Lots of changes in the life of a missionary… I had been worrying about transfers, which are tomorrow. I worried about leaving San Jose, but I learned that I would be staying here and getting a new companion. I am glad to be staying. The Elders told me my new companion is Hermana Hite. She’s American. I always thought I wanted a foreign companion because I could better learn the language, but I was told she left the MTC early because her Spanish was so good. Maybe I will learn more now from her because we can communicate the reason why things are the way they are in the Spanish language. The ELDERS say she is awesome ha. We will see what that means! They all say that I am going to have a lot of fun with her. Can’t wait!
We had the ward activity this week. Hardly anyone showed, but more than I expected. We had fun though. We gave our lesson in Sunday School and everyone was receptive, the real test is now. Will they really do the things we have asked? We will see.
I can’t stress enough how much I love the people here. I wrote you all about Luis. He is fantastic. He showed up the first Sunday at church and continues to come. He is so awesome… hilarious. His sister is progressing well too. Santiago still has a baptismal date, but we wanted to make sure he really would show up to church his one free Sunday. I’m telling you, that is the test. Yesterday he came! So his date is for the 9th of April. I guess our goal for 4 baptisms for this month is to have SET four secure dates, not to be baptized this month ha. Who knows. My comp has stopped praying for our goal because she thinks it’s impossible, but it’s not. I continue to pray for it in all the prayers with her. It’s important to me! And I want to demonstrate my faith. More importantly, I know these are four souls Heavenly Father wants back with him.
Miracle for the week… Sundays are the worst. PMG says it’s the best because families are together and we can teach them all, but that’s false here ha. They are all together, but no one will talk to us for that reason. We go without appointments and no one is willing to let us in. For that reason, I prayed hard for some miracle. Of course Heavenly Father answers our prayers. We decided to stop by and say hi to Stefanie. I know it doesn’t feel like a long time to you all, but it’s been almost two weeks since everything happened with her. In the mission life, ALOT can happen in two weeks. Things change fast here. Her grandpa answered the door and of course said she was sleeping. BUT he said, she has been waiting for you to come by. She wants to continue the lessons... I didn’t understand at first. He mumbles really bad, but I saw the smile on the face of my comp and when we left, she couldn’t stop smiling. She told me what he said and he told us to come back at 7. We did. Stefanie was there, smoking unfortunately, but she said she wants to be baptized. Oh man! We set her date for April 9th as well. She is excited, knows this is the true church, and wants to change her life. We are gonna do it. I want you all to know, your efforts were not for nothing. Thank you for the fasting and prayers. Heavenly Father wanted us to be tested, all of us. We can expect our faith to be tried, but if we persevere, it will pay off. Thank you for the support and faith of all of you. I have felt it daily and know through you I am being blessed.
I want to say something about conference. Make sure you watch it! All sessions! Both days. Sacrifice everything to watch it. We have the privilege to travel two hours there and back both days to watch it. You, at home, can sit in your pjs and watch. Take advantage of that opportunity. How blessed we are to be able to hear the words of Heavenly Father through the prophets. Ah! I’m so excited. I hope you all are too.
I gotta go, but I love you all soooooo much. I think about you daily, pray for you daily. Be good. Keep the faith. Say your prayers. Continue to develop your testimony of this gospel. It is true and I love it! I love you. Until next week
Love, Ash
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
A VISIT WITH "LOVED ONES"
Thanks to all of you who have written me. I was showered with lots of love last district meeting and I appreciate your support more than you will know.
We got a surprise call last night at about 10:00 saying that today I had to go to Montevideo... ugh. So much money, and I had to go to the doctor. ugh again... get blood taken... so that's where we´ve been the whole day. It was fun though. We got to see all of my old district and I got to hang out and talk with Hermana Lundskog and Kirkham all day. I felt like I was coming home from the mish as we got to the huge bus station and I was searching for all my loved ones. I had so many butterflies. haha. It was like seeing my family again. I got to see the ocean too! Wahoo! It was awesome, but four hours of travel is too much. It's ok, I'm back at home now in San Jose.
As for the week... ay ay ay. It was rough. We did have 3 baptisms, but now... we have one. We lost both Juan and Stephanie... both from other people getting to them. We hadn't seen Stefanie for days and when we finally did, she had started school, work and smoking again. We recommitted her to stop, but when we came back a couple days later she was completely different. We don't know what happened, but she didn't want to see us anymore. She told us not to come back and I cried as I bore my testimony. I needed to make sure she knew what she was doing. She understands.
