Life is... swell here. I felt like this week was a little uneventful here in Argentina, but I spoke too soon and last night gave me some... eh, some experiences haha. We were going to go proselyting two times this week, yesterday and Saturday but it was raining so hard that they actually cancelled. Who does that in the mission field! No one... it was lame. It was so stormy… you should have seen it. I tried going outside and the wind blew so hard that I couldn’t open the door. I pushed on it and it flew open and I flew with it, right smack into the door and now I have a huge bruise on my back.
Then, in class we had a sub teacher who spoke absolutely zero English and out of nowhere expected us to teach him the second lesson. We haven’t even learned the second lesson in English. .. We are still so far behind of where we should be. We should have gone through all the lessons in English and Spanish by now. So he decided to let us teach in English. That’s when I figured out I don’t know how to teach some of these things I’ve grown up with to someone who has no idea what it is. I didn’t even know the material in English. I was so sad... that’s a major letdown. So now instead of focusing my personal study time on scriptures and other meaningful things, I have to study and restudy the lessons in English so when we go over them in Spanish during class I can know how to translate my thoughts. That was frustrating... THEN!
As we are heading down to bed after a long night, they decide to spring on us that all our companionships are changing with the new group of missionaries that are arriving today. So Hermana Lundskog and I are no longer companions. I am in a threesome again with Hermana Kirkham again and Hermana Preston. But everything happens for a reason, eh? Besides I love Hermana Preston and Kirkham. We still all do stuff together anyway. So, it’s been a crazy couple of days. It’s even weirder that we have graduated to the senior class. We are out of here in 2 weeks and 4 days. Let the countdown begin. I’m getting more and more nervous. It’s crazy to think I waited for 4 months to get on my mission and I still feel like it hasn’t really started yet…. lots of buildup and excitement to get out there. Anywho.
I sent you all a letter on Monday that describes what happened for proselitismo last Saturday, but... Maria couldn’t meet with us. We were most excited for her, but she was out of town. She did read the things we told her, but she doesn’t believe in Jesus Christ so that creates a new barrier we didn’t think we had to get through. So we are turning her over to the real missionaries out in the area. It was a long Saturday when we literally had knocked on every household door and there was no one in the streets. It was rough and apparently January is vacation month, like July in the states. So stacks of mail sat at everyone’s house. I was starting wonder.... it was so hard, but at the very end of the day we ran into one girl. I realize that having faith isn’t just hoping someone will fall into our laps that we can teach. It is acting. And this girl, Gabriella... we almost let her go, but last minute, Hermana Lundskog chased after her and I ran too. She was so sweet, our age... and she has been to many churches in search of one that will help her feel good all the time. Certain churches make her happy for certain periods of her life, anyway, long story short, she went to church and then we get to meet with her on Saturday to see how it went. We are so excited! Anyway... that made everything better.
We also had someone try to kidnap us! ha not... but it was sketchy. These men tried to get us to go one street past our area boundary and have lunch with them but we resisted and we are safe. It was interesting.
On a little fun note... lots of girls here love the braids I do in my hair and therefore I have been braiding hair like crazy. It’s really fun. Also, every elder who had something to be fixed by a needle and thread… I fixed it. And since they all know I can and will fix things for them, they all come to me. I feel like a mom. It’s some good traits to be learning anyway I guess ha. Whatever the case, I am going to teach my sons how to sew. Elders... psh ha.
I miss you all so very much and love you to pieces. Thank you for everything you have done for me. Everything is so greatly appreciated. Have a great week. You’re in my prayers. This church is true : ) Love, Ash
THE MOMMA's PERSEPECTIVE: Kidnapped???? I hardly classify that as an "Interesting" event of your mission. I need a little more details than that, Ash!! And as for teaching your sons..... who says you'll have any? bahaha (wink wink)
Friday, January 21, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
OVER HALF WAY THROUGH THE MTC!
Oh man...so much to say! As every week, but I have soooo many emails that are so long and I have no time to read them.
