Week 12

Tuesday: We started our day out with a district meeting, and after our district meeting we did exchanges with Elder Rodriguez and Elder Peterson. Elder Costa went to their area which is the Sandy #2 YSA (Young single Adults) ages 18-30 so they cover half of Sandy and all the young single adults. And Elder Peterson came to our area. We had three lessons which was good because the YSA area has a hard time getting lessons with people. And Elder Peterson is in his first transfer and has only been out for a few weeks. We taught Bruce Erickson and did a chapel tour and showed him the church building and it was really good for him to see the differences in our church compared to others. And we taught two 7 year olds who are about to turn 8 and be baptized so it was good for all of us. Prepared them and excite them to be baptized and gave us an opportunity to practice our teaching.

Wednesday: Today was a day ill never forget! We finished our exchanges earlier than we wanted due to Elder Costa having to go to a few meetings. But he went to a Spanish meeting (but yet he doesn't speak Spanish he speaks Portuguese) so I was on splits (a brief time with a new companion) and Elder Mitchell's and I went to his area and did service for a new investigator they had. She was a widow lady and was extremely happy that we were helping her rake up all the leaves in her hard. After two hours we had a leave because we had a lesson with an investigator in my area. We taught Selina Gao the importance to keep the sabbath day holy and in the prayer at the end of the lesson she said "I'm sorry for not going to sacrament meeting, I promise I will keep going to that." And she has been going to church for the past two years but not to sacrament because her little brother likes to sleep in. She is on date to be baptized on December 10th. We had a lesson with Evelynn and after the lesson her father told us they are going to take a year long break from missionary discussions, and wants her to be going to church for a whole year to really know if she wants to be baptized. It broke my heart when he told us that. After that we had a lesson with the Malmstrom family and wow was it good! We talked to the two parents who are less active and they have unbaptized kids. After a few minutes Elder Costa asked the big question. "Why don't you guys go to church?" And they told us their thoughts on how God wouldn't have just one true church on the earth and that all religions are good. We talked briefly about the plan of salvation and how we were given our agency. Brother Malmstrom was telling us how be believed in God and Jesus Christ, but he was questioning why the Bible was written by prophets and not Jesus. So basically what he claimed and his questions contradicted themselves. So I confronted him about it and his wife who was more active during her childhood started teaching and testifying for us what we were teaching! It was amazing! He had a lot of questions about Jospeh Smith and we tried our best to answer all his questions. We basically have a timeline of Jospeh Smith and all the things that were to be about the restoration. There were times where it was very intense but we didn't run. I bore my testimony on the Book of Mormon and that I had just completed it and believed with all the surety of my heart it was true. We got him to commit to read 3 Nephi 11 where Jesus appears to the people on the Americas. It was a solid 2.5 hours of intense conversation but I felt so good afterwards.

Sister Malmstrom told us that they have been through 10 sets of missionaries and they all were too afraid to be bold with him and ask questions. He was baptized as a kid and then never went to church again. So basically he had no understanding of anything. It was a great experience. Elder Costa and I were praying in closing to our night and as I prayed in close we were both in tears of joy and had a really good bonding time. Really spiritual experience.

Thursday: We ate at the Perrys home, our next door neighbors. And then played games all night. We played a new game to me called Settlers of Catan, it looked really weird at the beginning but it was actually a really fun game that required luck and strategy! Another game I never played before was called Mexican Train Station. It was a domino game and was pretty fun. It was hard being away from family but I know I am serving and helping the people here in their time of need.

Friday: very mellow day. Had our meeting with the Woolums (our elderly missionary couple) but they didn't have any new names of people because sister Woolums has been really sick lately. At night we went to a church building so Elder Costa could do his online divers Ed stuff and I got an email from my mom and it was my patriartical blessing! A blessing a guy gives who doesn't know you and will tell you about your life. It is given from God and he is the instrument.

It's crazy how the guy didn't know me at all but in the blessing it describes me perfectly. I got my written copy of it by email.

