Sunday, June 18, 2017

Week 40

Tuesday: Well transfers came around and I will be staying in the Riverton North/Copperview stakes with Elder Schunk. After this next six weeks (how long a "transfer" is) I will have been in the Riverton North stake for 6 months and the Copperview stake for 4.5 months. I am just over 9 months out on my mission so far and crazy to think how fast it has gone! We mowed brother Wyatts lawn. (a member who drives us everywhere and is awesome) He just had cataracts done in his second eye, Elder Schunk mowed the lawn for him last time. Let's just say Brother Wyatt does so much for us, I made sure to make his lawn look perfect. At night we went out on some ward visits and we talked to a lady who just gained custody over two kids who's parents are crack addicts. Neither of them are baptized and the great aunt wants them to be involved in religion so they don't end up like their parents. We will try to work with them in the future. 

Wednesday: Well we had some changes happen in our district with transfers. Elder Gehrett (one of our Zone leaders) got moved to Draper. Sister Conn moved up into Harriman. So our district is Elder Harvey and Poppell (Zone leaders) Sister Kirkpatrick and Burgos. I have had Sister Kirkpatrick in my district a few transfers ago so nothing real new except Elder Poppell. He started his mission the same time as me. We had our district meeting today due to transfers on Tuesday. We talked a lot about the "how" and "why" of missionary work. Elder Harvey gave a training on "how" we do missionary work. And I gave the training on "why" we do missionary work. It is really important to understand not only what we do with these 2 years as missionaries but why we are doing it. The answers can go across the board on why we serve, but one of the determining factors should be because we love the Lord and want help as many people as we can. Invite all to come unto Christ and be partakers of Gods love. I gave the parable with the Lion and the Gazelle. A gazelle runs only because of the influencing factor of the lion. A lion runs and chases the gazelle because he needs to provide food for his family. A lion has the internal motive to keep him going when the gazelles motive is conditional upon an outside motive. We as missionaries should be like a lion and be doing the things we do because we love the lord and want to provide for his children, and not because our leaders, or parents want us to serve missions. 

Thursday: We met with the great aunt who has custody over the two kids, she was really receptive to us and said we could stop by tomorrow if we were in the area, she didn't want us going out of our way to teach these two kids. We will do anything to help those who we can help!  We had some good ward visits at night. 

Friday: Well the lesson fell through with the two kids, and will need to reschedule another meeting with them. Finally contacted a few people we have been trying to see, sadly they were not interested at the moment. We did talk to a guy who said he would meet with missionaries but is living in Salt Lake! No effort is wasted! 

Saturday: We met with one of our bishops and we discussed some of the stuff happening in his ward. Brandy from the half way house (addiction recovery house) who we have been teaching moved to Las Vegas with her son out of nowhere. We stopped by an active members home to figure out if their was a problem with their kids records in the church. We weren't sure if his kid wasn't baptized or if their was a problem transferring over the records. Turns out there was a problem transferring the records when they moved. We met with the Lewis family who is a Christian family. They allowed us to teach them about what our beliefs are. They are interested in learning and we are excited. Their beliefs are pretty much the same as ours but with a few differences. They said they would read the Book of Mormon! I think the husband is more on board with it than the wife. The wife's parents converted when she was a teenager and said she had bad experiences and didn't want to join herself. 

Sunday: We taught mission preparation in the morning to about 6 young men & women who were preparing to go on missions. We taught them how to prepare for a mission and how to talk to people. We had the opportunity to teach primary in the Copperview 4th Ward. It was interesting because it was on tithing, but in the end it went great and we had a blast teaching little kids! At night we had the rare opportunity to have a mission fireside with a member of the quorum of the twelve apostles. Elder David A Bednar who is a good friend with our mission president came and talked to our mission. We talked about some of his old talks he has given in General Conferences mainly about faith. Some of the pieces of his talks that I enjoyed were how to learn by faith we must act, and not be acted upon. A scripture in the Book of Mormon, Ether 12:6 (And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.) another point that I loved was how we had a question and answer portion. The thing that amazed me the most was how he encourages and facilitated learning by faith. He would never give an answer to a question but he would lead us in the direction and give us the opportunity to learn by faith. He would often ask us a question in response to our questions. It was an amazing spiritual uplifting experience to have the Holy Ghost answer my questions without me physically asking them. I have a firm testimony that he is called of God to serve as one of the twelve apostles in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 


Monday: Well it wasn't the usual Monday for us, since we are going to the temple today, we will be doing our normal Monday stuff like shopping, emailing, and chores. We helped out our Zone leaders with their new posters to put up in their church buildings. At night we had the opportunity to go to dinner and to share a message with two good friends of mine. Braxton Kerr, and Jacob Stauffer.  Hope you all have a great week.
 
 
Love,
Elder Aaron Ashby 
 
 

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