short e-mail May 31, 2010

o yeah. we´ve had a ton of rain lately. everything is good. I was a little sick this week, well a lot sick, but i´m better. i don´t know why some of my messages aren´t going through. sorry but i don´t have much time and i´ve got to write that big email. I hope everything is going well and you are surviving. I wrote you a letter and you should get it this week. If you ever send a package, could you put a whole bunch of anti'diariah pills in a baggy and send it. you can´t get that down here. Thanks I love you

Q & A May 31, 2010

1. Nate wants to know who does your baptismal interviews and if you have to get your investigators to Matagalpa for them. Nate also said since your comp is the BP, that must make it a little easier to have a last minute baptism. He said sometimes they had a hard time getting the Bishop or BP to agree to a last minute baptism.

Well, most of the time the ZLs do the interviews, but the DL can also do them. Yes it does make it easier for a last minute baptism. also, we have a waterfall we can baptize in, but it is a little walk and only if it is during the day and actually palnned. Otherwise we have to take them down to Matagalpa.

2. What do you do on P days?

We usually go into Matagalpa, hang around, go to the cyber to email, and then go play soccer. That is a weekly activity, All the churcheswell bigger churches have soccer goals outside.

3. What address do we send hand written letters to? The mission office? Do you know how long it takes to get them?

I sent you the address like the first week. Aleena has it i think if not, you will get a letter sometime this week with it. My comp said that it takes like 10 days.

e-mail May 24, 2010

Dear All,

Well, it´s been three weeks in the field. Come Wednesday, this change will be half way over. Time is going relatively fast. The days go by slow, but the weeks generally go by fast. We had our first baptism on Saturday. It was a crazy story. We were originally going to baptize him on saturday, but then he wanted to do it sunday. We had this big mother´s day activity that were planned and had to do on Saturday. The guy came to the activity and then we called us when they got home and said that he had to leave in the morning. We decided that we better do it right then. We hurried and firnished cleaning up the church and took a taxi up to his house. When we got there, he said that he didn´t want do do it. After making our taxy guy wait and he got mad at us, we finally told him to leave. We talked to Unigenio, that´s our investigator´s name, and tried to talk to him about how he had told us earlier that day that he was excited but now things had changed. He said he wasn´t ready. he said he didn´t have any clothes and that he had no money. We told him over and over again that he didn´t need either one, but that he had it all covered. He is a little crazy. he is about 65 years old and a few short of a full deck, but he has a good heart and is a funny guy. We finally got his wife, who is a member to tell him that he neeed to do it. We finally got him to come and got another taxy. We went into matagalpa (ps. the picture that I sent of the town in two emails ago was of matagalpa. my town isn´t even near that big) we went in at 8 00 at night. we did a short baptismal service and then baptized him. Of course he was so happy when he got done. It is amazing how hard Satan works on people. Once they have the interview and are found ready to be baptized, Satan just attacks them and tells them they aren´t ready, they don´t know enough and that they shouldn´t get baptized. HE was happy though when it was all done. We have not had water hardly at all this week. We finally paid our water bill and got the water back on after last week, but found out that there is a leak in the water pipe, which is why we had a 400 cord bill. We got it back up, but often have no pressure in the pipes to get water or take a shower. It hasn´t been bad until today when we woke up and there was no power or water. Anyway, things are going well. We are hitchiking a lot. Yesterday we had to come into Matagalpa and it was pouring rain. We caught a ride in the back of this big truck and were dretched in water when we got to the church here in Matagalpa. We had a multi-zone conference on Thursday. We had to drive 2.5 hours to chinendega for it. It was a log day. We were up a 300, i almost had to sleep on the ground, i shared a tiny matress with another missionary and then we didn´t get home till almost 11 at night. it was a very long day, but it was good. Yesterday, I had to conduct and give a talk that wasn´t prepared and bless the sacrament for the first time. Things are going well. I´m learning spanish. I can mostly understand and talk a little. Things are going well. I´m not perfect yet, and I still have a lot to learn and to work on, but i´m working hard and will continue to grow. It is realy hard to get our members to church and to see them not coming breaks our heart. It is hard when people choose not to listen to our message. We know it is true. We know it is going to change thier life and make things better, if they let it. It can strenthen families, bring more happiness and more purpose to the lives of those who listen and live the gosple of Jesus Christ. I know that this church has the authority to do all the sacred ordanences for salvation. I know that there are specific ordanences and conventants that must be done in order to enter the kingdom of God. We have the way, the knowledge and the peace that can come into people´s lives if they are willing to listen and apply the teachings of Jesus Christ and a living profet, just like moses and abraham. Share this with all. It is true. Thank you for your prayers everyone. thank you for your support. I would LOVE some hand-written letters if anyone has some time ;) I will send more pictures next week. I forgot my cord again. I am sending some from last week and from in the MTC. THanks everyone.

