Week 43

Tuesday: We had our usual district meeting in the morning. In our district we have been having a lot of views on what it means to be a successful missionary with the new change to our key indicator focus.  Now on Sundays we report baptized &confirmed, investigator with a baptismal date, investigators attended sacrament meeting, new investigators. (Example 0, 2, 3, 2) and there is a big emphasis on what is known as the 2-2-2 So weekly to hit the Standards of excellence we need to have two investigators with a baptismal date, two at church, and two new investigators. It isn't easy and a lot of missionaries in our mission get discouraged when they fall short. I talked a lot about how numbers don't show our success but rather our effectiveness for the week. We talked a lot about how success is a relative term and really there is no definition that satisfies everyone, but I know if I give a perfect effort every day, the success of my efforts is in the Lords hands. At night we were out on Ward visits and we met again with Anthony and Alicia Lewis who are a good Christian family that is curious about how their beliefs match up with the LDS or "Mormon" beliefs. We talked a lot about the plan of salvation or in other words Gods plan for us. They believe pretty much everything we believe so it was a weird lesson because they agreed with everything we were teaching. They want to see the historical facts that the Book of Mormon is true, rather than reading and praying to know if it is true. I'm here to tell you that there are facts that the Book of Mormon is true, but your testimony of its divinity will not come through facts, but rather feasting upon the words of Christ and asking God the Eternal Father if it is true. You will gain your answer through the Holy Ghost who will confirm the divinity of the Book of Mormon through feelings of peace and a burning in your heart.

Wednesday: We did some service with the young men in the Copperview 3rd ward helping out Lue White (the great aunt of Sefeara & Brayden) Elder Schunk and I got there early so we were seeing what she wanted us to do so we head into their back yard and their dogs were out. One dog was growling and staring at Elder Schunk and out of no where it bites me on the ankle so I nudge it off and it bit my other ankle in the process. It didn't hurt but I just didn't think that I would get attacked by a dog in Utah, I mean you always hear stories about that happening in South America, but Utah haha? After the service project we had some good bonding time with Brayden and Sefeara. We got to know them pretty good and Elder Schunk and I did a thing called a "rocket launch" is what they would call it. So both of us would grab one of the arms and they would jump in the air as we lifted them up and they would go pretty high but would make sure they gently came down. It was a good night and we really gained the great aunts trust as well as the kids. Hopefully this softens the heart of the great aunt and allows us to teach them about the Gospel.

Thursday: We had our MLS correlation meeting with the Reeds (Senior missionary couple) our new finding idea for the week is to learn how to do genealogy and family history work, and to use that as a tool to help people. We made a game plan for Friday afternoon to go to the Riverton Family history building. We ate in someone's house that they customized and man was it cool! There was a lot of hidden crawling spaces for their grandkids and there was like 2 apparent S and one house but all were connected.

Friday: Elder and Sister Reed were hiking in the morning and had a dilemma with their car keys so we didn't  go learn how to do the family history work. Not much happened at night, a lot of missed appointments. The sad part about missionary work!

Saturday: Well the Reeds wanted to take us out to lunch before we did the family history so we ate out and In & Out Burger and man do I like In & Out Burger! Afterwards we went on over to the Riverton family history center to realize that it was closed for the holiday weekend haha! So we went to their house and did it on their computer and laptop. It was cool to do some research on my ancestors and how in one family line they were pioneers that settled in Utah. Also one of my ancestors was being a little too loud outside and Joseph Smith was talking to someone on his porch and asked my ancestor to be a little quieter. I thought it was funny that he added that in his autobiography haha. I found a name in my family tree to do temple ordinances for! In our church we believe that everyone has the opportunity to accept the necessary saving ordinances for salvation.  We do those ordinances for the dead, because we believe that after we die our spirits go to what is know as the spirit world. A time of rest before the resurrection and judgment day. For those who did all the necessary ordinances will be in a state of paradise. Those who did not have all the ordinances will be taught the gospel and will not be able to progress till someone does the ordinance for them. That is why we thrive to do family history work because how great would our joy be to help those who deceased to receive the fullness of the blessings of the gospel. After a few hours of searching we took a break and played a game with the Reeds called Ticket To Ride. It was a pretty fun board game that I had never played before.

Sunday: We went to the Copperview 3rd ward to go to church with Brayden and Sefeara but they didn't come sadly. So we found out they didn't come when we were in their Sunday's school class. We were talking to the kids and realized that their teacher didn't come today so we went ahead and taught the kids the lesson. The lesson was on receiving revelation, and who can receive revelation for who. (Example  Prophet>General Authorities> Stake Presidents> Bishops> Fathers of the

home> Yourself) Sadly the Lewis family didn't make it out to church ether so it was kind of a bummer today, but next week is a new opportunity!

Hope you all have had a great week and Happy 4th of July to everyone!

Love,
Elder Aaron Ashby