Week 59

Tuesday: We had a zone conference that took up all morning and most of the afternoon, but it was a really good meeting. The focus points where on teaching, an above the line missionary, and event + response= outcome. It was a really good meeting and I loved the last part because ever since I tore my ACL my junior year in basketball, coach Holle talked to me and comforted me in a time of need. Our motto for the year was “the things you can control” and on the back it listed a few things and he focused on attitude and effort. The injury was the event and my attitude was my response and how much effort I put into it would determine my outcome. I have a firm testimony that we are given specific trials in our lives to make us the people we need to be. At night we had a neighborhood Halloween party we went to and had some good visits with some people we might be working with in the future. 

 

Wednesday: We had our district meeting in the morning since we had Zone conference yesterday. We focused a lot on faith and the ability to change. We need to have the faith sufficient to be successful but know we are on the Lords time. We need to be willing to change some things in order to be instruments in the Lords hands. At night we had a lesson with Karly and we taught her the Plan of salvation using little drawing cut outs to show the Plan our Heavenly Father has for us, it went pretty good but Karly really wanted us to bring the white board we used last time so we will make sure to bring it every time! 

 

Thursday: We had a Zone leadership meeting in the morning to discuss some of the things happening in the “Draper Clan” (Draper Zone) things are going really well for the missionaries here and we are seeing a lot of success and it is all given to us from the Lord. We had another lesson with Karly and we taught her the restoration using cups to portray the organization of the church in the primitive church and how it is ran the exact same here today in this modern era, with apostles and a prophet, but showing that Christ is still the head of the church. 

 

Friday: We had a really lucky opportunity to do some service up at the draper temple. We planted over 60,000 tulip bulbs and then took down all the old flowers in preparation for the new plants. Sadly Elder Sherman and I got stuck with traffic duty instead of pulling out the old plants, but hey there were no accidents that day and if we weren’t there nobody would have known how to get into the temple parking so really we were the MVPs if you ask me haha! We heard from the temple grounds keeper afterwards and he talked a lot about how there are planters and harvesters and in missionary work we are harvesters and planters. We teach people  about the restored gospel or plant a seed. If they have a desire to come closer to their Heavenly Father and savior and desire to fully partake of his gospel we teach them and baptize them into His church. After that we had exchanges with the Zone Leaders. I was with Elder Henley and Elder Sherman was with Elder Mullenaux. We had a crazy fun time. I had to do a baptismal interview for our sisters investigator and the mom wasn’t there on time and we started walking around talking to people and ran into someone who they were working with! No coincidences in the gospel! 

 

Saturday: Our apartment doesn't have best seal on it, so we woke up and it was honestly like 40 degrees in our apartment and we had the oven on and the heater it was so cold! We had a lesson with Karly and she did amazing, her mom was doing something in the other room and would occasionally pop in, but Karly wasn’t trying to show off in front of her mom and she was so attentive and basically passed the baptismal interview questions! 

 

Sunday: We went to the 10th Ward but sadly Tiana was up at her cabin and Karlys mom was sick so they didn’t make it out to church. We stopped by the Hidden Valley 4th Ward to hear our ward mission leader talk about missionary work. After that we went to the Draper 2nd Ward and then ended up helping out in primary since they didn’t have enough teachers, but all in all a great week and were preparing Karlys baptismal service for November 4th!

 

Hope you all have a great week.

 

Love,

Elder Aaron Ashby 

Week 58

Tuesday: Well transfers were here and Elder Sherman and I are staying together. We were both pretty happy about that. We have some new faces in our district, Elder Sandino is training a new missionary Elder Bretschnieder. The sisters are the same, and we have Elder Henley instead of Elder Rodriguez for our Zone leaders. (Elder Mullenaux stayed) We had a meeting with Elder Henley and Mullenaux to go over some things and prepare for the transfer. We gave the Sisters a blessing of comfort and council after that. At night we taught Mason North again and had a good lesson with him and a buddy about commandments. They were really excited for the Alta Corner Canyon game later that week. (Corner Canyon won) We also taught one of our ward mission leaders less active son. 