Elder Ashby

Q & A May 24, 2010

1. So do you do regular service? Where and what is it?

We don´t have regular service anywhere. We just look for people to help wherever we can. A lot of our service is cleaning the chaple ever Saturday night.

2. Are you still getting up at 5 am? Is that for the whole mission or just your Zone or area?

Well, I am trying to get up at 5, but we have had a crazy last week and we have been getting home late and things. I am going to work harder at getting up at five and maybe we´ll be blessed more. The whole mission is getting up at 5 to do more missionary work. We will see if that changes after this misison president goes home. It is hard when my comp doesn´t get up at five, but I´m going to do better.

3. BTW, what was that in the one picture you sent. It looked like a sin/shower? We couldn't tell what it was.

I don´t remember what I sent. I might be the sink. There are things in the pother part where you can wash clothes. We don´t use that really.

4. I noticed that you copied your mission president in your last e-mail to us. Is that required?

o whoops thanks for letting me know that. I did that on accident!!!

5. Do you and your comp always have a cell phone?

Yes. we all have cells phones all the time. You´d be suprised to see just how many people have cell phones here. They could be dirt poor, but still have satellite, and a cell phone.

6. How often do you meet with your mission president?

Once, maybe twice inbetween transfers

7. Do you ever cook for yourselves?

No, we don´t have any facilities to cook. Plsu, it is more expensive than just going to a restaurant. We did finlly buy some bologna and bread and had sandwiches for one meal.

8. Do you have glass on your windows, or do you have shutters like David did?

no, we just have two windows with glass. There aren´t any shutters, just metal bars over EVERY window. every window here has metal bars over it. All the churches have fences around them and barbed whire on the top of the fences.

9. How is the singing in your branch. Do you ever get to lead the music?

We have a CD player and the CDs with the hyms on them. They "lead", but it is more just moving their arm. They are horrible at singing. They can´t hardly sing. they are always off. There are only a few that can actually sing on the right melody. It is funny.

Love,

Elder Ashby

e-mail to Mom and Dad May 17, 2010

Hi mom and dad,

Sorry I didn´t send pictures. I forgot my camera. I will bring it next week. I hope everything is going well. Things are good here. Don´t worry about me. I am trecking a long. By the way, if you were wondering the worst bites are on the knuckles, the bottoms of feet and on the hip. The hardest thing this week has been this waking up at 5:00. that is an hour and a half earlier than usual. I don´t konw how long it will last, but we are being obedient and doing it. I hope everything is going well there. One thing I´ve noticed here is that Dads here just have a different mind set. They don´t fell very much resposibility or affection for their family. there are a lot of families not married. They guys a lot of times won´t marry them because they don´t really love them. they just want to have her there for himself. It is sad. And the ones that are together don´t have like a deep affection for their kids. it is just different. it has really opened my eyes about dad and they type of man he is. He always loved us. He always worked hard around the house and at his job so that we could have everything we needed. He always attened his meetings and was a good example. You and Dad always supported us in what we did and and pushed us to do what we should do. Thank you. I learn more and more about families and differences we have. Thank you. Talk to you next week. o by the way, I´ve been doing a little gardening myself with machetees. I figure since you always tell me about your gardening, i would tell you that we´ve been cutting down trees, weeding and killing things. Good times. bye

Elder Ashby

Question e-mail May 17, 2010

1. How often do you have Zone Conference? Have you had one yet? When is the next one?

I don´t know excactlly what is conceridered a zone conference, but we meet like 3 time a week as a zone. We have district planning one day and we all meet at the same church and plan. On thursday, we have district planning and we all meet together and then on p-days we all meet together as well.

2. Are you the first missionaries to live in your apt because we're wondering why it is so dirty? Is it cleanable?

Well, I think we are the second or third companionship to live there. It´s not more than a year old with the misisonaries. There is a lot of dust and our food isn´t actually closed, so when the wirnd blows, a lot of dust comes in. It just gets really dustly. We´ve opretty much clearned it us as much as possible.

