Guess what! Another email means another week has gone by!

Sept 23

Well, this week has gone by so fast. And it has been a good week! Lets start with Monday. It was a lot of fun! Of course we played gator ball! Best game ever. But what happened after our p-day was even greater! Every week we have a lesson with a family in one of our wards and they invite someone new over every week. This past Monday we taught about Christ and everything that He had done for us. And it was one of the best lessons we have taught about the atonement. And when we left we received a call from the assistants telling us that they were going to come take our car. They needed it because they are going to give that car to the elders who got in the car accident. And they told us that they were going to be at our house at 8:30. So we just went home after our lesson to wait for them and they ended up not getting there until 9:00. So, we waited around for them for about 45 minutes. Lol But while we were waiting for them we received a text from Brother Buchanan (the members who we just taught the lesson) and this is what he said. "Spectacular job this evening sisters! That was one of the greatest lessons on the atonement I have ever heard and the spirit was here. You both are true disciples of Christ who are carrying His message like He would if He was here. Keep up the great work and watch the stone roll forth." Getting that text made me feel so good. And I love hearing that I am teaching by the spirit. And I know that when I teach by the spirit that it is not me teaching the people. It is the spirit, and I am saying what Heavenly Father would want me to say. And that feeling is such a great feeling!
Tuesday was the first day without our car. And it was a lot of fun. Lol We had our zone training and we got a ride from the other set of sisters in our stake. But they said that they wouldnt be able to take us home. So after zone training we started walking home. And it was a long way home. Probably about 3 miles. Okay, not too long. when we walk in a day we usually walk maybe 8-10 miles. But when we were about half way home. Someone stopped and asked us if we want a ride home. And of course we took them up on the offer! :) Tuesday we went to help Jessie and Brittany clean their apartment because they were having someone come inspect their apartment, and it was really really gross. Haha I dont really understand how people can let their houses get so dirty! So for all of my nieces and nephews... CLEAN YOUR ROOMS AND BATHROOMS! Do not let them get gross! haha But really, that is good advice right there! :) Tuesday night we were in charge of the YW/YM activity for the 1st ward. And it was a lot of fun. What we did was we showed them a couple of videos about the youth doing missionary work and then we talked about them a little bit. And then we played gator ball. And it was a lot of fun.

 

 

 

 
We tied the game in with how they can do missionary work and we also taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the game. It turned out really well and we got all of the youth excited about missionary work. And a couple of the Youth left with a Book of Mormon. Missionary work CAN BE FUN! You just need to make it fun. When you serve with full purpose of heart, missionary work is fun. And you lose yourself in the work and when you lose yourself, you find yourself :)
Wednesday we got bikes! :) I love my bike and it has been a lot of fun riding it!

So a little info about our area, we are on a huge hill! And it takes a lot of effort to even walk up the hill. (I have gotten a lot better at walking up the hill since i got here though). Anyways, riding a bike up that hill is a different story! Yeah, its hard! So, our first time riding up the hill we had to walk half way up it. (not so good) then we got to ride all the way down the hill!! (Best part) Then later that day we went back up the hill and guess what! WE ONLY STOPPED FIVE TIMES! Yup, it was awesome! Anyways, Wednesday I got something done to me that was great! Its called foot zoning! It was awesome! It felt so good! It was like a massage! (Yup, be jealous mom) But what it is, is she can tell if things in our body are not right. And my body is great! But one thing she could tell was wrong is when I got in my sledding accident, she could tell that I hurt my neck and I didnt even tell her about that. And she could also tell and some of my teeth were half fake. CRAZY!! then someone in one of our wards took us out to dinner at cafe rio and it was so yummy! :)
Thursday was our fun fun fun weekly planning day. And it went really well. And we went up the hill again and guess what! We only stopped once! YEAHH!! We saw Katy and Jesse Thursday night and guess what! They are trying to stop smoking! It is great! We are so excited for them, and they seem to be doing really good with it. Katy is really getting serious about wanting to be baptized and she is reading the Book of Mormon faster and faster. I really hope that I will be in this area when she gets baptized. I would love to be there for her baptism.
Friday we rode our bikes all the way to the mission office and it was an easy ride down there. But come back up from the mission office, it was crazy hard! But when we got home, we left our bikes there and we wanted to try something new with our finding. We "walked in faith" and what that is, is we would walk to a corner and would stop and try and figure out which way we needed to go. And we got to one corner and we felt that we needed to go right. But it was a dead end, so we werent really sure why we needed to go that way. But we did anyways. And there was no one down there for us to talk to. So we just kind of stood there until we felt that we could move on. So when we felt that we could move on, we turned around and went the other way. As we were walking we see two ladies walk out of their apartment and we stopped and talked to them and we shared a scripture with them. They were really nice. And we had a good conversation with them. She wasnt interested in the lessons but we were able to share a message with them. And I know that if we didnt go the way that we felt we needed to. Then we wouldnt have ran into those ladies. So I am very grateful that we listened to and followed the promptings of the spirit. And we also talked to some random guy outside of the school later Friday night and he too was very nice and we also shared a scripture with them.
Saturday we made it allll the way up the hill without stopping! YAY FOR US! We felt so accomplished. And we knew that we received strength from the Lord. As silly as that sounds, we know that we did. Not a whole lot had gone on on Saturday. We met with Jason and he is super excited to get baptized this Friday! and we are super excited for him as well! We went to see Sister Eldridge. And she is doing really good. She is the lady whos son committed suicide. But she is staying strong and I look up to her. And she is such a sweetheart! She has a Book of Mormon timeline on her wall that is super cool and I could sit there for hours and look at it and study it. It is way awesome! :) Well, that is about it for saturday.
Sunday, something really cool happened. But first I want to tell you that we had 7 of our investigators come to sacrament meeting! It was great! :) and we met with Charles tonight and we told him that we couldnt meet with him anymore because he wasntinvestigating the church for the right reasons. He wasnt willing to pray. he would just come to church out of respect for us. He wasntwanting it for himself. And that made us really sad. And it was really hard to let him go. But it was something that we needed to do. We felt the spirit so strong as we were there with him last night but he could not feel it. And we promised him that if he asked Heavenly Father for help in his life that he would be able to feel the spirit and know that what we are teaching him is true. hewouldnt do it and it made us so sad. But we ended on a good note and we told him if he ever gets interested again to please call us. But something way cool happened before we went to go see Charles. We were at the Petersons house and we were talking to them about how we were going to stop seeing Charles and how hard it would be to drop him. But they said that we would have the help and strength from the Lord. And before we left their house Elder Peterson wanted to send us off with a prayer. And the prayer he offered was so great. While he was saying it, I felt someone or something touching my arm. And Sister Madsen was to the left of me and so I opened my eyes to see how close she was sitting to me because I thought that it might have been her but she was not close at all. I know that I felt the arms of my Savior around me. Comforting me at that time. It was the best feeling that I could have ever felt and it is something that I will never forget. It was truly amazing. I know that my Heavenly Father hears my prayers and that He is always there for me. And I know that my Savior Jesus Christ is always there for me and that He went through so much for me. I love my Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ and I am so happy that I get to wear His name next to my heart every day. And I will be sad when the day comes that I will no longer get to put that name tag on. I thank all of you for all of the support and love you have shown me and I hope all is well with you. And I love all of you and miss all of you so much!
Love,
Sister Ashley Halbison