Week 90

Last Monday: We had a stake activity where all the YSA wards met at a park and they catered iceberg (burgers and shakes) there was probably 900+ people there and they made the missionaries in the stake go up in front of everyone and introduce ourselves. 

Tuesday: We had zone conference in the morning and it was really good. It was all focused on repentance and how often times we as missionaries briefly go over repentance and talk about baptism. It opened my eyes to see how important repentance is and how it leads us to baptism. It talks about repentance in the scriptures probably 5 times more than baptisms because first they need to repent and have a change of heart. Our mission President advised us to read every scriptural reference in the Index for the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price. It has opened up my eyes even more about repentance. We choose whether we want to be free from sin or stay in bondage from our sins by our choices. As president Monson said, "decisions determine destiny." Our choices with either bring us happiness or sorrow. At night I did a baptismal interview for Benjamin and Anderson Vaca. A 12 year old and 9 year old kid. They are super solid and really know what promises they are making to Heavenly father when they are being baptized. 

Wednesday: We had to go grab a mini fridge for our apartment in the morning. We got it from an old missionary apartment. After that we had our home inspections to make sure we are keeping our apartments clean. At zone conference our mission Presidents wife wants the whole mission to read the Book of Mormon in one day. So what she did was unbind a Book of Mormon and gave each companionship  zone leaders pages from the Book of Mormon for us to highlight annotate etc and we are to hand them out to the missionaries in our zone. After she will collect them all and bind it back together and have it saved in the mission office. We had to organize them and get them all situated. Elder Rodriguez got Ether 12 which is all about Faith. I got Moroni 10 which is the last chapter in the Book of Mormon.

Thursday: We visited every missionary in our zone and handed out pages of the book of Mormon to them and explained what they needed to do with it. It was kind of an interesting night because we were supposed to have an exchange with Elder Dunn and Wagner but they had a baptismal interview and a lesson where they needed to be at and it went a little long so we did dinner together and then had to split back with our normal companions and work. We basically started exchanges at 8:30pm and just finished the night.

Friday: We had a lesson with Sabrina in the morning and as we started talking to her and helping her figure out if she is ready to be baptized we figured out that the thing holding her back from being baptized is telling her parents. She is afraid of how her parents would react to her joining the Mormon religion. Her dad is Christian and her mom is Buddhist. We helped to her understand that she can be a beacon of light to her family and that they will see the joy that has come into her life since her conversion. She said she would talk to her parents so we are excited. At night over in some of our apartment complexes we ran into people that were moving in and helped two different families move in.

Saturday: today was probably one of the craziest days of my mission! In the morning I got to go back to West Jordan for Jennifer's baptism! It was a special experience because of her choosing me to baptize her. It was the first time in my life physically baptizing someone. Jennifer is a character and I enjoyed every moment teaching her. I knew that she was going to be baptized when I first met her with Elder Gehrett. Elder Cronin and Mayberry dropped me back off in Herriman to go to Benjamin and Anderson Vaca's baptism. After that baptism we went to Tylajey's baptism who was being taught by Elder Alarcon and Westover. Elder Rodriguez interviewed him on Monday night. Then we went to Nicholas' baptism who was being taught by Sister Nelson and Neuhaus. After the baptism we met with Elder Gehrett and Henley to go over some things that needs to be pushed in the mission and in our zone. At night we taught Jon who went from being atheist to knowing that God is real in 3 days! He said he is gonna hold up his end of the deal and be baptized since God gave him a witness that he is real. He basically taught us the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through his questions and it just blew our minds of how much change he has had.

Sunday: We went to the SoJo 11th ward for ward council. We split up for sacrament meetings. I went to mountain view to go to church with Parley but sadly he didn't come. While Elder Rodriguez went to Rose canyon. Then I went to the Tongan ward (SoJo 11th) while Elder Rodriguez went to Butterfield canyon. It was fun and interesting to sing hymns in Tongan.

Monday: It wasn't our normal preparation day since we went to the temple today but we were able to get some things done and met up with Jadon and Jaron two of my childhood buddies and played some basketball and invited them to come to activities and church. 

 

Hope you all have a great week!

