Happy Thanksgiving

Well, unfortunately I didn't have any turkey or pumpkin pie or anything else that I love so much, but I still had a good Thanksgiving remembering all the blessings and good things that I have here in life! I had a pretty awesome week. I got to visit the temple here in São Paulo. It's seriously so great there. The spirit is super strong. There's just so much peace and learning that can go on if you let it, and I really tried to be open to new things. Open mind, open heart, that's the key! It was super pretty outside. Even the roar of all the cars seems to just fade away as soon as you get inside the temple grounds. It's funny. You look out to the front and see and these buildings and cars and craziness, and then look back and see this oasis out in the middle of the city. The temple is SO awesome! I loved it. I'm with Elder Curtis in the picture, who is also a secretary here in the office!

I had a day where I had literally tons of work to do. you can imagine how frustrating it was then when the President's Assistants came in saying they had urgent work to do and needed my computer. I use my computer for literally everything, so I wasn't too happy when their work got even more crazy and had to stay on until 7 PM doing their stuff. I made the best of the situation though. I was upset, but kept myself under control and found other useful things to do. Like.... DECORATE FOR CHRISTMAS!! We'd found a ton of old Christmas lights and decorations hidden away, so I got them out and put up tons of stuff! It looks a lot better around here now. I'm liking it!! This is an old picture I took, because I put up more stuff afterwards, so I'll take a newer picture later.

The best thing that happened though was the baptism meeting. SO COOL. These two Bolivians have been awesome! Carlos and Veronica are their names, and they were super ready to meet us. Carlos had already been going to church for two months and Veronica was super willing to see for herself and try it out. Veronica had a super great experience with the Book of Mormon that made her want to be baptized and she then helped Carlos want to be baptized as well. The two cousins were baptized last Sunday after church and will be given the Gift of the Holy Ghost tomorrow. Awesome!! They are great and I've loved being able to work with them. It's so great to see people's lives changing as they come to truly follow Christ! Even though we don't always have tons of time to go and talk with people, we are truly blessed with miracles. 

It's so great here!

I hope that everyone has a great week! Work hard and always do your best!

Elder Ashford

Back in Time

For about 8 hours after lunch during this week and I went knocking doors, teaching people in their houses, talking with people in the streets, generally did proselyting work. But wait... Isn't that like, normal, non-office missionaries? Isn't that what I USED to do before I came to the office??

I had a really cool week! In the pictures below is Elder Berrios. He's a New Yorker! I actually met him in a different zone like 6 months ago, but he's super cool so I was glad to have him come to my current zone during transfers a couple weeks ago. Monday, his companion had to go back home, so he was left without a companion. So, guess who went with him to do proselyting work? Me! It was SO weird and SO cool to be able to do like normal missionary work. I'd come to the mission office and do a little bit of work in the morning, and then we'd leave for a different part of the city pretty close by. Super fun, and we found tons of great people! Of course, it wasn't meant to last, and he picked up a part-time missionary so that I can finish all my work. It was cool.

That was about what happened in my week. Today will be the baptism interview for two of my investigators here and they'll be baptized tomorrow after church! I'm super happy. Tired, but happy. All the walking and talking and stuff really took it out of me. I felt like I was starting my mission all over again. It was nice though. So yeah! I feel bad, because I feel like I should be writing a ton more, but that's kinda all that I've got for now. I love everyone! Have a great week! Work hard and have fun!
Elder Ashford

"I find that when I get casual with my relationship with divinity and when it seems no divine ear is listening and no divine voice is speaking, that I am far, far away. If I immerse myself in the scriptures, the distance narrows and the spirituality returns. I find myself loving more intimately those I should love with all my heart, mind, and strength."
     -President Spencer W. Kimball

Wait! What Was That? Was That Transfers??

Holy smokes this week has simultaneously flown and crawled by.

