Dear all,
Well, it has been another good week. We didn´t have much success, but it was a good week nonetheless. Well, if you can all remember, a couple of weeks ago, my mom sent me a question to answer that said what have you learned this week? I didn´t have anything. Well, it feels like now, I am just learning and being able to apply so much stuff. First, we had to go to Managua on tuesday for pres´s farewell talk/party. I saw all the guys that came from the MTC with me and most of them are going to the south mission. I saw Elder Geddes for the last time in my mission. I learned a ton of stuff, but first, the mail changed. The address for the Managua Nicaragua Norte es
Elder Scott Ashby
Oficina discover
Oficina 20
APT. 3600
Managua, Nicaragua, C.A.
So we got to hear some of the missionaries that were giong home. Some of the gringos could speak very good spanish, but some could not. Some you could just tell that they didn´t have it really well. I just realized that I´m not just one day going to speak perfect spanish and that there isn´t going to be a day where everyone magically understands me from now on. I will always have to continue learning and improving. But my mission is now. I have been called and set apart to declare the gosple of Jesus Christ now and not when I actually speak spanish. So I jsut realized that i have to get rid of fear and speak and declare more often. And this goes for every missionary. You´re not one day just going to be able to speak the language. It is little by little and your two years are passing by, so declare the gosple, even if you can´t say everything you want to.
The next thing I learned about the mission is this. The mission is all about change. We come to a new place, a new language, new people. and have to do a new thing in our life. We have to repent and change our ways and change ourselves to get along with compañions. Another missionary told me this one night and I really loved it. I have decided to each week write a goal of something I want to change or become and focus on that goal with everything I have. Then, after my 2 years, i will have a list of things that I wanted to become and I will be able to see if I actually became that. I think it will be very interesting to see. So, I am changing and become a better person.
So, for our area this week, we didn´t have a lot of success. We wanted to baptize the lady and her 2 kids that we´ve been teaching for a month on Satuday. She was jsut vey stubborn. We told her on Friday that we were going to come by on Saturday and pick them up and take them to their baptism. We went up on Saturday and when we were walking off the bus at her stop, she got on. We saw her and had to jump back on again. We followed her to her sister´s house. the ZLcame up and tried to help us get her. She would not do it. She just didn´t want to, even though she knew she needed to and would do it eventually. Anyway, so we decided that we would try on Sunday. We went up there on Sunday and taught her. She still didn´t want to. She had a bunch of doubts, most of which were produced by her sisters who are evangelicas. It all came down that she was listening to everyone else but the person who really knows the truth, God. That is the thing. She had never actually prayed and asked God if it was true. That´s the thing that gets us crazy sometimes. It seems so easy but it is so hard. Ofcourse God knows everthing. If there is a true church out there, he wants us to know about it and he wants us to know if it is true. If we truely ask, we are going to feel and know it. It seems so simple, but it works. I ask anyone that has a question or wants to know if this church is really true to pray. Pray to sincerely know with the intent to act on your answer. Prayer is so easy. This investigator will not pray with us because she is so scared. It is so easy. It is just like a conversation with our father. He is our father and wants to hear from us. We jsut have the express our hearts to him. Anyway, in the end, she had not prayed and did not know for herself. We are going to give her some more time.
My camera memory card went bad. That´s the second one of that brand. It´s a good thing I have that other one. So all the pictures that i took from pres´s party got deleted and my last picture with Elder Geddes. I actually had taken a lot of picutres this week, but then they all got delete. So i will have more pictures NEXT week. If this one goes bad, i will have to buy a memory card here. But other than that, everything is giong great and I am doing well. I hope all is well at all of your homes. Sarah and John, I can´t believe how big the kids are. Even lost a tooth!!! that is crazy. Thank you for all the letters and emails, even just if they are small and short. The church is true!!
With love,
Elder Ashby
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