The Missionary's Delight

So, seeing lots of baptisms is definitely a missionary's delight, but seeing the church chock full of great people on Sunday is also just awesome! This week, we started working with a TON of less active people! We started hunting people down through member referrals and our member records. We found some SUPER cool people. People who used to be fantastic members but that for one reason or another slowly stopped coming to church and doing all those things that make such a difference in life. We can't blame them. The road we walk is difficult, but we all have to remember the remarkable blessings that await us along the road, but especially at the end of the journey. 

We got to church on Sunday after having little success in searching out our investigators to bring them to church with us. We walked in to find SO MANY PEOPLE AT CHURCH. The building was SUPER packed! It was so cool! Cooler still because some of these people I got to help get there. Everyone was super excited with it all, and we took advantage of the situation to mark several days to go visiting people with members. We also marked family home evenings, so we should have about three family home evenings this week! Too cool! Bishop was super excited about it all, as well as the new Ward Mission Leader that they called today. Lots of members want to help us out, so we'll going to get them going bringing friends to church and sharing the gospel with them! We want to help the ward build up and know that we can! It's so cool to see the progress that has been going on here. I truly love being a missionary and being able to directly help these people with their lives. Sometimes it feels like we don't make that much of a difference, but none of our efforts is ever in vain. We can make a difference! It has to start with ourselves and then work out to others. We must change ourselves and then work to change others. We start with one or two people and are gradually given chances to work with more and more people and expand our abilities as we work with more and more people and as our influence spreads to them all. God gives us chances to learn and grow! This is a large part of our purpose here on Earth. We were sent from the presence of God to get a physical body and then pass through difficulties so that we could become more like our Heavenly Father. We're meant to progress and develop ourselves! It's super cool to think about.

I know that Christ lives! He loves us and cares about us. He wants to help us! He wants to comfort us. We just have to let Him into our lives, doing what He asks us! Having faith in Him and showing that faith through our actions, including fixing the things that we do wrong through repentence. We have to be baptized and receive that Gift of the Holy Ghost to be clean and pure, to have a new life in Christ and to be able to start it all over again, to get a clean slate! We then need to stay strong and work hard to always be worthy of God's blessings so that we can one day return to His presence and live with Him forever in happiness and peace together with our families! I love this Gospel, Christ's true Gospel! I hope that everyone can apply these things into their lives and feel the beautiful music of the Gospel every single day!

Elder Ashford

More Pictures!

Another "Last One" Bites the Dust

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was the last General Conference that I will be able to watch during this two year mission in Brazil! My fourth and last! It was super good! I'm sure that I wasn't the only missionary feeling more than a little trunky on Saturday with quite literally more than half the talks having been given specifically about marriage or directly stating that the topic at hand would prepare us for marriage. I don't know if it made it easier or harder for me to listen considering I have much less time left on my mission than most missionaries. Now, I officially have less than 100 days of missionary work left. I hit 600 days as of yesterday and someone told me that my group will leave with 700. Gosh darn it, trunky, contagious missionaries... I'll get refocused today though and work hard this week! The talk I really loved was from Elder Andersen of the 70. He talked about how lots of people learn the dance of the gospel and do it well, but how we all need to learn to hear the music and receive the joy from it all!

The pictures this week are actually all from last week. Last Monday, I had like no time to write anyone, as we took most of the morning up climbing a nearby mountain. SUPER FUN to go hiking again! I just felt super awkward in jeans and a t-shirt. Eck. I felt much better getting back into my white shirt and tie. The days beforehand were also super great! We had 4 baptisms that week!!! Alaide was baptized by herself on Sunday after church, and you can see here there with a bunch of the ladies and other members of the ward here! She is super special. She just had some doubts about getting baptized when we found her a few weeks ago. She has a friend who lives next door who is an active member and helped her out a ton. She overcame whatever fears she had, trusted in the Lord, and was baptized! It was also the only baptized here in Brazil where I actually got the water heater to work right, so I baptized in warm water! What the what, what, whatttttt! The other three baptized had happened the day before, on Saturday. There you can see Sérgio, who is the member who was asked to baptize some people, Marco and Regina, who had finally gotten married and baptized on the same day after visiting church for months! They are seriously great and have lots of faith. They have truly seen the difference that the Gospel can make in our lives! So cool! They are really special.

