Week 51

Last Monday: For our district activity we had a waffle cook off! There were three rounds: Sweet, savory, and a random item. It was really fun and there is a member who has a catering business that had all the stuff to make it possible! It was one of the best district activities.

Tuesday: Well we had interviews with our mission President so we didn't have our district meeting. Interviews were great, President Lansing really wanted to know if Elder Collier could train a new missionary and he is definitely ready! At night we taught an active family and gave them a Book of Mormon challenge, to prayerfully consider who needs to hear this message. We contacted a man named Scott, Scott was recently married to a woman who was an investigator in the past. Scott was really excited to see us and have us teach his wife. He got a new job so we couldn't set up a specific appointment but he really wants to meet.

Wednesday: Since we had interviews on Tuesday we had our district meeting today. We focused on sprinting to the end and how that doesn't mean just at the end of the mission but it should be a daily grind and leaving every day knowing you gave a perfect effort. Later in the day I had a leadership meeting to go to. We talked about how as missionaries if things aren't going very well that's the adversary trying to break you. It isn't necessarily a bad thing, but can also mean it's a good thing that he is worried about you.

Thursday: We had exchanges with the Elders in our district. Elder Collier went with Elder Dutton and I went with Elder Sandino. We had a really good exchange in their area. Our day started off slow since we had to take their car to Big O. After that we went by to contact a potential investigator they have been trying to work with but couldn't ever contact. We stopped by and he was home and allowed us to come in and share a message. As we asked a few questions we figured out his concern. His whole family is LDS but him and his son is becoming a trouble kid so he is wanting to be an example to his son. He was a little hesitant to pray because he is scared of the answer he would get from God if this church is true or not. He knows if he prays and gets the answer his next step will be baptism. We invited him to pray for a week straight and write down the blessings that come from it and the feelings he has. He gladly accepted. After the lesson Elder Sandino said that he basically chastised himself during the lesson because he has been having some hard time trusting in the lord with his prayers. Sadly he was a little arrogant and wouldn't accept the same commitment that he gave his investigator. But all you can hope for is that it is a lesson applied. Later on in the night we got a lesson set up with another potential investigator. It was a great exchange where we saw some good miracles.

Friday: Not too much excitement happened, had a lot of unanswered doors but hey that happens!

Saturday: We went by our Ward mission leaders home in the morning to help them set up for an ice cream social later that night. We met up with the Elders in our district to see how they were doing and they had leftover sushi from a Ward party they had. Elder Collier loves sushi so it was perfect for him. He ate like 30 pieces of sushi haha!

Sunday: We went to a stake PEC (priesthood executive committee) to meet our new stake presidency and to discuss missionary work. It was a great opportunity to talk to the Stake presidency and the high councilors. We spoke in the 17th Ward. Elder Collier spoke on the power of the BOM, and I spoke on missionary work. After that we went to the Hidden Valley 4th Ward sacrament meeting since Elder Becera (Area 70) was there attending.

 

Well transfers are tomorrow and I will be staying in the same area, I will be training a new missionary (don't know anything about him till tomorrow) Elder Collier will be in Sandy and he is also training a new missionary.

 

Talk to you all next week. 

 

Love,

Elder Aaron Ashby

 

Pictures from the week...

 

Cinnamon Waffle

Mac Attack - Bacon Mac and Cheese

Momma Mia - secret ingredient tomato

Draper District Meeting

 

Week 50

Tuesday: We had our typically district meeting in the morning. We focused on how we can reach our full potential and how we can create success. In preparation for the meeting I was reading a talk by Elder M Russell Ballard called "create success" It was really interesting how it ties to successful people today. Success doesn't just happen to certain people, it's because you can see something in them, there is something different. It all is confidence, and mindset in order to be successful. I have never seen a successful person who didn't have tremendous confidence. Elder Collier and I trained on how we can be successful missionaries and it all starts with our testimonies in the Savior. If we truly love the Lord, we will serve him the very best we can. Well our night didn't go as we planned. Our dinner appointment didn't answer the door or their phone so we went by a member of one of our ward who we know will always feed us last minute. Well we had a thank you card written for her so we went back to the car to grab it before we went to her doorstep and we realized something was very wrong...... the keys were in the car.....locked. So we couldn't really do much the rest of the night so our Senior missionary couple picked us up and we were with them for the night and we eventually got a spare key from the mission office haha!

