The Lord Works in Mysterious Ways

It has been a long week, but things for the most part are good.  The first week of changes is always the hardest.  But it's okay.  I just wanna start off saying... HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHAQ! 

We got here Tuesday and I didn't want to get off the bus.  I wanted to go to Montevideo with all my friends and to see Hermana Laursen but they made me get off and we went straight to work.  Hermana Lopez and I hugged and laughed at the odds of us being put together again.  Everyone was freaking out; it's the first time any of us has heard of it happening.  I wanted to start off on the right foot though and I think we did. We went to the house.  Our bedroom has no window and is growing mold all over the walls, so we moved our beds to the main room because I can't breathe in that air at night.  It makes me sick.  In the meantime, we are looking for a new house.  

My new bedroom

We started out discussing the area and what was going on.  She told me it was HUGE.  And when she said huge, I didn't understand what she meant by huge.  But we have a lot in our hands. There have been no baptisms for about a year.  Rough.  It's a branch.  Luckily, we have a church building but it looks more like a house.  It's the first time I've been in a branch and not a ward.  It will be interesting.  There are 500 members who live here, but of course, they are all inactive. Hermana Lopez told me that her previous comp wasn't looking for people to baptize.  They were just working with less actives.  In my entire mission, I've probably only had about two families reactivated, but not because of us... because the members helped them.  They were teaching family after family trying to activate them, but it wasn't working.   Frankly, they were just wasting their time.  I told Hermana Lopez that was going to change.  It took a long time for me to get it drilled into my head, but we are here to baptize.  And I don't have much time here.  Thanks to a blessing I got on Monday from Hermano Barreto, I know there are people here waiting for the gospel.  I know I need to find someone here before I go and with not much time, I told her we gotta get to work.  LUCKILY, she is on the same page as me on that.  The good thing about my comp is she has a strong testimony, she knows why she's here and she works hard.   That's something I've missed the last little while.   It's only six weeks.  I have to make the best of it.

We decided we had to go to each leader; meet them, gain their trust, show them we're here to work hard, and let them know we aren't here to activate people, but to strengthen Zion here in Progresso by bringing new children to the fold.   We did just that.  We now are ready to start working with the members.  It took a week's worth of prep, but we had to clean up the old stuff and get ready for the new.  Luckily, we are already experienced in that because we did the same thing in Sarandi.

It's always hard coming to a new area because everyone misses the old hermana.  And being American is sometimes hard to be accepted into their culture.   I've been trying to use my smile and laugh (like dad told me) to gain people's trust.  I think it's been working.  I'm just trying to keep my head up.  It will only get better from here on out.

The area itself... I finally feel like I've arrived at what I imagined my mission would be like.  It's a busy city, but also some fields and stuff.  It's really loud here.  I got so used to the country that my ears hurt.  I kinda miss it back there in Sarandi and I miss seeing the horses and animals. It's busy here, but all dirt roads, and it's poor.  Probably the poorest area I've been in yet.  It's cool seeing this side of Uruguay though, hard to work in but... it's okay.  It's got more culture than any other area I've been in.   We have to take a bus everywhere and we got on the other day and this guy and girl got on with OLD guitars.  They just start playing guayan music, it was SOOOOO AWESOME!  I was so mad I didn't have my camera.  I was happy and he looked at me and smiled while singing and I gave him a thumbs up and while playing he gave me a thumbs up.  haha  It was cool.   That's the kind of stuff I'm seeing here.

After we had worked on Tuesday, we get a call on our cell and it was Hermana Laursen.  She was crying, and she told me she was sad because we werent going to be able to see each before I left.  She's training - white washing.  It's not very often a trainer gets to see their trainee, train. She's going to be awesome.  I missed her lots after that.  She still is with an American, all four of her comps were from Utah.  That's funny.

Sooo... so much for not letting anyone know how much time I have left.  First member we have lunch with and he looks me in the eye and says I'm finishing here.  What!!!!  It was lame, but the old comp told everyone about me.  So, everyone knows I end here.  Dang!