Alright, alright. It has been a great week, AS ALWAYS! Throughout the week I write everything down so that I can remember the things I want to share with you all. I wish I could call you and really let you know the things I am experiencing but it is purely incredible. I know that such things can only come from our loving Heavenly Father. To start off, we went proselyting as always on Saturday. It was great…. SUCH a different area from last time. This place is rich, and I mean rich. Alright, probably not what you guys think of as rich, as in the looks of everything is still not what Utah is... haha but the houses were so big! They were 3 stories tall and all really cool and unique designs. Not that this matters at all, but just so you get a feel for what I am seeing. Instead of dirt roads and tiny shops that are swarming with flies, they had clothing stores, fabric stores, little cute cafes, all sorts of fun stuff. We got really excited, except of course all those things were out of our assigned areas haha. But this area, instead of being full of people in the streets, everyone was indoors, which... of course leads to DOOR KNOCKING! ….. completely new experience hahaha. I haven’t had to deal with that yet.
Let me just mention to you that we woke up that morning and it was pouring. I mean pouring…. like raining cats and dogs. Here they call it aguacena haha (like a combo of water and dinner) no se! (oh gosh, I am speaking Spanish and I don’t even know it! haha “no se” means I don’t know). But we all got bundled up which is weird and went trucking out in the rain. It was intense. We knocked, I’m not kidding, every door. And they have gates on every house and speakers to talk through so no one comes out. It’s hard. Anyone who did come out slammed the door in our face. I have never experienced such a thing! My companion started getting really discouraged and by this time my skirt and shoes were COMPLETELY drenched. I had to literally wring out my skirt later. But I had to keep us together. I just kept saying, keep going! We have to keep going. She was just trudging along. I actually just started laughing at every door slam we got. It was great.
Then we started playing a game like on “Errand of Angels” trying to get as many words into the speaker before people could hang up on us. When they would say “no time, no time,” I would say, “Por favor,” really sweetly, but they would still hang up haha. Finally we get to this house and this girl looks at us through the window. P.S. they do that a lot. They don’t like to really open the door so they just yell from the windows. But she says she will come down for us. Miracle number 1! She actually comes outside and starts talking to us in the rain. Miracle number 2. Then she says she is going to get an umbrella. She wants to KEEP talking to us. Miracle number 3. When she comes out, we slipped an English word and discover that she speaks English too! Miracle number 4. We started teaching her the restoration and it was amazing. She was interested and it was awesome. Right when I get to the part about a pillar of light.... no joke… the rain stops and a pillar of light comes right on us. She puts her umbrella down and looks at the sky. She says... "That’s God. Look... there is no sun except right where we are. He is trying to tell us something." It was so crazy! I know Heavenly Father was with us at that moment. We are going back to teach her on Saturday. And I can’t wait! We gave her a Book of Mormon. Today we had to call her to confirm when she works and she wasn’t there so hence I had my first telephone call completely in Spanish. It was cool! I am getting good, but we still have a long way to go. Our teachers keep telling us in less than a week we´ll be the senior group here and we have to set the example for everyone and then we´re outta here. We are starting to get nervous for the real deal.
I have found my new fav quote. You might think it’s weird but I found it in Preach my Gospel. I wanted to share. "Study, believe, live, love and teach." This is the most perfect thing ever for how we should be living our lives. We should be studying the gospel every day! Believe in Heavenly Father and his words, and believe in Jesus Christ and have faith in him, live the gospel through everything we do and say. Love with every fiber of our being, those we like and those we don’t, at all times, even when someone does something wrong… and teaching others... spreading the good news. Helping everyone. This is our mission. It’s great.
Last night was really hard for my comp. We were teaching the Latinos here and discovered we don’t know everything haha. Apparently it says in the bible to have church on Saturday. We did NOT know how to respond to that. And she broke down. My teacher said she gave us that situation because we will come across things we don’t know out there. We aren’t expected to know everything. We’re young… for crying out loud… and still learning too. But if we humble ourselves and tell these people, "Hey, we don’t know the answer, but we study everyday and we will find out for you for next time." She said they learn to trust us and love us for being humble. I don’t think I ever imagined myself saying I don’t know to someone out here. I thought they would look down on that, but no.
