Short but sweet... well maybe not that sweet.

October 21, 2013

Sorry, I don't have too much time... 

Can't decide what to write this week... 

We were going through a few papers that we had for this area and we found the name of this one person named betty from about 7 years ago, and we didn't know why, but we figured we'd try to find her. Her address was on the paper, but it was for these apartments that usually people don't live in for too long, so we weren't too sure if we'd find her. And it's in a part of town that's a bit sketchy, so we decided to go during the middle of the day, which is siesta, which was making our chances of finding her even more slim...

But so we went out walking clear out to these apartments on a super hot day and after a bit we finally found the right apartment door. So we knocked and this lady answers and we ask her if she's betty (its probably a bit creepy how missionaries know the names of everyone haha). But she said she was and asked us how we knew. So we explained that we were missionaries for la iglesia de jesucristo de los santos de los ultimos días and she immediately got super wide eyed and surprised! She invited us in instantly and then continued to tell us all about how more than 7 years ago two boys had passed by her house just after her mother had passed away and how they were such a light and help to her. She said they visited her couple times, but then they both left (there's been a few times when the missionaries have been taken out of allen). But she had never forgotten them. She then told us that she was going through another hard time and had just been praying to recieve help when within only moments later we knocked on her door. She said she's nearly never home at time time that we passed by, but for whatever reason, that day she was. 

    Now you can't tell me that is a coincidence that has just happened to happen 2 times within the space of 7 years. 

This helped me to realize even more how the lord always sends help when it is most needed. He is so mindeful of each and everyone of us and our needs. I know that. 

I'm excited to visit more with betty and hopefully help her to progress. 

Love you all so very much and miss you too.

You're always in my prayers.

hermana ashcroft

P.S. I'm so sad to hear about caralee and am praying so much for caralee and all of you. 

P.S.S.- I recieved a letter from Brandon Ashcroft this week ( I was actually suppose to get it about 3 weeks ago, but some district leaders forgot to send it to me). If you're reading this brandon, thanks so much! I really loved hearing from you and you're letter meant a lot to me:)

-now you guys have to find out if brandon really actually read that haha

P.S.S.S- I still love all of you so very much!

Allen, Argentina

October 14, 2013

Hola to all,

So Friday I received my new companion that I'm training. Her name's Hermana Gil and she's from peru. She came straight from the Argentine MTC. She left for the mission almost right after she turned 19 and she's super sweet! Although, now that I've learned to understand the Argentine, Colombian, and Mexican accents, I'm working on understanding Peruvian (is that correct?...haha). I can understand her, but every country is defintiely distinct in how they talk and there's some things that she has to say about 5 times untill I know what she said haha. Also just beacuse she talks kinda quite. But she really is so nice! A bit timid, but her testimony is strong and she's super willing to learn. Which means that I have to be ready to teach haha. It's honestly a bit nervewracking to be incharge of our planning, studying, and the lessons. Especially since I can't say that I understand perfectly yet or talk all that great either. The last 2 days my tounge has felt tired speaking spanish cause I'm spaking a lot more now that I need to demonstrate and explain everything to her. She speaks pretty good english, but we nearly always speak spanish (which is good for me, cause I need to learn more haha). 

Our area is really pretty (in comparison to my last at least) and it's lots of groves. There's lots of fruit trees here. And our pension in super nice! It's super pretty with a really nice garden and everything. The only downside is that the hot water doesn't work yet... Our showers are so cold that i get brain freezes!!! haha it's really like jumping in that lake with the iceberg. At some point or another though, they should be fixing that. Hopefully sooner rather than later haha. Oh and my companion likes to run! I went running today for the first time since the CCM! Definitely have gotten fat... haha but I was just so happy to run this morning, I even work up at 6 so that we could have more time to run, that shows how excited i was haha. 