So... our idea for now to get members involved in the work, I want you guys to do the same with us.  We are telling all the families to pray for a family, someone who isn't a member.  They have to pray to choose who it is and to know if that's the family the Lord wants them to choose.  We are going to the church, we don't know what day yet, but we are going to put together welcome baskets (no one here knows their neighbor).  That night we will put together a basket of jam, cookies, and goodies, but most importantly a Book of Mormon with their testimony.  We are going to go out and have everyone deliver their basket, get to know the family, tell them who they are, that they are members of the church and invite them to a FHE.  You guys can invite them to whatever you would like.  Then... we come in.  We will go to the family night and try and teach them.  It's going to be awesome and it was truly an inspired idea.  We are really excited.  With the area so big and with no investigators really, we have to work with the members to find those who are prepared for the gospel.  Anyway, I want you guys to do the same thing the same day... try and share the gospel with someone.  You gotta do it as a family and it will take some courage, but it'll be awesome.

Yesterday was such a good day.  We went to stake conference in Las Piedras.  Right when we got there, I realized that San Jose would be there.  I got super excited.  I told my comp I'd probably see a bunch of people I loved.  Welp, right when we got there, a bunch of people came running at me and hugged me.  It was such a great reunion, laughing and feeling that love.  The Ramon family and other people I grew to love so much were there.  We talked with them the whole time.  It was so good to see everyone and I felt so good.  Ery Ramon grabbed both my hands with his and said I was always welcome in their home, there will always be space waiting for me and my family and that they wanted to meet my husband one day.  He also told me they we going to make my wedding dress.  Sweet, huh?  It was just good.

Awe! a sweet reunion with loved ones from San Jose

Then we went to lunch with the branch president.  We hadn't had the chance to meet him because he lives like 20 minutes away in the middle of nowhere.  They have a pool, ranch, five horses, and many other animals and a nice house.  They spent the whole day talking with me, which guayans don't normally do.  They asked everything about me and I felt their love.  They have four kids and after learning that I had a Jeep, my dad had taught me to shoot, I liked to draw and I came on the mission for good reasons, I totally won him over.  He said, "All that I'm missing is a son for you to marry." haha   It was funny.  He gets discouraged sometimes, but we told him our plans to help the branch and he was very willing to listen.  He says whatever we need to further the work, he will give it to us and he called an emergency "missionary work only" ward council this week so we can make a plan, get everyone on our side and get the work moving.  Despite the long week, the tiredness and other slight trials... I'm excited to see what this area will bring.  We are doing everything we can.  I can't even make it to 10:00 at night without falling asleep.  We come home, plan and I zonk out before I have time to do anything.  We are working hard and I hope I will be around to see the results.

I love you all.  I gotta go.  Be good.  This church is true!!!  Love, Ash

Saying Goodbye is Hard to Do!

I don’t even know what to say... I don’t know where to begin. I’m so grateful that after last night’s skype I can still hear from you guys today. I was in the best of moods after we talked, of course. It was great to see and hear your voices. My comp got to talk to her family and then we planned and sat down to watch The Other Side of Heaven. I was laughing and enjoying myself until we got change calls.

The elder told my comp she was staying and then he said I was going to Progresso, the one area in my whole mission that I said I never wanted to go. Then I realized that’s where Hermana Lopez was. My comp said, "But, Elder, Hermana Farr was already with her." He said, “Yep!” I started packing and went straight to bed. I was up all night. I feel like I’m not ready for this change, but I must press forward and do as the Lord commands. We travel to Durazno tonight at 7 to stay the night with a member there. I won’t go all the way to Montevideo for changes because Progresso is on the way. They will drop me off there in the morning and we’ll get to work.

Other things that happened this week… We had a FHE with the Gonzalez family last Monday. It was great. They invited just about half the ward to make everyone dinner. They fit in just fine with the ward here. It was really fun. They are amazing people, Fernando has been without smoking still and progressing along just great.

I had exchanges this week with an American. She was great. We worked together just great. It was fun to be with someone so kind and loving and willing to help because of a strong testimony. I miss that. That's a good thing about Hermana Lopez, she has a good testimony and will pull her own weight. I'm trying to keep my hopes up, I really am. Next week will be great. The gospel has the power to change lives, right?

