Thursday, May 29, 2014

sickness and transfer calls give me a lot of anxiety...

Well this week was a very up and down week and one that I did not see coming...let me explain.

Last p-day we went to an exotic lion's park and it was pretty awesome.  We went as a whole district and took pictures and looked at cats.  They were in cages so we couldn't get real close to them which was a bummer, but that is all right!  It was still really cool.  After that we ran to get H. Dodges hair cut at a members house and then went to our dinner appt.  H. Dodge wasn’t feeling good, so we just came home and about an hour or so later she started puking...so there is where one part of my anxiety shot up.  I slept on the couch that night and didn’t get any sleep...

(This one is from the exotic lion's park)

Tuesday- we both were up all night, and by 4 am H. Dodge was so sick that we called the Winterton's and they drove us to the Urgent care to get her checked out.  We sat at the Urgent care from 6am-noon and they didn’t find out what was wrong, which was really frustrating.  After that we ran to get H. Dodge's medication to help the pain and nausea, and we got back to North Edwards about 6pm.  We both took showers and headed to bed early.  36 hours of no sleep really takes a toll on a missionary.

Wednesday- H. Dodge took it easy and I did some studies and wrote some letters and then we had a doctors appointment for H. Dodge in Lancaster, so we headed out there, and had to get some more medication because this doctor said it was something different than what the other doctor's said at the Urgent care...kind of frustrating that no one really knew what was wrong, but we are doing what they told us.  We came home and headed over to the Winterton's for dinner and to bring them something nice for driving us to the Urgent care at 5:30 in the morning. 

(We pass this weird thing on the road every time we went to Winterton's...from far away it looked like a vacuum.  But I had to take a picture with it haha.)

Thursday- We went to another Boron Committee Meeting and that was fun as it always is haha!  And it makes me sad to tell them that one of us could be leaving this next week because they keep asking us to just stay forever and help them with all of their events…haha.  Welcome to small towns.  We then had a boring rest of the night.  We weekly planned for a week that one of us could not be here for, which is always strange.

Friday- We were back to normal and got our rest back up to speed, which was good considering missionaries are always tired.  But we headed to our last district meeting as the “Mojave Misfits” (that is our district name, and yes we are cool like that (: ), and had a really good lesson on how we can share our favorite scripture as we are sharing the Book of Mormon with our friends or investigators.  After lunch we headed to a lesson with Jennifer, which I was nervous for because we were teaching her the Law of Chastity, plus the 10 commandments, and keeping the Sabbath day Holy.  So we get there and it is 100 degree's outside and we start and then her fiancĂ© keeps interrupting (which he is not very excited about) and the lesson was mostly spent listening to her vent and talk through her emotions (which is perfectly fine because we then know how to better help her).  We then headed to our appointment with Patrick and that went really well.  We read 1st Nephi 1 and talked about it, and then watched the Restoration DVD that is 20 min long and then talked about how prayer is one of the most powerful sources we can go to receive answers.  The spirit was really strong in that lesson and I know Patrick felt it too.  We then headed to dinner and watched a softball game with the family that fed us dinner and then headed to visit a recent convert and then headed home.

(Our district.  Right to Left- Up to down - Hosteen, Cox, Dodge, Aase, Walker, Ditty, Mortensen, and Nicolea.  We had a lot of fun together over these last 6 weeks.)

Saturday- We both woke up feeling nervous and anxious for our calls.  It was kind of hard to focus on anything, but we had correlation with Bro. Winterton and ate breakfast over there and then came back and did some studies, and then the phone rang...H. Dodge picked it up and it was Elder Hosteen our district leader that gives us the news…and...........IM BEING TRANSFERRED............!!!!  Both H. Dodge and I did not see that coming, and I just sat on the couch in shock for about 20 min…oh boy.  So the rest of Saturday was kinda shot, but we had a really good lesson with Jennifer on the Law of Chastity, 10 commandments, and keeping the Sabbath day holy, which she took really well and is committing to living all three of those commandments.  I am so excited for her to be baptized, although now that I am leaving I am sad to not be able to see her get baptized.  But the most important thing is, is that she is getting baptized :) We then had dinner with the Water's and Winterton's, and taught a lesson about the Tree of Life, and diagrammed it all out on a white board - it was pretty cool I might say so myself!

