Lions and Tigers and Bears.... Oh My!!!

Actually, it's more like: Ants and Frogs and Cockroaches... Oh My!!! Ah! Hello... This week has felt like I have waited my whole life to be able to hear from you and talk with you guys again. I miss you so much! This week has been a little rough... I’ll get to that in a sec. I have so much to tell and not much time so I gotta hurry. I’ll start out with Monday of last week, after I emailed. Sarandi Del Yi: far from the city life...

Things were well and fine and then another hermana who had been in the CCM with me called up and asked if she could come over to tell me some things about Sarandi Del Yi. Apparently she had been there. I was skeptical because I like going into a new area not knowing anything but... she insisted. She proceeded to tell me many things and as she went on, I could feel the nerves inside of me getting anxious. She didn’t have the most positive things to say. I’ll just leave it at that. I could feel the tears coming on. Ugh. I was getting upset. Hermana Laursen finally asked her to leave as she could tell I was having a hard time. Luckily I had a comp who I loved so much that she could help me. I am so grateful to Hermana Laursen. I always will be. She is a best friend. I miss her like crazy. Anyway, after this hermana left… well, the rest of Monday was difficult. I had a hard time functioning. Stupid change. I hate how I can’t seem to overcome the feelings inside of me that come with new situations. It was... a hard day. But we finished putting everything together and packed and Tuesday morning we were ready for changes!

I mentioned to you that I was reading Doctrine and Covenants, but I had the distinct feeling I should stop and start reading the Book of Mormon again. I did that a couple of days ago and after hearing from the hermana who served here; I needed help from on high. I came across the scripture in 1 Nephi 2:19 & 20. I had been praying to receive help to be okay with my new area and all the changes and this was a direct answer to prayer. Read it! It’s soooo cool! I know now the Lord is with me and this is His will for me. I am ready!!

We headed to the church and of course the bus was sooo late. We waited forever. We cried because we didn’t want to leave each other. We took pictures and when the time came for me to leave, it was rough. Everything flooded back to me from this area. I have learned so much in Maldonado… and my companions, the people and the experiences. It was so hard to pull away from that. But unlike Lot’s wife, I knew I had to trust in the Lord and know that he has something better for me planned here. As much as I hate to think that…

I’m now with my new companion, Hermana Lopez. She’s new, but doesn’t act like it. We are already learning soooooo much from each other. She’s from Bolivia, but was living in New Hampshire. She’s great, but being Latin and already knowing the language, the first few days we had trouble coordinating our teaching efforts. We had to talk about it. If we don’t work as a companionship, we won’t get anywhere or help anyone. It’s been a process and we are still working on it. We will get it down. I asked her what I can do better and she still won’t tell me anything. She says she feels like she’s learning everything from me that she didn’t learn from her trainer. So, that’s a good thing. We are finishing the 12 week training program together. She still has lots to learn about teaching and what should be done, but we all have things to learn still. She’s a great teacher though and honestly we get along great. Me and my new companion, Hermana Lopez

We left Tuesday afternoon after changes and headed out here to Sarandi Del Yi. We traveled for about four hours on bus and learned that from where we were we couldn’t get to our area because no bus left after 7:00. Great, so we stayed overnight in Durazno (the city with a member from the zone leader's area). Elder Clarke is my zone leader again! haha He’s great. He was my zone leader in Maldonado. It’s fun though. Tuesday morning we went to district meeting and then headed all the way home... holy cow! We had three more hours to travel through the middle of nowhere land... we are IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE!!!! Oh man. Once again, we have to travel every week to district meeting: two hours there and back. Just like San Jose. I miss the city a lot, but I’m getting the real mish experience. Where we stayed overnight, I got up in the middle of the night to go get a drink of water, flipped on the kitchen light and discovered hundreds of cockroaches and ants all over everywhere. I shrieked and ran out! haha We have so many cockroaches in our house and last night when showering, I discovered a frog in there with me. I got a pic so you could see. This frog was my shower buddy!

It’s pretty intense here. The members have so little. They are so humble and so loving. It’s a new life here; it’s crazy. We actually have been moving all week. We live behind members again, but they have a few apartments. So we moved out of a smaller one into a much better one. My house here is actually better than the one in Maldonado. I like it.
Our new home...

Fam, I did get the package finally! I discovered I needed it more now than I would have back in Maldonado. It came at the perfect time. When I needed to feel close to you guys, I got it. Thank you so much for everything! I love it! The calendar is awesome and I’ve been spending all week catching up on my new journal. Kenya, thank you for the shirt. I love it! P.S. It’s so hot here, I felt my throat swelling and it became hard to breathe the first few days I was here. It’s crazy, so humid. We have no fan and I got sweaty at night so bad that I couldn’t sleep. It has gotten cooler at night, but... we’ll see if it stays.

This area is going to need a lot of work, but that’s why we are here. There are 22 converts for the last year. Wow, that’s good. Just to give you an idea, in Maldonado there were 12, and in San Jose there were none. So that gives you an idea of how the work is and how many baptisms there have been. The area was closed for a long time and the people were writing the First Presidency for years trying to get missionaries here. It recently got opened (about two years ago) and since then the members have been ready to help find and teach and serve people. We have been getting references all over the place and having Level Three experiences all the time… just in one week. The people here want to share the gospel and it’s great. But there is a lot to be done. One thing I love about here, it’s not the city obviously, and because of that there are no music distractions, no worldly distractions like there were in Maldonado. I have been 100 percent focused this week on the scriptures, my testimony, my growth, the members and the work. I have not been distracted once and that is so wonderful. I love it. There’s only time to think and ponder the things of the Lord. It’s been so good.

This week has been overwhelming. It’s always a challenge for me getting used to a new area: not knowing where to go, who is who and what role they play in the work here and teaching people I don’t know, but we found 10 of our own investigators this week even though we lost three working days. It’s been crazy trying to meet everyone and remember who they all are and figure out how we can use them to further the work here. It’s definitely a challenge, but I guess I’m ready for it. If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t be here. It’ll take some time still to get used to things but, it’ll come. With the bugs, the frogs, the cows, the farms, the fields and the heat, I will still learn to love it here... and with your support and the Lord, I can do anything. Even though we haven’t talked, you as my family have helped me so much this week. I don’t know what I would do without you. I think about dad and mom and how they would react in these situations and what they would do and it gives me strength to do what’s right. I’m so grateful for your example. I love you so much. Thank you so much for the package. It has helped me more than you’ll ever know. I love you guys with all my heart. I want the best for you. I’m here to help you as well, so if there’s anything I can do, send me a line. I love you!!!!! Please be good, make right choices and always remember the Savior.

With much love, Ashley

P.S. Daddy, I loved your email last week. Thank you so much. Everyone just needs to listen to dad. He’s right, he always was, always will be ;)

P.P.S. Ricardo miracle!!! Remember Ricardo? He had the wife who didn’t want anything to do with us. He was ready to be baptized, even though we hadn’t even taught him yet? Welp, Hermana Laursen and I were knocking doors near the ocean and out of a super nice house come two cute little boys. I ask for their parents. One boy says, my dad? Yes, sure, I’ll get him. He runs in and we are waiting for a minute. Out comes the mom and guess who it just so happens to be... Ricardo’s wife! She yells to us that he’s coming in a minute, very nicely. She walks away. We start FREAKING out!!!!! How in the world did we find his house in our huge area? We didn’t know what to do or say. After waiting a little longer, she comes out and tells us he’s on the phone doing business stuff. I apologized to her and said we didn’t know they lived there and again we aren’t there to cause problems. She just very nicely laughed and said it was okay. She said to come by a different day. Oh man. It was a miracle. Now we could write down his address on his form and if not Hermana Lundskog and Laursen, then other missionaries will baptize him. So cool! Nothing short of a miracle I’m telling you. I was in awe all day about it. The Lord’s work is moving forward!

