Week 73

Last Monday: We had a lesson with a man named Gentry Caldwell and he had some life changing experiences and wanted to change his life so he tracked us down and we met with him. We talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ and how through living it, we can find joy and peace. He loved the message and had the desire to be baptized, so he accepted a baptismal date for February 10th. 

Tuesday: We had the opportunity to go to Elder Steeds district meeting and evaluate it with him. It was a good meeting focused on accountability and doing your very best each and every day. It was a good revelatory experience for me to learn things that will help those missionaries under my stewardship. We started exchanges with Elder Maple and Elder Clawson in the afternoon. I was with Elder Clawson in their area, while Elder Owens was with Elder maple in our area. Back to biking whooo! We were on our way to dinner and we got a call from their senior missionary couple with a kid who wants to go to seminary and also be baptized! You don’t get that phone call every day haha. Hopefully the Elders can work with him in the future. At night we had a lesson with one of their investigators Alex. He had a lot of questions and we were able to have a good lesson on the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He had a lot of questions, but mainly about why there are so many churches. We explained that Jospeh Smith was in the same boat as he was and he knew through reading the Bible that if you lack wisdom ask God. Joseph Smith was visited by Heavenly Father (God) and Jesus Christ. He was told that every church had bits and pieces of truth but not all of it in its entirety. He then received instruction and eventually restored all of the gospel, or teaching of Jesus Christ with the proper priesthood authority. After the lesson Elder Clawson and I had a good chat about how he can further the missionary work in his area. With their area they need to work smarter, rather than harder. They only have three wards and in Utah that’s a small geographical area. We came up with some ideas on how to find people to teach and it was good for Elder Clawson, he has only been out for 3 months so it was a good teaching opportunity. 

Wednesday: We ended exchanges in the morning with the Elders. We had to plan for our Zone leadership council for Thursday. At night we had a lesson with Gentry and it went pretty good. We knew he had some word of wisdom problems so we taught that and then he expressed a concern about the law of chastity. We ended up teaching that as well and he committed to live both of those commandments! 

Thursday: We went to the mission office in the morning to pick up some statistics for the West Jordan zone and it just so happened to be our mission presidents wife’s birthday! We were able to say happy birthday to her in person and she had a cool cake that is the hill Cumorah where Jospeh smith retrieved the gold plates. (Now the Book of Mormon) We had our ZLC all focused on having positive daily contact with the missionaries in their stewardship and to help inspire them rather than nagging them about their results from their missionary work. The other topic we talked about was preparation, with the analogy of “wood.” Wood is what makes a fire and our mission has been talking about how we need to “be on fire” so being a missionary with an edge. Well you don’t just become like that overnight. It comes through scripture study, being diligent, and feeling the Holy Ghost guide you. We had another lesson with Alex and Saia. After dinner we taught the Lolohea’s. Sadly Damion was in bed before we got there but we taught the rest of the kids. 

Friday: Well on exchanges with Elder Maple and Clawson, Elder Owens and maple figured out that at the stake center in the morning there is a group of 8-10 adults that play basketball in the morning. They play every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in the morning from 5:30am till about 7am so we planned on going and played some good games. Man was I gassed though haha! Good to play some basketball for morning exercise. The days they don’t play Elder Owens and I have been going and shooting around and doing some drills. He’s 6ft 7in and didn’t play basketball so I’m trying to coach him haha! It’s been fun though. We went to Elder Luke and Lybe’s weekly planning session to help them out and to see what they can do to improve. It felt weird helping them plan for the Mountain View Stake (the area I grew up in) but was kind of cool. Our night didn’t go as planned. We had a few lessons scheduled and they canceled last minute, but that’s missionary life! 

Saturday: We had breakfast with our Stake President, President Watkins in the morning. His daughter just got home from her mission in Washington DC North, so it was kind of cool to see how different each mission is. We did what is known as a blitz in Sister Cox and Peterson’s area. A blitz is where a few companionships of missionaries work in one area usually because the area is struggling. Our objective in doing the blitz is to teach the companionship how to fish rather than having us fish for them. (Don’t find people for them, but teach them how to find people) Well it didn’t go as well as we hoped. We found them a bunch of referrals, and one of the Sister training leaders talked to someone in the street and found them a new investigator. So the Sister training leaders went on splits with the sisters and the Sister missionaries who’s area it was didn’t really talk at all and let everyone else do it for them so we missed the boat on that one. 

