Week 83

Mom!!☺️☺️☺️

Sounds like a fun week overall!😃 I miss the Nash's, they're such an awesome family! I also miss the Trowbridge's! How is Sydnie doing? Elder Johnson and I get a long well! Things are going great! We went and ate dinner with a younger couple and the whole time I could tell he was nervous to be around us. So as we went to share our spiritual thought I could tell he didn't believe anything we said. So I just asked him out of nowhere if he believed that Joseph Smith was a Prophet and he looked up and just say there for a second and then said "I have my doubts". I went into him pretty hard about Joseph Smith and how I KNOW that he is a prophet. I then promised him that if he would simply read from the Book of Mormon every single day, come to church every week with an open mind and sincere heart, and pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true that he would re-gain his faith. You could tell he was taken off guard but his wife was very thankful for it. She asked if we would give her a blessing of peace and comfort after which was a good way to end the lesson. Well, on Sunday he came up to us with his wife at church after 2nd hour (which he never used to stay for) and asked if we would come by on Friday to teach him some things! It was AWESOME to see the spirit work in him to push him to allow us to come over and teach him!! We also had an amazing amazing lesson with some members named the S's this week! We're teaching this recent converts father named G. At first G was only interested in learning what the difference was about the Book of Mormon and The Bible. We explained it to him probably 2-3 times as about as simple as we could! Well we could tell he still wasn't quite getting it. So we decided to bring the S's and Brother and Sister Stanley both bore such strong testimonies of the Book of Mormon and what it was and how they came to know that it was true and the spirit was so incredibly strong!! We basically let the Stanley's teach the lesson and it made the whole difference! After, he said "I used to not know what exactly what the Book of Mormon was, but Brother and Sister Stanley explained it in a way that I could better understand." He then said " I'm very very excited to read it more and I know it will bring me closer to Jesus Christ" Elder Johnson and I nearly fell off our seats as his basically bore his own testimony of how he knew that by reading the Book of Mormon that it would bring him closer to Christ. All I can say is that members make the difference. People just take member more seriously. I know that we could have taught and explained the Book of Mormon 5 more times and it still wouldn't have been as significant as The Stanley's explaining it once. Things just always go better with a member present! Another really cool story was that after church I noticed a lady who was recently baptized in a different ward but she had been coming to our ward for the past month or so. Well I knew that her kids had not been baptized with her but that she really wanted them to get taught. The current living situation she's in constrains her from being able to have the missionaries over since the people she lives with don't like Mormons. Well her two kids were with her at church and even though she's technically not in our ward the spirit told me to go up to her. So I went strait up to her and introduced myself and then simply said "we want to teach your kids right now, Can we go to a room down the hall and teach them the restoration?" Her face lit up and she said "Yes! That'd be wonderful!" I knew she was moving to Clermont because that's where here kids usually stay and so I thought it'd be good idea to get them started now so that they can just hit the ground running with the missionaries up in Clermont! As we taught them you could tell their mom was just sooooo excited for her kids to finally be learning. No offense, but it didn't seem like the missionaries in the past pushed super hard to teach her two kids! We taught them both how to pray and as they prayed their mom could not stop smiling! And it just made me think about how excited I am to be able to teach my own children the gospel and watch their own personal testimonies of these things grow!

I'm super excited to hear how Steven’s games go this week! I'll be praying that they'll be able to win state this year! That would be so so so awesome for them! They deserve it! Thanks so much for signing me up for housing! I hope you have an amazing week! March is for sure the best month! Haha it's crazy to think I'm almost 20... Idk what to think of that yet. I miss you guys a bunch!

Love your favorite missionary son
Elder Ashworth☺️😘❤️

Got to go up to Eustis to see two recent converts which was fun!
They're both active and doing well which is always great to hear as a
missionary!

Mission leaders house! We had a mini testimony meeting after and it was powerful!

What the office really does... ;) haha

Sister Berry had to leave a meeting early so we got to drive President home :)

Elder Fontes had his 26th birthday in Friday so we took him out to Chick-fail-a!
 Well we ended up not having to pay for it at all cuz a member happened to be behind us in line
 and payed for everything! The church is so true :)

Week 82

Hey Mom!! I've missed you this week! I'm suuuperrrr pumped that LP won regions! I really really hope they can win state! All the boys are getting sooo big! It's crazy!