 

Love,

Elder Aaron Ashby

 

Pics: Jennifer's Baptism

 

Week 89

Monday night: We had our FHE (Family home evening, but in YSA just a get to together to do activities) and played a live game of guess who. We were expecting our investigator to be there but nobody could cover him for work. Later at night we taught an investigator Jon and he was agnostic but said he would join our church except he doesn’t think he can pay tithing. He said he wanted a sign from God to know that he is real for him to fully investigate the church. He jokingly said if I somehow got a raise at work or applied for and job even though I'm not qualified and get it, I would believe in God and get baptized in your church. We promised him that if he would exercise a particle of faith and read and pray daily God would bless him with a new job or pay raise. He offered a prayer for the first time in his life and felt really good. 

Tuesday: We had district meeting in the morning and we went to Elder Alarcon’s district meeting. It was a really good district meeting even though it was his first district meeting as a district leader. His meeting was all focused on obedience and when we are converted to help other people and their testimonies. After the meeting we made We went by Herriman High school seminary to see if there were any seniors who have seminary in their schedules but aren’t members of the LDS church. There was only one but we are waiting to see if that goes against the schools policy to give us the persons info. Our thought process is that they would be graduating in a few days and then they could go to the YSA ward.

Wednesday: We had a lesson with Sabrina in the morning again and we talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ mixed with tithing because she was a little confused on the atonement and gospel of Jesus Christ and she wanted to know what tithing was. She is pretty solid to be baptized but she is just waiting for more of a confirmation by the spirit that this is what she needs to be doing. She has had great strides in her investigation of the church and knows that there have been a lot fo good things come to her from learning about the church. In the afternoon we started exchanges with Elder Alarcon and Westover. I went to their area with Elder Alarcon to help him because this is his first time serving in an English assignment and being a district leader. We were able to see some good visits and contacts. While we were waiting for a ride there was about 8 kids playing basketball on a 8ft hoop and we jumped in and played with them for a few minutes. They were in awe when we started throwing down one handed tomahawk dunks. 

Thursday: We ended exchanges in the morning and then went to our ZLC (zone leadership council) it was all focused on following up on invitations we have with our investigators and missionaries we work with. Not following up on an invitation is like buying a ticket and not going to the concert. The assistants Elder Gehrett and Henley came to our meeting and they both absolutely love Riverton. It was great to see them there and for their closing remarks to help inspire the members of RN Nation. We met with our ward mission leader at night who is over the Tongan YSA ward that we cover. He is new to his calling so we figure out what will be best to have some work going on in his ward. We came up with some good ideas and it looks like activities will be our best bet to find people who are interested in the church so that means more basketball! We ended up going to sports night after our meeting with Lala our ward mission leader. We played some volleyball but sadly parley couldn’t make it out. 

Friday: We had our accountability meeting with President and Sister Lansing and the assistants. It was a good accountability meeting because we realize that every missionary in our zone is doing well in their missionary work and RN Nation is doing the best its ever done. At night I did two baptismal interviews for Benjamin and Anderson Vaca. One is 12 and the other is 10 and they are getting baptized on May 26th. While we were eating dinner we got a text from our investigator Jon and he said, “Elders you have yourselves a convert.” Talk about exercising a particle of faith!!! He tested his faith and trusted in the promise we left him and God provided for him! He will be baptized this trainer for sure! 

Saturday: In the morning we had to give a sister missionary a blessing in the morning because she wasn’t feeling too good. We had a lot of success in our area this week so we dedicated most of our day to visit members in the Tongan YSA ward to get to know them and how we can assist them in their member missionary work. I am super pumped to work in the Tongan YSA ward and I have only heard great things about it. 

Sunday: It was an interesting day because we didn’t have church since the Jordan River Temple was being rededicated so we watched the dedication of that instead. However we got tickets from our stake president to go into the temple for the live session of the dedication. It was a really neat experience and will probably be a once in a lifetime opportunity! Afterwards all the Elders in our mission helped take down chairs in the temple and let’s just say we all moved around 1000 chairs!!! We had some snacks and then they needed a few missionaries to stay and help them move furniture in the temple back to its proper place and that took us up till the end of the night! We were at the temple from 1pm-9pm for the dedication and service! It was an amazing opportunity to serve in the temple and to have that experience. 