Sunday- This morning I began packing and got almost all my clothes in the suitcases except for the things I need to wash and the clothes I am to wear for the next couple days and all my bathroom stuff.  I have accumulated a lot of things...not sure how well moving all of it is going to go, but we will see!!  Church was really awesome.  We read a talk in RS called "Are you Sleeping through the Restoration?," by President Uchtdorf - If you have not read it, I suggest that you do!  It is really good.  Jennifer was late and didn’t come until sacrament meeting - but we are just glad that she came!  Tommy and Becca were at church too!  I bore my testimony in sacrament meeting and said goodbye to a few people and took some pictures…it is sad to say goodbye.  It does not feel like I have been here for 3 months, but I have been!  We had our dinner appointment, and then headed over to the Winterton's to get a picture for a scrapbook thing that Bro. Winterton is making for each missionary that comes through the ward.

(This is Jennifer, one of the investigators we were working with. I am going to miss her a lot!)

(This is the Martz family that helped us out so much over the last 3 months.  They are so WONDERFUL!)

So this past week was a roller coaster- I didn’t see being stuck in the house for 3 days, or me leaving this area, but I guess that all has to happen sometime or another.  I am excited to go to my new area (wherever that may be), and to learn and use Spanish.  Freak yeah I am nervous and scared, but I know that wherever I am headed that is where the Lord wants me to be.  This next week is going to be a struggle I already know that, but I have faith and trust in the Lord to help and carry me through.  I will be updating you on life next Monday…!

I love you all and I miss you tons!
Have a wonderful week and I will talk to you soon!
Prayer list-- Tommy and Becca, Jennifer, Patrick, Lorraine, Christain, Mikayla and Britney.

Love, Hermana Aase


Lesson's gallor!

Hey family and friends!!

This past week was really wonderful!!  And the work is starting to pick up in this area and I couldn’t be more excited.  It just testifies to me that when things get rough, by only pressing forward with faith and diligence do things get better :)

SO!

Monday- Pday was awesome!  But that night our appointment with the 3 sisters got cancelled, which was a bummer.  Their mom is skeptical of us, and the church, so it has been really hard for us to have lessons with them and teach them.  They have been coming to mutual, which is awesome, and sometimes their mom lets them come to church on Sunday's.  It just depends on what is going on.  But we are hoping that some members can go over there and talk to her and just explain what we (the missionaries) do.  And hopefully that will help.  But as of right now, we can’t step on toes, so it comes down to a waiting game.

Tuesday- We had to go to Mojave to get some things taken care of, and then we came back and did our studies.  I think I mentioned in one of my last emails that I have been studying Christ like attributes and really trying to develop them and I studies diligence and really began to understand what diligence is and how to apply it better in my missionary work.  We then later had a lesson with a new investigator named Patrick.  He is a 21-year-old single boy, who lives with his grandma and takes care of her.  And he loved what we taught him.  He was just soaking it all up!  He is an Eagle Scout and really into scouting and he wanted to know how religion could be included in boy scouts, so that is how he got introduced to the church.  But we are really excited to continue to teach him.  We later dropped some cupcakes off at a couple investigators homes.

Wednesday- After our studies, we did a lot of finding and knocked on some doors.  And the Sunday before Hermana Dodge and I fasted for a few things, and one of the things was to find a Spanish family that we could start teaching.  So while we were contacting referrals from the ward we decided to walk down the street and knock doors, and this one house had dogs in the front yard and a little girl outside and we heard Spanish, so of course we walked up to that house.  We got to talk to the dad and he told us he was busy at the time, but to come back!!  Whoo hoo!!  It was so cool.  We then kept walking and this lady was leaving her house and she rolled down the window and asked us if we were Mormon, and we said yes and then she rolled up her window and drove off…haha.  But we are definitely going back to that house!  We then had our lesson with Jennifer.  This time we were not sweating to death, thank heavens haha.  We taught her the plan of salvation, and she really loved and agreed with what we were teaching.  I have really come to love teaching her, because she is so open to learning more and she had loved reading the Book of Mormon so far, and to have an investigator this excited about all of this.  It makes me so happy!

Thursday- We went down to Lancaster for our interviews with President and Sister Wilson, which went really well.  But for Sister Wilson's interview we had to knock on her door and introduce ourselves and use the First Vision, and I was so nervous for it, for one, I was by myself so I didn’t have my companion by me, and second, I was just nervous cause I didn’t want to mess up.  But I took a deep breath and she opened the door and I just began.  The spirit took over and I was calm and I didn’t stumble over words or anything. To be honest I don’t remember what I said besides reciting Joseph Smith's First Vision.  But Sister Wilson told me that I did a wonderful job and that I really had power when I spoke and when I recited the First Vision.  And that was such a compliment for me, considering I get so nervous and shy about those things.  And my interview with President Wilson went well too.  We talked about having faith to find, teach, and baptize.  And I told him how I am reading to Book of Mormon with a question in mind and studying Christ like attributes and really seeking the scriptures and the Lord to give me strength and trust.  And he thought that was wonderful and that I will find it.  It was so nice to get in touch with them again.  After that we came home and did our weekly planning, and then had an appointment with Cristina Romero.  After that we ran over to the Water's and Tommy told us that he was getting really frustrated about waiting for someone to tell him it was okay to get baptized, and that he was probably going to start looking for another church, and when he said this, my heart just sank.  But we talked for a while and told him that we were going to call our mission President and see what he had to say.  So we left feeling a little hopeless, but we knew that desire was still there in Tommy.  After dinner we came home and continued our weekly planning.

