6/5/17--Baby Steps

Well I am alive and well and living. This week was a little crazy but not as crazy as the week before. For those of you who may have noticed I sent my weekly on Monday but it didn't arrive until Tuesday because I didn't have wifi for a little while on Monday due to some unfortunate events that happen to my companion that will remain unmentioned. Any which way last Monday was a party and slightly crazy! We visited three members and went to a Zone BBQ activity at our stake president's house. Super fun!

Then transfers happened. First we went to a member's house early Tuesday morning. Then Hermana Castañeda packed really fast in order to allow some Hermanas to take her luggage for us. What we ended up doing was throwing her 60 pounds suitcase down the stairs cause we were struggling to get it down the stairs. So yeah some crashing and heaving were done. Then we traveled to transfers. Which we spent like 20-30 minutes waiting for them to tell us who our new companions are!

So my new companion is Hermana Jofre she is from Miami Florida but grew up in Southern California. Although her mom is from Honduras and her dad is from Guatemala. She is super short she comes up to right below my shoulders. She is the sweetest person ever! As well she never lets a smile fall from her face! She is so caring which has been very helpful these past couple of days as I have had a cold.

Uhh as for exciting stories there isn't much to tell. When talking to a member this week we discovered that Hermana Jofre knows her cousin because she lives in her home ward! Crazy how small the Mormon world is! Other than that is has been watching my little greenie take her first steps into missionary work. She knocked her first door, she taught her first lessons, she went to church as a missionary, rode the trains for the first time, and now first preparation day as a missionary! They grow up so fast!! Uhhhh....

As well we have a less active who has had a couple different fears about coming to church so we were trying to think on how to help be comfortable with church. We decided she would come visit the church on a non church day with us and just spend time in the church building. She came and it took a couple minutes to help her relax and get settled in but once we did she said she felt surprisingly comfortable in the church! It was awesome to watch her take some baby steps into using the atonement to help her heal from the fears she had.

This week I read in a talked called "Gathering the Family of God" by President Erying from this last General Conference. Before he gets into talking about family history work he mentions and I quote:

"Because He loves us with the love of a perfect Father, He wants us to progress and advance and become like Him. He ordained a plan by which we would come to earth, in families, and have experiences that would prepare us to return to Him and live as He lives."

Then he proceeds to talk about family history work and finding those of our past. To me this part stood out to me because I thought about how our family can help us become better people not only our current family but our ancestors as well. Recently there has been a big push for helping members, less actives, and recent converts to do their family history work. As I read this talk and thought about family history work I also thought about the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 128:15 which says:

"15 And now, my dearly beloved brethren and sisters, let me assure you that these are principles in relation to the dead and the living that cannot be lightly passed over, as pertaining to our salvation. For their salvation is necessary and essential to our salvation, as Paul says concerning the fathers--that they without us cannot be made perfect--neither can we without our dead be made perfect."

So from both the talk and this scripture we learn that family history work makes us better people and become more like Christ. To me the biggest Christlike attribute that stood out to me was humility because in the process of doing family history work you don't think of yourself as you do it but you focus on the people you are trying to find. I realized many other ways in which family history can help us become better people but I want y'all to think of why family history work could make you a better person and if you want send me and email of what you think. I know that as we seek our kindred dead we will become like our Savior. My favorite feeling lately has been to help some of the less actives as they excitedly find some family names so they can take them to the temple. I know our Heavenly Father wants us to help everyone around us including our ancestors.

Sorry my weekly doesn't have as many exciting stories... I love y'all and have a great first week of summer vacation for some of y'all!

Con Amor
Hermana Ashford

Picture 1: first day picture
Picture 2: what elder's do on a train when there is no one else.
Picture 3: I don't know if you can see it but it is police men on horses
Picture 4: Linery a member!
Picture 5: waiting on the bus
Picture 6: when your friend sends you his famous cookies
Picture 7: Playing the slap game.
Picture 8: Scarlet ps sorry my companion's face is blurry we didn't
any good ones because she was laughing the whole time.
Picture 9-11: when your companion offers to do your hair.
Picture 12: no one loves us. We were the only ones on the train

Picture 13: what happens when a college graduation happens.