Week 94

Well transfers are always a bit hectic and this one was no different. It was sad to part ways with Elder Rodriguez but I guess I learned what I needed to learn from him! We got Elder Bretschneider here in the morning and we got to work getting bikes and cars etc. It was pretty easy this time, we picked up a car from Draper along with 2 bikes and then dropped those off and grabbed two more bikes from South Jordan. At night we had some more softball with the Tongan YSA ward. Elder Bretschneider and I had some more good plays and it was a great way to get him integrated into the ward. We talked a little bit with the YSA Sisters. They had their investigator Heath who is being baptized show up. We talked to him for a little bit and he is excited to be baptized.

Wednesday: We had a district meeting in the morning and we decided to go to Elder Richards meeting since he was a zone leader for the past 6 months and getting back into the feel for planning and conducting the district meeting. He focused the meeting mainly on ministering which is something we feel like our missionaries are lacking. He is a great follower and asked us what we want focused. At night we had a stake leadership meeting that we were invited to. It was all about the changes in the church dealing with ministering. We were just visiting people to visit people in the past not really caring too much for the individual, but now there is big emphasis on ministering and focusing on helping people. It was the perfect meeting to receive revelation for our zone expectations meeting on Thursday.

Thursday: We had our expectations meeting in the morning and it was really simple this time. All we want our missionaries to be doing is ministering just as Jesus Christ did. Really that is how we should be doing our missionary work since we are literal representatives of Jesus Christ sharing the same message he would share if he was here. We were excited to see that our missionaries were on board with the expectations and they knew that we were inspired in the process. At night we had dinner with the incoming missionaries from the Orem mission. There were eight Elders that would be coming to our mission with the mission boundaries realignment. After dinner we had a meeting with them and their mission president and ours to talk about this change and transition. It was cool to see how each mission president has their own style but the objective is still the same, to bring others unto Christ.

Friday: We had our MLC (Mission leadership council) meeting in the morning and man was it good! Sister Lansing gave a training by using a diagram. On one side she had us think of five characteristics that our zone has. Afterwards she covered all the zones answers and then said what characteristics does a missionary need in order to baptize. After she erased the ones that we already had we were left with two things that our zones need to do in order to be better missionaries. One was patience, and the other was ministering. I found it very cool to see how revelation works. President Lansing talked about Church+Prayer+Scriptures =baptism. He talked a lot about the basics and how the basics are what we are lacking. At night we were having a very difficult time finding an apartment building. We could find building I, after thirty minutes of us trying to find it we found a guy named Jesse that was in between H and J where building I should have been! Haha but it was cool to see how the Lord put us in people's paths or in other words he puts them in our path. (FWI there is no building I in the whole apartment complex so I'm filing a complaint haha!) We were able to have a lesson with a man named Tristian. Tristan is super solid! He investigated the church two times but wasn't baptized and said he would want to look into being baptized. He just got out of a rough situation but is ready to make changes. He is willing to work towards being baptized on July 14th.

Saturday: We met with Elder Alarcon in the morning to talk about what we heard in MLC and wanted him to focus on some things right away. We did that with our other district leaders on Friday after the meeting. We went to Heath's baptisms in the afternoon. It was kind of weird but I got put in charge of holding someone's phone who was skyping in Sister Nelson for the baptism. She just went home from her mission like a week ago. The baptism was great and it was a spiritual experience. At night we taught Luis and read out of the Book of Mormon with him. He is ready to be baptized when he finds a new living situation. 

Sunday: We went to Butterfield canyon ward counsel in the morning. Elder Bretschneider stayed with Luis at church while I was with Melqui for church. Melqui is good to be baptized this Saturday and it was great to sit with him at church and see how knowledgeable he is about the gospel. We left church and went to go see a baptismal service for someone Elder Johnson and Taylor taught. They are who were in the Orem mission coming to ours. It was I interesting to see that their info was sent off to our mission so they were technically no longer in the Orem mission. After the baptism we went to a fireside that was happening at the institute building but I guess it was only like 20-30 minutes long because we got there and sang the closing hymn. After that we got a call from our assistants telling us that we are going to be the ones responsible for helping the new missionaries get integrated into our mission. As well we were supposed to meet up with the new district leader for their district and went over how our mission does things differently than what they are used to. All I can say is it was the craziest week of my mission! We didn't think we would be getting the Elders in our mission till July first but I guess that didn't happen haha! It's been a blessing to serve with everyone here in RNNATION and I can't wait for what the Lord has in store for us! 

Love,
Elder Aaron Ashby