Elder Ashcroft's Day

Well, things are going pretty good. My mind just went blank... been trying to contact several people in Eureka but a lot of people are not home and we have been doing a lot of tracting but have not found any potential yet. We are working with Milus who we set on Baptism Date for July 5th my first week in Eureka but he hasn't come to church yet. So the baptism may not happen. A less active who we've been working with got offended and does not want the lessons now and didn't show up to church this Sunday, so that is super disappointing and we hope to stay in contact with her. We are pretty much starting from scratch now as we literally do not have anyone to teach.

Yesterday was Elder Ashcroft's Day as that is what the Zone Leaders wanted to happen. So I was going to have us go to Glacier Park except it just snowed last week during summer.... it snowed 14 inches and most of the park is closed though I hear it might open up this week or next. So instead we played Ultimate Frisbee at a park for a couple of hours then we went to the church and palyed volleyball. So it turned out well.

I am currently on exchanges in Columbia Falls with Elder Blackmon till Wednesday after District Meeting. Oh yeah, Friday was a really good day! We went to Kalispell early in the morning as all the missionaries in the Zone helped out at the Youth Tri-stake Conference. The Stevensvile, Missoula, and Kalispell Stakes. I was able to see several people from my first area and from my last area! It was neat to see all of them again. Anyway, I helped out with the activities. I was with Elder Remington, and we had two posts with ropes that had about 16 holes in them that is just big enough for them to go through. The point was for the youth, groups of about 14, to get through the holes without touching the ropes. Once a person went through the hole they couldn't use that same hole again. It is hard to explain, it would be easier if you actually saw it. Anyway, we then shared a spiritual thought at the end about how the activity related to the repentance process. How the ropes represent sin and temptation. How some struggled to get through the rope, in which case they had to go back and do it again. Sometimes we think we have repented an realize we haven't and have to go through the process again. It may be difficult, and may need help from others, which the youth need help, but will be rewarding once you finish the repentance process.

After the Conference we had Zone Training for our Zone. That was really good, and of course they had me go up and bear my testimony. I felt that this was a lot more difficult to do than when I did it at the Mission Tour. It was good though. I'm running out of time, hope you have a great week!

Elder Ashcroft

Stomach Flu :(

Seems like I am always catching a flu and have had quite a few of them on my mission! I was out for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday so we were not able to do a whole lot last week. The exchange ended Wednesday morning in Kalispell and switched over for District Meeting. I gave a discussion, which Elder Remington gave me the same topic that I gave for Zone Leaders Training Last transfer in the Stevensville Zone! So I was pretty well prepared and it went well. Unfortunately, I had to cut my discussion short as we had to facetime in to the Zone Leaders as a district for some information from the mission. Also announcing that Elder Ashcroft's Day is next Monday for preparation day. So, of course I want to go to Glacier National Park and do a hike, so that is what we will be doing next Monday as a Zone. That should be fun and exciting. Crazy to think I only have 2 1/2 weeks left! Gahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

Hmmm, oh yeah, Wednesday the Eureka Ward did a Burger Burn at the church and had a pretty good turn out. Had about 6 non members come. I also think I got food poisoning from that, hence I was sick for 3 days. I guess I was the only one that got sick too! :(  Some of the members here live in very nice homes and right next to a beautiful view of a lake/mountains/Valley! There are quite a lot of Canadians here too! Seems to be a tourist hot spot as well down in Kalispell near the Flathead Lake, which by the way, is a very beautiful lake!

I suppose that is all I have for you this time, have a great week!

Elder Ashcroft




                                     Elder Schlenker and I during our exchange in Kalispell!

Mission Tour

Well, we were able to travel to Helena Tuesday and I was able to drive up with Elder Linton, who I served with in Riverton, WY, so that was a fun car ride. We then ended up staying overnight with the Stangers! Stangers are the members that I lived with for 3 transfers in Helena so it was great to be able to talk to them. They told me that their home will always be my home and that I am always welcome. :) Really one of the neatest people I have met on my mission! Then on Wednesday we had our mission tour and Elder Codoy was there. He was great! He is very animated and hilarious. He was telling us how great our mission was doing and that we are doing very good at all aspects of the missionary work here in this mission! He also said "if this mission cannot baptize thousands, no mission can." So that is a huge compliment on how well our mission is doing and how much more we can do! Then, something unexpected happened, which I should have known it was coming, I was asked to give my departing testimony to half the mission! I was the first one to go, in which Elder Landry, Elder Burrows, and Sister Ward gave theirs as well. I feel that I did pretty well and handled it pretty good as well. The others gave great testimonies as well. It kinda stinks seeing all those missionaries for the last time on the mission. Anyway, the mission tour was great!

