Week 98

Tuesday: We had a district meeting in the morning and we felt prompted to go to Elder Alarcon's district meeting to hype up the sisters who are struggling. In our closing remarks we talked about how the Lord can turn our weaknesses into strengths if we allow him to. We also talked about how we can't expect the lord to give us miracles if we are only doing the bare minimum. All he wants is for us to have the desire to go above and beyond and he blesses us. Obviously it takes action with the desire but you need to have both to receive the most help from above. At night I had an exchange with my good old companion Elder Gehrett. It was fun to go on all three zone leader, AP exchanges with him. We went to ward softball and played with the Tongan ward the first game and then played with Butterfield canyon the second game. At night we talked FOREVER!!! I mean FOREVER!!! We went to bed at 2:30am because we were talking about all that has happened on our missions. It will be sad to not have him in this mission next transfer but his family moved to Sandy so we will see each other all the time haha!

Wednesday: We had interviews with President Lansing in the morning and it was a very interesting interview this time. It was different this time because he basically told me that the zone was doing good and that I was doing a good job so I don't need to stress about anything but not to relax too much. Usually he puts me on blast because he knows that it give me more incentive to work hard but he was just like yeah just relax things are going well. We had a lesson with Jo (Jehoshabeath) and it was a super good lesson. She is FLDS so she basically believes everything we do but the continuation of plural marriage. We talked  a lot about having the desire to know. We played the Mormon message "music of the gospel" and she related so well to it and said she has been going through the motions and not taking the time to figure it out. She said she will be baptized "when" she knows it's true. We had exchanges with Elder Alarcon and Westover and I went with Elder Westover in our area and had some ward visits in Butterfield canyon and then had ward basketball.

Thursday: We had a NLC (Nation Leadership Council) in the morning and it was all devoted to the idea of developing the missionaries under our stewardship. We played two Mormon messages, pianos purpose, and music of the gospel and related both of them back to developing our missionaries. It was one of the best zone leadership meetings I've had. The spirit was so strong and everyone left the meeting with revelation on how to help their missionaries. We talked to Jon who was baptized a few weeks ago and he is doing great still and is getting the priesthood on Sunday. Elder Bretschneider did a baptismal interview for a man named Teo. While I talked with Elder Mullenaux and Passeraub. We went by and taught Luis about the priesthood as well to prepare him to receive it since he was also recently baptized. 

Friday: I had a last transfer meeting which we refer to as a "trunky" meeting. It is a meeting to prepare missionaries to go home as my time is winding down. I honestly loved the meeting because of how smart President Lansing is. He talked about if we coast at the end of our mission we are coasting into the rest of our lives. The missionaries that sprint to the end are sprinting into life ahead of the game. We also talked a lot about dating and getting married etc but it was all good things but I still have 7 weeks to hit the pavement running!

Saturday: We had a crazy day with all the investigators in the area being baptized. We went to Teo's baptism at 11am. Jireh's baptism at 3pm. Kelton's baptism at 5pm. All of them were being taught by different missionaries but it was cool to see all of them and where they came from to the very moment of making this big step in their life with the decision to be baptized. After Keltons baptism Elder Walker and Bretschneider went back to a baptism that was in Sandy for someone who they taught when they were companions and I stayed with Elder Mazzagardi. It was one of the most powerful moments on my mission as a leader with Elder Mazzagardi. He asked if I was ready to go home and a few other questions which turned into me talking to him about how important it is to give up everything to the Lord and serve him for two years. Missionaries that give up their will and do the Lord's will are better off. The natural man or woman in each of us will make us feel that we know what we know and we are stubborn to change. Well the Lord doesn't want to prune the natural man or woman in us, he wants us to dig it out and give it all to him. I've seen on my mission that as I truly love the Lord through my actions he will pave the path he wants me to take, which leads to the happiness we are all searching for. It was an emotional moment where both of us were crying and he committed to give up the things he loves from back home like movies and video games and is dedicated to serve the Lord with all he has now.