Wednesday: We helped our Zone leaders make new posters to put up in their buildings. (We didn't give them any of our amazing ideas, so it's not the best. That's between you and me though!) After that we stopped by Sister Andersons home (my grandpas cousin) so she could give a package to my grandparents to help Elder Collier ship some stuff to Texas. At night I did a baptismal interview for the Sister missionaries investigator Natasha. She has high functioning autism and is 11 years old. It was an interesting experience since I have already taught someone with high functioning autism but to get her to focus on the questions and to explain things was a little hard. After that we went by to the 10th Ward party to talk to the ward mission leader to go over Judy's baptismal service. They gave us some food and it was pretty good.

Thursday: Our Zone leaders wanted to have a meeting with Elder Collier and I, so they sat us down and basically told us that we are going to need to step up as leaders in the mission next transfer with all the people going home and new missionaries coming in. Elder Collier is a bit worried since he hasn't been in leadership positions in his mission, but I know he will be great! At night we had a lesson set up with our ward missionaries to teach them and to inspire them to do missionary work. We taught the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and it was a great opportunity to teach and inspire missionary work.

Friday: The work was a bit slow after our lunch correlation meeting with the Grahams, but had some good visits with some members.

Saturday: I honestly feel like there was nobody home at all on this day! It was crazy how many people we tried to contact but nobody was home! We burned through our plans and backups  by the afternoon and had to prayerfully know where the Lord wanted us. We had some good conversations with people in their yards but not too much came from it.

Sunday: We had Stake Conference in the morning instead of a normal sacrament meeting. They called a new Stake president and presidency.  (Someone who is over the whole geographical area known as a stake.  Which includes multiple wards.) Our new Stake President is President Jackson. I didn't know him but from the talk he gave he seemed pretty good. We're sad President Divisser was released but we know that President Jackson will do great. At night we stopped by the Kingery's to talk about someone they are friends with that we are trying to work with.

Hope you have all had a great week.

Love,
Elder Aaron Ashby

 

 When we locked our keys in the car!  Oh the disappointment...

Week 49

Tuesday: We had our usual district meeting in the morning. We talked a lot about how to follow the vision that our priesthood key holders have. For example our mission president has a vision that we as missionaries can achieve the 1-1-1 which is one baptism, per companionship, per transfer. We know that the lord is preparing people to receive his restored gospel and we are instruments in his hands. At night we visited the Diderickson family who is a strong active family and we shared a message about the Book of Mormon and invited them to prayerfully think about who the Lord would want to receive a Book of Mormon. I have a firm testimony of the Book of Mormon. Which contains the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ and is a second witness of Christ. We invite all to read and pray to know if it is true, and by the Holy Ghost we can know if it's true.

Wednesday: At night we visited another active family the Hardcastles and we shared a message with them and gave out the Book of Mormon challenge. They have two kids out on missions now. Their daughter has been out for a year, and their son is currently at the MTC (Missionary training center) down in Provo. It's crazy to think that I was at the MTC about a year ago! Time has flown here serving the Lord!

Thursday: We had a meeting with our new high councilor over missionary work, all our ward mission leaders, bishops, and our stake president.  It was about how we can further the missionary work in the Draper Hidden Valley stake. I gave a similar training on how to work with our priesthood key holders, to accomplish their visions. It was a great meeting and our Stake President is being released next week and he was very emotional and emphasized the importance of missionary work.

Friday: We had our usual lunch/ correlation meeting with our senior missionary couple. We are excited to finally have ward councils back.  In July there were no meetings other than the church block. It was family month, so they wanted the members to be spending good quality time with their family. It was a Missionaries nightmare since we couldn't get in contact with anyone haha!

Saturday: I had to go to a Zone leadership meeting to discuss the work going on in the Draper zone. We are doing really well as a Zone and it is because we are having sufficient faith that we will find prepared people. We focused a lot on being confident and being bold. If we have confidence and being bold is the highest form of love we will let others see that we are disciples of Christ.

Sunday: HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELDER COLLIER! (My companion) Well it was an interesting day, we went to 4 wars councils to talk about people we are working with/ attempting to work with in their ward boundaries. So a woman named Judy Bianco who is going to be baptized on August 27th was interviewed for baptism by one of our Zone leaders and passed.  After church we had a missionary meeting in one of our wards and discussed ways we could further the work in their ward and it was great. Our ward mission leader Brother Duke figured out our favorite foods since it was Elder Colliers birthday so we had some really good homemade lasagna and crab legs! Man was it good!

