Tender Mercies

Hola to Everyone! (pretty sure 'hola' is the word I say the most in Spanish haha)

A lot happens in a week it's hard to know what to say. First of all, thank you to Dad, Elaura Gustafson, and Kelsey Haddox that wrote me. I'm super excited for your mission call Elaura!! You are going to make such a fantastic missionary!! And thanks for the sports update Dad, Elder Asbell (from the couple missionaries in our area) really enjoyed it as well haha. 

So the reoccurring topic for me this week has been small and tender mercies. I've started to look for the more and more, especially on the days that are particularly hard. And without fail, I promise you that you can find at least a dozen things in the most hardest days to be thankful for (and that's not even counting the obvious like your house and family and bed and clothes and such). There are so many tender mercies from the Lord always. For example, it was bitter cold one night and we'd been walking for so long and I was doing my best to keep a smile on my face, when we get to the house of a lady that we were going to practice a hymn with to sing at the church branch conference this week (which is a joke, cause if you know me you know that I can't sing at all haha). But we walk in the door and the little kids were watching Dumbo!! Yeah it was in spanish, but that was one of the last movies I watched before I left (and it was totally random that I had watched it at home). But it brought the biggest smile to my face and made me soo happy to see Dumbo in spanish hahah. 

Oh, just a reminder, you guys should look up the blog of President and Hermana Lovell. They update it with photos and such and we just had interviews with them, so there should be a few photos if you guys care to see. Also- I was wearing mom's missionary suit to the interviews and Hermana Lovell totally loved the story behind it, she ate it right up. She wanted to write all about it in the blog haha. So you can go see what she wrote if you care to. 

I definitely am appreciative of being able to be fed lunch by the members most days. Not only have a learned how to be an expert at sneaking hairs and other random things out of my mouth, but it really is so much more convenient that having to cook for ourselves.  It was kinda hard trying to figure out how to make chicken with no spices... your lemon trick work great though mom to get all the juice out. Although, I would suggest that you wash the lemon before you put it in your mouth. You probably do, but I learned the hard way and had a burning mouth for awhile from whatever toxins or something was on the outside of the lemon haha. 

I'm have a hard time occasionally getting my wardrobe to match the weather. It's just as weird here as in Utah. So it will be freezing one day and really warm the next. I made the mistake of wearing my coat the day after a freezing day, just for it to be really hot that day. 

We have another baptism date though and I'm so excited for this one!! Her name is Antonella and she is the sweetest 11 year old ever! And her baptism day it for July 27th, so talk about the best birthday gift for me!!

I just have to make it to that day though... the other night I found the biggest nastiest bug under by pillow. I don't know my bugs, but I'm pretty sure it was some earwig type if thing. It's butt looked like little scissors (is that really how you spell that?). Anyways, I probably have bug eggs planted in my brain now and may not live much longer. At least it motivating for me to work harder. 

Let me know if you guys have any good ideas for simple but fun youth activities. I'm suppose to be the young women's teacher, but it's probably a good thing that no young women have come to church yet, cause they would probably not learn anything from my spanish... although I did give my first talk in our branch last sunday. Don't ask me what I said, I'm not really sure. The people were nice enough to not laugh though. 

Thanks mom for all the notes. Honestly, just when I think I can't find anymore, there is another one hidden in my clothes... some of which I've already worn. 

One of the many scriptures I like this week is 1 Nefi 21:14-15. Remember that the Lord will never forget thee.   

I love you all so very much and am so grateful for everything! I miss you lots, but I try not to think about it too much cause then I miss you more. 

And last but definitely not least (the most important actually)- HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY WONDERFUL SISTER CHELSEA THIS WEEK!! I love you so incredibly much and the other day actually I was telling (or attempting to in spanish) my companion about the times I would try to sneak you onto the top bunck with me under my blanket in the room that Natalia and I shared hahha. Thank you for everything, I truly love you more than words can say.

I'm gonna be sending a letter home this next week that has more in it of the stuff that got deleted last week. And probably the stuff Iwasn't  able to get to this week. 

I still haven't gotten the photos yet, but thank you for sending them and I'm sure they will arrive within a month at least haha. 

Love you all more than to the moon and back!

Hermana Ashcroft

Also, I don't think I ever hear about how that bike ride was mom and thea... 

Hola from Trevelin! (pretty sure that's how you spell it...)