Last in the lineup of people-to-be-baptized is Tamires! She was a miracle. She was 8 and a half months pregnant when we found her. Her grandmother was taught in the past, so we tried to visit her and found Tamires as well! Tamires was super receptive and asked to be baptized right from the start! We'd explained in our first time there the importance of being baptized, and what benefits it would be. We explained how baptism would wipe away all her sins and would make her a new person. It would allow her to turn over a new leaf, a leaf that was focused on God and His son Jesus Christ. She really wanted that and insisted on being baptized and was content on doing it whenever, but she especially wanted it before her baby came. We got everything set up. The Bishop was a little worried about it all, but it was the most  perfect baptism I've ever seen. No squirming, no toes poking out of the water, just a perfect descent and coming out. So cool!!! She had tons of faith and really wants to follow God. We showed up at her house a few days after, and she'd gotten a tithing slip and wanted help filling it out so that she could start paying her tithing already!!! SOOO COOOOLLLL!!! We were truly blessed with that.

Things are going well here. I'm trying to improve myself always and be a better missionary, person, and follower of Christ! I love seeing that changes that have come from my mission and hope that I can keep up the things I've improved!! Things are challenging, but I know that Heavenly Father is preparing and qualifying me to do many other great things! I love everyone and hope that y'all have a great week!!!

Elder Ashford

Back with the Brazilians

Once again I'm back with a Brazilian companion! I think Heavenly Father wanted me to learn to love Brazil especially well, because I have now had 8 Brazilians for companions. It's cool! Elder Abdom is from the state of Pernambuco and is good to work with. He has exactly a year less on his mission than I do on mine. He learns quick though and is doing great! He's a little quieter than normal, but that's fine. We're getting along fine and working well together. I sent pictures of our baptism from last week, Tom, as well as the baptism that happened a couple days ago. Pierre was baptized by his grandpa who used to be bishop here! It was a great baptism and everyone got choked up. It was sweet! We also had five baptism interviews done and all five passed, so we'll work to have these people all baptized this weekend. Things here are great! I'm working past mental and physical tiredness. I get home exhausted and go to sleep quickly, which is nice. I love being with these people so much! There's so much I can learn from them, and I'm making sure to learn it all!

This week I said goodbye to a lot of great friends, including two of my companions, Elder Palhares and Elder Vieira who I served with in Vila Medeiros and then Vila Progresso respectively. It was sad. I don't know when I'll see them again and they were truly great companions and friends. I'm just happy how much easier things are nowadays to keep in touch with people. Time is going by super fast, and I have more great companions and friends who will leave soon, and then it'll be my turn. So weird! I love doing this work though and I'm taking advantage of every opportunity I have to help people and work here as well as play. It's too fun and gratifying. I love it! I hope that everyone has a great week and works hard! Have fun and always continue strong, doing the things that Heavenly Father has asked us to do! 

Elder Ashford

Transfer Time, Already?

I've come to discover here that time moves steadily faster. I seriously can't believe that I've been here for six weeks already with Elder Jones! It went way too fast! We did great work, it just all seems to pass in a blur. I'm having to fight back tiredness and laziness (which are constant temptations!) and make good use of every second. It's SO HARD sometimes. I've been doing well though! I'm trying to apply everything that I've been learning. That's really the biggest secret to living the Gospel in our lives, learning and applying! We can learn so much in life if we keep our minds and hearts open. Then, we have to take the initiative and use our God given talents and skills (and His divine help!) to apply everything. We can't simply learn about the importance of reading the scriptures, we have to show it and read every day. We can't merely learn the importance of using our time wisely, we also have to do it! That's what I've been trying to do.

