Threesome!

What a crazy week. It has been both good and bad. So, Wednesday night I got really sick and threw up four times at night and also had diarrhea all night and didn't sleep well. I was sick all day Thursday and stayed in bed all day. Elder Aldous was able to go on split with another missionary from the other zone and set a baptismal date without me. Then after that 4 elders came by and they gave me a blessing. I started feeling better. I still had stomach problems and whenever I ate anything it just caused pain. I also had diarrhea all week. I believe I am officially better as of today. I feel bad though, cause I got some other people sick also. Elder Aldous got a minor case of it but is fine now. I unfortunately got one of the sister missionaries sick and we gave her a blessing last night. We found out this morning that she is feeling better now. I feel bad about spreading the flu.

So about transfer, I will be going back to Roundup with Elder Payton, who was the one who replaced me, and with Elder Warner which I think is crazy. I was the one who replaced Elder Warner and he is already coming back after a transfer. Previously he was there for 9 months which is a long time. So it should be interesting in being in a trio again. I know Elder Warner is from Provo, Utah and Elder Payton is a 6'4" Navajo Indian. So this should be an interesting transfer. So Elder Aldous will be going to Level, WY to train for the last transfer of his mission. They say Level has the largest church building around the world. And they have a big gym across the church building. There are 4 wards and Level is the same size as Roundup. Crazy!

So on Wednesday, before I got sick, we went with Sister Taylor and Sister Enk-Baatar to an old folks home and went bowling. Yup we did bowling. Haha, no it wasn't actual bowling. But we just helped set up the pins and gave them a big bouncy ball and most of them were wheel chair bound and they just threw the ball at the pins from anywhere from 3-5 feet away from them. It was interesting and great to be around those people.

So at the Hawthorne Ward yesterday, a guy gave his farewell talk since he is leaving for North Korea for his mission. He had a ton of people show up for his talk. About half the people that showed up weren't from the ward.

I still think it's crazy I 'll be in a threesome, I don't know where the third Elder is going to sleep since we only have two beds. Probably will sleep on the couch. I unfortunately have to pack again and I will probably go up on Tuesday or Wednesday. Well, that has been my week.

Well Jordan, good luck with that diet, I think you just might end up gaining ten pounds instead of losing it. Well, love ya.

Emergency Exchange

This has been a crazy week! So on Thursday I recieved a call from my Zone Leaders that I was leaving Roundup to be with Elder Aldous, who is the Zone Leader, in Shephard and Hawthorne. Something happened with the other set of missionaries, I don't know what but they did something they weren't supposed to be doing, so Elder Walch, the other Zone Leader went to their area, and the other missionary left to take my place in Roundup. They told Elder Orr to straighten up the other missionary and Elder Walch is doing the same with the other missionary. Elder Aldous and Elder Walch are still the Zone Leaders even though they aren't together anymore.  So I've been in Shephard and Hawthorne since Friday night. So I'll be here for another week till transfer, which is next week, so I'm either going somewhere or going back to Roundup after this. The only bad thing is I didn't get to say goodbye to anyone in Roundup, oh well. Anyway, Shephard and Hawthorne are just right outside of Billings. Yesterday I was in Church for 7 hours! I went to both of the wards, so I was there from 9-4. The people here are pretty nice and I like it here.

The one thing I like about Montana is that you can see more stars. The only downside is that the sun beigins to set before 5. Anyway, I just love staring out at the stars at night. So the last few days here it actually warmed up. It actually went up in the high 40's.

Along with the emergency exchange I have been sick since Friday night, I have had a real stuffy and runny nose. It has not been fun and hasn't really been a great week. I'm getting along with Elder Aldous. He is from Hunington Beach, CA and he goes home in February. So, I'm still eating a lot of junk food from the holidays. Unforunately I haven't gained any weight yet. "Try to keep trying and that which becomes difficult become possible."  -President Utchdorf   I'm still trying haha.

I finally found a scripture for prayer. In 3 Nephi 18:18-20. Anyway, hope your week goes well.

Christmas with the Checketts

Well, it was nice to be able to Skype home on Christmas. Christmas was nice, Elder Orr and I spent Christmas with our Branch President and his family, the Checketts. We spent 3 hours helping them put up their new air hockey table. I love all their kids. Their oldest is a freshman and their youngest is 3 years old and they have 5 kids. I really enjoyed spending Christmas with them. Last Monday we spent our P-day with the Severe family. They are a really cool family. We spent some time helping Bro. Severe with his cattle for an hour. He has a ton of cows! I'm guessing 3-5,000 cows. Then we played basketball with them. Not much happened this week. Elder Orr and I delivered 150 christmas cards  from the branch to less actives. That took awhile to do, but it gave us something to do.

On Saturday we went to Stage Stop to help Bert and Ruth to help set up and decorate their dance floor for the New Years Party. So we ended up eating at Stage Stop for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner, all for free since we helped them decorate. I never know what Bert's going to make me but it is always good and he hasn't disappointed me yet. Well, I don't have much else to write about, since not much has really happened since everybody is out of town. Have a great week!

Elder Ashcroft

Christmas Wish List

Christmas List:

Dear Santa,
       I have been a really really good boy, so please give me the following.

