, has been assigned as his trainer and first companion.  I am attaching our Family Guidelines which we urge you to follow.  We have learned from experience the importance of family and friends following these guidelines.  Please share the guidelines with those who may write to him.  Your compliance of these guidelines can reinforce your missionary's willingness to follow the guidelines in the Missionary Handbook.

All hard-copy letters and packages should be sent to the mission, addressed to Elder Steven Aaron Ashby at the address listed above. 

Thank you for raising such an outstanding young person, worthy and willing to serve the Lord full time in our mission.  I know you will be blessed for the sacrifices that make his service possible.  May the Lord's choicest blessings be yours.

Sincerely,

J. Christopher Lansing
Mission President

Week 2

Hello everyone!

This week was pretty good, on Thursday we had a teacher come in during our "Flex time" and his name was Kirk Lester, who I found out was Trent's teacher when he was at the MTC which was pretty cool, he was lucky because he was a very good teacher.

 

Friday, didn't go as I planned, Elder Best had to go to the hospital to get an X-Ray on his chest and an EKG test. His companion didn't want to go because it was during gym time, so he asked if my companion would go because he was the one who seemed like he would be willing to give up his gym time rather than the other three that play sports. Well my companion didn't want to give up his gym time, so I decided that I would sacrifice my gym time to go to the hospital. Which was hard for me because that one hour of gym time is my relaxing time for the day.

 

Saturday, I finally ruined my batting average in kickball, I am now 6-7...... sad day. We played kickball with the district that was leaving on Monday.

 

Sunday, I saw a video that changed my life, it is the Character of Christ. It is only shown in the MTC because David A Bednar was really blunt in what he was saying. It was a remarkable video that will help me throughout my mission. I also saw the Elder that I got my endowments out with! I was putting on a shirt as he walked past my room and we both had that aha moment and we said "Hey are you the one I got my endowments out with?" Good to see him. He's heading over to Oklahoma and I don't know his name but its Elder V.

 

Monday, this day tested my patience more than ever, Elder Best is really into music and has a narcissistic personality and he got really mad that I wasn't hitting the right note as a tenor, and we all know that singing has never been my forte. If I hadn't seen the Character of Christ, I might have told him off.

 

Tuesday, we had a very good Devotional by Elder L Whitney Clayton and his wife Kathy Clayton. I really liked Sister Clayton's talk, she said there are four things we need to do in life. 1. Note the miracles. 2. Trust in Heaven. 3. Be patient. 4. Live with love. she also quoted Albert Einstein it states, "Live as if everything is a miracle." and that quote really changed my perspective of how to approach every day.

 

 Last week in the MTC until I head out into the mission field! Excited to start the next part of my mission!

Love,

Elder A-A-RON

On a side note...the pictures below are from others in the MTC.  The first one is Elder Gardiner who was a missionary in our Ward in Eau Claire.  We fed him many times and sent his parents pictures.  He sent a message and said, "I saw this familiar face in the MTC cafeteria the other day!  Figured I needed to return the favor for all the photos you sent to my parents when we came over for dinner."

This picture is with Brother Lester who was one of Trent's MTC instructors...

And just a picture of Aaron...

Week 1

Hello all,

The MTC has some good and has some bad things to it but all in all it's a good experience. My companion is totally different from me which is hard to relate to a lot of the times when we have normal conversations. We work well at times when we teach, but he has a little stuttering problem and he tries to talk too much so its hard for our investigator to understand him when he goes on a talking spree. Class can be really hard for me at times being in the classroom for HOURS.... but I started praying before class to be able to stay focused and it helped me out a lot the other day. My companions name is Elder Anderton, he is from San Antonio Texas and is also going to Salt Lake South. My district has three elders going to Salt Lake and three going to Fresno, CA, for the Sisters, three are going to Oregon, but I forgot what one, not the same one as Ethan though, and one is going to Yakima, Washington.

 

I was called to be District leader.

 

Saturday was very hard for me, from going to spending all day watching college football and then not being able to watch any was hard but luckily the Utes pulled it off.

 

I've learned some fun new games during our exercise time, they are Kube and spike ball. Kube is a weird game where you have 5 blocks on each team, and have 6 sticks to throw underhand. There is a big block in the middle of the boundaries you set, and if you knock over the big block you lose automatically. So the point of the game is to knock the other teams blocks down  and if you knock their block down they have to roll their block out past the middle block and then stand it up. Then if you rolled your block past the middle you need to hit that one over in order to save it, if you and your team don't hit it with your six sticks its out. However if you hit the block down you can use your remaining sticks to knock theirs down, if you knock over the one you rolled across you get it back. The point of the game is to get all the other teams blocks eliminated. My companion is surprisingly good at it despite how un-athletic he is. There is another game I played today called Spike ball which is like volleyball but with a little tramp and a little ball. It is a 2v2 game. Same rules as volleyball apply to spike ball, you have three hits to hit the ball on the tramp and can't touch it twice. It was a really fun game but with someone who isn't coordinated is hard because it takes some athleticism and communication skills. Look both these games up they are really fun and would be a fun thing to play for Young Men/ Young Women or any other time.

 

Sadly we lost all our crazy Spanish Elders this week, they had fight nights in the halls with El Luchador, Missionary man (Who had an M shaved out of his chest hair, it was quite impressive) and  Batman, there is a Elder Batman name tag that has been passed down for who knows how long. There are also Nephites vs. Laminates they just wrestle a little bit and it probably wasn't the best idea but it gave us all something to laugh about at the end of a long day. Thank you for all the care packages! I was in dying need of garments, it got to the point where I was deciding which smelt the least worst. The last two times we have had devotionals there were apostles there! M Russell Ballard on Sunday and Quentin L Cook on Tuesday! They both did not have talks, but both gave good messages to us missionaries. That is the 3 Apostle in a row is what I heard so I am very fortunate. All is going well here at the MTC love you guys. 

Love,

Elder A-A-RON