We had a super cool week! We met this one lady who was just amazing. We visited a former investigator not expecting too much. However, we invited her granddaughter Tamires who's 26 to join us as well! We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how we need to have faith, repent, be baptized, receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and then endure until the end of our lives. We talked about baptism and weren't scared to invite the people there to follow the example of Christ being baptized. Tamires accepted!! We left a Book of Mormon with her without explaining much and we returned to find her almost reciting the story found in the Testimony of Joseph Smith! It was so cool!!! She had read the pamphlet about the Gospel as well and loved how taking the sacrament each week was a way to renew our covenants with God and be clean again! We got SO excited!! After the lesson, I said a prayer thanking Heavenly Father for helping us find her, the type of person I had so long searched for. Too cool! She came to church and loved it!

We then baptized a man nicknamed Tom this Sunday! He had the biggest smile I've ever seen coming out of the waters. He has known the missionaries for years, and got converted about two years ago. He's been trying to get married for the longest time, but his "wife" Joice didn't want to. He battled with this for a while, but a couple months ago they marked a marriage date! They were married last Saturday and Tom was baptized the day after. Now we just hope and pray that his faith will spark Joice to really search for herself to see if the church is true! Their family is awesome, and I believe that their son, Vinícius, will be baptized as well when he turns 8!

Lastly this week, we got a call on Sunday about transfers. I'll happily be staying here in Perus for the next transfer! Unfortunately, Elder Jones will be going to a new area and I'll get a new companion, Elder Abdom. We'll see how things go! I sure am grateful for my mission and all the great experiences I'm having! I love this time so much. This day in four months will have mixed emotions for me as I leave Brazil and land in good 'ole Texas!! I hope that everyone has a good week!!

Elder Ashford

The Best Feeling

We had a great week. We're working on constantly improving and getting better. Sometimes we slip and wind up behind, but God will always show us the way to get back up again. We keep moving! We have purpose and we keep getting up, wiping off the dust, and doing what we know is right!

I don't have much time, but I just wanted to share one of the best feelings I've ever had. The other three people that were baptized two weeks ago were all confirmed and given the Gift of the Holy Ghost! It was seriously super cool. The Spirit was strong there in the room with us. The best part came afterwards. I was sitting there in the meeting and I looked around at everyone. I saw the people with whom I'd had a part in helping come to be baptized and then confirmed that day. I looked back and saw a few more people I'd had the chance to help as well. I knew that I was being used by the hands of God to help these people. I felt like I'd died and gone to heaven. I'm sure that's what the Celestial Kingdom is like. There with all these people we love and have helped. Interacting with them and working to be better still. It'll be wonderful! I was able to catch a small glimpse of heaven. I know that it'll still be much better! I can't wait to have an eternal family and then to be able to live with them forever in God's presence. Now is the time we have to prepare for that moment! I'm doing everything I can to be prepared, and I hope that everyone else is as well! Have a great week! Be prepared!!!

Elder Ashford

Walking Dead

There have been times this week that I've felt absolutely dead. Like on Sunday morning when we woke up early to participate in Ward Counsel. Even my fingers were tired. It hurt to move them. This is crazy! I keep moving forward though. I'm working hard! We walked and talked and searched and found and helped and were helped a ton this week. Unfortunately, we weren't able to baptize anyone this week, but we're working with people still and there are a lot of good people set up for this month. I love doing this work! 

I don't have much time, because we went shopping today in the center of Sao Paulo and got back later, but it was super fun today! We rode up to the top of the tallest building in the city and looked out at all the buildings. It was crazy! The work is going well here. Rodrigo got the Holy Ghost on Sunday! I found out that he had a ton of member help. The members here are great and are really willing to visit with us and help people. Rodrigo was a member's friend who was invited more and more to be around the member family. They introduced him to the truth and he accepted it! It was so cool! I pray for more great experiences like this one, where the members can almost completely carry someone to change their life through the Gospel of Christ! 

I love this work!! Have a great week everyone!