Week 64

Tuesday: We had transfers in the morning and man was it hectic. So Elder Sherman is going to West Jordan and Elder Healy and I are staying and had to move to our new apartment. We finally got out of the shoe box and don't have to have the oven on in the morning to heat up the apartment that was usually like 40 degrees when we woke up. We had Brother stark help us out with moving apartments. He brought his trailer and we had to take everything out of our old apartment and bring it to our new apartment. It took a little longer than we thought but we got everything all situated. The South Jordan zone leaders came by because they needed to take our car to give it to missionaries in their zone and Elder Fitzgerald was there so it is always good to see that man. (One of my past companions) Our new apartment is really nice and there is a massage chair in it! By far the best part of it. We sat down with the Elders in our district and make a vision goal plan for the next 6 weeks to see what they really want to accomplish. Elder Curtis replaced Elder Sandino who finished his mission and went back to Nicaragua. Elder Bretschneider stayed. 

Wednesday: We had our first district meeting of the transfer and we focused a lot on miracles and patterns. The Lord works in patterns and always has. We also see how he always provides a way for us to find miracles and bring others unto Christ. Some commitments I left with the missionaries were to recognize the daily miracle because there is one to be found every day. At night we met with our high councilor over missionary work to talk a little about transfers and moving into a new apartment. After that we went out with one of our ward mission leaders Brother Walters and had a good visit with the high priest group leader.

Thursday: Well Happy thanksgiving!!! I am so grateful for all the people who have been in my life and made me the individual that I am today. I am grateful for my parents who raised me so well. I am grateful for this restored gospel and the chance I have to serve the Lord full time and to strengthen my testimony of the Book of Mormon. In the morning we had a quick zone expectations meeting to lay the foundation of what is expected for the next six weeks. After that we went and played some basketball  and ping pong with the Roberts family in the 6th ward. After that we had to help out the zone leaders with some missionary items. Then we got dropped off at Sister Walkers house in the 2nd ward and had some amazing food and played some bean bags/ cornhole. We won all three games but who’s counting. The Zone leaders came over a little late because they had a meeting with the Assistants. After the dinner we played a fun game where it involved guessing and rolling dice. I ended up with about 3 candy bars and I started with 2. After everything winded down at the Walkers we went to the ward mission leaders house in the 10th ward Brother Walters. We played some fun games with them like wacky 6 and Dixie I think? It was like apples to apples but involved a little bit more creativity and strategy. 

Friday: We did a vision goal plan for the sisters in the afternoon, similar to the other one. For dinner we ate with “Uber Tom” one of our ward mission leaders wife’s parents. Since we are on bikes now we need rides to places on Mondays and he said he loves to drive the missionaries around so thats good we found our own transportation for Mondays. After dinner we had some really good contacts with people. We were able to catch Barbara home and have a good 30 minute conversation about the Book of Mormon and what missionary transfers are. She still has a hard time understanding that the Book of Mormon isn’t a mormon bible, but that it is another volume of scripture which goes hand in hand with the Bible. She is really busy with the holidays so not too sure we will be able to meet with her till they end. We also ran into a potential investigator we have been trying to contact forever and they told us to stop by either Monday night or Tuesday night. 

Saturday: In the morning we did some service for a lady who needed help putting up some Christmas decorations and it was pretty cool to see how many things she had! She had her whole yard and house filled with Christmas decorations. I love service and helping others out. The church is doing their Christmas initiate called #LightTheWorld in 25 days over 25 ways we can serve those around us. The days leading up to Christmas there is a different act of service we can do for those around us to invite the Christmas spirit and to help others. Go to Mormon.org or search #LightTheWorld to find it, it is a great video and will really change you as you serve others. We had a lesson with Tiana in the afternoon and it went really well, we taught the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and after we shared it we asked her what her thoughts and feelings are and she said, “I am hungry to learn the truth for myself.” She is still progressing and working towards December 23 for baptism. At night we talked to a man who was doing something in his garage and we ended up helping him move some couches and not 5 minutes into it our zone leaders showed up because the man we were helping was in the young single adult bishopric and that is the area our zone leaders cover. We helped them move some couches and in return we got some hot chocolate. 