Have a great week.

Love,
Elder Aaron Ashby

Pictures:  The Diederickson Family, Elder Collier's B-day present (Alabama hat) and Zone Activity

Week 48

Monday: We were planning on going to Penny Ann's cafe again but there were other missionaries there so we went to go talk to some cool members, the Jensen's, and they let us make some waffles! We had a district activity and we went to Boondocks and did some Mini golf!  We're not supposed to "keep score" as missionaries but we ended up doing it and I ended with -3 and winning 😏

Tuesday: We had a multi district meeting (Zone meeting) in the morning. It was a really good meeting we had some good trainings on our purpose as missionaries & how to teach the doctrine of Christ. The Zone leaders gave a great training on why we do what we do. They had me share the parable of the lion and the gazelle and how we should be motivated by an inward source rather than motivated by fear from an outward source. We should serve the Lord because we love him, and to into do so by inviting others to come unto Christ and be partakers of His restored gospel. We had a crazy cool miracle happen in our work.  It started out with Elder Collier and I doing companionship study. We were reading in the white handbook (missionary rule book) and a part stood out to me as we were reading it. "You represent the Lord in this area  and are responsible for obtaining His direction in carrying your assignment and blessing the people there." So we were about to head back out and work and I felt that it wasn't right to visit the first person in our plans, so we decided to visit the next person on our plans. We realize the next person is a former investigator, but there was no address. With one of our tools area book maps, we had a general idea of where the house was but still no address. We decided to go there in faith that we would find someone there for us. We go down the street it's on and there are only two houses. We talked to a man at the end of the street and he wasn't interested what so ever. So we ended up asking if he knew anyone that would benefit from our message.  He told us about his neighbors, the other people on the street. We drove by and there was a 10 year old kid outside and my companion asked, "should we talk to him. Without hesitation I said yes. We asked the kid if his parents were home and he went to go get his grandma. We talk to the grandma for about 45 minutes. During the conversation a lot was talked about. She is a less active member of the church, and claims she doesn't believe it anymore. She did bring up that she wants her grandson to be baptized since he is the only one of the family who isn't. I believe she has been offended by someone in the past and that is what is holding her back, she definitely has a testimony of the gospel, she even said she still watches conference.  We left her with a plan of salvation pamphlet and invite her to read and pray about it and if it is something she wants for her and her family. We have a follow up appointment on Thursday.

Wednesday: We started an exchange (with a different companion for 24 hours) with the Elders in our district. I was with Elder Dutton, and Elder Collier was with Elder Sandino. I feel bad that we didn't have much time to do missionary work since we had a lot of other ministering & meetings to do. We met with two of our ward mission leaders and discussed some of the work going on in their areas and got some names of people to go visit. At night we had our last youth summer game night. We had the whole 6th ward youth there (over 30 kids) we ended up playing three games of chair soccer and yes they did gang up and try to get the missionaries out first. I usually did okay but made it to the final 3 the last game and lost! Was being picked on, the two people left were girls who play on the soccer team and I couldn't do anything more than defense haha.

Thursday: I had a district leader training for most of the morning and afternoon. It was a really good meeting though and I learned a lot.  President Bishop one of the mission presidents councilors gave a training on how we as missionaries can better work with the key holders in our stakes and wards we cover. We realize that President Lansing's visions for us missionaries shouldn't only be for us, we need to share what our key holder has envisioned for us with the key holders of the stake and wards. I received so much revelation for me and my area on how we can together accomplish the Lords work. At night I did a baptismal interview for Elder Sandino & Dutton's investigator Kasion who is being baptized on Saturday.

