Week 35

DENISE!!!! I LOVE YOU MORE!!!

I miss those boys sooooo much! They are all looking more grown up! We have been using the video “Because He Lives" a ton lately! Almost everyone we meet we try and show them that video to help them get in more of the Easter spirit. You are so right though! Easter is the most important Holiday! He died and then rose the third day unlike anyone else had ever done. I have been studying a lot lately about all the things Jesus Christ did for me and for this world and the list goes on and on! I am truly so grateful for my Savior and the Atonement he performed for me.
I'm glad that you got to hear from all those people! She is such a wonderful lady! Her and President Berry are so inspired it's crazy!

Elder Waller and Call loved their packages! Haha they called me that night and said "Denise is such an amazing lady!" Haha everyone loves you here! Adalyn says she already loves you and you haven't even talked that much haha! She is super cool! You guys would get a long. She's one of the best member missionaries I've ever met! So we bring her and her cousin who's about to go on a mission out to lessons all the time!

Overall we had a pretty great week! One of our investigator families didn't respond to any of our calls or texts all week and we were getting super worried because they were so solid! Well Saturday night
I started my fast and fasted for them. Well within an hour they texted us saying how busy they have been but that they're ready to have us start coming back over again!! How amazing is that?? Well I hope you guys have a great week! I listened to all of the recordings and Dad was kind of a Mic Hog;) haha jk he's so funny! I miss his quick humorous comments! He's always got some kind of joke to say :)

I love you Mom!! You're the best!! Have a great week and keep me posted on everything back home :) Looovveeee Youuuu

Love Elder Ashworth

P.S. I'm far past homesickness! Haha I love getting emails from you all throughout the week! Keep'em comin!

We locked ourselves out of our apartment
so my companion had to climb thru the window to unlock the door.

Enjoying some Florida sun on our deck while planning for the week.

Week 34

MOMMM!!! I had a great B-Day thanks to you guys!! Thank you so much for all the packages and everything like that!! All the letters and cards from everyone and things made my day so thank you!  So on my birthday we had Zone Conference so my whole day pretty much was at that and then helping all the other Elders and Sisters set up the new ipads. It was still great though :) Sister Berry sang happy birthday to me which was fun :)

 This week was great though! We have been finding a lot of new people to teach and two investigators just got baptized on Friday which was cool! One of the members in the ward was fulfilling her calling as a visiting teacher and came across a less active lady who had twin 10 year olds who hadn't been baptized yet. So we were able to teach them and they were baptized and now they and their mom is active! Fulfilling our callings is soooo important!! So many members here don't visit teach or home teach because lots of their assigned families are less active and its harder to get into contact with them. They just use that as an excuse though! If members would just spend 30 extra min a week trying to get to know these less actives and be their friends we would have so many more members show up to church!

 

That's great to hear that Brandons team did well and that he hit one over the fence! Was he pretty pumped?? All those push ups and sit ups are paying off :) I miss Gunlock!! 

Thank you again for making my birthday so special mom!! I Love you soooo much! Im so happy that Kelsey messaged you on Facebook! She is such a sweet person! I Love you mom! I hope  you like this special recording just for Denise!

 

 

Love Your son Elder Ashworth

 

 

Week 33

Mom (Denise)
How are you?? Thank you so much for the birthday packages! I got the all letters too which I'm excited to open up! This week has been great! I'm serving in Kissimmee right now with Elder Radigan! He's a super cool guy. He's one of the nicest missionaries I've ever met! He's been out for almost a year and a half so he's pretty seasoned!

So yesterday Elder Kopishkee of the 70 came to speak and he had recent converts and investigators say how the gospel has blessed them in their lives. Well out of nowhere my recent convert K got up and bore suuupperrr strong testimony of how this gospel has blessed her. It was soooo amazing mom!! The spirit was soooo strong and it showed me how my work is paying off!! Thank you for being so supportive. It's been the best experience of my life and I'm soooo excited for the extra growth that's gonna come :)

The ward here is super cool too! There is this cool family named the Gastons and one of their daughters is going to BYU in the summer! When she gets there I'll have her meet up with ya! She's super cool! And she loves BYU :) Erin said she came over to watch the game! I love how you guys are hanging out so much!

