Week of Learning 8/22/16

So I am going to change my weekly emails a little bit. I think y'all get the idea that I am teaching and I am visiting people. I apologize now if I leave out any major details. But the time I get to preparation day it is hard for me to remember everything that happen and share the details. So I will give the general idea to what we did this week. This week we focused on visiting people we hadn't seen in a while. We did not to talk to everyone we had hoped to talk but we talked to a good majority of them. Then we had some time to do service and help out the branch members. We had to meeting the first was district meeting and we set our district goals for the transfer and they are a big goals but achievable. We will be stretched more than I realized. Then as well we had zone training meeting which was fun because we talked about using Facebook in a way to help hasten the work. We have already started seeing how much Facebook helps. It is so much easier to stay in contact with people and to post for family, friends, investigators and members can be uplifted and continue to feel the love of the Savior. This week Hermana Johnston and I have talked quite a bit on our capabilities and our talents. We have worked through some of the rougher patches of a mission together.

It has been interesting to see that at the beginning of the transfer I chose a Christ like attribute to improve on. I choose Faith. I felt like I had faith and I know my Savior lives. However I didn't think I put all of my trust into he Savior and giving him the reins to my life to guide and help me in everything I do. So I choose to develop faith a little more. Over the past couple of weeks I have had multiple things happen to test and stretch my faith. Everyone told me that you come on a mission to be stretched and molded back into what Heavenly Father wants you to be. I didn't feel until I was the one put in charge and responsible for someone else's mission. I am honored and humbled to be the one to do that for Hermana Johnston. I love her and I am grateful for this chance to train her and grow myself. However once I was put in charge I felt the weight of it and realized the extra burden I was carrying. This past week I have started to understand what it means to let the Savior carry your burdens and to help you through everything. I am learning faith more and more every week. I felt so spiritually stretched it almost hurts. However I wouldn't change that for the world. I love what I am doing and I love the people here in Hampton Bays and in general all of Long Island.

This past week our branch took a trip to Philadelphia to go to the temple open house. We left them with this quote which is what I want to leave with y'all. I wanted to share this quote from April 2016 General Conference by Elder Cook in titled "See Yourself in the temple":

"My challenge this morning is for each of us, wherever we live, to see ourselves in the temple. President Monson has stated: “Until you have entered the house of the Lord and have received all the blessings which await you there, you have not obtained everything the Church has to offer. The all-important and crowning blessings of membership in the Church are those blessings which we receive in the temples of God.”"

I give you the same challenge Elder Cook challenged this past April to see yourself in the temple in the future. I know that we each can receive the blessings of the temple. I know have seen the beauty of the inside and I felt the joy of the gospel. I love the temple. It is my favorite place on earth. If it was up to me I would spend every second there helping those on the other side. I know that each of you can strive to see the inside walls some day. The day my come sooner for some than others, but I know that we can feel the complete joy through finding ourselves within those walls as much as possible. I have a strong testimony that this church is true. I know the Savior lives and died for me and for each one of you. I love each and everyone of you. I hope you have a great week!

Con Amor
Hermana Ashford