Yesterday at chruch there were about 35 people, including the 6 of us missionaries (4 elders and us 2 sisters) that now pertain to this ward. And there's supposedly about 800 members in this area.... so there's lots of work to be done and we'll be working lots with less actives again. It's a bit tricky opening an area and lots of organizing to do, but I honestly am seeing so many blessings. In the last 2 days I've realized that all the things I wasn't sure if I could do while training, the lord has helped me with. I'm saying words that i've never used or heard and I'm able to know what to do. There's no doubt in my mind that it's only because of the blessings that i'm recieving. I really know now how if we do all that we can, the lord really does make up the rest for us so that we can do that which we wouldn't normally be able to do. 

well, I don't have much more time, but I want to leave 2 scritpures for you guys to look up- Mosiah 7:33 and 2 Nephi 28:32. There both super short. Simple, but great. 

I love you all so much! And pray for you at least 3 times a day. I'll try to send some pictures and a more intersting e-mail the next week haha. 

thanks for the photos dad! I loved them! Glad you guys all got my letter that I send with elder kimball, sorry it took 4 months to get to you haha. 

Con Cariño, 

Hermana Ashcroft

Another Transfer

October 7, 2013

So my time in Plaza Huincul is over. Friday I'll being going to Neuquen to get my new companion. Don't know who she is yet, cause I'll be training, but she'll have to be patient with me cause I'll be opening another new area with her. My area is called Allen and it's in a brand new zone that they're opening as well called Chipoleti (I think that's right, but I'm not sure...) My companion is staying here, but she'll be training as well. 

So I'm finally going to send a few pics.. well perhaps only 2 cause it takes a long time haha. But the first one is super legit! My companion and I are famous in plaza Huincul forever now. A kid from a less active family that we visit gets permission to do grafiti all throughout the city, and we convinved him to put us in one of his pieces. Look to the clouds. So although I'll be leaving here, I've left my mark. Hopefully in more ways that just a name on a building (although that's pretty cool) The people here really are great and I've loved talking with and teaching them.  I'm sad to be leaving all our investigators we've found here that are progressing so well towards baptism. 

Well the other picture is of the part that I won't miss all that much about Plaza Huincul... this is the "San Juan"... It's basically a big dried up river, but it never actually was a river... It's for if it rains realy hard one time (alhtough it never really rains here haha) So basically its just full of trash and wonderful smells... And well sometimes my companion and I were too lazy or in too much of a rush to walk around to where there is a bridge, so we just walked through it... haha. 

Oh a couple days ago was crazy! Out of nowhere it started hailing!! Like hail you have never seen before! Some of them were the size of large grapes and it was intensely strong!! We couldn't open our eyes and it hurt a lot haha. It only lasted about 5 minutes, but we were in the streets the whole time, running to try to find cover somewhere. Honestly, I can't even explain how crazy it was. We lived though, so that's good. It's finally warming up though and we've had some really nice days.

So general conference was great, although we couldn't get it in english here, I still loved it. I know without a doubt, that the apostles and prophets really are called of god.  Also, a scripture that I studied this week was John 8:1-12. I won't tell you what it is, cause I want you all to read it for yourselves. Even if you recognize it, re-read all of it. And think about it. It's a story that I've been told may times, but only just realized the power and love that it has. It's not long, so nobody has the excuse to not read it. Really it helped me lots and I know that the message it brings can help everyone. 

Les Quiero cada uno de ustedes! 

con cariño,

Hermana Ashcroft

Stuck in el Baño

So there's lots that I could say, about the country, my companion, the area, the people, the work... but this week with my bit of time, I'm going to tell you about my interesting experience....