Sunday: Elder Owens and I split up in the morning. I went to the garden cove ward council and he went to the elm creek ward council. After the ward councils we met back up and went to the plum creek sacrament meeting. Sadly 3 of our investigators in that ward didn’t show up. After that we went to the Garden cove ward to go to church with Gentry and as we texted him too see if he was coming he told us that his girlfriend moved back in and that he wouldn’t make it to church. Man was that a rough text to get on Sunday. Since he is living with his girlfriend he can’t be baptized on February 10th since he didn’t make it to church and he is breaking a commandment. We will be meeting with him on Monday and hopefully we can work things out and get him back on track to be baptized. It’s always interesting how Sunday’s can make or break your week. If people don’t come to church they can’t progress towards baptism. When we are baptized we make our first covenant with God (two way promise) and the blessings are conditional upon keeping the promises we have made. Eventually we make our next covenant in the temple with God when we are ready. We read in the Book of Mormon that baptism is the gate. Baptism is the gate to heaven but it doesn’t mean that’s all we need to do.

Love you all!

Elder Aaron Ashby 

Week 72

Tuesday: We had the opportunity to watch the President Nelson broadcast while at the mission office before Zone Conference. We saw President Russell M. Nelson call his new councilors from the quorum of the 12. Apparently they have never done a broadcast but they decided to do one so everyone could know before General Conference. Zone Conference was a really good meeting. There were a lot of things talked about and trained on such as: FIRE, new year new start, leadership, sickness expectations, and more FIRE! It was perfect for what our zone needed and hopefully the new missionaries see how important the little things are. Something that really stood out to me was a missionary that was in my district when I was a district leader. In her departing testimony she expressed the importance of having leaders with patience and talked about a principle of something I always told her, and that is there are only two things you can control everyday, attitude and effort. To me it was cool to see how through my ministry I was able to help someone become better. That is one of my favorite things about a mission is seeing how other people can grow, and in the process you yourself change. After Zone Conference we taught a recent convert Jason Blake. At night we went out with a ward mission leader Brother Gerard and did some visits in the plum creek ward. 

Wednesday: In the morning we went by one of the Elders apartments and got some of their extra supplies and a bike to take to the mission office. While we were there the Riverton Zone was having their interviews with the mission president and we got to see a few Elders. Elder Nascimento was wearing a nice blue and white floral tie and I jokingly asked him what I needed to do to get that tie and he said he would trade me straight up for the tie I was wearing! Let’s just say it was worth it. We printed off some things to hand to the district leaders and then meet up with them to talk about their missionaries. After that we started exchanges with Elder Costa and Almeida. I had the opportunity to be with Elder Costa which so happens to be my trainer when I started my mission! At night we went to the church building to use the bathroom and as we walked passed a room Elder Costa was like, “I know him.” And proceeded to walk into the room where the young men were meeting. There was someone he taught about a year ago when he was in the area and we sat in on their meeting which was about the word of wisdom. We talked to Jordan after and set up a time to come by and start meeting with the missionaries again. 

Thursday: We ended exchanges in the morning with Elder Costa and Almedia and then later in the day started another exchange with the assistants to the president. I was with Elder Pineda and Elder Owens was with Elder Garcia. It’s pretty funny because Elder Garcia and Pineda were Elder Owens last two companions! We went out with two ward mission leaders and split up. I had a good visit with a family that is active and that pretty much took up our visit time. After that we met back up and went to go teach one of our investigators Damion but they went to the West Jordan basketball game. We had a stake missionary meeting at night and it was kind of sad that only 2 out of the 8 ward mission leaders showed up and it was a great meeting. We took the Spanish Elders home after the meeting and that pretty much ended our night. Elder Pineda talked about  the Zone and what we can do to help it and I learned so much from him. 

Friday: We ended exchanges with the assistants in the morning and then finished our morning routine. After our lunch Correlation meeting with the senior missionary couple the Remington’s we started our next exchange! Yes three exchanges in a row. So Elder Owens hasn’t worked in our area for three days and I stayed and lead out in our area for three days with a new companion each night haha! This exchange was with Elder Steed and Collier. I was with Elder Collier, (one of my former companions.) We had another lesson with Alex and Saia and then played some basketball. Me and Elder Collier put down the hammer on them haha. After dinner we had a lesson with the Moctezumas, who is a family we are working with. We had a quick lesson about how we got the Book of Mormon and used the Book of Mormon stories to explain it. After that lesson we had a lesson with Damion. We taught the law of tithing and man he and his cousins are so funny haha! We finished our night by picking up Elder Owens and Steed since it snowed a crazy amount and they were on bikes. Elder Owens made his first snowman while waiting haha! 