It is sooo crazy to me that literally everything you thought you knew coming here, has to be broken down by Heavenly Father and re-taught to you before you can really KNOW. Every part of your testimony gets tried here, but it’s so great when you pull through because then your testimony is that much stronger and you can say you know for sure this church is true. We have to experience everything our investigator does. We teach them to search the scriptures and that it will answer every question they have, it is the same for us. So we studied that "Sabbath day worship" this morning and we also found in the bible where it changes to Sunday after Christ’s resurrection. Now I know that we can find the answers to anything, any problem in our books of scripture. It’s incredible! I love this gospel, I’m so glad to be here and I love you all so much!
I got a ton of letters today and loved it, but I can’t respond to everything! haha
Keep the faith everyone! I promise it will pull you through! I miss you all immensely, but things are well. “All is well" as Joseph Smith said. Cherish this gospel and cherish each other. We are so blessed. I LOVE YOU!!
Love, Ash
Alright, alright. It has been a great week, AS ALWAYS! Throughout the week I write everything down so that I can remember the things I want to share with you all. I wish I could call you and really let you know the things I am experiencing but it is purely incredible. I know that such things can only come from our loving Heavenly Father. To start off, we went proselyting as always on Saturday. It was great…. SUCH a different area from last time. This place is rich, and I mean rich. Alright, probably not what you guys think of as rich, as in the looks of everything is still not what Utah is... haha but the houses were so big! They were 3 stories tall and all really cool and unique designs. Not that this matters at all, but just so you get a feel for what I am seeing. Instead of dirt roads and tiny shops that are swarming with flies, they had clothing stores, fabric stores, little cute cafes, all sorts of fun stuff. We got really excited, except of course all those things were out of our assigned areas haha. But this area, instead of being full of people in the streets, everyone was indoors, which... of course leads to DOOR KNOCKING! ….. completely new experience hahaha. I haven’t had to deal with that yet.
Let me just mention to you that we woke up that morning and it was pouring. I mean pouring…. like raining cats and dogs. Here they call it aguacena haha (like a combo of water and dinner) no se! (oh gosh, I am speaking Spanish and I don’t even know it! haha “no se” means I don’t know). But we all got bundled up which is weird and went trucking out in the rain. It was intense. We knocked, I’m not kidding, every door. And they have gates on every house and speakers to talk through so no one comes out. It’s hard. Anyone who did come out slammed the door in our face. I have never experienced such a thing! My companion started getting really discouraged and by this time my skirt and shoes were COMPLETELY drenched. I had to literally wring out my skirt later. But I had to keep us together. I just kept saying, keep going! We have to keep going. She was just trudging along. I actually just started laughing at every door slam we got. It was great.
Then we started playing a game like on “Errand of Angels” trying to get as many words into the speaker before people could hang up on us. When they would say “no time, no time,” I would say, “Por favor,” really sweetly, but they would still hang up haha. Finally we get to this house and this girl looks at us through the window. P.S. they do that a lot. They don’t like to really open the door so they just yell from the windows. But she says she will come down for us. Miracle number 1! She actually comes outside and starts talking to us in the rain. Miracle number 2. Then she says she is going to get an umbrella. She wants to KEEP talking to us. Miracle number 3. When she comes out, we slipped an English word and discover that she speaks English too! Miracle number 4. We started teaching her the restoration and it was amazing. She was interested and it was awesome. Right when I get to the part about a pillar of light.... no joke… the rain stops and a pillar of light comes right on us. She puts her umbrella down and looks at the sky. She says... "That’s God. Look... there is no sun except right where we are. He is trying to tell us something." It was so crazy! I know Heavenly Father was with us at that moment. We are going back to teach her on Saturday. And I can’t wait! We gave her a Book of Mormon. Today we had to call her to confirm when she works and she wasn’t there so hence I had my first telephone call completely in Spanish. It was cool! I am getting good, but we still have a long way to go. Our teachers keep telling us in less than a week we´ll be the senior group here and we have to set the example for everyone and then we´re outta here. We are starting to get nervous for the real deal.
I have found my new fav quote. You might think it’s weird but I found it in Preach my Gospel. I wanted to share. "Study, believe, live, love and teach." This is the most perfect thing ever for how we should be living our lives. We should be studying the gospel every day! Believe in Heavenly Father and his words, and believe in Jesus Christ and have faith in him, live the gospel through everything we do and say. Love with every fiber of our being, those we like and those we don’t, at all times, even when someone does something wrong… and teaching others... spreading the good news. Helping everyone. This is our mission. It’s great.