Friday: Well we had Elder Gehrett with us for the morning and afternoon. His companion Elder Anderson was selected by our mission president to do some missionary work testing down in Provo. It was crazy to see what happened because of it though. So this testing thing will take a few weeks and they need to be in Provo all morning and afternoon so since Elder Anderson is one of our Zone leaders, he needed to be released because of the importance of his calling. So there were 4 missionaries in this testing and two were Zone leaders and two were District  leaders. Well they got emergency transferred!  Two Zone leaders were released and put together. Elder Mullenaux became one of our new Zone leaders. A Zone leader from West Jordan came to Riverton. Elder Fitzgerald (my second companion) became a Zone leader in West Jordan. Probably one of the most crazy things I've seen happen missionary wise. We had our lunch correlation meeting with our senior missionary couple the Grahams. We met and ate at waffle love.  In our meeting we heard some news about someone the Elders were working with in the past. This is going to be hard to explain but bare with me. So there is someone who is investigating the church and has been going to this ward for a few years now and she doesn't live in the stake boundaries, but is good friends with a relief society president. She doesn't have a phone # and her friend won't tell anyone where she lives so the only way to contact Judy is by her friend. Well it sounds like the relief society President told Judy not to get baptized a few months ago because she was going to be out of town for the month of July. August comes around and the relief society President said she will be in contact with us as needed. We heard from the Grahams that Judy is being baptized on August 26, but yet we aren't aware of this. She doesn't want her to meet with missionaries, she just wants her to get baptized. Well anyone who is wanting to join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints needs to; meet with missionaries and be taught some lessons regarding our beliefs, be interviewed by a designated person holding the Melchizedek priesthood (district leader or Zone leader), (if there are any serious past transgressions someone more mature and experienced will interview them) (mission president or one of his councilors) ) The problem here is that Judy needs to meet with us in order to be baptized regardless of what the relief society President says. Anyone over the age of 8 is considered a convert baptism. Baptism in the church of Jesus Christ is done at the age of 8, because we know that is when we are accountable for the sins and mistakes we make. We talked to the bishop of the ward and he will talk to the relief society President to straighten everything out. We hope that we can teach Judy and see her make her first covenant of baptism with her Heavenly Father.

Saturday: We had a cool experience seeing how we can be an answer to someone's prayers. The Bishop of the ward asked if we would go by and visit this single lady in the ward and see how she was doing. We knock on the door and she says, "how did you know I needed you here?" Her granddaughter who was baptized three years ago has been stressing over the fact that she doesn't want to go to church and her grandma is forcing her to go. We had a good conversation and we shared our testimonies of church. We feel bad because we think that both of them are doing something right, and both are doing something wrong. The grandma is good at trying to make her recently baptized granddaughter keep her covenants, but is punishing her and is making life hard on her if she doesn't go. The granddaughter is going to church, but it is by negative reinforcement from her grandma, she is punished if she doesn't go to church. She is worried about having her phone taken away from church if she doesn't go. She is caught up in the worldly things and isn't remembering the covenants she made. We invited her to pray to know what is right and what she needs to do.

Sunday: to wrap this extremely long weekly email up we had our investigator Lisa Carrol at church with her Husband and his daughter which was great! We think she is getting close to making the decision to be baptized. They had to head to a siblings birthday party so they couldn't stay for the three hours but they at least made the effort to come to sacrament meeting.

Hope you all have a great week!

Love you all,
Elder Aaron Ashby

Pictures from Boondocks

Week 47

Monday: We went to Penny Ann's Cafe in the morning for breakfast. We played flag football for a few hour at Draper park with a family we are working with, and their friends. We had a Zone activity and played some softball and kickball. I got pretty sunburnt for being outside all day!

Tuesday: We went to go get some ice in the morning from the Grahams.  We needed some ice for our cooler, we were going to the members of our district and bringing them cookies and milk and discussing the "vision" they have for their area. We started with Elder Sandino & Dutton, Sister Burgos & Anderson, then finished with the Zone leaders Elder Anderson & Gehrett. We didn't have any scheduled dinner so we decided to go to In-N-Out burger and a very nice lady paid for us and bought us a gift card as well! At night we went to the Jensen's home and since they own a tie company Tuvuu they gave us matching ties to wear to Zone conference on Wednesday.