Transfers!!!

Things are well here. Yes, we had transfer calls… AND Yes, I’m being transferred. I love it here and my heart will always remain here, but I’m ready for a change for once! My work here is done. So I’m going to an area called, Sarandi Del Yi. It’s in the state called Durazno, or peach in English. I should have seen that coming. I’m a little nervous, of course. I think that’s normal. I’m pretty sure it’s an area in the middle of nowhere, like cows and fields and stuff... yeah! I know what you’re thinking dad, "Yes! Now we get into the real world of the mission." Right? I think I’ll be in for a little shock. It’ll be interesting cuz I’m just a little city girl. I don’t like nothingness. Oh well, it’ll be good. I already know that this area will be the best of all so far, that’s what life is... having faith in the Lord that he has something prepared for you that is better than what you had before. I trust in him. Now it’ll just be a matter of maintaining that trust when I get there: walk into my teeny house, see bugs all over, and everything smells like a cow. That’s the hardest part for me, getting into the new atmosphere and not freaking out. I’m trying to take control of myself. That was one thing I wanted to learn on the mish. If I don’t do it now, I don’t know when I will. If I fear, I don’t have faith. It’s as simple as that. So, I’m choosing faith. My new comp is Hermana Lopez. No one knows ANYTHING about her, except she’s new. She’s only been here one transfer so I’ll be finishing her up on training. We will be finishing the new missionary program together. She is from the states, but she’s Latin. So it’s the best of both worlds! She speaks English and perfect Spanish. What better way to learn Spanish than that? I’m excited, it’ll be good. Now on to packing...
You’ll never guess who is coming to take my place here and be Hermana Laursen’s comp? Yep! You said it, Hermana Lundskog. Isn’t that so funny. She will be good for this area. We were all talking on the phone last night about how good of friends we get to be after the mish. It’ll be fun. Good luck to them!!

So last week for Pday we did end up going to that outdoor beachside restaurant. It was sooo awesome. We were giddy with excitement. We ate smoked salmon sandwiches. To our surprise... they were very, very raw. But I ate it and it was still really good! I got some things down there. I got daddy’s prize for when I come home. You’re gonna love it! It was a blast.

We ate smoked salmon sandwiches at a Beachside Restaurant. So great!

This week has been good. Pablo still hasn’t gotten back, but we have talked to him on the phone and he is still good. I guess he’s being reserved for Hermana Lundskog and Laursen to teach. He will be baptized. He keeps telling us how much he needs the lessons and all. He’s so cool. We found another girl. Anika is 14. Both her parents are members, but not active, and she lives with her grandma. We have been teaching her all week. She is getting baptized on the 21st and is so excited. She loves reading from the Book of Mormon and she came to church on Sunday. I’m sad to be leaving her, but it’s all for something, right?

That is pretty much all the updates work wise. My comp and I have been having really good, inspiring comp studies lately. We have come to realize a lot about life. This week has been hard in the sense that, we keep hearing stories of ex-missionaries and bishops and all of the above who have fallen away. I can’t imagine after serving a mission falling away. It breaks my heart. My zone leader used to always tell me, you can baptize a thousand people and be a successful missionary, but you won’t see the fruits of your labor until after you’re home, married and sealed in the temple, with kids who are going to Primary. That is the real test of successful missions. It’s so true. All I can do is make sure I bring one soul to Christ and that’s mine! Of course, in the meantime I am going to do everything possible to bring others along the way, but I've got to make sure I'm strong too. My comp and I talked about the test of life. Yeah, it’s 80 or so years... life gets rough sometimes, but you have two choices in everything and those choices determine if you are getting closer to Christ or further away. It’s that simple. Will we pass or not? It’s been interesting to think about.

Life is good. I just love you all so much. I appreciate everything you do for me. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you. You will never know how much you mean to me unless you yourself come here on the mish. Otherwise, it’s indescribable. We only need two things in this life, the gospel and family. With those two things, we are unstoppable. Or at least I am. I hope you guys realize that too. I’m outtey. I love you soooo much! Until next week.

Love, Ash
Pretty hibiscus! All the flowers that we pay 8 dollars a stem for in the states, all grow freely here. It's awesome.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! How crazy is it? I can’t believe it’s a new year. I will be home this year. It’s weird. Enough about that. HIII!!!! I hope everyone is doing well.

Oh boy. Longest week of my life. Usually after we have a baptism it takes us a little minute to get back into the groove and find someone new to teach. We have tried conquering that by searching WHILE we are teaching, makes sense right? But no, it just doesn’t happen that way. Welp, we have not had a single set lesson with anyone this week. Everything got cancelled. It was worse with the holidays. This area is being extremely difficult right now. I always said I didn’t want to be here in summer, but it just so happens that I am. It’s rough. This is why.

I feel like I’m living in Miami, Florida or Hollywood, California of South America. SERIOUSLY!!! Every person we talk to is not from here. If they are, they are working 24/7 to be able to provide for their winter needs. I didn’t realize it was that serious. But it’s great to work here in summer because there are zillions of jobs, but in winter of course it’s the opposite. Nothing. So everyone who actually lives here has to work all day and night to be able to get through the winter. We haven’t seen any members either because they all work too. I feel so far away from the actual church, which is weird because I am on a mission. Crazy, eh? It’s seriously ridiculous. We’re trying to keep pushing but we aren’t finding any new people to teach. Pablo still hasn’t come back yet, but he said he was going to church yesterday. We are still talking with him while he’s away. He’s still reading the BOM. It’s great and he loves every second of it. He already has a testimony of it. He says he’s coming home this week on the 6th. We hope that works out.

We saw Yuri for the first time in two weeks. It seemed like forever! But... he passed the Sacrament. Everyone wants him to go on a mission, including himself, but he’s too old. Oh well. He was sad about that when we first met him, because when he was first taking the charlas when he was 17, he wanted to go on the mish. He just wasn’t prepared then to go or accept the gospel. Anywho... he’s still awesome. I have had some challenging experiences where I have had to step outside of myself and try to respond to certain people as I would imagine our Savior would. It’s really Him carrying me through these situations. I can’t tell you the number of times I have felt the love he has for others through me and it’s a very powerful thing. I am so privileged and honored to be representing him and taking care of his sheep here in Maldonado.

Last night we watched 17 Miracles. An inactive member we found gave it to us. I don’t know if anyone has seen it, but it’s good... a little cheesy. But the Lord’s miracles... oh my gosh! You will be in awe. I was touched. I wanna watch it again just to write down the miracles. They are fabulous and it truly makes you grateful for being a member of THIS church, HIS church. No other church could do the things that ours does. It’s hard to describe. I don’t want to give anything away, but watch it. Tell me what you think.

I finished the BOM again as an assignment from pres. That’s the fourth time on the mish I’ve read through it. I’m reading through the Doctrine and Covenants. I'm getting so much more out of it, applying it to me as a missionary. I feel like every word is for me. It’s awesome. It will take me awhile to finish it because I am marking it so much. Oh man... long week. I’m glad it’s over and Pday is here. We need a little rest. Off to Punta. We get to go to lunch and do some shopping maybe.