Last night was really hard for my comp. We were teaching the Latinos here and discovered we don’t know everything haha. Apparently it says in the bible to have church on Saturday. We did NOT know how to respond to that. And she broke down. My teacher said she gave us that situation because we will come across things we don’t know out there. We aren’t expected to know everything. We’re young… for crying out loud… and still learning too. But if we humble ourselves and tell these people, "Hey, we don’t know the answer, but we study everyday and we will find out for you for next time." She said they learn to trust us and love us for being humble. I don’t think I ever imagined myself saying I don’t know to someone out here. I thought they would look down on that, but no.
It is sooo crazy to me that literally everything you thought you knew coming here, has to be broken down by Heavenly Father and re-taught to you before you can really KNOW. Every part of your testimony gets tried here, but it’s so great when you pull through because then your testimony is that much stronger and you can say you know for sure this church is true. We have to experience everything our investigator does. We teach them to search the scriptures and that it will answer every question they have, it is the same for us. So we studied that "Sabbath day worship" this morning and we also found in the bible where it changes to Sunday after Christ’s resurrection. Now I know that we can find the answers to anything, any problem in our books of scripture. It’s incredible! I love this gospel, I’m so glad to be here and I love you all so much!
I got a ton of letters today and loved it, but I can’t respond to everything! haha
Keep the faith everyone! I promise it will pull you through! I miss you all immensely, but things are well. “All is well" as Joseph Smith said. Cherish this gospel and cherish each other. We are so blessed. I LOVE YOU!!
Love, Ash
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
WEEK FOUR
BEST DAY EVER !! (1/6/11)
...more or less anyway haha. soooo.... It’s been a month! Well, almost. I count it anyway, can you believe how fast time has flown by? It’s literally insane.
Her. Lundskog and I were upstairs in our room studying Spanish on our Pday haha and someone came and told us they had passed out mail. We totally forget because we had been working so hard and it’s the first time we've missed mail pass out. We kinda moped down there thinking we weren't getting anything. Secret is, we know where they keep the mail here so we can check daily if we've gotten anyway. We just can’t take it till Pday, but we checked last night and there was nothing. We come down today and BOTH of us got 2 packages! Happy Christmas to us hahaha
There is so much I wanted to tell you all, but there simply is no time. We lost all our good teachers this week and with all the new missionaries coming in it has been a crazy mad house around here. We fell so behind in our Spanish and we had a sub teacher one day. Her. Lundskog and I were teaching her when she said we are nowhere near where we should be. My district got so discouraged. It’s been rough but I had to be strong because Her. Lungskog was the one crying. We help each other a lot, it’s good. I love her. Because of those things Amulek district (who we are really close to), went out of their way to make us feel good and uplift us. They drew pictures in our classroom, wrote quotes everywhere, and gave us scriptures to not let us stay discouraged. Our spirits have been lifted once again. On top of that, we've been working so much harder and our slower teachers both got replaced with the best in the house. We've been going like crazy and you can’t stop us now. Things are well here, we're happy, but most importantly we feel the hand of the lord. I am loving it here. We have new Latina roommates and they are the best ever, it still blows my mind we can be such good friends with people who we can’t understand and they can’t understand back. We do a lot of acting, but every night we go to bed laughing so hard we hurt. They have been teaching us funny things in Spanish. It’s good.
Anywho, we also inherited another sister in our district. We got split up with Her. Kirkham last week and we really missed her, but we got her back pretty much. She has a new companion but we all just act as a foursome now. Her name is Her. Preston. She’s from Utah also and she is so great. We all love being together. She teaches yoga! haha I love it! So every day since last week we have done yoga during physical activity time. Best thing ever. My body hurts all the time. And just an FYI eat more than ever before haha. It is truly a blessing and I haven’t come across a meal I don’t like since that first week I was here. And yes… everything pretty much still has red sauce. I am definitely being helped here. It’s great.
