Week 56

Hello everyone...

September 8

Today was a good P-day! We basically just hung out and waited for the transfer news which took forever to come! Elder Anderson is being transferred! We had a good time playing truth tie and just messing around with everyone! We had dinner with one of Elder Stott's families. We then had splits where Elder Stott and I went to teach Jacque and Katie who didn't answer and Elder Anderson taught Jane Miller. We then went to Brother Gage's so Elder Stott could get his sternum adjusted because he's a chiropractor and then Elder Anderson started to pack!

September 9

Today was awesome! I got Elder Young as my companion who goes home in December so he's the Senior Zone Leader. It is his first time being a Zone Leader, so I'm kinda helping him know what to do, but it's good! We got back and had dinner with the Murray's! We had a really good Coordination then shared #WorthOfSouls message with Meyleah! Should be a really good transfer!

September 10

Today was great! We had a good weekly planning session and got prepared for Stake Coordination! We had dinner with the Kinghorn's who are really really cool! Our splits fell through  so we taught Jeremy and Kaylee then we shared #WorthOfSouls with Cameron and he was awesome enough to come to our lesson with Sister Dutey, her friend Judie and an ex. The lesson went well! We then introduced Elder Young to Brother Canova.

September 11

Today was really good! We went to both District Meetings and it was great to get to know all the missionaries new to the Zone, especially the trainees. It was really cool to have the experience to encourage the new missionaries with their struggles and made me grateful for the opportunity I have to be such a big influence on others as a leader! We had dinner dropped of by the Demarco's we had a lesson with Desiree which went well! Then we made some visits to end the night.

September 12

Today was pretty good! We ended up being triple booked for service this morning but it worked out and we went with Elder Nicholson, Cross, Wells and Miller to move someone which was a lot of fun! We then went to lunch at Chino Banditos, which is a weird cross between Mexican and Chinese food but it was really good! We taught Alice which went well. We had dinner with the Taylor's who are really cool! We made some visits to end the night. Something that really made me happy was when we stopped by to see how one of the members that had some struggles was doing. We found that he was doing well.  After planning he called us and told us he left something on our patio and we found some Burger King! It was cool to know how much we help those in our areas at times and to see how appreciative some people are!

September 13

Today was pretty good Desiree and Derek came to church. We had early morning Stake Coordination. We had dinner with the Rivera's. We went to Stake Priesthood Meeting, then made some visits before picking up Nicholson and Cross.

Hope you all have had a wonderful week.

Love you all,
Elder Ashby

Week 55

Greetings all!!!

August 31

Today was pretty good. Didn't do much for P-day but hang out at North Mountain Elders apartment and messing around with some of the Elders.

Our appointment with Rebekah fell through. Our FHE for YSA went really well! I was so pumped!

September 1

Today was pretty awesome! MLC (Mission Leadership Conference) was a lot better than I was expecting especially when President Griffin taught deep doctrine about the Sacrament! Elder Ockey was at the meeting because his companion was leading a discussion so it was fun to hang out with him and Jensen! We had to pick up dinner from the Rotches. We had splits but, only one person showed up so, we went and taught Desiree about the Word of Wisdom and she smoked during the lesson so..... But walking there some lady and guy talked to us and said they met with Missionaries in California and wanted to meet and Desiree had a friend show up at the end of the lesson who wants to come to church to so it was a weirdly productive night!

September 2

Today we met with the District Leaders and Sister Training Leaders to discuss Zone Meeting. We were supposed to have dinner with The Canovas but that fell through. We had a good Coordination Meeting then we made visits the rest of the night.

September 3

Today was good. We had our weekly planning after we took Elder Nicholson and Cross out to lunch. We had dinner with the Willerth family. We had a lesson with Jeremy and Kaylee. We made some visits to end the night.