In Preach My Gospel it says you can be sad when people reject the gospel because you have raised a warning voice, but do not become discouraged. And so now... we are moving on. We still have Santiago, I think. We haven't seen him for a few days either though. As I talked to my district leader on the phone at the end of the night about everything, he said the cool thing about a lot of opposition is that it means you are doing a lot of good. I hope that's true. But if these people aren't being baptized then... what's the point? I'm still trying to get over everything. It's still hard. But we will go up. Vamos Arriba! That's our mission theme.
So now we are starting from square one again. We have no investigators really... We are going through the area book and looking for all the old people who were taught and we spent all day yesterday looking for them. It was a long day with little success. We are hoping to do some good some time soon.
In the meantime, there is a ward activity this week. We'll see how that goes and decide from there what to do with the ward. Also, we are teaching Sunday School next week and doing a missionary fireside and talking to the ward about what they can do. I hope it will be good. Whoever thought I would be teaching Sunday School in another language in another country? Not me. Anyway, we have no time today. I can't write letters cause the dumb doctor. I'm sorry, but I love you all!
Love, Smash
P.S. Thanks for all your prayers. I have felt them... and they did help with Stefanie and Juan, long enough for us to see that Heavenly Father answers prayers and long enough for us to be tried too. That's the mish for ya! I love you and miss you!
We got a surprise call last night at about 10:00 saying that today I had to go to Montevideo... ugh. So much money, and I had to go to the doctor. ugh again... get blood taken... so that's where we´ve been the whole day. It was fun though. We got to see all of my old district and I got to hang out and talk with Hermana Lundskog and Kirkham all day. I felt like I was coming home from the mish as we got to the huge bus station and I was searching for all my loved ones. I had so many butterflies. haha. It was like seeing my family again. I got to see the ocean too! Wahoo! It was awesome, but four hours of travel is too much. It's ok, I'm back at home now in San Jose.
As for the week... ay ay ay. It was rough. We did have 3 baptisms, but now... we have one. We lost both Juan and Stephanie... both from other people getting to them. We hadn't seen Stefanie for days and when we finally did, she had started school, work and smoking again. We recommitted her to stop, but when we came back a couple days later she was completely different. We don't know what happened, but she didn't want to see us anymore. She told us not to come back and I cried as I bore my testimony. I needed to make sure she knew what she was doing. She understands.
In Preach My Gospel it says you can be sad when people reject the gospel because you have raised a warning voice, but do not become discouraged. And so now... we are moving on. We still have Santiago, I think. We haven't seen him for a few days either though. As I talked to my district leader on the phone at the end of the night about everything, he said the cool thing about a lot of opposition is that it means you are doing a lot of good. I hope that's true. But if these people aren't being baptized then... what's the point? I'm still trying to get over everything. It's still hard. But we will go up. Vamos Arriba! That's our mission theme.
So now we are starting from square one again. We have no investigators really... We are going through the area book and looking for all the old people who were taught and we spent all day yesterday looking for them. It was a long day with little success. We are hoping to do some good some time soon.
In the meantime, there is a ward activity this week. We'll see how that goes and decide from there what to do with the ward. Also, we are teaching Sunday School next week and doing a missionary fireside and talking to the ward about what they can do. I hope it will be good. Whoever thought I would be teaching Sunday School in another language in another country? Not me. Anyway, we have no time today. I can't write letters cause the dumb doctor. I'm sorry, but I love you all!
Love, Smash
P.S. Thanks for all your prayers. I have felt them... and they did help with Stefanie and Juan, long enough for us to see that Heavenly Father answers prayers and long enough for us to be tried too. That's the mish for ya! I love you and miss you!
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
CLOSER AND CLOSER TO THE GOAL!
This week has been rough... day after day we went without having any success with lessons or tracting, but at the same time... the best week. I probably say that every week. haha
First of all, I was showered with blessings last district meeting. I received all your letters and four packages. It was so great. Heavenly Father knew of course when I would need those things. It was a blessing they came when they did. Thank heavens for fast breaks, valentines, the Ensign, and lots of food haha. Thank you, thank you everyone so much for everything. It is appreciated more than you will ever know.
