Umm....

JUNE 9, 2014

HOLA! 

so i kind forgot what i was going to write you this week.... my mind just kinda went blank... 

i guess first off though, congratulations are in order to the amazing sister of mine for her graduation! you made a much better and prettier graduate than i did, although you might have to re-enact it all for me when i get home. If you could just ask some friends to rent the gowns again and to put on another show that would be great. you're like in charge of the school anyways no? so it shouldnt be too hard. Also, that's rough joe that your little boy thought of you as a diaper...

So it was kinda a crazy week, although i guess nearly every week is. Weird that christmas ended only a week ago.... But after that whole ordeal we had a lot of very long reunions this week... less missionarying (i try to make a verb out of every word these days... spanish...) and more sitting. We had leadership council wednesday all day, planned with the zone leaders on thursday for the zone conference on friday, and then stake conference on saturday and sunday. and on top of it all my companion got sick this week so we didnt do anything else on saturday and sunday except go to the conference. So I hada lot of time to clean the pension and listen to lots of talks from apostles and general authorities. Luckily a very nice elder gave me their i-pod with some speakers to listen to the 80GB of church talks and music he has.... im thinking about keeping it... just kidding, but it's pretty awesome. I feel like i could listen to BYU talks and general conference the rest of my life. They are awesome. 

*note for mom and dad- if you could please apply to BYU for me that would be great. i keep forgetting to tell you. And then to send me the essays that i have to write to apply. i probably wont get in, but i just feel like i should try it out. I'm not too sure how i feel about suu now... it is also hard to really think about anything pertaining to home while being on the other end of the world. So who knows, very likely i will just end up at suu again, but i figure ill apply and then put it to prayer.

So between all the conferences and sickness we didnt have too much time to actually work this week, which left me feeling oddly empty and frantic thinking about our investigators. Cant remember if i told you about jordan, but he is awesome!! he's about 22 and has so much potential! we've got to help him stop drinking and smoking marijuana, but litterally everytime we see him he has already read his assignmenet in the book of mormon at least 2 or 3 times to be sure he understands it. He reads really slow, so doesn't like to read out loud but it makes it mean even more that he is reading so much. I've never heard someone explain how well they feel the spirit when he is with us or reading as he does. He really recognizes it, which isn't something always all that easy to do. I dont even know how to explain it, but i want him to have this gosple in his life so much!

I'm becoming more and more desperate for the people to listen and understand and accept the gosple. I can't explain how important it really is becoming to me. it's everything. I especially want to be able to helop people understand the atonement... what it means and how and why they need it in their lives. how accepting the gosple helps us to accept more fully the atonement that christ already paid for us. which allows us to recieve open access to all the comfort and help we could ever need or want in this life and an even greater promise for the eternities. 

With christmas just last week, grandma's chirstmas quote came into my mind a lot this week:) Christmas or CHIRST is- light through the darkness, love through the ages, and hope for eternity. thanks grandma:) for always teaching me that even when I didn't fully undertand it. 

So i was going to send some pictuers this week, but i forgot my memory converter and this computer wont accept my camer as is... sorry, next week. Thanks for all the pictures though! i loved them!! i have the best looking family ever!

love you all from here to there (which is really far if you think about it). 

hermana ashcroft

PS- thea and sofi are awesome for their wonderful scarves and gloves they gave me... it's not too cold yet, but winter is definitely coming and i have already utilized them:) 

PSS- Argentines are defintiely crazy about the world cup... things are going to get loco here!

PSSS- there's some random people that keep protesting in our street where we live, right below out apartment..... it get pretty old through the nights... they really know how to protest loud here with lots of horns...

PSSSS- did you know that the police can just go on protest here as well, and just quit qorking... that's crazy... totally has happened. My question is what about the robbers....

IT'S A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!!!

JUNE 2, 2014

FELIZ NAVIDAD A TODOS!!!

