Week 45

Tuesday: Well we had our last district meeting for the transfer, it's crazy to think how fast 6 weeks can go, but also crazy how fast the mission has gone. It feels like I started yesterday and now I'm 10 months out almost half way done. It's crazy how fast life goes, it's as if it's gone in a blink of an eye. I feel that's why it is so important to live in the moment because if we fail to do so, we will waste our time. We had a testimony meeting rather than usual district meetings. We reflected on our missions thus far and to see how it has gone, all the good and bad. It all comes down to what we are willing to do today, to ensure a better tomorrow. Sister Kirkpatrick is going home next Tuesday and it was crazy to see how many lives an individual can impact. She is one of the best sister missionaries, if not the best missionary in our mission. I have learned so much from her and her testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Wednesday: We had a leadership meeting in the morning to reflect on the new expectations our mission president has set for us to reach our full potential. They are becoming more strict because collectively as a mission we are becoming complacent. We are focusing on ourselves rather than those in need. As President Gordon B. Hinckley taught, "service is the best medicine for self pity, selfishness, despair, and loneliness." It is so true, yeah we all have problems and others have it worse than us. I am not neglecting your personal problems, but I think there is something we can learn from this. We truly find ourselves when we lose ourselves helping others. As Albert Einstein said, "a life not lived for others is not a life well lived."  I love doing service and I love teaching people about the gospel because I know the gospel of Jesus Christ can heal even the deepest wounds in our hearts. If you allow yourself to have Christ be your focal point in life he will carry you to find joy and peace in this life and the life to come. We had the opportunity to do service for Lue White again. My companion got a little frustrated about the fact that we did a service project, and had to completely restart twice because she changed her mind of what she wanted. Ultimately to end up with what we had originally. I explained to him that it's not about him, that this mission should be all about the people we serve.

Thursday: We had our usual correlation/ lunch meeting with the senior missionaries the Reed's. After we were done with that, they took us over to the family history center to do a little more searching for ancestors who need saving ordinances done. (Like baptism, and temple ordinances) Honestly it's so hard to find someone in my family tree that needs those ordinances done because I feel like everyone has already had their work done haha! But I found a name last week and Elder Reed has done most of the temple work and I get to finish his work the next time we go to the temple.

Friday: Well we had our usual weekly planning session in the morning.  As we were leaving our apartment there was a white car that drove by and was going real slow then sped up. I didn't think much of it and went on with my day. Well about half way through the day when I got on wifi at a church building I saw I had an email from my dad. Well turns out it was him and my mom in the white car spying on me!!! I knew they were in town to visit but they couldn't even wait 24 hours without trying to find me haha! They went to go visit Brother Wyatt (a good friend who takes us around to do our shopping on Mondays) and Brother Wyatt texted me and told me that my parents were at his house. Well it just so happens to be that we were working two streets over from his house!  At night we ate dinner with a member from one of our wards, it just so happened to be that it was with my dentist growing up! Crazy how much can happen when you serve in the mission you grew up in.

Saturday: We did service for an elderly lady in the morning who needed a lot of furniture moved. Well let's just say elderly ladies and architects are missionaries worst enemies. (Not in a bad way!) We had to move a long couch down some spiral staircases and down the weird steps where there is 4 steps a square then 4 more steps the other direction. I honestly have no clue how we got the couch down where she wanted it. It was a miracle in itself!

Sunday: Well sadly Brayden and Sefeara didn't come to church again, they slept in. We hope that we can find a way to help these kids get to church because their great aunt doesn't have any desire to take them. Hopefully service will soften sister White's heart and have the desire to come back to church and be a role model for these kids. Well no news on transfers so I will have to inform you separately! Should know Monday morning around 10am.

Picture descriptions: last district meeting of the transfer/ Sister Kirkpatrick's last district meeting, pictures my parents sent me when they were spying on me!

Hope you all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Ashby