Sunday: So we had mission prep in the morning and it was a pretty good lesson on how to follow the spirt in teaching people. After that we went to the Hidden Valley 4th ward council and talked about how now we live in their ward boundaries. We ended up going to the Hidden valley 4th ward sacrament and we were asked to go to Primary and share a few words of advice since the months topic is “I can be a missionary now.” Later in the day we taught a family that is going though some hard things, their 8 year old son has severe anxiety and doesn’t want to be baptized and we are teaching them as a family and hopefully he will open up and see how important it is to be baptized. Well after dinner we had some troubles. We were just riding our bikes and out of no where Elder Healy’s chain from his bike flew off! I mean it went airborne! So we had to try to fix it and got some help from our Ward mission leader Brother Duke so we couldn’t fix it so we would have to wait till Monday to get it fixed. So we were on foot for the night and did our best with what we had. 

What a great week!

Love you all,

Elder Ashby

Week 63

Tuesday: We had our last district meeting of the transfer. It was all focused on being converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ and if we are truly converted we wont worry about being transferred into a new area, we will work as hard as we can no matter the circumstances. We also talked about aligning our will with Gods will. After district meeting we had to start preparing for Karlys baptismal service. The Graham’s went and picked us up Panda Express since there needs to someone watching the font fill. The baptism went pretty good but a little irreverent but that was no surprise with how crazy she is with her ADHD, other than that it’s was pretty good. The new stake president was there to see it as well. After the baptism we went to Chuckarama (a buffet) and ate dinner with their family. We had some good conversations with her biological dad who isn’t too interested in religion, he said he isn’t much of a reader or a writer he just likes to talk so he wasn’t too interested in reading the Book of Mormon. While we were waiting for the baptismal service Sister Mazanis who is over the housing for missionaries checked out a basement apartment we found and suggested to get us into since its in our stake boundaries and it was cheaper and nicer than the apartments we are in now. 

Wednesday: We had exchanges with the Elders one last time before the transfer ends and before Elder Sandino goes back home. I was with Elder Sandino in their area and Elder Sherman and Healy were with Elder Bretschneider. We got a call from our zone leaders in the morning telling us that they needed some help at the draper temple to plant more flowers. So we all headed over to the Temple after we started exchanges. Well we get to the temple and the elders were laughing so hard for some reason. So apparently Eder Healy got two aggressive drivers, which comes from a little monitor in our car. So if we are speeding or turning too hard it will tell us and give us a violation. If you have too any violations you cant drive anymore. Well within the first two minutes Elder Healy got two violations which is crazy haha! Planting the flowers for the Draper Temple was awesome. After the planting we had some lunch. I had a baptismal interview for their investigator Mars who would be getting baptized on Thursday. She passed the interview but when Elder Sandino told her that the bishop wouldn’t be there to baptize her due to an unexpected work trip. Well Mars is from the Philippines and apparently its a cultural thing to have the person with the “highest authority” do things and she was determined that she wanted bishop to baptize her so we had to move her baptismal date and there were some conflicts. The only days we could do it were Friday and Sunday and Mars didn’t want bishop to baptize her right when he got home from his work trip she wanted him to be relaxed. So we asked if Bishop could call her and figure out a time she could do her baptismal service. 

Thursday: We had a slower day till the evening. At night we taught the Jacobs family in the draper 17th ward. The dad is the second councilor in the bishopric. We taught a family that is struggling in the Draper 11th ward and it was really good for them and their kids. At night we met with one of our new ward missionaries in the Hidden Valley 4th ward and then he had an appointment with someone at 8:30. Well turns out it was with Brother Hias who is the man with the basement apartment haha! When we got there he said that we are moving into his apartment. 