 

Have a wonderful week!

 

Love,

Elder Aaron Ashby

Pictures from the Temple Dedication

 

Week 88

Tuesday: We had transfers in the morning. It was sad to leave West Jordan and Elder Mayberry but there are new things ahead for me! My buddy Jacob Stauffer helped me move out to Herriman to my new area. Our day mainly consisted of getting bikes for missionaries that are new to the zone. Elder Rodriguez my new companion is awesome! He’s from Texas and loves to play basketball and football so we get along great. He is also a hilarious companion who always has a joke to say. At night we had to plan out our multi district meeting. Luckily we were both in the mission leadership meeting last week so we knew what we needed to train on. Elder Rodriguez has been out about 11 months and it is his second transfer as a zone leader.

Wednesday: We had our multi district meeting in the morning which was really good. We talked about the role of a companionship and “keeping our line in the water” so always working in a sense. We did a training where we talked about how important it is to keep our line in the water. On average we work from 10am-9pm. We have an hour for dinner and half an hour for lunch and companionship study. We end up working on average 9 hours a day. When we waste only half an hour every day for the two years we serve on our missions we will waste around 40 days to work! How crazy is that!!! It was a big eye opener for all the missionaries in RN Nation (Riverton Nation, the zones nickname) We had to jumpstart the Sister missionaries car because it was having problems after the meeting. At night we talked to a girl named Hannah. Her mom is LDS and her dad is not. They are divorced and she has been going back and forth from Utah and Connecticut. She said she was going to be baptized LDS when she was younger but her dad talked her out of it and wanted her to make that decision when she was older. We talked with her and she has never heard of a young single adult ward and seemed interested and was willing to pray about being baptized now! 

Thursday: In the morning we had our zone expectations meeting which is all about what we are expecting from them this transfer. We felt prompted that it needs to be about our missionary purpose and thats it. If missionaries know and live their missionary purpose they will see success. It was a good meeting in all and the missionaries are on board with it! At night we went and helped someone who is thinking about investigating the church, he was calling people for about an hour to come help him jump start his car (it’s just a jump start to the transfer I guess haha) He was very appreciative that we dropped what we were doing to help him out. 

Friday: We had a lesson in the morning with Sabrina who was investigating the church down at Southern Utah university but moved back to Herriman. We were suppose to have a lesson at the church building but the power was out so we had to find somewhere else to go so we went to the public library. We had a good lesson with Sabrina and it really comes down to her praying about being baptized. She knows that God has lead her to where she is now in her life but just hasn’t prayed about if she needs to be baptized. She said she will work towards being baptized on June 2nd. Later in the day when we were doing our weekly planning session we reached out to Parley who was being taught by other Young single adult missionaries in Riverton before he moved to Herriman. Parley is amazing! He was like, “yeah I wasn’t ready to be baptized when I lived in Riverton but now I’ve given everything up and nothing will hold me back from being baptized!” So we helped him fill out a baptismal program and invited him to be baptized on June 2nd and he gladly accepted! He is so prepared it isn’t even funny! 

Saturday: We went to Jon’s baptism who was taught by Sister Nelson and Neuhaus in the morning and it was an amazing baptismal service where the spirit was so strong. There was a special musical number “Gethsemane” that was sang and it was so good. They shared the message “He lives” while Jon was changing and it is one of my favorite messages because Jesus Christ lives!!!  After that we had to finish up some other zone leader business and then went to Alex’s baptism who was taught by Sister Cox and Merrill. The baptismal service was packed! There was over 100 people there for it. At night we had to take a car that was driven by missionaries in our zone to missionaries in Sandy. When transfers were done they forgot that the one Sister missionary had vertigo so she couldn’t bike and walking wasn’t practical in their big area so they took a car out from our zone. 