So our landlord hired somebody last monday to but up a small retaining wall in our bathroom the keep the water in while we shower. (which is super nice cause now everything won't just flood all over the floor haha). Well we couldn't use our shower for 2 days after that so that the cement could dry, so he told us that we could use the bathroom he has in the garage to shower in the mornings. So the next morning I was super exhausted (i'ts important to know that) and my companion hiked down the stairs and showered first in the garage. When she came back up, obviously I went down. So I walked into the garage and into the bathroom and immediately Pushed the door shut behind me (like anyone would do..) However, I realized immediately afterwards that there wasn't a door handle on this door.... and when the doors here shut, they shut real good, with no hole or gap to open them. Well this realization immediately woke me up real good! I looked around and saw that there was nothing but a tiny tiny window too high to reach and the entire bathroom was about my arms length. Never have I felt so clausterphobic!! I had no idea what to do haha! Now this bathroom is directly beneath our bathroom, so I got the Idea to take the brook stick that was in the bathroom and bang on the cieling, hoping for my companion to notice that it was me. However, all she thought was "how weird that someone is doing contruction this early". Finally I rememberd that the tiny bathroom window in our apartment was open, so I started jumping to open the window in this bathroom so that I could yell and she would hopefully hear me. Well I succeded in opening the window, but my companion was listening to the music just loud enough that she couldn't hear me shouting for her saying "HERMANA! Estoy aqui!! AYUDAME!". So I resorted to banging the ceiling again, and I remembered that the other day I had thaught her the tune "Da Da Da Da Da.. DA DA!" (oops... just realized you guys can't necesarrily read what tune that is... haha well take a guess if you can). Anyways I started banging that super loud and the whole time I just kept thinkinking "my companions got to come get me sometime! There's no way she can't realize that I am taking way too much time in the bathroom". Well meanwhile my companion is just thinking " How funny that the construction sounds a bit like the tune hermana ashcroft taught me!!" EN SERIO!?!? 

well my companion did eventually come to see why I still wasn't back... 45 minutes later!!! She walked down and I heard her say "hermana?..." I responed "Aqui estoy!" and she finally realized it and asked me if it was me that had been doing the ´contruction´... hahha. And then she had to wake up the land lord for him to find the door handle to get me out.. hahah. Maybe it's not as funny in writing, but I honestly could not believe that I litterally got stuck in a bathroom. 

Well other than that lovely experience, things are going great! We've got another baptism date for the end of october for a single mother named Alejandra. The story of how she's changed and began to accept listeing to us is really awesome because at the begining she didn't want anything to do with us, and only a few week later she was chazing us down the street to give us her new phone number so we could call to set up a meeting. Obviously there's more, but in short, it's a great example of how the spirit really can change people's hearts. 

Transfers are at the end of this week... there's a lot more hermanas coming, so I'm pretty sure that my companion and I are going to seperate.. which is sad cause we get along so well and have such a great time together. But I'm excited to see what will happen. Let you know when I do. 

love you all to the moon and back (which by the way, I saw an eclipse a couple weeks ago!) 

pray for you all everyday! 

Hermana Ashcroft

PS- A good shout out to Grandma Ashcroft! Gracias G-ma for the great letter! love you lots! 

PSS- Spanish sign language is awesome! I'm loving learning a bit of it with the lady in our area that is deaf. My compaion and I have a great time trying to talk in sign language together haha. 

also- still love you all :)

Hay Sol

September 23, 2013

sooo... sometimes I don't know what to say... haha. 

I want to send some photos, but la verdad, I can't really figure it out... technology and i have never mixed well haha

well... yeah, the weather is super nice today por fin! Hay sol! Our investigator facundo is continuing to progress slowly but surely which is super good!

did you know argentina doesn't have brown sugar!?? it doesn't exist here! they only have this black sugar stuff and white sugar... I was a bit disappointed to find that out cause I wanted brown sugar to eat with my polenta. 

OH! I nearly forgot! After 5 months, I have FINALLY tried the famous Argentine Asado that everyone talks about!! I've eaten lots of meat here and it's all good, but never Asado, cause it's really expensive, untill sunday. And let me tell you.... It is the best thing I have ever eaten!! Every bit of meat has a different distinct delicious flavor!! And you feel so carnivourous cause you just eat it all with your hands but it's so juicy and delicious that you don't even care. my companion and I almost thought about never brushing our teeth again so that we could keep the flavor in our mouths! (don't worry, I eventually brushed my teeth...) 