I had to say goodbye to all the people I had come to love. It was HARD! We went by everyone and I shed tears knowing I won't see them again, or not for a long while at least. I kept telling my comp, "I hate this. I hate saying goodbye. Why does it have to be so hard." It's amazing how much these people come to mean to you. Man... long day.

Then it was time to go, a few members took me and they told me how much they appreciated everything I did and the new bishop said he was so excited to work with his new team, aka us, and now I was leaving. It's okay, Sarandi is going to be soooooo successful.

Great things to Come

Last Monday we went to wish some members a happy birthday and I got to talk to their daughter who lives in Spanish Fork on the phone. It’s so weird! I can’t talk in English when I’m surrounded by Latins. I mix my words up and can’t separate the two languages. It’s strange, but that was fun. Her only birthday request was to hear beautiful voices singing and she asked me and my comp to sing. So we sang happy birthday to her.
We have a couple people with baptismal dates and they went to church yesterday, but we´ll see how things progress. Nothing is set in stone but this week we found a ton of investigators. Let’s hope we can help them all progress.

Since the Gonzalez family was baptized, I keep telling my comp that I won’t be satisfied with single baptisms. I want more families! It was too great of an experience. We had district meeting on Tuesday and it was great. Our leader taught us about paying attention to the small things that the Lord has given us and to look at the small things and take them and move forward with those. Well, that day I was thinking about that. I get the very distinct feeling we should go to this guy’s house named Jorge. He was a reference; he’s awesome but works a lot so we can never get together with him. Well, my comp said exactly that... he’s going to be at work.  I had a feeling so we just have to go look. We pass by and his bike was there, lights on and house open. Wahoo! Let’s go. Well, we can’t teach men alone for our own protection so now we had to hurry and try and find a member before he can get away from us. We run and one member can’t go. So, we go to the lady who gave us the reference who also works a lot and miraculously she isn’t doing anything. So she goes with us and we have an awesome lesson. He is of a different religion, active, listened to the missionaries before, read the Book of Mormon, returned it because he didn’t believe it, but eight months ago he lost his wife. And we nailed him with that. He’s only about 35. He’s been listening to us so much, and praying to find an answer, but he said it hasn’t come yet. We taught the Plan of Salvation and of course... silly member... she has to mention doing work for the dead and he freaks out and asks us what that is. We should leave the dead in peace.... salvation is personal and so on. I begin to explain the temple and the things we can do there. He starts to ask more and more. We are getting really in depth now and he liked what he learned. He started asking if in our eyes he could get married again in this life. Then he asked about how that worked with being sealed to his wife. Oh boy, we left it at that. I told him he has to receive an answer first before I’ll explain that, but he liked it. He hasn’t gone to church ever. It was a good lesson and for some reason I was led to his house that night and everything worked out perfectly. We shall see. After that, we decided to go by this lady’s house really fast even though it was late and we didn’t think she would REALLY listen to us. We go by and her husband/companion (we weren´t sure which) answered the door. We thought he was going to tell us to go away but he says, "pasen chicas." Come in girls. Alright, they were waiting for us. They also had the missionaries over before but never went to church. They believe in God, but aren’t the type that go to church they say. So does everyone else. But we were talking and she says she has a question. She wants to know what happens after this life. Welp, we taught the plan again and involved her six year old son with pictures I have. They loved it. She said she would read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and he did too. Wahoo! Another family! I’m praying for them. Maybe now is there time, ya know? I hope so. Well, after that we go straight home, hurry and plan and go to bed. Next morning I wake up to study and can’t find my Book of Mormon anywhere...  and I’m left with that. We have searched everywhere and all the studying I have done for the last 17 months, all my notes, inspirations, teaching helps and resources, pictures of you guys… it’s all gone. We retraced our footsteps, searched their house, our house. It literally disappeared. I was fasting for that, along with other things... praying all week long... nothing. I’m devastated and sick. I would rather lose my camera first over my Book of Mormon. I can’t even understand my English scriptures anymore. They are so unfamiliar to me. I hate it! Ugh... I’m not losing the faith. I don’t know when I’ll find it or how, but I have to find it. In the meantime, this week hopefully my leaders will give me another one to at least use in lessons and to study but... it’s not the same. And it’s pretty much useless when I have 7 weeks left. Ugh. I know Heavenly Father has a plan for me!