Friday: Well we were doing our normal Friday routine with weekly planning and lunch Correlation with the Grahams and we get a call from the Elders in our District saying, “hey Mars is getting baptized today.” Elder Sandino was down at Temple square in Salt Lake City for a departing missionaries so Elder Bretschneider was with his MLS couple and he was going through the messages and apparently the bishop got a hold of Mars and he was all set for the baptism to be on Friday! The Elders didn’t see the text or something so they had to get the baptism all figured out and to inform everyone. Luckily with the zone leaders and our help we were able to get everything set up. Elder Sandino got home from the temple just before the baptism. It was a good baptismal service and lets just say Mars is a character she is so funny. 

Saturday: We had the rare opportunity to have the president of the quorum of the 12 apostles to come speak to our whole mission. President Nelson was a great speaker and all those that spoke before him. There was a general topic and that was the Book of Mormon. President Nelson gave an outstanding talk in this past October General Conference where he talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon and the things we wouldn’t know without it. The list amazed me of the things we wouldn’t know. The Book of Mormon clarifies; the pre existence, resurrection, judgment, the priesthood, baptisms before Christ was born, and agency. The list goes on and on. I know that the Book of Mormon contains the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Book of Mormon and the Bible go hand in hand and they support one another. The Book of  Mormon calls all to come unto Christ and be perfected in him. It was such a good fireside and it will definitely stick with me for my life. I know that President Nelson is a called apostle of Jesus Christ in His restored church. I know the Book of Mormon to be the word of God and that anyone who reads it will draw closer to their Heavenly Father and their savior Jesus Christ. One of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon is 2 Nephi 33. This is a prophet in the American continent Nephi and he goes on to say (paraphrasing) These are the words of Christ and if you don't believe in these words believe in Christ, but if you believe in Christ you will believe these words because they are the words of Christ. I invite all to read the Book of Mormon to truly know if there is more of the word of God. 

Sunday: Well my night/morning didn’t start off to great I was sick all night and into the morning. I don't know what is was but I think I got food poisoning from what I ate Saturday. I wasn’t feeling to well and was having all sorts of body fluids coming out. Won’t go into to much details haha! I went to our Stake Conference since I knew it would only be around an hour and a half. I am glad I went because a member of the 70 was there as well our mission president and his wife spoke. They reiterated what we heard in the fireside with President Nelson (Elder Christensen spoke at the fireside on Saturday as well) It was a great meeting and afterwards I was physically drained and spiritually filled. We didn’t do too much after that because I wasn’t feeling the best. At night we had to go to a live broadcast of two apostles speaking to all the young single adults around the world answering their questions. It was another great meeting and a good way to end off the night and week. 

Well we got the transfer calls today and I will be staying with Elder Healy. I was in a trio so I had two companions for just two weeks. Elder Sherman is going to the West Jordan Utah stake and Elder Healy and I will still be in the Draper Hidden Valley Stake. We will be moving out of apartment we call the shoe box because it is just a little box with no rooms. We will be moving into brother Hais’ apartment. Bad news though, we will no longer have a car in the area. So it will be biking time till at least January! Wish me luck! 

Hope you all have a great week and a great Thanksgiving!

Love,

Elder Aaron Ashby

Week 62

Tuesday: I don’t think I’ve had a crazier day than this day! Well we got a call from the assistants last night at like 9:50 telling us to come to the mission office to pick up a new Elder. So we. Get there e early in the morning not knowing who we are going to in a trio with. Our new companion is Elder Healy. He is from Ceader city Utah. He just got done with his trial mission (does two transfers to see if he can serve a full mission) so he is staying here and just got out of the MTC, since he only stayed at home for 1 week rather than 3 like what he was supposed to do, he is with us for the rest of the transfer. We literally picked him up then got in the car and went to a multi district meeting and had to give a training. We gave a training on charity vs love. How Charity leads to action and love is just a great desire for someone or something. If missionaries have Christlike charity they will want to go out and serve. It was a fun training to give and I felt like it went pretty good. So we got Facebook in our mission which is crazy! It’s main purpose is to communicate with those in our area but to also post every now and then. So I friend everyone but I can’t see what they post. We had Karly get interviewed for her baptism and she passed! At night we went out with a ward missionary and we had two good visits with active families and talked about people they could reach out to and do missionary work. Since we gave a training on charity I decided to give Elder Healy my bed and I slept on the air mattress which had a hole in it so the floor haha. Hopefully he feels welcomed.