Anyways, it was delicous. try not to be too jealous thinking about it. 

The work is going good here, it's a pretty slow town... but we're meeting more and more people and hopefully we can start getting some more investigators and menos activo families to work with. It's so weird how fast time goes! I really can't even believe it! Oh and can't remember if I ever said this or not, but super funny that I kid I went to highschool with and was in the same seminary class is actually my district leader haha. his name's elder Todd Kimball. Great missionary, he finishes his mission at the end of this transfer and I might ask him to bring some stuff to you guys... don't know, just a thought still. but if so, anything you'd like me to send? has to be small. 

I'm loving the mission, but I miss you all lots. 

sorry this is kinda a lame letter this week, i was trying to figure out how to send photos, but couldn't really figure it out... so sorry for that too haha. 

lots of love and prayers!

hermana ashcroft

Gatos y Perros

September 16, 2013

Hola, (sometimes I feel like this is still the only word I can say that will be understood haha)

So I was going to send you guys some photos this week, but about 15 seconds after I turned on my camera to plug it into the computer, it died... so you'll have to wait for the next week. 

So we visit this family about once a week that has a daughter that is preparing to get baptised, and they live in a house behind the grandma's house. It's more temporary and is just one room for the 12 of them. The 2 parents, 2 kids, and 8 gatos!! That's 8 cat's in case you didn't know. hahah It is crazy how many cats there are! It's such a good thing that cats are one of the few things that I'm allergic to... haha. Since it's really cold though, my runny nose just looks like I have a cold when I'm in their house haha. Although one day I made the mistake of touching my eyes and I looked like I was getting super emotional from our lesson because of how watery and red my eyes were haha.

Now the perros- there's this alley that we walk down every day to and from our apartment, but we have to be super careful cause sometimes the dogs gang up on us. Now there's always a ton of dogs everywhere, but this alley has a billion! Nearly all the dogs seem to hate us to. One day we stood for about 5 minutes in the same spot cause about 8 dogs decided to gang up on us and we were so sure that they were going to attack. I think they know that my companion is super scared of the dogs and that's why they're always after us. The dogs really can be vicious (I can't for the life of me figure out how to spell that word)... but anways, the other day, we saw something in the street, so we walked up to it and it turned out to be the leg of a dog! The dogs had literally torn this dog apart! I've seen lots of dead cats from dogs, but that was the first time i'd seen that. Sorry if that was too much... 

Although that's all part of the mission, it's really not the stuff that I'm going to remember the most. The truth is that it's this work in general that's amazing and the people that I'm going to remember. These things are more difficult to put into words though than stories about cats and dogs. 

A scripture that really helped me this week though was Alma 38:5. Read it and think about it. Also, if you can, look up a talk that was in the September 2012 Liahona- It's called "como viven los discípulos de cristo en tiempos de guerra y violencia" by David Brent Marsh. It's helped me a lot this week. 

I love you all so much and pray for you everyday. I'm sending some special prayers for Mark and Heather and the Crawford family and Dale and Bill as well. 

Hermana Ashcroft

P.S.- It's still cold.... I realized the other day that i've been living in the cold for a year now... try not to get too depressed thinking about that haha.  

P.S.S.- spanish is still hard. 

P.S.S.S.- I still am so happy to be here though! Even when I'm not happy, I'm happy. If that is even possible.

P.S.S.S.S.- I really do read your letters and love them, sorry if I forget to reply to things though.

P.S.S.S.S.S.- that's all the P.S.'s for now. 

