One Third

I'm really running out of creative titles, and don't really have time

to think of a better one... But like it says, today marks 1/3 of the

mission for me! That's 8 out of 24 months, and it's also ridiculous.

Time passes way too fast here, and I'm quickly losing all the time I

have to help as many people as possible as a full time missionary, so

I'm just gonna live it up and go all out! Yeah!

This week our baptisms didn't happen. The bishop here rescheduled to

this Friday so that we can accomodate everyone. It is his brother and

nephew that are being baptized after all! Super cool stuff. We have so

many amazing people we are working with here, it's just hard getting

them to come to church a lot of the time, which serioulsy impedes.

We're doing everything we can though! It just got a lot colder last

night, and we're hoping it sticks. Tired of sweating all day. It's

good though, because I hardly notice the sweat and everything until we

arrive home at night. I just love this work too much!!

I don't have like any more time, so I'll tell you more about our

baptisms next week when I have pictures. Also, I'll have to do my

standard email about my companion, as transfers are coming next week!

ANOTHER transfer!! Holy cow. It's too much. Just know that we are

working hard, and I'm recording all the funny/crazy stories that

happen, like the guy who told us to repent the other day before it's

too late. Fun stuff! Love you all! Keep working hard and stay firm in

the gospel!

Elder Ashford

General Conference is AWESOME

Super grateful for the awesome opportunity I had this week to  watch

General Conference, in English to boot, which  is always  way better

to hear  the Prophet's actual voice. I was blown away with  some of

the awesome talks we heard.  So good! So much stuff about Jesus

Christ, it  was just amazing! I loved  being inspired by them, and

took  lots of notes that I will be reviewing frequently. I  would

suggest the same to all of  you! After all, reviewing these words  was

 counseled by the Prophet, so  it's gotta be  good for you.

Beyond that, we've been doing great here! We have tons of work to do

and are working with some really  special people. Some of which should

be baptized this week! They know everything is true,  and were

seriously  just prepared by  God. We are working on making this area

grow tons. Our goal for this area is  to be baptizing once a week,

which is super possible here.  The stake  really wants to split, so

God is preparing the people they need to create the new wards!! SO cool!!

This week was  pretty  special as well, as my companion completed one

year of his  mission, and is celebrating his birthday today. We get

along super  well and are working incredibly hard together. The only

problem is, that he loves sweets and desserts. Good, in that now I

know how  to make several Brazilian desserts. Bad, in that I've

gained about 3  Kilograms since I arrived here. This can't last

forever. Happily,  I'm feeling tons better, and any sniffling from me

is mainly seasonal allergies. They followed me here,  and I was so

hoping to escape them for a couple  years. They're passing though, and

we  are  doing just dandy. I'm getting tons of correspondence from

friends as well, which is awesome, and I'm loving it! If anyone  feels

like writing letters,  it takes about a month to reach me, but I love

reading them, and I  have more time to respond them. I also  love

getting pictures so I can see how y'all are doing.  Make sure to share

your testimony and  any missionary experiences  you're having!

I don't have much more time, but I hope next week to talk a little

more about experiences I'm  having here.  Don't worry though,  they're

 all  written down in my journal to share after the mission as well.

Hoping everyone a good  week and sending love! Keep safe and have fun!

Sincerely

Elder Ashford

"We must put God in the foretront of everything  in out  lives...When

we put God  first, all  other things fall into  their proper place or

drop out of  our lives."

     -President Ezra Taft Benson

Just Another Week in Paradise

I don't have too much to say for this week! I sure love the mission,

this area is just a little more difficult to work in! But we've

seriously had miracles. This week we had few lessons, but all were

with people that seriously want to change their lives and know if this

is the true church on the Earth. (Don't worry; they will! It's a

promise from God after all!) So even though our numbers were low, they

were all quality lessons with good people. Gotta count your blessings!