September 4

Today was really good! We had Zone Meeting, which was legit! We had dinner with Bishop Hughes and his wife. We had a handoff lesson with Sister Hontonosas and Knott where we taught Jacque and Katie which went well, then we taught sister Miller. Elder Stott and Lui had given us some Thai food because It was super hot! But they didn't tell us this. Elder Anderson tried one bite and then I convinced him through competitiveness saying he couldn't eat the whole thing so he did and then proceeded to quench the fire with milk and made himself sick and ended up puking his guts out and then we called Elder Stott and Lui and we all laughed that Elder Anderson actually ate the whole thing!

September 5
Today was a very interesting day. Elder Nicholson was sick and Elder Anderson still felt sick from the Thai food, so Elder Cross and myself worked together today! We had a lot of fun putting a video together for our Facebook initiative which turned out great! We had dinner with a family from their ward. We had our lesson with Desiree fall through and then we met with one of their Ward Mission Leaders before returning to our companions!

September 6

Today was a good day. We had normal Ward Council and Cactus View Church as well as YSA Ward Council but then we had to miss our YSA Ward's Church because we went and picked up Elder Stott and Lui to take Elder Lui to the Mission Home because he catches his flight to head out to New Guinea today! Gonna miss Elder Lui! We got back and had dinner with one of Elder Stott's families! We had two lessons fall through so we made some visits before going and saying goodbye to Elder Ramos who will be going to the Mission Home tomorrow.

September 7

Today was good. We went to a Chinese buffet for lunch with Elder Nicholson and Cross. We had a lesson with a lady named Nikki, but it fell through. We had dinner with Brother Baum. We had a lesson with our YSA investigator, Derek, which was good then we went over to sister Simon's house.


Hope you all have had a wonderful week!

Love,
Elder Ashby

Week 54

Hello from Phoenix....

August 24

Today was a pretty good P-day! We woke up and had to replace our morning exercise with changing our flat tire...We went out to eat with Nicholson, Cross, Wells, and Ramos because Ramos only has a few P-days left! We played volleyball and basketball. We taught Desirae which went ok. Then we met with our family Ward Mission Leader to tune my guitar and to talk about Facebook!

August 25

We took Elder Cross and Nicholson to the Mission Office to figure out all of Elder Cross's insurance stuff. We got back and helped our investigator, Salwa, take some of the junk she's not bringing to Utah to Goodwill. We had dinner with Brother Murray and his parents. We then had splits where Elder Anderson had me go and do the rest of the stuff with Salwa which included taking some of her appliances back to Costco to return. That didn't make me too happy, but it all worked out.

August 26

Today was good. We had a Zone service project which was a blast! We then realized that we were supposed to exchange with Nicholson and Cross, so Elder Nicholson came to our area with me. We had a good day.

We had dinner with Brother Villareal which was really good! We had coordination and then our lesson with Jaun fell through and we made some visits before exchanging back. Elder Anderson and I worked out our issues which was good!

August 27

Today was good. We had weekly planning and then we got our flat tire fixed. We had dinner with the Rajjes which was really good! We contacted a referral from our Elders Quorum President and set up an appointment and then made visits to end the night because the Lunts had to cancel our lesson.

August 28

District Meeting was good today. We were supposed to meet with Our YSA Ward Mission Leader, Jason, but he forgot so we went to dinner with the Blacks which was good. We had a lesson with Meyliah and then we went and helped Salwa load her moving truck.  We exchanged for the next day Elder Weeks is here with me!

August 29

Today Elder Weeks and I helped clean the Church. We had some short studies and then  had a lesson with Alice which went well. We had a lesson with Randy Decker fall through and then we had dinner with the Rosenburg's which was awesome. We had a Baptismal Interview which went really well. Then we did exchange wrap ups it was a a really good day with Elder Weeks and was a lot of fun!

August 30

Today was a good day. Desiree and Alice came to Church, but we had low end lessons so it wasn't very good. We had a linger longer before our YSA Ward meetings, which was yummy! We met with Jason to plan FHE tomorrow! We had dinner with the Donnor's. We made visits the rest of the night.

Hope you all have had an excellent week!

Love,
Elder Ashby

We found some awesome beards...I think we rock them!