Saturday: We had a mini emergency meeting in the morning because we felt like the zone has forgotten their missionary purpose. We talked about the “your calling” section in the white handbook (missionary rule book basically) and let them see all the things they promised their leaders, and the Lord the things they would do as a missionary. It was a real eye opener as we were preparing the training Friday afternoon. After the meeting we went to a baptism that was happening in the zone. Sister Williams and Sister Perry had a man who was investigating the church named Michael who was baptized. Funny story, so the Sister’s cover the Mountain View Stake which is the Stake I grew up in, so they had the baptism at my old Stake center and he was baptized in the same font as me haha! Before the baptism started a saw a familiar face walk in. Brother Walker who used to be my bishop when I grew up and a good family friend. He is the high councilor over missionary work In the Stake, So it was good to say hi to him. After the baptism we talked to the sisters about the meeting they missed due to the need of being there early to the baptism. At night we taught a recent convert Juan. He had a lot of good questions about the Book of Mormon and were able to answer them. 

Sunday: We had to split up for the day to cover more wards since we had some investigators coming to church. I was with our ward mission leader Brother Gerard and went to the plum creek ward council and then to the sacrament meeting. Brother Gerard had to go take care of ward business for a few minutes so I ended up teaching gospel principles haha go figure, missionaries covering up when people are supposed to teach! I was dropped off at the elm creek ward with the Remington’s after that and stayed there for all three hours then got back with Elder Owens at 4pm. At night we took Saia Lapale out with us to work for the night. It was a crazy week with three exchanges in a row but there’s never a dull moment on the mission! 

Hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Aaron Ashby

Week 71

Tuesday: So on Tuesday we evaluated Elder Butikofer’s District meeting (a responsibility as a zone leader) and it went pretty well for his first district meeting ever. He gave a training for the first time on his mission so that was cool to see how well he did for his first time. The main topic was working with members and finding. Of course as a young missionary in leadership there were a lot of tips and pointers we gave him so he could have a more revelatory district meeting.  During the meeting one of the Sister missionaries was really sick and didn’t feel too well. After we gave her a priesthood blessing. We went and got some medicine for Sister Cox and took it over to a members home where they were staying at. We got a call from the Sister training leaders and had some bad news. Apparently her companion sister Peterson who has been out for a week and the member they were with were disrespecting the sister training leaders. They wanted sister Peterson to find a split and go out and work in her area while someone stays with Sister Cox, but Sister Peterson and the member told them no. Oh man was it a drama filled day... most of my day up until dinner was dealing with this problem. At night I went out with a ward mission leader Brother Evans and we stopped by and taught a man named Bob. He has some different ideas, but is willing to listen and meet with us. 

Wednesday: We dropped off Elder Budges bike in the morning, it was broken and we had a member who fixed the broken parts for us. After that we started exchanges. I was with Elder Butikofer in their area, and Elder Owens was with Elder Passeraub in our area. So I was back on a bike for the day!!! It was actually pretty funny how it all started off, so Elder Owens and Passeraub went to a church building to do their studies. In the mean time I realize that we have both phones, the one for our area and the one for their area so we couldn’t get ahold of them. Well we figured they would come looking for us at the church building to realize that Elder Passeraub had the keys to their church building haha! So we got the phones and they got the keys! I eventually got on Facebook since we got it for our mission and I messaged Elder Owens and had them come back over to get the phone and so we could have the keys. At night we went on splits with a ward mission leader and ward missionary. It just so happens that I go with the ward missionary who is a return missionary. He only had a few names of people we could drop by and visit and we hit them all up and didn't have anybody else to go to and since it was my area I didn't know who to go visit so we ended up talking in the car for a good 40 minutes waiting for Elder Butikofer to get back from their visits. After that we tried to go teach two less active kids and sadly they both weren’t home. While back on a bike I didn’t crash but almost did haha! I was riding my bike and I pulled over to the side of the road since a car was coming and my front tire got stuck in those things where the water flows into by the curb and I almost went airborne haha! 