Friday- As we are pulling up into the church parking lot, President called us and we talked to him for about 10 min about Tommy and his situation and lets just say the result of that phone call is-- TOMMY AND BECCA ARE CLEARED FOR BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  How exciting is that!  After we got off the phone with President, we screamed at the top of our lungs!!!!  So we then had our Zone Training Meeting and that was good.  We talked about teaching better and asking more inspired questions, and knowing when it was right to drop an investigator.  After, we ate lunch and then headed over to Lorraine's, but she left us a note telling us that she had to go to work.  So then we headed back home and did our personal study and comp study. We then had dinner with a potential investigator and his wife and that went well.  He likes to figure out everything logically and by facts, and there comes a point when you can’t use facts, you have to use faith, and so we taught a little bit about faith and how knowing that this church is true and that Joseph Smith is a real prophet, that all the doctrine in the middle is correct and true.  So we are hopefully having dinner again with them and a family in our ward next week.  After dinner we ran over to the Water's to break the news to them and they were so excited.  Tommy was trying real hard not to show how excited he was, but truthfully you could see it! 

Saturday- We had the women's expo that was help in Boron.  We had a booth for the Relief Society showing what we are and the things that we do and it was way fun!  There were a lot of other booths with purses, make up, food, tazers and pepper spray.  And we had quite a few people come by and look at our table and ask a few questions.  We then came home and ate a small lunch and then we headed over to our dinner appointment, which was also with potential investigators and that went really well.  We had the Irish's from our ward, and then friends of the Sousa's (the potential investigators) from the ward up in Tehachapi.  And we also taught about faith and what it is and how to grow it and the blessings that come from faith.  It was an awesome dinner and we are hoping that that sparked something. 

Sunday- Church was wonderful and our investigator Jennifer came to church!!!!!!!  Which was so awesome and she loved it.  So we are hoping she will come every week!  After church we went over to the Martz’s house where we got to Skype our families.  And then we had dinner with them and more of their family and then later after dinner we finished our weekly planning since we were so busy every other day to finish it. 


(These photos were from Skyping family...haha...don't worry, they were actually really happy to see me, just when I took the photo none of them were smiling! )

SOOO Skype :) It was FANTASTIC!  I loved being able to actually see my family’s faces and hear their voices and talk to them and tell them how everything is going.  It was weird at first to see all of them, but it felt nice and comforting talk to them.  I miss them greatly and love them so much!  And I got to talk on the phone with Paige and Chris for a little bit, which was also awesome since they weren’t there to Skype.

Overall this week was good.  Busy and exhausting.  But I know that when I am exhausted at the end of the night that means I did good work, and that I did what I am called to do. 

Well I love you all!  Have a wonderful week :)

Love, Hermana Aase


There is hope!

This week was wonderful and full of a lot of hopeful things! :)

First off, I am so grateful for the light of Christ, for the trials and hard times I have to go through, but to then see how great our Heavenly Father is and helping pick us back up.  Over the past few weeks I have been struggling, both with the work, studying, confidence, and here and there companion frustrations.  And it was weighing me down, making me think if this is all worth it...But I knew this was hard, I voluntarily signed up for it, and I made a goal to myself that I would not go home for any reason, that I would hold out and push forward through the hard times.  And you know the result of that over the past few weeks??  We had an awesome week, and I saw hope that lied ahead and I just kept running toward it.  I am still learning and growing everyday, but I am seeing how the Lord's hand is in this work and how loving He is to his children.

So this week!

Monday - after emailing we headed over to a park and had a water balloon fight with a bunch of missionaries and I was not planning on getting soaked, but the other missionaries did not see that same plan...so long story short, another Hermana and I were pelted and soaked by the end of the afternoon...haha.  It was fun but so cruel at the same time. 

