Q & A Aug 30, 2010

1. Remind me again what kind of batteries you need for your camera.

I want Energizer Ultium Lithium. They work the best. There is an 8 pack and that should last me the rest of the miss.

2. Is that your new apartment in the pics you sent last week? There was a pic of a bathroom and a big room with orange-yellow walls.

Yeah, that´s our house. We live in a sectioned off part of a recent convert´s house. He is also the first counselor in the ward bishopbrick.

3. We're also trying to decide which missionary is your new comp in the pictures. There's a picture of you in a van with two other missionaries. I saw the same missionary was in a lot of your other pictures last week. Is that your new comp?

Yes, he is from Panama. He is the one who is in most of all the pictures.

4. Was it hard to leave San Ramon?

Yes, I had really grown a bond with a lot of the members there. It is easy to do since we were so small. We even had people come to the church that weren´t members that came to the church to tell us bye. We knew everyone in that little town.

5. How does your apartment compare with your last apartment?

It is nicer. The water isn´t freezing. There aren´t bats living in it. But we have less furniture. We don´t have anything to put our bathroom stuff on, just our study table.

6. Are there other missionaries in your apartment besides you and your comp?

There were going to be because they opened up a new area and the missionaries didn´t have a place to live, but then they left the second day with all their things.

7. What kind of lizard thing was in the pictures from last week that was decapitated? What happened to it?

It was on a farm thing. This kid had trapped well it is like an Iguana, but different. They made soup out of it. They told us the soup is really strong.

8. Do you have lots of mosquitoes there and if so are you using insect repellent? I hear there is a lot of dengue fever going around the missionaries in Honduras.

O, no. there aren´t that many mosquitoes. And not that many missionaries that I know have had dengue here.

For the package, get passalong cards of Christ and put them over the openings of the box so that they don´t cut into it. I don´t know if the last package got lost.

e-mail Aug 30, 2010

Dear all,

Well, things here in Agateyte are good. This week has been quite the week. We are working hard in trying to find, teach, and focus on those who are going to progress. That is the hard part. We can teach almost anyone, but we had to focus and see who is actually progressing and teach them. We should have had a baptism of 2 on Saturday, but it didn´t go down that way. Two weeks ago, the lady didn´t want to get married and husband did want to. Then the DL came and talked to her. She wanted to get baptized and married. We had to go talk to the husband to make sure he was still good. We went to talk to him and said that he had to talk to her because last week she didn´t want to get married. For two nights he said that and then she finally told us that he said that he didn´t want to get married. So we couldn´t baptize her. This week we are going to work on it and baptize her two boys too plus a couple others.

Our zone is doing something cool to encourage the missionaries to baptize. We have to baptize 5 with at least one family in the first three weeks of September and then the 25, we have to have 5 more with at least one family to be able to go to the beach to baptize. We are working hard and trying to get lots to baptize.

This week has been a lot of learning for me. I realized a lot of things that i need to improve. Before, my trainer did most of the stuff and I didn´t do much. Now, I have to do almost everything. I talk a lot more. I usually start lessons. We are learning together and working hard. We get along really well. He is helping me with my Spanish and he is actually pretty good at English. He is learning fast. He is just pretty easy to get along with.

I am doing my workout so I don´t outgrown all of my pants.

We had to go to Managua today by ourselves so my comp could get his ID for the country. So that´s what we spent today doing. It was quite the adventure. Nothing big happened, we just didn´t know where we were going and luckily got there. The people are just really friendly here. The give us stuff all the time. Our member, Hermana Fran feeds us so good. Her son just got back from his mission last week. He is awesome.

They changed our schedule around. We now plan for the next day not at 900 at night. We plan at 12:30pm after lunch for the next day. We are in the house at 8:00PM to report numbers, write in your journal and everything like that. We will see how it goes. They also changed the rules. We can listen to music as long as it brings the spirit. So music like EFY is OK, as long as it brings the spirit. Anyway, so slowly things are changing on the mission. They are really trying to focus on baptizing families on the mission. We are working hard and I continue to learn things about myself and the Gospel everyday.