Hello family! I don't have much time cause I couldn't print out my letters this week, and I wanted to be able to read your letters.

My new companion and trainer is Hermana Obando from Columbia and she's super nice! She doesn't really speak any English though, so it's been a bit of an adjustment haha. I'm having a hard time even remembering how to speak english anymore... so I'm typing super slow haha. I wish this meant that I know could speak Spanish, but it more just really means that I don't know how to speak at all now. I'm like an awkward mute. It's all good though and I'm slowly learning.... I hope at least haha.

Our area is a town called trevelin in Barriloche. Which means that when the mission splits next month, I will be staing in the Neuquen mission which is the northern half, so I won't be seeing any penguins it looks like haha. Right now we are in the coldest area in our mission though. It's super pretty though and looks a lot like Utah with the mountains, but our city is really small and pretty poor. Not like the more touristy parts of Bariloche i think...

I'll be honest, it's hard work... cause I can't talk, but people look at me like I should be talking haha. Won't lie, I cried for the first time yesterday after church during planning. I'd already had to prepare a lesson for the young women in spanish (did end up having to do it though) and my companion and I were trying to plan our lessons for 2 investigators and she kept asking me what I wanted to teach and say and I just kept thinking "I don't even know who this person is or how to talk to them". And I ended up crying for like 5 minutes, but I don't even know why hahah cause really everything was okay and that's what I just kept telling my companion while I was crying "esta bien esta bien!" hahha. Our area has nearly all less actives... yesterday was a really good turn out for church and there was only about 23 people there including me and my companion and the adult missionary couple.

I invited my first person to be baptised though! It was super awesome and I don't even know how I did it. AND he actually said yes! or atleast that's what my companion told me he siad afterwards hahah. Now we just have to teach him some more and hope he follows through. also, we are going to baptise a girl named ambar next month!

It's definiitely hard and my right foot is killing me cause of this weird bone i have that sticks out in the back so everytime I walk with my shoes on it aches so bad. we walk faster than mom for miles and miles a day. On the good side though, I've definitely already lost any weight I gained in the CCM haha. the members feed us luch every day, we usually eat corn flakes with fruit for breakfast and we don't eat dinner cause we get back at 9 and have lots more planning to do. Our planning takes a long time cause we have to go so slow so I can understand the language.

I really do still love it though! I just hope that within not too long I can beginto remember who is who and start to actually have conversations with the people. The people are way nice though and I've got a really nice pension in comparison to normal I think. We have good water pressure and hot water too!! Super nice! Almost all the streets are dirt and super mudy, so it's definitely a good thing I've got boots! It's pretty cold here already and the wind is sharp, but some days are pretty nice and only breezy. I am loving the area and am so happy to be here and can't wait to be able to learn more evey day and teach people what I learn!

I really hope all is well!

Send any lettters to the mission home and they forward them to me through a green pouch. Including family pictures!

Let me know if you guys have any good ideas to get the ward involved in some Book of Mormon kick of program we are doing... I don't really understand it cause of the language barrier, but i just know that I am suppose to come up with an Idea and I'm kinda in charge of it I think hahah hopefully I figure out soon what it is I have to do. also, if you have nay good home evening ideas. i have to teach the home evening for the ward and it's kinda hard for me to come up with ideas and do it in a diufferent language haha.

LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!

I'm so happy here and I hope that you all are just as happy!

Love,

Hermana Ashcroft

P.S. sorry for all the typing mistakes. were in some cafe thing and the computers aren't the best.

Here I come Neuquen!

Hola familia!

I only have a couple minutes, but just wanted to let you know I am heading off to Neuquen tomorrow. I will be traveling with one other Norte Armericana Hermana, and 4 Latino Elderes. We leave the CCM at 1pm tomorrow and our flight leaves at 4:55pm (this is all argentina time). If you care to know so you can follow me on my trip, my flight number is LA 4276.

I love you all so much and I'll write you more when I get to the great penguin land of Neuquen. Which by the way- every time I tell someone that my mission is Neuquen, they just talk about how freezing it is haha. Hopefully my skin is thick enough to hold up.

Lots of love!

Hermana Ashcroft

Adios Buenos Aires!

Buen Día Familía!