Wednesday: We went by the Jensen’s because they are doing their holiday sell out. Brother Jensen has a few companies and his tie/ apparel company wasn’t doing well so they are taking the bullet on this business. They gave us as many free ties as we want so we all got over 10 ties which is an Elders dream! We had a Zone leadership meeting to discuss how we can help our missionaries stay focused on their purpose with this new tool with Facebook. After the meeting we had a house inspection and we passed even with three missionaries in the shoe box haha! Later on I did a baptismal interview for the sisters investigator and he did pretty well and passed. 

Thursday: Well we had to be up and out the door pretty early in the morning since I had to do a baptismal interview for the Elders investigator and the only time she could do it was at 8:30 am! Hey whatever works on getting them ready to be baptized! We were finally able to contact Bailee (the investigator Elder Sherman and Sandino found) and we got a lesson set up for Monday night. We had another lesson with an active family in the 11th Ward. After that we had two visits with a ward missionary in the Hidden Valley 4th Ward and shared a message with two different families. 

Friday: Was a pretty slow night didn’t really contact too many people and knocked on a lot of doors. 

Saturday: The Perry’s a family in ward in my first area in Sandy got a hold of our # and wanted to take us out to lunch. We went to Freddy’s and right when I walk in there is a brand new game of Catan and they said, “This is for you Elder Ashby.” They knew I loved playing that board game since I was with them last Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve and we played it all the time so they went out and bought me one! We had a lesson with Tiana and man was it interesting teaching with two companions haha! I felt like I had to wait forever to speak. But she is doing well and we answered her questions about the word of wisdom and the chapters in the Book of Mormon she was reading. She is really committed to live the gospel standards to be baptized which is so cool to see. We had some fun talking to people in the street and letting Elder Healy and Sherman do all or most of the talking. They struggled a little bit but it was good for them to go to an area where there are some hard core Catholic people that weren’t the nicest to us.

Sunday: We had a few ward councils to go to in the mornings and had some good sacrament meetings and some not so good ones haha. I think that’s the interesting thing about this mission we see a wide range of how things are done and we see all the good and the bad. We went by the stake primary president and got her keys to the baptismal font and got some baptismal jumpsuits and dresses for Karly to see which she would prefer to wear when she’s baptized. We got pretty much everything set up for the baptism on Tuesday and will be going by Monday night to give them the game plan for Tuesday. 

Hope you all have a wonderful week.

Love,

Elder Aaron Ashby

Pictures of the last 2 weeks

Week 61

Tuesday (Oct 31) We had our usual district meeting in the morning. We focused a lot on using your testimony of the Book of Mormon to be bold with people. We listened to a talk by Elder Holland, a member of the quorum of the 12 apostles. His talk “Safety for the soul” is so powerful in every way. The Book of Mormon stands historically, scientifically, and spiritually. I know the Book of Mormon to be the word of God and I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that he translated the Book of Mormon by the power of God. Elder Holland talked about what his grandfather told him and that was, “no wicked man could write such a book, and no good man would write it, unless it were true and he were commanded by God to do so. The Book of Mormon has changed my life and I know that it can change your life if you read it and ponder it in your hearts you will find more joy in your life and you will understand Gods plan for you individual. At night we went to the temple and it was a really unique experience since it was Halloween nobody was at the temple, so our whole mission went. The Draper, Sandy and Riverton Zones went to the Draper Temple. West Jordan, South Jordan, and Spanish zones went to the Oquirrh Mountain temple. It was cool because missionaries baptized other missionaries for people who have passed away and didn’t have the opportunity to be baptized in their life time. All in all it was a great day and had some good memories. 