So this week was great! Our investigator named V got baptized and that was obviously great!! Those experiences are always testimony builders. We're working with some more cool people right now so we're pretty sure that March will be a great month for us as well! Plus, It's my birthday that month so it's gotta be good right?! Haha There was a guy in Gospel Principles class that talked about how he went to speak with the bishop and asked "Bishop, how do I pay tithing? Do I pay net, or do I pay gross?" And the bishop quickly responded "Well, do you want net blessings, or gross blessings?" And that is sooo true! The level and intensity in which we keep the commandments will ALWAYS correlate with the level and intensity of the blessings our Heavenly Father grants unto us.

D&C 130:

20 There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated--
21 And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.

I know that obedience brings blessings, but that exact obedience brings miracles. We all need to "Hunger & Thirst After Righteousness" as it talks about in 3 Nephi 12:11, and we need to do it because we love our Heavenly Father. As we were sitting in Presidents home listening to the missionaries who just left bare their testimony there was a missionary who was very emotional about leaving and about how much he loved his mission and those he served with and around. He then said something very profound yet very simple. He said "I know that Jesus Christ lives and I will GLADLY do what he asks of me.... Because I love him..." That one sentence hit me so hard and made me really think to myself about WHY I keep the commandments. I would invite you to do the same.

I love you so much Mom! Thanks for all you do for me!☺️😘❤️ I hope you have a great day!

Love Elder Ashworth☺️❤️

We had to go on exchanges on the baptism day because we haven't had
time to do all the exchanges needed. So Elder Thornock got to find,
teach, and baptize with me all on one exchange!

Got on the bikes to get some fresh air and get out of the car!

Shawn baptized our investigator who speaks English, and Brother Martinez
our ward mission leader baptized his dad who speaks Spanish.

Shawn and Victor!

 A member we had dinner with had a little rope swing thing that was pretty fun. You can't really tell from the pics but I was getting up to like 3 feet of air ;) (Napoleon Dynamite quote)

Week 81

Hey Mom!!☺️☺️❤️❤️

Gunlock looked super super fun!! I really miss Gunlock! I'm excited to go there when I get home! And I'm pretty sure I'll be home the 25th. So you can plan accordingly.

So this week was pretty great!! We had meetings allll week which was ok... Haha we drove over 500 miles and it was ROUGHHHH!! I was soooo tired after all the driving! But it was fun being able to see lots of the Elders and go out to lunch with them. The best thing that happened tho was C's baptism! It was such a spiritual experience. Each time I'm able to see someone enter into the waters of baptism my testimony of this gospel grows. Because he's a larger fellow and has a bad back we decided that it would be best if we sat him down in a chair and had him bend forward. We gave him a list of all the members we had brought to see him and had him pray about which two he wanted to help baptize him. It was neat experience and you could tell that the members felt special to be the ones baptizing him. Then on Sunday, T who just got baptized two weeks ago received the Aaronic
priesthood! We're going to be able to pass the sacrament with him next week which will be special. He was soooo excited to tell everyone in the ward that he was a priest! Haha another cool thing that happened was that before church I prayed that someone we didn't know or weren't expecting to come to church who was a non-member would come so that we could pick them up as a new investigator and help them get baptized. Well by the time we got to the last talk I hadn't seen anyone new so I
was a little bummed. But literally right after I was thinking about that, I got a tap on my shoulder from Sister M behind me and she whispered "Hey, my sons non-member girlfriend is here today, let's get her to come to gospel principles class" haha so that was a little miracle! Overall, things are going pretty amazing!

So this week I really enjoyed this part from the Elders Quorum lesson this week which talked about trials and the need and significance of them.

“ I have observed that life--every life--has a full share of ups and downs. Indeed, we see many joys and sorrows in the world, many changed plans and new directions, many blessings that do not always look or feel like blessings, and much that humbles us and improves our patience and our faith. We have all had those experiences from time to time, and I suppose we always will... Being human, we would expel from our lives physical pain and mental anguish and assure ourselves of continual ease and comfort, but if we were to close the doors upon sorrow and distress, we might be excluding our greatest friends and benefactors. Suffering can make saints of people as they learn patience, long-suffering, and self-mastery"

