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