Sunday: It was unusual not having church at 9am anymore haha! In the young single adult wards they usually do church at 1pm. We had to go over to West Jordan to grab some things from Elder Cronin and Mayberry so it was good to see them again. We stopped by Parley’s house before church to see if he was coming and he woke up and started getting ready haha! We went to the Mountain View ward to sit with Parley. After that we went to go teach the gospel principles class in the Butterfield canyon ward and then ended in their sacrament meeting. After dinner we had the opportunity to FaceTime or Skype home for Mother’s Day! It was a good hour long video chat with the family and most of it was about moving back to Utah and what ill do after my mission. It was my last phone call home as a missionary! The next time I talk to my parents other than email will be in person! At night we finished up by teaching a man named John and John has been going to church for a few weeks now and is going for the social aspect side. WE talked to him about the meaning behind church and he says he wants God to show him a sign that he is real before he investigates the church. We told him that it wont end too well for him if thats his plan. There is a story in the Book of Mormon that talks about a man who wanted a sign and was struck dumb. We explained how he needs to take a leap of faith and pray to know if this is what he needs to do and God will help him to make the changes in his life. He was willing to pray about being baptized on June 9th and it was his first time offering a prayer and he felt a little awkward but its baby steps for him and I know that God has been waiting a long time for him to reach out to him!  All in all the first week in the area was hectic haha! I wouldn’t trade this for the world though!  

 

Love you all,

Elder Ashby

Week 87

Tuesday: We had district meeting in the morning. We got moved to district 3 since am Elder had to go home for a family emergency so they moved us to that district. It was about getting out of our comfort zone. It was a good way to close out the transfer. We took some pictures with everyone in the zone and shared a scripture to get them excited to finish the transfer strong. 

Wednesday: We had our mission leadership council that took up our morning and afternoon. It was a really good meeting all focused on the role of senior companion and junior companion and “always keeping our line in the water” or in other words always working as missionaries. It was one of my favorite meeting and trainings. Because how can you not like a fishing analogy. At night we had a lesson with Erik and it was really good. He wants to do everything that we do in our church but is being stubborn about being baptized. We know he is gonna get baptized soon so we will continue to help him to find the truth for himself. 

Thursday: We had a lesson with an investigator named Gabi in the morning at the seminary building by West Jordan high school. She has been going to church for a year now and wants to be baptized but needs to ask her dad for parent permission. We had a zone leadership council in the morning and we talked about leadership qualities that President Lansing talked about in our MLC meeting on Wednesday. It was a big eye opener when we talked about the qualities to be a successful leader and how leadership skills effect all those they lead. We had a lesson with a recent Convert Jason Blake and talked about the priesthood and family history work and he is excited to go find names for his ancestors and go to baptisms for them. At night we had our bi-weekly stake missionary meeting focused on the spirit and helping those we teach to feel and identity the spirit. 

Friday: At night we talked to a young couple who is getting married soon that met with missionaries in the past. We had a good chat with Myron and his fiancé Laurie. Other than that not too much went on that night.

Saturday: We had breakfast with our stake president in the morning. After that we got a call from a missionary who was attending a baptismal service for someone he taught and had been trying to find a ride for an hour and a half so we just went over and picked him up. After that we had to go find a 4x baptismal jumpsuit for an investigator who was being taught by missionaries in our zone. We found one and got it to the missionaries! At night we went to the baptism of Mathew (the one we had to get the jumpsuit for) and it was a really good spiritual baptism. 

Sunday: We started our day out by going to the Plum creek ward counsel and then going to the willow grove sacrament meeting and sat with Erik and Angie again and then went to gospel principles with them. It just seems like every time they come to church they find someone who has gone through similar life experiences and can empathize with them. They love going to church and like I said before we think Erik is close to being baptized. At night we went to go visit some people and we ran into a couple that was investigating the church a while back and they recently moved in from Alabama. We had a good chat with Shamichael and Carl about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They really liked us and said that we were different than the other missionaries and that we weren’t trying to sell our religion to them but rather we were sharing the message because of the good that it has brought us into our lives and I absolutely loved to hear that.  Often times people say, “Im not interested with what you are selling and the funny thing is its free so were not selling anything haha! However the gospel doesn’t cost anything, but it is the most important thing on this earth. It is looking at life in a long term perspective rather than looking at life and saying YOLO (you only live once) This life is a time to prepare to meet God and I don’t know about you but I know this is where he wants me to be and where he wants you to be! 