Transfers were this week, but I totally didn't even feel the

anticipation or excitement that I normally feel at this time. Sunday

was cool. We were getting ready and President calls everyone saying

that he's ready to pass out the transfers. We all ran to the office

and watched as everyone switched spots. I had a bunch of friends from

the MTC become leaders, which was super cool! I also gained a second

companion, as Elder Machado is now training a new Housing Secretary.

Should be fun! This transfer is actually going to be only 5 weeks

long, because of Church Travel deadlines before Christmas. It'll

compensate itself though on the next transfer, which will be 7 weeks

long! Woah!

We got to see all the new missionaries come in, sort of. We have like

all their information, we just don't get any time to meet them. With

transfers now being on Tuesdays, the newbies arrive at President's

house for lunch, and then we only see them for the training we give

right before they leave to their areas. We got 16 new missionaries,

and only 5 went home! It was a super crazy week though. We had to stay

in the office really late getting everything ready the week before.

Everyone got this cool binder that President bought and had the

secretaries put together, and it's full of awesome talks. I hope that

all the missionaries here appreciate my effort!! What was super weird

though was the day after transfers. 4 of the 5 missionaries going home

went and stopped by the temple one last time, except for one. They all

had to get to President's house though for lunch, so I got elected to

go with the single missionary to the temple to pick everyone up and

then go to President's house. I didn't have anyone to go back with

though, so I totally had to sit there and eat with everyone who was getting ready
to go home. SO AWKWARD. I'm totally not ready to eat at the "going home" table yet. I

still have another 8 months from today! I got to learn lots though

from President and Sister Farnes, as well as the veterans who were

going home, so it was cool to see it all.

It has been raining a little more, which has saved us for now. At

least it stops São Paulo's water reserves from getting any lower.

We're already sucking up tons of water from other places as well, but

we have no idea how long it's going to last. Oh well. We just keep on

moving and doing our work. We're not too worried about it, especially

with the backup supplies we've been instructing the mission to do.

Oh yeah! How could I forget!! One of the biggest changes this transfer

was with the assistants. First off, I got SO EXCITED! If anyone

remembers Elder Carney from Colorado with whom I lived in Itapetininga

almost a year ago, he got called as an assistant!!! So I'm living with

him!! Sort of! There are actually 4 assistants to the President now,

and they totally do nothing but travel. They go in pairs and they are

spending a week with each zone leader pair. The spend all week doing

splits and helping the leaders learn to plan and work better then come

home Sunday night to meet with President, have Monday off, and then go

back out on Tuesday! That'll be so crazy for them, but super fun as

well! I thought it was an awesome idea that President had. They'll only

be doing it for maybe two transfers though, so then it'll go back to

normal. It's super cool though!

Finally, we had a really cool experience this week. We didn't get to

do proselyting work like all week as we were stuck in the office. Our

one appointment even fell through. Finally, Sunday night we got to go

back to that canceled appointment and it was super spiritual. We

talked with them and were super sad to find that they hadn't read much

of the Book of Mormon. We talked with them about it, and one of them

said that they'd read a little. We asked here what she'd read and how

she felt. She just kind of paused and then turned to a page we had

marked. She had read all of Alma chapter 32, which says a lot about

faith. She almost teared up while she was talking. She explained it

super well and said that she'd just felt this peace in life. She

explained the difference it had made in her life and she asked to be

baptized, saying that she knew that the Book of Mormon was true and

that this church was the right one. We almost didn't now how to

respond. I felt so happy. We marked a baptism date with her, and she

should be baptize in a week from tomorrow. YAY!!! I'm super excited.

We lose so much time in our area taking care of the missionaries here

in São Paulo North, but God truly blesses us with miracles. I love how

Moroni talks to us at the end of the book how God is a god of miracles

and that He hasn't changed. It's true, and He continues to show his

love through modern revelation by living prophets and the many

scriptures that we have. It's so great! Christ lives and loves us and

is so merciful. We can decide our own fates and choose who we want to

be. We were given that power through God's plan and the atonement of

Christ. It's marvelous! I hope that everyone studies more to truly

understand the sacrifice that Jesus Christ suffered for us. It's truly

something amazing and worthwhile. I love y'all! Have a great week!!

