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