Stefanie! She has stopped smoking. Six days she has been without a cigarette. She came to church with us on Sunday and it was a miracle. We got permission from her grandpa to wake her up, if he couldn’t do so. He has completely changed. He is helping her stay away from the cigarettes. When we got to her house on Sunday to get her, he was sitting out front and he said, “It’s impossible, nothing can get her up.” We were so scared and asked if we could go in. At that moment, she popped out of the curtain that is across every front door and they both burst into laughter. She was ready to go, in skirt with Book of Mormon in hand. Best moment ever. We had fun walking to church and she had the best time in Young Womens. We were so happy. On top of that, she has been questioning the 19th of this month for her baptismal date. We kept trying to convince her that it would be okay, but when you try and CONVINCE someone of spiritual matters, it never works. We dropped it and we have been praying ever since for a miracle. As you know... we have a goal for four baptisms this month... So we fasted for this purpose yesterday. At the very end of Young Womens, one of the leaders asked if she had a baptismal date. Stefanie said yes. And she asked when? I was listening in... holding my breath… and she said the 19th of March. Ahhh!!!!!! I shrieked inside. After I said, mhmm... the 19th eh? She said yes, and so you see... that is how the Lord works. Perhaps if that leader never asked, we wouldn’t have gotten that date for her. Miracles I say... miracles.
Speaking of which, we have another baptism! His name is Santiago. He was a reference from the bishop. His wife is already a member, but inactive. We visited them and their two sweet daughters. He said they had been talking about coming back to the church and he has investigated before, attended church before and therefore wants to be baptized the 19th as well. You see our investigators have to attend church three times before they can be baptized, so we are kinda running out of time to obtain our goal. We have to find these people fast if we want to reach our goal. But the Lord somehow works these miracles, only he knows how. So Santiago doesn’t have to attend a certain amount of times before he can be baptised. Once again… the mysterious ways in which the Lord works... it’s simply amazing.
I didn’t come on this mission for myself, but it is quite impossible to not grow and be strengthened while being out here. Heavenly Father has something for me to learn everyday and I’m so grateful for it.
Just a little tidbit… if you are struggling, sing a hymn and pray. These are the answers for everything... I’m telling you, it brings such comfort to us out here. I love it… the power of music and prayer are amazing.
I would give up my life for this gospel. Without it, we have nothing. We don’t have family, we don’t have comfort, we don’t have peace, we don’t have guidance and we don’t have purpose. With this gospel, we have the world and the possibilities are endless now, and forever after this life as well. I love this gospel with all my heart and am so grateful to be here to share it with those who will listen.
I love you all so much… more than you will ever know. Hold tight to the rod. Do missionary work. Stand up for your beliefs and be good! I love you. I love you. I love you! Thank you for the letters, the food, the love. Love, ash!
P.S.: The culture here is harsh. Someone told me I’m too skinny and my name is ugly! haha
First of all, I was showered with blessings last district meeting. I received all your letters and four packages. It was so great. Heavenly Father knew of course when I would need those things. It was a blessing they came when they did. Thank heavens for fast breaks, valentines, the Ensign, and lots of food haha. Thank you, thank you everyone so much for everything. It is appreciated more than you will ever know.
Stefanie! She has stopped smoking. Six days she has been without a cigarette. She came to church with us on Sunday and it was a miracle. We got permission from her grandpa to wake her up, if he couldn’t do so. He has completely changed. He is helping her stay away from the cigarettes. When we got to her house on Sunday to get her, he was sitting out front and he said, “It’s impossible, nothing can get her up.” We were so scared and asked if we could go in. At that moment, she popped out of the curtain that is across every front door and they both burst into laughter. She was ready to go, in skirt with Book of Mormon in hand. Best moment ever. We had fun walking to church and she had the best time in Young Womens. We were so happy. On top of that, she has been questioning the 19th of this month for her baptismal date. We kept trying to convince her that it would be okay, but when you try and CONVINCE someone of spiritual matters, it never works. We dropped it and we have been praying ever since for a miracle. As you know... we have a goal for four baptisms this month... So we fasted for this purpose yesterday. At the very end of Young Womens, one of the leaders asked if she had a baptismal date. Stefanie said yes. And she asked when? I was listening in... holding my breath… and she said the 19th of March. Ahhh!!!!!! I shrieked inside. After I said, mhmm... the 19th eh? She said yes, and so you see... that is how the Lord works. Perhaps if that leader never asked, we wouldn’t have gotten that date for her. Miracles I say... miracles.
Speaking of which, we have another baptism! His name is Santiago. He was a reference from the bishop. His wife is already a member, but inactive. We visited them and their two sweet daughters. He said they had been talking about coming back to the church and he has investigated before, attended church before and therefore wants to be baptized the 19th as well. You see our investigators have to attend church three times before they can be baptized, so we are kinda running out of time to obtain our goal. We have to find these people fast if we want to reach our goal. But the Lord somehow works these miracles, only he knows how. So Santiago doesn’t have to attend a certain amount of times before he can be baptised. Once again… the mysterious ways in which the Lord works... it’s simply amazing.