Tuesday - we had our normal studies and then the Sister training leaders came down and we had exchanges.  I headed back with Hermana Darby to the Spanish area in Lancaster.  At first I was freaking out because I haven’t used or taught any lessons in Spanish since the MTC, but at the same time I was so excited to see what Spanish work was like and see how much Spanish I really did know and remember.  We had a lesson with an 8 year old that is preparing to get baptized and that went really well.  She was a cutie and took notes as we taught her (in English).  We then headed out to contact some potential investigators and we ran into a lady who let us in and we taught her the Restoration.  It was rough.  I totally fell on my face with Spanish, but the lady understood and was sweet about me trying to use my Spanish.  She agreed with what we said, but said she had enough with just the bible…ugh…oh well, hopefully one day another set of missionaries will knock on her door.  We knocked a few other houses, met a young mom and scheduled a set up a return appointment, and then headed to dinner.  She had the most amazing dinner in the world!  She had pupusas.  They are masa with meat, cheese, beans inside then flattened and then cooked.  You put cabbage and salsa on top, and seriously I could have eaten 50 of them, but I did not have room for that haha.  (There will be a picture at the bottom showing what it looks like).

 (These are the pupusas, and they tasted wonderful!)

Wednesday - we were still on exchanges and we did our studies, and then Hermana Dodge and Hermana Scaife came back and we had to take our car in the get the bumper fixed, which they didn’t actually fix yet- it is so frustrating!  So while we waited for our car to not get fixed, we did some work in the Hermana's area.  They dropped us off in a neighborhood and then started knocking.  The first house we knocked a lady from Ecuador opened the door and she let us in and we began teaching her in Spanish, and I tried hard to understand what was going on and I got about 60% of it!  And I talked about Jesus Christ and his life on earth and I didn’t fall on my face!!!  THERE IS HOPE FOR ME AND THE SPANISH!!!!!!!!!!! :) We knocked on a few doors and got some return appointments, and then we got our car back and headed back into the middle of nowhere haha. 

Thursday - we had our normal studies and did some weekly planning and then we had our lesson with Jennifer.  Jennifer is a golden investigator!!!  She is so wonderful and so open to learning and she is reading and coming to church and loving all of it.  So we went in prepared to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but she hadn’t read in a day or two so we ended up just reading in the BOM where she had left off.  I loved reading with investigators because you get to see their expression, and how they understand the scriptures.   Plus you get something different out of each person you read the scriptures with, so that was just awesome!  Oh and it was super hot outside...and I don’t think the temperature is cooling down at all.  OH WELL!  That is part of the journey, right?  We then did some more weekly planning and then headed to dinner with Sister Bernard, a wonderful lady in the ward. 

Friday - we had personal study and I studied How to Begin Teaching and my Spanish scriptures, which I am starting to not need my English to translate as much!  So it is coming, slowly but surely.  We then had a district meeting and we talked about patience and obedience, which are two VERY important principles to remember in missionary work and regular life.  We then did a role-play that was from Hermana Dodge’s time in the MTC.  What we did was we prayed and asked Heavenly Father what question(s) we needed to ask the elder or sister we were with, and then to be patient and to let the spirit tell us what to ask.  It was a very spiritual moment and experience to just sit there and have your mind open to what ever the spirit was ready to tell you, and the question came and it was perfect for the Elder that I asked it too.  The spirit works through you, as you are patient and obedient.  We then ate lunch and then headed to our appointment with a less active in the ward.  She has needed some love and support, and that is what we tried to do, so hopefully us coming and sharing a message lifted her spirit.  We then visited a few people and picked up pizza because we didn’t have a dinner appointment.

(THE TEMPERATURE REACHED OVER 100 degrees...I’M GONNA DIE!!!!!!!!! hahah…and get an awesome tan.)

Saturday - we had another appointment with Jennifer, and we taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ and she understood and took hold of what we were saying and then I invited her to be baptized...AND SHE SAID YES!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D whoooo hoo!!!  She is scheduled to be baptized on June 14th!  She was so excited and already asked us the things she needs to do to get ready for it, so I am hoping and praying that things go well for her and that she can really get herself prepared for baptism.  We then headed to correlation with Bro. Winterton, and made goals for the lessons and who we are bringing to those lessons.  I had no idea how important the ward mission leader was until I came on my mission.  They are so awesome to help with the hastening of the work.  We then had dinner with Tommy and Becca that night and we had a lesson about the things we promise to do when we get baptized (Mosiah 18), and we recommitted a date for them to be baptized on, which THEY ARE GETTING BAPTIZED on June 11th!!!!!!  And Tommy will be done smoking on May 31st.  We are so excited and so are they! :) We are so happy for them!