On top of those things... Jessica and Agustin want to name their future daughter after me. Crazy, eh? Also, I have a major rash all over my body because of detergent that we got, it’s been warm weather, dad turned 50, Katherine got married and I get to talk to you all this week on Skype. That was my week.

One more thing, Agustin and Fernando got the priesthood yesterday. It was awesome. They let us come in for the ordinations and it was so great. I love it. It’s the most amazing thing to see these people progress. I love them so much. Everyone was congratulating us afterwards for our good work. We didn’t do anything, just taught them the basics. But it’s amazing to be a part of. I want to be a missionary forever! Never again will I have the same power, authority and blessing to do what I’m doing now and that makes me really sad. But I just gotta enjoy every minute. I love you all so much. Talk to ya next week! Love, Ash

A Family is Baptized!!!

Thank you for your continued support and love. It means the world to me. I feel so blessed to have such a huge team cheering me on. And the work continues to progress. It’s been miraculous.

The Gonzalez family did get baptized this week. It was awesome. They are so happy. I am so happy and I know Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are even more so. It was a grand occasion. It didn’t come without difficulties though as usual. We talked with our ward mission leader and he said he was going to take care of the font and set up everything for the baptism starting at 2:00. I have learned from past experiences that we must always check on things at the church and so on Saturday we went by the church to find it empty. The font takes three hours to fill up and the baptism was at 5:30. If we didn’t start soon, it wouldn’t be full by the time everyone got there. Another thing... we didn’t have keys to open the doors to start the water to the font OR a cell phone. We waited... and waited. At 2:30 I was freaking out and we were searching everything we could and discovered a way to open the front doors in front of the font so that everyone could watch (if you know what I’m talking about). We threw a chair in there, I hoisted my comp in and she cleaned out the font and got the water started. It was quite the adventure and we were laughing until our ward mission leader got mad at us for "doing things wrong." Whatever. We got things done. After that, it was the least stressful baptism I’ve had here. They all filed in the water and it was awesome. At the end, Fernando and Mabel (mom and dad) bore their testimonies. It was awesome. They were confirmed yesterday without flaw as well. The hermano that gave us this reference is now working with another family he works with. He’s going to hand us over the reference, a family of six, hopefully this week. Wahoo for families! Hermana Barreto gave a talk and congratulated us, my comp and I, and said what a great privilege it was to bring souls to Christ. I got an overwhelming feeling of the sacredness of my calling. And I don’t want to leave it. I love teaching the gospel.

                                The Gonzalez Family
We had a little bit of drama with Agustin and Jessica. They were discouraged with their situation. Plus, it got cold this week. And I mean cold, out of nowhere. The afternoon is okay, but the mornings and nights are frigid. This whole time I was thinking of them and their situation (living in a tent). They are discouraged about not having a place to live. They have nothing and jobs are few here. They expressed all their frustrations to us and I felt so burdened and overwhelmed by what was going on. A huge frog crawled in my throat and wouldn’t leave and it was all I could do to hold back the tears. We coordinated the next morning to pass by and talk with them and I left feeling so down. All I could think about was them and how I could help. I want to give them everything in the world: a home, food, a job, and whatever else, but I was overcome with helplessness. I prayed for them and studied for them the next morning. You’ll be happy to know I found the perfect scripture to share with them. It came to me the second I opened my scriptures. It was the first thing I read. We decided to share it with them that morning so we went by and I asked if they were doing any better. The fact that a bitter wind was blowing didn’t help the situation. They laughed and said a dog had come by and eaten all the food they had, someone stole something of theirs that was outside, they slipped the only tidbit of oil they had left on their tent which burnt a hole in it and landed on Jessica’s leg and burned her as well. Awesome, I thought. We started with a song because I honestly didn’t have the words to comfort them. We sang... "All is Well" (is that what it’s called in English? I’m not sure anymore) haha. Anyway, I started out just telling them how horrible I felt. I told them of my desire to help, but I can’t do anything, and the tears started flowing... I said I wish I could give you the world, all the physical things you need but really you have the greatest gift you could ever hope for: the gospel. I told them I was praying and studying and shared the things I had found for them. We read the scripture and it brought them to tears as well. I told them whatever else… I don’t remember, but the spirit was there and I think it helped. My comp didn’t say much, even when I gave her the opportunity. I asked Agustin if he was going to give his talk at the baptism that he had committed to give and he said no. I said fine, but you should at least go to the baptism to feel of the spirit, to remember your baptism and to support them. We talked some more and I felt the need to continue pushing for him to give his talk. Jessica, being the strong woman she is, said that they would go and they would prepare the talk. By the time we left they were excited about it. I will say he did awesome. I was really impressed. They are doing better now.