I hope everything is well. I think about you guys all the time, stay good. I love you more than the world itself... and Cali ;)

Love, Ash
P.S. Our toilet broke... everything in the house in breaking. President has told us to look for another, better house. Yippee! Only thing is, nothing is available now because it’s summer and expensive. We will see what happens. It will most likely be for the new hermana who gets here. We do have transfers next week after all.

Merry "Skyping" Christmas!!

Hello all!!! Oh wow, what a good time talking yesterday. Life is good, isn’t it? This time talking was so much different. I didn’t get way homesick after talking. The second I hung up, it already felt like a dream. Better to be able to get back to work, even though I’m still thinking about every single one of you. So you’re pretty much up to date on everything, well you never will be, but the big events… yes. This picture is of me while I was Skyping you. Great fun!!

We did have Shantal and Luciano’s baptism. How great it was. What made it even greater was their wonderful family. We are working on the mom still. They had lots of family support as you can see from the pic. It rained all day, but stopped just in time for them to arrive at the church. They are great. Their confirmation was awesome too.
Christmas eve... it was interesting. No one wanted to talk and no one was in the streets. It was a wee bit difficult, but we still managed to find new people to teach and enjoy ourselves. Since everyone here celebrates Christmas starting at 10 pm on Christmas Eve, we didn’t really get to spend any time with members celebrating the holidays, but that’s ok. We made our own celebration. We got money from members for lunch which was so great of them. Trying to go grocery shopping on Christmas Eve isn’t exactly ideal. We spent a couple of hours out and about, not okay. But in the end, we had chicken along with mashed potatoes and gravy from the states that we made. Probably the best meal yet, Wahoo! We attempted to make chocolate chip cookies with the stuff mom had sent from awhile ago, but they don’t have chocolate chips here so we had to improvise. It wasn’t that good, but we shared with ward members and they LOVED US. We did eat dinner with our landlords; they live in front of us. We were out until 10:45 eating! We had permission to be out late. We had lamb, which I discovered is not my favorite. But it was good being with a family. We went home and hurried to plan and get ready for bed. We pushed our beds together and stayed up talking for awhile and then when we finally fell asleep the fireworks lit off at 12. So we watched the show. It was good times. You cannot sleep even if you wanted to here. The entire sky is FULL of fire. It’s crazy and everything illegal in the states is totally legal here. HUGE fireworks that sounded like bombs were going off at our next door neighbors. So scary. My comp has videos. When she gets home, you can see. Crazy. We woke up dead tired on Sunday. But we had all morning to open the presents we did have. Kenny sent me a package so... I wasn’t completely without Christmas. I actually waited to open it too! And then my comp got me a scarf, tweezers (because I lost mine here) and a ruler I have desperately needed to mark my scriptures. She also bought me American candy from a store we found in Punta. Then she made me a picture frame of a picture of us. It was so great of her. Love her!! We didn’t have church till 10:45 so we had lots of time to celebrate and relax. That was fun. We made french toast and it was good. We had it with real syrup that we also found in Punta. It was a gift from a member who manages the place. It was awesome. Then we got to Skype! It was great.
This week had some interesting events with the work. I mentioned this man Pablo before. He has been searching for something more in his life. Whether or not it’s here, while I am or not, I’m sure he will be baptized. He sent us a message last night saying he was reading the Book of Mormon, loving it and that we didn’t have to worry because soon he would be in the "celestial way." He’s so great. We lost Diahna. Her daughter got sick so she went back home which is in the other mission. We passed her info so she can get baptized right away over there. I hope it works out. We found this lady and a couple days later went to teach her and found her completely drunk. First time that’s happened here. She literally lived in a tin shack. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen anything that bad. Water came in everywhere and you should have seen the GINORMOUS spiders that had made their homes in her ceiling. I was scared for my life. She was also the first person I’ve seen with a garden here, lots of sunflowers and lettuce that she sells. She lives with 13 dogs and 13 cats, 30 chickens and turkeys and 4 birds. It was... interesting. We tried to help her. She got her daughter taken away when she was young because she has always had a problem with drinking and she wants to be with here again. So she’s sad. So she drinks, yet that is the very thing that took her daughter away. It doesn’t make any sense. I hurt for these people. She wouldn’t listen to us. It was kind of hard when she was in that state. When we went back a few days later, she wasn’t there. We do what we can.

Anyway, life is good here. Things are well. I’m loving life more and more. Stay being good. I love you.

Love, Ash.

A Note from the Madre.... Whoa! What a surreal experience to be able to "SEE" Ash while we talked with her for about an hour on Christmas day. She is nothing short of amazing. She sat so poised and mature. We all witnessed the transformation that has occured within her. She updated us on her adventures as a missionary. She has such a great love for the people, the area and the work. For the final ten minutes, she bore her very strong testimony of the gospel and missionary work. She challenged each one of us to serve a mission. She spoke of how life changing it is and how she will be a better person: wife and mother because of this experience. She said it was difficult to put into words what this experience has done for her, but the blessings she has received will be eternal. It was sooo awesome!!!

OPPORTUNITY OF A LIFETIME

Happy Birthday Kenz! 15... wow, I can’t believe it! At least you won’t be driving by the time I come home. Thank heavens. You’re getting so big! I hope getting your permit goes well. I love you.

I can’t believe how fast the days are starting to go by. This week I've felt like every two seconds I was going to bed again and then waking up to start a new day. It’s crazy. Hello last six months? We had a couple special events this week. Last Monday was really fun. We went to Punta Del Este and everything is starting to pick up over there for the summer. It was fun. We saw a walrus and seals right up at the harbor. There was also a fish market. I loved every second of it, even though my face looks disgusting in the picture. I LOVE FISH AND SEAFOOD. We didn’t get anything because we weren’t going straight home, but we are going again. They had octopus, shrimp, halibut and everything in between. It was awesome. ... at the fish market
Then we had our Christmas conference, but guess what? You already knew that, didn’t you. It was so fun to get with everyone again. I can’t even tell you. Then we got a surprise gift from President and Hermana Da Silva: letters from mom and dad. You should have seen how many tears there were in that room of 200 missionaries. So crazy! It was really good though. They also gave us cookies and little candy gift bags. But that doesn’t really matter. It was mostly just a zone conference so we didn’t do too much Christmas stuff but it was fun. Then we got right back to work. Honestly, there isn’t much time to focus on Christmas and such. We have just been working. I don’t know what we’ll do on the actual day. We’ve heard from other member return missionaries that they get the day off and get to watch Disney movies. That definitely will not be the case here. The member we are supposed to be eating with is dropping our dinner off at our house so we can eat alone. We shall see. Hermana Laursen and I just want to go around caroling and then if people listen to us, we will teach. Sounds kinda like the CCM Christmas last year. Fun times... ha President and Hermana Da Silva
Good friends, Good times!

Luciano and Shantal are doing great. They will be baptized this Friday if all is still well. They have progressed a lot. He went to a youth dance with the other kids in the ward and loved it. Shantal takes notes on everything we leave her to read and then will re-teach it to us the next day when we come back. We watched the Joseph Smith movie with them and they loved it. They come to church on their own and it’s all good. We have tried inviting their mom, but she doesn’t want anything to do with it. Their whole family will be coming to the baptism and confirmation though. That’s rare here. And they are inviting friends.