Saturday: We started our day by going over to Elder Rodriguez and Elder Peterson's home to give Elder Peterson a blessing. He recently lost a family friends dad and feels like he can't help them out unless he is there. But we gave him permission to email them. I told him to bear his testimony of the plan of salvation to them since they are non members. We stopped by Robert Jiron's home to invite him to come to church this Sunday since we are speaking in the sacrament meeting, and as well, Elder Costa Is playing the violin. He told us he would come so that's great!

Sunday: Today was a good day! We spoke in two different sacrament meetings. We talked in the Heytsbury Ward at 9 about missionary work and it was really powerful and brought the spirit. Robert Jiron came!

We have been trying to get him to come to church for over a month! He really liked the meeting and loved when Elder Costa played the violin.

Hopefully he will continue to come and grow and gain a testimony for himself. We also spoke in the Crescent Ridge 1st Ward at 11 about missionary work as well.  After that we went to the Indian Ridge Ward to see if Selina Gao went to sacrament meeting and she did! She should be prepared to be baptized on the 10th! Good week overall.

Love,

Elder Ashby

Picture of Elder Costa and I eating with the Perry's on Thanksgiving.

Week 11

Tuesday: We started our day off with a Zone conference and it took most the afternoon. I learned from the Sister Training Leaders about the three steps to investigators. Plant, nourish, and harvest. And how some plant the seed of the gospel. Some help them along the way, but don't get to harvest them or get them baptized. But some harvest. We also learned how obedience brings good things but exact obedience brings miracles.

Wednesday: We had a district meeting in the morning. I was nervous to do an exchange with our Zone Leader Elder Harlan. "That's where you are with another missionary for 24 hours to evaluate how you are doing." We had a lesson with Roberto, and man is Elder Harlan good! He knew how to teach and teach by the spirit! We invited him to say the closing prayer and ask God if the Book of Mormon was true, like it directs in Moroni 10: 4-5 but he didn't ask it in that way, he said "God, lead me to what I should be doing." Which was a bummer because God will answer your questions if they are specific and you ask with real intent. Elder Harlan talked all night haha, we were talking till like 11:30 at night about all sorts of things.

Thursday: It finally snowed here! We had meeting with our Mission president in the morning. Our cars windshield fluid sprayer wasn't working so we dropped it off at Big O and them studied at the Zone leaders home. I learned a lot from Elder Harlan and how to become a better missionary!  We had a good lesson with Selina and she is keeping all her commitments, she is almost ready to be baptized.

Friday: We taught a less active Scott Winkler, his wife was out of town but he didn't want to cancel on us again. But we talked about the plan of salvation and temples and they are continually working to be sealed in the temple. We also had a lesson with Selina again and she is willing to do anything to be baptized. We talked about tithing and she said if she needs to do that to be baptized she would. We were supposed to have a lesson with Evelynn but they weren't home for some reason? Which was surprising because they never leave their home!

Saturday: We started off our day helping a less active move things out of a room into another and man was that a mess! But it was all good.

She asked for us to give her a priesthood blessing for the desire to stop smoking. (And she smokes 15 cigarettes a day) and I gave it and felt good. But she was worried about what I said, I said "enjoy the time you have with your family." And she took it as she is going to die. But it depends on how you look at it, it could have different meanings. I don't question what I said. Elder Costa had a leadership meeting about the new mission training plan for the holidays, and we got to see a sneak peak of the holiday video the church makes each year and man is it amazing. It will be up on Mormon.org if you search #LightTheWorld I would highly recommend it to all people to watch, Mormon or not. At night I had 30 more pages of the Book of Mormon and I wanted to finish it. So I read until it was done and I never felt more accomplished in my life. I prayed and asked to know if the Book of Mormon is true and Jospeh Smith translated it by the power of God.

I felt a warm feeling and a sense of peace. I would invite all who question our church to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it's true like in Moroni 10:4-5 and the feeling of the Holy Ghost will manifest an answer to you.

Sunday: Today had its highs and lows. Roberto didn't show up to church. But Selina did! So we are happy she is continuing to keep the commitments. But we got bad news, her baptismal date was set for November 26th but she hasn't been going to sacrament meeting for three weeks. Which is required in order to be baptized. She has been going to church in the last two meetings but not for the first meeting which is sacrament. So her date will be moved to December 10th. Sadly a potential investigator called us and left a voicemail and said that they wanted to cancel our lesson with them and that they aren't sure if they want to take the missionary discussions just yet, but there is hope.