Sunday - we had church and Jennifer came again and she loved it, and she is beginning to make friends and have connections with people, which is exactly what we want happening!  After church we did our studies and I studied a wonderful talk from Elder Holland about the Book of Mormon - the talk is called "Safety for the Soul."  You all should read it.  It is amazing!  But he just testifies about how important the Book of Mormon is to our conversion and how so many people have tried to tear apart this book, yet it still stands.  What a wonderful testimony that is to all of us.  And we MUST share this to everyone we know!  I can’t stress that enough!  We then headed to our dinner appointment, and then dropped some cookies off at some potential investigators house and then came back and finished planning. 

I cant believe this is the last week of the transfer...how do they fly by so fast??!  But it was a great transfer and I am really learning and growing and starting to understand what missionary work is and how we can do it to our best abilities.

I love you all and I am so grateful to have such wonderful people in my life that are supporting me and helping me push on :)  "Keep Moving Forward"!

Have a wonderful week all! 

Oh and transfer calls are this Saturday, SOOO I will let you all know what is happening with Hermana Dodge and I next Monday!

Prayer list-- Tommy and Becca, Patrick, Jennifer, Eli, Christian, Britney, Mikaya, Wayne, and Dave and Linda Sousa.

I love and miss you all!

Love, Hermana Aase



Thursday, May 8, 2014

sweet tacos and new investigators

Hola Familia :) 

This past week was good!  It seems like I will have a really good week, and then a really bad week, and then an okay week.  But this past week was one of those good weeks!

So this week--

Monday- Recap for NASA!  NASA was awesome and it was so fun to see planes and to be given a tour of the base.  It is so nice to have connections in your ward!  Later that night we had dinner with the lady who took us to NASA.  This week I am starting the BOM over and I have a question in mind as I read, and I am finding answers to my question already.  It is so awesome.  I plan to read through the whole BOM with this one question in mind.  This was something that the MTC President’s wife told us about in a relief society lesson, and I wanted to try it out.

Tuesday- We did our normal studies, and this week I have been studying Christ-like attributes and really searching the scriptures to help me become a better missionary and to have more trust in the Lord.  Our power went out so we ran to a member’s house and got ready there, and they fixed us lunch and we made some cookies to give to some people.  After all that we ran home and luckily our power was back on so we turned the AC on and then ran to go contact some referrals.  The ones we had planned didn’t answer so we decided to go check on Jennifer, a lady that Hermana Darby and I ran into on exchanges.  We ended up talking to her for an hour and a half about religion and a few things about what we believe and made a return appointment!  NEW INVESTIGATOR :) But the funniest story of my life happened while we were there talking to Jennifer.  Her neighbor a couple houses down came to say hi, and it is like this 80-year-old Indian women.  Cutest lady, but lets just say she is going a little crazy haha.  But as we are talking we got on the topic of bruises and she was showing us the bruises she has gotten and then states, "I am not trying to be vulgar," and then she flashed us...haha.  It was so funny!!!!!  Oh boy…Hermana Dodge and I were cracking up in the car on the way home!! 

Wednesday- We did our studies and while that was going on Elder Carter (the guy in charge of all the cars in the mission) called us to tell us that we needed to meet him and get our new tabs.  So an hour later we met him and Sister Carter to get that, and Elder Carter was like "you guys need new tires.  What are you doing today?  I hope nothing."  And I had not done my make up on or hair, but we headed down to Lancaster and got new tires, and they took us to lunch, and then we headed back home.  It was a nice afternoon trip.  When we got home we headed over to the church for the pine wood derby for the boy scouts and met a couple non member families with boys in the scouts and talked to them for a little bit, and then we stayed for a little of mutual and talked to 3 young women that we are having a lesson with later this week.

Thursday- In morning we had a post parade meeting for Boron and that lasted forever…haha.  It was so boring.  So then we raced home fast and ate lunch and began our weekly planning.  It was so weird to be planning for MOTHER'S DAY!!!!!!!!  Later that night we had home made, to die for, pizza at the Martz.  Afterwards we ran over to check on a referral from the bishop, but the person who was supposed to be there, was not, which was a bummer. 