How's life mom? How's the photography going? You making hundreds or even thousands yet??  I miss your photo shoots soooo much!!! NOT!! Haha jk I kinda do  I'm just super happy right now! That's cool that TJ is in Heidi's ward! He's getting kinda chunky  haha he looks good though! How's all the kids! How's dad? Is he staying sane? haha I love you mom! Have a great week!

Love your son Elder Ashworth!

Week 32

Mom!! 

How was your week?? I did get your letter and dads! Thank you so much for those :) I love reading letters from you guys! 

So this week has been really good! I found out that I'm getting transferred! :( I'm excited but also bummed! I have loved college park so much! Working with college aged students has been such a blessing! All these kids here on campus have showed me exactly where I DON'T  want to be in life! Haha most of the kids here just party and switch majors each year until they finally just give up and go work at Walmart and subway. Not that there's anything wrong with that (Seinfeld ) But no seriously, there are some super cool kids here on campus. The Ward is all so cool and chill people and so willing to help! Many aspects of missionary work like getting members out to lessons and getting good fellowship for them at church is much easier then in family wards, but other aspects such as the organization and the sincerity of these investigators and the ward is much more difficult. It's been such an amazing experience here though. It seems like just yesterday I arrived... And now I'm already leaving. I'm super pumped for my next area though! I love getting to know new people and I'm sure I'll get put back into a family ward again which will be great! Time is just flying by so dagg gum quick! It's crazy! I don't like it. This is my life now. I couldn't imagine anything different or better. I think I'm becoming more of a consecrated missionary each and every day. I hope I am. Just seeing these people's lives truly change and to see how much I have matured is so crazy. All the non members out there truly don't understand how much they are missing. We have a Prophet of God on the earth... Right now... Today.... Leading and guiding Christ’s church to perfect and unify all of us, the body of Christ. We have the literal power and authority of God to Baptize, to heal the sick, to perform essential sacred ordinances necessary for exaltation.... No other church on the planet has that. We have temples (which is central to everything we do in the church) on the earth today! We can literally enter THEE House of the Lord if worthy and feel closer to him then we ever could anywhere else!! We have the ability to save the eternal lives of those in the past who never had that chance to hear the gospel.   It just blows my mind how much I as a young kid and still today take for granted. How lucky am I to be able to be born into The Church Of Jesus Christ?? Man, it just blows my mind! I hope you have a great week! Don't forget to read your scriptures everyday this week and pray morning and night :) 

I love you mom!! Thank you for all the support! I'll let you know my new address!! Elder Cooper who could be my next comp says hello by the way :) tell all the boys I said hello and to keep up all the hard work! I can't believe how much I'm not actually missing... Haha like I thought I would be missing a lot back home but I'm really just missing the basics. The kids games, shopping with you, and dad crashing his RC planes :) HAHA. I really am bummed though that I won't get to see the triplets get the priesthood! Love ya Denise  

Love your son Elder Ashworth

 

 

Week 31

MOM!!!

We had so many miracles come our way this week it was awesome!! The spirit was so strong all week. I'm so happy right now Mom!! I wouldn't be happier flying to Portland and stuff (Danny, Steven and I flew to Portland to watch the BYU game)…. it's way better out here! You got to see Tyler Haws beat Jimmer’s scoring record and I got to save a soul from eternal damnation... I'd say those are about even ;)

Our Investigator K got baptized which was such an amazing experience! Being able to see her progress so quickly was so awesome! I think we've really gained the trust of the members here which is good. We also were able to help a couple of our investigators become more solid. We had good spiritual filled lessons with them and pretty much told them strait up that they have to come to church or they won't get there answer that all these things are true. This past week they had a food and movie night at our 2nd counselor's house so we went for the food and to try and meet the members non member friends. We met some really cool people who showed some good potential! The best part about it though was that he had a Ping Pong Table there so I finally got to break out the paddles and play! I can't believe it's been over 6 months that I've played! #crazy! I was surprisingly still decent and beat pretty much everyone! Another great part was that the 2nd counselor has the brand new Tesla that seats 7 people in it so we got to ride in it! It is soooooo sick! You need to go test drive one :) When you accelerate you literally feel like you're on the ride California Screaming! He's a super nice guy. Extremely humble and just easy going which makes him perfect for the YSA Ward. Overall it was a great week! Times still flyin by like crazy! Is it flyin by for you?? How's everything back there goin? Stayin outta trouble? ;)

Keep me updated on everything that's goin on! I love you sooooooo much! Have a great week:)

Love your son Elder Ashworth!