We still need two more baptisms for this month. Our leaders have seriously been calling and talking for a couple hours every night about how we are going to reach this goal. It’s sooo draining. We decided to focus on the couple of people who come often to church, but are not baptized (like incomplete families). We had a few challenges in our way though, like parents not allowing them to get baptized. But this whole week that’s what we have been working on. We tried contacting a girl we worked with before. We gained the trust of her grandpa and he said she could be baptized and then when we went to teach her, she said no. What? We were so confused but... we tried talking. She doesn’t want to give up insulting and hitting. Strange, right? We tried teaching her the blessings of the gospel but she wouldn’t have any of it. She would just start testing, singing or throwing herself on the table and say she was bored. When we asked her questions, she just shrugged at everything. I said, "You just want to be difficult right now, don’t you?" She laughed and shrugged again. So, we are done with that. We can’t make her do anything. We tried a little boy named Gonzalo whose family is all members except him and his siblings who are too young to be baptized. His mom is against the church, but his dad is working overtime to help his family. It’s a sad situation. We invited him to be baptized and he said he would think about it. It’s the first time he hasn’t freaked out at the word baptism, since his mom said he has his agency and can decide, but it’s too soon. Ugh. So frustrating. We will see him and see what answer he got through prayer. Also, a girl named Diahna who is the Rodriguez family’s niece. She has been living with them to help take care of their kids because with the crazy summer they have both started working full time. We have tried asking her before what she thinks of the gospel, but she never really answers or talks to us. She has already come to numerous activities and heard lots while we have taught the Rodriguez family. We finally cracked her open and found her need. She is 20 and has a four year old daughter with some sort of disease. Her daughter can’t talk, walk, or eat. It’s so sad. She has to be here working to pay for her medication while her daughter is about 8 hours away. These circumstances are really not that uncommon here. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and it was awesome. We invited her to church yesterday and also to pray. She came to church and then told us she prayed. We asked if she received an answer. She said she knew the Plan of Salvation was true. She said something so weird happened but she didn’t know how to explain it. She said it was like she was floating in clouds, she just felt so happy. Yeah. Tonight we are going to try and put a fecha with her to get baptized. So awesome. She’s great. We will see what happens. It’s so cool to see the different ways Heavenly Father answers prayers and the ways he speaks to his children.

Yuri is still so great. We love him. He blessed the Sacrament yesterday and gave a talk. He is going to baptize Shantal and Luciano on Friday if he can get work off. Yes! He told us next year during his time off he is going to go to all the temples in South America. He’s so great.

I just read a talk from the conference Ensign. I had several questions from conference time and all of them were answered except for one. It turns out patience IS a virtue. In the priesthood session of conference it was answered. It was an answer to prayers. I loved it. It summed up the whole mission. Please read it!!! "The Opportunity of a Lifetime." If you don’t want to go on a mission before you read it, you will afterwards. A mission honestly can’t be explained. It’s impossible, but this talk sums up all my unspoken feelings. I have been thinking and reviewing the mission again, as I do with the milestones I hit. I love it here. It’s so RIDICULOUSLY hard, but I wouldn’t change this decision if my life depended on it. I’m so grateful for a Heavenly Father who let me know this was what I was supposed to be doing and for encouraging family and friends who helped me get here. I love my Savior. May we all think about him a little bit more this holiday season. I love you all so much. Love, Ash

ONE YEAR DOWN, 6 MONTHS TO GO!

This week has been interesting, lots of ups and downs as ALWAYS. It’s the mission life. I got my "trunky call" on Monday. Everyone has since been freaking out. The secretary called and asked some questions about my going home. At the end he just said, “Don’t worry about this call, just keeping working hard.” Uh alright. Good thing it’s on a Pday because it DOES make you trunky. Anyway...So to start off... the mission has been going crazy about numbers and a certain number of baptisms that we have to get, right? Well, I have been stressed this week about getting that. It’s a commitment we made with the Lord. The zone leaders have been making us put baptismal dates with every contact we have. It’s hard to do, but we have been keeping focused on our purpose here as missionaries. As it says in Preach my Gospel, we are here to invite people to come unto Christ through faith, repentance, baptism, the gift o f the Holy Ghost and perseverance. So we have been planning fools. I haven’t written in my journal or written down anything at night for myself. Every night this week my comp and I have been going through old forms, searching for old investigators, part-member families, and all sorts of jazz until bed time. It’s been rough and we’ve gotten really frustrated at times. We just need to find these people. It’s what our mission president has asked of us. We have talked with our district leader every night for about an hour instead of 5 minutes (which is normally how long we talk) because he is checking up on us making sure we are progressing, finding, inviting and everything else. It’s been tiring that is for sure, but we have 3 people with baptismal dates because of it. So, it’s working. Yeah!

We found Shantal and Luciano, brother and sister of 15 and 11. They are the Rodrigues family’s neighbors. We have been teaching them for a little and they are progressing really well. We tried talking to their mom but she doesn’t want anything to do with it. She is very supportive and kind though. She went and bought them nice dress clothes for church and they showed up yesterday on their own. Yes! We also are teaching another girl. She used to live in the states. Her family lives in the states and they were listening to the missionaries and then went to church, but then moved back here. They took the lessons for a time before an elder said in English, under his breath, that their house was dirty or something not very kind. He didn’t realize they knew English and the mom said never again would she listen to missionaries. But we are teaching her daughter. She will be baptized on the 23rd with Luciano and Shantal if everything goes as planned. Also, a new family from a nearby city moved here. Everyone in the family is baptized, except the 14 year old son who has a different dad. He was also taking the lessons, but wasn’t "feeling" it. So we are trying to ease our way in. He’s a cute kid; reminds me of one of the Schills. They are great though. We are hoping he will be baptized in time as well.

We decided to go see our old investigator who is the lawyer. He is so nice. He asked for a Book of Mormon and we took it to him. He just got busy and every time we went back, he wasn’t there. We called him and set up an appointment. We went and saw him and he was telling us about his wife. She is very against our church and him listening to us. He said it would take some time with her. He went on to say a bunch of cool stuff. He wants to be a member, but with a religion difference in the marriage, he said it would be more than difficult. They have young kids and he says he wants her to do this with him. Thing is... he hasn’t even prayed. But he read the Book of Mormon and he believes it to be true. It was a very powerful lesson we had with him. Then we wanted to go over Moroni’s promise about praying about the book. His phone rang and he asked for permission to answer it. While he was talking and we were waiting, someone bursts through his office door. Uh oh... we look behind us and he says this is… my wife. I got up to kiss her, this being the custom here, and she walked right past me. If you live here, and don’t kiss someone you know, they hate you. It’s just not good manners not to give a kiss on the cheek. So we knew she was wasn’t happy with us. He introduced us and she verbalized her disinterest in us. She told us he was working. She barged out of the room and he hangs up the phone. We just quickly said, we will let you be. He said, "This is what I mean. That’s what I have to get past." We left so quickly without teaching anymore and feeling really embarrassed and hurt. We were sooo bummed. We felt so strongly about him. We went home for lunch and were so distraught. We thought the whole hour about how we could do something... and I thought of Shaquel’s story of some missionary, I don’t remember who, who made cookies to that man and took them to him after he rejected them. Welp, we searched for a recipe and made Choodle. Chocolate Snickerdoodles. I also was thinking of the story about the best family dad baptized and how the wife started out hating them. Well, we feel strongly he is being prepared, so we will do all our part to make sure if it is his time, we are there. We made them cookies and took them to the office with a nice card written to her, inviting her to church, saying we were sorry and testifying of the blessings that came with the church. We fasted for them as well. Now we have no idea what else we can do. If it is his time, they will come. It’s just a bummer, but we still have faith something will happen. He’s such a great guy.