So this week was super crazy but super great! My companion and i planned christmas for our district and the zone leaders. lets just say it was awesome. in a quick summary-

we made a couple hundred sugar cookies.

we learned how to knit in 15 minutes

we then made 10 stockings in three days

we assembled 2 chirstmas trees.

we played with raw chickens 

we peeled and cut potatoes for way to many hours. like 5 kilos

we made a plethora of snowflakes.

we bought over 5 pounds of butter

we died of christmas laughter

we sang chirstmas songs all day long

we made and saw miracles happen

we managed to detroy our aparntment from a chirstmas explosion

we made and bought chirstmas gifts for our secret friends

and we had more lessons with members and investigators than we or anyone in the zone has had in any other week

......we may not have slept the last 4 days

but it all made for one giant chirstmas miracle!!!

We honestly saw so many miracles this week! our investigators are progressing a lot and it is incredible to see them recognize and feel the spirit and watch as that spirit changes them as they change their life. 

i love you all so very much! sorry i spent all my p-day preparing christmas and now dont have time to write you all... but hope you could feel the christmas spirit andjoy on the other end of the world because it really is a joy that can last all the year long. 

may you all be filled with the christmas spirit!

LOVE YOU!

hermana ashcroft

PS- ill send some christmas pictures next week.

Semana Loca

So it was a crazy week with just lots of stuff.... one of those when it's hard to believe it all really just happened in this week and not over the space of a month. 

So i got my ears checked..... that was funny. The guy honestly looked like a modern doctor form of sherlock holmes. but serisouly!! I wanted to ask him to take a picture with him, but i thought i might look like i was 5... i should have just done it though. His office looked like it was from the 1800 though as well, but very classy like with all old crazy looing instruments and everything in wood... it was overall just pretty awesome. Untill he told me what my problem was.... So it's not even bad, i just have a ton of fluid behind my ears. But after saying a bunch of crazy big vocabulary that i probably wouldnt know in english and definitely not in spanish, Dr. Sherlock decided to explain it to me like this- "Your ears are confused with your nose and you have boogers in your ears." 

It took all our efforst for my companion and i to not laugh so hard!   Anyways, it's going away now with some stronger medicine im taking. 

And then nearly every single hermana in our group has been to the hospital this week.... they almost thought one hermana had polio.... crazy right. Anyways, she was a mess crying when they told her that and we had her and her companion in our pension for a day and half   untill she got her results saying that it definitely wasnt polio.... she just needs to stretch and walk more hahah. 

and then we had some last minute emergency intercambios that we had to do with some other hermanas... basically just a lot of running around. We had a great zone conference though:) also, christmas is getting closer!!! so that's exciting! We have a christmas tree and everything that we are going to celerate with:) 

I miss and love you all lots! they're kicking us out cause of siesta now... that lame not even an hour... 

Did you all see the short clip from the church that's called "because of him"?? if not im reassigning that to you.. or you can watch it again cause it's great. 

I love seeing the miracles around us. You should look for the miracles too. 

hermana ashcroft

PS- almost threw up after the same ermundina that wanted my companion to pee in a bucket gave us some cake... i think her dog had peed on it.... 

And it's begun...

May 19, 2014

So as awesome as soccer is, it's not that awesome as a missionary. And the time's begun now.... River and boca played this week and it was impossible to have people listen to us, or accept us. I'm not really looking forward to the world cup.... I really don't know if anybody is going to accept us in their house, but honsetly. 

It was an exciting week though. We dyed my companions hair 4 times in less than 2 days hahaha. Funniest thing ever. She couldnt get it to go back to her natural blonde color so after sever attempts, and some really bad looking roots, she just went back to drak dark brown. She's sleeping with conditioner in her hair now with the fear that it will all fall out because of how many times we dyed it. 

Also, people like randomly throw and explode little bomb things when somebody makes a goal in soccer. it's pretty intense. And really scares me haha. 

