That's the Way the Money Goes

Please don't think that the title has absolutely anything to do with

my weekly letter home, because it doesn't. I was trying to think of a

good title for this week and that song happened to hop into my head,

so I went with it. Also, I hope that everyone noticed my terrific

talent for amazing alliterations that I displayed in the last

sentence. Alright, I'll get serious.

This week was kind of FANTASTIC. And this next week should be pretty

great as well! We found out last week about transfers, just a few

hours after I got off the computers. Guess what?? We stayed! We got so

excited to know that we'll be working together for at least one more

transfer here in Vila Progresso! So great. It's good for us. The last

transfer we passed super well together, but it was difficult as almost

everyone we met didn't have interest, or rejected our message, or just

couldn't bring themselves to progress in the Gospel. We've been super

obedient and working super hard, so it was hard to not see fruits come

from that. We read lots of scriptures, and today I read about Aaron in

the Book of Mormon, the brother of Ammon. Aaron went and preached the

Gospel diligently to many, many people, with very little success. He

was even imprisoned, tormented, stripped, starved, and left there for

a lot of time. Finally though, God used others to help him get out,

and Aaron started preaching without delay! And this time, after all

the trials, he had tons of success! That's part of what we're

experiencing. 

 

 

The young man with the long hair is Edimilson, He was

baptized two years ago, but stopped going to church after his best

friend died. We met him three weeks ago, and every since then he's

been going to church and changing! He is super laid back, but loves

and trusts in God. He's coming to have a much deeper, personal

relationship with God and learnign to do His will, regardless of what

it is. He's learned about and gained a real testimony that this is the

true church. He never wanted to get married, until he found out about

eternal marriage in temples and that God wanted him to get married and

raise a righteous family. He's decided to serve God as a full time

missionary and is now preparing to serve! It's so cool. He's awesome!

We also had another huge blessing... WE HAD A BAPTISM LAST SATURDAY!

We've been working with Luiz since day one here. We talked with him in

the street, right after he'd been praying to God to show him a pathway

in life! His prayer was answered, and he jumped right in! We taught

him everything, and he really wanted to be baptized. He gave up a

little though because of the Book of Mormon. He didn't like to use

anything beyond the Bible, and didn't believe that the Book of Mormon

was the word of God. We even had to stop visiting him for a week

because he didn't want it anymore. We kept praying for him however,

and about a week ago, while he was working, he had this little voice

enter his head saying, "You asked for a path to follow, and I gave you

one. What have you done with it?" That was an answer to his prayers.

He understood that he really was given the true path of God, the path

that uses both the Bible and the Book of Mormon and the words of the

living prophets. He was baptized! It was so cool to see. Also, we have

tons of other people with whom we are working who are absolutely

excellent. People that love the Church of Jesus Christ, who feel the

Spirit in our lessons, in the Book of Mormon, and at the Church, and

who know that all this really is God's truth for all the Earth! And I

testify of the same thing! This is the path laid for us by Jesus

Christ himself! Christ lives and leads His church by means of a living

prophet, just like He always has! God is unchanging and loves us!

Living by the path of God, in the church that He himself organized on

the Earth, we will have the fullness of happiness and peace and the

hope of returning to one day live in the presence of God with out

families for forever! I love God's plan for us and will always follow

it, regardless of anything!

I love you all and hope that everyone can understand the conviction I

have about Jesus Christ and the true, perfect organization (or church)

that He put here on the Earth. Tomorrow and the next day, I will have

to opportunity to hear from a General Authority of God's church, a

member of the Quorum of the Seventy. Elder Aidukaitis, who spoke in

the last General Conference, will talk with us about how we can

improve ourselves to better help the people that we serve every day as

missionaries! It'll be super cool! I miss everyone and love you all!

Keep strong, have faith, and have fun!

Elder Ashford

"Those who know the truth are not so great as they who love it; and

they who love the truth are not so great as they who live it."

     -Chinese Proverb

Over The Hill

I think that describes me pretty well. For those of you that still

don't know, (Don't know how that happened, because I'm sure that my

mom told EVERYONE) I hit my one year mark this last week!!!! It's

ridiculous to think that I've already been a missionary in the service

of Christ for ONE ENTIRE YEAR OF MY LIFE, but it's true. What can ya

do. Actually, technically, I'd already hit my halfway mark, because

when we went to visit São Paulo for a day last week, my companion and

I stopped in the mission office, and I saw my wonderful friend Elder

Carney!!! Which was super great. He's the financial secretary, so he

has all this cool access that I don't have. He showed me my missionary

file, and it said that I'll be finishing my mission on July 28th, two

weeks before my two year mark. You may mark that day in your calendar,

Mother.

I didn't have time to write everyone last week, because we had a super

awesome Zone Activity that Elder Vieira and I planned out for the

other missionaries in our zone. Therefore, we did not have much time

on the computers last week. Being the first time to do a Zone

Activity, we wanted it to be super awesome. Just don't let your socks

get knocked off with the brilliance of our idea. We all got together

in the chapel in our area, all 14 missionaries, and had a potluck!