Vientoso

September 11, 2013

Hola familia, 

Sorry I didn't write monday... the wind here is incredible. It's like aruba here were it's nearly always windy, but the wind here is 20 times stronger! All the power was out monday from the wind and tuesday there still wasn't internet in the cybers. Our district leader let our zone leader know that we couldn't leave our houses or write cause of the wind, and then told us that if we didn't have appointments that we didn't have to leave. My companion and I had worked hard to get appointments that monday night though, so we didn't want to cancel them. Cause it can be so hard to get people to commit to a cita. So we left our apartment to walk to 35 minutes to our appointement and I cant even tell you how crazy it was! We were nearly falling over from the wind! I was lauging so hard cause I couldn't believe it, but that just caused me to eat a lot of sand... we practically walked blinded cause we couldn't really open our eyes. I think I've got about 10 pounds of sand that entered my body through my nose ears mouth, and every other hole we've got... at least now I can blame that 10 pounds of weight I've gained on the sand (I've definitely gained a lot of weight... pasta and pan... no bueno haha). We survived the wind though and made it to our 2 citas that night and both of them actually were home and opened the door for us! (although with that wind its not like they could have been anywhere else haha)

Tuesday continued with really strong wind, but not quite as bad, and it's a lot calmer today. But supposedly the really strong wind is common here... We have to be careful with what skirts we wear haha. 

We're teaching a girl named Monica that can't hear, so my companion and I are trying to learn sign language now too... Spanish sign language is a lot different than english sign language if you were wondering. Monica knows how to talk really well and can read lips pretty well, but there's lots that we have to learn in sign language to be able to communicate better with her. So now am not only trying to learn spanish, but spanish sign language as well... haha. I always feel like I have so much more to learn... with the language, the gosple, the scriptures and everything! But that's really what everything is about right? continuing progressing and learning more and more every day. there's always more that we can learn, and I'm really loving learning all that I can. Doesn't mean it's not hard though haha. 

We got an investigator named facundo this past week that made me think of Andy. He really is like the argentine version of andy with how similar he is to him. The way he talks, looks, acts... and to me it was a tender mercy from the lord. I know without a doubt that the plan of salvation is real. And as sad as it may be at this time, the plan of salvation gives us a much bigger picture of the purpose of life and the happiness we can recieve from knowing of god's plan for us.

I love you all so much! I was gonna send some pictures, but the computer doesn't have a plug in thingy for my camera haha.

Things are changing rapidly in the mission work. we're no longer counting contacts (not that we've stopped making them, they're just not in our weekly reports) and we no longer count 'other lessons'... our estandarte is based only on lessons with members present now, and lessons with recent converts and less actives. Every lesson with investigators now should be with a member. The mission is working hard to strengthen the barrios through member relationships. And the obra misonal is growing and changing so much! it's incredible. 

anyways, no more time. Hope all is well! 

Hermana AShcroft

Plaza HUINCUL

September 2, 2013

So turns out I was misinformed on how to spell Plaza Huincul.... I found out once I got here that I'd been spelling it wrong haha. 

My new companion is Hermana Garcia from Mexico and she's super great! She's new to argentina, but served 6 months in Mexico. So I'm helping her learn how things work in this mission and about argentina and she's helping me with all the talking and being a missionary haha. I honestly still have so much spanish to learn... and I'm still not all that great, but It's coming. And my companion likes to talk a lot, so hopefully I'll learn even better! 

She and I are the first hermanas in this area for about 7 years now... it was previously part of the area of the elders, but they didn't focus in this part, so we're basically starting from scratch... It's hard, but we're learning together. the area is really big. 

Sorry, don't have more time... but I love you all so much! 

hermana ashcroft

PS- I'm so sad to hear about andy... please tell bill and dale that I am praying for them. 

Chou Trevelin

So we got the call for the transfers saturday night just before bed, and I'm leaving to go open up a new area. It's called Plaza Huincol. My new compañera is Hermana Garcia I think... Can't remember. Anyways, I leave wednesday at 4pm from esquel. I get to Bariloche at 9pm and then leave from bariloche at 11pm and get to Neuquen at 4:45am Thursday. Then at 11 o'clock that night I leave neuquen for Cutralcol and get there just before 1am and then take a taxi from there to my new area. Definitely a LOT of traveling. I'm just hoping I can sleep more then I've been able to the other times in the colectivos. 

