5/29/17--Another Transfer Down

Well another transfer has come and gone and only two left! Wow! Time just flies sometimes. This week has been an adventure! It all started with last Tuesday. My companion went on her last mission temple trip. So sad:( So I spent the day on exchanges at the mission nurse's house which was so fun! She is the best! That night we had a dinner appointment with a member and my companion was not going to be done with finishing her mission stuff so she told me to go ahead and go to the appointment on exchanges! So we did! It was an amazing lesson and good food! Then we went to meet up with our companions but they weren't done yet and couldn't meet up with us in time. So we did an overnight exchange. Turns out our companions didn't get back to their apartment until 11 at night. It was just pure craziness and we enjoyed everything! My exchange companion and I just enjoyed our time talking and relieving some stress.

Then comes the part where I gained like 20 pounds because we had like 3-4 dinner appointments everyday. Uhhh... The first was at one family's home on Wednesday and the daughter just had her first baby so we are the first ones outside of the family to see the baby! She was super cute! Plus the food was super good! The next was at another member's house. Then Thursday we went out to eat with the mission nurse and went to a good Mexican place. Later that day we went to two member's houses for more food. Basically, where I am getting with this, is we ate a bunch of food and I swear I gained a bunch of weight! Plus our mission nurse took us out to eat twice this week.

The next exciting news came on Friday when at a member's house I felt the phone buzz and it is President Reynolds! I about passed out... For you missionaries they know, it was a training call! So for my last two transfers I will be training a new missionary! I am super excited for round two and a second go at training. Apparently Heavenly Father thought I did so good the first time that I can do it again. I don't know about that one but you can ask Sister Johnston how I did. Anyways I freaked and have had anxiety ever since but I am living. I am super excited though!  I get my greenie tomorrow.

Then funny part 101 was district meeting. So some back up information. My companion's aunt passed away a week and a half ago. We came to the last song and our district leader was like we need to sing a good last song because it is our last one. So I suggested God Be With You Til We Meet Again because it a good farewell hymn due to Hermana Castañeda going home. An elder said we only sing that for dead people. Our district leader said yeah I want them to sing it at my funeral in Spanish! By this point the music has started and they just started singing. So Hermana Castañeda held up a picture of her dead aunt and I busted up laughing. One elder said oh who is that? I said her dead aunt. They are still singing. Then someone asks oh when diD she pass away? Hermana Castañeda goes last Thursday. I die laughing and all the elder's went dead silent with only the piano music playing from the iPad. Then our district quickly changed the song to something more up beat. I don't know if it sounds super funny but it was really funny in the moment.

Then on Saturday we had a meeting for the new trainers so we got on the train. After sitting on the train for one stop the guy next to me who had been asleep on his knees decided he needed to move positions. So he moved to my shoulder! He fell asleep on my shoulder! Oh my it was beyond awkward. The lady across from us later noticed what had happened and busted out laughing. She laughed for a good 10-15 minutes and she was face timing someone so she showed them what happened. It was super awkward and other people on the train began to notice and were laughing as well. Oh how uncomfortable I felt. Once we got off the person just slouched forward and fell asleep.

I like from the conference talk called "Overcoming The World" by Elder Anderson from this last general Conference. He says; "Overcoming the world is not one defining moment in a lifetime, but a
lifetime of moments that define an eternity."

I think for me in my mission I always expected and thought I would be pretty close to perfection when I finished my mission but I realized the mission isn't about becoming perfect it is about becoming converted so that we can overcome the world and find peace. I am learning that perfection will come with time and change but conversion is what I can change the most right now. I want to become like my Savior because I love him! I am grateful for the church and the lessons I am learning here in New York!

I love y'all! Have a great week!

Con Amor
Hermana Ashford

Picture 1: Preparation day last week! Playing games!
Picture 2-3: making baleadas!
Picture 4-5: district pictures.
Picture 6: one of our lunches with the mission nurse
Picture 7-8: playing with the kids.
Picture 9: Rosario and Andy!
Picture 10: interesting pizza name at lunch with the mission nurse the
second time
Picture 11-12: lunch with mission nurse wanted to take our picture
Picture 13-14: man asleep on my shoulder
Picture 15: My brother got his mission call to Madagascar! So cool!
Picture 16-17: dinner at a member's house!