2/18/15
Ashtin gets BACK!!!!!!


2/16/15

Wow. I cannot believe that this is my last email that I will ever send to you guys from the mission. I still dont feel it at all. Well, okay, a little bit haha. I had to say bye to everyone in Chiquimula yesterday because today at 530am we left to come to the capital so that i could say bye to some people around here. I feel a mix of emotions...sad to leave these people, knowing that its very possible that I might never see them again, happy to be able to see my family and my friends again, content because I feel that I served as I shouldve these last 18 months. I wasnt close to perfect, but I really tried. I love Guatemala so much and it will always hold a space in my heart. The people I have met have changed my life. I have learned from the experiences and really been able to learn more about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. 

We had a wedding on Friday! Our investigators Sintian and Israel got married!!! wooohooo! my only wedding in the whole mission and my last friday. i was so happy. a lot of members came to support them, which was super sweet to see. they will get baptized on the 28th and i have every intention of skyping during that time.

I just want to end with my testimony. I know this church is true. I know that it is the only church that Christ has established here in the earth. The only church where He has placed His authority to act in His name. I know that Christ lives and forgives our sins. I know that the Atonement is real and when we apply it in our lives, we feel peace and joy and can really change who we are. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God as well as the Bible. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet, just as Moses and Noah were. I know that God hears and answers our prayers. He knows whats best for our lives. I know that when we are obedient to His commandments...we receive peace and eternal life. Its hard, but its possible, and at the end of the day, its the only thing thats worth it. I know the priesthood power is real. I know my time in Guatemala has been a huge blessing in my life and that it wasnt a waste of time. I have become truly converted. I am so aware of all of my weaknesses now, but I have the rest of forever to change them.

2/9/15

Welp. This is my last full week here in the mission field. I cant believe the day has come. Really, it feels surreal. I ahvent accepted it yet, although i have started organizing what i should bring home and what gifts i need to buy. luckily were going to esquipulas today so i can buy stuff. im sorry in advance for not buying a bunch of souveniers but im trying to remember everyone and bring soemthing. its really hard though because we dont receive much time ever to do these things and my first two areas didnt have things to buy soo...

Last night i had a super good conversation with my companion. I was frustrated about the lack of communication in our companionship because it was really affecting us and our unity. I felt like I had been trying, but I also recognized taht I had a lot of fault in it. I didnt want to say anything to her because i didnt want to hurt her feelings, but las night i just felt so overwhelmed that i couldnt handle it anymore. we talked it out and were good now! i am so happy because we will be able to finish well :)

This is the week of the wedding! i am so excited :) i dont think theyll be getting baptized until after i leave which is sad but i am happy to at least see the wedding! they are so amazing and i just love them so much. it will be super hard to leave them, i wont lie.

we put as a goal this week to find 30 new investigators. its going to require a lot of work and focus...which is exactly whey we put that goal. to stay focused. 

the next time i write you, ill be in the capital and then will see you guys really soon :) i love you guys!

2/2/15

wellll. this week we had concilio again so we went to the capital on monday. on tuesday we had a really awesome concilio (like usual) and they passed a rule that we can now drink pepsi and coke so thats always fun. on the way back in the bus haha they were playing the movie ninja turtles (there was an accident so it took us 5 hours). i slept to not watch the movie but when i woke up i couldnt fall back asleep but the movie was basically over and so to avoid them putting another movie on...we gave them a church movie about the restoration hahaha. it was so great! i love being a missionary!
Okay so i have a story. so our fechas that are super awesome and are going to get married on the 13th. she started having doubts about the baptism because her mom who is catholic got involved and she had a headache at church(which she took as a sign that she shouldnt be there...we had a special session where we sat in the same room for three hours...even i had a headache). so instead of getting devastated, which is my normal response  haha, i decided to just hold out faith. we did divisions the next time we were going to visit them. in companionship study i had told the hermana that we were going to pray with her to receive an answer (she has a month in the mission). when the moment comes to pray...i completely forget. but she doesnt. she tells her that we want to pray with her and the lady agrees. when she asked, the spirit was so strong!! after the prayer she said i felt happy, im going to continue with my baptism. it was such a miracle and i left there so happy. i love this family so much! theyre super young and they are truly repenting and changing and that moment was so special. i was so grateful to that hermana. 

