He Answers Our Prayers

So, this week the weather cannot make up its mind… hot then freezing cold. It’s ridiculous...

My comp and I get to stay together for another transfer. Yeah! I didn’t want to leave, but I will be transferred next time. We will get to go to the temple November 1st. I am so excited! And we get to have Thanksgiving together. A member’s sister lives in Utah and has for 20 years. She is going to be here for Thanksgiving and she’s making us an American Thanksgiving (or as close to one as you can get here in Uruguay). We are excited for that as well. Alejandra and children ...

It doesn't get any better than this!!

On a personal note, I have seen AGAIN that Heavenly Father really does love us and answers our prayers. I have never seen that anywhere more than I have on the mish. It’s amazing. Every time I have asked for something from him, He gives it to me. Even little things... the smallest of things.

We were talking with this lady. She was saying she has such great faith and believes in the gospel so much and she told us this story about her life. She said when her mom died it was hard, but when her dad died two years later, it was even harder. She was really worried about their welfare, their well being on the other side of the veil, and so she started to pray. One night she had a dream. She said she has never had a dream in her life. So she had a dream that she was in her house walking around and the phone rang. She answered it and it was her mom. Her mom reassured her that she was okay, that she was in heaven and happy. She asked about her dad. He was there too and she gave the phone to him to talk. They talked and her dad told her not to worry, that he was okay, in heaven, happy, with her mom, and waiting for her and all her siblings. She was crying at the end and so was I. It reminded me of the talk at conference... it doesn’t matter how small our concerns are: even if it’s a piece of chicken, reassurance about parents who passed away or wanting to stay with a certain comp for another change... HEAVENLY FATHER cares about us and his only desire is for us to be happy. He will do anything in his power to make it that way for us. Sometimes it’s not always what we think will make us happiest, but we must keep in mind, everything is for our benefit… for our happiness. I don’t know how many times he will have to teach me that lesson while I’m here, but apparently he doesn’t want me to forget it because I keep seeing the evidences of it. I love this gospel and the absolute, pure power that it has.

I’m grateful for all of you. Things are good here... We’re still working to find those who are prepared. Pray for the work and help those you can. I love you all sooo much.

Love, Ash

A Visit From Pres ...

Me emailing mi familia
We had interviews this week. They went really well. It just proves to me once again that pres is a man of inspiration. It’s amazing how I feel like he can just read me like a book. It’s cool. I remember that he’s a man of God, he has the spirit and he really is representing the Lord here for all us missionaries. Usually he asks stuff about us personally, but this week the first thing he asked was three attributes my comp had. Interesting. I bet no one can guess what my comp said about me. haha Just kidding. I said she was studious, fearless and real with the people. She said I was loving, charitable and kind. Then he asked, if one of your sisters was preparing to go on a mission, what advice would you give them? I have actually thought about this a lot... but there is SO much I would tell them. I had to really sit and think. There was just too much to say. Then he specifically asked me something that had been on my mind this week. I kinda freaked out. He assured me and said I was doing awesome here! When my comp was in there, I decided to talk to Hermana Da Silva and we ended up talking all day until about 4 in the afternoon. So, instead of interacting with the other missionaries in the zone, I just talked to her. I found out about president’s conversion, his callings, where he has been and what he has done, and her role as wife to a man of God. It was really awesome. I got to know them both a lot better. We’re personal friends now. Just one of Uruguay's beautiful sunsets
Then on Saturday, some of the hermanas from our zone did an MTC for a day activity in their ward. So we went to Piriapolis and taught the youth all day as they rotated in and out of classes. It was really fun. They fed us lunch and even President and Hermana Da Silva showed up to teach the youth at the end. They actually sat in one of our classes, which was the MOST INTIMIDATING THING EVER! He has never actually seen us teach... oh man, my mouth dried right up, my Spanish went out the door and I froze. It was horrible, then I regained my cool and was okay. Then the spirit took over. It all worked out.

We ended up pushing Nataly’s baptism back again because we have stake conference this week and our bishop didn’t want her to receive the Holy Ghost a week later. They have to do it in the following Sacrament meeting. We set it for Oct. 29th.

