Week 24

Tuesday: We had our usual district meeting in the morning, but it didn't feel right. There was no MLS couples (senior missionaries) there. The Bellons were released on Thursday. First time I've had a district meeting with only young missionaries. Everyone liked the District picture we made and thought it was hilarious. We had a lesson with Jeffery who is a less active kid. We wanted to talk about faith with him because he was having a hard time believing God was real. And we didn't get very far in reading a passage in the scriptures talking about faith, before it ended up in a little argument/ debate between him and his parents. We did our best to calm the situation and to bear our testimonies about it and leave it at that. He is hardening his heart at the moment and isn't allowing anything to happen to him in his life. We will try to meet with him in a week or two and see if there has been any changes.

Wednesday: we went out to eat lunch with one of Elder Alfonso's trainers when he was beginning his mission. It was pretty nice for him to take us out to eat. It was a little weird because  they were speaking Spanish the whole time and we were in a Mexican restaurant so everyone was speaking Spanish and I was like "man this enchilada is good!" We got a referral from the YSA (young single adults 18-30) Elders who were contacting people and they came across a house where they have two Unbaptized kids one YSA age (who wasn't interested) and one who was 13 who was interested so we have an appointment with them next Wednesday.

Thursday: We had a leadership meeting in the afternoon that I had to tag along for since Elder Alfonso is district leader. It was kind of funny because our whole district was at the meeting, because we had us, the Zone leaders, and the Sister Training leader and her companion. We also had the two other district leaders and their companions. We finally went out and did work with a ward mission leader here. We were working in the 12th Ward and I went out with a ward missionary and elder Alfonso went out with the Ward mission leader. We had a couple good visits  with some less active families. I thought for sure I was going to die in the guys car. He is a professional rally car driver and was going like 50 through the neighborhood, 30 around corners Haha.

Friday:  Nothing too exciting in the morning. We dropped off a bag of Oranges to the sisters in the afternoon. For dinner I thought I was going to die..... we were doing a Zone fast to find new investigators for this transfer starting after dinner. So knowing that after this dinner I wouldn't be able to eat or drink till dinner the next day.  For dinner the member fed us pumpkin soup..... I don't think I have ever tasted anything that bad. I felt like I was going to throw up right there and then. My companion and I gave each other the look and we knew that it was horrific. I couldn't even finish a bowl of it that's how bad it was. After dinner Elder Alfonso had to do a baptismal interview in West Jordan for the Portuguese Elders. Since there isn't many Portuguese elders in the mission, elder Alfonso was the only one who didn't teach her and was eligible to interview her.  We played pickle ball again at night with people from the stake. We talked to the non member who always goes. We talked a little bit about missions with him but he was leaving just shortly after we got there.  We will have to talk to him more next week.

Saturday: Everyone in the Zone came to end our zone fast just before dinner. The Zone leaders bought a drink and candy bar for everyone in our Zone! Can't imagine how much they spent. We got bad news in a text by George one of our investigators. He said that his parents don't want him meeting with us anymore and he can't go to church as well.  Which is heartbreaking because coming from an atheist background to knowing that God is real for himself and wanting to be baptized and not being able to because his parents won't give him permission. We know he will be baptized one day it's just a matter of time! The Sisters in our district put their 5th investigators on date for baptism tonight as well... they are killing it.

Sunday: We had a really good sacrament meeting. There was a member who is a very talented pianist who performed a special musical number, then gave a talk. He is an institute teacher at the University of Utah, so he was very knowledgeable about his stuff. I really liked how he was able to explain things so simply, even if they were complex doctrine. We taught an 8 year old who is in an active family to prepare her for her baptism on March 4th. They are next door neighbors with George and his family and they invited them to their daughters baptism and they said they would go, so hopefully they will have a change of heart after going the baptism and they will allow George to take the lessons with us and be able to go to church as well.

Hope you all have a great week.  Love you,
Elder Ashby