Now, after finishing 6 months in the mission, I can´t believe it´s actually been 6 months. If feels like just yesterday, I came to Nicaragua. It still feels like I can´t speak Spanish and I can´t speak English anymore either. I have learned a ton about the importance of the Gospel in our lives, and how it really is the only thing that will make us happy. It is the most important thing in our life, It is the purpose of even living on the Earth. Our lives are less without it. We do not fulfill our purpose without it.

On the physical side of things, the body is holding up well. I haven´t been too sick lately. I weigh 133. I think a couple pounds have shifted from my legs and arms to my waist. That is the only bad news. I working on that, though. I do have a few requests, though. I would like to hear more from my brothers and sisters and what is happening in their lives. I dont know if some of them are still living ;). I used to not have enough time to write and now I have more than enough time becuase everyone has cut back. I can only imagine after 18 months!! lol But everything is going well. It is weird to be in a Ward again and to have leaders to work with. We are working hard and will continue. Thank you for all the letters and all the prayers offered for me.

With love,

Elder Ashby

last pics from San Ramon

I think this might be the transfer bus.

Dear all,

First of all, I am no longer with my trainer anymore. He is now sleeping peacefully in his own bed in the United States of America. Luke Ensign, I am sending you my weekly emails, but if you dont want it let me know. Yes, transfers were this last wednesday. I was told on Tuesday that I had transfers. I was so sad when I had to leave. I really had great bonds with the members. They changed both of us in San Ramon. I´m sure the two new missionaries had an interesting time finding their way around.

I am now in Chinandega Oeste. I am in a area called Agateyte. It is a ward of about 100 people, a lot different than 20 in our branch before. My comp is Elder Quintero. I prayed for a latino comp and I got him. He is from Panama. My spanish has already gotten a lot better in the 5 days I´ve been with him. I am trying to teach him English too. Yeah, so he has 3 months in Nicaragua and I have almost 4 months in Nicaragua. That means. I have 6 months in the mission and he has a little under 4. So I am technically the senior comp, but we are learning from each other. It is a lot different work here. It is just refreshing to have people so caring. Everyone says hi to us in the street and we can stop and share a message with everyone. Anyone will listen to our message. But this also is a problem. It is still hard. Now, we have to focus on people that actually want to act and change because of the message. The message is so important and it will change their life and thier eternal progression, if they want it to. So I have to learn how to work with members now.

But we are working hard. I don´t want to seem prideful, but I think my spanish is better than I give myself credit for. I can communicate and teach and I continue to learn more and more. My comp is cool. We get along well. It is really hot here in Chinandega. I went from the coolest place in the mission to the hottest!. I am just trying to enjoy everyday of my mission more. With Elder Ensign going home, I was really thinking about my time. It has gone by so fast and if I don´t enjoy everyday and treasure my time, it will pass me by. I can´t look forward to things. This is for everyone in every aspect of life. We must treasure every moment and experience. We´ve already given two blessings in the 4 days I´ve been here. We have a member that cooks for us. It is such good food. I might be putting on a few more pounds. We will see.

So both me and my comp just left our trainers and now we´re together. It is crazy and I am going to learn a lot. We are working our tails off and will continue to do it. We will see how everything goes. Thank your for your continued prayers and support. The work is true. Help the missionaries. Give them references. Talk to all your friends about the joy that you have recieved from the gosple. That´s about all for next week. I hope I can tell more next week. Remember the purpose of life. We must live the gosple of Jesus Christ with all we have or we are losing our chance to return to our Father in Heaven.

With love,
Elder Ashby

Random pics from San Ramon

Random pics from San Ramon

e-mail August 16, 2010

Dear all,

That is interesting that you are going to get a job. Is there is reason? Are you running low on money for the mission or are you just bored? I hope to get the package when we go on Wednesday for changes.

