Week 60

Mom!! I've missed you!!☺️☺️😘😘

So This week went really well! We were able to see a lot of cool investigators come to church this week and they really enjoyed it! We had this guy who only speaks Spanish come and we had someone translate for him because there's not a Spanish ward up here in Eustis. Every time we teach him we have to bring a member who knows Spanish so that they can translate for us. He seemed to enjoy it tho. H had a race this weekend and ended up getting stuck up there and didn't get home till 7am but even after driving all night he still came which was awesome!! We had dinner and the Elders Quorum Presidents house after church and we asked if we could invite H and his family. They said yes and you could tell that H felt welcomed and loved which is just what every investigator needs! Another cool thing is that we found out is that this guy who was supposed to be baptized like last year but didn't because he didn't want to get married is actually getting married in November!! So we're gonna start preparing him which we're really excited about!! The lady with the Two kids came as well and she enjoyed it and felt welcomed too! So overall our work reaped some rewards with investigators coming to church which is always the best thing as a missionary!! It's such a sick feeling for me to work so hard and get all these members to come out with us and then not have anybody show up for church! Luckily I haven't had that in a while so I'm pretty happy :) Our other investigator S is doing really well too! He loved church and committed to live the law of tithing and word of wisdom once he's baptized so we're also really excited for him!

I was studying The New Testament and I came across the story of when John the Baptist was beheaded. He was beheaded and his head was taken to his mother and then the terrible news was passed on to Christ. If we study Christ's and John's relationship they weren't only cousins, but very best friends. Now most of us would instantly go somewhere to be a lone to remorse over this tragic event, but Christ did exactly opposite.

13 ¶When Jesus heard of it, he departed thence by ship into a desert place apart: and when the people had heard thereof, they followed him on foot out of the cities.
14 And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.
15 ¶And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, This is a desert place, and the time is now past; send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals.
16 But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart; give ye them to eat.
17 And they say unto him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes.
18 He said, Bring them hither to me.
19 And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.
20 And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full.
21 And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children.

Rather then turning inward and being sad and taking himself out of the picture so he could selfishly heal himself, he instantly saw the opportunity to physically and spiritually bless thousands of others to deal with his pain and grief. Not only did he feed them all, but he had 12 baskets left over to give. Just from this simple story it made me think of how I deal with my problems. Do I always turn inward, or do I take the opportunity to help and serve others to heal my pain. I think we can all turn outward a lot more when times get tough rather then closing ourselves out from the world to deal with our hardships. That's just something I learned this week that I want to apply a lot more in my life. When we turn outwards to heal ourself, we won't only heal ourself, but help heal others. And then we'll look back and have the energy and motivation and love and 12 extra baskets to bless even more people.

So Sister Berry seems to be keeping you pretty informed on my foot☺️☺️ haha you are lucky to have her😉😘 It’s healing well which is good! (He broke his ankle playing volleyball last Monday on Pday. He was on crutches last week and now can put a little weight on it and is in a walking boot.) I hear that the Trips football team is doing really well which makes me happy!! How's everything else been going?? I miss you guys a bunch! I hope you know Your Elder Loves You soooo much☺️☺️☺️❤️❤️❤️

Love Your Son Elder Ashworth

Week 59

Mom!!

So that is soooo amazing that BYU keeps winning those big games!! Now let's not choke in those easy games. I miss BYU football. I loved it was a WHOLE family thing😜😘😘❤️❤️

So this week overall went really well! We got a lot of members out with us and they fellowshipped our investigators super super well! We were able to set a baptismal date with a guy named S and he really liked church. He came and you could tell he was surprised with how friendly everyone was. We had a member who just took him under his wing and took him to all the classes and introduced him to people and you could tell he felt comfortable. I got to go on an exchange with Elder Peay who is one of the DL's here and it went well. He's from Australia and is a hard worker. We went and saw his kid named R who was just baptized on Saturday that they worked with and we got to teach his mom as well which was awesome! Heaven wouldn't be heaven without your family right? She was just so so so appreciative because the ward helped her pay her electric bill and got them food from the store house because they're in a tough situation but because of Gods perfectly organized church the ward was able to quickly find her help which she appreciated. She said she believed this church was true just by the way the members love and act and the spirit hit me so strongly when she said that. People are watching us and the things we do and we need to be serving and helping in every way we can! It made me so happy to hear how well the members were treating her and how excited she was to get baptized soon after her son! We had a cool experience with some less active members and really put it down hard on them that they aren't keeping their baptismal covenants and need to come to church and get temple worthy. The spirit hit me super super strong here because I realized how little most members understand about the temple and the significance of it. If it wasn't for these temples this church would not exist. We need to be going to the temple as regularly as possible and stay absolutely worthy of entering into it. We won't fully realize the blessings of the temple until the afterlife, but our life can go to pot quick when quit going and making it a habit. Overall it was a really good week! We also had this random investigator who we were about to drop come to church which was awesome!! Something sparked inside of her and she got a second wind to progress more in the gospel and continue to learn more. We're excited to help her as much as possible. We them had a lesson with our investigator H who is getting married to a member and he read, came to church, listening to talks, watching Mormon messages and everything and it was such a sweet lesson! It's people like him that make you so happy as a missionary and really make you feel like Heavenly Father is blessing you with solid people. He is being changed by the gospel and I just feel so blessed to be a part of it and be a missionary here right now. His wife who was less active is coming back to church and is loving it and they're so much happier as a couple. You can tell it's truly been the gospel that's been binding them even closer together and it makes me super happy to see.