I noticed that here everything reminds me of California. Just the feel of here is like Cali. I think about that all the time and I think of grandma and grandpa Berg and it makes me feel so good. Even the birds outside remind me of there. Also, I have noticed I am more like you, mom, than I ever thought. I hear myself saying things that sound exactly like you would say them. I love it haha. Also, I see my reflection when my hair is wavy and I see you. I am grateful for that. I also noticed when I cry I sound like you. I bore my testimony on Sunday in sacrament and the whole time I was just hearing you, mom. It’s amazing, and I’m so grateful for you. I was the finale of meeting and it’s weird.... I wasn’t nervous and everything I wanted to say came out just how it should. I think maybe my fear of speaking in front of people is lessening. It’s still there! but its lessening. hahaha I don’t even think that’s a word.
Things are well here. I am being guided and I know it. I have Jesus Christ and the spirit with me and I can feel it. It’s the best thing ever. I’m ready right now to go to Uruguay. Crazy thing is we're the middle group here now instead of the newbies and the older group keeps talking about how they have like 10 days till they leave. That means 10 days till we're the oldest group and then it’s a frantic countdown till we leave and start teaching for real. I’m excited. This work is so amazing and I see the hand of our Lord and Savior every day. Be grateful for this gospel. Never take it for granted. I love you all. Smile! Thank you again for the packages. They have made me so happy. I love you, I love you, I love you!!!!
Love, ash
p.s. New years was so cool. I wrote a letter about it, but there were massive fireworks. Illegal fireworks in the U.S. are not illegal here haha It’s great. We set our alarm for midnight on New Year’s Eve and watched the fireworks allllll night… across the entire sky. It was so cool. That’s all loves!
...more or less anyway haha. soooo.... It’s been a month! Well, almost. I count it anyway, can you believe how fast time has flown by? It’s literally insane.
Her. Lundskog and I were upstairs in our room studying Spanish on our Pday haha and someone came and told us they had passed out mail. We totally forget because we had been working so hard and it’s the first time we've missed mail pass out. We kinda moped down there thinking we weren't getting anything. Secret is, we know where they keep the mail here so we can check daily if we've gotten anyway. We just can’t take it till Pday, but we checked last night and there was nothing. We come down today and BOTH of us got 2 packages! Happy Christmas to us hahaha
There is so much I wanted to tell you all, but there simply is no time. We lost all our good teachers this week and with all the new missionaries coming in it has been a crazy mad house around here. We fell so behind in our Spanish and we had a sub teacher one day. Her. Lundskog and I were teaching her when she said we are nowhere near where we should be. My district got so discouraged. It’s been rough but I had to be strong because Her. Lungskog was the one crying. We help each other a lot, it’s good. I love her. Because of those things Amulek district (who we are really close to), went out of their way to make us feel good and uplift us. They drew pictures in our classroom, wrote quotes everywhere, and gave us scriptures to not let us stay discouraged. Our spirits have been lifted once again. On top of that, we've been working so much harder and our slower teachers both got replaced with the best in the house. We've been going like crazy and you can’t stop us now. Things are well here, we're happy, but most importantly we feel the hand of the lord. I am loving it here. We have new Latina roommates and they are the best ever, it still blows my mind we can be such good friends with people who we can’t understand and they can’t understand back. We do a lot of acting, but every night we go to bed laughing so hard we hurt. They have been teaching us funny things in Spanish. It’s good.
Anywho, we also inherited another sister in our district. We got split up with Her. Kirkham last week and we really missed her, but we got her back pretty much. She has a new companion but we all just act as a foursome now. Her name is Her. Preston. She’s from Utah also and she is so great. We all love being together. She teaches yoga! haha I love it! So every day since last week we have done yoga during physical activity time. Best thing ever. My body hurts all the time. And just an FYI eat more than ever before haha. It is truly a blessing and I haven’t come across a meal I don’t like since that first week I was here. And yes… everything pretty much still has red sauce. I am definitely being helped here. It’s great.
I noticed that here everything reminds me of California. Just the feel of here is like Cali. I think about that all the time and I think of grandma and grandpa Berg and it makes me feel so good. Even the birds outside remind me of there. Also, I have noticed I am more like you, mom, than I ever thought. I hear myself saying things that sound exactly like you would say them. I love it haha. Also, I see my reflection when my hair is wavy and I see you. I am grateful for that. I also noticed when I cry I sound like you. I bore my testimony on Sunday in sacrament and the whole time I was just hearing you, mom. It’s amazing, and I’m so grateful for you. I was the finale of meeting and it’s weird.... I wasn’t nervous and everything I wanted to say came out just how it should. I think maybe my fear of speaking in front of people is lessening. It’s still there! but its lessening. hahaha I don’t even think that’s a word.