Love,

Elder Ashby

Week 10

Tuesday: We had a good training on the role of a district leader, as my companion is now our new District Leader. (Watches over a few sets of missionaries in their area).

We found out that night at dinner, that a man we gave a Priesthood Blessing the previous week, he bore his testimony on Sunday saying that he went to the Dr to have another surgery on his head, and they told him that he was perfectly healthy!  Amazing how Priesthood Blessings can do miracles!

We also talked to a family who hasn't been going to their assigned Ward, due to other conflicts. And are moving in December and they said they won't be in this stake anymore. But we found out that they are moving into our other area we cover so we will start teaching their family in January.

Wednesday: We started our day off with a District Meeting. It was weird seeing Elder Costa being our new district leader, but it was a really good meeting. We raked up all the leaves for the family that we live with. They had a lot of leaves, but no where near as much as we had in Wisconsin! We talked with a less active lady who has a problem with smoking, and we are continuing to work with her to stop her addiction. She wants to cook us Brazilian BBQ for Elder Costa.

Thursday: We had a leadership meeting in the morning to talk about our new goals as a zone. And was later discussed in Zone meeting later that day. TEAM Together, Everyone, Achieves, Miracles! That was our new motto as a Zone. We went by and visited Evelynn one of our investigators and she hasn't been doing the commitments we have invited her to do and her Aunt (who she lives with) told us that we were wasting our time with her and should stop teaching her, but I told her that I'm not giving up on her and that I am willing to give her one more shot. So I gave her a chapter to read from the Book of Mormon Stories everyday until next Friday when we meet with her and if she read them and understand what they say and how they apply to her life we will continue to teach her. We talked with our next door neighbor who knows one of our investigators very well, and had these gauntlets or metal gloves and wants to give them to, and Orry and his wife who are really into medieval stuff. Will be a good way to get into their home and to fellowship them.

Friday: Today was amazing! We had a lesson with a Chinese girl Selina Gao, who just turned 18 and has a desire to be baptized. We taught her the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and she did really well.

And is on date to be baptized on November 26th. I got an awesome pen from one of our ward mission leaders, he makes them on a rotating thing and sands them to the size and shape. It's made out of Zebra Wood and looks really good. We did a family home waving with the Allred family who are members and they had us over for dinner with one of their non member neighbors and we had a good discussion about Gods plan for all of us in the Plan of Salvation. Elder Costa and Sister Allred played Come thou fount of every blessing and it was very beautiful to hear.

Saturday: Rakes on takes on rakes. We spent most of our day doing service for people by taking their leaves up for them. A family took us to a pizza restaurant called Zillios and it was really good. (Not as good as Ian's pizza in Madison Wisconsin) We stopped by the Cox home and we finally got another lesson scheduled for Anaya! It's been about a month since we have taught her!

Sunday: We went to a couple ward councils and see if we could get any names of people to go teach or who are in need of service. We went to the Crescent Ridge 5th ward primary program and it was really good seeing the little kids share little messages about Jesus and other things. We got a referral by email from church headquarters for a man and his wife who are non members and we stopped by there and he was happy to see us and he told us he just got a priesthood blessing from his grandfather that day and was wanting to meet with the missionaries. He has lived here in Sandy for a year and a half and has never been approached by missionaries! We set up a time to go teach him and his wife next Sunday.

Monday(today): We had a lesson with Bruce Erickson and his wife, didn't get very far in our lesson because he likes to talk and go on tangents but he said he is willing to listen to us again since we talk about Jesus Christ. He said he will read the a Book of Mormon though!

We also have a lesson with Selina Gao again at 3 during Zone activity, but even though it's preparation day it is still the lords day, and it a our calling to teach the Gospel!

 

Hope everyone has a great week!

