Week 20

Tuesday: After our district meeting in the morning we went to Del Taco because taco Tuesday. During the meeting Elder Rodriguez gave a training on "finding" and it was about when we received referrals from people or church headquarters. Sometimes even if the referral isn't interested the Lord places people around the referrals that were meant for you and he placed you there. So we went to go contact a church headquarter referral who we didn't try to contact because we heard the intended person moved out. But we went to their house and it was a less active man. He loves fishing and hunting, when we walked into his house I felt like I was back in Wisconsin. There were mounts of all kinds of fish and animals. We also figured out that 6 other people are living in his home who he is renting it to, so we will try to contact all of them.

Wednesday: We started our exchanges in the morning. Elder Rodriguez came to our area and Elder Fitzgerald went to the YSA(young single adults 18-30) area with Elder Peterson. I really wanted to work on companion unity, and being effective together. So we talked a lot while we were working on things we could do to be more unified together. At night we had a meeting with Brother Homer (ward mission leader) and Thal Dixon (Ward missionary) to discuss how we are going to go forward with the work in the Heytsbury Ward. We got a good list of names and will hit them up next week.

Thursday: We finished our exchanges after lunch. I wanted to work on companion unity, but with a focus on accountability. Elder Rodriguez really helped me here. He said always think and imagine if President Lansing was to tag along with you for the day, would he be pleased with your work. Or even better, if Jesus was here knocking on doors with you, would be be pleased with you doing His work. Later at night we were asked to come help out with the young women's stake basketball team in the Sandy East Stake. Sister Barfuss asked us to explain some rules and to have them do some drills. Man was that funny! Nobody knew how to play and watching them play was awesome.

Friday: Well Elder Fitzgerald was sick so I was home all day. So I read and learned a lot in the Book of Mormon. In Jacob 5 it was Jacob quoting Zenos (A prophet in biblical times, that was taken out of the Bible in the nicene creed) about the allegory of the wild and tame olive tree. It represented the gathering of Israel, as well as being deeply rooted in the gospel. The Book of Enos gave me a better understanding of sincere prayer. Answers to prayers are like a combination lock. 1 is unlocked by faith. 2 is unlocked by personal righteousness. 3 is unlocked by God's will and not our own. I learned that in the Book of Mormon 1 Nephi- Omni was the records from the small plates of the people of Lehi, and Mosiah- 4 Nephi was an abridgment by Mormon from the large plates of the people of Lehi.  (Small plates are for the spiritual things that occurred, and the large plates are for the historical things) The Book of Ether was abridged by Mormons son Moroni of the plates of the Jaredites. The 116 pages of the Book of Lehi (which were upon the large plates) were lost by Martin Harris during the time of the translation of the Book of Mormon. But God never fails and God always has a plan. In 1 Nephi 9:5 it states, "Wherefore the Lord hath commanded me to make these plates for a wise purpose in him, which purpose I know not." These plates refer to the small plates. And these are the same time period as the Book of Lehi. So God knew that Martin Harris would lose the Book of Lehi so he commanded Nephi to create two separate records. If he didn't do this we would not have the knowledge of how the people of Lehi left Jerusalem and traveled to the Americas. Mormon echos Nephi nearly 1000 years later while abridging the plates by saying, "And I do this for a wise purpose; for thus it whisperth me, according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me. And now, I do not know all things which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will." Amazing how God is all knowing. Today marks my two year anniversary of tearing my ACL!

Saturday: Elder Fitzgerald was sick again. We got about a foot of snow over night and into the morning. I just read in the Book of Mormon again, I started out in Mosiah. The first couple chapters were all about the atonement. The atonement is one of the hardest things to fully grasp based off how significant the event was. Without the atonement we are nothing. Jesus died for all man kind so we could be able to be resurrected and live with our Heavenly Father. I recalled liked Mosiah 3:19 where it tells us to put off the natural man, and become a saint through the atonement, and how we need to become like a child. Elder Fitzgerald was feeling up to going out after Dinner, so we went and taught the Marzbans English. It was a very sad moment because they are going back to Iran for 4 months. And are leaving on Tuesday. They started tearing up when we were leaving.

Sunday: We had a stake conference in the Sandy East stake. Liu Gang (a recent convert) gave a talk in Chinese. He had a translator in his ward. He talked about his conversion story. From moving from China to Utah and being atheist to believing in Christ. He was so funny, he was saying that Americans eat so much meat and that's why they are so tall and big. He said that as you can see brother Riep (his translator) is definitely taller and fatter than me. The whole place was dying it was so funny. We also had a member of the 70 come and give a talk. He talked about Heavenly Father and the things he asks of us. Which include gathering the scattered house of Israel, as well as sealing families for time and eternity in the temple. And how we need to be doing family history work/genealogy  and saving ordinances for our ancestors who have passed before us.

Love,

Elder Ashby

Pictures from this week. First part is the picture and mount of the fish.  Second part is the Iranian family we have been teaching English. Last is Elder Fitzgerald and me.