Week 54

Last Monday: After 6 we had went to a block party which was in the 5th ward and had some good food. We taught the Lawson family, the dad is a high councilor and his wife is the young women's president. We also stoped by and shared a message to the Layton family. Brother Layton is a return missionary who is inactive in the church and his 9 year old son isn't baptized. We gave his son a Book of Mormon stories and he was thrilled!

Tuesday: We had a lesson with Mason North, he is a recently reactivated priest and wants to meet with us to get ready for a mission. He is a really cool kid who my companion and I connect with really well since he plays football for Corner Canyon. After that we stopped by the Milliches, a family that needs some help. We were trying to get our senior missionary couple an appointment to teach them but only the dad and his son were there so we only ended up talking about football and didn't get one set up. We were on our way to contact a former bishop and he lives by a potential investigator and their lights were on so we stopped by and Nick was home! We set an appointment up for Saturday with him and his girlfriend Tiana,who is interested in our church!

Wednesday:  In the morning we had a new app to do our planning on and man was it confusing! After that struggle we had a lesson with one of our ward mission leaders that I haven't met.... yeah I've been in the area for 2 months and I haven't met him. During the middle of our day we got a text from a potential investigator and she said can you can come by at 7. So we did and she just recently moved in from Colorado and she knew absolutely nothing about our religion. She wanted to know how our church began to be, so we shared the restoration with her. It was crazy to find someone who knew absolutely nothing. It kind of threw me off guard because we had to explain everything, but it was all worth it!

Thursday: We taught the Boyce family (active LDS) the restoration and inspired missionary work in them by giving them a Book of Mormon challenge, to prayerfully consider who needs it. Later at night we went out with one of our ward mission leaders brother Paulk and did some visits.

Friday: We started an exchange with Elder Sandino & Dutton. I was with Elder Sandino in their area and Elder Sherman was with Elder Dutton in our area. While on the exchange we ran into one of their recently reactivated members who is receiving the priesthood. We shared a quick message about the priesthood and how it will be a blessing to him and his life. We also had some other good visits with people but nothing too extravagant.

Saturday: We had a lesson set up with Nick and Tiana and it happened.  As we were talking trying to get a feel for where Tiana is at she asked, "what are the qualifications for baptism?" Man I wasn't expecting that! So we shared some scriptures and invited her to read the Book of Mormon for a week straight and to pray about it and a baptismal date of October 7th and she accepted and will be working towards it! Man was it one of the craziest things! After that we went to go do our studies and people were at the church setting something up and we asked if they needed help so we did. There was a wedding going on and we set up all the tables and chairs for them. He was so thankful that we did he invited us to his wedding haha! So we stopped by and went to a wedding! Probably one of the weirdest things I've done on my mission but it was worth it haha! Afterwards we got some good wedding treats and then got some dinner at a neighborhood party!

Sunday: We went to the 10th Ward to see if Nick and Tiana, and the Layton's would come. Sadly the Layton's didn't come but Nick and Tiana did! Unfortunately they bounced out after sacrament  meeting so we couldn't talk to them but hey they came! At night we had some good visits with members to see how we could help those investigators we are working with. It was a pretty good week for us by finding three new people to teach!

Love you all,
Elder Aaron Ashby

Week 53

Friday: We had 24 exchanges with our Zone leaders. (Were we change companions for 24 hours)  I was with Elder Rodriguez, and Elder Sherman was with Elder Mullenaux. We were both working in their area, they cover half of the Draper young single adult Stake. (People 18-30 who aren't married) It was a really fun exchange with Elder Rodriguez.  We worked a lot in some of the apartment complexes they cover. Talked to a lot of people there. As I was backing up elder Rodriguez in the car a girl ran over to me and said, "Hey can I talk to you!" And I was like yeah haha? Turns out she knew that we give blessings and she was in tears and asked if we could give her a blessing. We have her a blessing of comfort and counsel. Afterwards we talked about how God loves her and that she is a daughter of God. She said she didn't believe in God and didn't have any faith. (Her middle name was faith so it was ironic) but we told her she had enough faith that we could give her a blessing and that it would work. We gave her a Book of Mormon and told her that she can have that comforting feeling all the time by reading the word of God. She was real hesitant that a Book could do that for her, but we were persistent that she needed to read this book to relief her depression and that it will work. She accepted eventually and was grateful for us being an answer to an unsaid prayer. At night we talked to three women outside their apartment and they were pretty cool. They were all Lutheran or catholic but wanted to talk to us. One gave us so many treats and I said okay well this ones for you. (A Book of Mormon)