Wednesday: We had our first district meeting of the transfer, it was a really good meeting. We talked a lot about discipleship. There is a lot going on now a day and following Christ and his teachings aren’t as important as they should be for people. With the saviors atonement we can do all things because he has walked that lonely path for us, he knows us and our trails. If we look to him in all we do we will find happiness in this life. As I’ve come on my mission not knowing what I was getting myself into I have come to know my savior a little more. I know that we have a loving Heavenly Father who sent his only begotten son for us so we can be forgiven of our sins. We all have feelings of guilt and shame and these cannot be relived without the atonement of Christ. If we allow it to, the Atonement of Christ will change our whole lives. 

Thursday: We had a zone expectations meeting in the afternoon to go over the things that are expected of us for the transfer and I am really excited to see what this transfer has in store for Elder Sherman and I. At night we taught an active family in the 11th Ward the Davis’s. After that we were supposed to have visits set up with one of our ward mission leaders but he was asleep when we went by. He got up and talked with us and we came up with some plans on how we can move the work forward in his ward. 

Friday: We had our usual lunch Correlation meeting with our senior missionary couple the Graham’s. They set up an appointment for us to go by and teach a family with an Unbaptized kid on Sunday! After that we went and got a feel for what the Elders and Sisters in our district have envisioned for this transfer and made a vision, goal, and plan so we can help them be more efficient in their work. It helps to have a vision of what your success could be and then to set reasonable goals to make you strive to work hard to achieve them, and course we need to have plans to accomplish them. 

Saturday: We had a lesson with one of our investigators Tiana. We followed up on the Book of Mormon reading and she had read but not as much as we thought. So we began to read a few chapters with her and help answer questions she had and it went really well and she wants to be better at reading and praying so we will be sending her some scripture text every day for a friendly reminder. We stopped by a potential investigators house who we could never get in contact with and they were home! They were about to head to a Halloween party but they told us that they want to meet with us and Monday or Tuesdays are best so we will be going by then! 

Sunday: We went to the 10th Ward in the morning and then went to primary to see if the girl we were teaching later that day came and sadly she wasn’t there, but at 2 we had our lesson and they were “sick” at church and went home but we’re perfectly fine for our lesson haha! The mom started it off by talking about baptism and how Karly is going to be baptized! So we taught them about the gospel of Jesus Christ and she accepted to be baptized on November 4th!!! After that we went to two more hours of primary in the 2nd Ward since we will be teaching in a few weeks. We ended the night by informing the leadership of the ward about Karly wanting to be baptized on Nov 4th. It was a great way to end the week! 

Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Aaron Ashby

Week 57

Monday night: We had a family home evening lesson with the Campbells in the 2nd Ward and Lexi one of their daughters brought her friend over who isn’t LDS. We talked about CPR again and how by going to Church, Reading our scriptures and Praying we will keep our spirits alive. She was so prepared I can’t even explain it! She’s like well I’ve had some visions that I’m going to serve a mission. What the heck she isn’t even a member and she’s had those visions! She talked a lot about how she has felt the closest to God when she goes to our church and wanted to be baptized. Well Elder Sherman being out for only 5 weeks didn’t get the memo to invite baptism so I nudged him and told him to invite her to be baptized and he did haha! She was so excited and was saying yes before we finished. Alexa will be attending church with Lexi Campbell and will be reading her scriptures  with her as well. She is working for Oct. 28

Tuesday: We had a multi district meeting (zone meeting) in the morning. It was a pretty good meeting. They talked a lot about the things that are worrying President Lansing such as bad baptismal services, finding joy in the working, and being excited to find new investigators. I was able to participate in our Zone leaders finding role play where they are talking to people outside and they are trying to be urgent in the work and finding the people that are ready to receive the message. I was the role of an anti LDS person and just wanted to bible bash with them. It was pretty fun if I’d say so myself haha! At night we did a missionary prep type thing for the 5th ward. They wanted us to prepare the youth for their mini mission thing they are doing next week, where they will go into a member’s home and give them the message of the restoration. It was pretty fun and ten youth took Book of Mormons to give out to their friends! 