Fun service projects!!!

This was a crazy painting we found...

Week 53

Greeting from Arizona!

August 17
P-Day was a lot of fun today, Zone activity included volleyball, speedball and wallball. We went to FHE and then taught Meyleah, which went well. We then exchanged with Elder Stott and Lui. Elder Stott came to our area with me.

August 18

Today was a lot of fun! Elder Stott and I got along great!

Unfortunately all three of our investigator lessons cancelled. We picked up dinner from the West's and on the way home someone asked us to come help them move right then, so we told them we would hurry and eat and head over. While heading over they called us again telling us it was taken care of. We taught a less active member, Jane Miller. The highlight of the day was meeting with our YSA Ward Mission Leader and getting him on board with the social media. It was awesome and we earned a lot of trust from him as result of it. We are going to meet with our Bishop tomorrow to get him on board so we can bring it up in Ward Council! Another highlight was giving Cameron Jones a blessing of comfort and counsel.

August 19

Today was pretty legit! We went to both District Meetings due to interviews this Friday. We had dinner with the Manusina's who were really cool! We had coordination which went really well and then Elder Anderson wasn't feeling very great so we relaxed before we met with the YSA Bishop to get him on board with Facebook and it went super great and he really respected the fact that we went through him before starting anything. Then we went and visited Elder Anderson's cousins in the ward because they had some of his family friends down visiting so he talked to them for a bit!

August 20

Today was pretty good. We had weekly planning and then we had dinner with Brother Marcott who is hilarious! We had a very interesting lesson with Randy Decker, talked about a lot of things including the illuminati. We then went out with Aaron Gidwani and made visits with him the rest of the night which was really good. As we were coming back to our apartment an old missionary Elder Burgoyne came by and talked to us which was weird but cool!

August 21

Today was not a normal day. We had to set up the Church for interviews today. We went to the Mission office with Elder Cross and Nicholson to have him turn in his insurance stuff to find out the office closes just before we got there which really made me mad that the Assistants didn't tell us. We got back and had interviews, which went well. Looks like I will be taking over the area as a Senior Zone Leader with another young missionary but we will see what happens. Our lesson with Desiree fell through. We taught Salwa which went really, really well.

Augusts 22

Today was good. We helped clean the Church. We had lunch with the Lunt's. We taught Alice and put her on date for September! We had dinner with the Archer's which was weird because his name was Trent and he is a physical therapist! We taught Makaila and then got a slurpee!

August 23

Today was pretty good. Desirae and her boyfriend, as well as Alice came to church. My talk went well.  I also taught a good lesson in Gospel Principles. We had dinner with the Huff's which was really good and really weird because they are related to President Huff our Elders Quorum President from Sahuaro Ranch and he was at dinner! We taught Salwa which went well!


Hope you all have had a great week.

Love you all,
Elder Ashby

Morning exercise turned into changing a flat tire...

Week 52

Happy Hump Day!!!!  I can't believe that it has been one year already.  Here is the week in review....

August 10

Happy Birthday Ethan! Today was a pretty lame P-day as Elder Anderson volunteered us to take Elder Stott and Elder Lui to go tie shopping and then we sat at their house for a long time. We finally went to the church to play some three way volleyball. We made some visits to end the night.

August 11

Today was pretty good. We had lessons with Jessica and a less active member with a 9 year old daughter cancel on us. We had dinner dropped off and we weren't able to teach Maylia, a recent convert, because we couldn't get a male to come with us. We made some visits the rest of the night and we have exchanges with the Assistants so I am with Elder Canny in their area!!!

August 12

Today was a blast! We had a service opportunity in the morning that their whole Zone went to. We cleaned up a bunch of garbage on two houses in the ghetto! We went and visited one of their Ward Missionaries and shared a message. Dinner was really good, I don't remember the family's name. We taught their investigator Ben. Our lesson with Curtis cancelled. Had a really good day with Elder Canny!

August 13 - HUMP DAY!!!!