3. Do you walk to Matagalpa or do you take a bus or something? If so how much does it cost?

Well, we take a taxi a lot, but we´re running out of money and we are going to try and schedule our time right so we can take the bus.It´s cheaper. Also, we´ve been hitch-hiking a lot. One day, we hitch-hiked 4 times. Today, we got a ride all the way to mategalpa for free from this guy. the bus costs 5 cords or 25 cents. the taxi costs 50 censt or 10 cords and that´s only 1 way.

4. Do you pay the person who washes your clothes? If so, how much?

yes, it costs about 300 cords or 15 dollars at the end of each month. I´ll know for sure when i actually have to pay.

5. How is your money allotment? Does is seem sufficient?

Yeah, it is good now,. I heard that it used to be almost nothing. WE get about almost 4000 cords or like 200 dollars I think. that is for travel, food, clothes, everything.It is pretty good.

6.What is the best thing about your area?

The restaraunt where we eat is really good.

7. Tell us something cool about your comp.

He has a story about everything. He never runst out of stories to tell. He is quite sarcastic and really funny. Sometimes it´s mean or just impactience with people and it chouldn´t be funny, but sometimes it´s the only thing that keeps me wakling when we get rejected.

8. Any questions for us?

What does the fish do? Nada (nadar is to swim)
What do you call a loving bear? amoroso ha ha have dave explain that one

e-mail May 17, 2010

Well, this email is going to have to be fast because I didn´t manage my time the best this week. Well, what happened? I hitch hiked for the first time with week one day we hitch hiked four times. it´s been fun. we trobably walked 30 miles with week. one day, we hiked up this mountian. we had talked to this lady in town and she said she was interested in hearing our message. she gave us general directions and we thought it wouldn´t be too hard. We started up the mountain and it was steep. We hicked about 40 minutes straight up this mountain in the rain. We finally found a hous and asked if they new the lady and out she walked. They gave us some tang made in contaminated water, but we had to drink it because when a dirt poor family gives you something like that, you have to drink it. Anyway, so we taught her and then kept hiking. We were way up this mountain in the jungle. i will sent picture next week. it was crazy. my boots really came in handy. We are having kind of a rought time. We only have one real investigator. We´ve had a real problem with people making appointments and then not being there, or hiding in the back and then having someone lie and tell us they aren´t there. That happended to us 4 times in one day in 1 hour actuallly. It is a little depressing when we know we have a message that can change their life if they just let it and have a open heart. The people here have a hard time commiting to things. It is just hard for them to take responsibiblity and do something. We are working hard. We may not have a lot to show for it, but we are working and will continue to teach and try to find those who God has prepared for us to teach. I still have a ton of bites. We got a new rule from pres. Fraatz that we have to wake up at 5:00 now. That has been really hard and tiring, but we are being obedient and sacrificing. Things are going well. Sorry this wasn´t as long as normal, but I will use my time better next week. Hopefully we will baptized this one investigator we have right now. We will see. O, I got the dear elders last pday. it was actually really fast. it was great to hear from everyone. thanks for the letters. I have a blister from using a machete. We´ve been doing a lot of service with machetees. I might buy one for myself.we will see if i can afford it. thanks again. keep sending letters. The church is true whether the people what to hear it or not. Joseph Smith was a profet whether they want to believe it or not. I love you all.

Pictures 5-10-10

Not sure what this is, but it looks pretty gross.

A view of his first area?

Relaxing

The pink pj's from Oak (Thailand missionary).

first e-mail from Nica: 5/10/10

Dear all,

Well, this in unlike anything I could even explain. It is crazy here. People here are so poor. Most houses are just concrete. Many are just sticks and mud. It is crazy. I can{t tell you everything that happened. I hope my mom wote everything I said in the call yesterday. I really cleaned a lot around our house. It was so gross. This morning, my comp and I spent about an hour really cleaning the house. It was pretty gross. it was worse than antying at camp even. It is just a big change from the US.

Spanish is going well. I can understand almost everything when people talk. it is kind of bad. my comp and I speak english almost all the time. i need to try to speak more spanish. i am learning though. right now, i am in a place called San Ramon. it is jsut outside of Matagalpa. it is definately out in the moutains. it is really green. Our "assistance" as all the greengos say because they forget that assistencia is actually attendance in english, anyway our atendance is only about 20 in our little branch. We only have about 10 really active strong members. it is really interesting. We are working hard. we have a few investigators. we set acouple to have a date for baprtism, but they actually have to be married first. We invited so many people to come to church, but we didn{t have any of our investigators in church. we are going to keep working hard. My comp is the branch president and i am the first and second counselor. i had to give a talk yesterday in church too.