1/26/15

Well. Heavenly Father has answered my prayers yet again. Just know that well...that tends to happen, because, well, He is God. and He always listens. So i have been praying super hard to be able to not be baggy (as pointed out by dad i need to explain the terminology...it means thinking about home a lot and wanting to get home like now). well...this week was so insane.

We had three people that were going to baptized. We go to the cita on monday and shes like hey..someone offered me a job today that works on sunday...and i took it, but only for a month to pay for the schooling of my daughter (she is the mom and the other two are her daughter and niece so they dont get baptized if she doesnt). and were like....no! its satan obviously. right before your baptism? like cmon! dont fall for it! we pray together to find another job. we go visit a less active and she is like hey im looking for someone to work in my house and obviously they wouldnt work sundays. PERFECT! so the next day she had to go into her job but we tell her that on wednesdy we will show her the house. we go to the house of the less active and she had already hired someon....so we had to call her and tell her that we dotn have a job. but she decides she doesnt like her job anyway because they drink so were in the clear....no. she gets another job. and im just like oh my gosh. so then we go on divisions and i leave the area so idk what happens until the next day and she decides not to work! but the niece cant get baptized because of this long mess. so the other two get baptized. well the day before the baptism supposedly the mom of the niece is mad that shes not getting baptized so we go to the house to talk to her...and shes not even mad. we have the baptism!!!!

the baptism was so beautiful because although we started like an hour late because people hadnt shown up or the other hermanas forgot the clothes, seven people got baptized that day! it was so amazing to watch 7 people in a row get baptized :) i loved it. the other 5 were investigators of the hermanas that share our ward.

i love the mission. i know this is a true work of God. I know this is the only true church and i know that being a misisonary has changed me for the better and for the rest of my life! i love you guys :)

1/19/15

Dear Family,

The weeks are getting crazier and crazier. TOday we went to a castle...it was my third time. not that exciting but it wasnt my choice haha. i love the zone though so it works. 

We had so so so so so many miracles this week. I know that Heavenly Father is throwing a bunch of work at us to answer my prayers that I will not get baggy before I am home. One of these miracles is this. We are teaching a couple and they are super awesome. They read, they pray, are always happy to see us. They arentmarried and he cant come to church for his job. she knows its true but wants to do everything as a family. so he this week received the answer that he knows this is true and that he wants to get married as well! i was like screaming haha when he said it. i hugged her and was like...i cant hug you because im a missionary but i am so happy! haha. and his boss gave him sunday off. their wedding is planned for the 13th of february, which happens to be my last friday (talk about baggy haha, a wedding...jk...mostly). but ahhhh i cant believ it! i am so flippinghappy for them because they are super young and just super cute and they know they have found the truth! they have alittle daughter, shes 2 and so adorable!

this weekedn we are planning on having 3 baptisms with 5 of the other hermanas in our ward. i am so excited :) i think it is going to be super spiritual. at the beginning of the month we put a goal of 4 baptisms. we prayed and felt that. then we werent seeing how it was going to happen but we kept the faith. like on sunday, they hadnt shown up to chruch and if they couldnt come they couldnt get baptized this saturday. like 15 minutes in and still nothing. but we were like no, they will come. and they came!!! so we are going to meet the goal that we put because we put it with God! so exciting.

we had two super great divisions this week as well. i love doing them. 

seriously so much happened this week! im going to have to go through my agendas when igethome to tell you everything BUT i can tell you that Heavenly Father is blessing us SO much!

Have great weeks! :) Love you!