I didn’t come on this mission for myself, but it is quite impossible to not grow and be strengthened while being out here. Heavenly Father has something for me to learn everyday and I’m so grateful for it.
Just a little tidbit… if you are struggling, sing a hymn and pray. These are the answers for everything... I’m telling you, it brings such comfort to us out here. I love it… the power of music and prayer are amazing.
I would give up my life for this gospel. Without it, we have nothing. We don’t have family, we don’t have comfort, we don’t have peace, we don’t have guidance and we don’t have purpose. With this gospel, we have the world and the possibilities are endless now, and forever after this life as well. I love this gospel with all my heart and am so grateful to be here to share it with those who will listen.
I love you all so much… more than you will ever know. Hold tight to the rod. Do missionary work. Stand up for your beliefs and be good! I love you. I love you. I love you! Thank you for the letters, the food, the love. Love, ash!
P.S.: The culture here is harsh. Someone told me I’m too skinny and my name is ugly! haha
Friday, March 4, 2011
SHOOTING FOR THE MOON!
Wahoo! This week has been crazy. .. so many good days, but then again every day had its bad parts too. I guess that really is just how it is. You’re excited one minute and the next... not so much. The good thing I can say is that as dad said, a little good definitely outweighs all the bad. Aw… thank the heavens, or else no one would make it out here.
Where do I even begin? We had zone conference this week. We only have them about every 3 months so everyone tells me my timing is so lucky. I got here with one baptism already under my belt and then got here right in the nick of time for my first zone conference. The Lord is looking out for me. It’s such a huge blessing. So, at the zone conference President really emphasized our baptisms. Apparently, our district is the only one not doing so hot and he let us know about it. ay ay ay He’s so great though. We've only had a couple baptisms in our entire zone for the last year. It’s very frustrating. So, he had us set new goals. The goal for our companionship this month is 4 baptisms. It might not seem like a lot, but that’s half of the baptisms my comp has had in her entire mission (more than half actually). Everyone was shocked when I reported this, but my comp and I felt inspired ha. And we are changing A LOT of things so we can accomplish this goal. We know if we do everything possible to achieve this (and I can assure you that we are), that the Lord is going to do his part. WE KNOW THIS, and we have the faith : ) It’s a great feeling haha. I’m so excited. So far we have 2 baptisms scheduled for March 19th... ta da! The hard thing is that on the 22nd my comp goes home, so it’s going to be a little weird to get this accomplished. But we have no fear.
Which brings me to Juan... He is one of our baptisms for March 19th. He’s so cute, old. He looks exactly like the Latino version of Pres. Hinckley, so you can imagine how much I love him. His wife passed away and I shared with him about gramps and he was really touched. He asked, “You mean I can be with her again?” I assured him yes. And since then he has been the only one to remember about grandpa and care. He keeps saying how sorry he is for my loss, but that I will get to be with him again. No one else has mentioned it or asked how I’m doing. Maybe that’s better, but I like to know people care. He has attended church two times since we found him and came to our baptism and fulfills all the commitments we give him. We got slightly discouraged when one day he couldn’t understand any of the things we were teaching. He’s old yes, and struggles with his memory. We left thinking his baptismal date might fall through. We prayed for him and met with him again the next day and it was night and day difference. I know it was the Lord helping him understand. So now... he will be baptized! That was the first miracle of the week.
Second miracle this week: We really needed to find good investigators. I don’t know if I mentioned but last week we ended up dropping all of our investigators because they refused to act on their faith and come to church. If they don’t come to church three times, they can’t be baptized. Also, it shows if someone is really truly interested, they will do anything possible to come to church. So that’s when we know we have someone good. So we were tracting at the very end of a very non-productive day. We were just around the corner from our house which we walk by every day. Apparently, my comp has never knocked on those doors before. So we knock and knock and no success and then this girl came out of the house. I tell her we're missionaries and we want to share a message with her. She says okay, come in, which is rare. Usually if people will listen, it’s just outside the door. So taken by surprise we go in. Her name is Stefanie. We start to get to know her and she has lost her dad, her mom does hardcore drugs. And I don’t know who, but someone, took her away because she’s a threat to people. Stefanie’s little sister suffers mentally because of her mom’s choices to do these drugs. So she also is in a center to be taken care of. Stefanie lives with her grandpa and is 17 years old. As she’s telling us about her family, you can see she is very strong. She keeps mentioning how everything is okay because God loves her and she has faith in him. Hermana Medina and I just sit and stare in awe. We immediately knew she was someone special.
