Elder Tyler Ashworth: Week 76

Hey mom!! This week was probably the busiest week of my mission. I know I said that last week, but this one trumps them all I think. On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we went to all of Presidents interviews so that we could be there to help the meeting go smoothly and also because we have a relay race game we've been playing which has been fun. It's a PMG relay race where each companionship goes against each other and has to do half PMG Chpt 10 "teaching skills" activities and then half random activities like shooting a free-throw, bouncing a ping pong ball around a chair and back, guessing how many M&M's are in the jar, making a put put golf shot and things of that nature! Haha the best part about it though is that we have them dress up in a Santa costume as well as a Captain Jack Sparrow costume which just makes it way funny! Getting taught the Restoration simply by Santa makes it hard to keep a strait face :) Haha then on Friday we had to take E Langston to Vero to take over the new Zone down there and then got to spend the rest of our day with Elder Mejia because he's coming up to Hunter's Creek to do YSA work since E Langston took his spot. Saturday was a big teaching day for us and it was full of miracles! Our investigator T who we've been working with for like 4 months out of nowhere wants to be baptized on the 30th... Haha we were pretty shocked to be honest. We went over to his house to drop him and it ended up that it went the opposite direction then we thought it would. But hey, we won't complain! He came to church yesterday and was telling everyone about his baptism on the 30th and how he knows this is the one true church and me and E Johnson were just in shock! And then to top that off, a guy named C who the Spanish sisters in the stake knocked into randomly just showed up to church and absolutely loved it and wants to be taught and come every week! We see a lot of potential in him! We then had a lesson with our investigator B and the Elders Quorum presidents house last night and that was a spiritual lesson. Overall it was a busy, but miracle filled week! This week in my personal study I came across a couple great quotes on "being commanded In all things" as it talks about in D&C 58. "Indecision is fatal. It is better to make the wrong decision than build up a habit of indecision. If you're wallowing in indecision, you certainly can't act, and action is the basis of success." So many missionaries are indecisive because they feel like the Holy Ghost has to tell them everything they need to do. If they don't feel like the Holy Ghost told them to do it, then they won't do it. Now the desires of their hearts are great, but doing missionary work like that closes so many doors of opportunities. At the end of Chapter 4 "recognizing and understanding the spirit" in PMG there is a great quote about this from Elder Dallin H Oaks “[A person may have] a strong desire to be led by the Spirit of the Lord but … unwisely extends that desire to the point of wanting to be led in all things. A desire to be led by the Lord is a strength, but it needs to be accompanied by an understanding that our Heavenly Father leaves many decisions for our personal choices. Personal decision making is one of the sources of the growth we are meant to experience in mortality. Persons who try to shift all decision making to the Lord and plead for revelation in every choice will soon find circumstances in which they pray for guidance and don’t receive it. For example, this is likely to occur in those numerous circumstances in which the choices are trivial or either choice is acceptable. We should study things out in our minds, using the reasoning powers our Creator has placed within us. Then we should pray for guidance and act upon it if we receive it. If we do not receive guidance, we should act upon our best judgment. I love this quote for so many different reasons. I've personally found in my missionary work that the miracles and blessings I have seen has come from action. Just being aware of our surroundings and capitalizing on opportunities God slips in our path on a daily basis has brought so many great things. Many times if my companion and I would have sat back and tried to 'pray out' our next decisions for a couple minutes, we would've missed lots and lots of opportunities. Most the time, we just need to act. We know the difference between a right choice and a wrong choice, so we don't have to think about those, but with many other choices, Heavenly Father leaves it up to us. Lots of times it is a "Good, better, best" but often it's also "best, best, best" We just have to act on our feelings and if it's really not right, Heavenly Father WILL tell us. Learning this has helped me so so so much. I feel like I've been able to come into contact and teach many more people then I would have if I was a tentative missionary. My personality of "Go Go Go!" And making plans on the go has provided me with lots of opportunities to introduce the gospel or re-introduce the gospel to lots of amazing people.

That makes me sooo happy to hear that Steven did really well!! I'm so so excited for him! :) How was your week?? I miss you guys! I'm excited to go out to lunches with you again when I get home! I'm excited for a lot of things!

I miss you a lot mom!! Thanks for everything! Elder Johnson LOVED his tie!! He said to say thanks!

Love you!
Love Elder Ashworth!