 

Love,

Elder Ashby

 

Here is a picture of the zebra wood pen

And my new haircut...I can't believe how long my hair was (compare last weeks post)

 

Week 9

Monday: we had a Zone activity and played Monster 4 square where tables are set up on their sides and divided the whole gym into 4 squares and you your companion get a square and the same concept of 4 square, but you get 2 bounces in your square, and three hits as a companionship. Really fun and highly recommend. Had a Zone meeting at night so we couldn't be out and about while trick or treaters are out.

Kinda lame Halloween but got some candy so can't complain.

Tuesday: Had another Zone meeting and talked about how we are changing our goal of 555 baptisms a year to 1-1-1 which is one baptism per companionship, per transfer. It seems so much more attainable with this thought process and if everyone completes this goal, we will have around 750. Had a good time with our ward mission leader and we got two lessons with less actives by going out and visiting with him.

Wednesday: we had a lesson planned with a young man who is preparing to serve a mission, but when we got to the house it was his older brother who just got back from his mission in New England! There must have been a miscommunication when planning the lesson but was good to hear about his mission stories. We had a lesson with a man named Bruce Erickson, he is a really good Christian guy who knows the Bible like the back of his hand and has a hard time understanding why he needs to do anything other than what the Bible says, but we answered a lot of his questions about the Mormon church. He said we could come by again and talk with hi,, so there is potential with him. One of our ward mission leaders just got out of a bad cold that lasted for 2 weeks so I went over to his house for splits and we talked about names of people we could do service for, and we got about 10 names of people to go help.

Thursday: Day started out slow and we weren't having any progress, but we were over in the condos in one of our areas and there was a truck backed close to the door and the door was open and I knocked and asked if they needed any help or service, and they had just given up on trying to get this huge desk down the stairs and into the truck, so we helped them get it down and into the truck and man was that desk solid, and heavy! The next house we went to was this elderly lady who just got out of foot surgery 20 minutes before we arrived and asked if we could give her a priesthood blessing and we did and it was really good!  I went by with the ward mission leader for the condos and we visited with Paul and Tony the men who needed help with the desk, and we got to know them a little bit. Paul is a return missionary and asked to get his records taken off the church (for a reason we do not know of) he helps people who are alcoholics and Tony, (the man living with him) is an alcoholic trying to stop. Paul is divorced and doesn't sound like it ended well. They said we could come by and talk to them on Monday.

Friday: We had our meeting with our MLS  missionaries (elderly couple missionaries) and as we were discussing our investigators for that stake we got a call from Christine Belnap, (the aunt of our investigators Evelynn Belnap) and said that Evelynn was talking to her mom on the cell phone and ultimately convinced her that she doesn't need to be Mormon so Evelynn said she didn't want to be baptized which was heartbreaking to hear after we had taught her for over a month.  And she had a baptismal date for November 26th. We had a lesson with a recent convert to our church, a guy named Tom Schweiger, we talked about his conversion story and it was really cool, his wrestling coach baptized him. At the end of the night I let my companion Elder Costa drive in the church parking lot because he is going to start taking drivers ed here so he can be able to drive throughout the rest of his mission. Was a funny experience teaching him how to drive and he did alright.

Saturday: Was a pretty brutal day, we spent our whole day going and visiting people and nobody wanted to hear from us, we got the door slammed in our face. We didn't have much success, but I know that we are doing the Lords work and if we work hard and be exactly obedient we will have success.

Sunday: We went to the Indian Ridge Ward Council in one of our stakes and we got 18 names of people we could go visit who need service or be willing to take lessons with us! We went to the Crescent Ridge 7th ward for sacrament and since it was fast and testimony meeting I went up and bore my testimony on missionary work and how it isn't easy, but it is so rewarding when we go through all these hard days, to find that one person who is in need of our help, or wants to learn more about our church. It's like football, you practice all week, so you can have that one game for the week. We go through all the trials and get rewarded with someone. We got the best phone call ever! We got a call from our Stake High council who said they have someone who has been going to church and has a desire to be baptized before thanksgiving and wants to take lessons with us and be baptized! It was simply a miracle, all our hard work is paying off and it's the best feeling in the world to help people and have them be able to be baptized and washed away of their sins if they continually repent. A crazy week of ups and downs, but it is all worth it.

Love,

Elder Ashby

Here is a picture of the Sandy Zone that I am in...