Elder Ashford

Twas the Week Before Transfers

Twas the week before transfers,
And all through the office,
Ev'ryone was stirring,
And helping the process.

Except for some errands,
We didn't leave,
Do we even sleep?
Not as much as we please.

Yeah, I'm not going into poetry. Just to let y'all know.
This week was super busy though! My deadline for baptism records was
this week, so I had to stay extra a couple days to make sure all of
them were in. Then, other days we had to wake up earlier than normal
to run errands. I helped out the missionary couple who'll be arriving
here in a couple of weeks as well. Now they know all about how their
house situation will be here. I sent lots of referrals to other
missionaries. It was an all around good week, but I'm ready to rest a
little today. That's about all that I have. Next week should be even
crazier with all the new missionaries arriving. Luckily, there aren't
many leaving, so all the crazy should be more fully concentrated on
the beginning of the week. It'll be super fun to help the greenies get
set up here though! I'm excited. I love helping new missionaries. I
was super boring this week. Sat at my computer almost all week and
worked on some stuff. But it was cool.

I can watch church videos here at the office, and I found this video
that I loved a ton. I hope that everyone watches it! I love science a
lot, and it really is a proof that God exists!

http://www.mormonchannel.org/our-heavenly-fathers-plan?v=1834798902001#.VFdg2LH4lFo.email

I hope that everyone has a great week! Work hard and have fun!!

Elder Ashford

End of the Month Rush

Yup, it's rush season again. Every month I have to get all the baptism

records from the previous month into the Church's records before the

6th of the current month. Almost there! I'm missing a few, but I'm

getting on the missionaries' tails for them. Don't worry, it's all

under control. I went traveling all over our mission this week as a

few things had to be taken care of. What's really funny is how

Halloween came and we saw a few people out in costume going from door

to door asking for candy. They weren't very successful though.

Halloween is definitely an American holiday, so no one buys candy to

hand out. Whoops!

Everyone's doing well here. We all get really tired from all the

constant work, but we learn so much as well. It's truly a once in a

life time experience that I'm trying to live up while I can. My

scripture study has still been awesome lately as I study about God's

mercy and love through the atoning sacrifice He did for us. How we can

be forgiven and saved despite our imperfections. There are tons of

examples of people being forgiven of their sins. The biggest way

that's done is by true baptism. Over the years, baptism has been

perverted and manipulated to have different forms and meanings.

However, God doesn't change and neither should we. Baptism can be for

the remission of sins, as long as it is done correctly. We can be

completely forgiven of all our sins and wrongs by being baptized with

the proper authority. Just as Christ had the authority to forgive

sins, that power still exists today and people can be forgiven by

being immersed in the waters by a holder of the priesthood then being

given the Holy Ghost, God's cleansing spirit and present to us. Then

we are clean and we become candidates to God's Celestial Kingdom. We

know all this thanks to the Restoration of the Gospel that happened

when a latter-day prophet was called directly by our Heavenly Father

and His son, Jesus Christ. How glorious is that! How joyful to know

the plan of God! We still make mis
takes again and again, but we have

more access to God's power to be forgiven time after time. We have

many examples from the scriptures of people who were completely

forgiven of their sins by their faith. They prayed fervently and after

all their effort were rewarded. Enos did this, as well as Alma the

Younger when he finally called out for Christ's help. We as well can

have this forgiveness in our lives as well seek it. I'm so grateful

for the plan of happiness that I get to share with everyone here. It's

truly amazing! Christ lives and loves us!

Elder Ashford

Here's some pictures! The first is of one of the Zone Leaders here who

got overexcited by the mustache he got from the avocado and milk

vitamin shake we made, 

and the other is a much more handsome picture

of my companion and I, since the one I sent last week wasn't up to par

for us. Enjoy! Have a great week!!