Sunday: We went to a stake missionary meeting in the morning  with Elder Mullenaux and Passeraub and Sister Neuhaus and Smith. We talked about the work going on in the stake and what the stake presidency can do to be better in assisting us. After that we went to Mountain View ward and then the Tongan ward. At night the YSA stake had a Devotional with Dr Don Hilton who talked about pornography and the plague it can have on our spirits. It was kind of an odd Devotional but it was cool to see how inspired it was. The thought came to my mind as he was speaking that our phones are just like Lehi's dream in the Book of Mormon. We had the word of God on our phones and we also have the adversaries temptations as well. We can get lost in the world through social media and be in the great and spacious building or we can hold to the rod of iron which leads to the tree of life. 

Hope you all have a great week.

Love,

Elder Aaron Ashby

Week 97

Tuesday: In the morning we went to Elder Aisea's district meeting and it blew my mind how different the Orem mission does district meetings and the salt lake city south mission district meetings are. I didn't know that it was really up to the mission president to decide what goes on in a district meeting. It's cool to see different mission culture things. It was a good meeting for what it was for. We gave some closing remarks and talk about the Christ like attributes we are trying to develop as well as the empathy we are trying to show them. We cant imagine what it would be like to move missions so late on in theirs so we are just here to help them out. We had Chipotle with a member of one of our wards which was super cool because they knew I liked Chipotle from our dinner a few weeks ago. After Chipotle we went and played some stake softball. We played with the Butterfield canyon ward with the person we ate with and then the second game we were going to play with our recent convert Melqui in Rose Canyon but they wanted "their players to play" so we just went to the other team which was our Tongan YSA ward. They always love when we play with them and we almost beat them in the last inning.

Wednesday: We had a ZLC (zone leadership council) in the morning. The emphasis was in "leaving it all on the field" we played a video which talked about being spiritually fit and with the athletes talking about being physically fit and spiritually fit and how they are so similar. We can't do a curl and expect 20 inch biceps. Just like we cant read one scripture and be good for the rest of our life. Afterwards we started an exchange with Elder Richards and Lance. I went with Elder Richards in our area while Elder Bretschneider was with Elder Lance in their area. We went out on ward visits and didn't catch anyone home unfortunately. However we talked to so many people at ward basketball. There was about 30 people there! Elder Richards and I talked all night long about the crazy experiences we have had on our mission. (We came out the same time) 

Thursday: We ended exchanges in the morning and then had a lot of administrative things to do till dinner. After dinner we went to an AA meeting with Joseph again and it was a super good meeting about step 4 "truth" it talked about having a self evaluation about ourselves and man was it cool to see the impact self evaluations have helped them on their journey. 

Friday: We had to visit some missionaries on bikes and pump them up with some small snacks and ice water since it was in the high 90s in the afternoon. We started exchanges with Elder Mullenaux and Passeraub before dinner. We'll both of our dinners canceled so we both went to Tony's burgers which is half off for missionaries. It was some good burgers. After dinner we split off and Elder Passeraub and I went to an apartment complex in their area and due to the reconstruction of the parking lot, we were able to talk to people outside for 2 hours! It was a great way to spend our exchange helping people as we go and sharing the gospel. At night we talked to this guy shining his car and he was an active member in the family ward but was also the owner of 6 different sober living homes which are practically gold mines for Missionaries! A ton of YSA people and humble people trying to make changes in their lives. 

Saturday: We ended exchanges in the morning but Elder Bretschneider went to a baptism of a man he taught in his last area so I stayed with Elder Mullenaux and Passeraub. After Elder Bretschneider got back we went to the institute building for Madison Richardson's baptism who was being taught by Sister Neuhaus and Smith. It was a great baptismal service and got to talk to all the stake presidency. At night we ran into a guy that basically wanted to Bible bash with us to "prove" that our religion was false. Well it took Elder Bretschneider off guard and he went into it with him and it didn't turn out well. After we got back to the car we had a heart to heart felt conversation about the importance of teaching like the savior. Contention is of the devil and drives the spirit away. As I was talking with Elder Bretschneider the spirit prompted me to have him read a scripture in the book of Mormon in Ether 12:27 but to replace "men" with his name, and then "weakness" with his specific weakness. It states "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." it was one of the most spiritual corrections I have had to give on my mission and I literally have never done what I did with that scripture before. I literally could feel the Lord speaking through me directly to him. 