And yes....I need a haircut....

Week 8

Tuesday: We had a New Missionary Training meeting at the mission office and learned about how it is okay to have some anxiety but too much of it can be a problem. My first dinner appointment that fell through and we didn't call someone last minute happened... yes in Utah we had dinner at our home... by ourselves for once. We went to go visit a woman late at night and she didn't answer so we were walking back to our car and some kids were playing basketball and we stopped by and started talking to them, they were members but less active so it was good to meet them. They asked me if I could dunk and the hoop was only about 8.5 so I did some dunks for them and they seemed to love it. 

Wednesday: not much happened, we went to visit our list of recent converts and got some days to go teach them the follow up lessons after they are baptized. Dinner fell through again, our ward mission leader seems to be struggling in this calling because we haven't gone on any visits with him this past month. So we went to Arby's. Our lesson with Roberto got canceled at the last moment which was sad to hear. 

Thursday: We started our day off by going to a technology meeting/ survey on how missionary work is being used on the iPads and I felt so weird because they focused on an app that we should be using more often but my trainer never really taught me how to use it. Elder Costa had a Dr appointment for his acne, not sure if it was necessary because my acne is worse than his. It was funny when we were picking up this prescription for his acne and the pharmacist told him it was $175 and he was so confused and I had to talk to the pharmacist to figure out what the problem was, she had a complication with the missionary insurance but we got it all figured out. We went by to the Albertsons home to set up an appointment with them and nobody answered. But later at night we got a text from Ory (the Husband of the couple) and in the text he was very angry with us for stopping by his house when he wasn't home and the fact that his wife is uncomfortable when he isn't home. And was mad that we have been popping by lately, but he canceled our appointment last Monday and we asked when a good time for him was, and didn't get an answer, so we stopped by to set up a time. Not sure if it was necessarily our fault or not but we will see what happens with them in the future. 

Friday: we didn't have our usual meeting with our Elderly Missionaries for our stake, their son in law has cancer and only has a few more days to live so they were down visiting him in St George. We had a lesson with a recent convert Ryker Mast, a 10 year old boy. He was a little rusty on what we were teaching him but by the end he had a good understanding of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We had dinner with the bishop in one of our wards and he served in Brazil so he had Guaraná which is a Brazilian soda so that was nice for elder Costa. Had another good lesson with Evelynn but after the lesson her aunt came and talked to us outside and said she isn't applying what we are teaching her into her life which was sad to hear since her baptismal date is set for November 26th. 

Saturday: our day did not go as planned. We got ready to go do a service project for an elderly man and when we got to our car we realized that our car had been broken into. They took Elder a Costa's bag with his wallet and credit cards in it, as well as his Brazilian documents. On my end they took my new Oakley Sunglasses sadly. But what I don't understand is that I always lock our car, Elder Costa thinks he didn't shut his door all the way but we don't know what happened really. Sadly they didn't take a Book of Mormon or a restoration pamphlet so they didn't get a chance to learn about repentance, or the gospel. But as long as we are alive that's good right? Dinner fell through again. So we went to a ward party with a chili cook off. We taught brother Vocanas daughter again who is about to be baptized and was good to teach a lesson to a active members to practice our teaching skills. 

Sunday: we went to the Heytesbury Ward hoping that Roberto would show up, but sadly he didn't. After that we went to the Crescent Ridge 4th Ward and talked about service with the high priest group. We had a lesson with a less active Bryce Handy, and it didn't seem like he was less active, he had a strong testimony and had a good lesson with his mom, sister and him. His mom started crying when we started talking about Forgiveness and feels that she can't be forgiven because all her kids aren't active in the church now. But it was good for her to say her feelings and to get it out. I feel that it helped her a lot. After we had a lesson with Anya Benifield and we had a good lesson and answered most of her questions and feel that she is progressing very well. Her father was present during the lesson which was amazing because she is the only one interested in the church in her family and her father said he supported her with her decision, to be baptized. Now we gotta change her date from April..... (because it's her birthday month) to a sooner date because she is ready to be baptized and receive the blessings that come from it! 

Love, 

Elder Ashby