Many Things Happening

Well, this week has gone by pretty well. There are so many things that are happening in our mission and so many changes as our mission is making a pull for striving to be the most obedient mission in the world and to be a covenant keeping mission as well. As a mission the past several weeks and zone conferences have been focusing on keeping covenants. So I finally found out when I will get to go to the temple. I get to go on August 29. I can't wait. So on Thursday the Zone Leaders had a meeting with all the District Leaders from 2-9, which meant I had two other Elders with me all day in my area. One of the missionaries had only just arrived in Montana and he is an awesome missionary. Anyway Elder Gunnerson learned a lot and we are now restarting the Online Proselyting again for Facebook and Blogs. The whole program has been redone so now it will be more efficient and less distracting. Also we will now be creating a facebook page for the Wards to be able to update what is happening in the ward and area. It is super awesome and I will most likely be getting a facebook account soon.

Anyway, enough about that. So the Halls are doing amazing! We taught the Plan of Salvation in which we had many wonderful conversations. We then invited them to be baptized on September 28. Bro. Hall said yes but he said he will wait for Sis. Hall to make up her mind if she wants to get baptized. It is interesting how things are going with them. First he was really interested the first time we met, the next time she was super excited and he was more hesitant, and now he is all for it and she is hesitant and wants to take things slow. They were able to make it to church and the Grandma came as well!

Leah is doing well and I helped one of our ward missionaries teach the new member discussion with her. She is solid and still going to church and she participated with the choir last Sunday. Unfortunately she won't be here in Helena for too long as she will be going to basic training in September. We will actually be seeing her tonight when we eat with the Romos tonight. I'm excited for that.

We are still working with the three Lamanite kids. We are going to see them tonight as well and they have a date for September 7. Coming up pretty soon!

We taught a 9 year old girl last night the Plan of Salvation and she is solid! She has a date to be baptized on September 14. She is amazing!

Well, Elder Gunnerson is doing much better, found out it isn't from his allergy but he has stomach ulcers, which I guess comes from stress. So since he found this out he can eat a lot more and has medication he is taking which is helping a ton. He can now eat anything as long as it is low on salt and sugar and no dairy. But he is now eating more and feeling much better. :)

Well that is about it. Have a great week!

Elder Ashcroft

Leah's Baptism!

This has been a very good week for us. We managed to get a lot of things done despite the low energy Elder Gunnerson has. So yes, Leah got baptized on Saturday and confirmed Sunday. It gets even better. Leah asked me to baptize her so I had my first baptism! The whole thing went well. I was super nervous but successful. It was a really neat experience and could really feel the spirit fill the room. It has been one of the best moment in my mission so far. Both of Leah's parent were also able to make it which was great as well. I know she will be a strong member of the church.

We were also able to visit the Halls again and taught the Restoration which went really well. Before Bro. Hall was really into it and Sis. Hall was holding back. This time however she was super excited and was talking about being baptized in the temple and Bro. Hall was the one telling her to hold up and to take this one at a time. haha The Grandma also changed a lot as before she was really anti but is now wanting to know more and willing to read the Book of Mormon! They are an awesome family! Oh, they made one of the best ribs I have ever had too. It was sooo good. It was like a 2-3 pound rib and I ate the whole thing of course. :) I was satisfied.

Oh, I forgot to tell you about transfer. So I am staying in Helena which I am super happy about that. Also, I guess Elder Gunnerson really likes me as he is my second companion who is willing to be with me for a second transfer haha. :)  Things are going well.

So I get the wonderful opportunity to go to the temple sometime this transfer, though I haven't found out exactly when yet. Can't wait for that! Well, that is all I can think of for now, so have a great week!

Elder Ashcroft

Graveside Dedication

Well, I forgot to mention this last week. I said a dedicatory prayer for a lady being buried. That was really interesting and pretty cool. There were about only five people there and I don't think they were members except for the lady that died. So it was a really interesting experience to do that. I can't believe I forgot to mention that last week.

So the week was spent on being either sick or lack of energy. I didn't get sick this week, but because of my companion's diet he is tired all of the time and has lack of energy. Somehow one way or the other we managed to get a few things done this week. We were able to meet with Leah and she just has one more lesson to go, which is the 10 commandments and an interview and she is good to go for this Saturday and should be baptized. We find out Wednesday who she wants to have her baptized and have her confirmed. I'm thinking it might be one of us as Bro. Romo encouraged her to have  one of us baptize her, so we will see what the decision is. I can't wait for Saturday! So our appointment with the Halls for Friday dropped as something came up  so they weren't able to feed us and have us teach them. The good news is that they came to church Sunday and got to hear Adam speak, who just came home from his mission from the Bahamas and Jamaica last week. It was a really good talk and the Halls really liked it. Sister Hall made a comment of how she is going to be like the Somoan lady from Adam's mission and be thanking us for sharing the Gospel with her! She made it sound like she wants to be baptized! That is so sweet! Something that every missionary like to hear! Anyway, we meet with them for this Friday for dinner. Looking forward for that.

