Another Zone Activity

First I want to give a shout out to my awesome companion, who

completed 21 years of age yesterday! One of the recent-converts in the

ward gave us lunch today and they made this HUGE, awesome cake! It was

delicious, and I was really happy for my companion. We had a good

week. Rough, because not a lot of people want to hear from us, but it

was good. We work hard everyday, putting in our best every moment. We

did a split in our area with the President's Assistants, and I was

with an Elder Costa, which was cool. We literally got rejected by

everyone. We got made fun of. We got doors slammed in our face. I

think the assistants found out that our area's a little hard. It was

fun however! We laughed a lot.

I'm writing this a little later in the day, because we pulled off

another fantastic zone activity! This time, we were trying to work on

everyone's Christ-like attributes, so we did like a obstacle course!

They had to practice love and charity as they were taped to their

companions and had to work with them every step of the way. They had

to excersize patience as they had to repeat the whole process every

time that something went wrong. There were knowledge portions as they

had to take tests based on the scriptures. They had to show faith and

hope by making it through all the tests without error. They learned

well! It was fun in the end. Several people wanted to give up, but

they decided to keep moving forward and were rewarded in the end! I

felt like I was Phil from Survivor. They messed something up and I

would just be like "No". It was fun to say yes though! It was great!

They had to do a blindfolded maze, build a tower of cups, shoot a

basket together and other stuff!

Have a great week! Keep going strong! I love you all!

Elder Ashford

Going the Distance

I'm sure trying to keep enduring. It's hard not always seeing the

results we want to, but we have to remember that the Lord's will

should be above ours. I feel like I'm always planting, but hardly even

collecting. It gets frustrating at times because I want to badly to see more results. It's

hard to do everything within your reach, and just not have anyone

respond. We worked our tails off Sunday to get people to church. We

called, we passed by in houses, we arranged members to take them, but

everything fell through. People didn't want to, members forgot, and

some others' parents told us we were wasting our time with the person

and told us not to come back. It was sad. The only person who came was

a little, old lady who always comes, and just can't be baptized

because her husband still doesn't accept it. I want so badly to see

people doing the right thing, but I can't feel the difference I make

sometimes. But I know that God does. He's proud of me and trusts me

and wants me to keep going, so I am. It's super hard sometimes, but I

try to just keep moving. Sometimes I lose hope and get fed up with

only worrying about everyone else's lives, but I try my best to keep

reaching out to others. My companion helps me a ton as well, and I

know that God works through him to help me. I have so much to be

grateful for! Many times we have to just keep pushing forward. I'm

truly trying to go the distance, which is often hard. We want to give

up or take a rest. However, we need to keep moving forward. We watched

a video the other day with President Farnes. During our Leadership

Council, we watched clips of Conference talks by President Eyring and

Elder Holland. Missionary work isn't easy because salvation isn't

easy. Christ's life wasn't easy and what we feel here doesn't even

come close to that. We also can't stop. Even the three days that

Christ was dead, He wasn't resting, but teaching in the Spirit World.

We need to constantly push forward. There is always something more to

do. If anyone wants to watch the video, please look up "The Atonement

and Missionary Work". I think that's the title. I hope that everyone

is doing well. I have absolute certaintly of Christ's divine mission,

as well as my own. This is Christ's only true church. Everyone needs

to learn and know this for themselves. Our eternities rest on this,

not just our lives here. We are merely passing through, and it goes

fast, so we need to make good use of all our time. Yes, it's hard.

Yes, we'll make mistakes. But we are here to learn. I testify that

Christ lives and loves us. He rules and reigns and shows us His will

through Prophets, ancient and modern, and by His Holy Spirit. I know

this to be true. Christ lives and loves us!

Elder Ashford

"The good works that really matter require the help of heaven. And the

help of heaven requires working past the point of fatigue so far that

only the meek and lowly will keep going long enough. The Lord doesn't

put us through this test just to give us a grade; he does it because

the process will change us."

     -Elder Henry B. Eyring

Progress in Progresso

We've had a crazzzyyyy awesome week! It was hard sometimes this week

to get lots of work done, as we had lots of meetings. Monday was

P-Day, Tuesday we traveled to the capital witht he other mission

leaders to have a meeting with Elder Aidukaitis, a member of the 70

who spoke in last General Conference! He was super cool and gave us

some amazing planning advice that worked miracles here in our area!