Wednesday: We had to start exchanges with Elder Sandino and Dutton a little bit later since they were taking an investigator to temple square. In the meantime we had a Zone leadership council to go to, to talk about the things we need to work on next transfer and set a goal for November. After the meeting we started exchanges with the Elders. I was with Elder Dutton in their area and Elder Sherman and Sandino were in ours. We had a lesson with a recent convert at 3 and then a lesson with their investigator at 4. Both went well but wish the lesson with their investigator could have went better. He’s a little stubborn but knows that this is true. After dinner their areabook app crashed so we had to pray and seek for inspiration on what to do for the night. We had visits with a ward mission leader from 7-9 so we had an hour to find some new investigators. We prayed and felt a certain apartment complex was right. (I’ve never had apartments so I wanted to work in them haha) We pulled up to one and the first guy we talked to didn’t know anything about the LDS church and was totally interested. Then all the sudden a worker from the apartment drove by in his truck and told us their was a policy that we couldn’t talk to people here and made us leave. I was so devastated and this worker was demanding that we left immediately. So we left and said okay well God will provide for us we felt prompted to go there so we went. We prayed again and went to a different apartment complex. Elder Dutton felt a prompting to find a Tagalog translator for their investigators lesson in the morning. We went and their translator just got home and was about to head out. So we didn’t find any new investigators but we got a translator for a lesson in the morning. Wasn’t what we necessarily wanted but that’s what the Lord wanted. 

Thursday: We had a lesson early in the morning and we felt prompted to do the baptismal interview right then and there instead of Saturday before her baptism. Well turns out she passed and knew everything. It’s amazing to see how we can be instruments in the Lords hands if we follow the spirit in all we do. In the afternoon we did in person PDC (positive daily contact) with the Sister missionaries. One of them is going through a rough time with a family member not doing to well so we got the sisters some Bahama Bucks (shaved ice) and they were really excited and appreciative. We got a text from Alexa’s dad and he said he wants her to learn more about the church before she can be baptized but we will teach him as well! It will work out in the end. 

Friday: We had our usual lunch correlation meeting with the Graham’s and they asked what we wanted and they would pick it up, so my first instinct was Chipotle❤️ it was sooo good! Later in the day we had a baptismal interview for the sisters investigator Kolton, he was going to be baptized on Saturday but he broke his toe so he moved it to the 21 haha! It all works out in the end. 

Saturday: Well Saturday’s are rough now with college football on and I don’t blame anyone. But for missionary work it was really hard, we had a day full of no contacts which was a little depressing but hey that’s missionary work! 

Sunday: We went to a Stake PEC meeting and talked about the missionary work going on in the Stake and they were really impressed with the work that’s going on and the progress we have made. Tiana came to church, but Alexa didn’t because of a family thing. So a decent way to end the week! 

Hope you all have a great week.

Love,
Elder Aaron Ashby 

Week 56

Monday: "Just found out my birthday is the same day I was born. Life is crazy." Life is crazy I am no longer a teenager.... where had the time gone! Well we had a Zone activity where we played human hungry, hungry hippos which I have been begging to do forever and we finally did it! Wasn't as good as I had envisioned but was pretty good for a couple a missionaries planning it last minute! We stopped by one of the youth we talked to on Sunday and figured out one of their sister has a friend who is interested in learning more about the gospel and they will set something up for us next Monday to meet and talk to her!

