4/11/17--Busy + Crazy + Stress = Mission Life

Well sorry I didn't email yesterday. We had interviews with our mission president so in order to have enough time for a district activity we moved our preparation day to Tuesday. So yeah! But anyways
this past week has been super crazy and super busy. There is a huge blessing for serving here in Brentwood. You feel at times you have too many people to work with than you have time to work with them. This week was one of those weeks when you wished there was more time in the day so you could have time to visit everyone you want and need to visit. I count my blessings for how good of an area this place is. I know Heavenly Father puts us in the areas we need to be in.

So the funny stories. This past weekend the Spanish Elders had a baptism. The drama there is that it got pushed around because the Young Women were having an activity. Anyways so the baptism was "at 2" but when we showed up at 1:50 only the Elders were there. So we asked how everything was going. Bad choice because they were just stressed out so some of it came a little towards us. So they got everything figured out the investigator came and got baptized twice because his foot was sticking out of the water the first time. Then while they were changing Hermana Reeve and I showed the Easter Video and we showed it through an Apple TV connect to a TV. Then we were talking about how we find peace through Jesus Christ, so we asked everyone how they could share the video with their friends. One of the kids raised his hand and goes "Yo tengo un pregunta cómo conectado la tablet a la televisión?" Or in English how did you connect the iPad to the TV. It was super funny and was said in the middle of the lesson. Then the best part came afterwards. So after the service I started playing the piano to bring in the Spirit and because that is normally what is done. So while I played Hermana Reeve went to congratulate the investigador. She shock his and hand said congratulations. Afterwards let go of his hand crossed her arms. Well the guy didn't think a hand shack was enough so he went in very slowly to hug her. The thing is as missionaries we only do hand shakes to people of the opposite gender.  So I watched the entire thing lay out. He hugged her for a good couple of seconds and she just stood there in shock with her arms crossed and staring at Elder Corbett to make him move off of her. After he finally let go we died laughing. I couldn't look at her for a little while without dying. The rest of the night was fun at the Young Women's activity and we helped by doing hair and nails. They did like a LDS Spa.

Then Sunday we had a special fireside by the missionaries for the whole stake. So the speakers were recent converts and they showed videos about revelation. As well the missionaries did special musical number. President and Sister Reynolds came out and spoke. Overall a fun night all based on members doing missionary work. Our recent convert and their cousin who is our investigator came to the fireside. So small back story is transfers are next week and Hermana Reeve really doesn't want to leave Brentwood. Like she would be so mad if she left. So she made our recent convert go up to President Reynolds and tell him to keep her in Brentwood because she is the best. The funniest part of it all was how awkward he looked waiting to talk to President Reynolds. Plus he was so excited to do something for us he did it so willingly. It was super funny because the next day in interviews Hermana Reeve said President Reynolds mentioned it to her.

I would like to share a quote from the women's session of General Conference from a couple weeks ago. The talk "The Beauty if Holiness" by Sister Carol F McConkie. She says,

"Sisters, if we would be holy, we must learn to sit at the feet of the Holy One of Israel and give time to holiness. Do we set aside the phone, the never-ending to-do list, and the cares of worldliness?
Prayer, study, and heeding the word of God invite His cleansing and healing love into our souls. Let us take time to be holy, that we may be filled with His sacred and sanctifying Spirit. With the Holy Ghost as our guide, we will be prepared to receive the Savior in the beauty of holiness."

The part I love the most is give time to Holiness. I pondered that quote and what she was saying for quite some time. I in the end changed it to mean something so much personal and meaningful to me. I
changed it to give time for Christ. I realized that everyday we need to give time to get to know the Savior and his power that is offered for us. I have come to an understanding that as we read the
scriptures, say our prayers, and go to church everyday and every week we give time for Christ. The most important thing to me in the world is coming to know my Savior, and Redeemer Jesus Christ. He is the center piece to my life. He is the reason I get up everyday and take a couple more steps forward. Because of Him I find hope and joy and love and life. I know He lives and He is watching out for each and everyone of us. I invite y'all to give time for Christ. Don't just read your scriptures or say your prayers or just go to church or not do any of the above. I encourage y'all to give time for Christ and come unto Him. Come unto the fold and feel of His blessings. I promise you that as you do so you will feel of His love and guidance with more abundance in your life. You will find peace. I love y'all and I hope y'all find time to give for Christ.

Con Amor
Hermana Ashford

Picture 1: we had deep cleaning and cleaned out the drained and found something gross
Picture 2: cute selfie with the comp
Picture 3-4: fun selfies with our investigators kids while she talked to her landlord for 30 minutes!!! That was a short lesson!
Picture 5: heart attacking a member from the inside.
Picture 6: a little background is this is Sebastian, Esther, and Randy who I taught when I was in the Hamptons. I worked a lot with them! I was so excited to hear that the mom and son (Esther and Randy) got baptized this past weekend. I got to see them at the fireside on Sunday. They were radiating with the Spirit.
Picture 7: with the fantastic 5 the three kids and over plus the uncle their cousin who is getting baptized this Sunday.
Picture 8-11: selfies because we are matching
Picture 12-13: district pictures.
Picture 14: district activity picture.