There is seriously importance in planning. We need to have plans for

everything we do! Even our Heavenly Father makes plans! Just look to

His great PLAN of Salvation! Anyways, it was great. Then on Wednesday,

we had another meeting with him, but this time here in Sorocaba with

the missionaries of our zone and two others. Yet again, another super

awesome, spiritual meeting full of learning! Too great! We had a good

rest of the week, including another baptism this week! This is the

first time that I've had a baptism two weeks back-to-back! It was

super cool, and we have lots of people who are getting ready for these

next two weeks as well! Luiz, who was baptized last week, had the

experience of seeing his son get baptized the week after! It was too

cool to see the two there, so excited! Felipe, Luiz's son, is super

excited for everything, which is really cool to see because normally

he's pretty quiet!

There are seriously so many blessings being given to this area. We

worked super hard last transfer, so it was a little sad when we didn't

have the success we searched for. But this time around, the blessings

are pouring out. A 20 year old recent convert didn't want to serve a

mission really, but she's changed her mind since she's we've been here

and is now doing a mission prep class at institute! The inactive who

returned to activity in the church worked with us one day of last

week, and it was cool to see his progress as he bore his testimony to

our investigators and helped them come to church this week. He talked

with Bishop about his desire to be a missionary! We had an inactive

come to church for the first time in a long time, and he brought his

wife and two year old son to church. They're going to get married this

week so that his wife can get baptized in a couple of weeks! We are

also working with several other people who want to be baptized when

they get prepared! Woo hoo! It's super cool!

I'm doing great. That was pretty much my week in a nutshell. I'm

working hard and trying to improve myself every day, building my

patience and trust in the Lord! I see the blessings that come! I hope

that everyone has a great week! Work hard! And have fun!

Sincerely,

Elder Ashford

Adventures in Vila Progresso

This week was yet another great one. We had our fair share of hard

investigators and difficulties, but it all turned out well. Some of

the people we taught this week turned out to be pastors who openly

refused to just pray and ask God if the message we brought was true.

Super sad... We also made a nice long journey this week to pick up

materials. Our zone was down to nothing in terms of Books of Mormon

and pamphlets and everything, and President Farnes brought some for

us, but we had to go adventuring in Sorocaba to pick them up. We had

to figure out the bus system here and get to a different church

chapel, and then carry the super heavy boxes back home with us.

Unfortunately, we got off the bus wayyyy to late and had to carry the

boxes in our arms for quite a lot of time to get back home. Oh well.

Things go that way sometimes. :P

We were pretty sad last Sunday, as it ended up that none of our

investigators could come to church with us and visit and experience

the Church of Jesus Christ. They all had work or medical problems or

stuff like that, which was sad they didn't get to come. We'll work on

getting people there this next Sunday though, so all's well. We have

quite a few people who are preparing themselves to be baptized in a

few weeks, which is awesome! We're working really hard and doing our

best and relying on God! My companion is seriously awesome, and is

helping me out tons! So grateful for him and so much support from back

at home! Sorry my letter is short this week, but I'll try to write

more next week! Love y'all!!

Life's A Dance

Life's a dance you learn as you go,

Sometimes you lead, sometimes you follow,

Don't worry 'bout what you don't know,

Life's a dance you learn as you go.

That's the song that ran through my head this morning! I'll explain

more in a bit. First, we got to meet our new mission president this

week! He is seriously awesome and is going to do amazing in leading us

here! We already miss President Martins, who's now in his home in

Hawaii, but are excited to work with President Farnes!

This last week went well. We are trying our hardest, and our area here

is about to get some fresh blood. This morning, we got transfers. So

we already know where we're going! They're moving us out and putting

in two new missionaries here. I will be going to an area called Vila

Progresso. I got this call from President Farnes this morning, saying

that I was going to be made a Zone Leader there. I got super

nervous!!! I was going crazy, like "Zone Leader? ME?" But I trust in

the Lord, and with His help I'll be able to serve in this new way. I

had a great experience as well. After President finished his call, I

started praying that the Lord would help me in this new assignment and

guide me. Then, I returned to reading the Book of Mormon, in Alma 38.

Instead of reading where I'd left off, my eyes were drawn to the

beginning of the chapter, and I began to cry as I read. Heavenly

Father opened my eyes, and I no longer read it as a letter from Alma

to his son, but as a letter from God to me. I felt so overwhelmed. It

was beautiful, and I knew that the Lord trusted in me. That I was

doing a good job, and could continue to do so as long as I always

stayed faithful and tried my hardest to be obedient. It's hard to

describe the emotions, but they were strong, and I'm so grateful for

the light God showed me.

I know that God lives! He answers our prayers! Christ is His son and

lived and died and resurrected to help us! He loves us all! I love you

as well, and wish the best for you all! Keep strong and work hard!

Sincerely,

Elder Ashford