It was a pretty crazy first week for me. I got to see Jordan at changes on Wednesday. it was really cool. He translated for me. Anyway, things are going really well. Things are pretty cheep here, but my comp and I get ripped off alot. When two gringos go to pay for anything, they try to take one or two cordobas. It´s going well though.

I am allowed to spen 20 minutes emailing anyone I want, so people can email me. I won´t be able to answer everyone every week, but I would love to hear from people.

We´ve been walking a lot. my feet are still adapting to everything. Let´s see. What cool happened. We saw a dead boacostrictor in the road. There are frog everywhere and dogs everywhere. it is funny becuase if you act like you{re going to pick up a rock, they run away because they are so used to people throwing rocks to get them to go away. Anyway, things are tuani here. that mean things are cool here. I will probably have more to tell next week. We havn´t gotten robbed yet. It is hard here.people just work. they don´t really do much than that. They have a hard time committing to things. That´s why we don´t have any sacerdotes in church. It is just really interesting. We are working a lot with mempbers and trying to find families to baptize. We round one family that I think is going to be rreally good. we will see.

Well, I think that´s about it. I love you all. If there´s one thing i´ve already learned. it´s that the church is true. It provides so much direction in my life. That is the hardest part. people´s lives here are so simples that they don´t feel like they need anything else. I just want to go share this gosple with everyone. We can know where we are going, where we came from. We are lead by a living prophet. He recieves revelation for our times. If it were not for a living prophet, we would not know what our Father in Heaven wanted us to do. This chruch is true. We can all know for ourselves. God would tell us if it was true and he has given me my answer. thank you all for your support. I love you and he church is true. As missionaries, we invite all to find out for themselves, and I do the same for each of you. if you have a question if this is the true, restored church of our Savior Jesus Christ, I invite you to learn, study and then ask our Heaven ly Father for yourself. I wish all of you the best and hope than all is going well for you all.

Love,

Elder Ashby

I asked Scott if they have someone who cooks for them and he said no, but someone washes their clothes.

Mother's Day call 2010

Notes from Scott’s call May 9, 2010

Scott’s companion’s name is Elder Ensign. He’s from Utah somewhere. He has been out over 1 ½ years. He seems to be a nice guy and Scott says they get along well. They are in San Ramon close to Matagalpa about 2 hours from Managua. It is a very small town about 5 blocks by 5 blocks. Everyone knows everyone. The people are very poor. Elder Ensign is the Branch President and Scott is his counselor. They had about 20 people in church today and no investigators. He said it’s a hard area and they spend a lot of time doing branch work. Since they are North Nicaragua, he will be in the Nicaragua North mission. The mission president has one more transfer and then there will be a new mission president.

One of the missionaries he was traveling with lost his passport somewhere. In Miami he didn’t have it. Scott had to call an emergency # to find out what to do with him. SLC said they would figure out what to do with him. The missionary had to stay in Miami with some missionaries there. Scott said he still wasn’t in Nica by Wednesday when he left for his new area. They had training on Tuesday and then got their companions and left for their areas on Wednesday

They had quite the time getting through customs since none of them have very good Spanish yet. Finally, one of the agents with a little English asked where they were going to live. They all kept saying, “We don’t know!” Anyway, they finally made it through. There was a Bishop there to meet them that told them to stay there. He took their luggage and left. The AP’s finally came with a pick up and a car. Some missionaries piled in the back of the truck and the rest were in the car. I guess it was quite the ride to the mission home.

The people of Nicaragua are very poor. The living conditions are very bad. Scott said he never imagined it would be this bad. He says he thinks he’s going to get a disease every time he gets in the shower. They have 2 sinks and one is so gross and disgusting, they don’t use it. The other one is almost as bad, but they have to use it. He said there are ants all over the floor. He has a very thin mattress to sleep on and no pillow. Aleena, he is very glad he has the blanket you made. He uses that as a pillow! He woke up the first morning with a few bites, but didn’t think anything of it. The second morning he had a few more. His companion told him he has bed bug bites. He didn’t think too much about it, because they have them everywhere, I guess! That would be horrifying to me. They are told not to tell their families too many details about their conditions! Its very dusty and there’s trash in their apt. Scott said they are going to clean up tomorrow. Their apartment was broken into a few weeks ago. They now sleep with a bar across the door somehow and a table pushed up against it! Wow!