Sunday: We went to the South Jordan 11th ward council. (Tongan YSA ward) After ward council we went to all three hours of church with them. They call us "Palongi" which means white people I believe haha, every time we go to their ward. After church we had a meeting to discuss the events happening in August so we will be speaking on missionary work in August. The theme for the month is "its all about the people" based of a recent general conference talk. At night we ran into this man at a half way house and his name was Hunter and he has only been in Utah for 3 days and was willing to listen to more of what we have to share. It was a good way to end the week.

Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Aaron Ashby 

Week 96

Tuesday: We had to pick some mail up for everyone in our zone in the morning since it would be the 4th of July and the office couples had the day off. We pick up everyone's outgoing mail and grabbed the mail from the mission office. After that we had to plan for our 4th of July multi district meeting. It is all focused on ministering and CPR (Church, pray, read scriptures)

Wednesday: We finished up planning for our meeting in the morning and made the long trip to Taylorsville for the Tongan YSA ward BBQ. Let's just say that Tongans know how to cook some meat! Had some ribs, chicken, and burgers. After the Tongan BBQ we drove back to deep Herriman to eat with Bishop Warburton and some people he invited. He made some good smoked ribs and chicken. It was to the point where gravity took the meat off the bones. We ended our night with our Multi District meeting from 6pm-9pm. It was a good meeting and at first we were supper stressed out because we asked three missionaries to talk about their conversion story and we asked them to take 5-7 minutes and they all took 15-20 minutes haha! But we decided to take out the role play part of our meeting where we would have practiced talking to someone in the street and getting to know them before we talk about the gospel. All in all it was a good meeting for those who participated.

Thursday: We had a house inspection in the morning and we passed! After that we had to drop off all the supply boxes back off at the mission office. On our way back we had to drop off something to the STLs. We talked a little bit about the Sisters and how they were doing. We dropped off a mini fridge for Elder Wall and Gilchrist. We started exchanges with Elder Aisea and Somma (missionaries that came in from the Orem mission) I went with Elder Somma and Elder Bretschneider went with Elder Aisea who is the district leader. Right after the exchange I did a baptismal interview for Jessica Todd who was being taught by Elder Alarcon and Elder Westover. At night Elder Somma and I went to a sober living home in our area and went to an AA (alcohol anonymous) afterwards we were able to talk to a man named Joseph who was going through a lot and as we talked to him we helped him see how this message would bless his life and he committed to meet with us and read the Book of Mormon. At night with Elder Somma I was able to get a feel for how well the incoming missionaries from the Orem mission feel about being in the Salt Lake City South Mission. Let's just say they don't like it haha.... So we came up with an idea to have a meeting where we talk about what the differences are and a time to do a Q and A type of thing.

Friday: We ended the exchange in the morning and as we evaluated we got a good feel for what we need to address in the meeting with all the new missionaries from the Orem mission. After that we went to go help Elder Taylor and Johnson (new missionary companionship) help move in someone that just moved into their area where half the family are members and the other half are looking to become members. We met with Luis at night to talk about his situation. So Luis was interviewed for baptism but was waiting for approval from our mission president since he is still on probation. We got news that's we would know by tomorrow morning if he could be baptized or not anytime soon. 

Saturday: We had our meeting with district 4 (all the incoming Orem missionaries) and kind of opened it up for them to express their thoughts, feelings, concerns, questions, etc. They asked a lot of questions and we were able to help them see the difference. There are a few things they don't like about the way things are doing in the South Mission but in all honesty they will just need to do as our mission president says we are BCD'ing (blame, complain, defend) and that is to "suck it up." It's just how life will be when they get a new job they will have new rules and procedures and let don't really have control over some of those things. After the meeting we got a call from President Peters who is one of the councilors in our mission presidency and he said Luis has the green light to be baptized. We called up Luis and said he is good to be baptized when he wants to and he said does today still work? This is at 1:30pm and he wanted the baptism after 6pm so we got everything  all done for it to happen. We got a building scheduled, room prepared, font filled, called the people in the program, made the programs, invited the ward, and got him interviewed by our district leader all in time! The baptismal service was good for what it was! Not too many people from the ward showed up since it was last minute but we got the people there that Luis wanted. It was a miracle in itself to get everything done and for Luis to be given the green light to be baptized. It was a testimony builder for me to see how the Lord wants to bless us and through our faith and diligence.