Whenever Heavenly Father sends someone, or even a group of people a trial, he is giving us a chance to repent, grow, and become stronger. It's up to us however to use that opportunity he places in front of us to help us repent, grow, and become stronger. Shall we falter? Or shall we finish? Most people do falter and miss the mark and quickly lose faith and blame God for the trials and don't learn anything from them. But those who learn and improve and appreciate those hardships and trials are the ones who will endure to the end and be saved. Those who use their faith, their covenants, the companionship of the Holy Ghost, and most importantly, the Atonement to overcome and come off
conquer will always come off on top. A prime example is Nephi, Jacob, and Sam compared to Laman and Lemuel. Nephi and Jacob and Sam used ALL their trials to help them improve and become better and more refined tools in our Heavenly Fathers hands. (2 Nephi 2:1 And now, Jacob, I speak unto you: Thou art my firstborn in the days of my tribulation in the wilderness. And behold, in thy childhood thou hast suffered afflictions and much sorrow, because of the rudeness of thy brethren.

2 Nevertheless, Jacob, my firstborn in the wilderness, thou knowest the greatness of God; and he shall consecrate thine afflictions for thy gain.) Laman and Lemuel almost ALWAYS used those trials as excuses for why their life was so hard and why they could be mediocre. So my goal for not just this week, but for forever is to better be able to see my trials as blessings. I want to see and recognize all the things I need to learn from the trials I do have and improve from those things. I know as I do this, that Heavenly Father will then trust me with more trials that I can learn and improve from and I will become the best I can be through Him.

I love you soooo much Mom❤️❤️❤️ Thanks for everything!! I miss you guys! Hows BYU basketball looking?? Update me! Love you☺️

Love, Your son Elder Ashworth

The Johnson's who were a senior couple who just left...
They will be greatly missed! They're awesome awesome people!

 Driving alone again to pick up another car... We still teach quite a bit just to let you know...
We don't just hangout all the time like the pics might suggest.

Getting some RAYZZ before our meeting ️🏼--->🏾 haha

Got to drive all along the coast line so I had to stop real quick and get a quick picture!
This was my first time seeing the ocean on my mission

Enjoying the nice weather on a beautiful Valentine's Day!

Had to go up to Eustis to pick up a car of an area that just got closed so
I stopped by Nana and GM real quick to say hello! Nana had Valentine socks on too

Old Comp Elder Donnelly!

Had to drive separately to pick up that car. It's kind of fun to be by yourself for a little!

Week 80

Mom!!

Those videos of Steven nearly put me to tears of how excited and proud I am of him! I miss going to his games and watching him play his heart out! I'm so excited for him! I'm sure dad is not nearly as fun, or pricey as I am to go shopping with, but it's ok, it won't be too long before we get to go together again

So this week has been bonkers!! We have had quite a few meetings which are always soooo much fun!!! haha but on a good note, we had two of our investigators, C, and V pass their baptismal interviews which was AWESOME!! They're both getting baptized this Saturday @ 8 pm! C was such a miracle. The Spanish sisters knocked into him and since he only spoke English, they committed him to come to our ward and so that Sunday, he just showed up! He hasn't missed a week since and he is soooo excited to get baptized and to get the Aaronic Priesthood soon after that! Everyone in the ward is excited for him! Another sweet thing that happened was that T who got baptized last week went up and bore and AWESOME testimony of how as he started to read daily from the Book of Mormon and allow us to come over multiple times a week that he couldn't NOT believe that this was the true Church and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God because of how good he felt as he did so. T suffers from some pretty bad depression and that's what for a long time held him back from
keeping his commitments, he just didn't have much motivation to do anything besides stay inside and watch movies. I remember a specific visit with him where I promised him that if he read the Book of Mormon everyday and came to church every single week and prayed day and night that his depression would leave him. It was a scary promise to make because I didn't know for sure that it would come to pass, but I had faith that I was in tune with the spirit as I said it and that Heavenly Father can make anything happen. Well ever since he started to do those 3 simple things, he hasn't felt those feelings of depression once! It's been so awesome to see him grow and see how extremely happy he is!

I Love you so so so much mom! Thank you again for EVERYTHING!! I got the packages with the Tie!! Thank you for that!☺️☺️ Thanks for always thinking of me! You're literally the best missionary mom this church has EVER seen☺️❤️☺️❤️ I hope you guys have another GREAT week! I am so excited for Steven!