After that we decided to make cookies for everyone in the ward. We made almost 100 all week long, and took them to members. We won some people over who we hadn’t before. Our little Christmas tree!
We had ward council yesterday. We have most of the callings filled. No one in Relief Society or priesthood though. We have a DOM, ward mission leader, I mean. He’s gonna be great. In ward council we mentioned that since we have all these kids we need families and members to be sitting with them and supporting them. We can’t sit with them every week because one day we won’t be here. Many members do not understand their role as member missionaries. It is challenging. But the bishop is supporting us, thank heavens. Everyone is excited for these kids and for Yuri and all. It’s been good… he’s progressed a ton too.

I love you all. Lovesssss....!!! Love, Ash.

ONE YEAR MARK!!

Things have been well here in Uruguay. Just a thought, did you know I have been here for 1 YEAR!!!!! I can’t forget about it because everyone reminds me about it all the time. It’s no wonder people get trunky. It doesn’t help when every person you talk to in the streets knows you’re not from here, Spanish isn’t your first language and they always want to know how long you’ve been here. Now is when I switch from telling them the exact number of months, to... un año y pico, mas o menos. haha It’s intense... now everyone says I’m almost done. What the junk!!! Not the case! 6 months is a long time still! Anywho, I’ll be fine…


Yuri got the priesthood!!!! Wahoo! He’s awesome. We are working on finding him a wife! haha

We FINALLY got our washing machine hooked up... yes just barely. We have already done 3 loads of laundry. It’s great even though things still have to air dry, but you don’t hear me complaining.

Our faucet in the kitchen broke off so we were without water for three days. I was disgustingly greasy. Ew. We went to Punta last week, and I found this bench. I loved what it said. Sometimes things sound better in Spanish, sometimes better in English. This is one time Spanish wins. “Life is beautiful”... or “La vida es Hermosa.” I love it.
I wish you guys got to meet all the people I do... they are so fantastic. We met a family yesterday, the wife went on a mish, the hubby didn’t because he was inactive, but now is second counselor. Just getting to know all these many people and see how the gospel has worked in their lives, to see that even when they went away for a little Heavenly Father was still looking out for them, he still had a plan for them and everything eventually works out. It’s so awesome to see their testimonies and hear their stories. I just love the people. They are fantastic. PLUS! Giant plus... haha he was so cool. I was telling them a story and he just looked at me wide eyed. I stopped and asked what was wrong, kinda giggling. He just stared and asked me how long I have been here. Once again... uh un año, mas o menos. He just said.... Wow, I’ve never heard anyone talk like you; you sound like an Uruguayan. You don’t take breaths to breathe when you talk and you can talk FAST! Score. That was the second compliment I got on my Spanish this week. So if Liana and Katherine are reading, I can’t wait to speak Spanish with you when I get home!

This week has been a little stressful for me. We got a new district leader, it just so happens to be Elder Hudsen who was my district leader in the CCM. Wahoo!! He’s cool, we "grew up together" at the MTC. He’s been great. Last week I mentioned numbers. The zone leaders are really focusing on numbers lately. We have to give them a number for baptisms this month that si o si we were going to get. Oh man. My comp and I put a high goal: 4! We have been eating, sleeping and drinking numbers. Not good. We know we can get it. So we have been making plans and setting goals and working really hard to achieve that, right?

Well, we decided to look through old investigators to see if now they could potentially progress. You know, harvest someone else's planted seeds. Well, instead we came across stacks and stacks of inactives. People who were baptized and never went back. You know the story. It broke my heart looking at this. We realized that no one in our ward is a recent convert of the last 5 years. That means every person ever baptized for the last 5 years is not attending (or moved). It stinks! The fact that we have probably found more inactives in the streets than ever before didn't help the situation. This place could seriously be Utah if every person who was baptized was active. I'm not joking either. People have been completely forgotten about. I hate the thought of it. This just cannot be! If it's one thing I've learned here on the mish, is how to be a better member. That's why I made that challenge last week. We cannot have people fall away like this.

We just got really discouraged about this. Ugh. And a good missionary always verifies on the assignment they have left behind. So don't think I forgot about you. I wanna hear your reports back on your work from last week ; ) please? We are the Lord's hands on earth. People need our help, let's go out and look for them. Families can be saved and lives changed, souls rescued through our efforts. One member here actually did that this week. She returned to our ward yesterday even though she belongs to another ward. She didn't know her son who is 9 could be baptized... golden reference. We sent our leaders over there. We will see what happens.

I had another opportunity to perform a real act of service to someone. Sheyla's mom. We have been working, working, working with her to keep her strong while she regains her mom's trust over some things that have happened. Her mom just knew it's the only thing she really enjoys so she took the privelege of attending church away from her. Ugh! She had her loooooong hair to the floor almost braided. I told her it looked so great. She had a wedding and said she had to pay someone 300 pesos, TWICE to do it because it fell out the first time. I yelled what! Why?! I could have done it. She said welp... tomorrow then, because I have another wedding. I french braided her hair, we did a pretty tie tuck thing (that I really can't explain). Sadly, I forgot my camera. I didnt get a pic, but it was so pretty. She was so happy and she let Sheyla go to church. Wahoo for service and talents that mom taught me. Thanks mom, you blessed a life here in Uruguay :)

Anywho, almost everyone got released in church yesterday, even our DOM (ward mission leader). I was so sad. I hope they call someone quick. Oh well, we are here for a reason so we will march on. I can handle it. I know the work will go on. It's the Lord's work and he has complete control and he knows what he is doing. I just gotta trust in that. I just miss my DOM really bad. He was so awesome. More changes to come next week they say. Oh boy.

Just wanna leave yas with my lil testimony. Oh man, nothing in this world matters besides the gospel. I wish I could hit people over the head with that info. No one wants to listen! They spend all their lives searching for stuff when what they really need is right in front of them. Makes me sad. I wish I could change the world, truth is... I cant, but we all can make a difference. I'm so glad I have the Lord by my side. He is my advocate, my strength and my brother. I love him with all my heart. You guys, sigan asi. Keep doing what you are, be strong as always, lead others to the waters and always be an example of the believers. Love you. Till next week.

Love, Ash

TRANSFER CALLS.....

So hey! How is the outside world? We are well here. Lots of stuffies has happened this week. It was a good one. Where do I start...
Transfers.... oh man, I don’t know what I’m going to do about calls… as always we were so nervous. Our zone leader called us and asked who we wanted to know about first. We were sitting on pins and needles, but my comp yelled, "Hermana Farr!" …. He says, “Uh, Hermana Farr se queda.” That means... I’m staying! Huh? You’re joking. He doesn’t give me time to think before saying, “Hermana Laursen se queda tambien! What the JUNK?! “Elder, you’re lying.” Turns out he wasn’t. So I’m staying here AGAIN in Maldonado. Can you believe it?! And we are staying together!!!!! haha We start jumping up and down. This NEVER…. and I mean NEVER happens in the mission. You don’t stay with a companion for three changes... ever! Welp, apparently we still have people and a ward here to help that need us specifically. It’s crazy, isn’t it? We haven’t been able to get over it all night or morning. But here we are, staying together. Good times it will be. Seven and a half months here. That’s pretty much my whole mish. No one can believe it. Ademas... (in addition) we are going to be together for every single big holiday... Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. So you’ll get to meet Hermana Laursen when we all skype. Yeah baby! We’re gonna find a Christmas tree to set up and decorate tambien.