Things are well here. I am being guided and I know it. I have Jesus Christ and the spirit with me and I can feel it. It’s the best thing ever. I’m ready right now to go to Uruguay. Crazy thing is we're the middle group here now instead of the newbies and the older group keeps talking about how they have like 10 days till they leave. That means 10 days till we're the oldest group and then it’s a frantic countdown till we leave and start teaching for real. I’m excited. This work is so amazing and I see the hand of our Lord and Savior every day. Be grateful for this gospel. Never take it for granted. I love you all. Smile! Thank you again for the packages. They have made me so happy. I love you, I love you, I love you!!!!
Love, ash
p.s. New years was so cool. I wrote a letter about it, but there were massive fireworks. Illegal fireworks in the U.S. are not illegal here haha It’s great. We set our alarm for midnight on New Year’s Eve and watched the fireworks allllll night… across the entire sky. It was so cool. That’s all loves!
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Christmas at the MTC
Here are a few pics the mission president's wife sent of the missionaries having their Christmas celebration at the MTC. It was the first time we have "seen" Ash in three weeks. She looks great and so happy!! From the reports we received, they had a great program, played some fun games and ate some Christmas goodies "Argentina style." It was simple, but Ash says the BEST Christmas ever. 
WEEK THREE
My my my... has it really been 3 weeks already? I thought time was going by so slow, but turns out it has flown by. I can’t believe it. Technically here, we are on our 4th week schedule. So that’s what my district likes to say, it makes us feel better about ourselves haha. So! So much to tell.
We´ll start out with proseletismo last week, it was a huge letdown. I guess that’s how it’s going to be this next year and a half. Every appointment we had fell through. We had spent so much time preparing and STRESSING over all the lessons we wanted to give them and not one person was home. Actually, I take that back. Facundo, our most important investigator was home. We were so excited for him because he spoke English, and we thought he was so ready to hear what we had to say. He had family over for Christmas and his parents don’t want him to have anything to do with the church. That’s the vibe we got anyway. It was so sad. Luckily, we had a Book of Mormon for him. We said a prayer before we went to his house and I asked that the will of the Lord be done as we went and visited him. Then that happened. Weird thing is, we were so overly concerned about him that we all wrote our testimonies in the Book of Mormon. We are keeping the faith that all this is going to lead to something good and maybe he needs to hear about the church through the book instead of our mouths. No one will ever know. Tomorrow we will try and see him again. It’s our last day in the area then we get transferred to a different one. Everyone is really glad because apparently this is the poorest of any area anyone has been to. That’s pretty intense if you know what I’m sayin : )
Christmas! I hope everyone had a good one. Thank you much much for the package! All the candy is already gone haha! I love the pictures. I look intensely at them every day. One is by my bed and the other I carry around everywhere to show. Everyone says we are all so pretty! haha except dad… he’s just handsome. But they help me so much daily to have those here. I am doing so well here. The fact that it’s sunny and resembles nothing of the Christmas I know helped a little I think.
We had a lot of fun though. Pres and his wife had a couple programs for us. We played games and they got us all gifts. We had a little "remember Christmas at home" and we all shared traditions and then everyone was in tears. I witnessed a lot of giving though. Someone whose favorite Christmas memory was going to a choir and hearing a certain song every year and someone here would have that song and play it for them… Those kinds of things. It’s giving on a whole new level and I’ve come to appreciate this season even more. Afterwards, we all got to eat yummy food and we had a battle of the Christmas carols with the Latinos haha. It was the best time of my life. There’s nothing better than seeing 100 missionaries you have become so close with sing songs about Christmas, laughing, loving and having a good time.
Christmas day brought even better gifts. As I said we got to have Mervin J. Arnold and his wife come speak to us. Best thing ever; he is amazing. He talked about the spiritual gifts we have inside of us and how important it is we use those here. Because of those gifts is the reason we have been called to this specific mission and the reason everything for the next year and a half will happen. It was really touching. His wife and some other women gave us stockings full of AMERCIAN CANDY! It was such a sight haha! I will never take for granted anything American again. If only there was a Walmart here. It’s amazing the things we don’t appreciate. Look around you! There are so many comforts and blessings. I’m serious. You are all so blessed.
