Tuesday: We had our special mission tour with Elder Funk of the Utah presidency come to speak to our mission. It was Riverton, Sandy, and Draper all together, with the other three zones the following day. Every year we have a special guest get assigned from the quorum of the twelve apostles to come speak to our mission. Elder Funk serves as a general authority in the Utah area presidency. We had great trainings given to us by Elder Funk with the over lining theme being "Faith to make things happen, that need to happen." It was super good, and it helped me to see that the Lord wants to bless us and help us and if we exercise faith in a way we can see many miracles. I think of Peter walking on water, he had the faith to make things happen that needed to happen. It was faith associated with an action and how we as missionaries can have the same faith. At the end of the meeting it was very emotional for me because all the departing missionaries gave their departing testimonies in front of everyone. I was extremely blessed to be alongside with some of my favorite missionaries: Elder Best, Westover, Peterson, Fitzgerald, Richards, Mullenaux, and Collier. I had the opportunity to go last and I found it really interesting how every missionary talked about how much they have changed on their mission and I felt that's what I needed to share as well. I felt the spirit so strong with every testimony that was born. I closed my testimony with a poem that I wrote to myself which was inspired by Kobe Bryant in his final year of his basketball career. I will send it in a separate email. After that I had the opportunity to be personally interviewed by Elder Funk. We talked a lot about my journey from growing up in West Jordan and then moving to Wisconsin and coming bask home. After the interview we started exchanges with Elder Mullenaux and Pitcher. I went with Elder Mullenaux in their area and had a blast.
Wednesday: We ended exchanges in the morning with Elder Mullenaux and Pitcher. We visited a lot of missionaries in the afternoon to minister to them. At night we had our Tongan ward visits. I went out with three other members of the ward and visited people in their ward that haven't been active or had some trials come up in their lives. Afterwards my group took me out to Cold stone for some ice cream. After that we went to ward basketball.
Thursday: We had a special MLC (Mission leadership council) with Elder Funk. It was a super good meeting as well, at first I was a little bummed out because last year it was Elder Wukolo who was so powerful when he spoke and Elder Funk was more of a reserved type of guy, but boy was I wrong! He had some of the most inspiring words ever and the spirit was there when he talked! Some of the biggest takeaways I had from the meeting was when we were doing our accountability portion and he said if every zone hit their goals the mission would have 1000 baptisms in a year and we added up every zones goal and combined it and it ended with 83. 83 x 12 = 996 my mind was blown because he read a scripture that talked about baptizing thousands in the Book of Mormon and how important it is if we achieve our goals where we can be. The other thing that blew my mind was from a scripture in the Doctrine and Covenants section 18:10 which states, "Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God;" and he talked about how the worth of something is what someone is willing to pay for it. Well God was willing to pay/sacrifice Jesus Christ for us. How does that make you feel that you soul was so important to him that he was willing to give up his only begotten son so you could come to earth and experience mortality and one day return to live with him! At night I had an exchange with Elder Rushton. We didn't have too much time because they had ward visits the whole night byt it was still a good exchange.
Friday: In the morning after we ended exchanges with Elder Richards and Rushton we went to Elder Peterson and Reyes' weekly planning to prepare for exchanges. I went with Elder Reyes in our area and man was it a great exchange!!! It was super powerful being with Elder Reyes because he has only been a member for 2 years and now he is on a mission. He was gone through so much and it was cool to see how the gospel changed his life and how it can change everyone else's if they allow it to. The best part is that it was down poring the whole night and we were running around and talking to everyone and enjoying our time serving the Lord!!! He is going to be a great missionary who will bless the lives of so many here in the Salt Lake Valley.
Saturday: Well we had to grab Elder Alarcon and Crockett at 6:30am to drop Elder Alarcon off at the Draper temple to go through an endowment session with someone he taught a year ago that got baptized. We ended exchanges with Elder Peterson and Reyes and then took Elder Crockett with us back to the temple to pick up Elder Alarcon. At night we had a bunch of time to contact people and some some good success.
Sunday: After our ward councils and sacrament meetings we had a stake priesthood meeting for the YSA stake. There were a few trainings given on ministering, ward missionaries, ward councils. Elder Mullenaux and Sister Neuhaus gave some good trainings as well.
Hope you all have a great week!
Love,
Elder Aaron Ashby
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