So transfers came around and tomorrow ill be headed off to Riverton to cover the Riverton Young single adult stake. So I will be working only with 18-30 year olds that aren’t married. It will be an interesting change not always teaching either parents or kids but it will be good. I also cover the Tongan young single adult ward so my area is the whole mission and even goes outside of the mission. 

 

Have a great week!

 

Love,

Elder Ashby

Week 86

Tuesday: We went to Elder Pearce’s district meeting in the morning which was really good. Sister Peterson gave a really good training on the Christlike attribute hope. She explained that our source of hope has two feeding factors. The first one is our identity and the other is Jesus Christ. We get hope from knowing who we are and our potential and knowing what we can do through the help the savior. I throughly enjoyed the meeting and learned a lot about the privilege it is to be one of the Lords representatives. At night we went to the temple open house with Erik and Angie. It was such a good temple tour. Erik said about 15 years or so ago when the Draper temple had an open house he felt so peaceful in the sealing room and the celestial room. As we toured it he kept talking about how good he felt. He said his favorite part was staring in the mirrors that are perfectly across the room for each other to symbolize eternal marriage. As we were walking into the celestial room Erik said, “wow I just got hit with the most peaceful feeling 3 times when I walked in. Almost like my heart was beating and it got more and more peaceful. When we were done with the tour Erik and Angie stared at the temple for 30 minutes as we talked to them. It started with both of us talking to Erik telling him he can have those feelings all the time after he is baptized and then it changed to me talking to Angie and Elder Mayberry talking to Erik. It was such a good 30 minutes each teaching one person. 

Wednesday: Elder Waddell and Lybe  were sick so we had to go get them some medicine. It just so happens to be that we ran into my uncle Lance and my cousin Ethan who just got home from a mission. It was pretty funny to see them and especially since Elder Waddell and Lybe are the missionaries that cover their area. We started exchanges with the Portuguese Elders later in the day. Elder Mayberry went to the Portuguese area not knowing any Portuguese haha! I was with Elder Gemio and I was really impressed with how good of a missionary he is. We stayed up till about 2am talking about everything plus more haha! It was a great exchange. 

Thursday: We ended exchanges in the morning and then got ready to go to the temple open house with our investigator Jennifer and her roommate heather who is LDS. It was really good and Jennifer was like, “I wanna get baptized in this baptismal font!” Haha sadly only baptisms for the dead are preformed at the temple! We started another exchange in the day. I was with Elder Partridge and in our area and Elder Mayberry was with Elder Westover in their area. Elder Partidge and I saw a cool miracle at 8:45pm.We talked to this lady on her balcony and she just moved in from Mississippi and was super open to the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. She said she would be baptized if she knew it was true. 

Friday: We got a call from the assistants in the morning informing us that a missionary in our zone had a family emergency so we had to go help him pack and comfort him. It was sad to see him leave but it is what it is. We had Elder Budge with us for the day. We had a lesson with the James family who just got baptized on St. Patrick’s day. They had a a friend named Aisha who was with them and sat in on the lesson and she is interested in learning more and coming to church. After that we had a lesson with Elder Budges investigator. We finished our night by teaching Erik and Angie. We had the perfect message for them and what they were going through.

Saturday: We helped Elder Sherman and Shultz to move into Elder Budges apartment in the morning. We went to the Portuguese elders investigators baptisms. Yes they were in Portuguese and we had a translator for us haha! It was really cool to see how even though we don’t understand the language we can feel the spirit. They had a lady in her mid 30s get baptized and then a family of 5. 

Sunday: We went to the park point ward sacrament meeting in the morning and then  Erik and Angie came to the willow grove ward and really enjoyed it. Angie hadn’t been in an LDS church building if over 15 years because she felt judged since she was teenager who was pregnant. They absolutely loved it though! Their 4 year old kid was crying when they were leaving saying, “I don’t wanna leave my friends!” After his first time at church. They said they would be coming back next week. We went and talked to a girl named Gabi in the garden cove ward who has been going to church for about a year now and isn’t a member of the church and wants to be baptized! She is afraid to ask her dad but she said she will. We have a lesson set up for Thursday during their lunch break. We will be doing it over Facebook messenger or Skype.

 

Hope you all have a great week!

 

Love,

Elder Aaron Ashby