We have been trying to run around and visit all of our members in the last few days. It has been crazy. It was been crazy to think about even being close to go home. It´s like the dream I had the other day when I was home and everyone was congradulating me for completing my mission. They were all telling me I had been out for 2 years and I was freaking out because I had only been out for 6 months. I told everyone that I had only finished 6 months and everyone told me I was done. It actually made me sad. It made me realize how much I need to treasure every moment. There are a lot of things I will actually miss, so I need to love and treasure everything, even the things that stink.

We are working hard and have worked hard this whole change. We don´t really have any investigators. Changes are on Wednesday and I am really hoping I get a Latino comp. We will see. So today for p-day, we went to a park that costs 15 cents to enter. The have monkeys there in the cages that you can feed. It was actually funny and quite fun. Those are the majority of the pictures from this week. We also had the party for Elder Ensign.

This week, I kind of got a machete from the sprit. I realized this week that I can´t teach very well. We don´t have very many investigators and we don´t get to teach very often, so i haven´t gotten very good and teaching. So i really realized that this week I need to mejorar my teachings. So i have been working on that. Plus, president Arredondo has changed how we do a few things. and how we teach.

Anyway, what else. O, so we did exchanges wth the ZLs this week. I was at their house sleeping. They are the one that have Wana. She is a member and cleans their clothes, the rooms and just takes care of them. But she kind of scares me becuase she is very demanding too. anyway, I have been sick all week and i was coughing that night. She came in and gave me some herbal tea and a pill of some sort. Then a few minutes later, she brought in some icy hot stuff. She told me to rub it on my neck and then she went and started pulling up my garment tops. I didn´t really know what was going on, but she pulled my garment top up and started rubbing it on my back. It was so funny. It felt just like having a mother. She rubbed it on my back and I could actually feel the menthal. It was good. It was imbarrasing too. anyway, that was the funny thing for the week.

I have daily occurances with misunderstanding spanish. I can´t even tell all of the funny misunderstood spanish things. I think that´s about it for this week. I will tell you who my new comp is next week. I am pretty sure I am staying, but anything could happen. We will see.

Thank you everyone for your continued support, your letters and your prayers.

Q & A August 16, 2010

1. How do transfers work there? If you stay and you get a new comp, do you have to go to Managua with your comp and bring a new comp back with you?

yes, I will go to matagalpa with all of the other missionaries from Matagalpa to Managua and come back with him and take him to San Ramon. We will rent a small bus that holds like 20 people for the day.

2. You said you got mail last week. Did you just get dearelders or did you also get regular mail? I wondered which of the addresses that I used made it to you. Let me know if you get my post cards also.

I got one postcard, the Saskatewan pastcard, a couple dear elders and a couple letters. Your dear elder and your letter that you raced got here the same time. But from the looks of it, if the bag doesn´t get lost, dear elders are actaully faster.

3. Do you know when the rainy season ends? I wish we would get some rain this week.

I thing i heard it ends here in Nov or Dec. I think I am going to go get a rubber rain slicker with some of Grandma´s gift seeing as how my umbrella broke. I sent a picture of it last week.

4. Did you get to have a party for your comp before he leaves? How did it go?

Yes, I get 10 dollars to one of the members to plan a party for him. It was good. Not very many members came, but the few good ones came.

5. I'm getting a package ready to send for your birthday. What do you want in it? Do you want those batteries this time? What else?