We've been finding lots of people who just stopped going to church,

and are helping them come back! It's super cool to see these people

rediscover the joy of the gospel and the old faith they used to have.

Life changing experiences! We also had a really cool experience where

a guy stopped us who had just moved back here from Japan. He knows the

gospel is true, hasn't been baptized, and wants us to teach his family

so they can know too and they can all be sealed eventually as a family

and live in heaven together! Also super cool, and we're meeting with

him again today! Miracles truly happen on a mission, every single day.

You just have to look for them, and sometimes God even has YOU make

them! I love this church and I love this work! I'm working hard and

having an amazing time with a life fully centered on Jesus Christ and

His church! Love you all! Keep strong and working hard, and have fun!!

Elder Ashford

Another Week, Another Pizza

I wasn't really sure what to call this one, so this is what I came up

with as we were hungry one night and decided to order pizza from a new

place. The pizza was HUGE. Like about 18 inches in diameter. So that

was cool. The pizza here is really not that good in comparison to the

US though. Ohhhh man I can't wait for a good American Pizza! Y'all can

cast lots for who gets to go with me for pizza when I get back. (Man

I'm reading the scriptures too much....) 

Beyond that, the other picture is in the house of a member. We didn't have lunch one day

because the member moved, so were invited to eat with the other Elders

in our city! The family was awesome and the lady was super funny and

made us eat with towels in our collars to protect from spaghetti sauce

splatter. And let's not mention how many red dots Elder Carney STILL

had on his shirt after lunch. Whoops. He just read that.

Something cool is that I find a new love for the scriptures every day.

They are seriously awesome. I had a super fun time Sunday morning

doing a scripture marking fest and finding a bunch of new stuff that

I'd never noticed before. The scriptures have so much knowledge and so

many good examples that can help us improve ever day. Reading the Book

of Mormon is dear to me now, as it brings so much more peace into my

life ever time I read. I'm super thankful for the hours I have in the

morning to read and study and ponder, and then find how I can become a

better person because of the things I've read. It's cool to see the

references to Christ everywhere. The constant symbolism keeps you on

your toes, and always gives you something new to learn.

Beyond scriptures, we've had a good week. My companion and I get along

really well and we do good work together. We're are still having

trouble finding people with interest, but we've had some people with

real potential crop up recently, and for that I thank our Heavenly

Father for having us return to the investigator's house just one more

time, even though he's not normally home. I think that's all I have! I

pray for everyone and hope y'all are doing well. I send lots of love

and good wishes. Keep firm and strong! Have fun!

Sincerely,

Elder Ashford

PS. Thank you so much to the Townsend family for my letter! Thanks to

them and the envelope full of awesome quotes I have now, I want to

begin sharing cools quotes with you every week!

"It was meant to be that life would be a challenge. To suffer some

anxiety, some depression, some disappointment, even some failure is

normal. Teach our members that if they have a good, miserable day once

in a while, or several in a row, to stand steady and face them. There

is great purpose in our struggle in life."     -Elder Boyd K. Packer

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

Bitter Sweet

This week was hard. And it just got a little bit harder today with the knowledge of the passing away of my other grandfather. 

We had a tough week with few lessons taught. Walking all day every day, with nobody wanting to hear is tough. When you work with less active members who have moved or don't want the Gospel any more, it's tough. We have a wonderful message of love and hope that few people want to hear. It's truly sad. But we push forward for the few who understand the call that God is extending to them and take this call to heart and follow it. 

One man chose to follow the true and living Christ this week. His name is Alberto and he decided to be baptized. He was nervous about it, as anyone rightly should be, but he choose well. I know he'll be
blessed for this. He's almost 50, unmarried, and his Catholic mother lives with him. Constantly she was in the background, murmuring things against this baptism, but still, Alberto came. He didn't even tell his
mother he was doing it. He came and was baptized. He doesn't have too many friends in life. He lives kind of day to day working and sleeping. He was still happy though. And he's so much happier now. You
can see the joy on his face now. 