Last Pday was so fun! We got to go to Casa Pueblo and it was BEAUTIFUL! Uruguay is gorgeous. I can’t even explain to you. My breath was taken away when we got off the bus. I took tons of pictures, but I can’t send them all so you only get a few today. Don’t worry more are coming. The pics are just one of the pretty views before you get to Casa Pueblo. I felt like I was in Mexico. Then we saw a tarantula while we were walking! Ah! So crazy, it was huge. You look down one side of the coast and it looks like Ireland and the other side looks like you’re in Greece. So it was a good day. We traveled around the world; got out of the mission for a few hours and then hiked down some cliffs to take cool pics and read letters by the ocean. I actually took off my shoes and socks to hike, it was so fun! Check out that tarantula by my shoe

Yuri got baptized! It was so awesome. He is such a sweet person who deserves every bit of happiness. He’s my best convert. He is so awesome. I really feel like he will be a strong future leader in the gospel. He is so committed. Thanksgiving was good. I was trying not to think of the things going on there so we just worked really hard and then went to dinner. We didn’t have much time, but they were all great. It was good to be in loving company. We had chicken with gravy that Sandra and Mark (from Utah) made. We had stuffing, sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes. It was good. By the way... Sandra goes home this Friday and we are sending home packages with her for you. She’s awesome and totally American-ized. haha Good times. Her husband, who is a convert, is way cool too.We had the opportunity to see a little miracle this week with an elder who is serving in the mission. He called us one night to ask if a specific gentleman was in our ward. We said no, but we could do some investigating and possibly find him. "Why?" we asked. "Well, he was the elder who baptized me." We did our best to locate the man and learned that he’s the brother of a member in our ward. She called him and told him about this elder who is now serving in HIS missionary’s country. How cool is that? The sad thing is that this former missionary who baptized the current elder when he was 8, is now inactive. The elder got so excited that we found his missionary. They both were. Now they get to communicate and I imagine (hope) that this elder that is serving here now will help this man get re-activated into the gospel. It’s funny how the Lord works, isn’t it. Don’t ever doubt his grand plan. It’s amazing.

So here’s a little tip… you should get and read a Preach My Gospel. Read about the members’ responsibilities. We had a really good member step it up with some investigators he brought to church. When we thanked him later for it, he said, "Yeah, of course. That’s our responsibility or role in the work." That’s the truth, but most members don’t realize that. Later, we were reading in the white handbook and it says our duty as missionaries is to remind the members and inform them of their roles in the work. So here I am. I figure I could mention it to you, even though I know you are all doing so much missionary work already. I mean with befriending less or in-actives… you don’t understand how much it helps to have that friend. So my challenge to you this week is to find a less active and go by and visit them, invite them to church or some activity and be there for them every step of the way. Take them cookies, make a card, do something. It’s our duty. Use the wonderful American resources you have. We have been blessed with so much and for this reason, much is expected of us. Every member a missionary! Let’s go team!

I know this work is of the Lord and I love him with all my heart. Let us serve him with all our hearts.

I love you family... you mean the world to me. Keep being strong and holding on to that rod, but grab a few people on the way. I love you. Be good. Until next week.

Love, Ash

On the Wings of a Prayer...

I got package number 1? Yes! We had a party last night eating. We almost died because of all the flavor. I LOVED the Thanksgiving gratitude chain you made me. Everything was sooo nice. You don’t know how good it made me feel to see all the nice things you wrote about me. THANK YOU, THANK YOU!
We are going to Casa Pueblo today. Look it up… it’s one of Uruguay’s famous trademarks and we got permission to go. It has an art museum and other cool things, but I just mostly want to go to take pictures. We are so excited.

We have gotten calls from the zone leaders because our numbers have been so good. Now, I want to emphasize that I know numbers don’t really matter, but my President is actually very strict about numbers. He holds us very accountable for them. After we went to the temple, we had a zone conference about the importance of planning, getting and setting numbers each week as our goals. And he convinced me (or maybe it was the spirit) of just how important they are. We don’t want numbers, but we do want people to get baptized. We want the ice cream! But we have to use the spoons, or our other numbers, to get to eat it. We have since focused a lot on our goals: making sure we actually look at them, check ourselves and hold ourselves accountable for them. Since then, our companionship has flown high and above everyone else. The only thing I can say is that we are really trying our darndest to do our part to be worthy of the blessings Heavenly Father wants to bestow upon us. I have since learned a lot of lessons, but I feel like I am fulfilling my calling by reaching our numbers. Not just that, but I feel like it’s a reflection of my desire to serve and I can surely say that if we don’t have baptisms, it is not our fault, only that it’s not the Lord’s timing. I have a clear conscience... but the thing is... we ARE having baptisms. It is awesome!!

We had Nataly’s baptism and what a smashing event it was... then this weekend was Loana’s baptism and it was even better… if that can be possible. The young women had their Night in Excellence scheduled for the same time as our baptism and we were afraid everyone would just go to that and we wouldn’t have any ward support for the Rodriguez family. But the bishop decided the miracle happening with this family was more important and so he made them stop their activity and have everyone join us for the baptism and everyone loved it. Strong spirit, good support and a baptism. What more could you ask for? It was great.
Yuri continues to progress and develop each day in the gospel. This will be hands down the fastest baptism I’ve ever had. Less than 3 weeks to find him, teach him everything, have him have his conversion and get baptized. That will be this Saturday. Pray everything goes well and we don’t have any snags. He’s awesome.

We continue to see miracles, I’m telling you. I get more and more amazed at Heavenly Father’s love for us each day. I’m literally blown away. I had a really cool experience last night... well, this morning. We planned last night to go to Casa Pueblo and, of course, a huge storm comes in. We have been dying of heat all week. We got so bummed and it only got worse in the middle of the night. I actually woke up because our house was flooding. Yes... awesome Uruguayan constructed houses, oh how I love them. My suitcases, boxes and other things were soaked. I just never went back to bed … that’s how much water was coming in. I was up protecting all our stuff. So we were bummed when we discovered the rain still hadn’t stopped while we were studying. We called our district leader and told him to bring my comp’s mail because we were actually going to stay here instead of leaving. He said he would. Now you don’t understand the challenges we’ve had with mail and how much it means to my comp. Anyway, she was actually excited for the rain because that meant that she could receive her mail. I was bummed about not being able to go. We got our mail and guess what? The rain stops... the sun immediately comes out and I had figured out the perfect plan of God that he has to make all of us happy. He made it possible for us to go to Casa Pueblo and for my comp to get her mail. If it had been sunny and clear all morning, she wouldn’t have gotten it. I know it seems trivial, but it means so much to us. He loves us.

I stand here as a testimony of that to all and I’m trying to do my part to get it out to the rest of the world. Slowly but surely, it’s working. I love this gospel. There is nothing more or better to be living for. Don’t forget it, EVER! Be good... keep smiling. He’s there and He’s looking out for each one of us. Don’t ask me how it’s possible, it just is.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!! I love you all with more than all my heart.

Love, Ash.

ANOTHER BAPTISM ON THE HORIZON

We got a reference from a member... Ricardo. He is a lawyer. He’s really awesome. We have only taught him twice and haven’t brought up baptism yet. We gave him a Book of Mormon, which is his real interest, and hope he can pray and receive a testimony of it. He’s a really cool and very smart guy, and he’s looking for answers in life. Perfect investigator. Just pray for the best with him.

