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 :)