We have made lots of progress with Nataly. We took Sheyla with us to teach her and we had a lot of fun. We taught her the Book of Mormon and how to use it. Then we had a competition with her mom, Sheyla, my comp and she ended up winning. She knew how to use those scriptures so well. We gave her a ‘For the Strength of Youth’ pamphlet and had her read about chastity because her sister is 16 and pregnant. She went and visited her dad this weekend and is bringing back a cousin that we might start teaching as well.

We had a few miracles this week... Belen, Bruno, Mauricio…. their mom has been taught time and time again, but never wanted to get baptized. She believes in the church, but has trouble smoking and said she needed to repent of a lot of things first. Well, we went and saw them and they told us she has quit smoking and she told us she felt completely clean of her sins. We told her the next step was baptism and she has agreed. Her date is the 29th also. Her name is Alejandra.

Also with Natalia’s family... we hadn’t seen them for a little and my thoughts kept coming back to them. My comp was thinking the same thing. We decided we would go this week to find them again. We had lunch with Natalia and decided to talk to her about it, but not before her sister showed up at the house to eat with us. It was so weird. We literally feel like we’re being directed to them. And if the mom isn’t ready, we might as well see if it’s one of the kids who is ready now to accept the gospel. We talked with her and eased into it and she agreed to be taught... yes! We set an appointment with her, but then it has been raining and pouring all week so she couldn’t come to the lesson. We have looked for her twice more but with no luck. We don’t know why this is all happening, but we're just trusting in the Lord. He knows what he’s doing, we’re just his little tools. He wants his children to accept the gospel more than we do and he will make whatever is necessary happen so that the person can progress, if it is their time. All we can do is hope, pray, have a little faith and keep moving forward. Hopefully something will happen soon.

I miss you all more than you know. I love your guts! Stand up for what’s right. Until next week...
Love, Ash

AHH..... CONFERENCE WEEKEND!

Life... what a joyous ride it is! Conference was awesome, of course. It’s always so nice for missionaries because we are constantly teaching and trying to uplift others, so it’s great when we get a little lifting ourselves from none other than the prophets. There was lots of good stuff. Sister Farr with Sister Laursen
It always goes by waaaay too fast though. When I was a kid, conference could never be over soon enough, but it felt like two minutes long here. I hate that. I don’t have one specific talk that I LOVED LOVED LOVED, just little parts: one line here, one line there that spoke specifically to me. All of it accumulated was a good chunk of revelation. I still want to go back and review though. We actually got to see the re-broadcast of the Women’s Conference. I loved Elder Uchdorf’s talk. It was great. I loved his flower analogy. It meant a lot to me. Elder Foster, the Seventy who does zone conferences and stuff for us, gave the closing prayer at conference on Saturday. Cool!

I had a sleepover with Hermana Lundskog and Hermana Kubly last night. They stayed over after conference. That was fun, in our TINY house. Hermana Lundskog and I stayed up all night talking. Oops! We had lots to catch up on. Everyone wanted to look at family pics of you guys, so I showed them. I would like to tell you... you are the cause of four sister missionaries feeling frumpy after seeing Shaq and Brooke's beautiful pics. haha We got homesick and jealous. Anywho... we made brownies to feel better! Happy girl’s night... as if I don’t get that 24/7 already.
Sooo... I got a huge package from Hermana Hite. I was soooo happy. She’s the bomb. (I hope she’s reading this.) I love you Hermana Hite. I got your stuff and I’m writing you today. THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

As for the work this week... We’ve been trying to work with the members more. We received revelation from conference that we just need to be serving them a ton. We already try and do that, but that’s what we’re focusing on this week. Wish us luck.

I miss you all a ton. It’s hard seeing Utah on the screen and not being able to be there. But soon enough. I only have one more conference here. I can’t believe how fast the last six months has gone. It’s insane.

We are hoping to have our baptism next Saturday. She came to conference and also received an answer to her prayer this week. So cool. She was praying and her mom came home and she was frustrated because she didn’t get an answer. Her mom told her to do it again. So she did and started crying.... She said she just felt sure. Yes!