The batteries would be good. Some Mike and Ikes!!!! If you could send two crocheting hooks. Maybe you could send two in a letter and they would get here faster. I have a sister who wants an aluminum one from the states.Her husband had to try and make her one our of melting plastick into a needle. Umm, a journal, a normal one that just says journal on the front. maybe some more pictures of the family. I want to have some more pictures of things that we did together, that doen´t look rich either. People love to see pictures but i don´t want us to look rich in them either. Anything is welcome. I don´t really have any music i can listen to either. We can listen to mormon tabernacul choir. if you could send one or two CDs, that would be cool too. I think that´s about it.

e-mail Aug 9, 2010

Dear all,

Well, this week has been good. We are working hard and doing our best. My comp only has a week left, but we are still working hard and trying to find investigators. I am probably going to stay here for one more change. I don´t think they are going to shut the branch down and i have to train the next branch president.

umm, things that happened this week. Well, first, we found out that Sorayda, our recent convert got a job. We fasted with her about 3 weeks ago that she could find a job. She actually went out to look for a job and after about a week, she found one right down the street. It´s not a lot. Just 25 dollars for the month. But that 500 cordobasis atleast more than nothing. It was really cool for me to find out because we had talked to her about fasting and praying . She asked us if we would fast with her and she was able to find what she needed. It was a true answer. Anyway, we went to go see her and we found out that she has to work everyday from 6 to 6. We aren´t supposed to leave the city after dark, so we technically shouldn´t go visit her. Anyway, we need to go have a lesson because the Lord blessed her with a job but if she isn´t going to be greatful and keep the commandments too, the Lord won´t bless her for long.

So yeah. We had an activity with the teenagers of the district. They really are the strength of the District. They are often the ones who help the missionaries and help with activities. So we did an activity to animate them to help us and strentgthen their testimony. It was good.

I got like 12 letters from people last week when the bulsa finally came. A lot of your´s, mpm, where the coppies. But i think that´s because the bulsa didn´t come for like 5 weeks. Thank you Despains for your letter and Sister Key for yours as well. It is great to hear about everyone. Emily thank for your letter as wel. Sorry if i can´t write you all back. I can´t even find time to write me own family besites the email.

So for p-day, we went to this jungle park place. It´s called Salva Negra, Black Jungle. Anyway, they had monkeys, and a little museum. It was 35 cords just to get in.

But things are going good. We are trying to plan a little party with the branch for my comp before he goes. We will see how it goes.

I think that´s about it. We are teaching and walking and trying to find investigators. It is a hard area, but we are working and doing what we can. I have really llearned a lot about myself and continue to learn more every day about people and the gosple. The church is true, no matter where you´re at, what people you´re with or how small the branch is. We need to continually pray and feel the spirit to strengthen our testimony always.

With love,

Elder Ashby

Q & A e-mail August 9, 2010

1. Emily and I noticed that you are wearing your glasses in several pictures. Do you wear them often? Is there a reason?

Yeah, my eyes have been going crazy and burning. I have had to wear them almost everyother day these last two weeks. I don´t know what´s happening. I think i need to rinse them more often. I´ve been trying to go every two days with putting fresh solution in the case becasue i found out that a bottle costs 13 dollars here. But i guess my eyes are more important than money. I need to start being smarter about that.

2. What will happen to the members of your small branch if they close it?

I think they would have to meet in a member´s home and have some sacerdocios some priesthoods from Matagalpa come and do the sacrament, but it´s not looking like they will shut it down anytime soon. It is still a possibliity, but i think i will be here for one more change to train the newt branch pres.

3. What was the highlight of your week?
umm, my hightlight was finding out that our recent convert found a job, which i will write about more in my letter. You can´t ask questions like that becuase then you take everything i have to write about for my big letter ;)

4. Have you and your comp managed to keep going these last few weeks in the area? Is there going to be a lot of work involved for you if they close it?

I don´t know. We are still working hard. We go out and work and try and find still. My comp is more concerned about quality and not so much quanity. We are tying to strengthen the members more than anything. I don´t know how much we would be involved if they were to shut it down.

pics from San Ramon 8/2/10

e-mail Aug 2, 2010

Dear All,

Well, things here in San Ramón are going well. Nothing much has happened this week. We are trying to work hard, contact and teach. We are not finding a lot of luck, though. But, we are working hard. We went and printed off some talks from conference session and It is funny how, when your on your mission, you can read any talk and it applys to the mission, even if it didn´t before or wasn´t meant to apply. I read the Patience talk by President Uchtdorf and it was really good.