Wednesday: We had a Zone conference that took up most of our morning/ afternoon. It had a big emphasis on planning more effectively in order to fulfill our missionary purpose. If we plan better for our investigators we are working with, they will have a better opportunity to learn what they need to learn. There was also a focus on teaching by the spirit. Elder Jeffery R. Holland gave a talk at a mission president seminar at BYU not too long ago. He shared a story about a man who left the house when he was a young man, he was in a biker gang and ended up in New York and realizing he needed to change his life around. So he biked to California to live. One day young missionaries were walking by his house and as they did, his two doberman pinchers charged to the fence to scare off anybody who walked by. After the missionaries walked by they stoped and talked for a little and produced to turn around and head back to the gate. The dogs charged the fence again but as the missionaries got to the fence the dogs bowed their heads and returned to the porch and laid down next to the man. The missionaries opened the gate and started talking to the man.  They asked if he was from around here and he responded with, "actually I'm from Pocatello Idaho." One missionary spoke up and asked, "do you know so and so?" The man hesitated and said, "yeah.... those are my parents." "Me too" said the young missionary. God has sent me here to invite you to come home. Mom and dad have been praying for you for twenty years not knowing if you were even alive. The man didn't even know about having a younger brother, he was born after he left. Elder Holland goes on to say how the Holy Ghost is vital in doing the Lords work. The young man was guided by the spirit to serve a mission, the parents were comforted by the spirit  while praying for twenty years, the spirit guided one of the members of the quorum of the 12 apostles to assign this missionary to this mission in California, his mission president was inspired by the spirit to assign this missionary to that area at that time, the missionaries were guided by the spirit to work in that area, the missionaries were guided by the spirit to turn around and talk to this man. All of these series of events of following the spirit ultimately brought two long lost brothers back to each other and reuniting him with the family. The spirit is one of the most important things we need when we are to align our life with Gods will.

Thursday: We started our exchange with the Zone leaders in the morning. I was with Elder Anderson and Elder Collier was with Elder Gehrett. Elder Anderson and I were driving by and we stopped to talk to this lady and it turns out that she was one of their potential investigators that they have been trying to meet with. So we started walking with her and she told us to stop by when she's done with work at 4. After that we went to go visit a less active man and discussed some of the things that were bothering him and he felt that nobody in the ward cared or was friendly. We talked a lot about how "be the change you want to see in the world." As Ghandi would say. Sometimes people need to hear your personal testimony and it could change their life. He committed to go to church on Sunday and to complement someone so they can have a better day. We stopped by Subway at 4 to visit with Tamiera and we started getting an understanding of where she was at and we ended up teaching her at Subway! At night we went by a sober living home to visit one of their investigators. They asked us to blessed the house to get rid of all the evil spirits so we did. It seemed kind of weird but it was pretty cool!

Friday: We ended our exchanges with the Zone Leaders and went back to our area. We had a lunch/ correlation meeting with our senior missionary couple the Grahams. After the lunch I had to run over to a Zone leadership meeting. For the first time in my life, I got to ride in a Testla. A full electric car that is now the fastest car on the market. Man that thing felt like it was a roller coaster! I believe if I remember correctly it goes from 0-60 in 4 seconds. At night I was supposed to interview one of the Sister missionaries investigators to be baptized but they had a late change of plans and had to reschedule for Saturday morning.

Saturday: I interviewed Joey Bogan in the morning. He is a 10 year old kid who was pretty cool. We didn't get the chance to go to his baptism sadly. We stopped by our investigator's  house Lisa Carrol to invite her to Joey's baptism. We talked to her husband Tim, and he said that he thinks that Lisa is close to deciding to be baptized. That is great news to hear because it sounds like it's been a long process with her.  Sadly Lisa had to go to her brothers birthday party so she couldn't come to see a baptism. At night we visited a few bishops and got some people they want us to go visit and how the work is going in their wards. At night we came back to our apartment to realize we turned off the fan and AC in the morning so our apartment was 85 degrees at night! Man was it toasty! We ended up grabbing everything out of our freezer and using it as a cold blanket!

Sunday:  Elder Collier and I had to give a talk in the Draper 11th Ward at 9am. We could talk about whatever we wanted, so Elder Collier talked about the Book of Mormon and I talked about missionary work! We had to give another talk in the Draper 6th Ward as well. The topic for that was missionary work so I only had to write one talk last night!  They went really well and we hope and pray that it inspired the members to be better at sharing the gospel with their friends, because we can't do it by ourselves. We were planning on having a new investigator Trey Scott at church, but the primary President got home late last night and didn't invite him to church. We stopped by the Carrol home to see if Tim & Lisa came to church and it sounds like they went rollerblading instead. The sad part is Tim (the LDS member) didn't really want to go to church, and Lisa (not an LDS member) wanted to go, but they ended up not going. We know that we didn't have the best week work wise but we know that next week should and will be better!

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love,
Elder Aaron Ashby