Pictures!

District in Riverton

Elder Anthony & Elder Anglin

Thermopolis

Well, I don't know if you heard, but I got transferred to Thermopolis to be with Elder Anthony and Elder Anglin. I left Riverton Tuesday and have been in Thermopolis all week. Transfer will actually happen next week so I'm curious as to what will happen to me. Anyway, I love it here in Thermopolis! There is so much work going on here. We will be having a baptism this Saturday which should be exciting. I love how there is so much work to do here. I also love Elder Anthony and Elder Anglin. We call ourselves AAA  hahaha  

We just have so much fun together and so many jokes. So the other day during personal study, I was messing with Elder Anglin and kept moving his cup when he wanted to pour some juice. So he slammed the jug down and the cap came off and Juice went flying everywhere soaking me wet and Elder Anthony. It was just really funny. Anyway, there is a lot of fun within our companionship.

This week should be good as we have Zone Training this week here in Thermopolis. I'm super excited for that. Well, that is all I can think of right now. Hope you have a fantastic week!

Elder Ashcroft

Happy New Year!

Well, another year come and gone and a new year has begun. New Years was good, we first went to the ward hangout party, we were there for only 10 minutes, then we left to go to the college branch party, not going to lie, it is weird hanging out with people your age as a missionary. So we only stayed there for like 15 minutes, then we went to our house and the Dubois Elders came with us and we played Ticket to Ride, which I haven't played in forever! I of course won Ticket to Ride. :) Then after that the Elders left and we went to bed at 11.

Other than that not much happened again this week since I got sick again... this time I got the stomach bug and was throwing up for several days. So pretty much stuck inside the house all day. Luckily, our mission is allowed to watch 17 Miracles and Ephraim Rescue. So we watched those, it was my first time seeing Ephraim Rescue and that is such a wonderful movie! And I got to sleep and read scriptures a lot. That is always good.

Well, something cool happened this week. So we have no investigators right now, but we get this call from Mark, who Elder Linton was teaching before I got here, dropped the missionaries and I have never met him. Anyways, he called and said he wanted to meet with us. So we are going to see him this evening. Elder Linton said Mark is in his early 30's and he inherited millions of dollars from is relative, but lives in a trailer. So I am curious to meet him and sounds like he is interested. The funny thing is, he came to church two or three times since I have been here, but always when we are up in Shoshoni. So I hope this meeting goes well.

Hope you have a fantastice week! Love you all!

Elder Ashcroft

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 ;)