Friday- We had district meeting this morning and that was really good.  We did a role-play where we had to go every other word with our companion as we taught the Restoration.  That sure built unity…haha.  It was hard and quite frustrating actually.  We then ate lunch and headed to our lesson with Jennifer.  The lesson went really well and she understood a lot of what we were teaching.  She is a Christian Jew...yeah, that is correct…haha.  But she is very open to learning and reading in the Book of Mormon and all.  So we are excited.  She has been through a lot in her life, and I know that the gospel can bring her peace and happiness.  By the way, we taught her that lesson outside in 100 DEGREE WEATHER!!!!!!!!!!!!  I was so sweaty and hot and just gross feeling.  When we got in the car we blasted the cold air and just aired EVERYTHING out.  Haha.  We were laughing pretty hard.  Hopefully by the end of this week I will have some what of my abs back.  We then ran to another lesson with a referral some of the other elders found for us, but she had to work, so she left us a note!  It was so nice of her.  We are looking forward to teaching her next week.  We then had dinner at the Winterton's, and then headed to Heven’s for a lesson, which didn’t happen because she was asleep.  It is starting to be a lose, lose situation with her.  It is making me sad.


Saturday- We had our coordination meeting this morning and got the youth more involved with missionary work and coming out with us to teach.  We then had our studies and ate lunch.  Then we headed over to Donna Forts, but she had to go to a baseball game.  We then headed over to the Winterton's for dinner again and we had the Water's over there and we taught them and the kids a lesson about the restoration using cups.  It was pretty cool.  Good FHE lesson. 

Sunday- Was kind of a tough day, but it turned out pretty well.  We had planned on having 7 investigators at church and none of them came, which was a bummer, but we are still pushing for that many next week!  And Heven texted us and told us that she isn't ready to commit to anything and doesn’t have time, so essentially she dropped us, and will contact missionaries when she is ready.  Honestly I sort of saw this coming, but it was hard.  I loved Heven and I know she knows this is true.  It is just everything else that is going on that is getting in her way to seeing the importance of this all.  That night we had dinner at the James house, which half the ward are James, so that was a little crazy and hectic, and then we ran over to the Martz to get all the Skype stuff figured out for Mothers Day. 

Overall, this week was good. It was busy and some plans didn’t pan out like I thought, but hey, that is life and you just keep moving forward.

This week should be good and I am excited to teach new investigators and talk with all you on Sunday! :) 

Have an awesome week and I WILL TALK TO YOU ON SUNDAY!

I love you all so much! Thank you for everything you do!

Prayer list: Tommy and Becca, Donna, Jennifer, Mikayla, Britney, Christian and Lorrain :)

Love, Hermana Aase




Sunday, May 4, 2014

Roller Coaster Weeks


Hey family!  Well I am so sorry about last week and that whole fiasco…BUT this week was so much better and I am doing a lot better. The first part of this email will be from last week, which I didn’t get to send because of some computer issues and not getting my computer time.  SO!

Monday- We had a pretty normal p-day.  Emailed and then headed to Lancaster to hang out with mission friends.  Sometimes being out in the middle of nowhere makes you miss civilization.  haha.  But we played some soccer, which I was horrible at, and then we went gold panning.  There is an older guy in the mission who buys dirt with gold in it, and then teaches the missionaries how to pan for it.  It was really neat.  I got some little flakes of gold in a jar.  After that we headed to the Winterton's for dinner, and I seriously love this family. 


Tuesday- We had our last meeting before the Easter parade on Saturday and we are getting excited!  It should be a super fun experience.  Our ward is making a float to put in the parade!  Whoo hoo!  We had a lesson with a potential new investigator but she wasn’t home so we just left a Book of Mormon on her door and we will try again soon.  And then we headed to dinner with the Winterton's again haha.  After dinner we had a lesson with the Water's and they told us that they want to go through with their baptismal interviews!!  They were thinking a lot about what to do and Tommy was I guess looking for a new church, but liked ours and agreed with what we teach.  But we were so excited to hear that and that they want to move forward! 

Wednesday- I woke up not feeling good at all...so we headed to Lancaster to take me to the doctor to get checked out cause all the home remedies I am trying are doing nothing.  So the doctor told me that I had a sinus infection and ear infections…whoo hoo!  It is from the desert and all the sand.  It blows different bacteria than I am used to and they cause sinus infections.  Hopefully I wont be prone to them the whole time I am here in Cali.  Afterwards we went to Soup Plantation for lunch, which was delicious, so thanks to MAMO :) we got to go there.  After that we had to take our car in and get the oil changed and get part of the bumper fixed.  We sat at the car place for 3 hours, but I got to do some language study, which was nice!  By the time we got home it was 8 o'clock and I just wanted to go to sleep.