Other than that, things have been good. I’m excited for things to come. We don’t have many investigators at the moment but we are expecting lots of references from families and there is no doubt in my mind as we continue being obedient, we will continue to find those who are prepared to accept the gospel. I look forward to finding them. The mission just keeps getting better and better with the work.
I love you all more than ever. You’re in my prayers and thoughts constantly. The church is true. There’s no other. Until next week. Love, Ash

P.S. We have a fireplace... it’s small and doesn’t put out much heat, but it’s a fireplace!
P.P.S. I hate the cold, but sadly it’s better than the summer heat as a missionary. Luckily, I don’t have to deal with it that much longer!!

PRAYERS ARE ANSWERED...

HALLLLOOOOO!!!!!! Oh how I love and miss and love you all some more. It’s been too long. Mondays never seem to come fast enough. I just want to thank you all for writing me, keeping me in your prayers, thoughts and giving me your encouragement and love. It means more than anything in the world. Thank you, thank you!
 We are making great progress with the Gonzalez family still. Fernando has completely quit smoking; he said he doesn’t even take his tobacco to work anymore. Before that, he bought five packs of tobacco a week (because they make their own cigarettes here) and that wouldn’t last him till the end of the week. That’s almost 1000 cigarettes or something. I’m not exactly sure, but more than a hundred a pack. And he has completely dropped it. He says he uses lots of gum. Mabel said baptism was the best thing that could ever happen to her. Welp... they will be getting baptized this Saturday. Crazy, eh? I’m happy for this family. It’s crazy how prepared they really are. So pray for them that they can stay strong!!!

Can you find Hermana Farr in this picture?

Some different forms of art to enjoy along our path.... kinda cool, eh?

A little miracle, well a huge one, happened this week. We were working one night and realized that none of the city lights were on. We aren’t supposed to go anywhere in the dark as hermanas. It gets sketch. So we go to our lessons and they say that the power is turned off for the night and that we couldn’t see anything and we would have the lesson another day. What? It was only 6 and we had a whole night’s worth of things to do. I panicked. My comp said we should just go home and I knew that we couldn’t go home because that’s what Satan wanted us to do: stop working. I told her we would go by a member’s house and see what was up and figure things out from there. The hermana said the power was shut off for the night. My comp said she was scared, wouldn’t work in the dark, and no one would talk to us anyway. I invited her to the bathroom to say a prayer. We went in there and I asked her to pray. Her prayer surprised me as she simply asked for the lights to be turned on so we could continue working. Good! She left so I could use the bathroom and I said my own prayer, so that we could keep going, and asked for the lights to come back on. I went back out and sat down with them and we ate a little. Ten minutes later, just as we were finishing up to leave, the lights come back on. Everyone was shocked because it was said they wouldn’t be turned on till after midnight. Wahoo for prayer!

We continued, went to a lesson with the hermana and found an awesome lady and had a great lesson. It felt good to do what was right. Heavenly Father will always give us the strength to do so. Little note! "El Raiz" is here. It’s the horse races. They ran right past our house Sunday morning. It was so cool! We couldn’t enjoy any of the other festivities, but it was cool. The city came alive over the weekend. I’ve never seen it like that here. It was fun. There will be one more bigger race here in June. This was just the first preliminary one. It was an endurance race just like Kenz did. So cool. I told everyone what you do Kenz and they all were jealous! I love you all soooo much!!!! Be good, keep the faith. I love you! Love, Ash