White Christmas

Well, this has been quite a week! Christmas was great! It was great to talk to the family! I just love technology, having Skype, facetime, and google+ going all at the same time! :) Christmas was good and there was some snow, although it was melting or pretty much gone. We ended up staying at the Bakers all afternoon playing games and had dinner with them as well.

Then in the evening of Christmas we left at 8:30 and I drove the two sisters and my companion to Greybull, where we arrived at 10:30 and stayed overnight there. Then we left early morning at 6:30 to be in Billings. The meeting went from 9-11:30, and Elder Clark missed half the meeting due to an interview with President Mecham. Which kinda stinks as the meetings were meant to be towards new missionaries. The meeting was okay, but I didn't think it was worth spending all the traveling time for this, so I was disappointed with the whole thing. We didn't get back to Riverton till 7:30 that day. Luckily the road was good the whole way.

We finally moved out of our place and with live with the Waltons in Sunset Park Ward, and Elder Clark and I absolutely love living in the new home and the Waltons! They are an awesome family. We really only spent one night there so far because we have been up in Shoshoni.

So we were in Shoshoni Saturday and Sunday because of Johntel's Baptism! That went very well and she got confirmed that Sunday. That was awesome! Also, for Sacrament Meeting I was able to bless the water, which I haven't been able to do since April when I was in Thompson Falls. That was pretty neat. I love the Branch in Shoshoni! The members are great!

So that has been my week, hope you have a fantastic week!

Elder Ashcroft

Christmas Conference! :)

So this has been an awesome week! So for the Christmas Conference I drove our car to Billings, a nice 6 hour drive and luckily there was no ice or snow on the road. We then stayed at the mission home over night. On Tuesday we had our Conference which was super awesome! There were a lot of special musical numbers by the missionaries and they all sounded really good. Then our AP's talks all pertained to Faith and believing in miracles for our mission. Then Sister Mecham gave an inspiring talk on hope and faith. Super spiritual talk, I enjoyed it a lot. Then President Mecham spoke covering all the topics the previous speakers spoke. He said some interesting fact that makes me love this mission so much! He said our mission is the highest baptizing mission in North America! How awesome is that! The Lord is truly hastening his work! I feel so blessed to be serving a mission and especially here in the Billings Montana Mission!

We also had all the missionaries form a choir and sing some Christmas music which sounded amazing! So we did that right before lunch. Lunch was great as we were able to see Santa and his Helper! Haha, as you can see in the pictures I sent.

So the conference ended around 4 and I had the pleasure to drive back home after the conference....Elder Clark and I didn't get back home till Midnight! Boy was that a tiring 6 hour drive home. I don't know how I managed to stay awake honestly, but we made it!

On Saturday we had an awesome meeting where both Lander District and our District met in Riverton with our Zone Leader and AP, Elder Smith. We had an awesome 3 hour meeting from 9-12. Talked about how we are a Happy Mission and how to continue to be a happy mission. It was a super awesome meeting! The Spirit was so strong.

This week I was able to do two baptism interviews for the Mountain View Sister's Investigators. They were both baptized Saturday, which we attended. I always enjoy attending baptisms and to see the joy of those being baptized.

I think we are about to pick up a new investigator! We are really short in our teaching pool, and we found out there is a lady who has been coming to church the last four Sundays without us knowing! So we met with her yesterday and she said she loves the church and she has been "Church Shopping" and so we will see her at church next week.

We saw Johntel Saturday in Shoshoni and she is Awesome! We also had Elder Smith come with us and help teach her. Johntel is getting baptized this Saturday! We are meeting with her tonight as well.

Well, sorry for writing so much this week, but it has been an AMAZING week! Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

Elder Ashcroft

P.S. I forgot to mention, I am moving out of our place this Saturday! Super excited. We are moving out of the ward to the Sunset Ward, which is actually in town therefore saving miles. Also we are living with members, the Waltons, who are extremely nice couple! They also have a really nice home too! They have their youngest son on a mission in Portugal and he comes home in April. So that is super good news! :) This happened a lot sooner than I expected!

Me with the 3 Assistants to the President. Elder Olson is Santa, 

Elder Smith is the Elf, and Elder Payne is the Present! 

Hope you enjoy!

The Wyoming South Zone! Elder Kharazi is in there too!