Thursday: We finished exchanges in the morning and I had a good talk with Elder Butikofer about things he could do to be a better district leader and to gain the trust of his missionaries he has stewardship over. He was humble and willing to listen and apply the things we talked about. We figured out that while we were on exchanges Elder Owens and Passeraub were waiting for someone to go on visits with them and they were talking to a bishop and a potential investigator we have been trying to meet with walked in the church to have a meeting with the Bishop and our bishop told him that he should meet with us so we will be teaching him here soon. We had a Zone leadership council in the morning which includes all the district leaders and sister training leaders and the assistants decided to come as well. (They both were Elder Owens companions so they like coming to our meetings.) It was a real powerful and emotional meeting. We aren’t having a good month as missionaries in the West Jordan zone so we had to really help our district leaders and STLs see how hard we need to be working these upcoming weeks. We had a meeting with the Assistants after the ZLC and they went over some expectations they have for us this transfer and it was a great opportunity to learn. We had a house inspection after the meeting. We had a lesson with our investigator Alex and his friend Saia and we always have a lesson and then play basketball and as always we had some good games. After dinner I dropped Elder Owens off at a ward mission leaders home to go over the ward mission plan while I went out with a priest age young man. Well we didn’t see too much success but it was some good opportunities for the priest to learn and prepare for a mission. We came back and met up again with Elder Owens and we ended up watching Alex and Saia play in a church basketball game and they were down like 17 points at a given time and they came back from a 10 point deficient to bring it to a 1 point game with 10 seconds left but with the lack of experience they didn’t know what to do and ended up losing by 2. Alex hit 4 threes within the last two minutes to bring them back so we are proud because we beat them twice that day and warmed him up so we take full credit for the comeback haha! 

Friday: Elder Owens and I were so exhausted after yesterday playing basketball with Alex and Saia and staying up late the whole week dealing with missionaries who have problems, we woke up and got down on our knees to say our morning prayers and before you know it, a second alarm goes off. We both fell asleep on our knees with our heads on our beds and the alarm that goes off for us to be done working out woke us up haha! It only gets crazier as the week goes on. We watched President Thomas S. Monson’s funeral (our prophet on the earth) in the morning on LDS.org. There were some good things shared about President Monson and we will miss him as our prophet of God here on the Earth, but know that our church has order and is lead by Christ we will have a new prophet on Tuesday. We had our lunch correlation meeting with the Remington’s and they found a new investigator! They are teaching a part member family and will open the way for us to teach them. We had a meeting with Elder Costa one of the district leaders and talked about some problems that were going on and then had to head to the mission home to have zone leader accountability. Zone leader accountability is where we talk about every missionary in the zone and talk about how they are doing. There are 24 missionaries in our zone and since there has been a lot of drama with some missionaries it was longer. We got some good insights from the assistants to the president and our mission president. President Lansing said he was going to handle one of the problem companionships in our Zone so that was music to our ears knowing we wouldn’t have to deal with as much drama haha! President Lansing is wanting us as zone leaders to be an example to those in our Zone so we need to work hard and be that example to those in our stewardship. 

Saturday: We went in the morning and picked up a companionship of Spanish Elders who cover one of the wards in the stake, so we could have our Saturday breakfast with the stake president, President Watkins. After breakfast we went over to one of our district leaders buildings to give Elder Steed a blessing, his district is struggling and there is a lot going on and he was stressed out. We gave him a blessing and then as we finished the Sister missionaries in his district called and asked for a blessing. We drove him over to where he needed to be to give the Sisters a blessing. We met up with Elder Butikofer and talked about some things President Lansing has envisioned for us as leaders in the mission and some goals. We helped him with things that he could do to be a more effective leader. We go to our dinner appointment and will all the craziness going on we forgot to call and confirm dinner so we get there and knock on the door and Elder Ray answered the door?!?!?! He was a former missionary who served in the mission and he was in town visiting and he lived in the persons house for a part of his mission and he was actually the only person home and he gave us some money to go get some dinner. Seth Ray (that feels weird calling him that instead of Elder Ray) came in clutch that night and we got some Wendys haha! At night we taught a recent convert Juan a lesson on commandments.