We, as directed by the spirit, decide it’s best to bring up the Book of Mormon. We only had five minutes before we were going to be late getting home. So short and powerful was our goal. She mentions she reads the Bible everyday and she points to her room and we can see the Bible open in her room. Luckily, it’s the same Bible as ours. What a coincidence. She brings it out and we read to her from her own Bible about the coming forth of another book and tell her about the BOM. We ask if she will read this passage that we marked and pray to know if this book is true. She said she didn’t need to. She said, “I can already feel that it’s true”... whaaa??? Ok! haha but we still want you to pray about it. We invite her to church and she goes in her room to get a pad of paper and pen to write the directions, time and everything. Again, we were taken by surprise. No one ever does that, especially a 17 year old girl. We were impressed. Bad thing is... her grandpa came out and he’s going to be her challenge with this gospel. He is very anti, and won’t let us talk, says we're bad people and all that. Man... it was rough, but we left saying we would come to pick her up for church. When we went to get her... her grandpa answered the door and said she couldn’t come. We were SO SAD! We stopped by to visit her afterwards and she said sorry she couldn’t come. We sat outside with her and her grandpa and tried to teach the restoration. Once again, he caused many problems and we could hardly get a word out. She eventually asked him to leave and he did. Her knowledge of the Bible is both a blessing and not so much. She knows a lot, very smart. She struggles with the idea of God and Christ being two separate beings with bodies, but we´re working on it. We found out she smokes and has been since she was 13. She asks a ton of questions and we told her about baptism and we want to set a date for her... she wanted to know everything. We just laughed and said it’s going to take a while to teach you everything, but we will. Just be patient. And she already knew she had to quit smoking to be baptized. This girl is so special to us already. We love her so much, but she has everything in the world working against her right now.
This is why I ask for your prayers for her. She needs strength against her grandpa, smoking and she takes medication for nervousness and she sleeps all day which she says prevents her from waking up to go to church. She needs help, but she wants to be baptized and she is so strong. We are excited for what she can do, but she needs the Lord’s help. We asked if she also, would prepare for the 19th to be baptized and she said yes. Pray for her that she can learn all that she needs to and can have the strength to do the things she needs to be baptized.
One other thing... I had my first interesting mish experience this week. We were walking past a bar... tons of drunk guys and one of them latches onto me as we're walking. I tried to get him off me but no luck. He just keeps yelling rubio, which is blonde. Ugh! I got sick about it, but he wouldn’t let go. Next thing I know, he kisses me and then runs away. Man alive. Crazy people. I’m grateful nothing worse happened.
I guess that’s all for this week. I’m out of time - gosh dang! But I love you all. I’m so glad to be here. I miss you a ton. Thank you for writing!!!! I love you!!!
Love, Ash
Where do I even begin? We had zone conference this week. We only have them about every 3 months so everyone tells me my timing is so lucky. I got here with one baptism already under my belt and then got here right in the nick of time for my first zone conference. The Lord is looking out for me. It’s such a huge blessing. So, at the zone conference President really emphasized our baptisms. Apparently, our district is the only one not doing so hot and he let us know about it. ay ay ay He’s so great though. We've only had a couple baptisms in our entire zone for the last year. It’s very frustrating. So, he had us set new goals. The goal for our companionship this month is 4 baptisms. It might not seem like a lot, but that’s half of the baptisms my comp has had in her entire mission (more than half actually). Everyone was shocked when I reported this, but my comp and I felt inspired ha. And we are changing A LOT of things so we can accomplish this goal. We know if we do everything possible to achieve this (and I can assure you that we are), that the Lord is going to do his part. WE KNOW THIS, and we have the faith : ) It’s a great feeling haha. I’m so excited. So far we have 2 baptisms scheduled for March 19th... ta da! The hard thing is that on the 22nd my comp goes home, so it’s going to be a little weird to get this accomplished. But we have no fear.