After that we ate lunch and they got to eat with us. I sat down and guess who walks over to me. Elder Arnold. He sat directly across from me. It was so awesome! He and his wife ate with us and we talked the whole time about his mission. Pretty soon everyone was crowded around us listening to his stories. It was so awesome. I swear he looked only me in the eyes for the whole 2 hours, like he was talking directly to me. He told us a really good story about when he served his mission they would reassign missionaries if they couldn’t speak the language. He went to Mexico and he got a call one day saying that he had to get on a bus to Salt Lake and he was being reassigned. He really struggled with Spanish. He told them no and refused. He said he had been called there for a reason and he would stay. They let him but a few weeks later they called again. Again, he refused. They let him stay and he said he worked so hard and eventually got the language down. He said imagine if I would have gone. Nothing about my life would be the same. Every blessing I have now is a direct blessing from serving, but not only serving... serving in Mexico. Basically, he told us to not give up, if we are struggling with anything it’s for a reason. We have been called here for a reason! It was so great.
Hmmm... I don’t have much time left, but this week has been crazy. I have been so blessed. I can handle the food now, no problem. So great! And I am not so homesick... I feel good here and it is starting to become home. Better not get too used to it because we'll leave in 6 weeks. So weird. Umm everyone left on Tuesday except us and 10 others. It was so sad. We miss the Latinos immensely, but my companions and I decided it was a blessing HF gave us. We got to see a love for those people and it’s just a tiny glimpse of how we will feel once we get to Uruguay. When people leave here it’s like graduating high school, they all sign journals and we party all night long haha. We also got to take pictures on Sunday! Wahoo! I got a bunch of MTC and people I have become friends with and my district and comps and such. Lots of things. We can’t send them until we get out of here though. But it just takes way too long on these computers. Sad day, but I do have some. It makes me feel better. It’s been fun though. Speaking of companions, we are not going to be a threesome anymore. Hermana Kirkham is getting to go with the one new North American sister who gets here tomorrow, she will move rooms and it’s so weird. But, on the plus side, Hermana Lundskog and I get to stay together! Yay! I love her. And we get 2 Latino sisters in our room tomorrow as well which means more Spanish practice. We are excited for that.
I can’t believe how much I miss the temple. In all this craziness here, it is the one place I feel like I could go to be closer to home. I mentioned we live literally next door to the Argentina temple, so I see the progress they are making on it daily and I long to go there so much. It is our way of doing other forms of missionary work. Don’t take for granted the opportunity that we live so close to so many. Go as often as you can..... It's a huge blessing.
I love you all so much. I’m doing well. I love this gospel and I know with everything I possess that it’s true. I’m so happy to be here and I’m so grateful Heavenly Father knows me and is blessing me. Take a look around and remember what you have been given. You will be so humbled. I love you all. Have a great week. Until next.... : )
Love, Ashley
We´ll start out with proseletismo last week, it was a huge letdown. I guess that’s how it’s going to be this next year and a half. Every appointment we had fell through. We had spent so much time preparing and STRESSING over all the lessons we wanted to give them and not one person was home. Actually, I take that back. Facundo, our most important investigator was home. We were so excited for him because he spoke English, and we thought he was so ready to hear what we had to say. He had family over for Christmas and his parents don’t want him to have anything to do with the church. That’s the vibe we got anyway. It was so sad. Luckily, we had a Book of Mormon for him. We said a prayer before we went to his house and I asked that the will of the Lord be done as we went and visited him. Then that happened. Weird thing is, we were so overly concerned about him that we all wrote our testimonies in the Book of Mormon. We are keeping the faith that all this is going to lead to something good and maybe he needs to hear about the church through the book instead of our mouths. No one will ever know. Tomorrow we will try and see him again. It’s our last day in the area then we get transferred to a different one. Everyone is really glad because apparently this is the poorest of any area anyone has been to. That’s pretty intense if you know what I’m sayin : )
Christmas! I hope everyone had a good one. Thank you much much for the package! All the candy is already gone haha! I love the pictures. I look intensely at them every day. One is by my bed and the other I carry around everywhere to show. Everyone says we are all so pretty! haha except dad… he’s just handsome. But they help me so much daily to have those here. I am doing so well here. The fact that it’s sunny and resembles nothing of the Christmas I know helped a little I think.