Thursday- Not too much happened.  We did our weekly planning pretty much all afternoon until dinnertime, and then headed over to our dinner appt. with a super fun cute family.  Which MOM- or aunt Kristi if you read this-- Sister Day's (the lady we had dinner at) aunt and uncle served their missions in South Africa I think around the time you did…do you know a sister named Sister Hadley- or her married name is Sister Neilson- she married an elder from her mission????  Funny how small the Mormon world is.

Friday- We got up extra early because we had a lesson scheduled with a Spanish lady, but when we showed up no one was home.  This is the 4th time we have scheduled an appointment and then she has not been home, so we aren’t sure what to do but keep trying to meet with her.  We then headed to our district meeting, and we did something way awesome.  We did this activity where we had to try and sell our favorite dessert to our companion and so I chose the frozen dessert with crushed Oreos on the bottom and then mint chip ice cream on top with hot fudge.  H. Dodge wasn’t too thrilled, but whatever haha, she doesn’t know what she is missing out on.  And then after that we all came together and he told us to then share the Book of Mormon with our companion and you know what, it was so much easier then sharing our favorite dessert.  It flowed a lot easier and I truly wanted to share it.  And then I had the opportunity to share my testimony with all of them about the Book of Mormon and what it means to me.  Later that night we had dinner with two families in our ward and that was way fun.  And I have another thing for you MOM-- Ask Krisit Stone if she knows a Sister from her mission in Barcelona named Skye Phillips?  I think they served at the same time!  After dinner we had to make a banner for the float in the parade tomorrow and my hands were all painted and numb and cold. haha.  Not too fun, but the banner looked awesome!!

Saturday- We got up early and headed to Boron to help with the Parade set up and got the floats checked in, and at first I am thinking this will be stressful with all these people trying to check their float in and there only ended up being 10 floats haha, which I guess was more than last year!  So we gave some of the kids and adults that sat on the float pass along cards and they handed ALL of them out!  Which is awesome.  And then we headed to a baptism for an 8 year old in our ward after the parade.  Later that night we had Tommy and Becca's interview.  We were anxious during it, but Tommy and Becca came out happy and easygoing so that was a relief for us!  We are waiting on our mission President to tell us when they can have their next interviews. 



Sunday- EASTER!! :) It was such an awesome day.  Church was wonderful and we sang like the powerhouse hymns during sacrament, and you could feel the spirit so strongly in that chapel.  And HEVEN came to church!  We were so excited because this is what we have been struggling with for her.  But she came and she said she liked it.  So crossing my fingers that she comes more now!  We had dinner with the Martz family and they had some friends over and got to talk with them and we shared the "Because of Him" video and talked about our Savior and it being Easter and how it was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate his resurrection.  They all loved it, even the non-member friends who were there. 

NOW THIS PAST WEEK

Monday- Ohh boy…it was a rough day.  We had planned to go to the mall, so we got up early and headed to Lancaster to email there so we had more time, and as we begin our email, the other Hermana's walk in and it was their email time, so we had to give up our computers, and I was already on edge, so that didn’t help at all.  So we got ready and then one computer was open.  It was the SUPER slow computer but I was determined to use it haha.  So I get on and write out the entire email for last week, and I go to push send and the internet connection went out and didn’t save my email…ughh, so then we got the answer no from president that we couldn’t go to the mall and our missionary friends left to go do something so we didn’t have anything to do, so yeah.  And then our dinner appointment cancelled on us, and our lesson with Heven fell through.  So the day was going down the drain and we didn’t know what to do. 

Tuesday- We had our day full of contacting people and trying to find new investigators and so we stopped by a couple members houses to tell us more about the people we were going to talk to and they helped us out a lot.  And we stopped by Donna Forts house but she wasn’t home, so we just gave the kids the Easter gift we had for them and said hi and then we had to go.  Then we headed to the Irish's for dinner and they invited their non-member friends who we have been trying to get in contact and learn more about so it was awesome!  And we also showed them the "Because of Him" video, and they really enjoyed it and they said they want to get more involved in church activities and they were really nice to us and told us that if we need anything that they can help us out.  So we will definitely be talking to them more.  Our appointment with the Waters’ was cancelled which was a bummer…but it’s alright. 