Saturday: We ended our exchanges in the morning and went back to work in our area. We stopped by a Bishops house that we haven't had work in his ward and talked about some things we could improve on. He was basically chastising himself and his ward leaders for not helping us out in this good cause. We didn't have dinner that night so he took us to a restaurant called Carvers. Man was that some good but expensive food.... I felt so bad but he insisted we went there! We talked about how missions can be the foundation for your life. He said his only regret in life was not going on a mission and man I see how much my mission has changed me and I can't imagine the experiences I would have missed if I didn't go. I'm thankful for everyone who helped me decide to go on a mission. It has been the best year of my life so far and looking forward to another good year. At night we went over to a member's house to give her son a blessing for comfort and counsel for school and set up an appointment for next week and they have a 9 year old that isn't baptized.

Sunday: Man was today busy! We were up at 5:45 and started our day off with a ward council at 7:15, then one at 9, 10, then 12:30. We got a lot of good referrals and are getting members on board on how we can help those people. After dinner we went over to our ward mission leaders house to teach him the gospel of Jesus Christ and he invited everyone! His neighbors members from the ward, his sons, and his friends. It was a really cool lesson, because his sons friends were catholic and wanted to know some of the differences we have in our faith compared to theirs. When in fact there are a lot of similarities. One in particular had a lot of really good questions and it was just a good teaching opportunity. At night we went and visited a young man who was 17 and was ordained to a priest in the aaronic priesthood. He was recently activated and was on fire! He wanted to do all he can to prepare for a mission and we set up an appointment for Tuesday. We have heard rumors that not everyone in his family are members so let's see if there is some teaching opportunities there!

Short week.  Love you all.

Elder Aaron Ashby

Pic of the week is Elder Fitzgerald and Elder Schunk with Grandma and Grandpa Ashby.  Kind of weird...

Week 52

Tuesday: So transfers came around and I stayed in the same area but am training a brand new missionary. We got everything all situated and got to the mission office to have a training training haha. Then I got my son, (that's what they call it on the mission for the new missionaries) Elder Sherman. He's originally from California but moved to Oregon last year. He played baseball in high school and was the kicker in football when he was in California. At night we went by one of our Ward mission leaders and taught him the first lesson to get Elder Sherman into the flow of things!

Wednesday: We had a district meeting in the morning. We talked about selfless service and how we should be giving everything we do for these 18 or 24 months and to remember Christ in all that we do. Well we were supposed to get our car inspected because we are trading in our old car for a new one but I totally spaced that we had a new missionary meeting..... great way to be an example to a new missionary right? 😅 We were an hour late to a two hour long meeting so that wasn't the best but I can't change the situation, I can only change my attitude! It was kind of ironic since that's what they talked about for the time we were at the meeting haha! At night we went to a youth fireside to talk to some of the bishops and Ward mission leaders. Eric D Richards was the person giving the fireside. He talked a lot about the atonement and how every little thing we do wrong is sin and how we will accumulate a lot of sin over our life, but through Christ's atoning sacrifice we can be forgiven of those sins after we properly repent. It was just a really good fireside in all.

Thursday We had to be at the mission office to drop off our car so they could pick up a new one in Salt Lake so we ended up doing all of our morning stuff at the mission office. We got a new 2017 Nissan Altima with 30 miles on it! So funny story, the Zone leaders planned a Zone expectation meeting and we told them we were going to have to wait till our car got back and they scheduled it 30 after we were supposed to get our car. Well turns out it took a lot longer than they thought and we ended up getting there half way  through that meeting as well. Meetings just weren't our strong suit this week haha! But they knew we would be late so they said it was their fault on this one. But I guess that's the new thing just to show up to half the meetings. At night we taught two active families the restoration to get Elder Sherman more teaching opportunities and left them with the commitment to prayerfully consider who needs a Book of Mormon, and to give it out to them.