We did exchanges with some hermanas this week and it was really funny when we went to a members house to do some service and for lunch.... she still wasnt there, but she calle dus and told us to just put our hand through the window and open the door.... So we totally broke into somebody's house this week. We left it nice and clean for her at least. It was a good laugh though to think how crazy it was to just break into a house in argentina with another gringa and just clean for a good hour and a bit before the member showed up. She's a super sweet old lady though. 

So here's a few pictures... one is the little piggy that i robbed.... just kidding i made the elder rob it from it's beast of a mom so that i could take a picture. and then i cant see it really well, but i think the last one is the picture of the camino to the less active members house where we did the service project. That is what we call the "tomas". 

To finish the week of my companion and I got some good food poisoning... It kicked in for me last night and for her this morning. That was a blast. Gotta love bad chicken. 

Funniest story though was the old lady investigator that we are visiting. It was her birthday this week and we went to stop by with a cake and some members that have accompanied us to visit her. My companion had to go to the bathroom but Ermundina's (that our investigator) bathroom didnt work. So she gave my companion a bucket and told her to just use it in the kitchen and she wouldnt tell anyone... hahaha i can't even think about it without laughing! Tottally cant do the story justice, but just know that it was really funny. 

anyways, i love you all so much! hope all is well! 

hermana ashcroft

PS- It's getting cold here... so it feels like christmas is coming. so my district decided to do secret santa. or secret friend. We're totally going to celebrate christmas in june. 

Sometimes we just have to shovel the poop out.

May 12, 2014

Hola!

So after i finished talking with you all i realized how i really didnt tell you anything haha. sorry, it was just overwhelming just to see you and i just wanted to hear you all talk. 

So we had a super great week this week:) Some really incredible lessons. We were teaching one guy who was asking every question in the book and saying how he just cant believe in it for this and that. and we got to the point of sharing the first vision and he immediately stopped talking and interrupting. The spirit was so strong and from that moment on he completely changed. He nearly couldn't speak and you just know that he'd felt it. He couldnt deny it. We have another lesson planned with him tonight so im super excited about that:) We also met a new investigator this week. It will be a bit complicated though... she's deaf and mute. well remember how in plaza huincul we also taught a deaf lady that got baptised. I learned some basic spanish sign language from her and tried comunicating with Graciela (that's this new investigator) but it became clear after a bit that she's never really learned sign language. she knows very little and reads and writes very little as well. But she's super awesome. I really know that this is what she needs in her life. So we'll be doing lots of teaching with pictures and trying to figure out how to help her undertand better. 

We also did a servic project this week. I wanted to send you pictures, but the computer can't read my camera.... we're in an older cyber today cause the better on was closed. But so we went out to the tomas.... or field... i dont know what you would call it in english...as a district to clean and clear some land for a less active family. well as the elders tore down some old pig pens us hermanas we're trying to clean up all the trash and shovle out all the poo.... thing is the whole ground is just mashed up poop. They have a billion pigs and chickens and everything else and we litterally we're just standing in poop. It was a comfort to know that we dont have a wash machine and at some point we have to face our shoes and clothes... or maybe just throw them away. so we shovled away poop and trash untill we were more or less standing on ground. Oh and maggots as well.... there were at least a billion.. hahah it really made me laugh so hard to think about where i was and what i was doing. It was fun though. maybe a could be a professional poop scooper and maggot cleaner after the mission. 

Lesson leaned- sometimes we have just have to shovel the poop out of our lives untill we can stand on clean ground. It's a dirty and gross process but there is never too much poop that you can't get it out. there's always solid ground underneath there somewhere.

So i love you all so much! have the best of weeks:) 

Hermana Ashcroft

PS- did you know that a pig can't squeak and scream if you hold it by it's tail? 

PSS- we might be killing pigs and chickens for this same family this week as another service project... that will be interesting. 

Transfers

May 5, 2014

So im staying in roca and my new companion is Hermana Ernhofer. My first gringa! This will be weird... She's from canada and has one transfer more than me in the mission. I met here when i first got to the mission and she was in her training. She seems really sweet, but she wont be getting here till about 11 o'clock tonight cause she's coming from esquel. 