Wednesday- We had our normal studies and I was informed by our district leader that I was to give a talk in district meeting on something that I learned from PMG.  So I worked on that and read some really wonderful scriptures on how listening to the spirit is so vital in missionary work.  After that we headed out to our lesson with Heven, but when we showed up she wasn’t home, so we decided to go talk to a lady from the Easter parade committee who knows a couple things about the gospel.  And then we headed to Cristina Romero house to teach her English.  She always feeds us when we go over there, and she said 5 something to H. Dodge.  We didn’t know what she meant, but she comes around the corner and gives each of us 5 enchiladas...haha.  I just looked at H. Dodge and was like "I CANT FIT ALL THIS FOOD IN ME!" and so I tried haha.  They were really good but seriously my stomach was about to explode.  So then we started helping her pronunciation of words and one of the words was urinate…DONT ASK ME WHY THIS IS ON HERE...haha, but we tell her the word and her and her daughter start yelling at each other how to pronounce the word urinate and H. Dodge and I just busted out laughing!!!  We didn’t try and hide it hahahahah.  It was so funny and they didn’t even realize how hard we were laughing.  Good times, good times.  After that we had our dinner appointment.  I seriously was about to burst, but I fit more food in me.  Heavenly Father blesses our stomachs so they can stretch, that’s for sure.  And then we came home early to clean our house for inspections the next morning. 

Thursday- Had our house inspections and seriously I have never seen our house this clean.  We did a pretty good job! :), which we passed with flying colors haha.  And then we did our studies and I worked on my talk for district meeting, which now was a different topic, but that’s okay!  I am flexible.  So I started reading in How to Begin Teaching, which is a wonderful tool for missionaries to get to know someone and to make that good first impression when we start teaching a new investigator.  I finished my talk just in time for our weekly planning.  It’s crazy how fast Thursday's come for planning - we planned until our dinner appt.


Friday- The wind was blowing so hard today it sounds like our house is howling / going to blow over! haha.  We had our coordination meeting with our ward mission leader.  We are so blessed to have such a wonderful ward mission leader who wants to help us and is tying to forward our missionary work along too.  Before our district meeting we filled our car with gas and as I was getting back in the car, this HUGE gust of wind came and my skirt blew up just like Marilyn Monroe and I flashed luckily only my companion haha.  It was pretty funny!  And then we headed to our district meeting, which was good.  My talk turned out well I think!  We came home and did some studies and then headed to dinner and then came back and finished some weekly planning.

Saturday- We had to get up really early and head to Lancaster for the Community Day of Service or (Mormon Helping Hands), and we helped paint the park and the buildings.  It was really cold and windy!  But it was fun!  And I got to see all the missionaries from my district in the MTC!  I ended up getting paint all over my new pants from Walmart…yeah Walmart I know…haha.  We were there all morning and then came home and showered and then did some planning and then headed to our lesson with the Water's.  We shared one of our favorite scriptures with them from the Book of Mormon, and then bore our testimonies about it and showed them the index and the footnotes and all that cool stuff, and they were in awe about it!  They thought it was so neat!  So hopefully that will help them get more into the Book of Mormon. 


Sunday- We had church and that was wonderful.  We read a talk in Relief Society - Pres. Thomas S Monson “You Never Walk Alone” from the Oct 2013 General Conference.  And sacrament meeting was good.  We had three youth investigators come to church!  Heven didn’t come, and Becca had to go home because she wasn’t feeling good.  But after sacrament we were standing in the hall way and the Bishop comes up to us and asks us if we are ready for the fireside tonight.  We told him we weren’t planning on coming but if he wanted us to we could and he was like, "I thought you guys were in charge of that" and we were like, "...uhh no.  No one told us haha, but we can be I guess!" And we were like "yeah can you guys do it!" So we are now in charge of the fireside!  So we headed home and began our personal study and then comp study and tried to figure out what we wanted to do.  We then ran to dinner with the Irish's and then headed to the church for the fireside.  We had some non-members there and taught the Restoration and then opened it up to Q&A for them to ask questions.  It was kind of stressful, but it went well and we got to talk to the youth non-members who came.  And we got three new investigators out of it!  So good day for us! 

Monday- TODAY!  We have a fun day planned.  We are going to the air force base and getting a VIP tour of the NASA base!!  We have a couple people in our ward who work there so we got that set up through them :) I am so excited!  It should be sweet.  We are going with 4 other Elders from our district/zone.  I will be sending you more pictures later of that!




Well family, these past two weeks were rough and hard, but I am doing well and I am learning a lot and really trying to become the missionary the Lord needs me to be.  I am finding out that I am stretching myself, and that I am really starting to step out of my comfort zone even though that is not fun for me, it is growing me and I know there will be a time when I don’t feel uncomfortable anymore and I can be myself and be the best missionary I can be.  I love it out here and I cant see myself doing anything else at this time.

I love you all and I am so blessed to have you in my life and supporting me on this call.

pray for this week- Tommy and Becca, Donna, Heven, Christain, Britney, and Mikayla,

I will talk to you guys next week!! :) Have an awesome week!

Love, Hermana Aase