A few Pics

 

Because you deserve the gospel today!

Ashtin and her 2 best friends in Guatemala

Care Package!

Volcano Lake

Thanksgiving dinner (celebrated a week early)

Big Bump on my Head

We (the english speaking misisonaries in the area) have started an english class every Wednesday night, which is pretty fun! The crazy part about it though is that I have gotten to the point in spanish where I am not translating everything in my head, it just makes sense, so in that class sometimes I legitimately have to sit and think whether or not a person just talked to me in spanish or english. Its the weirdest thing! In this class though, a little boy and his dad showed up and I had talked to them one day in a shoe store while my comp was buying shoes. I gave the 10 year old a Book of Mormon because he said he likes to read. They found out about the class and came. Turns out he actually has been reading it! And I guess his older sister is a member. I love seeing the tender mercies of the Lord like that.

 

Last week, I received a priesthood blessing and seriously, it was the greatest thing. I know the Lord watches out for each and every one of us and listens to our prayers. I know the priesthood power is real, and that God can speak through men for us. I am so grateful for that!!

 

We had a funnyish encounter in finding a new investigator haha. We were walking to the bus stop and we were kciking this lime on the ground acting like 5 year olds haha and we accidently kicked it into this girl (she just laughed) and we started talking to her and it turns out her entire family used to come to our chruch but never got baptized. We are going to try to visit her this week!

 

Finally, I have learned how hard it is to love the people here. Not because I cant do it, but because when they are going through hard times or dont want to progress or wont use the Atonement in their lives, it hurts. I feel for them, and I just want them to do whats right. I have an even greater appreciation for Heavenly Father because I am sure He feels the exact same about every single one of us. He knows whats best but He cant and wont force us to do the right thing.

 

Philippians 4:1 and Colossians 2:5. I thought about you all when I read these scriptures. Love you all :)

So yesterday at church the bishop of the ward gave an AMAZING talk on faith. Like I felt the Spirit so much, and I am so grateful for the bishop of this ward. The ward is not a full ward. Like the bishop has no counselors, only him. There are presidents for relief society and young womens and primary, but thats pretty much it. We are trying to help out the leaders to reanimate this ward, but I know it cant be easy for this ward. But his talk was about how we can never have a testimony of anything unless we try it, unless we do it. like the word of wisdom or reading our scriptures. He said that we sometimes are given callings and we wonder if we can complete them, but the Lord gave it to us, so of course we can. No matter what happens in life, the Lord knows we can do it. 

We have been finding a lot of investigators who I think have a great potential to progress, which has been a huge blessing!! I am very excited to see how everything turns out with them all and to see how they progress :)

I was thinking Hermana Reyes was going to get changed in the middle of my trainig but shes not and I am SO HAPPY!!

Also, there is amember here who I just love. She comes from a very, very difficult situation but she always goes out with us to visit people and has the strongest testimony. She is the person who loves the gospel because she has hope for a better world after this one. She is amazing and I hope to have faith like hers someday. 

Love you all, hope you have great weeks :)

Sorry, I forgot to post Ashtins Blog last week.  Thought I had, getting old, memory is the second thing to go ... I don't recall what the first thing is.  Anyway, I'm posting todays and last weeks.
-Jeff

11/4/2013
Wow do I have SO much to say. First could you please send me some pictures of Carthage jail that I took from my computer? Thanks!! 

So the most important thing is that we totally had a miracle occur this week!!!! So we were fasting for the area that we could find people who were ready for the gospel because none of our investigators were progressing. So one night there was a ton of weird lightening. Like sky lightening every five seconds and it was crazy so I was thinking about how awesome God is how He can do whatever and I was silently praying and I asked how I could help Him and find His children and while Im in this thought we pass a door and I just get the thought...that house. Well its dark and we usually dont tract when its dark but we decided to anyways and we found a family and they invited us in. And we talk with them for a bit and they dont go to church but they have super strong faith which is hard to find here. Everyone is either evangelical or Catholic. Well after a while we aske if they have questions and the aunt Kenzie is like yeah..how did you find us? It turns out she had gone to a baptismal service of our district leaders the other day because her niece wanted to go in the chapel so they did and they both cried. And she has a friend in the church so she thought that the missionaries somehow found her and she had wanted to go to church but she couldnt the next sunday. So anyway we were both like...woah. No, we just knocked on your door. It was a total miracle form God! And yeah, I was so grateful that the Lord helped us out in that one. And the aunt and niece came to church :) My first investigators at church! It was so great!

On a non spiritual note. There are stores here that get clothes from the US and they sell them for dirt cheap, like almost brand new so I am going to look. Like a girl found new Sperrys for $4...I dont even want to talk about how upsetting that was to find out when I paid what I did haha. But I know now.

I am so grateful now for my family and friends, like seriously. They had a holiday hre and I saw everyone with their families and I am just so grateful that I have so many great supporters who I get to come home to eventually :)

I cracked my head on this table the other day and it was bleeding and I had to wear a bandaid to keep in from getting dirty..that was embarassing and now I am just hoping to not have a scar haha.

LOVE YOU ALL :)

Ash practicing for Miss Indiana/Miss Guatemala, LOL

 

Ash and her companion

10/28/2013
Hello Family!

haha okay that was a really awkward beginning. also i found out yesterday that another one of my awkward talents is that I am awkward when I am trying to talk on the phone in spanish. I mean we all know that phone convos can be awk in general but then when its in another language...haha. Well, that part of my personality hasnt changed.

Yesterday was a super great day. It couldve been bad if we wouldve let ourselves get down but we didnt! Not a single one of our investigators showed up to church and one has a baptism date that we now have to move. And the wards attendance is slowly lowering week by week because they are all going through hard tiems and there is very little fellowship within the ward. So we had all of our plans for yesterday but we changed them a little bit and visited a lady in the ward who is feeling down and it is so good. When I jsut listen and dont try to translate, i understand so much more! And her husband died like a long time ago but to hear her talk about him is so sweet and she really has an eternal perspective that is just awesome. And we gave her the task of becoming friends with some of the siters in teh ward to animate this ward. We can do it. We ended up having two lessons with a member and giing out 5 books of Mormon which we honestly didnt think would happen and it was great just how the Lord led the day.

We found a couple of girls the otehr day who are so ready for teh gospel. like after our initial visti we asked wehn we could return and she said every single day haha. but then seh introduced us to her boyfriend and has been acting a bit odd so we shall see. but the Lord will prevail, not some  boy of one month haha. Jk. that sounds super bad or sacrilege or soemthing but I just want whats best for her. 

Love you all, hope youre having a good week!