I hope you have a super good week Mom☺️☺️☺️❤️❤️❤️ Thank you thank you thank you for everything you do for me!!☺️☺️☺️ I appreciate it more then you know! You're just the best... There's no really other way to say it!!☺️☺️☺️ That's so cool that you got to meet Brett Kiesel and that you gave him a #Sixburg shoutout!😂😂😂 I love you mom. Thank you again.

Love your son Elder Ashworth

Week 58

Mom!!!
I am sooooo pumped that BYU won!! Haha that's sooo cool that Kevin Copeland got on TV!! Dad said that you're going to NY this week?! LUCKYYY!! I love NY!! I would only stay in the city for like 2-3 days. So it's so awesome that Tanner and Brando are playing well!! Brandon needs to play safety! He was a killer safety last time he played! How are YOU doing tho?? I miss you mommy!!️️ Thank you soooo much for the packages!! We loved the ties soo much!! They're sweet!!🏼 I appreciate it a lot!! We needed those Clorox wipes! This house was kinda gross when I first got here! But it's nice and clean now Haha I still can't believe BYU won like that!! Guess what?!?! Mitch Mathews served here in this ward and lived in this house!! Haha kinda cool huh?! I could probably beat him in football though Haha.

So this week went super well overall tho missionary work wise. We were able to find some really cool new people to work with this week! We have this mom and her two kids who have been through a lot lately. Well we brought this member over with us and he instantly fellowshipped them and began to offer help and service to them! She ended up being sick this weekend and so he went and made dinner for them and gave it to them and you could tell she was a little surprised but could feel the love that we had for her and her family! We also had this girl come to church who is doing a report on different religions and she absolutely loved it! She said she loves how family oriented it is and how organized and pure hearted everyone is! We're gonna start meeting with her this week and teaching her more which we're super super excited about! I went on exchanges with Elder Lange this week who's from Payson and we had a fun time together! He's been out one transfer and so he had a lot of questions and it was fun to talk about what I've learned so far on my mission and sharing it with him! It's hard to think that my mission is halfway over. I don't feel like it's been that long... But it does feel like it has been that long at the same time haha. It's a crazy feeling.
I truly am sooo blessed to be a part of this family!! Thank you for everything mom!!️️️ You're THE BEST!!

Well I hope you have a grrrreeeattt week Mom!:) Thank you for everything you do!! Let me know if there's anything I can do for you!

Love you Mom
Love Your Son Elder Ashworth

Week 57

Mom!! How are you?? This week was great Mom! The new area is awesome.  The ward members all seem pretty cool and down to earth and willing to help which is great! Elder Cooper goes home after this transfer so he's kinda gettin a little trunky but he'll be alright!  I'll work him so hard he won't have time or energy to be trunky haha! So we have some good things happening here right now! We have this one investigator named H who is dating a member and is getting baptized and married at the beginning of next month which we're super excited about! He is sooo willing to give up past habits and read and pray more and do the things necessary to come closer to Jesus Christ which makes me soooo happy! Other than that tho we've been building this area up a lot this week! It's been fun tho because we instantly started to find new people and have some cool things coming up from our efforts. I like coming to more dead areas actually. I take it as a challenge to see if I along with my companion and Heavenly Father can build it quick and effectively and we're already starting to see the area and the Zone improve which is great! I'm excited to be here overall tho!☺️☺️ Thank you for all your prayers this week! I could definitely feel them help me adjust! This was the easiest adjustment I've made so far on my mission which is awesome. I love this work sooooo much! It makes me so so so happy to see people become happier because of the Gospel. I know that that has been the source of all my joy. I'm so grateful to have been born in such a solid home and to be born under the covenant. So many families are without that at the moment. But not for long... Not for long Haha that makes me super happy that Tanner and Brandon did well and won this Week!! Congrats to Cole for giving his very first talk!! That's awesome!! I wish I could have been there! But next time hopefully. I can't believe Kyle is getting ready to leave! Tell him I said I love him and good luck! It'll be so amazing and he'll love it!! Thank you for everything! I am sooooo spoiled and I know that!  I love you and will talk to you soon.

Love Your Son Elder Ashworth❤️