We had a lot of fun though. Pres and his wife had a couple programs for us. We played games and they got us all gifts. We had a little "remember Christmas at home" and we all shared traditions and then everyone was in tears. I witnessed a lot of giving though. Someone whose favorite Christmas memory was going to a choir and hearing a certain song every year and someone here would have that song and play it for them… Those kinds of things. It’s giving on a whole new level and I’ve come to appreciate this season even more. Afterwards, we all got to eat yummy food and we had a battle of the Christmas carols with the Latinos haha. It was the best time of my life. There’s nothing better than seeing 100 missionaries you have become so close with sing songs about Christmas, laughing, loving and having a good time.
Christmas day brought even better gifts. As I said we got to have Mervin J. Arnold and his wife come speak to us. Best thing ever; he is amazing. He talked about the spiritual gifts we have inside of us and how important it is we use those here. Because of those gifts is the reason we have been called to this specific mission and the reason everything for the next year and a half will happen. It was really touching. His wife and some other women gave us stockings full of AMERCIAN CANDY! It was such a sight haha! I will never take for granted anything American again. If only there was a Walmart here. It’s amazing the things we don’t appreciate. Look around you! There are so many comforts and blessings. I’m serious. You are all so blessed.
After that we ate lunch and they got to eat with us. I sat down and guess who walks over to me. Elder Arnold. He sat directly across from me. It was so awesome! He and his wife ate with us and we talked the whole time about his mission. Pretty soon everyone was crowded around us listening to his stories. It was so awesome. I swear he looked only me in the eyes for the whole 2 hours, like he was talking directly to me. He told us a really good story about when he served his mission they would reassign missionaries if they couldn’t speak the language. He went to Mexico and he got a call one day saying that he had to get on a bus to Salt Lake and he was being reassigned. He really struggled with Spanish. He told them no and refused. He said he had been called there for a reason and he would stay. They let him but a few weeks later they called again. Again, he refused. They let him stay and he said he worked so hard and eventually got the language down. He said imagine if I would have gone. Nothing about my life would be the same. Every blessing I have now is a direct blessing from serving, but not only serving... serving in Mexico. Basically, he told us to not give up, if we are struggling with anything it’s for a reason. We have been called here for a reason! It was so great.
Hmmm... I don’t have much time left, but this week has been crazy. I have been so blessed. I can handle the food now, no problem. So great! And I am not so homesick... I feel good here and it is starting to become home. Better not get too used to it because we'll leave in 6 weeks. So weird. Umm everyone left on Tuesday except us and 10 others. It was so sad. We miss the Latinos immensely, but my companions and I decided it was a blessing HF gave us. We got to see a love for those people and it’s just a tiny glimpse of how we will feel once we get to Uruguay. When people leave here it’s like graduating high school, they all sign journals and we party all night long haha. We also got to take pictures on Sunday! Wahoo! I got a bunch of MTC and people I have become friends with and my district and comps and such. Lots of things. We can’t send them until we get out of here though. But it just takes way too long on these computers. Sad day, but I do have some. It makes me feel better. It’s been fun though. Speaking of companions, we are not going to be a threesome anymore. Hermana Kirkham is getting to go with the one new North American sister who gets here tomorrow, she will move rooms and it’s so weird. But, on the plus side, Hermana Lundskog and I get to stay together! Yay! I love her. And we get 2 Latino sisters in our room tomorrow as well which means more Spanish practice. We are excited for that.
I can’t believe how much I miss the temple. In all this craziness here, it is the one place I feel like I could go to be closer to home. I mentioned we live literally next door to the Argentina temple, so I see the progress they are making on it daily and I long to go there so much. It is our way of doing other forms of missionary work. Don’t take for granted the opportunity that we live so close to so many. Go as often as you can..... It's a huge blessing.
I love you all so much. I’m doing well. I love this gospel and I know with everything I possess that it’s true. I’m so happy to be here and I’m so grateful Heavenly Father knows me and is blessing me. Take a look around and remember what you have been given. You will be so humbled. I love you all. Have a great week. Until next.... : )
Love, Ashley
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)