So currently I am on exchange with Elder Schlenker (Zone Leader) in Kalispell 2 ward since yesterday till tomorrow. It's nice being back in Kalispell 2 even though I only served here for only 3 weeks last time I was here. I was able to see Garret yesterday, who was literally one of the first persons I saw when I came to Kalispell and he was baptized that day! He is still active and married one of the members as well last year and now has a 11 week old boy! He is doing great and it was nice to talk to him!

Well, that is all for now that I can think of, have a great week!

Elder Ashcroft

Eureka

Well, the library here is closed on Monday so I will be emailing on Tuesday for now on. So you will have to wait another day to get my emails. :/    So Eureka is very pretty. We have the mountains nearby and there are a lot of rolling green hills, reminds me of the Shire in Lord of the Rings. So Eureka is 8 miles from the Canadian border, in fact the other night we went to see a part member family, who weren't home, and their backyard fence is the border to Canada. So I have seen Canada on my mission! Pretty cool huh? I will have to get a picture with the "Now Entering Canada" sign. 

The members here are great and supportive! Very missionary minded and our ward mission leader is fantastic! They are good about giving us names to see. We do not have too many people to see at the moment that are progressing. We did meet with one of our investigators and set a baptism date for July 5th, so we hope he keeps with that commitment. He has yet to come to church. So we are finding more people to teach. As missionaries we are always looking for more people to see. 

I have also been doing a lot of cleaning in our apartment. It amazes me how missionaries do not know how to clean their living quarters. I cleaned out our pantry which a lot of the food were empty cans/packages. Got rid of can foods that expired 7-9 years ago. Now I am working with the bathroom which is horrendous and am halfway done with that. Never knew how much cleaning I would have to do when I got into the mission! It is rewarding though once the place is clean and it definitely invites the Holy Ghost when you have a clean living quarters. Enough with my little rant about cleaning.

Elder Maughan is a good missionary, he is from Florida and has been out 7 months. We are getting along pretty well and are keeping ourselves busy here in Eureka. We helped a member move one of her storage unit to another one so she could save extra money. It amazes me how much people hoard their stuff which a lot of them they would never use. Anyway, it was great to serve other people and I
love doing service projects! 

Loving this beautiful area and the people here. So Elder Maughan and I are leaving today at 2:30 and driving to Kalispell in which our Zone is carpooling to Helena as we have a mission tour Wednesday and Elder Codoy of the Seventy is going to be there along with another Seventy, can't remember who. So I am super excited as I will be riding up with Elder Linton, who I served with in Riverton, WY. Also, I will be staying with the Stangers in Helena tonight, the family that I lived with for 4 months in Helena! This is going to be a great week! Love you all and have a great week!

Elder Ashcroft

P.S. It's very green here and members here tell me I got here at the best time of the year which is 
super nice! And well, it will be clear one day with nice weather in the 70's to being cloudy and bit on the chilly side like today. So you never know about the weather. Beautiful with lots of rolling green hills and the mountains nearby that are covered in pine trees and have some snow on it still. Very green here and members here tell me I got here at the best time of the year which is super nice! An hour and a half drive away from all other missionaries so we are pretty secluded to the mission. So that is Eureka! Lots of Canadians here with a second home/cabin for the summer. So we see a bunch of Canadians. Forgot to mention! Eureka just became a ward a month ago! :) Have a great week!

Last Transfer

Well, transfer call came Sunday and found out I am being transferred to Eureka, MT which is north of Kalispell and right next to Glacier National Park. I will just be a normal missionary this transfer and a senior companion to Elder Maughn, who I have not met before. I'm hoping this will be a good last transfer of my mission. Hard to believe I have less than 6 weeks left now!

So of course I am sad about leaving Corvallis and all the Pinesdale people I have been able to get close to. Also on Sunday we set a baptism date for Ellen who has been investigating the church for over 40 years! Bummed I will miss out on her baptism on June 14th.

We did quite a bit of service this week. Since it was memorial day weekend we were encouraged to see what we could do to help so we called around and got a hold of the guy in charge of the cemetery in which we helped do some garden work for him on Friday. Found out Steve had known some members in the church and he invited us to help out at his place with landscaping which we did on Monday. He is a really neat guy and we hope to start teaching him. On Wednesday Tarikh Peak was baptized and confirmed Sunday which was a neat experience. The other Elders have been working with him.

