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
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