Sunday: We went to an early morning meeting that we thought was a ward council but actually turned out to be a PEC (priesthood executive committee) Either way we left the meeting with a couple referrals. We went to the Plum Creek ward and the gave talks in the Fountaine Claire ward. I gave a talk on missionary work and Elder Owens gave a talk on the Book of Mormon. It was a pretty good meeting we had everyone laughing at times but also had serious times where people felt the spirit which is an ideal talk. I focused a lot on extending invitations to people because you love them. After our long day of church we went out on some visits with the Bishop of the Plum creek ward to go visit Alex and his mom. (His mom isn’t too fond of the church) We talked with Alex at the door and Bishop and the young men’s president will go by a different day and talk to his mom because Alex wants to be baptized but his mom is holding him back. After dinner we went and picked up a good buddy of mine Jacob Stauffer and he came out with us for the night and worked with us. We knew we had to work hard to achieve the standards of excellence (two people on date for baptism, two investigators at church, and two new investigators) One of our investigators couldn’t make it out to church so we needed to find an investigator who came to church and we heard about this part member family where they came to church today so we  stoped by their house and started talking with the husband “meet” (thats how its pronounced haha?) who was not LDS and we started talking and he said he wanted to find his path or trip back to God so we talked about it for a little bit and then got a return appointment to teach him more next Sunday. So we had everything but one investigator who is on date for baptism and we knew that the Lord would prepare someone if we had the faith. We were running around (literally!!!) from 7:30pm-8:58pm  trying to find someone who was ready to receive the fullness of the gospel and we talk to a man at 8:58 pm (need to end the day at 9pm) and his name was Montez and we talked to him, and he recently moved in from Indiana and he said he wanted to learn more and develop his relationship with God and Jesus Christ. We started talking about ways we can show we love them and follow Christs example and be baptized and he said, “Yeah I’ll be baptized.” It was so cool to see how through our faith and diligence we were able to have that miracle with Montez! We were able to be an effective instrument in the Lords hand and were able to hit the standards of excellence to be an example to our Zone and we know that it was all possible because we had faith. (We claim that it was all because of Jacob haha, but we needed it and the Lord blessed us) 

It was truly a blessing to see how it may have been the longest week of my mission, staying up till midnight every night planning for meetings and dealing with problems in the zone, but since we endured well we were able to be blessed with miracles! I love this gospel and the ability I have to share it with others all the time!

 

Hope you all have had a wonderful week...this was one of the craziest weeks that I have had!

 

Love,

Elder Aaron Ashby

Week 70

Tuesday: Well it was crazy getting the transfer calls that I was going to West Jordan and it didn't really hit me till I got there in the morning. We dropped of Elder Butikofer one of the district leaders off at his senior missionary’s serving in his stake since he would be training new missionary. Elder Owens was in a trio for two weeks since one of our assistants tore his ACL, MCL, and meniscus and had to go home, so Elder Owens companion became the new assistant. We had a crazy day getting bikes, (a responsibility that zone leaders have.) we had to pick up 3 and get them to missionaries so they can work on bikes rather than walking. We also had to meet with all the district leaders to go over their responsibilities and their missionaries in their stewardship. At night we went out on visits with brother Evans, one of our ward mission leaders. It turns out it was one of my buddies ward (Jacob Stauffer) it was really funny because I knew a handful of people in his ward haha! We helped Elder Steed and Collier (Elder Collier was a former companion) with some videos for their training for multi district meeting to finish up our night. 

Wednesday: We had a multi district meeting in the morning and it was crazy because we had all Tuesday night to plan for a meeting and I didn’t go to the meeting where they got instructions from President Lansing since it fell on the last transfer. So we had to plan the meeting at night and ask companionships to help with trainings. The meeting went pretty good. It was a little stressful and to add to it, President Lansing came to the meeting. All in all it went well. We trained on goal setting and working with leadership of the wards. After the meeting we sat down with Elder Butikofer to talk about the roles as a district leader and had to teach him some things since it is his first transfer as a district leader. We finished up the bike duties after all the meetings. 

Thursday: We had a zone expectations meeting in the morning and it went a lot better than the multi district meeting. We talked about planning and how to have effective planning sessions and then using facebook as tool to do missionary work. Just when you thought you where good with leaders coming to observe your meetings, the Assistants to the president showed up. After the meeting we had some lunch and started our visits with all the missionaries in the zone to see what their expectations were for us as their zone leaders and if there was anything we could do for them. We had a lesson with an investigator Alex, who is 17. We taught him the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ using basketball. (we have a lesson and then play some basketball) It was a pretty good lesson and had some good basketball games. At night we went on splits with some ward mission leaders. Then we had a stake missionary Correlation meeting to finish off our night. 