So this is the last week of the Transfer and we get the transfer call next Monday. I am really hoping that I will stay here in Helena. Super nervous about the call and have an uneasy feeling about it. So hopefullly all is well. Well hope you have a wonderfull week.

Elder Ashcroft

DIE-it!

So Elder Gunnerson is still having some allergic reactions from about two weeks ago if you could recall. So Sis. Baker, the medical doctor in our mission put him on this special diet for 2 weeks. He literally can't have anything but meat, can't have seasonings or nothing, just meat and salt. He can have very little dairy product. The reason is because after his reaction his body attacks everything he eats whether he is allergic or not. So by being on this diet his body will be able to readjust. He started this last Friday and he will be starving for the next week and a half. I kinda feel bad for him as I am still able to eat stuff.

So this has been another one of those sick weeks again. We didn't do anything on Saturday but we are fine now.

But besides that it has been a pretty good week. On Wednesday we went on exchanges and this time I was able to see Leah this time! So I had the two ward sister missionaries with us again and Bro. Perchon. Anyway Leah invited her friend over which was awesome as she was really interested so we taught the Restoration and about the Book of Mormon which is a good refresher for Leah. So Leah's friend, Kristen accepted to learning more and to read the Book of Mormon! Also I asked Leah if she wanted to be baptized on August 3rd and she said yes! She is super excited for it as well as Elder Gunnerson and I.

Oh, you know how I mentioned how there was a family that showed up to church last week when we were sick? Well we had dinner with them on Friday with the Steingles (members). That went really well and they asked a lot of questions and are really nice people. Oh and their last name is the Halls. So I was wondering if we are related at all? Their family is from West Virginia. Anyway, they made us double fried Kentucky chicken! It was soo good. They also made this super bomblicous cake! We will be seeing them on Friday again and they said they will make us some pulled ribs. MMMmmm sounds super good.

Anyway, other than that the week has been somewhat uneventful. The Stangers, who we live with are over the top super nice people. Always offering help, giving us food and so forth. They are the nicest people I have ever met! Hope you have a great week!

Elder Ashcroft

Explosion in New Investigators

This has been a very good week with some bad things as well, but I'll focus on the good. I just love going on exchanges with the Ward! So I  will start on Wednesday we had Elder Wilson with us all day who is a Visa Waiter waiting to go to Brazil. He is normally with the Zone Leaders but we had him for a day. Anyway, all our appointments fell through that day and we couldn't find our referrals. Ok, here comes the good part, we went on exchanges with 4th ward! We basically had a gigantic exchange. We had our ward mission leader, Bro. Schlecht, two of our new sister ward missionaries, one of them has a call to go to Phillipines. Then we had two members from the Elders Quorum. Anyway, Elder Gunnerson went with Bro. Schlecht and the two sisters and saw Leah and taught some commandments and she said that she prayed to know if the Book of Mormon is true and if this is the true church and she said she received an answer and said she new it was true! So we are going to set a baptismal date for her this Wednesday. They then saw a less active and her son who is 11 and not a member. New investigator! PK the son is now taking lessons in which on Friday Elder Gunnerson, the two sisters and I taught the Restoration and set a Baptismal date for August 24! Ok, back to exchanges, Elder Wilson and Bro. Martin found us a new investigator in whom we will see tomorrow! Can't wait for that. As for me, I went with Bro. Scholl and saw a recent convert who has gone less active that went pretty well and hopefully we will start seeing at church soon.
Exchanges are over now but what a day, we received 3 new investigators that day!

So the third new investigator is Dale who we got a referral from Kalispell, he just moved from there and has been taught everything but the commandments and he already as a baptismal date for August 3rd. So we taught the Word of Wisdom on Friday which will be tough for him since he smokes and drinks, so hopefully he can quit.

On Thursday we had a Zone Conference, so all the missionaries from Great Falls, Bozeman, and Helena/Butte Zone were there. Elder Burrows, Elder Landry and I celebrated our one year mark on the 11th. I can't believe I have been out that long! Crazy.

