ONLY THREE MORE DAYS TIL ASH COMES HOME!!! Ya baby!!!

Words simply cannot describe the feelings within.  We are counting the hours at this point and it is literally 63 more hours until we get to see her beautiful face.  I can't wait to get my "Ashley" hug and then 'kiss the crap outta her!!!'  She has left such a huge void in our home, but it has been a blessing to share her with the people of Uruguay.  We love you, Ash.  Can't wait for the blessed day!!!

HOMECOMING:  Ashley's homecoming is scheduled for July 8th at 9:00 a.m. at the chapel at 300 West 3200 North, Lehi (same building as her farewell).  We hope you will join us in welcoming her home.

My Time is Coming to an End

Hi everyone : ) I hope this week was AMAZING with lots of fun and smiles. It was for us here anyway… well kinda. We still haven’t seen much progress, in fact it’s been the opposite. But I can feel myself growing and my comp is too. That’s good. Despite the MANY hardships we’ve had, we are still going strong.  I just want to say thank you to everyone who writes me. Thank you for all your love and continuous support. It’s something that is very much needed. I would be nothing without you guys behind me. Thanks Shaq for writing me : ) last week. I forgot to attach your email so it didn’t get it printed out, so I have two emails from you now. Better I guess, even though I was upset when I couldn’t read it last week. Brooke! I hope you had a good birthday: 18! I can’t even believe it. Your card should be coming your way but I’m afraid it will get there after I am already home. The district leader is a tid bit slow in getting things done. Dad! Just in case you don’t get my stuff either… HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! I love you.

This week... Monday was fun. We spent the whole day at president’s house and cooked Salteñas and chocolate chip cookies. Cookies don’t exist here and no one cooks anything with butter either so they freak out a little. Chocolate chips don’t exist either so they aren’t the same. Well, a lot of stuff for the cookies don’t exist, but they are better than nothing. I laughed at the family night they had because it reminded me of home: everyone playing, doing their own thing, getting distracted; the mom trying to keep everyone focused and the dad just causing more distractions by playing with the kids. I ended up in tears laughing so hard... it almost felt like Christmas. It smelled like it and it’s cold enough to be. It made me miss everyone. Can it be Christmas when I get back? Just kidding. It was good to feel at home.

                                    Me on the Farm
Well, after that, later in the week, we lost all of our investigators. The few we had are done. No one wants to progress and that was frustrating. I hate getting my hopes up just to be let down. It seems that it happens all too often. Life is full of that I guess and there's nothing I can do to change that but... you know... It helps us appreciate the good times more. In the meantime, we have been trying to get references. It's the only way we can work because we don't know where else to go. Our weekly goal is usually 4 and somtimes we don't get that. We have been getting creative and thinking outside the box, but none of the people we have contacted want anything to do with anything. We still keep marching. The baskets, well most of them, have been given out... no one planned family nights with them so they are just kinda hanging in the air. One family just ate their basket and another gave theirs to a member. Oh gosh. People are so FUNNY sometimes. It's ok. We will see if we can get appointments with those families that were given baskets.

                             Milking the Cow!  Ya baby!
We had branch council. Our president loves us. He asked how the ward princesses were doing. We filled them in on stuff and then he started asking about our well being. The cold came this week and it's harsh. In the house, we can't feel our toes or fingers. They go numb and sore... it's horrible. So he bought us electric blankets and those are expensive! They bought us more fire wood and came over to the house to help us get everything ready to go. We are very blessed to have them taking care of us. They wanted to buy my comp and I leather boots and new coats because what we have isn't much, but we couldn't let them do that. Besides I won't be in the cold too much longer.

To sum up the rest of the week, we've been frozen, gotten more rejections than ever before, and not nice ones... mean ones, and for weekly planning, we have less and less people to plan for every week. Not a good sign. We have had some pretty low points, but at the same time, I've never laughed so hard in my life. Hermana Lopez and I are becoming one. We are one. We enjoy each other's company, and we turn to each other when we need. We are friends. I have seen proof of changes in my life because of the gospel. Obviously, that's the power of it! It's been great.

We did get mail this week. I got your package finally! Thank you, thank you, thank you so much! It came on the perfect day. I am the first person in Uruguay to see the conference Ensign. It hasn't gotten here yet, but I am still reading the other Ensigns, so I can't start it yet. I did sneak a peek at the pictures though. I love them. There is just no time to do everything. I'm trying to finish the New Testament before I leave too.

In spite of everything... we are good. I fear I won't be able to help anyone more before I go, but all I can do is keep working hard and doing everything possible to go strong. The rest is in the Lord's hand. As of now... it's impossible for anyone to get baptized because we have no investigators and if we find someone this week... they have to go to church three times before they can be bapized, but we all know the Lord has a funny way of working. Who knows what we will find. We have been having a good study every morning and I keep finding things about faith and my comp keeps finding things about patience and we share them with each other in comp study. It's been everyday though. We think the Lord is trying to tell us something. We're trying to apply it but... it's easier said than done.