The picture was taken before the baptism, and you can see the difference now as he's a member of the
only true church on the face of the planet. He made an incredible decision, the right decision, and he's already being blessed for it. I hope that many other people come to the same knowledge as him and
overcome the natural man to choose to follow the things of God. He has a plan for us. We can return to live with him. Families can be together forever. This is the true church of Christ that He established on the Earth to bring about the eternal life of man. There is no greater blessing in life. I know this, and I share this every day. My work is not easy by any means, but it is worth it. I feel such joy when others come to this knowledge and accept it. If anyone thinks this work is easy, they're wrong. The missionaries deserve so much respect for leaving behind everything of the world and consecrating their lives to the service of the Lord to help His children return to His presence. Going to new, exotic places, working every day in the blazing sun, pouring rain, or freezing snow, having the thing most precious to you be rejected by your brothers and sisters. It's hard. But I know it's right. This is the most important work I can do right
now, and I'm so grateful for this opportunity. I hope that everyone comes to this knowledge of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and accepts it, is baptized in the only true church, and partakes of the
blessings God has prepared for every single one us. I add my testimony to that of so many others, that Christ lives and loves us. I love every one of you, and wish you the best. Stay firm and strong and
always choose what's right.

Sincerely,
Elder Michael Jay Ashford

Another Day in Paradise

So, if you actually listen to country music and recognize the

song. How is everyone?? I'm doing great back here, with lots of new

stories and awesome things happening!

So first of all, we had an AMAZING lunch after I talked with y'all

last week. We went to a fairly cheap, but reallllly good Brazilian

barbecue places. One of the awesome ones where they just bring the

meat around and cut off pieces for you. All you can eat, served, meat

buffet. Delicious. That was our little celebration for Elder Agnelli

finishing the mission. Speaking of which, my former companion is now

in his house, sitting pretty, probably eating his mama's lunch. Man

how I miss my mother's cooking. But it's all good! I'm having an

awesome time, so I don't even think about home very much!

We did have transferred, and I knew that I'd get a new companion. I

stayed here in Itapetininga, and got put with Elder Ladwig for these

six weeks! He is seriously awesome and we work well together. He is

Brazilian, but looks very American. He's from the South of Brazil, and

from German ancestry. He's got a year and seven months on the

mission, and is suppper good at making contacts and teaching! I'm

already learning a ton from him, and am excited for all the good work

we are going to do this transfer!

Elder Carney stayed with me! 

He is seriously awesome, and a great friend. He's training a new
Brazilian and is District Leader here as well! 

Speaking of the work, it's going well. This week was hard with

transfers and Elder Agnelli needing to pack, so we didn't have as many

lessons as we'd like, but I know that this week will be better! We had

two investigators in the church this Sunday, one of which was Vera,

and is very excited for all the help she's getting from God. She loves

the church and what it teaches. That she learns stuff and not simply

receives information here. She's making tons of progress and tons of

new friends there. She just needs to convince her husband to get

married!! 

The other was Alberto, who is making good progress as well.

He has a baptism date set for the 15, but we're hoping we can move it

to this Saturday! We'll see! I'm really excited about the work that

will be happening these six weeks. WE are going to have lots of sucess

with the help of our Heavenly Father, and through our efforts! I know

for a fact, that God will help us, as long as we ask for help, and

then do our part! He expects us to put in all our effort, and then

He'll do the rest, as long as we are humble and ask! I have a

testimony of this! I see if absolutely ever day in the day to day

miracles!

I hope everyone stays safe and has fun! This life is about finding

joy! Both joy in this life, and eternal joy with our families in

heaven! Keep working hard and searching for the truth! Love you all!!

Elder Ashford

Oh yeah, and the picture with the dude flying around was random! He
had a parachute and a chair, and a giant gas powered fan! Kinda cool!