We had preparation day today as we worked yesterday, so today we got together as a Zone and went on a nice hike and it is a beautiful day today. Well, I am leaving tomorrow and still need to finish packing. Hopefully this is my last transfer till I go to Billings. Have a great week!

Elder Ashcroft

P.S Excited to hear I am an Uncle now! :)

Pinesdale Families

Hmm, there are a few exciting things that happened this week. We have been meeting with one of the many Jessop families and they met with President Sangster and President Sangster wrote a letter of recommendation for the Jessops to Salt Lake for them to be baptized. So they should be hearing back this week from Salt Lake finding out when they will have their interview and with which Apostle which is super exciting! We are super excited for them. Also, we've been working with another Jessop family and they will be having with an interview with President Sangster this week in which if it goes well President Sangster will write a letter for them to Salt Lake. Both the Jessop families have progressed so much this past 3 months! Another exciting thing is another Jessop family, who I helped teach in January of last year who were baptized are being sealed in the Temple at the Salt Lake Temple this Saturday! So happy and excited for all the Jessop families! Then just to talk about more Jessop family, we met with another Jessop family last night for dinner and Bro. Jessop is the Elders Quorum President so we had a good meeting with him last night. Believe me, it can be confusing sometimes with all the Jessop families! We also met with one of the Jessop's sisters, Sister Koerner who lives up in Pinesdale who is ready to join the church but we are waiting on the husband. We also met with the Powell family who are also up in Pinesdale and are waiting to hear from Salt Lake as well! I love teaching the Pinesdale people!

Hmm, oh yeah, we had Zone Leaders Training Wednesday, I feel that it went really well. The theme Elder Eiselin and I spoke on was Motivation. What stops us from being motivated and what motivates us and how to stay motivated once we are motivated. Elder Eiselin spoke of the six destructive D's. It is from the April 2009 conference talk by Elder Kevin W. Pearson "Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ." For my discussion I used the example of Alma the Younger and how he was rejected in Ammonihah and was about to leave and explained how he was not transferred, despite how much he felt like he did! Instead he got a (new) companion Amulek, and kept on teaching the people which led to success. How as we missionaries feel like we've done everything we think we could do and have no success, and find out you are staying in your area! President Mecham has told us to expect to stay in an area from 6-9 months. (Which is funny as I can't manage to stay in an area for very long, no longer than 5 months haha) So I explained that we must remain diligent and press forward. I spoke about attitude and what kind of attitude we must have. Anyway, Zone Leaders Training went very well.

I feel blessed to know that the Stevensville Zone is very obedient and diligent missionaries in this Zone and have had no issues which has been great! It has been amazing the see the transformation of this mission from when I first arrived till now! How the example of leadership has changed and how much more respect there is for the leadership and callings in the church. Been a great experience!

Love you all and have a great week!

Elder Ashcroft

Mothers Day

It was definitely nice to see and talk to the family yesterday! Seems like everything will be mostly set up for when I get home which is nice so I won't have to worry about the unknown!

Not a whole lot of excitement this week as far as missionary work goes. Things seem to be slowing down and we are searching for more people to teach. We of course have two amazing families we are working with from the Pinesdale group. In fact, we had dinner with one of them on Saturday. The Jessops are an Amazing Family and can't wait till they get through the interview process so they can be baptized!

So, President Mecham came to Stevensville Wednesday to interview the Zone. I was able to interview the missionaries before they went in to interview with President Mecham which is interesting how these interviews go. It was my first time interviewing Sister Missionaries which was an interesting experience. The interviews went great and all the missionaries got interviewed except for Elder Eiselin and I as President Mecham was behind schedule, so he will be interviewing us over the phone or facetime sometime in the future before transfer end.

There was a baptism for a Brother who was excommunicated and has been working his way back into the church for a little over a year now. So it was nice to see his baptism and Elder Eiselin and I were able to be the two witnesses. It turned out really nice.

Hmmm, my mind is blank and can't think of anything else that happened this week. Well, I suppose that is all, have a great week!

Elder Ashcroft

P.S. Ahah! Remembered Something! So there is something else, we just received 6 missionaries in our mission. These six missionaries were reassigned to our mission, leaving the Ukraine Donetsk Mission due to civil unrest. They arrived last Friday. Thought you might be interested in hearing about that. :)  [Devin's brother, Brandon, served in the Ukraine Donetsk Mission.]