e-mail Sept 27, 2010

Dear all,

This is going to be quite the letter. I don´t know why so much happened this week, but it was quite the busy week. So first off, we were trying to work really hard to reach our goals for the month of baptisms and retention. No, we didn´t get any baptisms this week, but I feel good about what we did this change. We had the second most baptisms under the ZLs. 3 out of our 4 sacerdocios, priesthoods, received the Melquicedec priesthood yesterday. We worked hard. As we come to the end of this change, I learned sooo much this change. It is amazing how much one can learn in just 6 weeks. I learned alot and changed a lot. We will see what happens with changes. I predict.... my comp leaves and I get put as DL, but we will see. That´s kind of what the rumor is.

So I had my first rob attempt. So it was like Wednesday night. We were on divisions with two 18 year olds. We were on our way back to our meeting place. We turned the corner and a drunk walked up to me. Now, I know that when a drunk comes to me, I just walked faster, right on past him. The 18 year old that i was with, stopped. I was about 10 feet away and they were talking for about 15 seconds when all of a sudden, I saw that he had a machete. Before I knew it, he took off running.The second I saw his take off running, I knew it was time to get going myself. So he took of running in one direction and I took off running in the other direction because the drunks were inbetween us and I wasn´t going to try to run around them. So now he is a block away in the dark and I´m a block away in the other direction. I was close to the house we were going to meet at, so I started walking to the house. A taxi came who saw everything came and told me ¨sube¨, get in. So i got in and he drove me to the house. He asked me what I was doing in that part because it is peligroso, dangerous. I told him we are usually there and have never had problems. Anyway, so I finally got to the house and got back with my comp. It was really weird to be by myself. So we headed back to the house. As we were about to leave the little part where this happened, we ran into the kid I was with. Aparently, he knew the kid. He was just too drunk to recognize him. But he had to push the two guys that where trying to rob him away. They told him to give them everything he had, which here, isn´t that much. I was the one who had 25 dollars on my. But it was quite exciting. when I saw that machete, my heart sure jumped a mile out of my chest.

So in the pictures I uploaded this week, there is one with my comp and hair all over his shoulders. That is because he let me cut his hair because he is pinchy and didn´t want to spend money. It turned out quite well. I cut mine as well, without a mirror, I might add. It turned out good as well.

As for the hurricane that many of you heard about, we did get some rain. It started raining on Friday night and rained most of Saturday. Sunday, O Sunday. What a day it was. The Evangelicos had their Day of the Bible. It was pouring rain and the streets were pretty much rivers. The water was up to the knee. So we had organized it all so that the jovenes from the ward were going to meet us at the church and at 700, we all had our assignments to go visit and bring the recent converts to church. at 710, no one was there, so we left. We took off walking and tredged through the rivers in the streets. It was raining and my feet and legs were soaked. i was actually really mad. But then, I realized that I could either be mad, or just enjoy myself. So I was happy and we went skipping down the river. So we went to the house of a family of recent converts. We had to wake them up and wait in their house. I even helped them planchar, iron, and we took them to church. So I got two pairs of shoes soaked yesterday. Needless to say, I am sick and tired of rain!!!! And then yesterday, our recent converts recieved the Sacerdocio. That was cool.

Today for p-day, chinandega came and we played some games and had some activities. It was really fun. We played dodgeball with dirty socks wrapped in packing tape. That was original. But we will find out about transfers tomorrow, so we shall see. O, you will all be happy to know that my mission mom, Hermana Fran, the member that cooks for us, made my pants bigger. She is amazing and they fit me better than before. They are perfect. I think that´s all. It was an exciting week and you will hear about transfers next week.

With love,

Elder Ashby

Q & A Sept 27, 2010

1. Did you know that Devin is competing in the Miss Wyoming pagent this year? I just found out tonight. You'll have to tell her to e-mail you some pictures.

No, I don´t know anything, because she never writes me either. I sent her a letter a month ago threatening her to wrtie me, but nothing. yeah, that is crazy.

2. Sister Holman wanted me to ask you if you used your own sheets in the MTC or if they had some there for you. Also what about pillows? Did they have some there for you?

Yes, they give you sheets, a pillow, and blankets. But in the mission, probably not going to have a pillow unless he buys one, or finds one.

3. Are you warm enough at night?

yes, remember, I have Aleena´s blanket and I am in the hottest area in the mission.

4. Did you have any effects from Hurricane Matthew? Maybe it was just a tropical storm. Lots of people were worried about you and asking about you this weekend.

YES!!! I am soooo sick of the rain. We didn´t have anything but non stop rain for the past 2 days and wet shoes every day. My large email will coment more on Yesterdays extravaganza, wow my english is so bad. I have a lot to write about.

e-mail Sep 20, 2010

Dear all,

Well, this week was quite the interesting one. Not much happened. We did have a baptism on Saturday. It was really good. A kid from the ward got baptized and our baptism is awesome. He is really smart and knows the bible almost by heart. But he just accepted what we taught him. So he is awesome.

I sent pictures of a scorpion that I found in our bathroom. I tried to catch it, but I was too much of a girl.