Everyone brought some food. I made an awesone meat cake, which is

basically a loaf of ground beef with cheese and bacon and sausage

inside! It turned out great. Then, we started our treasure hunt. They

got split into two teams, with one member of the group blindfolded.

Elder Vieira and I were investigators, and the teams had to take turns

doing certain tasks. One person had to make a street contact with me,

and then run to find the other clue. Two other people then had to

practice what they had learned in their Zone Training, applying the

techniques they had learned, inviting me to be baptized. The person

blindfolded then had to do some paperwork, which turned out hilarious.

The blindfolded person then had to navigated a maze to get the next

clue, taking directions from their team mates (and from the other

team!). They then had to apply other teaching skills on us, and in the

end, my companion and I were dressed in white in the baptism font! We

gave them pictures and a letter praising them for their good work and

encouraging them to always work hard to help others in this great work

we're doing! Finally, we took them to our service project, where we

all sang a couple hymns and listened to the conversion story of a

member of our ward here who was baptized blind and without her legs.

Her legs had to be amputated years before, but she really wanted to

hear the message of the Restoration and be a part of the Church of

Jesus Christ! She gave up smoking and now is an active member of our

ward. Blind and without legs, she still goes to church every single

week.

Needless to say, we felt awesome about the activity, and all the

missionaries returned super excited to help everyone in their areas.

Later that week, I had my one year anniversary! That morning, we had

interviews with our mission president, President Farnes. He's super

awesome! We kept ourselves occupied doing teaching practices and

sharing our conversion stories with each other, which really helped us

get to know each other better. Later that day, we stopped at the pizza

parlor here owned by a member, and we ate free pizza! Super fun! I'm

doing great and working hard. These weeks have been rough on us, as we

haven't gotten the results we were wanting, but we are determined to

work better and harder! There are tons of people we are preparing to

be baptized in Christ's church. It's so cool to see so many people

leaving behind their own lives and choosing to follow God in the way

the He wants us to! I'm so proud and thankful and humbled and

priviledged to be a part of this work here. I love you all and hope

that y'all are well! Keep working hard and have fun!

Sincerely,

Elder Ashford

"Perseverance is a positive, active characteristic. It is not idly,

passively waiting and hoping for something good to happen. It gives us

hope by helping us realize that the righteous suffer no failure except

in giving up and no longer trying. We must never give up, regardless

of temptations, frustrations, disappointments, or discouragements."

     -Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin

Trials are How We Learn

This week was fantastic! I know that sounds weird after the title I

put on, but it's true! We did not get the results this week that we

were hoping for. We couldn't find many people to talk to, our baptism

fell through, some of our investigators with the most potential turned

us away, and we had to just keep on moving. It was definitely hard,

but worth it. We learned a lot together this week. I went to my first

Leadership Counsel on my mission this week, now that I'm a Zone

Leader, and it was just super cool! The advice and training that our

Mission President gave to us was extremely useful and will be super

effective! I'm excited to be able to pass on all this learning to the

rest of our zone tomorrow in our Zone Training. It'll be awesome! It

was also super great to see lots of my best friends and old companions

there! It was funny. Sister Farnes, our Mission President's wife, did

a super funny demonstration with my friend Elder Berrios there. She

explained about planning! Elder Berrios had a bunch of seemingly

random cooking ingredients and had to use them all to make a cake

without a recipe! We have no idea how it turned out, but we'd rather

not try it, just in case it went bad. Then, we ate cupcakes that she

had made following the recipe. Super smart! We need to follow the

instructions every day while we plan as missionaries, because if we

don't do things in the right order, everything can turn out bad!

Planning is important!!

Also this week, my companion was having real trouble with forgiving

himself of his weaknesses and moving on. He'd been having a hard time

with that and asked for a blessing of comfort. I gave him one, and it

was super cool. I could feel the Spirit just giving me the words that

he needed to hear. I truly felt that it wasn't me that was speaking,

but the Lord. I was truly an instrument in the Lord's hands, because

in the blessing I said a few things that no one else knew about, just

my companion and the Lord. It was super cool to see the power of the

Priesthood take effect in Elder Vieira's life as he left his worries

and troubles behind and starting working better to help others. I love

being a missionary! This week was really one of growth and we are

excited to have a much better week now! We're working hard and well

together and I've been truly blessed here in Vila Progresso. The

church is true! God restored His holy priesthood on Earth to further

benefit the salvation of all mankind! This power and authority resides

in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints because it is the

church that our loving Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ came

down in these latter days to bring again in its fullness to the earth!

I'm know that Christ lives and leads this church! We can all push

through and learn from our mistakes and trials, and need to, because

we will never understand the lasting effects of this while we're here

in this life! I love you all! Keep seeking and finding! Stay strong!!

Have an awesome week!

Elder Ashford

"No missionary can determine the lasting effects of his or her labors."

    -Elder Richard G. Scott