We have our recent confert, Sorayda. She is the one that is having a hard time. She has three kids and no job. She has some health problems, none that are big enough that she can´t work. Anyway, she is really funny and has a good heart. She has just been living poor for so long, she doesn´t want to put a lot of work in to find a job. We gave her a bunch of ideas of things she could do just in her house, but she didn´t like any o them. There is a saying that is in Work and the Glory 2 I think. It says, God provides for those who provide for themselves. It is so true. God isn´t just going to give things to people that don´t want to use it. Whether it´s in misisonary work. We have to work hard to show the Lord that we want to work and teach those who are ready. If we don´t work hard, He isn´t going to give use the success. For her, she needs to look and be willing to take whichever work the Lord gives to her. The Lord´s not going to give her work if she isn´t going to take it. Or if there is someone who is trying to investigate the church. The Lord isn´t going to give the knowledge if the person doesn´t seek if, or if they don´t want to try. A person has to seek for the truth and want to know if the church is true. If we show God that we want to find out and put our strength and our part, God will help us and give us the knowledge. But we have to try with all our might in all we do.

Anyway, Some of the pictures from this week were from District/zone meeting. The ZLs got a piñata for the meeting to try and get spirits up. It was quite funny. I bought a sweet soccer jersey this week in town. I think that´s about it.

We have a bat that lives in our house every night. It is getting...stuff all over the floor. So I eat a lot of bread here. It is the cheepest and the fastest. I eat a lot of bread. I also have a bad habit of when we are just walking or jsut sitting, I am not teaching or doing something and I feel like I need to eat. I have just started eating too often and I think my metabolism has slowed. I started feeling fat and unhealthy. I know i´ve gained some weight around my waist becuase my suit pants are fiting pretty tight. Anyway. I had to kind of go on a diet and cut back on how much and how often I eat. I have had to increase my workouts in the morning. I feel more healthy now and and actually getting back a little bit into shape.e Anyway, I think that´s about all. We will see.

I think my spanish is pretty good. I can communicate for the most part with anyone. This is five months down. It has gone by pretty fast. This last month was a little slower with this 9, almost 10 week change. It is really long. We´ve had 2 emergency changes in the mission already in some zones. Well, the church is true. Share the happiness and the knowledge with everyone. It´s our duty to amonestar, to warn all our neighbors and show the joy and happiness that comes from the gosple.

With Love,

Elder Ashby

Q & A e-mail Aug 2, 2010

When I asked Logan what he wanted to ask you, he wanted to know when we can go to your house. :-)

Well Logan, in a lot of years when we all save a lot of money, we will all take a trip back and visit my house ;)

Evan wants to know if you get ice cream there.

Yes, they have ice cream here. It is call eskimo ice cream. I can get a two scoop ice cream cone for 75 cents!

1. Really, we'd like to know what kinds of things kids do there for fun. John says that on his p-days, they played soccer with the neighbor kids, learned from the kids how to throw tops, and wrote letters. What do kids do there?

Well, kids watch quite a bit of TV here. All the kids play marbles. That is the biggest thing. There are a lot of soccer fields and kids love playing soccer.

2. What is the technology like there. Obviously you have access to computers, but are there lots of satellite dishes on the houses? iPods? Cell phones?

There are cybers where they have computers. Most people have some kind of old TV. A lot of people have DVD and a lot have satelite too. IPODS, not so much. A lot of people have a type of cheep MP3. Almost everyone has a cell phone, but they work differently here. They buy a 10 dollar stinky cell phone and then they just buy minutes called saldo when they need it. I don´t know how much that costs. But yeah. Some people , the fachenta people have flat screens