I also got what's called my "trunky packet" this week in the mail. It's a packet to get ready to go home. It's an open packet so the district leader and all the elders that live with him were looking through it and called me to tell me about it. Lame. I did get my plane itinerary, also the schedule for the last week of the mish which is... Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday. I know to you guys I finish the mish on the 28th, but... the Sunday before is my last day really. Monday I'm having the going away party with the ward. Tuesday we go to Monteviedo and working is over. We go to the temple, have FHE and interviews with pres and stay the night in Montevideo. Wednesday we pack up and at 1:00 we leave to the airport. So really… I have very little time. Anyway, also in the packet I have to set goals for the next year of my life: spiritual, finanacial, school, marraige... yeah... sharing the gospel with others and other stuff. It's way intimidating. Things are so unreal. I feel like I'm never going to leave here and so to think of those things... its scary. I wanted to avoid such thoughts, but we have to have the packets prepared for president on that last Tuesday and it's a lot to fill out. There is so much to be done in the Lord's work and never enough time to do it in!!! And every second of my days are dedicated to it! What's going to happen when I have a life?! Oh boy...

For now, I'm just trying to find salvations to secure, testimonies to build, service to give, and lives to be changed. You know... it's a piece of cake. I know it can be done. The Lord's work is amazing and true. Nothing and no one will stop it.

I love you all.  Be good. Stand tall and share what we have. There are people searching. Until next week... love ash.

Winding down....

Hola to the hiz-house. How is everybody? I hope so well. Brooke graduated! You all look so pretty though! And it's your bday this week! Happy Berfday! I love you, I hope you're glad to be done with school. It's what you always wanted. Now the real fun starts. I just feel so grateful this week. Well, I do every week, but I guess I just wanted to share that with you and say thank you for everything that you all do for me. It means the world. You have to know I love you and appreciate you.

Welp this week was... not sure what it was. I feel like we´re just following the same pattern of doing bazillions of contacts, finding lots of people, and then never finding them again: no one who really wants to progress. It's honestly getting quite frustrating and both me and my comp voiced that out loud to each other several times this week. We are trying to patiently wait for the miracles to come but... it seems like its takes an especially long time when I don't have that. I just want to finish out well.


This week started out with Pday. We went to Las Piedras and went shopping. I got some Mate stuff to bring home so you can all try it. As you can see in the first picture, that's me, but I was only drinking hot chocolate. We can't drink Mate on the mish. Tuesday we got calls and said we were having zone conference. My last one. We went on Wednesday and it was sad. Not only was it my last one, but Pres and Hermana's last one too. The people who are leaving in the zone always have to give their goodbye testimonies there and that was sad. I honestly had no idea what to say. I just cried. There are no words that I can put to a mission and the experience I've had here. I was the only one leaving from the zone, that was embarrassing, everyone gives the people who are leaving such a hard time. Lame. Then we had the conference which was awesome. Just the thing I needed to hear and learn to finish off strong. They talked about internalizing our mission purpose. It was cool. Then Pres and Hermana showed us some pictures of the new president. Then they said goodbye to everyone and there were so many tears shed. I didn't have to say goodbye cause I will see them in the mission home when I go and have my final interview with Pres... but everyone else, it was their last chance. It was a sad day.

The only other really exciting thing that happened was our activity. Not many people came at first, but at the end it turned out well. They decided it was too late to deliver stuff the actual day so everyone will go this week to take the baskets. We decided we better be good neighbors too and so we went to meet all the people in our apartment complex. It was fun. Everyone was so super nice and it made us feel really good. Then we even made a basket for our neighbor. She hasn't been there the last couple of nights so hopefully we can drop it off tonight. They put crackers, salty and sweet jam and butter and the Book of Mormon. That's what we have here. And it's what everyone eats for Merienda. That's their third meal because they don't eat dinner here. We just have to be patient with the references while they are coming. I hope you guys all went and did something too. If you haven't done it, go do it this week!