Pretty good day today! No packages yet but I'm sure they will be arriving soon. We had weekly planning which went well. We had a lesson with Trisha who is going through some hard times after being laid off from her job. We went to 5 Guys with the Twiggs, which was really good!

We had splits where I visited some potential investigators and talked to an inactive member who wants to come back and have his girlfriend take the lessons which was really cool.  They are not in our ward unfortunately, but I was still really excited! Then we went to Macdon's for an ice cream cone!

August 14

Today was really good. I got my hump day package from Mattie which was really surprising haha! We had District Meeting which went really well and we were able to see how the other Missionaries have done with the social media and I was very impressed that they took what I had talked about and ran with it which made me really happy! We went with Hermana Johnson and Sister Barton to a lesson with one of their investigators who is YSA age who they are going to try and hand off to us. The lesson went really well. We had dinner with the Bryson's which was good! We made visits the rest of the night and set up an appointment with Desirae.

August 15

Today was pretty good. We went over to Brother Cleverly's to help him out with some odds and ends and he taught us a little about sprinklers! We had a lesson with a new investigator from the family ward, Alice who was raised RLDS but she is interested in meeting with us.  The lesson went well and should be interesting to teach her. We had dinner with the Rotches and then had a lesson with Makaila Chalia and made a couple visits before taking Elder Nicholson and Elder Cross out for celebratory Cold Stone for finding a new solid investigator!

August 16

Today was pretty good. We had two investigators that we weren't expecting that came to church. We taught a guy named Randy between Church and for dinner before we ate with the Donnor's. We then went with Brother Donnor to our lessons with the Rayborns and Desirae . We put Desirae on baptismal date for the 26th of September. We then went and I did a baptismal interview which went well. Then we went and picked up Elder Nicholson and Cross to come over.

Well that is my week....Hope all is well with everyone.

Love you all,
Elder Ashby

Here is a rap that Elder Ashby wrote about his last area in Prescott Valley

Week 51

Greetings all!!!

August 3
Today was a pretty good P-day. Elder Anderson got his haircut today. We went to the Stake Center to play basketball and volleyball which was really fun! We made visits the whole night.

August 4

Today was pretty good. Finally finished the book, Jesus the Christ!!! We had MLC (Mission Leadership Conference) for a big chunk of the day and I really enjoyed it for the most part!

We got back and had dinner with the Carpenters. We then taught Trisha, which went ok. We made a few visits to end the night.

August 5

Today was an average day. We took Elder Weeks his bike that we picked up from the Mission Office yesterday. We taught Jessica the first lesson who has a boyfriend on a mission, she will be moving up to Flagstaff in a couple weeks. We took Elder Stott and Lois to the bike shop so they could get one of their tires fixed. We had dinner with Sister Simon and the other Elders because our appointment couldn't feed us tonight. We had coordination meeting and then taught a recent convert, Juan, about the priesthood.

August 6

Today was pretty uneventful missionary wise. After Studies I wrote a little rap. We went to lunch at a Mexican restaurant because Elder Lois got his visa and will be taking off to New Guinea on Monday, so we went with Stott, Lois, Cross, and Nicholson. We went to the Church with Elder Nicholson and Cross, so Elder Cross could practice his musical number with Hermana Johnson. Then we had to go to the Mission Office to pick up Elder Lois packages. We did our weekly planning and then Brother Marcott took us to a Chinese buffet for dinner. Our appointment with some members didn't show up so we made visits and then went to Sister Simon's house to rap with Elder Cross and Nicholson which was so much fun!!!

August 7

Today was busy, but good! We had lunch with Nicholson and Cross as usual. Then we had Zone Meeting, which went really well but longer than we expected so we had to cancel on Trisha. We had dinner with the Squires. Then we got a call from Brother Lychlyter asking if I could give a talk on Sunday because someone told him they couldn't speak, so we did some things on Facebook then I wrote my talk.