1/12/15

Soooo this week on monday we worked. Tuesday at 145am i woke up to catch a bus at 3am. its only a 3 1/2 hour ride to the capital but there was an accident in which we sat on the bus for 3 hours...jsut stopped there. we finally got where we needed to be at 1030am. where i received my new companion! hna ynjo (ingho) from peru. she also was in the ccm with me! not that i could speak spanish then haha. so then that night we worked in an area in the capital with hna flewallen!!! woohoo! it was fun. in the night all of the girls who went home were there waiting for their flights and it just seemed unreal haha but yes. wednesday we had concilio (a meeting of all the zone leaders and hermana leader trainers in the mission) and we talked aobut the mission plan and how to change it. I AM SO PUMPED. seriously. i talked SO much, like way too much haha but i had a lot to say, so it was fun!

we finally got to work on thursday! the week has gone by super fast, i cant believe its over but it is haha. we had a super miracle on sunday. so we were in an area and we prayed about where we should go. my companion felt a house so we went there but nothing happened. they dont want to preogress...okay so we go to walk out of this area just in time to contact a kid who was outside of his house. we start talking to him. my companion out of nowhere (we had only tlaked for like 3 minutes) asks if he wants to get baptized. he says yes and how long would it take. we tell him the requirements and he agrees for the 14th of february! which happens to be my last saturday in the mission (one of my goals for this change). it was so amazing and we are very happy.

this week we are starting divisions again so wish us luck haha.

love you guys!!!


1/5/15

Dear Family,

Welp I cant believe I am saying this but we ended another change. My companion is leaving me :( BUT I am happy for her because I think that she is going to be training, which she has been dying to do, soooo I guess I am happy for that. PLUS there is a possibility that she is going to go to an area in the zone so I can do divisions with her!!!! We already planned it out...my last division of my mission will be with her haha. But we will see later today.

So tomorrow I go to the capital again! Woohoo! I am actually really excited because we have this thing called a misison plan which is pretty self explanatory (its how we should be working in our areas and what are the things we should be accomplishing every week), but every year it gets changed a little. well this year when we get together with president, we are going to offer him our opinions on what should change and what should stay and i am so excited haha.

Anywho this week we had a baptism :) I was stressed because I didnt think that anyone was going to come, but it turned out full the room so that was exciting :) Heavenly Father heard our prayers! So Saturday is when the baptisms are (usually) and then in Domingo they get the Spirit. Well she came late to church on sunday and i was like OH MY GOSH! haha but she came, so its all good :) 

On sunday we had a meeting with the leaders of our ward and we talked aobut our goals for next year and we are putting 100 baptisms as our goal for the year! i am so excited! they asked if we could do it and i told them, us 4 as missionaries...no. but with the whole ward involved, yes! and they wre like okay! and super animated and it was so exciting. i really hope that this year we as missionaries and the ward can just come together and really work even more together. i want to see this miracle happen! well...hear about it anyway. be a small part of it.
I hope you all had great New Years...here in Guatemala they have a heck ton of fireworks at midnight (super dangerous and illegal (in the states...not here) but super awesome). so i saw those! they also do it at christmas but i was a little tired and sick that day haha so i didnt see them. Put goals!!! and some of them have to be spiritual! love you guys! :) 

12/29/14

Dear Family,

So this week was crazy haha. Well I basically told you guys everything about my companion being sick and that I threw up and what not. I saw the brother on Sunday and I was like I am so sorry...seriously. I feel so embarassed and he was like no, no, just for new years...dont eat so much before you get to the house haha.

So basically this is what I have to share. This time of my mission probably we have had the most challenges than ever before, but I also have never seen so many blessings. Like on Sunday this guy came to chruch with his wife and suddenly this guy is just like hey, im a bishop from a different ward, but this guy wants to get baptized. when can he? so right there we put a fecha for his baptism and were like, we will be seeing you haha. it was crazy! and then after we had an appointment (i didnt write cita...im trying to remember english haha) and she was like hey, my neighbor wants you to visit her. we go there. its a full family (although not married for questions of his legal information) and they are like yeah, we want to go to your church, but we dont know if were allowed or where it is. haha well...if thats your only problem...but it was just so amazing. we have found so many people in these last days that want to get baptized. like seriously so many! and they just come out of nowhere...seriously. its just amazing to me. so maybe i like all of the challenges...? haha.

but also i jsut want to say how much i love my companion haha. she has been feeling so sick and she has the perfect excuse to stay home but she always refuses. even if were walking like super slow...she refuses to stay there in the house. i admire her a lot for that! 

but i talked to you all like 3 days ago soooo. i love you all! love seeing your faces haha and i hope you have great weeks! :) and happy new year!!