They called my up to bare my testimony yesterday in church for the last time, and I didn't think I was going to, but i definitely cried. It's been so hard to say good-bye to the people here. When they learned I was leaving they all were so sweet and have written me so many notes and farewell gifts. It killed me to see little 8 year old Micaela cry so hard during church when she found out I was leaving. We've been teacher her and her parents and have been helping to get them married so they can get baptised, but it's gonna be at the end of September that they are able to do that all because of papers, so I won't be here. As well as the baptism of 3 other investigators that we've been teaching that i'm gonna miss. I'm so happy for them though. I taught the gosple principles class this sunday. It's the class for the recent converts and investigators. My first sunday here we had one person in the class. Yesterday there were 9! and that's been our average for the last few weeks now. It's incredible the growth! Our chaple is nearly full now on sundays! It makes me so happy to see how the gosple can change peoples lives for the better!

Love you all lots! sorry i don't have more time... siesta... things close down early. 

Hermana Ashcroft

La Torre oe Babel

Lauren and Hermana Obando

It snowed this week in Trevelin.

Sorry...but thank you!!

Sorry, I don't really have time to write this week... yesterday was a day 'franco' por casi todo de argentina. Entonces everything was closed and we couldnt go to a cyber to write. And the cyber is only open for a few more minutes now cause of siesta.... aregentina is always sleeping... if I wasn't a missionary, id probably love it haha.

The people here have the ability to make the oldest run down cars in the world still run and work. Sometimes I can't help but smile so big when I am in the car of some of the members. It made me think though... if these cars are still running, you guys can make sure stella continues running! haha so please do that for me. 

I really am loving everythinig so much!! There definitely are hard days and times, but I am just so happy to actually be here and to be sharing the gosple with these people! Although, I often feel that I am learning more from them than them from me. Spanish is still hard... haha but it comes when needed. 

Trnasfers are at the end of this week and we found out that they are sending 2 elders to trevelin!! WOOOHH!! the work is growing incredibly here! we are so exited for the extra support! WE're also super anxious to see what's going to happen with us. One of us is going to leave (we believe atleast) but we dont't know who... The next monday though you guys will know if i'm still in trevelin or a new area... Dun dun dun.... hope you guys could hear the intensity of my voice with that. haha 

love you all so much!! haha and thanks mom and hailey for the pictures! I LOVE them! I hope I look half as good as you mom! 

I know this church is true! No doubt. The book of mormon really is so great, it's like an intense storry!! haha there's my nerdy missionary side for you. read and pray. It always helps!

Love,

Hermana Ashcroft

PS- ill try to send photos the next time! or soon at ellest... haha

Dia del nino fiesta!

Service Project

Miracles

August 12, 2013

Hola family! 

Again I don't have much time, cause we have to get back to Trevelin for a cita. But en serio (one of my favorite things to say haha) thank you so much for always writing! I absolutely love hearing from you all and your stories! 

So this week has been a week of noticing miracles. In every aspect of the work. This last Sunday we had 47 people at our chaple!!!! 47!!!! There almost weren't enough seats for everyone! It was incredible! Sure about 7 people were only there cause a baby was being blessed, and may not return (although I'm not ruling the possibility of  it out), but even so, 40 people is huge for us!! And we have 5 people with baptism dates right now and are working to help 2 different families get married so that they can be baptised. It is incredible to see how the lord works miracles to build up his church. There is no way that I could say that this progress has been because hermana obando and I are 'capas', but I know that it is only through and by the help of the lord. 

Also, as hard as it is to learn a language, I LOVE to see the moments when they lord uses the spirit to guide me. There not all that often, but the few moments when for whatever reason the lord sees neccessary, it's as though spanish is easy for me. All the correct words just come out of my mouth and I'm able to explain with perfect clarity what needs to be told to that person at that time.... And then I go back to not being able to string 5 correct words together hahah. But really, the 88 percent of the time that I can't speak is all worth it to see the 12 percent of the time when the spirit is so strong and is guiding my every word. Maybe it's a sign that I need to gain more faith so that I can have that strong of a spirit with me always, and then i'll be fluent haha. I wish I could explain more clearly how incredible it is though. 