We had a couple of investigators, but they didn't go to church last week so we basically just went and visited them all week telling them they had better get to church or we couldn't come by anymore. Two of the three showed up to church yesterday. It was cool. We made one lady cry. Her name is Graciela. She was one of the investigators that Hermana Kirkham and Lopez were teaching before, but she wasn't progressing at all. We got her to stake conference though and she came yesterday to church. She lives in a difficult situation. She has lived with a man for 15 years. They sleep in separate rooms. He gets drunk. They never talk. Sometimes he beats her. We decided to talk with our branch president to find help with what to do. She has tried to kick him out before, but he doesn't go. Pres had some great advice. He said as a church we will never tell anyone to break up a family, but as a church we strengthen, we want eternal families, not broken ones, so he said if she loved him at all, she should try and help him and try and save him as well as her. She agreed. So on Thursday we will talk with him. Ah! Maybe we can change his life, or help him let the gospel change his life. But now she can't get baptized this month... its a big deal. Every night our district leader asks who we invited to be baptized, who will be baptized this month and how we will meet the goal we put for baptisms and everyday... we tell him nothing. It's hard. But Graciela knows the church is true. She has felt a change in her life, and she notices the difference. She is happier, and has more energy, a little bit of everything. She's so sweet. I just hope the best for her. She deserves it.

We have met with lots of less actives this week on president's request. We are supposed to do whatever he says, but it's been really discouraging. We try not to let it show since we have been going with president himself and I guess it worked because he said if we could get to his age with the enthusiasm we have now and being able to smile and laugh like we do, we would have very happy lives. He's cool. But no one understands the doctrine. The mish pres said there are no less actives or inactives, just people who don't understand the doctrine because if we really understand, we could never be able to turn away from the truth. It's a blessing to be able to comprehend these things, really. But it's just hard to see all the people who don't want to understand the gospel, and we can't do anything for them.

Anyway... I gotta get going. We are going to be at president's house all day cooking Bolivian food and I'm going try to do chocolate chip cookies. It'll be fun. I can't believe how fast time is going. I just hope I can accomplish whatever the Lord wants from me. Good thing is... with all the patience we are having to exercise, my comp and I are doing well. We are each other's strength. It's been good. We have fun.

I loooooooooooove you! Have a good week. Love, me

Pressing Forward...

Progresso... sighhhhhh. It has been a week, not just any week, THE week. We have had soooo much opposition. I can’t even explain and after starting out the last week with lots of enthusiasm and faith, we both broke. It’s been a rough week for our whole district.

We have been visiting lots of people, obviously, seeing what the area has to offer. We have been teaching lots of people and trying to use the members, our greatest strength with us. It proved to be working last week. Well, all our investigators just decided none of them wanted to go to church (it’s been awhile since that has happened) and that was just the topper of the week yesterday. We’ve been trying so hard to help people Progress and after all our work, we took some members with us to visit a family and they completely lost all interest. We try so hard and when the members have so much to do and sacrifice so much to come with us and to have a family that just doesn’t want anything to do with anything, it is a crusher.

I don’t know what it is here, but people like to fight. I’m pretty passive (and at the same time not), but when it comes to this sort of thing I just let it go. Also whenever I testify to people, usually they will stop their arguments because you can’t argue someone’s testimony, but everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, has been questioning me. It’s frustrating and really caused me to look deep inside and ask myself how I know all these things are true. Lots of people have straight up been asking how we received our testimonies of these things. I’m a little different from everyone. I was born with my testimony built into me. I have never once questioned the church, never once questioned the principles mom and dad have taught me. Just seeing the lives of others not doing what they should be was testimony enough for me. I remember people saying, ‘you should pray to know the truth.’ I tried that and the feeling that came over me was, "Why are you asking this? You already know everything is true." That was enough for me.

I had to speak in Sacrament... the first time in the mish. It was an interesting topic… the blessings of serving a mission. Who would have thunk it. I struggled with the topic all week long, how can I sum up in 10 minutes the blessings of serving a mission. I used the talk from November conference priesthood session to help me out. It was a good opportunity for me to take time and think about the things I’ve gained from my time here (even though I didn’t want to come here to receive blessings of my own). I just wanted to pay back the Savior for all he’s done for me. That will never be possible...

We are doing that activity to take the baskets. I hope you’ve prayed and thought of someone. We are going June 1st. We will make the baskets. The cool thing about living in Uruguay, we make everything by hand. Then we will put random things in the basket, not sure what yet. It doesn’t really matter, as long as you have a Book of Mormon with a testimony written in it. While the members are taking the baskets, getting to know this person and stating that they are members of the church, and inviting them to a family night, my comp and I will be at the church making cookies and hot chocolate for them to enjoy. It’s the only thing we’ve got to find good people (and families too). PRAY that it will work! Not only on this side of the world, but on your side too.  I really think it would be awesome for you to do, a great opportunity. Let me know...

My comp and I are really well. It is good. We are on the same page and working together, supporting and uplifting each other and it’s awesome. I know this church is true! I know this is the Lord’s work and he’s in charge, I just don’t know what he’s doing... but gotta keep the faith. I’m so grateful to all of you for everything! I hope you feel my prayers and are doing alright. I love you!!! Love, Ashley