Which brings me to Juan... He is one of our baptisms for March 19th. He’s so cute, old. He looks exactly like the Latino version of Pres. Hinckley, so you can imagine how much I love him. His wife passed away and I shared with him about gramps and he was really touched. He asked, “You mean I can be with her again?” I assured him yes. And since then he has been the only one to remember about grandpa and care. He keeps saying how sorry he is for my loss, but that I will get to be with him again. No one else has mentioned it or asked how I’m doing. Maybe that’s better, but I like to know people care. He has attended church two times since we found him and came to our baptism and fulfills all the commitments we give him. We got slightly discouraged when one day he couldn’t understand any of the things we were teaching. He’s old yes, and struggles with his memory. We left thinking his baptismal date might fall through. We prayed for him and met with him again the next day and it was night and day difference. I know it was the Lord helping him understand. So now... he will be baptized! That was the first miracle of the week.
Second miracle this week: We really needed to find good investigators. I don’t know if I mentioned but last week we ended up dropping all of our investigators because they refused to act on their faith and come to church. If they don’t come to church three times, they can’t be baptized. Also, it shows if someone is really truly interested, they will do anything possible to come to church. So that’s when we know we have someone good. So we were tracting at the very end of a very non-productive day. We were just around the corner from our house which we walk by every day. Apparently, my comp has never knocked on those doors before. So we knock and knock and no success and then this girl came out of the house. I tell her we're missionaries and we want to share a message with her. She says okay, come in, which is rare. Usually if people will listen, it’s just outside the door. So taken by surprise we go in. Her name is Stefanie. We start to get to know her and she has lost her dad, her mom does hardcore drugs. And I don’t know who, but someone, took her away because she’s a threat to people. Stefanie’s little sister suffers mentally because of her mom’s choices to do these drugs. So she also is in a center to be taken care of. Stefanie lives with her grandpa and is 17 years old. As she’s telling us about her family, you can see she is very strong. She keeps mentioning how everything is okay because God loves her and she has faith in him. Hermana Medina and I just sit and stare in awe. We immediately knew she was someone special.
We, as directed by the spirit, decide it’s best to bring up the Book of Mormon. We only had five minutes before we were going to be late getting home. So short and powerful was our goal. She mentions she reads the Bible everyday and she points to her room and we can see the Bible open in her room. Luckily, it’s the same Bible as ours. What a coincidence. She brings it out and we read to her from her own Bible about the coming forth of another book and tell her about the BOM. We ask if she will read this passage that we marked and pray to know if this book is true. She said she didn’t need to. She said, “I can already feel that it’s true”... whaaa??? Ok! haha but we still want you to pray about it. We invite her to church and she goes in her room to get a pad of paper and pen to write the directions, time and everything. Again, we were taken by surprise. No one ever does that, especially a 17 year old girl. We were impressed. Bad thing is... her grandpa came out and he’s going to be her challenge with this gospel. He is very anti, and won’t let us talk, says we're bad people and all that. Man... it was rough, but we left saying we would come to pick her up for church. When we went to get her... her grandpa answered the door and said she couldn’t come. We were SO SAD! We stopped by to visit her afterwards and she said sorry she couldn’t come. We sat outside with her and her grandpa and tried to teach the restoration. Once again, he caused many problems and we could hardly get a word out. She eventually asked him to leave and he did. Her knowledge of the Bible is both a blessing and not so much. She knows a lot, very smart. She struggles with the idea of God and Christ being two separate beings with bodies, but we´re working on it. We found out she smokes and has been since she was 13. She asks a ton of questions and we told her about baptism and we want to set a date for her... she wanted to know everything. We just laughed and said it’s going to take a while to teach you everything, but we will. Just be patient. And she already knew she had to quit smoking to be baptized. This girl is so special to us already. We love her so much, but she has everything in the world working against her right now.
This is why I ask for your prayers for her. She needs strength against her grandpa, smoking and she takes medication for nervousness and she sleeps all day which she says prevents her from waking up to go to church. She needs help, but she wants to be baptized and she is so strong. We are excited for what she can do, but she needs the Lord’s help. We asked if she also, would prepare for the 19th to be baptized and she said yes. Pray for her that she can learn all that she needs to and can have the strength to do the things she needs to be baptized.
One other thing... I had my first interesting mish experience this week. We were walking past a bar... tons of drunk guys and one of them latches onto me as we're walking. I tried to get him off me but no luck. He just keeps yelling rubio, which is blonde. Ugh! I got sick about it, but he wouldn’t let go. Next thing I know, he kisses me and then runs away. Man alive. Crazy people. I’m grateful nothing worse happened.
I guess that’s all for this week. I’m out of time - gosh dang! But I love you all. I’m so glad to be here. I miss you a ton. Thank you for writing!!!! I love you!!!
Love, Ash
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