Friday:  We tried to make posters in the morning but we're having some technology difficulties. I don't know what it is about Friday's but nobody is ever home! We burned through all our plans and backups so quickly and there was nobody outside for us to talk to. My goal will be to have a successful Friday next week haha! Pray for people to be home on Friday's!

Saturday: We went over to the Grahams to make our posters since the wifi at the church wasn't working. Let's just say these ones by far have the best quality of image on them so they look real nice. Then we had to put them all up before Sunday. At night we ended up talking to a family as they drove by. The Neagle's have a dog breeding business.  They bread cavaliers I think is what they are called. Out of the meeting other than seeing all their little puppies, they are going to arrange a dinner with a few families that we are trying to work with and will be a good opportunity to talk to them.

Sunday: Well Happy Birthday Mom!!! In the morning we went to the 10th Ward and after that sacrament meeting we had a meeting with our new stake presidency. It wasn't my favorite meeting since we only were given like 10 minutes and didn't get to talk about the things we wanted but they seemed enthusiastic about missionary work. After that we went to the 5th ward sacrament meeting and since it was the first Sunday of the month it is known as fast and testimony meeting. So we fast for the things we want/need in our lives and then after the sacrament is passed instead of having speakers give talks, they open it up to anyone to go up and bare their testimony. There was a man who has  ALS and doesn't have much time left to live go and bare his testimony. He had a person read his talk which he wrote and he said I wrote this with my only functioning finger. He wrote out his talk and it was so powerful and wanted everyone to be actively engaged in missionary work because it changed his life (they recently joined the church) man it was so powerful. At night we went by and taught Brother Duke the plan of salvation.

Monday: It wasn't our usual preparation day but we had a good day! We started it off by being at the Oquirrh mountain temple. There is an annual temple to temple charity run and our mission participates in it. So we ran from the Oquirrh mountain temple to the Jordan River Temple. It was 5 miles and man was it harder than I thought. Elder Sherman and I finished 4th as a Companionship and I'm proud to say we never stopped or walked! After that we were pretty much the walking dead, our legs were like wet noodles. We went and helped Elder Sanidno and Dutton make posters and they wanted to have it be Harry Potter so we gave it our good missionary twist! We also played basketball with a less active who we are working with and his wife isn't a member (Lisa Carol) we talked about how we can help her out and he thinks she is close to being ready to be baptized but doesn't want to ruin the relationship she has with her catholic mom.

Tuesday: We had a multi district meeting (Zone meeting) in the morning and I was asked to conduct the meeting. I was looking forward to not having to conduct a meeting for once but oh well. We talked a lot about the same things we did in our district meeting last week which was kind of funny since the Zone leaders weren't in our district meeting. At night we saw a cool miracle. We were trying to contact a former investigator and they weren't home, so we talked to the man across the street working on his car. Turns out he was a very friendly man who has been less active do to his smoking problem but wanted us to come by and teach him and his son. After we got his name and # I was really confused since I saw the last name Peck somewhere. Well turns out there was an unbaptized kid with the last name Peck. Sadly it wasn't the same address but we felt prompted to go visit them then.  Well turns out it was the Less active mans uncle, who was the grandpa of the unbaptized kid and said he will talk to his parents and see if we can come in and teach them as well!

Wednesday: I had a leadership meeting to go to in the morning and it was all focused on how we can make the Draper Zone or Draper Clan (what they want it known by) more unified and like a family. It was a really good meeting and got me excited to work this transfer! I had a baptismal interview for the Sister missionaries in our district. She was a 9 year old girl named Charlotte and man was she good, she knew every answer. I gave her a big box of Nerds and congratulated her on her baptismal interview and a early birthday present. (She's being baptized on her birthday 9/9) At night we talked to a really interesting man who is creating a syfi movie at his house. He has been working on it for two years and it is almost done. It was called dreamer of the falls or something along those lines haha!

Love you all,
Elder Aaron Ashby