Hope, Trust and Pixie Dust

Yeah, well, we're still waiting for the last one. Some magic pixie

dust would really be awesome right about now. But it's all good! This

week was much better in terms of our success. We found more people,

and taught more lessons, but it's still hard! The standards of

excellence are about double of our numbers, and even though it's a

harder area, it's still hard! I want so badly for people to accept us

and hear our message! We'll get there though. Hope and trust in the

Lord is what we have! Along with diligent work to help people come to

know of the true path that leads to life eternal with our families!

Anyways, this week marked 6 months of being a missionary! Super

exciting. Also crazy to think that one fourth of my mission has

already flown right by. I want it to go slower! (BUT MOM DOESN'T) Valentine's day

actually marked my 6 month mark, which is cool. Glad to know I'm so

loved. Pretty sure I had 7 Valentine's, and not a single one was from

someone outside of my family. Hint hint. It was good though. We're

going to an all you can eat barbecue place today to make up for all

our sad, broken hearts.

We found some cows roaming around this week! These are the only

pictures I took, so I hope you like cows. Someone show this to Dayton

Talbot back at home. He'll get a kick out of it.

It's funny to think just to what extent we are representatives of

Christ. Remember in the Bible, when everyone believed that Christ

would come as this huge, worldly king, kick some Roman butt, take

names, and free everyone? Well, really, He came to do something much

more important. That was to suffer and die for us and save us from our

sins. To show us the path to return to our Heavenly Father. People

come up to us with their problems. We had one dude stop us the other

day and starting talking about the government, and the price of buses

to the other city, and how he was addicted but they wanted to send him

to drug rehab and something about his identification card. Not even my

Brazilian companion understood what he was talking about. The worst

part was, this guy wasn't even drunk! He was sober and saying this

gibberish! He was smoking a cigarette, but not drugged. I ended up

talking with him about how cigarettes ARE an addiction that needs to

be treated, and testified about how our bodies are precious and a gift

from God, and how we need to take care of them. He insisted still

about his problems, and I just said, "Look, this isn't what we're here

for. We are God's messengers here to help people fix their own lives

and return to live with God one day by accepting baptism in the church

that He created on the Earth that has this authority to baptize." He

didn't get it to well, so we invited him to church, gave him a

pamphlet about the Word of Wisdom, and left. He tried to follow us a

bit, still yelling about bus prices, but eventually let off and we

continued working. People think we're here to fix their problems, and

we are! But it has to be done in God's way. There you go. Gospel in

action.

I think that's all I have for now. Of course I have more stories, but

those will be saved for after the mission or something. I hope you all

like the cow pictures! I wish everyone a good week. Stay strong and

always keep moving forward! I love you all! Keep safe!

Sincerely,

Elder Ashford