Time is flying by!!!

Sep 16

Well family! Another week has come and gone! I can not believe that I have been out in the field for a little over five months. Time has gone by so fast. This week has been super good and we have some awesome news! We have a baptism this Saturday! We are so excited! He is nine and he is so way cute and he is super excited to get baptized! We have been working with him for two weeks and he is ready to go. He just had his interview last night with our District leader and he came out of the room and he siad... "I get to get baptized!" Haha.

Well, this week during my studies, I have been reading a lot about Christ. And what he has done for us. And a scripture that has really stood out to me this week is Mosiah 14: 3-5 I will write it for you. "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." Christ went through so much for us. He suffered so that we could be forgiven of our sins. Weather we accept what He has done for us or not. He still went through that pain. We need to remember Him each and every day through repentance. Ask for Heavenly Father to show you your weaknesses so that you can come closer to Him and His son Jesus Christ. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have done so much for us. And we need to do all that we can to remember them. I love My Father in Heaven and His son my Redeemer and Savior, Jesus Christ. I strive each and every day to better myself so that I can be worthy to enter into the Kingdom of God. I know that I will live with my Father in Heaven again. I love the feeling I receive when I read the scriptures and when I pray to know that they are true.

I have another spiritual thought to share with you all. And I hope that you don't mind. But I was reading the August ensign and I came across an article that is called "A New Writing" I suggest that you all read it. But I would love to share something that stood out to me. The scripture that I am going to share with you is talking about the liahona. But I want you all to think about the scriptures as I share this. 1 Nephi 16:29 "And there was also written upon them a new writing, which was plain to be read, which did give us understanding concerning the ways of the Lord; and it was written and changed from time to time, according to the faith and diligence which we gave unto it. And thus we see that by small means the Lord can bring about great things." I love that scripture. I know that according to our faith and what guidance we need in our life, the scriptures will tell us the things that we need to know and what we need to do. The scriptures do not change, but our needs to. And I can testify of that. And I also apply it to my patriarchal blessing. Since I have come on my mission, I have read my blessing time and time again. And it says a lot about missionary work, but I did not see that before my mission. And I know that I see it now, because that is what I need to be doing in my life right now. I also know that when I get home from my mission that my blessing will say the same exact thing, but I will get something new from it. I love the scriptures and the knowledge that I have gained from them! :)

Well, I guess that I will tell you about my week! Haha. Well, last Monday was really fun! I got to play gator ball! And one of our investigators came and he brought his roommate who is not a member and they said that they had a lot of fun! So that is good that they came, and they can now say that us Mormons know how to have fun! Lol And as we were playing gator ball, I went to go throw the ball and an Elder blocked my shot and he pulled on my arm or something and it hurt really really bad. Haha But I have been doing some stretches and it is feeling better! It just pops a lot now. :) But that wont stop me from playing gator ball today! Then we had dinner with the Ward family and they are pretty great. Sister Ward does something called foot zoning and it is where she balances you spiritually, physically and mentally. And she is going to do it to us! I am so excited!

Tuesday we had district meeting and we have lunch together every Tuesday. And so Sister Madsen and I decided to make some cupcakes to take to the meeting! And they all loved them! I used the stuff from my package and they were so yummy!! And as a district we have what is called accountability and that is where they tell us out numbers as a district and it turns out that SisterMadsen and I have the most lessons and investigators and baptismal dates! :) YAY! It makes me happy! Lol We have a lot of work going on in our area!

Wednesday was a good day. We got a new couch!! It is so nice! Our other couch, when you would sit on it, its like you were sitting on the ground because you sunk into it so much. Haha So now we have two really nice couches! And when we got our couches we needed to rearrange our living room and in the process, we found a ping pong paddle and some ping pong balls.... And guess what... WE HAD SOME FUN WITH THEM! Haha we were acting really weird when we were playing "ping pong" but it was a lot of fun! I love my companion because she is weird JUST LIKE ME! But we were able to see a lot of poeple and they were all really nice. We met with this really old lady whos name is Aunt Mae and she doesnt like to call us by sisters. She uses our first name. So she always calls me Ashley. So, its kinda really weird, and Sister Parrish calls me Ashley as well haha because mom and her are talking on FB. I sometimes dont register that they are talking to me. Lol We also met with a lady named Zoey Murry and she is a really sweet lady. She lives alone and she is having a hard time with that. So she loves it when we go and visit her. She has been sick and she has to have her knee replaced and she is nervous about that. But we told her to get her patriarchal blessing and we are hoping that that will give her some comfort. It is pretty cool because Wednesday morning during my personal study. I had a prompting to read my blessing. So I did. And I know that I was given that prompting so that I could tell Zoey that she needs to receive hers.