Friday: We had our lunch Correlation meeting with our senior missionary couple the Remington’s and after that we finished meeting with missionaries to see what their expectations were for us. We had to go get some medicine for Elder Butikofer since he had the flu. We had a lesson with a recent convert who’s name was Juan. Juan joined the church in December and we taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ, which entails; faith, repentance, baptism, Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. Juan has such a good heart and his conversion story was pretty cool to hear. 

Saturday: We had a breakfast Correlation meeting with our Stake President in the morning. There are three companionships of Elders in the stake, the Spanish ward has two sets and we cover all the English wards. We were able to tell the Stake president how we felt the missionary work was going in the stake and what we could do to improve it. The Bingham creek stake does really well in missionary work  but could definitely do better with all the potential it has. We were trying to talk to a few bishops in the morning and one of them so happened to live two houses away from the Stauffer's so we stopped by after that and caught up with a childhood friend Jacob. His parents gave out a Book of Mormon to their neighbors so we might be working with them in the future! That would be a sweet experience. At night we went out and tried to contact some people in our apartment complexes (first time having apartments on my mission and Ive been out for 16 months!) 

Sunday: We started our morning off by going to a ward council in the plum creek ward and man was the ward council focused on missionary work! All we did was come up with names and people to go visit. After that I couldn’t tell you how many people came up to me and knew me haha! Elder Owens claims that I am a celebrity here in West Jordan since everyone knows me. We saw plenty of family friends and random people who I didn't know but they knew me haha! We went to the plum creek ward sacrament meeting and it was a really good meeting and everyone that bore their testimonies talked about missionary work. The Lapalee family always brings two of their neighbors with them to church and pretty much the whole lapalee family bore their testimonies. After that we went to another sacrament meeting and I knew a few people there as well haha! We started talking to one of the bishopric members in one of the wards and I knew his stepdaughter Kassidy and we are going to go by and maybe start teaching her some things and see if she will come back to church. We met with a bishop before he was about to leave and we got some good plans to help people in his ward. We had a meeting with our high councilor over missionary work and talked about what we want to focus on in the stake to improve the missionary efforts. At night we took a priest out with us, his name is Saia Lapalee. We played basketball with him and Alex on Thursday and was with him at church. We had some good visits and had some fun doing it!

Well one week in and I have seen plenty of people I knew and grew up with and I know that the Lord has placed me in this stake to touch certain people’s lives and I am truly grateful and blessed!

Hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Aaron Ashby

Pictures from this week...Erin Demke is in my new Stake.  She is a friend of the family and even babysat me when I was younger.  Small world.

 

Week 69

Tuesday: We had district meeting in the morning and it was all focused on ordinances and covenants. When we teach people we often think baptism is all we teach for, but baptism is only the start and the first ordinance in our progression. After the district meeting we had our time to email and do any activities. We went to pick up Chipotle after the meeting and my wonderful parents gave me a gift card so Chipotle was on me. After we ate Chipotle we went to Alta to play in the snow/hike the same place we went to on Monday. At night we had a family home evening with the Wray family. 

Wednesday: We had a fun day of trying to contact people and didn’t have too much success. We found two sober living homes but they both have restrictions that make it so we cant talk to anyone in them which is a bummer because those are usually the best place to teach because they are trying to make changes in their lives and it is a good fit for them. 

Thursday: At night we had dinner with the  Clarke family which are friends in West Jordan. We went to Freddys and had some good conversations. It was good to meet up with my buddy Steven who was a childhood friend. After dinner we went over to a recent converts house and read some Book of Mormon stories together. 

Friday: We had exchanges with Elder Bretschneider and Curtis and man was it a crazy. We started the day off by going to a baptism for someone he taught and it was by the sisters in the zone, SIster Casagranda and Fossum. One of the investigators that all three have taught was there. We were talking to Ali and then he just started asking questions that were like anti Mormon stuff and we started answering them and teaching. At this point all the people had left the baptism and it was just us Ali and the STLs. We all started teaching him and he was like I want to hear what every missionary has to say about the topic. Then after asking all these questions he said, “January 6th.” He straight up put himself on date for baptism. I interviewed him right then and there. The second question was do you believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God? He said he didn’t truly believe it. After 10  minutes of talking about the importance of Joseph Smith in the restoration of the gospel of of Jesus Christ he said okay yes I believe he is a prophet. Well then the sub question is do you believe that _____ (Thomas S. Monson) is a prophet of God and he said who’s that? So we decided to play one of his General Conference talks and if we watched it he would know that he was our current prophet on the earth. Well he knew without a doubt that he was! He believes everything but the word of wisdom but the sisters will be teaching him that. It was so crazy to see an investigator go from being anti to allowing the sprit to penetrate his heart. After that we ate some grub and then had to head over to the temple because someone I thought in my first area (Jason) was getting his endowments out at the draper temple. It was a blessing to be able to go to the temple with him and Elder Fitzgerald. I can’t express to you how much his conversion story has helped me on my mission. While we were at the temple Elder Bretschneider was with his MTC companion Elder Horne. All around it was a great day. 