We had a small miracle named Yuri this week. We found him knocking doors. It turns out that his aunt and cousin are members in a different state here in Uruguay. He couldn’t stop smiling as we taught him the first lesson and committed him to be baptized. He’s so excited. He said we found him, which we did, for a reason. In the meantime, we have taken many members to meet him and they all love him. Everything he says he’s going to do, he does. I LOVE COMMITTED PEOPLE! THEY ARE MY FAVORITE kind, especially here on the mission. He came to an elder’s baptism on Saturday and loved it. He was almost giddy with happiness and so we changed his baptismal date to a little earlier. It will be the 26th of November. Pray we can get him there. He loved church yesterday with the primary program. The way they presented it was inspired. It was about a girl sharing the gospel with her non-member friend and so they went over all the basics of the gospel and he loved it. We really feel like the Lord has prepared him for us to find. Keep him in your prayers. Ahh! Our beautiful new washing machine. Laundry will be fun now....

This whole week there has been much opposition, little things really. People we have contacted have started to push back. We’ve also encountered people who just try and steer us away from our testimonies, who have tried to reason us away from what we believe. I asked my comp yesterday, why when we are going about doing good do people have to oppose us? Then I quickly thought... hey, that’s exactly when the opposition comes, when we are doing something good. The more opposition we have, the better we are doing, the more good we are finding and the more people we are helping, right? Bring on the opposition, baby! We can handle it. We knelt down yesterday to pray for strength. We have had the Lord’s help, as always.

Loana’s baptism will still be this Saturday. We are so excited for that. It was awesome yesterday to see their whole family walking up to the church building with arms around each other, dressed in all their new skirts and ties and everything else they bought specifically for church. I just got so happy. Jose, the dad, blessed the Sacrament yesterday. It was so awesome. Go missionary work! It’s been great. I love this gospel. I love my Savior and I love all of you. Keep going strong, heads held high. I looooove, love, love you!!!

Love, Ash

A VISIT TO THE TEMPLE

So Christmas is kinda coming up, right? And we get to talk to each other, right? Welp, we had zone conference this week and Hermana Da Silva tells us... "Oh yeah! Before you leave, we forgot to mention that we are letting you skype your families this year!" Ahhhhh!!!!! Soo excited. Anywho, so we will all get to see each others pretty faces. Yay. Made my whole life.So this week... Aw! The temple. We got up at 2:00 in the morning to go. No joke! I have been so exhausted all week long. I haven’t caught up on my sleep yet, but it was so very worth it. We got there in the dark and everyone was freaking out, crazy stressed, freezing cold and then of course, we step into the temple. Aw! Home... seriously. I have missed it so bad. DO NOT TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE OPPORTUNITY THAT WE LIVE SO CLOSE TO SO MANY TEMPLES! You don’t realize what you have until it’s gone. Anyway, it was dead silent in the temple and we were the only ones in there... it was so awesome to see the pictures of Christ, to see him and feel close to him. Would you believe the temple workers and the couple who was in the session with us are from Utah? Yes! Senior missionaries rock. Anywho, it was awesome talking in English, but so hard! I’m gonna die when I get home. I can’t talk with people in English here. It’s messed up. I actually watched the session in Spanish even though I could have listened in English. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity, right? I got in my white clothes and it just felt so good. I can’t even explain to you. I loved it. Seeing everyone in white, it was like... this is what we´re supposed to be doing, this is where we are supposed to be. I missed you. The temple is our goal in this earth life and it felt good to be there to be brought back to home, remember my purpose here on earth as a member myself, not just as a missionary.Afterwards we had a zone conference. It’s so fun being there. My pres was happy with me. I put some real good tips and thoughts up there. It’s like school here, only spiritual school. The best school. I love it. Then we had lunch and I saw one of the ladies that the elders baptized in San Jose. Her name is Laura. She just went through the temple. Her kids are all baptized now and she was so happy telling me so. That was so great to hear.

As for the work here in my area of Maldonado ... things are well. We had progress with everyone this week. We showed Alejandra the Testament movie this week and she felt the spirit so strong. You could see it. She cried every time I was crying and I knew I was feeling the spirit so I was sure she was too. At the end she kept saying, today has been so special. She’s finally starting to get it. She finally went to church this week and loved every second, even though her baby kinda gave her some trouble. She made lots of friends this week. We also took her some extra food the members had prepared for us and she started crying saying that she had nothing to give her kids that day. She said Heavenly Father heard her prayers. He always does :) It feels good walking on sacred ground and being an instrument in Heavenly Father´s hand to bless the life of someone else. We have seen miracles like this all week long.

Deina and Daian’s mom said they couldn’t get baptized yet. She thinks it’s too soon. In the meantime, we are still going forward with faith with their baptismal date. We have since gotten the ward members involved in picking them up and looking after them. Hopefully if she sees more people will take care of them, she will change her mind. Keep them in your prayers. They also came to church yesterday and will be in the primary program next week. That’s great. The ward continues to love them.

Nataly is progressing. She took out her piercing for real, for real and gave it to my comp. Wahoo!!! She is talking so much more, is way open with us and loves the gospel. She left this whole week and was with her friends from the ward. Go team!

As for Gladys and Jose and family… oh man, I love them so much. They are probably one of my favorites. Gladys is such a giant sweetheart, so kind and giving. We took her to go befriend Alejandra and they instantly became friends. They were together all day long and haven’t really separated. She took her more food, told her to keep the Sabbath day holy, is giving her the courage to pay tithing and everything else. She took her to some ward activities this week and it’s been great. That’s how we see success: in the hands of the members. Jose received the priesthood yesterday and Gladys bore her testimony. She said she has been a member for 17 years, but she fell away. Then she said we two angels found her in the street and came into her home: loved her, taught her, gave her a boost and loving hand, some support and a little bit of hope and faith and today "my husband is here to receive the priesthood to baptize our daughter in two weeks." She started crying and said we really are her angels and she will forever be grateful to us. She said I love them and I adore them and will always remember them. I started crying too, of course. It was so awesome. THAT IS MISSIONARY WORK! I really do feel like I was supposed to be here to help her. She is one of THE ones I was supposed to find. I love their family.

On top of that, Natalia has finally made it back to church. Work gave her a hard time and then another miracle came along. Her doctor said that she couldn’t work anymore because of her pregnancy. She came to church for the first time in a very long time yesterday and loved it. She participated in every class. On top of that, Damian got the priesthood, taught priesthood and then blessed the Sacrament for the first time since he was young. Oh man... blessings, being showered down on us.

At the end of church the bishop stood up and thanked me and my comp for our work and love. Everyone was so grateful to us. As we filed out of the hallways when the meetings were over, everyone was coming up to us and hugging us. I felt an extreme amount of love. I will really be sad when I have to go from here. I have learned to love everyone here soooo much. I have learned the most in this area, serving the people in Maldonado. I have grown and been stretched and tested so much, but I’m so grateful for it and I would never take it back. These people are a people of God. I love them.

I guess that’s the blessing of being in an area so long. I get to see the fruits of my labor. I do feel that way. I feel like everything I have strived for here is finally coming to pass and I’m being rewarded for the hard work we’ve done. Not that I need to see them, for this is the Lord’s work and he deserves all the praise.

It’s been a good week. I continue to love this work and I’m growing in the gospel every day. I hope you can feel of the spirit when you read my words. I want you to feel the things I do and experience them with me. It’s hard, but I’ll be home one day to tell you the tales for real ;) I love you all more than you’ll ever know. I continue to miss you and appreciate you more and more. Keep being the most amazing family in the world. Until next week... love, Ash

THIS WEEK WAS THE BOMB!!

Happy Halloween to all. My comp and I bought masks. haha She’s the alien and I’m Frankenstein. We can only wear them in the house though. So this week has been something else... I have so much to tell you all. Be prepared to be blown away because this week has been the bomb!We have seen miracles up the wazoo and have had numerous answers to prayers. It’s been humbling to see the Lord’s hand at work and we are just trying to go where he’s pointing us. It seems to be working pretty well. Where do I start?