Thursday.. not a whole lot happened. We just had our weekly planning. But it was good. :) We did see a few people. But the kinda funny story is about dinner. We called dinner and they asked us what we wanted for dinner and we told them that we would like something healthy for dinner. And they said OKAY! So, when we got there, they pulled out KFC and then for dessert, we have a pound cake with about a pound of cool whip on it! Yeah, thats really healthy! And they also gave us Twinkies. Uhhhh yeah, I didnteat them! Oh! And I had no idea that Twinkies came back! haha I guess thats what happens when you are a missionary! Well, we had a lesson with Katy and Jesse and it went really well! Katy is reading the Book of Mormon really fast and she is so excited about it! :) When we were there we were just talking about what we needed to buy at the store on Monday and then, Katy gets up and goes into the kitchen and then she tells us to come in there and she has a whole box full of food! They gave us probably about 80 dollars or more of food! Now we dont really have to buy anything today except for eggs! They are so awesome!

Friday the 13th! Ahh! But, it was a great day! We went to go see Sister Smith. She is a little old lady who lost her husband a couple of months ago. And she seems to be doing okay. She loves it when we come to visit because she likes the company. We also saw Mandy. She is going through a tough divorce. I feel so bad for her. When we were visiting with her she was telling us her story and it is so sad! But we shared some scriptures with her and she said that they helped her a lot. We are meeting with a lady who is coming back into the church and she is preparing to go through the temple! And she got her patriarchal blessing yesterday and she has a new calling in the church! She is a primary teacher! :)

Saturday was a very good day as well. We had a great lesson with Jason and he was super excited! When we got there he ran to the front room and sat down and was ready to hear the lesson! :) We also contacted three of the referrals that we have received. And when we were walking down the street we saw someone working on some cars in front of his house so we stopped and talked to him about them and he was really nice. And while we were talking with him his dad came home and so we started talking with him. And it turns out that he was one of our referrals! So, we talked about the church and said that if he wanted to learn more to just give us a call! I hope that we get to teach him! That would be great!

Sunday was an even better day! We went to two sacrament meetings and a Sunday school and we also had a lesson with Jason! His last lesson! :) When we were on our way to the third ward sacrament meeting, we saw Brother Flaig in the hall and he was with Josh Randall. (Josh is not a member, but comes to church every Sunday) Anyways, so we stop and talk to them and Brother Flaigasked Josh if he and his family would want to take the lessons and he said yes! So we are going to start working with them on Tuesday and we are so super excited! We have been praying to work with this family and it is happening! I know that Heavenly Father answers our prayers! :) We also had a missionary meeting to go to last night. All of the ward councils came and we talked about missionary work. And it was a good meeting. I hope that they are going to start focusing more on missionary work. We also saw Charles! We were wanting to have a member with us, but we werent really sure if we were going to be able to meet with Charles. But we went over there and he was there. So we started the lesson off with a prayer and right when we were done, two men from the ward walk by and we ask them if they wanted to join our lesson and they did! They had so many good things to say! I know that Heavenly Father answered our prayers and that those two brothers needed to be there for that lesson. And they are going to start inviting Charles to play basketball with them and they are going to bring him to church when we cant go! They are going to be awesome fellow shippers for them! We might even assign them to home teach Charles! :) We are so excited!

Well family, this week has been crazy, but it has been a week full of prayers being answered. I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to serve a mission and to work hand in hand with the Lord. I know that He is always with us. And I know that obedience is huge as a missionary. And I know that exact obedience brings miracles and we have been seeing them! :) I am so grateful for the wonderful family that I have and I love all of you! I thank you for all of the support that you have given me! :)

Love,

Sister Ashley Halbison