1.Warmer Weather
2. 2004 EFY CD "Stand in the Light"
3. See The Hobbit and the Batman movie
4. A brother who doesn't have a one pack belly
5. Ticket to the Super Bowl
6. Year supply of Muddy Buddies
7. Basketball shoes
8. Cookbook
9. Moccasins
10. Basketball Pump

Well, not much is happening in Roundup. I was in Billings Friday since Elder Orr had a Doctor's appointment. Oh yeah, we had a Christmas Zone Conference with half the mission in Billings and it was pretty good, the only thing was was that it was poorly planned out. They did this really cool slide show where they got a picture of all the missionaries when they were younger during Christmas. It was pretty hilarious. So I found out that I am able to Skype home for Christmas, but I'm not sure when we will do it yet.

So we have these Investigators, the Roberts, they are an older couple and they are really cool people. They also showed up to church yesterday which was nice. Hopefully things will work out with them. I think the missionaries started seeing them in June or July, and they are awesome people! There is also another Investigator, Cole, who we went out with him at 6:30 in the morning to help him chop wood. We went out about half hour north of Roundup and I saw a bunch of Elk, a coyote, and antelope. It was super cool, and it was fun to go out and do something. Well, hope you have a great week!

Elder Ashcroft

Nasty Gross Water : /

Well, I'm in Roundup! I didn't get to Roundup till Wednesday night. I ended up staying in Billings all day Tuesday and most of Wednesday. Elder Orr had a doctor appointment Tuesday and we had to wait till Wednesday afternoon for his perscription to come in. So we were teamed up with our Zone Leader Elder Walch all day Tuesday and we visited a bunch of people Elder Orr and Elder Walch wanted to see. Elder Orr has been out ten months and he has served 7 1/2 months in this zone so he knows most of Billings and he's been in Roundup for only 4 weeks. I really like Billings and I love Roundup too! Elder Orr is from Thatcher, Arizona. If you've ever seen that mormon message of the two boys who are friends but play against each other in football, he is actually in one of the scenes. Anyway, Elder Orr is our District Leader, and my District is twice the size than when I was in Missoula, 4 sisters, us, and the Zone Leaders. I really love this place, the population is only 2,000 people and Elder Orr said it has been tracted out 2 months ago so we aren't doing any tracting. So we just see investigators and less actives and active members.

So it is starting to get cold here. On Saturday we did some service fixing a gate for a member and we were out helping for 3 hrs. It was 15 degrees out and with the wind factor it was 5 degrees! I've never been so cold in my life! Hot chocolate never tasted so good in my life after I was out in the cold. There isn't a whole lot of snow, it is just dry and cold. Elder Orr loves to do service and in this area there are a lot of things we can do. So we keep ourselves busy by doing a lot of service.

So on Sunday we had a baptism for a 11 yrs old, Issiah. That was really neat. I gave a talk on the Gift of the Holy Ghost. It was really nice. I love the people in this Branch. They have about 80 people go to church regularly. I just really love it here. The only downside about this place is that the water here isn't very good. They pump out the water from a coal mine and that was where the miners used to go to the bathroom and spit. And we're not supposed to drink the water otherwise we will get sick. Also the water leaves a stain in the toilet, so the toilet in our appartment is gross, the whole bathroom is kinda gross. I had to do some cleaning when I got there since the last Elder was there for 9 months and he wasn't very clean. Beside that this place is nice.

I have a Christmas Zone Conference tomorrow! :) Anyway, that's about it, love ya!

Elder Ashcroft

Families in Clinton

The Starks who I stayed with.

 I'm going to miss Sister Stark making me breakfast every morning!

The Nystroms. I'm going to miss them in Clinton!

Bye Bye Clinton :(

Well, as you can tell from the Title, I am leaving Clinton, Drummond, and Seeley Lake. I will be leaving today around 3 to Roundup, MT. Roundup is an hour drive North of Billings so I will be leaving the mountains. :(  I will be in the Billings East Zone and my companion will be Elder Orr, who was in the same District with Jameson in the MTC. I haven't met or seen him before. I was able to talk to Elder Scott this morning and I found out he is already leaving Powell, Wyoming and is going to Kalispell, which is disappointing because he went from the East to the West, which means I won't see him at the Christmas Zone Conference since it is split up from West to East. Oh well, it was really nice to catch up with him for awhile. Elder Scott is Awesome!

Well Dad, it is not snowing up here, we have no snow except some in the mountains, thats about it. I've heard there is snow in the East though, so I may have snow in Roundup. It's fairly warm here in Missoula, in the 20's-30's. Mom, I only have one friend writing to me and that is Joel. So, I don't know much what is happening or how my friends are doing. Haha, that's funny that Amaya knows Elder Isaacson. Elder Isaacson says he is single and desperate for a girlfriend and is wondering if Amaya would be interested in him when he gets home. Haha just kidding. Oh yea, apparently Elder Isaacson supports tattoos too haha.

Well, I had a disappointing call with Bro. Sprague yesterday morning. We called to make sure he had a ride to church and he told us that he is not interested to join the church in this point of time in his life and dropped us. So hopefully things will work out. He is also still struggling with smoking. Things have been very slow in this area and we really don't have any investigators. Hopefully Roundup is better.

Next week we will be having a Christmas Zone Conference which should be fun. I think just about everybody from my MTC District is in the West side of the mission except for Sis. Pattullo who should be in my District over in Billings. Unless she got transferred too. Anyway, I'm all packed and ready to go Roundup. Love ya!

Elder Ashcroft