Wednesday: We talked to a recent convert in the morning and man is she an interesting woman haha! She has so many crazy stories and funny  things to say. She ended up feeding us a baked potato for lunch. At night we had our quarterly stake missionary Correlation meeting. The Stake presidency, all the bishops and Ward mission leaders were supposed to be in attendance, but as usual the bishops and Ward mission leaders that need the most training didn’t show up. It’s a little frustrating but that’s just life haha. It was a pretty good informative meeting but could have used a little fire to it. President Jackson is a new stake president and isn’t a really outgoing guy so he truly wants to do missionary work but could really portray the message as much as we would have liked but things are actually going really well in the Stake so we are excited. 

Thursday: We had interviews with President Lansing in the morning, and he was really impressed with our district. Everyone is growing as a missionary and seeing success in the work. He wanted to know about Elder Bretschneider since he is a new missionary and man is Elder Bretschneider going to be an amazing missionary. He’s only been out for 4 weeks but I feel like he is a high caliber missionary. He is converted to the gospel and you can tell in his interactions and teaching. At night we taught another active family in the 11th Ward. Then had an appointment with the Bishops family but sadly their son who we are really trying to share a message with just left before we got there. We shared a message with the rest of the family and it was exactly what they needed. 

Friday: We had to start our day off by giving the sisters a blessing then after the blessing we started our exchanges with the Elders. I was with Elder Bretschneider in their area and Elder Sherman is with Elder Sandino in our area. We were having a rough time contacting people and we decided to walk around their apartment complex instead. As we were walking by we heard someone call out for us and we turn around and it was two people talking about their patriarchal blessings and we were there to talk to them more about it and how we can make them more meaningful. They didn’t live in the area but we asked for them to give us a random apartment to knock on. “Ummmmm...... Building J...... top floor..... right side.” So we go and the first one doesn’t answer and then the second answered the door and Elder Bretschneider freaks out and is like Andrew!!! So apparently it was someone they talked to before but this time they had time to give him a Book of Mormon and he said he would read it! It was a crazy cool miracle to see how the Lord is in the details of our lives. After that we had a lesson with one of their investigators that went pretty good. 

Saturday: We ended our exchanges in the morning and man Elder Sandino and Sherman had a crazy good miracle too! They went by to contact an investigator we haven’t been able to get in contact with (Lisa Carol) and there was a lady outside and they started talking to her and they figured out the Carols moved out. They asked if she was a member and she said, “no but I’m thinking about it.” She is a single mom who just moved in and her son is turning 8 soon and wants to be baptized before him. We had a lesson with Tiana and she is going to prepare to be baptized on December 23rd when the college semester is over. 

Sunday: man was it a long day...... 7:30 am mission prep, 5 hours of primary, 2 sacrament meetings and then a meeting with the second councilor to the Stake presidency. We taught some good old primary but were saved by another primary teacher who had sharing time activity and we totally spaced it and we had to use their sharing time activity haha. We had a lesson with Karly at night and we did a jeopardy review game and it was Karly vs mom and Karly destroyed her mom haha but it was a good teaching opportunity for both of them. It was a great way to end the night and got it all figured out to be baptized on Tuesday the 14th. 

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love Elder Ashby

Week 60

Tuesday: We had a district meeting totally focused on getting our investigators to church so they can feel the spirit more abundantly. If our investigators can’t  keep commitments  they can’t progress and learn more and take that next step of baptism, which is a necessary ordinance. At night we went and taught the North’s. Corner Canyon is still undefeated in high school play and we heard they won their first playoff game. We invited Mason to come to mission preparation every 1, 2, and 4 Sunday at 7:30am. We went out with one of our ward mission leaders adult son and visited a part member family the Heiners. It’s an interesting dynamic. The mom is an inactive member. Kids are active  members. Dad is an active in church but isn’t LDS, and has been going to church for 15 years! He said he is comfortable where he is at but the message we shared was called, “The will of God” which talked about aligning our will with Gods to find true happiness. 