Saturday: We played some basketball in the morning Elder Bretschneider and I. Had some good games. In the morning we had a meeting with a ward mission leader and then taught one of their investigators. We had a good last visit with the Jensens because we both felt like one of us would be transferred. 

Sunday: We went to the 10th ward sacrament meeting and then hung out with the Roberts family in the 6th ward and played some games like wacky 6 and ammonia I think. After that we had dinner over at the Walters house in the 10th ward. We played some fun games , not sure the name but I think code name? As we were at the Walters house we got a call from the assistants that they wanted to meet with us. Oh boy.... well turns out I have been called to be a zone leader. They didn’t tell me who my companion was or the area I will serve in though. 

Well turns out I will be a zone leader in West Jordan!!!! My stake will be the Bingham creek stake which is right across the street from my home in West Jordan!!! I cant believe it! My companion will be Elder Owens. He was in my first district and he is from Texas. It will be a crazy start to the new year but I am excited to learn and grow even more! 

Hope you all have a great week!

Love Elder Aaron Ashby

Pictures:  The Clarke's, Jason and Amy at the Temple

Week 68

Tuesday: We had interviews with our mission president in the morning and it went pretty well. President has expressed how much I have helped Elder Healy and it's one of the rewarding things on the mission to know that you are helping people change their lives. After the meeting we stopped at Chipotle because Chipotle is the only way to Go! At night we taught Mason North and his buddy Tai who help reactivate him. 

Wednesday: We had our district meeting all focused on reconnecting our investigators with the savior. He is the only way to come back to our heavenly father. It was insane later on in the day with the snow. It was pretty hard to bike into the wind with all the snow hitting us in the face but we persiverded. At night we helped someone move and man I kid you not it was like a 50ft long trailer packed with stuff! It took us a good 2.5 hours and then half an hour to unload some stuff into storage. 

Thursday: We had a zone leadership council in the morning and it was just down the hill from our apartment so I figured it would be easy to get there but all the snow from last night was pure ice! It was hard for me to stay up and after a few crashes we called the Zone leaders to pick us up. The meeting was focused on gratitude and how there has been a lot of gratitude this holiday season and that we need to be having it all year long because we are so blessed. At night we taught the Holmes family in the 11th ward. It was really cool to talk to the dad because he is a decendent of Lehi's seed. He knew all the native American legends because his parents taught it to him. He serve his mission in Oklahoma/Texas which ended up having the highest concentration of native Americans. He was teaching his extended family. His grandfather gave the book of Mormon or in other words the stories of their ancestors and it was so cool to hear! 

Friday: We gave the sisters a blessing in the morning since they were sick. We started exchanges with the Elders after the blessing. I was with Elder Curtis. We had a crazy good fiest lesson with a lady named Leah. She was totally ready to learn more about God and Jesus Christ. Her boyfriend is less active but wants to start coming back to church. She was excited about baptism and trying to show her love for God. We taught their other investigator Randy and it went pretty well. 

Saturday: Not too much happened, just had a long day of trying to contact people. 

Sunday: Christmas Eve! We went to the hidden valley 4th ward sacrament meeting that was pretty good. After that we had lunch abd games with the Freddrickson family. Let's just say don't ever play me in the game Mexican train, either I'm real lucky or it's my game haha. We had dinner and games at the Walkers house. Then ended the night playing games with the Wray family. 

Monday: Merry Christmas!!! We got up a little earlier and played basketball with the Elders in our district. We had breakfast with the Jensen family in the morning and then got to Skype the  family. After the call home we went on a hike with the zone leaders up at Alta! Then we ended the night playing games with the Uliberrys! 

It was a great Christmas and thanks to everyone for the support, it's been one if the best decisions I've made! 

Love,

Elder Aaron Ashby

Pics this week...