The time has
come. I am being transferred.
I CAN'T TELL
YOU HOW WEIRD THIS IS. I HAVE BEEN A MISSIONARY LONG ENOUGH TO BE IN A
DIFFERENT AREA WHATTTTT.
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| Sister Magleby and I proselyting in the rain. The work never stops! |
Seriously so
many miracles have happened this past week that I don't even know where to
begin!
I guess I
will start with District meeting. We have district meeting every Tuesday
morning. Elder Glenn was my first district leader. He taught me a lot of stuff
that was just really great. Every Tuesday I was seriously so uplifted and
everything he said really helped me. This past week we talked about Great Faith
and Mighty Prayer. That's actually something that our mission president has
been talking about a lot and something that I have really been trying to work
on. Something I have really been thinking about is how in the scriptures it
says that spirit is matter. We can literally have more of faith or less of it.
We acquire more faith by our prayers- the language we use and by truly PLEADING
on our knees with our Heavenly Father. We talked about that and how we can
really be guided by the spirit and have more success as missionaries if we
really GET DOWN on our KNEES and PLEAD with God. Anyway this district meeting
was like this huge pump up thing and we all walked away like YES!! LETS CONQUER
THE WORLD!!!...
...then the
rest of the day was really hard...
Banning
right now is in the building stages. It's been pretty hard on a lot of us because
only one companionship in our area has had a baptism since we have been here.
Missionary work is just really hard. BUT because of that, instead of getting
discouraged I try REALLY HARD to just have faith that everything is according
to God's plan and I just pray my little heart out.
And the rest
of the week was just full of
miracles.
First I will
tell you about exchanges. Like always, I pray and pray and pray when we go on
exchanges that I can be led where we need to be and how I can help the people
in my area and the sister I am with. It was Thursday night at like 8 pm and
something just didn't feel right. So Sister Jones and I (the sister I was doing exchanges with) pulled over in the McDonald's parking lot and I
prayed and prayed. Nothing came to me. But I did notice that there were like a
million people in McDonalds so I just thought somebody in there probably needs
the gospel and we went in.
Right when we walked in this 15-year-old boy
walked up to us and was like "Hi Sisters!" And I had no idea
who he was so I asked him what ward he
was in. Turns out he was from Arizona. He said that there were a million people at McDonald's because
of this choir trip he was on. He introduced us to his friends and we were able
to give some of them Because He Lives cards and talk to them about the
Resurrection. So that was pretty cool.
In the
mornings, Sister Magleby and I usually run. But on Friday we were both just feeling
super tired and out of it so we decided to walk. We came across this man who was just outside walking. He said he was trying to clear his
head before he woke up his girls. He told us about all of these trials he is
going through right now and praying and praying and praying that God would send
him someone or something that would help him.
And here
come us...the missionaries.
So we were
able to talk to him and all three of us really felt like our conversation was
meant to be. Now he is an investigator. Good thing we just decided to
walk that morning.
Another
thing I was really praying for was a confirmation that I was helping someone in
someway. I guess that was kind of a selfish thing to pray for... but I got a
ton of answers to my prayers. We had an awesome lesson with one of our investigators on Tuesday. He told us how much we meant to him. He said
it meant a lot that we were taking time out of our lives to help people like
him. And he said that he was really glad we were friends. So that was tender.
Then last
night we had dinner with the Belcher family. Sister Belcher is from Brazil and
she served her mission there too. Her husband just got baptized last year and
he is now the High Priest Group leader in the Banning ward. She was telling us
all about her mission and all of these wonderful people she met. Sister Mags
and I had been talking a lot about how missionaries are pretty disposable so we
told Sister Belcher about that. She got really emotional and said something
like "Never say that! WE LOVE YOU. You are helping more people that you
realize. YOU are CHANGING LIVES."
So I was all
touched because Heavenly Father answered my prayers and made me feel a whole
lot better, but then I realized something. I am not changing lives at all. The
Holy Ghost is. I GET the privilege of being an instrument of the Lord for just
18 short months. I can't tell you how amazing and humbling that feels. It's not
about me at all. I GET to see lives changed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Also. Our investigator we have been trying and trying to get to church since I got here FINALLY came to church on Sunday! My last Sunday in Banning Ward. What
a miracle/blessing. I want to thank all of you for your prayers concerning her.
It has seriously helped so much. Heavenly Father has great plans for that family so keep praying!
Alright I'm
about out of time. I wish I could just video tape my life and let you watch it.
Heavenly Father is blessing me so much and I get to see all of these miracles
and there isn't even time to tell you half of them. But. I did something really
scary... I prayed for trials. Yup. I did it. I need a trial because I need a
reason to get on my knees more and I need experiences that will change me and
help prepare me to be a flipping awesome mom. So I did it. Please keep me in your prayers because I know that
something really hard is about to happen. But it's going to be the best
blessing ever!
I really
love all of you so much!
Love, Ashlee
P.S. I saw a
billboard for the Charlie Daniels band. They are coming to Cabazon next month.
Baby Charlie Daniels is a lot cuter than the fiddler Charlie Daniels.
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| Here is a couple of pictures from exchanges. I took better ones at the temple, but then they all got deleted last week sooo.. And yes. That is my lovely MTC comp Sister Stalder and her companion Sister Jones. |
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| Throw back to my very first member dinner with the Holland's :) I love these people |
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| Remember that picture I sent of the best meal I had ever had? Well this is round two. The Lagazo's son had a birthday party and there was even MORE delicious Filipino food! YAY! |
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| The Holland's have a band and they played at the party. It was really great! |
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| These are the Morenos. I just said good bye to them. They have taken such good care of Sister Magleby and I, and I really can't tell you how much I love them. Also we just took these so that's why I'm in PDAY clothes. We played games for pday today at their house |
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| We have the same water bottle. We discovered it looks funny when you put it up to your face. |
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| Rain or Shine! We are working hard!! |
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| Heres a picture of me blowing bubbles during lunch. That was a good time. |
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