Week 15

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Well this will be the first real holiday since I have been out on my mission.  We will be well taken care of on Thanksgiving.  We have a dinner appointment at noon and then another dinner appointment later in the day for leftovers.  I am sure that we will be fed well this week.  I hope each of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

We still haven't been able to meet with many of our investigators this week, but we have been teaching many lessons.  We taught 18 lessons this week to members.  We are hoping that this turns into some referrals.  We did actually meet with one of our investigators that we haven't met with for about a month, her name is Brittany.  We were able to teach her and set a baptism date with her for January 3.  Her and her fiancé are getting married on December 13.  This gets us through some of the issues since they have been living together.  Travis, her fiancé, is a member of the church, and he has just started coming back to church.  He has been in jail for the last while.  That would have been the highlight of the week except we had another great experience on Sunday.  Our new convert, Bob, was able to bless the Sacrament for the first time.  It is a real neat experience to see how he is growing and now utilizing the Priesthood.  He was very nervous and had to say the prayer twice since he didn't do everything right the first time.  I remember how nervous I was the first time as well.  We hope this will just be another step for him in his growth in the Church.

I hope you all have a great week! 

Love,
Elder Ashby

Elder Parkinson and I did some multi-tasking while we were planning.  Notice the Phoenix Temple made with thumb tacks...

Week 14

Hello everyone,

Well first things first....neither Elder Parkinson or I are going to be transferred tomorrow, so we are together at least 6 more weeks.  We are both pretty happy about that.  We had a trainer/trainee meeting on Friday, so I was able to see all of my MTC district.  It was really cool to see all of them again.  Only one of them will have a new companion at this point.

On Saturday this week we were able to go down to Phoenix and be a part of the Phoenix Arizona Temple Cultural Celebration.  It was really cool.  President Monson, President Uchdorf and President Perry were in attendance.  It was a good feeling being in their presence, even though we weren't able to meet them.  The Cultural Celebration focused on the 5 C's of Arizona: Copper, Citrus, Cattle, Cotton and Climate...President Uchdorf also said they missed one C....He said all of us that participated were COOL!  We were able to sing Called To Serve as we walked in the stadium with all of the missionaries in the Phoenix mission.  I was able to stand on the front row of the stage when we got there.  We also participated with the entire group in singing "Be the Light" which was the theme of the celebration.  We also learned the sign language to Be the Light.  It was a neat experience to be a part of that.  We didn't get home until 11:30pm that night...Glad our Mission President wasn't worried about curfew that night... :-) 

On Sunday we were able to watch the Temple dedication at the Stake Center.  I have never had the opportunity to be a part of a Temple dedication before.  It was a little different, but very cool.  One of the mothers of a missionary in our mission owns an embroidery company.  She embroidered all of the missionaries a white handkerchief with the Temple on it.  I will post a picture of this.  It is really cool.

The work with our investigators has been pretty slow this past week, but we have also been very busy with everything else.  It was a great week.  Christmas lights are starting to go up in the town of Williams...seems like time is flying by.

Love you all,
Elder Ashby

This is the handkerchief that was given to us from a missionary mom.

Flagstaff Zone Fun

 Standing from Left to Right: Chidester, Zaugg, Christensen, Lundquist, Pratt, ME, Shurtleff, Fife, Ford, Shepherd, Qwok, Madsen, Parkinson

Bottom from Left to Right: Graziano, McCombie, Hixson, Wooden, Knott

Week 13

Hello from Williams,

This week we went to a funeral for someone Elder Parkinson had taught.  Friday we had Zone Conference, which was bitter sweet because I love seeing the Zone, but I heard from two of our Elders that are going home in about a week.  Saturday we were able to go to the Mesa Temple with Barbara, Frankie and Bob to do Baptisms for the Dead.  They all had family names and it was really cool!

No new investigators this week, but we do have a couple of referrals we are going to contact soon.

The Cultural Celebration for the Phoenix Temple Dedication is this coming Saturday, November 15 at 7p MST.  It will be broadcast on lds.org as well as abc15.com.  We hope everyone can watch...Who knows you may see me singing!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Ashby

Mesa Temple Trip

 

Gave myself a haircut for the first time

 

Week 12

Hello everyone!

I hope all is well with everyone at home (where ever that may be).  Things here in Williams are going good.  It seems that we have hit a bit of a lull in the missionary work.  This week almost every lesson fell through.  We only were able to have six total lessons and none were with an investigator.  I am sure the Lord is testing us to see if we will continue to be obedient and keep working hard.  I know the hard work will pay off.

Transfers are coming up in a couple of weeks.  Elder Parkinson was only here a month before I came, so we really don't know if either of us will be transferred.  Member meals are going well.  Dad asked what is one of the more different things I have eaten....It would be biscuits with chocolate gravy.  It is delicious.

Our area here in Williams is huge.  This area is the largest in the mission by far.  It is over  600 square miles.  We don't get out to some of our surrounding areas much.  Ash Fork, Seligman and the Grand Canyon are some of the other towns.

Love you all,
Elder Ashby

We went to Ash Fork to visit a member.  They weren't home....but the goats were...