Alicia got baptised this week! And Marcos her son was able to baptise her! It was tan linda. 

So I found out this week at a conference with elder Viñas of the 70, from another missionary that Hermano Jara passed away from cancer this week. If you remember in treveline he was the husband of analia and the dad of little 9 year old micaela. We taught the whole family and they got baptised. Micaela was my best friend in trevelin. I cried when i found out thinking about mica and analia and made me want so badly to be there with them. But thinking about it amazed me. The whole story of how we found this family was a miracle. up untill they got baptised every bit of the process was a miracle. It showed to me so clearly how the lord is aware of everyone and how he prepares us. There's no doubt in my mind that he prepared this family so that they could recieve the gosple in the time that would be most necessary for them to have the knowledge of the plan of salvation and the support that we receive from the gosple. 

So i dont have more time, but i'll send lots of pictures this week... oh and im thinking we are going to skype sunday at 4 in the afternoon your time, so plan on that. and if it changes depending on my companion and the members that we find to be able to skype, ill let you know by an e-mail in the week... if you dont hear anything though, plan on 4 sunday. 

love you all so much! 

hermana ashcroft

Piojos

April 21, 2014

Feliz Pascua a todos!! 

I love Pascua:) Although I missed the spring feel we have in the states, it was still a great day with nearly all of the familia Jara in the chaple! The daughter Eleonora that's 18 and got baptised 6 monthes ago can't even believe that 2 more of her siblings will be getting baptised this Sunday! And her mom has also been coming to church and supporting all the kids now in this desicion (i dont know how to spell now...)

So this week was crazy busy and crazy fast. We did 4 different exchanged with 4 other companionships of hermanas and it made for a lot of traveling and packing. We would finish a day with one companionship, only to get together again for about 5 minutes and then walk (or travel by bus) to go to the next exchanges. Hermana Garcia and I were only together thursday and Sunday in our area and all the other days we were in other areas between roca and Huergo. It totally wore me out. But it is so aswesome to be able to work with so many different missionaries! I honestly learn so much! And it makes me realize how much more I can do and improve to see all the different things that the other missionaries are doing to work in their areas. I'm convinced that I'm learning more from them than they are from me. 

Oh and guess what I got this week.... a merry christmas to me!!! I recieved and envelope package from the bennions for christmas!!! hahah thank you so much!! the candy had all been melted and re-frozen at least afew times, but all the latinos really enjoyed it and I enjoyed the halloween suckers with my companion:) Totally didn't matter to me or anyone else that ir was already more than 4 months old hahah. But it gave me hope that perhaps one day before i finish the mission that i will recieve the calendar that grandma sent me for christmas! 

So about the piojos.... if you dont know that means lice.... and there has been quite a lice problem... i seriously am just waiting for the day that i have lice. So many hermanas have already had it! And i left a lesson the other day nervously scratching my head after seeing a lady taking lice out of her little kids hair.... all the little kids have it from the pre-schools they go to. So i think im pretty much doomed to have lice at some point in the mission haha that will be fun. 

I had another fun experience with the food this week too. We ate some super delicious chicken and large sausages for lunch with a member one day, but just as we got to a lesson later on, my stomach started regretting it a lot.... lets just say that it's really good that I already knew the Jara family pretty well cause I had a pretty bad experience in their bathroom.... The mission really doesn't leave any room for you to be shy or ebarrassed haha. Anyways Im not really sure what it is, but i can't keep too much food in my these last few days. 

So something that I love about doing exchanges is being able to see how grand this work is. It really is being spread to every area and you really can see that it truly is the lords work. Only something that comes from god could do what is happening all over the world by young, not always very intelligent, men and women. 

I love this work! 

Love hermana ashcroft

PS- you should read mosiah 16:6-9 and Alma 7:11-13 focusing on verse 12. Happy Easter! Ill let you come up with your own comments.