I got letters from mom and Regan. Thank you so much for those. They always boost me up during the week. Love you mom. The week started out pretty normal. We were teaching Nataly every day so Satan couldn’t get to her before her baptism. It’s what we do for all our investigators who will be baptized. And we were teaching Loana from the Rodriguez family. She is so incredibly smart. I just remember thinking on Tuesday, seeing them read their scriptures... "Wow, this is the greatest thing in the world when we can see these people making changes in their lives by using the gift of the gospel." I was blown away by how touched I was. It’s even better because we have more than one person at a time who is doing so. That’s how missionary work should be, right?

Miracle 1: Nataly

Nataly was baptized!!! Baptism days... oh man, they are always so crazy and stressful and bad things always come up, but we made it. I don’t know how it has been, but this transfer we have had a renewal. The spirit of the work has changed. We worked really hard to make this baptism a great one. We had all the youth do the program and everything went so great. Nataly went to young women’s finally, even though she dragged her mom in there with her. What a champ. Pretty much the entire ward showed up to her baptism. 42 people (not all pictured). Alright, not the whole ward, but the families who go every week. The spirit was amazing. We were praying for a good turnout so she would feel loved and inspired. She went to a previous baptism and only the mom, us and the elders were there. I think she was taken aback, but she loved having the support, even though we were running around like chickens with our heads cut off. Everything went without flaw. Thank heavens, or Heavenly Father, I should say. It was fantastic. I finally put some of my flower talent into practice. My comp and I found flowers all throughout the day to make her a wrap. It was really pretty. I think she liked it. On Sunday she made friends with Belen and Sheyla. We all went to visit Sheyla with the both of them because her mom isn’t letting her come to church. So, she was baptized and confirmed and we have a new member of the Church of Jesus Christ and for that we are so grateful.

Miracle 2 and 3 : Deina and Daian.

We went to re-contact a family we had set an appointment with, but they never ended up being there. It was a family: mom, son and 2 daughters (ages 9 and 11). We went to their house and they were there this time. The mom said we could teach them. So we did. I had this strange feeling as we were sitting with them that the girls would progress and be baptized, but not the mom. It was really odd. We taught the restoration and we were asking them all if they would like to know for themselves if Joseph Smith was a prophet. The two girls were just nodding their heads yes over and over again. And then I wasn’t surprised when the mom then told us, "This is nice and all, but really I just don’t have an interest. I don’t really want to know." Well alright, there isn’t anything we can do about that. It was said, but the girls were so into it that the mom said we could continue to teach them if we liked. The girls said yes and so they agreed to pray and re-read the pamphlet about Joseph Smith. Yes... so we anxiously waited until Friday when we could see them again. We sang with them, prayed with them and then verified how everything went. Welp they prayed... they didn’t get an answer though. They were expecting Jesus and God to come like they did for Joseph Smith, even though we explained beforehand that that wouldn’t happen. It was ok. They read the whole pamphlet too. So we started teaching them the Plan of Salvation. I don’t know if you remember those cutouts I made to teach the plan?... but we taught and used those and afterwards we tested them. They nailed it all. They pretty much re-taught it to us. It was great. We told them we were having a baptism the next day and they could come. They wanted to see how it was. Their dad is a pastor, along with his new wife, for some other church and they started telling us that they can’t be baptized in his church until after they are 18 (even though they were baptized as kids in the Catholic church). We told them in our church we get baptized at the age of 8 and they said they both wanted to. We told them we would explain that later. They are very smart and in tune with the spirit, because of the things their dad has taught them even though they think his religion is weird. As we left the lesson, I asked my comp what she thought... she said "It was weird. While we were sitting there, I felt like the girls were going to be baptized, but not the mom." I just started freaking out because we had both felt the same thing. It was so strange but sooo awesome.We went over the next day to get them for the baptism. They got all dressed in cute skirts and we talked on the way to the church. They said they had prayed. The oldest of the two, Deina, said she had gotten her answer the first time she prayed, but she just wasn’t paying attention. She was looking for a different type of answer. But they said they knew for sure Joseph Smith was a prophet. It was awesome. We showed them around the church, they loved it. And they watched the baptism and also loved it. Every single ward member adores them... they kept telling us to take care of "our little princesses." The ward is in love and you will be too. At the end of the baptism, they said they wanted to be baptized. They wanted hymn books and Books of Mormon. We asked what they were going to tell their mom when they got home. They said that they want to go to church every day. So cute. We got to their house and they ran in so excited to tell their mom everything. I think she was taken aback by how much they loved it. They said they wanted to get baptized and she said, “Whoa, whoa! You gotta learn a lot more. You can’t be baptized RIGHT NOW, RIGHT NOW." She is very supportive though. She says she will let them do whatever they think is right in their lives. We explained they had more things to learn, but with time they can be baptized. We went and picked them up on Sunday for church as well. They loved Primary and we suggested the date of the 29th of November for their baptism. They love it. Now we just have to clear it by the mom. I don’t think she will have a problem with it... I hope not. We are a teeny bit worried about the dad. We’ll see. We continue to teach them, they continue to become smarter in the things of the Lord and growing in the gospel.

Miracle 4: Alejandra

She still hasn’t been to church so we had to move her baptismal date back to the 29th with the other girls. But she has grown immensely in spirit and in testimony. She went to a Relief Society dinner this week and went to the ward cleaning on Saturday before the baptism and stayed to see Nataly be baptized. She felt the spirit there and was so sad when we had to change her baptismal date. But she is so excited. She is reading and praying, getting her clothes ready for the baptism and planning everything. We are pretty sure she will make it. We just gotta help her get to church. She is so happy though lately and we are happy for that.

Miracle 5: Rodriguez family

They also made it to the baptism. So Loana could see how it’s done. They all loved it. Yesterday they came to church and the ward actually had them stand so everyone could welcome them back into the fold. My comp got teary eyed. It was a tender moment. We talked to the bishop about Loana getting baptized and seeing as how we have 3 baptisms on November 29th, we talked about having her baptized then. They interviewed with him and the bishop suggested that date and also said he wanted Jose (the dad) to have the priesthood so he could do the honors!!! Whoa! He went with the bishopric later to their house, said all he has to do is come back to church, they will count him as active again and he can get the priesthood. Then he can baptize Loana and then pass the Sacrament and so on and so forth. This is amazing. We were in awe and just so happy for them.

On top of that, our zone leaders called us and said thanks for all our work. They said the zone has had problems and difficulties this week, but Hermana Laursen and I are pressing forward and with our faith, prayers and hard work, we are seeing miracles. It has been amazing!

I wish you all could have been here to see and experience the things I have this week. Prayers have been answered, miracles have been produced and the impossible has been made possible. That’s what happens when you are part of the greatest work that ever was or will be. I know this is the Lord’s work and I am so grateful to be part of it. I’m grateful he’s allowing me to see these miracles and participate in the changing of lives. I can honestly say that this has been THE BEST WEEK OF MY MISSION SO FAR. Every good thing that can happen on the mission, has happened. We are working with the ward, they want to participate in the work, they are seeing we are working by our own efforts and having success and they want to be part of it. They came, they supported, we found, we taught, we baptized and everything in between. I love this gospel with all my heart. I’m so grateful for this work.

I love you all so much. I hope you enjoy this week’s news, the pictures and the spirit. Be strong, be good, hold strong and we’ll talk next week. I love you all more than you know.

Love, Ash

P.S. We are getting washing machines!!!!