So I got a bug or something that week. On Tuesday I just had some issues all day since I was sitting on the toilet all day destroying it. I know too much info, haha. Then on Saturday I got a bug in my stomach and I threw up all day and sat on the toilet even more. So we didn't make it to church yesterday and we were supposed to give talks in 2nd ward, felt bad that we bailed out on that but I had some stomach pain. The good thing is I am feeling better now. The bad thing is we missed out on some sweet things! A member brought a family to church! A couple with 2 kids, one is Young Men age! The couple went to Gospel Essential class and asked a lot of great questions. Also the son is going to Mutual for tomorrow. What is even better is they want to feed us on Friday and take discussions even though we haven't met yet! Can't wait till Friday. This should be a very exciting week! I can definitely see the blessings in being obedient and serving the Lord!

Anyway love ya much!

Elder Ashcroft

Eventful Week

So many things happened this week between me and Elder Gunnerson. I guess I will talk about all the things that happened this week between the two of us. So to start it off on Tuesday, we were at a stop light and Elder Gunnerson turned left onto a 3 lane one way street full of cars going the wrong way! He had to drive through the bike lane and surprisingly I don't think any of the drivers realized what happened. We got out of there as quick as possible and I made fun of him for that all the time now haha.  Then on Wednesday night we have a fan in the hall way and I walked right into it as I was going to the bathroom and hit my shin against the fan, that was very painful so now Elder Gunnerson makes fun of me for that. There are other things as well but I can't remember them all.

We both got sick around the same time on Friday and we both think it was from the dinner we had from Wednesday as the hamburger we had tasted funny and a bit odd and out of the ordinary. But we are doing much better now.

So on Tuesday we were asked to open a church building to let all the Zone Leaders who were in Helena for the Zone Leadership Council. The bad thing that happened that morning was that Elder Gunnerson had a allergic reaction that morning from breakfast. (Background note: Elder Gunnerson is allergic to fruits and uncooked veggies because of the pollens. His throat will swell up causing him to suffocate.) We had oatmeal that morning that the Stangers made us and I think he got it from the almonds. So he took a whole bottle of benadryl so he was loopey all day so President Mecham invited us to stay at the Zone Leadership Council and that was amazing. I learned a whole lot and learned ways the we can be better missionaries. As a mission we are trying to be the most obedient mission in the world. We are trying to get rid of things that distract us from focusing on our mission and on the Savior. Which unfortunately means I have to send home some Christian Rock CDs home. :(  But I know I will be blessed by being obedient.

We then had District Meeting on Tuesday which was amazing. We learned from the examples of Jacob (BoM) and Joseph Smith of their faith and how we could relate it to us as missionaries and how we can develop more faith. It was a very good meeting. I am always finding ways I can do better to draw more closer to the Savior.

This Sunday was a little disappointing as none of our investigators were at church because of the holiday.

Oh yeah! 4th of July was awesome! I found something really cool and awesome. I found out that we had dinner at the Shaws who is the son and daughter in-law of Brother and Sister Shaw from back home in Clovis! We stayed there to help set up a firework show at their place. Sister Shaw's father, Bro. Zinn is a CEO of some company in San Francisco, CA and he puts about $50,000 into this firework show. We had permission to stay up till 11 so we were able to watch the fireworks which was amazing! I also sang in the choir before the firework show. That was cool.

Anyway this has been a good week. Love ya!

Moved

So this has been a pretty good week. So we were kicked out of the Michael's and we moved into the Stanger's. So Elder Gunnerson and I did a whole lot of cleaning and dumping out a lot of junk we will never be using. We did all of our papers and binders and books on Saturday and we then moved our dresser and suitcases this morning. Boy was I tired after the move. I sure am glad I'm done with the move. I am loving Elder Gunnerson! He has been out 18 1/2 months and is from Spanish Fork Utah and he can play the piano! He is awesome and things are going well in our area.

So we are teaching this girl Leah, she is 17 and she is going into the army reserve as a medical supplier. Anyway she is super awesome and she came to church for the first time and she said she really enjoyed it! In Gospel Essentials class we were talking about prayers and she bore her testimony about how she knows that Heavenly Father does answer prayers which was super awesome. We will be seeing her on Tuesday. We also found what I think will be a really solid new investigator on Saturday. We were trying to contact a potential investigator and he came up to us and said he wanted to know what we believed in and said he has several friends that are LDS. So I'm excited for that. We have another investigator that is progressing and he will be meeting with President Mecham for an interview tomorrow so hopefully that will go well.

So on Friday we went to an Old Folks Home and the Sister missionaries were supposed to be there too but they were in Great Falls so Elder Gunnerson and I sang several hymns. Elder Gunnerson also played a few songs on the piano as well. We usually go every Friday to sing to them. Anyway that is pretty much all that happened this week.

Oh, I'm so excited to be at the Stangers now, they have a really nice home and they have a pool table, fooseball table, and a ping pong table downstairs. They said we could go down there on Mondays so I'm  pumped about that.  Well love ya much!

Elder Ashcroft