Sick Week

So transfer happened, so I ended up going up to Greybull Tuesday, spent the night there and all day Wednesday which was fun. Then my new companion and the rest of the people coming into our Zone didn't come till 9 P.M. in Greybull, then we continued our trip to Riverton, meaning we didn't get to our place till midnight. But that's all right, because I had an awesome missionary in the transfer van the whole way down. If you didn't guess already, it was Elder Kharazi! Elder Kharazi ended up staying the night at our place. He is the new District Leader in Lander, about 30 minutes south from us, the closest Elders to us. Anyway, that is super awesome and I am excited since I'll be seeing him every Monday now! My new companion is Elder Clark, he is from Eagle Mountain, Utah and he is 18. He is a super stud missionary! Unfortunately I became sick Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I ended up throwing up in the morning Sunday before church. So we only attended Sacrament meeting.

We found out Thursday, that Jesus, who we thought wasn't a member, was baptized when he lived in Salt Lake many years ago. That was disappointing. We only now have two investigators in Riverton, who both are not progressing. Then we have Johntel in Shoshoni who has a date for December 28. That is literally, all our investigators. So we will just be contacting everybody in the ward directory.

So we are heading to Billings today for the Christmas Conference tomorrow. So everybody is going in a transfer van except for me and my companion as I will be driving up to Billings in our car and picking up the Greybull Elders. Should be a fun 4-5 hours drive. I heard the roads are really bad as well. So hopefully we will have a safe trip.

That is all I can think of right now. Have a great week!  Love ya!

Elder Ashcroft

Jackolopes aren't a Myth!!!! They are real!!! haha ;)

Transfer

Well, we received the transfer news yesterday. So Elder Linton is leaving for Billings tomorrow and I will stay here in Riverton, still the District Leader and I will be training a new missionary . I don't know my new companion's name, where he is from or anything. This should be an interesting transfer. The four sisters in my district all stayed, so that is good. One of our Zone Leaders is leaving for Kalispell and Elder Croteau will be my new Zone Leader, I served with Elder Croteau for 3 weeks when I was in Corvallis. So that is awesome!

So I guess I will be spending Christmas here in Riverton. To be honest I wish I could spend Christmas in Montana but hey, this is where the Lord wants me to be. I am nervous about training, since this will be officially my first time training a new missionary and not the second trainer for a missionary.

The work is slowly moving forward. We pushed back Johntel's baptism to the 28 of December. She is an awesome 9 year old girl and we saw her on Saturday and taught the third discussion. Super excited for her. We also have Jesus who we are seeing tomorrow and we will set a date for him on the 21 or 28 of December. We also have another investigator, Betty, and we are hoping to set a date with her.

We were able to see the Christmas Broadcast which was amazing! Afterward we went out as a District and went caroling which was super fun. Afterward we had hot chocolate as it is freezing here in Wyoming. Been single digits to 20 below all week and yet I manage to stay warm. It snowed a little here but not to bad.

Well, that is about all I can remember right now. Have a fantastic week!

Picking Up Investigators

Well, we've been able to do some things this week and the exchange with Elder Anthony was super fun. We unfortunately didn't get to accomplish a whole lot when Elder Anthony was there as other things popped up that we had to deal with. Having to deal with four sisters from the district takes some work and time. I suppose I'm getting used to it now. Sisters always have a ton of questions, concerns, and complaints... but I'm glad to say that our District is unified. Just a lot of work. Also last District Meeting was the best District meeting we have had so far. Very good meeting, talked about the authority and influence we have as missionaries, the importance of helping investigators and less actives understanding the atonement. Very good meeting. :)

I can't wait to move out of the place we are living at because of all the drama we've been having to put up with with our Host Family, young couple, really frustrating and missionaries in the past have moved out but they decided to put the missionaries back to living here and we are trying to move out. The sad thing is, everybody in the Ward knows about this too. Hopefully things work out. We have several options to move to.

So Thanksgiving was good, we were able to eat with three different family and needless to say I was stuffed! Good food, and good times.

We were able to pick up two new investigators this week. We have Betty, who already knows the church is true so we will be seeing her Thursday and hoping to set a baptismal date with her. Her two daughters are members and moved in to live with her. That will be good for her. Then we have Jesus, a Mexican who doesn't understand or speak English, but he lives with his nephew and we reactivated the nephew's family recently, so they may help translate for us or we may have to bring somebody with us who speaks Spanish for us.

So I have some pictures I wanted to send but forgot the camera... so next week. I have a really sweet picture to show. The weather has been nice this week in the 40-50's. But I have been told it will be 18 below on Wednesday :(  Not looking forward to it. Transfer call is next week, wonder what is going to happen. Have a great week!

Elder Ashcroft