Natalie- you almost had me convinced that soren't first words really were about me haha. For tricking me now you ahve to repeat my name to him every day untill it really is his first words! also- LOVE the picture!

Hope you guys enjoyed Thialand, it sounds awesome!! 

Love you all more than I have words for! 

Hasta la proxima semana! 

Hermana Ashcroft

Guided Footsteps

August 5, 2013

Hola!

So first of all...

I'm going to the hospital tomorrow, they're cutting off two of my

toes. Both my boots have holes in the toes now and we had a lot of

rain and snow this week and I got frost bite in my feet from being so

wet. The good news is they were able to save my big toes, so i

shouldn't have too much dificulty walking.... Only joking. But really,

I may need to buy some new boots sooner than expected. We'll see how

the weather is though... Everything here is super expensive.

Especially since we're in such a small town. Well everything but bread

and natural gas... which makes sense seeing as they eat like a loaf a

person a day and keep their heaters and ovens on full blast always.

Anyways, it's possible that I'll be buying shoes, and I don't know how

much their going to cost, so just make sure that I have some money on

my card would be great haha thanks.

We did however go to the hospital the other day to visit a member, and

the hospitals are definitely... different. Lets just say it made me

think of some camps we went to on our family vacations a few years

ago. You know... the camps.

Funny thing... People use mayonnaise here for so many things. it's the

most common condiment and they eat it with everything. I always get

told 'serve yourself some mayonnaise!'. And it's sold in every single

kiosk I realized haha.

The work is growing incredibly here! Neat experience- they other day

we had an hour with nothing to do cause all our citas fell through. So

I said 'how bout we try to encounter that contaact we had on the

street again' (we'd already tried a million times and they never

answered the door). But I'd had a feeling about this person when we

met her... anyways, my compañera wasnt real big on the idea, so we

just started walking around instead hoping to find people on the

streets that werent sleeping for siesta. And about 20 minutes later

she asks where we are and I had no idea, so we walk just a bit more,

just to find ourselves right infront of the house of this contact

again. And at that very moment the door opened and her husband was

saying goodbye to somebody leaving their house. Perfect opportunity!

So he invited us in and we talked with him and his wife for a long

time and found out that he was actually baptised years ago in another

city, and we didn't have his records. And now we've started teaching

them and their adorable 8 year old girl and we invited the wife and

the girl to be baptised, so if all goes well we'll have 2 more

baptisms at the end of this month! In a city that hasn't had baptisms

in almost 2 years, since I dot here with my companion we've not had 2

and have 2 more planned with a potential 8 more after that. The lord

truly works miracles and guids our steps.

love you all lots!

Hermana Ashcroft

The Plan of Salvation

July 29,2013

Hola Familia,

So honestly- this was a tough week. More just that it had lots of unexpeted things happen. We spend a lot of time planning for our days and weeks, but you've also got to somehow plan for the unexpected haha. We had Zone Conference this week and the Missionaries from El Bolson traveled here for the conference. So the Hermana's stayed with us, but it was a long night, cause we had to wait up till 12:30 until they finally got to our place. I know, who knew that I would be saying 12:30 was late? But honestly I was so tired after about 11. And then we had to be up by 5:30 to get ready and be in Esquel by 8. But the conference was really good. 

Sorry, I don't really have much time this week... A member of our branch passed away yesterday. Funerals here are definitely a bit different that in the states. It was an open viewing all day yesterday till midnight at the chapel, and then today the chaple was opened back up at 9 for more viewing, and then the services were this afternoon. Hermana Obando and I sang for the service. But so most of our P-day has been spent helping out and going to this funeral. There were so many people that attended. And honestly I just wanted to share the gosple with every single one of them so that they would understand the plan of salvation that we have the privilidge of knowing. The Hermano that passed away was a great member, he was 95 years old and was baptised at 83. His daughters are some of our investigators right now.

