Week 38

Mom!!

This week has been so amazing! About half the week I was pretty sick. I had a mild fever, was throwing up, had a massive headache, and a super sore throat but I did my best to push through. Heavenly Father definitely blessed us this week with some new super solid people to teach! We picked up R who is Sister S's nephew. His dad is her brother and has been less active for a long time. Well we got him to meet with us and really wants to finally be baptized! Him and his dad both showed up to church which was awesome! The older F and the S were both so happy to see them there! The relief society president’s mom also came to church and she really enjoyed it and is progressing well! We also had a recent converts two little brothers come and they're excited to get baptized in June! Things are really just falling into place and it's not because of anything I or Elder Radigan are doing, Heavenly Father is just placing prepared people into our hands and I am just sitting here thinking to myself 'What have I done to deserve this?' And really all we are doing is just working as hard as we can while putting our full faith in the Lord and it seems to be workin :) 

So unfortunately Elder Radigan is getting transferred... I'm pretty ticked and so is he! He's been here for 6months though so we knew his time was about up. It still stinks though! Whoever gets to come here next though is blessed! This ward is so great! All the members here are soooo good at sharing the gospel and coming out with us! It's because of them that our investigators like to come to church! Their fellowship and love for the gospel is what had made the whole difference! I absolutely love this ward to death! 

Thank you so much for the packages!! The shoes fit perfectly and the Amazon Food hit the spot! You're seriously the best! Tell Kyle I said congrats on the call!!  Anyways I love you so much! Thank you for all the little emails throughout the week! They seriously help me so much! I did get the voice recording too so if you wanna keep sending some of those you can:) Have a great week! 

Love Elder Ashworth!! :)

Week 37

This week has been great! We were able to find some really cool new investigators! One of them is the Relief Society President’s mom who took the discussions in the past but stopped after a while. She requested a church dvd but didn't tell her daughter that she did it. Well we went to deliver it and now she's investigating the church and is doing really well! We were teaching her the Restoration and explaining the Book Of Mormon and Joseph Smith and she stopped and looked at me and said "That makes more sense, it's much more simple then the missionaries in the past taught it" It made me feel sooo good! Something I've worked on my entire mission is keeping my teaching simple so the spirit can testify to them more fully of what we teach. Knowing that she understood what we taught meant that we did our job and that it was just up to the Holy Ghost to give her the answer that it's all true! We went on two exchanges this week with other missionaries in the Zone and it went well. I feel like the attitude of a couple of the missionaries in this Zone is 'Perseverance' It's like some missionaries are just doing enough to keep them busy until the next P-Day which is the complete opposite attitude to have! We should be so bummed that we 'Have to' take a break that we're antsy for P-Day to end so we can get back to helping others become happier and closer to their Savior! So it made me think of just life in general. If we're living everyday to just make it to the weekend, or to the next break from school or work or even till the Second Coming or our death, we will look back and think to ourselves 'I'm a complete moron' There are so many things that we miss as we live our lives like that. Everything around us such as opportunities to learn, or serve, or teach flys over our head because mentally and/or spiritually we just aren't fully there; we're too busy picturing the next break we can get. This applies to serving a Mission especially! If we don't take advantage of each minute we have as a full time missionary then we will get to the afterlife and be so disappointed in ourselves for wasting time.... We don't have time to waste time. More fully realizing this has really helped motivate me at certain times on my mission. Those times when maybe I don't want to bike to a lesson, or see another less active that probably won't come back to church or whatever it may be have become less and less as I've applied being happy with where I'm at and living in the moment.
 

Overall this week has been great! Thank you again for all the support you give me! I really couldn't do it without you! I love you so so so much! Have a great week and don't live for the weekend:)
 

Love Elder Ashworth. 

 

 

Week 36

Mom, This has been a quick week! I loved getting all the pics throughout the week! How did Brandos baseball games go? I was soooo pumped when I found out that Steven team won it all and beat Vegas Elite!! That is one thing I miss a lot. Going down to Vegas for those tourneys! Those boys just always play so well down there together and its so fun to watch!  AAHHHH Man I miss all those kids! I loved rooting them on from the Dog Pound :) Tell Papa Shawn to send me some shoes too!!

This week was great! We were able to get a good amount of people to come to General Conference and they all really enjoyed it! I kept thinking about Gunlock though! haha every break between conferences I would think to myself, 'I bet there are 2 Motorcycles, 2 Four wheelers, and 1 Rhino being ridden right now'! haha those were such fun times!  When did we buy a fixer upper in Cali? What part of Cali is it in? Could I stay in it when I go to visit Elder Waller in Cali after my mission? :) haha everyone here loves you mom! I'm not known as Elder Ashworth... I'm known as Sister Ashworth's Son... haha everyone wants to be my comp because they know all my comps get extra love from Denise :)

I'm so happy right now mom! I'm so blessed to be able to be part of such an amazing work! I feel like I don't have enough time though. There is so much that still needs to be done and there isn't enough time or Missionaries to get it all done. I have full trust in the Lord though. He'll make sure those that need the gospel in this life will get it! That is one thing I got from conference. Trust In the Lord with all your heart and you will be happy and be blessed. Keep the boys in line and always Mission worthy :) make sure you and dad are staying mission worthy too ;) haha no more drinking or sending Tea alright! I love you Mom! Have a great week! Keep being amazing! Right when President Eyring started to talk about donating a generous fast it instantly made me think of you and dad. I am so grateful that I grew up in such a service oriented home.

 In Matthew 11 John while in prison has two of his disciples go ask Jesus if he is the Jesus the previous prophets had talked about. in verses 2-5 Jesus answers by showing him the things he had done. Not by just saying "Yes I am Jesus Christ." but more "Look at my deeds and you will know I am Jesus Christ the Savior of the world" We can pretend to care but we cant pretend to give time! I love the scriptures and how much I learn from them each and every day! Make sure the family is doing their family and personal scripture study. That is one thing I think we could have done better at. I love you again! Have a great week! Talk to you soon

Love Elder Ashworth

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.