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.
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