I hope you all are smiling right at this exact moment, cause I definitely am! I have just loved everything so much here! Here's the news for the last week:

Friday we got to go out as a district and get contacts around the temple. We'll always take any excuse to get outisde, so of course it was fabulous. The people we usually talk to around the temple are often the sweetest old people you ever have met, that have got to be at least 104 years old. I love talking with them, and I'm sure I would love it even more if I could understand what they say. The young youth that we'll talk to occassionally are much easier to understand though.

Saturday, we went out for Proselitismo again, except in a new area this time. My compañera and I had a very interesting area, definitely different than our last one. It bordered a really busy street that had lots of shops on it (some of which were sometimes a bit sketch or of the night-time apperal sort haha). As we walked further into our area though we got into more houses. We didn't have as much success this time, but we were able to understand a lot more spanish and have more meaningful conversations with the people that we did talk to. Some of which were an evangelical, an athiest, an evangelical, a catholic, oh and more evangelicals... everyone is evangelical. Which I'll be honest, I don't even really know what that means! But they believe in God, so we've got some common ground at least. Also, my compañera almost accidentally bought a whole sack of potatoes just by waving to someone haha super funny! And we ate like homeless people sitting on the side of the street cause there were no benches or parks, so we got some good looks haha.

Sunday was really great. So every week there's a topic for that Sunday, and eveyone in the CCM has to write a talk in spanish and then after the Sacrament is administered a district leader will get up and announce which 5 missionaries the president has chosen to talk. So you better prepare your talk every week, cause you never know if it's going to be you. Well this week my number got drawn and I was called up to speak about Caridad y Amor. SIDE NOTE: We were placing bets how long it would take a missionary to mix up the word caridad (charity) with castidad (chastity). Lo and behold, the very first elder that gets up to speak says "today the topic im speaking on is chastity and love". Maybe I should be better, but I promise you it took all my effort to not snort out loud from laughter! Anyways, I gave my talk which involved talking a lot about D&C 12:6, D&C 12:8, Mosiah 4:16, and then ending with the promise in D&C 81:5-6... if any of you care to look those us and see what you can learn. I definitely enjoyed making the correlations between them and speaking about their importance. So I spoke for the usually about 5 minutes and was just glad that I never said castidad instead of caridad. Although I may have said "I love you, Jesus." Which isn't too bad, just a bit preachy sounding and not what I was going for... But it's alright cause another hermana in my district that spoke right after my said "I love myelf, Jesus". Probably not even funny, but we laughed for probably 30 minutes about that. And then my compañera Hermana Christensen and I gave the lesson for our Didtrict meeting right after sacrament, and I thought we did really good considering we didn't really plan much. We've become really good at teaching with eachother and picking up where the other leaves off. I'm gonna miss having her as my comp, it's been so effortless with her, I love it!

On monday my district and I came up with a fun game of 'blind bottle toss' hahah. Hermana Harman in our district is blind in one eye, so in tribute to her we spent a long time one day chucking water bottles at eachother with one eye shut hahah. It's pretty trippy to try actually! And I don't know how, but we found so much fun in doing that haha. Also, our district is practically a zoo now. We decided what animal everyone would be and we've got: a bear, a bunny, elk, egyptian cat, salmon, cow, cocker spanial (cant spell), zebra, badger, baby baboon, turkey vulture, and I'm a merekat apparently haha.

And now for the big day: wednesday we got to go and meet Elder Cook and hear him speak!!! It really was so wonderful! I can't ever get your suit jacket washed mom cause he touched it for so long while shaking my hand! We also got to meet and hear from Elder Gonzales who is the missionary leader for all of south america. I remember him speaking in general Conference before. I really was so amazing to hear from them and be able to meet them! I learned so much. Shucks... I wanted to share something with you guys about it, but I wrote it in my other notebook that I forgot to bring with me, so now I can't remember haha. I just know that I am still beaming from being able to meet him!

And now it's Thursday and we just got back from the temple which I always love! It was my last time that I'll be able to go to the temple cause I leave in 5 days, on Tuesday, to Neuquen which is so crazy!! I'm gonna miss all the missionaries here cause all of them are going to Uruguay or Paraguay. But I'm so excited to get out there and meet my trainer!

Here's a picture for you and hopefully I'm able to attach some more in another e-mail! love you all lots!!

 Also, thank you grandma, Kaden, and Kelsey Haddox for the Dear Elders!!

Love you all mucho!

Hermana Ashcroft

 Just your typical missionary standard works... what I study from every day.

This is my companera, my district and I on the temple grounds!