Sorry this is gonna be short. We talked a lot about the pioneers this week. Their faith and perserverance is such an amazing example. Read Ether 12:4 and think about the answer to the question- why did the pioneers continued on through all their trials?

We're planning a good service activity to help clean a house of an abuela. My comp and I really can't understand her when she says her name, so we still just call her abuela. hahah, but we're working on teaching her and I'm excited to help her out.

Love you all so much!

Hermana Ashcroft

"Expecto Bautismo!"

Hola,

Subject line this week comes from one of the notes I found from mom. Definitely is going down as a classic line. And it's relevant for this last week cause Gustavo just got baptized and confirmed! It may have taken him 4 times, but he's definitely clean from sin now. It was all such a great service. He is gonna help our little branch out so much especially since he'll be able to receive the priesthood next week and we don't have many priesthood holders. 

It was an interesting week in our pension... we woke up one freezing morning and there was no power. So we exercised and then had an interesting time preparing breakfast and showering in the pitch black. Literally. My hand was touching my noes and I still couldn't see my fingers. By the time you could start to see the first bit of sun rise the power finally came. Just in time for us to start our studies, which was pretty neat. And then the next day water started falling from our bathroom ceiling... but not just dripping... literally a waterfall falling from the ceiling. It was still only like 7:30 and we couldn't get ahold of our landlord, so for about 40 minutes our pension started flooding. We filled 3 large buckets nearly twice and then were using my towel and all our rags to try and sop up the water. Finally we were able to find where to turn off all the water (which my companion had known all along, but I guess she didn't understand what I was trying to say when I said 'we need to turn off the water, where is it?!') By the way, no, I don't have a new companion, it's still me and Hermana Obando from Columbia. But we have 2 new elders in out district. One is actually from Draper Utah and went to Alta funny enough. 

I still haven't sent my letter... the post office is only open till one and is on the opposite side of town and we study until 12 and have lunch at one... so I'm gonna see if the Asbell's can send it for me. Which by the way, have you gotten the e-mails from Hermana Asbell mom? I gave her your e-mail cause it's the only one I have memorized. Send her an e-mail of thanks or something if you have. You can E-mail her if you want and she will send you more pictures. By the way, everyone who sees the pictures of our family doesn't believe that you and dad are your age. They all say that my mom looks way too young. 

Thanks for the letter Natalie, and you did tell me you weren't going to write, so there are no hard feelings here haha (I included that 'haha' just for you:) ) And holy cow!! Bear is the cutest thing in the world!! He already looks so different and old! Thank you so much for the pictures!! I love to see pictures of all of you. 

Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes, Be sure to thank grandma and give her a big hug and a kiss for me too. Dad's re-gifting of my harry potter books is very fitting with my topic this week. And it works too since I'm pretty sure I've never taken the plastic off yet cause it's all just too pretty and wonderful. 

A great scripture that you all should read is Jacob 3:1-2. It's short and simple, but I really enjoyed it this last week. 

Also... you won't believe it, cause I can't even believe it. But my boots have a big hole in them. The seam ripped open at the outside of my toes on my right foot. The inner layer of fabric is still in tact though. It's about 2 and a half inches though... I think I can make them last for this winter, but I don't know about the next one... So much for clarks great quality. I already look like I have over a year in the mission walking in these shoes. 

I've got a great video to show you guys when I get back of a great song that my companion and I made up and filmed us singing hahah. Totally random- but as missionaries you aren't suppose to dance, and we were with all the other missionaries in our district and one of them and I were joking a bit about dancing and another one said "no dancing". So I replied that we weren't dancing, simply "caminando con gozo".Okay, so probably not even funny. But trust me when I say it was one of my greatest lines and it's definitely the joke of the week for us. I know, I know, now you're thinking how pathetic missionaries are. But I love it:) 

Love you all so much and thank you all again for everything! 

Hermana Ashcroft

Please tell Madeline Scoville and chelsea carruth Thank you so very much for the package! 

Gustavo's Baptism!