It’s very hot there and he is always sweaty, but he says he doesn’t mind. They do a lot of walking. They walk to Matagalpa quite often. He says he understands about ½ of what people are saying and less if they are speaking to him. He said the food is good. He has decided to eat everything. They eat at a restaurant that’s not too expensive. The people are very poor and can’t really afford to feed them. It’s different in different areas.

I’m getting tired, but I think I captured most of what Scott said. He seemed very up beat and happy. He said he has a good companion, so that helps. His P-day is Monday, so he can e-mail then. He said the dearelders take quite a few weeks to arrive there. Thank you to everyone who has written letters to Scott. I know he appreciates it. He said he hopes he’ll have some e-mail to read tomorrow!

Love you all,

Gwen/Mom

Notes on the airport phone call May 3, 2010

I took notes on Scott's call so I could report to everyone what he said.

1. Two of his missionaries missed their connection. They were all going to the same place, but 2 of them were supposed to be on an earlier flight. They arrived at 10:00 and were supposed to leave again at 10. I don't know how that was supposed to work, but they were able to put them on the same flight with everyone else.

2. When they were at their Zone Leader meeting yesterday to pick a new Zone leader, they decided to skip the one District that was right after Scott's and go to the distsrict before that one. They don't often do that. So many missionaries aren't really prepared to give their all to what they're doing. Sad.

3. Some missionaries at the MTC figured out how to get on the Internet to listen to music they shouldn't and also one guy watched a you/tube video. Scott had to report it to the Branch President.

4. Scott told me all about how he learned how to lead others with love. He had some good success and was rewarded when he was patient and loving. He learned if he got mad and jumped in without thinking before he acted, he didn't handle things as well. He said he really learned from his experience. He told one guy that he wasn't trying to make his life miserable and it wasn't that he didn't like him. He told him, "We're trying to help you be the best missionary you can be."

5. He said he really appreciated David's advice about the MTC. He said it really helped him.

6. Scott said he took every opportunity to talk to natives in Spanish. That really helped him. They corrected him on some grammar he was having trouble with and that really helped. He said his comp wouldn't speak Spanish with him. I don't know how well the comp will do. Most anglo missionaries in Nicaragua have native companions.

7. Scott said he talked to another missionary he really likes recently. They talked about how any 2 missionaries should be able to get along and work well together, if they are following the rules and listening to the Spirit. They have the same goals and the same desire to serve the Lord and the people of their mission. That sounds like a great life lesson right there. He recognized how this works the same in a marriage.

8. His luggage was very full. He was almost over weight. He had to leave a few things behind: a sweather he bought at a thrift store for a couple of dollars, and he mailed all his letters home. He thought he would have to send his blanket home, but he squeezed it in.

9. He told me about a missionary in his district that cried himself to sleep a couple of time a week. He had a girlfriend he had been dating for 3 months and was having a hard time.

10. Tanya and Rochelle, Scott said he liked Oak. He saw him several times. They had been looking for each other. Oak was looking for an Ashby from Canada! When they saw each other and their name tags, they new right away. Scott said he was very talkative and friendly. He gave him a pair of pink pajama pants from Thailand that were very cool. The only thing is they are probably going to be too warm where Scott is going!

11. The Branch President told Scott before he left how much he appreciated him. He said he could always count on Scott and Scott was prepared to be Zone Leader when he got there. Scott really appreciated that. It's sad that a lot of missionaries aren't as prepared as they should be when they get out on their missions.

12. He also told me about a missionary that would write to his girlfriend every night instead of writing in his journal. They were challenged to not only write their letters on P-day (which is a rule I think), but also to only open and ready letters on P-day. Scott thought that was a good idea.

I think that's everything we talked about. It was sure nice to hear his voice. He was a little anxious, but he'll be OK. He is very excited about getting to his country and talking to real people about the Gospel.

Bombs in the airport?

This is an experience Scott had flying to Nicaragua today.

I talked to Scott on the phone and then Keith talked to Scott. (Keith is in Minnesota this week). Then I called David and told him Scott's # so he could call. David said hello and just after that, Scott said, "I gotta go." Later we found out what happened. Scott's comp left his backpack at the place they ate lunch. Of course the restaurant found an unattended bag and called security. When Scott was on the phone, some missionary told Scott that some of the other missionaries were talking to police, so he had to hurry and find out what was happening. When his comp went back to find his bag, they had evacuated the restaurant, and the security guys were getting ready to get the bomb sniffing dogs out! His comp had to spend the next 30 minutes talking with security! Never a dull moment.