Tuesday: We had interviews with our mission President in the morning and it was good to talk to him about the work and those in my district. He is really pleased with our district but as all successful people he is never satisfied. He is grateful for the work and success we have seen but knows there is always room for improvement. At night we had Dinner/ a lesson with the Zarbock family with their less active neighbors kids. We talked about spiritual CPR and how regular CPR keeps us alive we also need to keep our spirits alive. A way we can do that is by Church, Prayer, Reading the scriptures. We daily need to read the word of God and pray to him. And weekly we show our gratitude and come to partake of the sacrament to renew the covenants we made at baptism. We taught a young man preparing to go on a mission the same thing afterwards and will play some basketball with him and a couple of his buddies on Monday as well. We visited with the Diderickson family at night and followed up on the Book of Mormon challenge and encouraged them to continue to prayerfully seek who needs it.

Wednesday: We had our district meeting and it was taylored on the training the assistants gave in Zone conference on followership. They mainly focused on following our leaders to be successful, but I focused on following our Savior in all we do. The Savior when he was at the Sea of Galilee and said to some humble fishermen, "Come, follow me." The Savior has given us that same invitation, come and follow him. We need to have the faith like the apostle Peter asked the Lord if he could walk on the water and then the Savior replied with, "Come" then he leaped out of the boat and walked on water and the moment he took his eye of the Savior and doubt sunk in he began to sink into the water and then the Savior reached out and grabbed him from sinking. We need to keep our eye on the Savior in all we do and have the faith that miracles can happen. And then we need to always remember to follow him. We met one of our newly called Ward mission leader and man he is excited to do some missionary work and get things going in his ward. Looking forward to seeing how that goes.

Thursday: We had a leadership meeting in the morning that was focused on knowing what we need to prioritize as a missionary to further the work. 1. The Lord 2. Ourselves 3. Companion 4. Others. If we have a relationship with our Heavenly Father we can trust him in all we do. If we ourselves are enjoying the mission we can be successful and be an instrument in His hands. If our Companionship is in unity we will be effective advocates of truth. And then we can find those who are ready to receive the fullness of his gospel. At night we taught another active family in the 11th Ward and gave them a Book of Mormon challenge. We went out with one of our ward missionaries Brother Wray and had a good visit with an elderly man who needed a visit.

Friday: We had our lunch correlation meeting with the senior missionary couple the Grahams and they took us to sweetoburrito. (Doesn't compare to Chipotle!) Then we had a house inspection to make sure we aren't being dirty missionaries haha. The old office senior missionary couple were the ones to do it so that was cool. Well we were having a brutal Friday night, trained to contact so many people but nobody was home. As we were leaving the neighborhood I felt prompted to go visit one more person who wasn't in our plans. I was thinking well there never home but it's worth a shot. Well turns out they were outside on their porch! (Basically chastised myself for not having enough faith haha) and we had a good conversation with them and got an appointment to teach them. The mom is a member but less active and her kids are not baptized and the daughter has gone to church a few times and went to girls camp and wants to know why we believe what we believe. Well man we got answers to that haha!

Saturday: Well it is general conference weekend and man I love general conference as a missionary. General conference happens twice a year and is when we hear messages from our modern day prophet and apostles and others who have been called to speak. It is Gods way of communication to us through the spirit of revelation. We had a session from 10am-12 one from 2-4 and the a priesthood session from 6-8 so basically it the spiritual version of march madness where we are just spiritually edified all day! I loved every second of it and know that it is what God would want us to hear. We watched the morning session with the Duke family and then watched the afternoon session at a church.

Sunday: Again there were sessions from 10-12 and 2-4 Elder Sherman and I watched the morning session with the Wray family and since Elder Sherman was given a ticket to the pm session from the mission he went with a group of missionaries there to watch that one. So in the mean time I had to hang out with the wray family. During the time in between sessions we played a few games of Settlers of Catan, one of my new favorite board games. Then had a really powerful last session of conference. One of the 12 apostles pasted away after the morning session and was sad to hear, but Elder Neil A. Anderson from the quorum of the 12 gave a little portion of a talk that Elder Robert D. Hales would have gave if he was healthy enough. He talked about how we need to have the faith to meet God after this life and how we need to prepare ourselves to meet him. I can't express how powerful all the sessions of general conference were. For those who didn't get the opportunity to watch it, they will be on LDS.org in about a week or so and you can read the talks that were given. I know if you read any of the talks you will know that God is still speaking to us through modern day revelation and through his called servants.

Hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,
Elder Aaron Ashby

Zone Activity

Week 55

Tuesday: We had Zone Conference which was great! Sister Lansing gave a training on how we can become better missionaries and there are things we can do to be better. President Lansing gave a training on how we need to find and how the lord is hastening his work here today. He played a video named "are you sleeping through the restoration?" And it was so good, the restoration is upon us. The gospel of Jesus Christ and His priesthood authority has been restored to the earth here today. The assistants trained about "followership" and how we need to follow our saviors example and learn from him.

Wednesday: We had our district meeting in the morning on how we need to have a testimony of this gospel if we are to even think about sharing it with others. We really focused on how much we love the lord and are willing to show him how much we appreciate this gospel and what it has done for us in our lives. The Savior when he confronted Peter the chief apostle asked, "do you love me?" I simple question that sunk down deep into his heart after the Savior asked it the third time. "yea Lord, thou knowest I love thee." "Then feed my sheep!" That's what I'm doing, I am finding the lost sheep and bringing them back to the light and truth. We had a new missionary training and yes this time we were on time!!! President focused on three things; 1. Obedience 2. 12 week training (an extra 30 minutes of study for new missionaries/taking it seriously) 3. We need to baptize. We also talked about how we all accepted this call to this mission and how we need to do our best to fulfill what the Lord wants us to do. The assistants gave a great training on bad greenies (new missionaries) and bad trainers. So we focused on the things we need to do to be better trainees and trainers.

Thursday: At night we correlated with one of our ward mission leaders about teaching people in his ward. In turn we got a coupon for a free haircut and MVP at sports clips! It was really a win win! We taught a family the Madsens, an active family in the 11th Ward and gave them a Book of Mormon  challenge. It was really cool because Brother Madsen was a convert to the church and seeing the gospel blessing families was sweet!

Friday: We found a man who was really interested with meeting with us. Well turns out he had some interesting questions that weren't relevant with what we have to offer as missionaries. He wanted to really Bible bash and get our input on certain scriptures. To clear things up we believe the Bible to be the word of God as long as it is translated correctly. As missionaries we offer a message that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us and have provided a way for us to return to them. They love us so much they have restored the gospel of Jesus Christ through the prophet Jospeh Smith, and a way we can know he is a prophet of God is to read a pray about the Book of Mormon. Ancient records of the people here in the Americas translated by the power of God. This shows us that God continues to speak to us his children and that it is for us in these days.

Saturday: We had a lesson with Nick and Tiana. So Tiana doesn't want to be baptized on the 7th and wants to wait till the semester is done, (December 20ish) because she wants to give the Book of Mormon her full time and attention. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the fact she has identified she has recognized and felt the spirit as she read the Book of Mormon. She knows that it is true and wants to be baptized and a way she can more fully understand the Book of Mormon is with the Holy Ghost (third member of the godhead) with the gift of the Holy Ghost after baptism by proper authority we can have the spirit to be with us at all times to guide us and to help us understand things. Having the Holy Ghost will help us understand more as we seek the word of God and we will be enlightened as we do so with the Holy Ghost.

Sunday: We went to the 10th Ward sacrament meeting and it was the primary program! I love he primary program. Little kids talking about the gospel and signing songs just always brings the spirit. Nick and Tiana left after sacrament meeting again sadly but they are consistently making it out! We also had another primary program in the 2nd Ward and man was it good just like the 10th Ward. Afterwards we talked to some of the youth and got a good relationship with them. We taught the Dukes (one of our ward mission leaders) the 10 commandments with hand signals and the importance of Keeping the Word of Wisdom. They had some birthday peach cobbler and some presents. It was a good birthday eve haha!

Hope you all have a great week!

Love,
Elder Aaron Ashby

Pics and video from my Birthday with the Duke's