I would like to start with the questions that mom has asked me and then I will go from there.
Q) What will you do these last 2 weeks to end your mission with strength?
A) I will keep doing what I am doing every day. Wake up at 6:30... well 6:20. Go running. Come home, get ready for the day. Spend two hours studying, make phone calls and have lunch. Go out and proselyte from 12:00-5:00 have dinner at five. Go out at 6:00 again until 9:00 and proselyte. then go home, plan for the next day, update area book, write in journal and then go to bed. Keeping the mission schedule and being exactly obedient is what I will do every day for the last two weeks of my mission. And I know, that as I keep being exactly obedient, that the Lord will bless me with the strength that I need to finish my mission strong. Never have I ever seen so much success in my mission as I am now. And I feel that the reason for that, is because the Lord was saving my success for the end my mission so that I could finish strong and feel successful. The potential that I see in our area is what keeps pushing me through the days. And helps me to stay strong. :)
Q)What will you miss most about your mission?
A)The daily schedule and the opportunity that I have to study for at least two hours every day. I will miss the opportunity that I have to put my name tag on each and every day to show that I am a representative of Jesus Christ. The Spirit that comes from being a mission. The opportunity that I have to share the gospel with each and every person that we meet. The chance that I have to help people enter into the waters of baptism. Helping people come to the knowledge of the truth. I will miss the gospel discussions that I have each and every day. All in all, I will miss every part of missionary work. Even all of the paper work that we have to do... Okay, not so much that, but it will be a little missed. Everything about missionary work will be missed. And not to bum you all out... but, as much as I am looking forward to coming home... I dont want to. It will be a very hard transition going from being a full-time missionary to being a normal person. So, if I am weird when I get home... Sorry, deal with it. :)
Q)What will you take away from your mission?
A) I have actually been thinking about this one a lot lately. And I think what I will take away from my mission is the person that I have become. I am not the same Ashley. Of course not now.. I am Sister Halbison. But, I have changed so much. And I have changed for the better. I feel that while I am still crazy, bubbly, and hilarious (I think) I have matured so much these last 18 months. I am not who I was when I left. And I love that. I have gained so much more knowledge of the gospel and I see things in a different view. I have opinions about things where as before, I really didnt. I make decisions (I know, its a shocker) I plan things out, im organized. Im different. And that, that is what I want to and will take away from my mission. And I personally dont think that there is anything grater. Other than friendships. I love the person that I have become and becoming the person that I am today would not have been possible if it were not for the Atoning sacrifice of out loving Savior, Jesus Christ. I am who I am because of my Savior. I am a disciple of His because I choose to follow Him and keep His commandments. And I will forever be a Disciple of Jesus Christ.
So, like I said before, this week has been super crazy busy. We have had so much going on. But, a lot of good things going on! :) I will tell you a little bit about what has happened this past week... Other than the emergency transfer of course. We have had so much success this past week and we are continually seeing success. As of right now, we have 11 baptismal dates and we have taught 100 member presents this month and over 30 Less active and recent convert lessons. We are currently leading our zone in both lessons taught with a member present and baptismal dates. I dont share this to brag, but I share this because this is the success that we are seeing and it is so exciting that I want to share it with everyone. There are so many people out there who are ready to listen to and accept the gospel. We just need to be will to find those people and invite them to learn.
We have had a couple of investigators fall off the face of the earth... we were teaching Delores, she is the one that has one leg... She went out one day with her family and she has not yet returned back tot he assisted living. She did show up at the hospital without her wheelchair and she passed out because her blood pressure was way low. So, we called the hospital to try and get hold of her, but, she was already discharged... :( She is not aloud to return back to the assisted living because she has not been taking her medications. So, we have no idea where she is and how to get hold of her because we do not have her cell phone number... I am keeping my faith strong and praying that we will be able to find her again.
We have not been able to see or get hold of Joslin either. She has been super busy working and living life. But, good news is, we saw her at her house yesterday and she said that she still wants to meet with us, but she just needs to find out a time that works best for her! :) I hope that we can meet with her again sometime soon! :)
Gary Baumgartner is doing amazing! He is so ready to be baptized. He is planning everything out and he keeps telling us that he knows that this is his time to be baptized. He came home from work one day and told his wife Alice that he knows that he has been prepared for this and that is is his time. :) He will be getting baptized on October 11th at 4:00pm. I am so excited for him. We actually went to the temple yesterday to go to the visitors center and he loved it. The spirit was so strong. Alice told us that when they were in their lesson in church yesterday they were talking about temples and Gary told her... Well, we will be going in about a year! YAY! So exciting! And when we were in the Visitors center, there were some pictures of the inside of the temples and he went over and just sat there on his little scooter (he hurt his foot) and was looking at the pictures and reading everything. It was the greatest site to see. He was so humbled to be there yesterday. I can not wait for the day that his baptism comes. It will be such a wonderful day for him. He is so funny though.. I wish that you could all meet him. He told us that he wants to have a theme for his baptism and that he wants his theme to be "Dunk n' Do It" and have Dunk n' doughnuts and mountain dew there for refreshments. Haha I love that guy and his whole family. I actually have pictures from yesterday that I will send to you. :)
Gary looking at the pictures.
our attempt at a selfy of all of us.
Sister Rawlins, me and Frannie Baumgartner
Gary and Alice Baumgartner
Kendra is doing so great. She is so excited about getting baptized as well. I am so excited for her as well. I know that this gospel will bless her life, just as it will bless everyone's lives. She is so great. She knows that she needs to go to church three times before she can get baptized. And every other weekend she goes to her dads for church and she is not aloud to go to church while she is with him. So, she told her dad last weekend that she would not be going to his house that weekend because she needed to go to church. Her uncle already has his plane ticket to come and baptize her and it is all set up! So, its going to happen! So, we have two baptisms that will be happening on the 11th of October! :)
Domonick Wallace! He is 13 and he is one of our investigators. He is so smart and he already knows so much about the gospel. His dad is making so much progress as well. He has stopped smoking and drinking and also smoking weed... He is preparing himself to receive the priesthood so that he can baptize Dominick. We showed him the video "Sanctify yourselves" and he cried during the video because he said that it makes him feel good that he is working toward being worthy to receive the priesthood but yet, at the same time, he felt bad because he missed out on all of those priesthood blessings that he could have been part of because he was not worthy. That made me think a lot. I know that I do not hold the priesthood but, It makes me want to always be worthy of that priesthood power. Such as when I go to the temple or when I do one day get married and am able to be sealed with that priesthood power to a priesthood holder. I want to be sure that I am worthy of that power from on high.
Things are going great in the area. We keep seeing miracles and I know that it is because of our obedience. I know that the Lord blesses those who are working and doing their best. I dont want to regret any part of my mission. Especially these last two weeks. Well, I must end for the day. I love you all and I can not wait to see you. I will finish my mission strong! I know that I can in the strength of the Lord. I wake up tired, I teach tired, and I got to bed tired, but yet, somehow, I make it through the days. I know that with the Lords help we can accomplish anything! I want to challenge you all to prepare yourselves for conference this upcoming weekend. We had the privilege of listening to the womens broadcast and it was wonderful and I am so excited for conference to hear what the prophets of the Lord want us to do. I would like to challenge you to write down three questions and pray about these questions and I can promise you all that you will receive an answer to all of your questions... and just remember, they will be answered... But whether they are answered in theSaturday conference sessions or the Sunday conference sessions we dont know, so, if you dont watch a session and your question was answered... you missed out on some great revelation. So, I challenge you to watch all sessions of general conference. Prepare yourselves! :) I love you! :)
Love,
Sister Ashley Halbison
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