I love you mom!
Love Elder Ashworth

Elder Langston and I got to go on exchanges and we went and saw Janelee of course!
She had these super small glasses for one of her dolls so I put them on for fun

The Barbers where at my ward this week! The younger one goes to school with Stevo
and the older one played golf with Connor and his older brother Taylor

This is at 1:00am... We had something come up that we had to help out with... It was a longggg night! Haha

Week 79

Mom!

I Love emailing you every week!! It helps me a lot! Our next transfer is next week! Crazy!!

So this week was pretty amazing! First off, T’s baptism was such a spiritual meeting! We had a man named Brother S speak and it was awesome! Brother S was the absolute difference maker in T’s conversion. We had been working with T for about 4 months and it wasn't till Brother S came over and bore his testimony of the prophet Joseph that T began to realize the significance of this message and the potential it had to bring him that peace and happiness that he was looking for. A man named Brother K who is a member in the Eustis ward came to baptize him which was also special. Brother K is T's grandkids other Grandpa from the other side so it was neat. Brother and Sister K continued to say "I can't believe this is actually happening" haha because he's been being worked with for over 5 years! I just feel extremely blessed that I was able to be In this area to see him finally become a member of the one true church. After sacrament meeting he stayed after for like an hour just talking to members and telling them how excited he was to be a member now and how he knows it's the one true church! It was so cool to watch :)

So one thing I have been noticing lately is that I keep meeting people who have "hectic lives" and have trials come up over and over and over again. Because of these things they assume that they just don't have enough time to come to church and read their scriptures and sincerely pray, yet they continue to wonder why things aren't calming down for them or getting better. It always makes me chuckle when I meet these people because the answer is so simple... Get your priorities strait. Take 10 min a day to read, get into the habit of praying on your knees every morning and night, take 3 hours, or even 1 HOUR out of your week to come to church and watch things take a complete turn for the better in your life. We all obviously know that just by living the Gospel it doesn't mean that all our hectic times and trials will be taken away, but it sure does help us get through them in a much more calm and fulfilling way. We had an investigator that we got to drop last week because he just wasn't keeping commitments. He was "All Talk" as I like to say. Every Time we went over he'd talk and talk and talk about how excited he was to come to church and that he'd find time to read and pray this week. But every week, we'd get a text of something that came up that made it so that he was to busy or to tired to come to church. So we finally just showed up to his house and I basically said "There's over 200 members of our ward who have just as busy if not busier lives then you who make it to church each week, so it comes down to making solutions rather then excuses". He wasn't expecting that, but deep down I knew he understood and agreed. I've found that we as human beings are professional excuse makers. I do it all the time, but that's the point of this life, is to overcome the natural man. And the only way we can overcome the natural man is by relying and APPLYING the atonement to our lives. Daily repentance is so key to constant progression. Mosiah 3:19 "For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father." The only way we can become a saint and meek, humble, patient, and full of love is "through the atonement of Christ the Lord", and the only way we use the atonement is by repentance. So one of my goals for this year is to repent every single day. I know that as I do so, and as we all do so, that we will be more aware of the small things we could easily fix as well as the big things, we will see ourselves gradually become better and stronger, and we will become much happier with ourselves and much more converted to the great blessing and opportunity of repentance. But like I said before, and I'm sure we all know this, we have to have to have to rely more fully on our Savior Jesus Christ.

"I need thee ev’ry hour;

Stay thou nearby.

Temptations lose their pow’r

When thou art nigh;

I need thee, oh, I need thee;

Ev’ry hour I need thee!

Oh, bless me now, my Savior;

I come to thee!."

Hymn #98

I miss you lots Mom☺️❤️❤️☺️ Thanks so so so much for all you do for me!! You're the best!! I miss you mom! Have a great week!

Love Your Son Elder Ashworth❤️❤️❤️

On the Road... Again

Don't tell President, we found a ping pong table at one of the chapels we went to for
interviews so we set it up and played a couple games! It was our last set of interviews,
we had been to this same meeting already 9 times, so we justified it pretty well ;) Haha

Brought Lyndon Mauigoa out with us to some lessons!

Got on the bikes Saturday morning and it felt soooo good!
We probably rode about 10 miles and we found some awesome new people!
We found a guy who hasn't been active for a while, but he wants to come back
and he has a wife and two kids who are open to be baptized which is awesome!

Most importantly,  baptism! Such an awesome weekend!