I love you all, be good and be safe. Love, Ash

Not the Best 18 Months OF My Life..... But the Best 18 Months FOR MY Life!

Spring has sprung and it’s beautiful, but already soooo hot. Everyone here is worried because it already feels like summer which means summer is going to be even worse... oh boy, it should be fun.

Outside Ashley's humble abode
........Inside Ashley's humble abode
First off, we had a conference with President about working in level 3. We have our work cut out for us. We aren’t even working on level 2, so we gotta gently ease our way up. That has been the biggest difficulty of the week. We have been concerned with how to help the ward do the work. We’ll figure something out. At the conference I got my happy hump day package. I was not expecting it so it was all the better. You didn’t need to send me that though, but thank you. I loved it. THANK YOU, THANK YOU FOR THE NEW CTR RING. I LOVE IT. I also got your Dear Elders mom about Education Week. It makes me miss school when you talk about BYU.

My comp and I have felt some nudging towards Natalia’s family. There have been far too many coincidences with running into them and so we talked to her about it. She said that’s funny because right now they are at a really hard time in their lives. Her parents are getting divorced. So maybe that’s why we’ve been thinking of them. We’ve been trying to contact them forever and finally this week we did it. We walked past their house and then decided to go back and try and see if they were there. The mom was. We talked to her for a little, but she said she didn’t want anything and maybe we’d see each other later. Every missionary knows that means it’s a no go. But I was persistent and told her we felt impressed to go and see them. She started crying and said she had seen us pass by and then turn around and that day was a really difficult day for her. She told us her whole story about getting divorced; her kids who were suffering and getting into trouble... then we got talking so much she invited us in. We just got to know her and her other daughter came home and we talked to the both of them. They were around when Natalia was taking the lessons and so we talked about the missionary that was there that taught her. They think so highly of her and she means so much to them, then they said we were starting to take her place. We are gonna have to go slow, but we have a return appointment and we’re excited to see what might come of it. HUGE SUCCESS THAT WAS.
Ashley and her beloved friend, Camilla
On the flip side, we had to drop Camilla. She flat out told us she didn’t want to get baptized; maybe later in life but she’s not willing to give up the things of the world. So sad. She has been asking for my old CTR ring for forever so I gave it to her. She was sooo happy. I told her she had to live it and I explained what it meant. She agreed. With time she’ll be ready to accept the gospel. We are also teaching some less actives who recently moved here. We invited them to church a few weeks ago, but they didn’t come. We went and saw her again and she said she didn’t feel comfortable going to church without a skirt and she didn’t have one. So we found one for her, took it to her and she showed up to church. It was awesome. Then we went back to her house and her 13 year old daughter wants to get baptized. Her name is Nataly. We think it might be her mom more wanting her to get baptized. She is soooo quiet and won’t talk to us. The only thing she could muster up the courage to ask was if we had been to California and Hollywood. Her mom said she has cried because she wants to go to the states so bad and see California. So when I got your package the next day, I put together some hand sanitizer, gum, candy and goodies and gave a little package to her and her sister. Turns out she loves that so much that she won’t even eat it. She’s keeping it to show all her friends. People love the states!

It’s weird being senior comp because now when people ask me how long I’ve been out; they all are starting to say I’m almost finished. That’s crazy! Also, I walked in somewhere and felt like I was in the states. The strangest feeling came over me. I’m not ready to come home. Good thing I have a ton of time left.

The thing that has been on my mind all week is the Emma Smith movie. I’d seen it before but... it hit me so hard here. She is seriously my new hero besides you, mom and dad :) I want to be like her! I also started and finished our Search for Happiness this week. Boyd K. Packer talks about an experience he had on his mish, a silent strong experience that changed him. The spirit hit him hard and changed him. That's how I’ve been feeling. It was such a drastic change from the first half of the mish to the second. I’ve been reflecting and I have changed, but for the better. It’s impossible to describe, but so great... I love it here. I’ve transformed and I love it. I love the gospel and I love all of you. I hope everything is well. Hold tight to the rod.

Love, Ash