 

Wednesday: We had a Halloween party in the Draper 6th Ward which was really fun but nobody really introduced us to people who came which was a little sad to see. It was an interesting party, the activities were ran by the cub scouts and man was it interesting haha. We went by and shared a message with one of our ward mission leaders family. Then went and talked to the bishop to see how his wife was doing since her father passed away over the weekend. We also talked about our two investigators in his ward Karly and Tiana. 

 

Thursday: We ate dinner with the Roberts family in the Draper 6th Ward and we finished eating early and their kids challenged us to a basketball game so we played some basketball. It was pretty fun playing  a somewhat competitive game of basketball again, it’s been a while. We ended up lowering it to 8 feet and played some dunk ball. First play of it one of their kids was standing right under the hoop and I went up and posterized him haha. It was really fun throwing ally oops and dunking it. We taught a single man named Nate Burr who is active in the Draper 11th Ward. After that we went out with our ward mission leader Brother Paulk and man is he a character. We went by and shared messages with the Numbers family as well as the Bain’s. It was really cool to see we were praying in the day to be the answer to someone’s prayer and the message we shared was perfect for Sister Bain and she was in tears saying “that was exactly what I needed to hear.” It’s crazy to see how the lord uses us as instruments in his work. 

Friday: We had our usual lunch Correlation meeting with the Graham’s and they picked us up Chipotle ️ (by far my favorite place to eat) and we had a few minutes so we went down to their basement and played a few games of pool. Apparently if you don’t call which pocket the 8 ball goes into when you’ve finished all your other balls you lose? Someone is going to have to email me the rules because he definitely lost haha! We were supposed to have a lesson with Karly but they were getting their Halloween costumes so we had to go to our backup plans and had a slower night trying to contact people. 

Saturday: I had an interesting personal study in the morning as I came across a scripture that puzzled me and got me thinking. It was in the Book of Mormon in 2 Nephi 27:20 which says, “Then shall the Lord God say unto him: The learned shall not read them, for they have rejected them, and I am able to do mine own work; wherefore thou shalt read the words which I shall give unto thee.” I thought it was interesting that the Lord doesn’t really need us to do his work. No missionary knocked on Jospeh smiths door and told him he would be a prophet of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. However the Lord trusts us enough to be able to do his work. How great is it to know that he has trusted me to be His servant and share His gospel. We had a lesson with Tiana, we read more out of the Book of Mormon with her since she has been too busy with school, but she says she feels great when we do read. We discussed a lot about what is in the Book of Mormon as well. Later at night we finished up all the required lessons for Karly to be baptized. We had to move her baptismal date to November 11th because  her grandpa would be out of town on the 4th. All is looking well for her to be baptized on that date so we are excited! 

Sunday: Our day started off at 7:30am with a stake priesthood meeting all focused on missionary work. 4 recently returned missionaries spoke about a few things and it was pretty good to hear. We spoke in the 10th Ward which is where Karly and Tiana are in and we were so worried they didn’t come but they both came in late but they came! That’s the biggest stress as a missionary when they say they are coming to church and then they don’t, but this one ended positive. I spoke on Service, I only had about 5 minutes since Elder Sherman gave a sermon but hey good on him haha. I focused a lot on this past General Conference and how they talked about service, not only when a natural disaster happens but that there are people around us who need some act of service. Whether it be saying hi, being kind or any little thing can drastically change someone’s day. There are people out there that are struggling and they need our help. We ended up teaching Karly the 10 commandments with hand signals and it was a fun time.

 

Hope you all have a wonderful week.

 

Love,

Elder Aaron Ashby