August 8

Today was a really fun day! We had to drive to the Mission Home to pick up more packages for Elder Lui, who leaves for New Guinea on Monday! His family sent him a dang kitchen full of junk food it was ridiculous! We had to figure out all the recent converts information today for Stake Coordination tomorrow which was not so fun! We had dinner dropped off by Sister Johnson. We then went and picked up a guitar to borrow from the Jacksons which made me so happy!!!! We had a lesson with a recent convert, Makaila, which went really well. Then I finally got to meet our family ward's Ward Mission Leader because they were out of town and he tuned the guitar for me!!!

August 9

Today was pretty good. We had an early morning due to Stake Coordination but it went well and I got President Hettinger on board with all the Facebook things! Church was good we had Ashli come and a investigator that moved into our ward named Jacque Short. It was another long day. The Jacksons dropped off dinner then we went and made visits the rest of the night.

Hope you all have a great week!

Love you all,
Elder Ashby

Family's from Prescott Valley...

Platt's

O'Conner's

Kriwer's

Reed's

Brower's

Jeffery's

North Phoenix Zone

Week 50

Greetings from the Phoenix North Area

As a Zone Leader my companion and I are over 2 different Wards, Cactus View (family) Ward and the North Phoenix Young Single Adult Ward.

July 28
P-day wasn't very eventful but fortunately my email was working well so emailing went really well. I got a call from President Griffin about being a Zone Leader, but unfortunately it was in a different Zone which wasn't what any of us expected. I am still really excited for the upcoming transfer.

July 29

Today was a blast! Transfers went well and was so much fun to see everyone like Oliphant, Ockey, Earl, Melsen, everybody! The meeting was very long because we had Mission Conference right after the transfers. Our meeting went from having a leadership meeting at 9am and the Mission Conference ending at 4pm. My new companion is Elder Anderson, he seems pretty cool! We got back to Phoenix North in the Cactus View (Family ward) and the Phoenix North YSA ward. We had coordination with the YSA Ward which went really well then we taught Ashley one of the YSA potential investigators, which was an interesting lesson, but I think we will be able to help her as we continue to meet with her.

Pretty good day.

July 30

Today was really good. We went and trained the two new District Leaders on their duties. We had lunch with Elder Cross and Nicholson.

We did our weekly planning. We had dinner with the Cooks from the family ward which was really good. We made visits the rest of the night which, included talking to a drunk lady who was the sister of a less active member, but she might sit in on a lesson when we set one up with the Sister so we will see where that goes.

July 31

Today was pretty good! We had lunch with Elder Nicholson and Cross again, which is apparently a fairly common occurrence. We went to the other districts District Meeting for a little bit before heading to our District Meeting which went well! We had some YSA members, Charlie and Nick, take us to Panda Express for dinner.  They were a cool couple. We taught one of our investigators, Christa, which was ok.  She didn't really pay attention because of her young daughterc but it was still a good lesson.

Tomorrow we are meeting with a referral from one of our members who seems to be absolutely golden and solid!!!

August 1

Today was pretty good! When we were leaving lunch with the other Elders we had stolen back Elder Anderson's Nesquick and Elder Nicholson saw it, so he came running out after us and we started to drive away so he jumped in the back of our truck bed, haha! We made some visits in the afternoon and then went to Taco Bell with the other Elders. We had a short lesson with our investigator, Deserae, which went pretty well. Then we taught our referral, Trisha, who was either really tired or is just kinda crazy, but she is a golden investigator and was asking when she can be baptized but we are going to wait till the next lesson to set a date with her. Pretty good day though.

August 2

Today was pretty good. Going to two Wards was kinda tough with all the meetings, haha. Church was good though. Trisha came and seemed to like it! After church we had dinner with the Donnor's who are pretty cool.

We made some visits the rest of the night then picked up Elder Nicholson and Cross to sleep over as tomorrow is P-day!

I hope all is well with everyone! 

Love you all,
Elder Ashby

I found some Pirate booty!!!  Arrrggghhhh....

Elder Anderson is really tall.  He reminds me of my buddy from High School, Max.  Elder Anderson is from Canada!