Sunday: We went to all three hours of church with Luis and sat in on his confirmation. Elder Bretschneider has never had the opportunity to be apart of that ordinance and it was cool to see him give the blessing and Luis to receive the Holy Ghost. We had a stake meeting with all the ward mission leaders and Co chairs and the members of the Stake presidency to talk about missionary work. At night we had  a lesson with Joseph and it was a good lesson. We figured out that his mom and brother passed away recently and it was a great opportunity to share with him the plan of salvation or plan of happiness. He will see his mom and brother again and they are being taught by missionaries in the spirit world as we speak, waiting for him to receive the restored gospel. (the spirit world is a waiting period for those that have passed away before we are resurrected).

Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Aaron Ashby 

Week 95

Tuesday: We made a transfer calender in the morning with all the details for the remainder of the transfer. At night we got a call from our Assistants Elder Gehrett and Henley. They needed us to come help them out with making a training for zone conference. The thyme was about baptism and we recorded them and everything they did was about baptism haha! I wish I could send the video but I can't send videos on the phone and I don't have my iPad either. Sadly it took from 6-9pm to make so all night but it is hands down the best training that any assistants have done.

Wednesday: We had Melqui's baptismal interview in the morning and all went well and he passed. He is going to be baptized on Saturday. After that we had a lesson with Sabrina. We talked about the plan of salvation or in other words God's plan for us. Her grandfather passed away recently and we knew that the message would be good for her to hear. We talked a lot about how everyone will have the opportunity to hear this message and for those that didn't get that opportunity in this life will have that opportunity in the spirit world. The spirit world is the waiting period after we pass on. There it is a place where people who have accepted the gospel will spend the time in peace and for those that didn't get that opportunity will be taught just as we do as missionaries. It shows that God loves each of us and wants to give us all the blessings of the gospel. At night after ward visits we played some basketball with members of the ward.

Thursday: We had zone conference in the morning and it was all about baptism. Baptism is the gate which leads us to return to live with our father in heaven. There was a part that really liked and it was all different types of references that told us how important being baptized is. The New Testament says in John 3:5  "Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." The Book of Mormon says in 3 Nephi 11:33 "And whoso believeth in me, and is baptized, the same shall be saved; and they are they who shall inherit the kingdom of God." President Nelson said, "Begin with the end in mind." and the Lord said in The Pearl of Great Price in Moses 1:39  "For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." All these sources point us to the first step of returning to Heavenly Father and that is through baptism. Which is central to our purpose as missionaries. 

Friday: We got a text from a good old friend who was known as Elder Harvey. Now I got to call him Hayden Harvey. He was a great missionary who served in this mission about a year ago with me. He was one of my favorite zone leaders and he took us out to Jimmy John's for lunch. I advised him to begin with the end in mind after the mission and to find his eternal companion haha! At night we had a great visit with Parley again and got a feel for what he is going through and he is ready to make some changes in his life and got work off on the 28th of July to be baptized. After that we had a good lesson with Luis. We got an interview time set up with a member of our mission presidency and found him a new place to live so he can get baptized. 

Saturday: We printed off Melqui's baptismal programs and got all those things set up. We got the room ready and the font filled and sure enough it was time! It was a good baptismal service and everyone that gave a talk or bore their testimonies were fantastic. Melqui said he wanted me or Elder Rodriguez to baptize him and since Melqui has Latin background and names we let Elder Rodriguez do it so I didn't butcher it haha! We ended up staying with Elder Rodriguez for a while  waiting for his companion. 

Sunday: Luis had his interview with President Peter's in the morning and it is just a waiting game for now to see if he can get baptized this weekend. If not whenever he can. We went to Rose Canyon ward council afterwards. Then we had the Rose Canyon sacrament meeting where we stood in the circle to confirm Melqui a member of the church and to give him the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands. It was a great experience to be apart of his conversion. Afterwards we went to Butterfield Canyon to sit with Luis at church. 

Have a wonderful week!

Love,
Elder Aaron Ashby