We have been working really hard this week. We have been waking up at 5 and not going to bed till 1030 or 1045. I has been killer. We have one recent convert who was a drunk, but stopped and got baptized. This last week he started again and we are trying to help him stop, but we can´t sit there with him 24/7. I sent more in my handwritten letter to mom and dad. One morning we were at his house at 600 to stop him from leaving early and drinking early in the day. But we have yet to keep him sober for a day so we can actually talk to him. It is really sad. Our zone did this thing where the first Domingo we needed to have 25% retention, the second, 50 and the third, 75 and the forth, 90. If we didn´t reach the goal each week, we couldn´t have pday. We only had 2 normal pdays this month, so it didn´t really affect us, but our ward has a big problem with retention, so next month, I don´t think I will have any pdays to relax. We will see if they do it again. We have a lot of primary and teenagers that don´t want to come to church again and so our retention right now is only 32%. We are trying to figure out some things we can to do get our ward going again. But we are working hard. Sometimes it is really hard. We work and work and work, and don´t see any evidence from our work. Like with recent converts, we visited all of the recent converts but only a few came. We can´t choose for people. We would like to, but we can´t. So that is our trial right now.

We have changes a week from Wednesday. I think my comp is going to be transferred, but we will see what happens. So today, we had to wake up at 5 and take a bus to Managua again to immigration. I got my ID. I am now a resident of Nicaragua. After that, we went to the distribution center to get some movies, pictures for teaching and books. It was a good day, but we didn´t get to rest at all. I got to see a few of the missionaries that came with me that are in the south mission. That was cool.

I think that´s about it. All I can say for this week is to do your missionary work. Help the missionaries. Don´t sit around. This recent convert that started drinking is one of the smartest people I have met in Nicaragua. He dosn´t have a job and can´t find a job. For this, he is just sitting around, doing nothing. Satan starts telling him how horrible his life is and he has nothing better to do than to go and drink. Idol time is the tool of the Devil. I hope I have better, more positive news next week. But the church is true and it isn´t all that hard to see. The states are actually very prepared for the church. In the states, it isn´t that hard to see that the church is true. Here, Satan is working really hard to make church look fun and easier in the other churches. The people have to work every day just to get by. Satan makes it very hard for the people to come to church on Sunday. But it is true and always remember what the Gospel means in our lives.

With love,

Elder Ashby

e-mail Sept 13, 2010

I have to preface this by saying that if you have a squeamish stomach, don't read the second paragraph. It is a bit gross and very graphic. I included it because it is part of the experience.

Dear all,

Well, it was quite the week. Last Monday night was fun. We did a big family home evening with like 5 families and afterwards, I showed everyone how we roast marshmallows in the states. It was really fun and they enjoyed it alot. or maybe that was 2 weeks ago. I don´t know. And then we did it again last night with a couple families that are investigating. We couldn´t write yesterday because we were all day at a conference with Elder Clark, the area 70 over central America. It was really good. We got told a lot of things we have to do better. We got told that we needed to have 50 % retention this last Sunday. We tried to visit everyone before Sunday, and then we passed by Sunday. We just have so many teenagers and primary kids on the recent convert list that don´t want to go to church now. So we only have 27% retention right now, but we are trying. We didn´t have any baptisms this last Saturday, but this Saturday, we will have one. The member we live with has 3 bikes, so he lent us 2 to use when we have to cross to the other side of the area. We rode those Saturday afternoon, and then Sunday in the morning to visit everyone. My butt hurt so back. My comp and I get a lot pretty well. We have our times, but for the most part, everything is good. The funny part is we are the youngest companionship in the zone and we have baptized the most this month. We are working hard. This is week #5 for this change. We only have 2 more weeks left until changes. that´s crazy. We will see what happens, if my comp gets changed, If I have to train. We shall see. Right now, it is the day of Independence. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow in the mornings, they have parades with all the bands from every single school. That gets kind of annoying. They have been banging on their drums, practicing all day till 9:00 at night for the past week. I have really changed in this area and learned alot about how to just do the work. I have been forced to do a lot of things that I didn´t have to do before. But everything is great. I heard that Elder Geddes is a ZL in the South Mission. I have had 1 interview with Pres, Arredondo. That was like 2 months ago. He isn´t going to do interviews for another month or so. He is trying to get set and get everything going in the mission. Thank you to everyone who has sent me dear elders (mostly only Emily) They get here fairly fast and I love being able to hear everyone´s adventures.

Now, for my big story of the week. Now, last Monday was rough. There is this drink made of chocolate called Cacao. It is really good. Some missionaries said that it´s a lot cheaper off the street. I had never tried it off the street. So we went and bought a bag of it and I drank this decent size back of Cacao. I also ate a hot dog off the street for lunch. So later that night, i didn´t feel very good, but I went to bed. In the middle of the night, I woke up feeling very bad. I slipped on my sandals and ran to the door. I unlocked the door and turn on the light in the back. I swung the door open when it all came. The fountains opened up and Old Faithful came spewing. I threw up all over the wall. That wasn´t all. My bowls just opened right up. So I was throwing up and I had poo streaming down my leg. I tried to walk to the bathroom as I continued to throw up and soil myself. I finally got to the toilet and finished my work. I had to go to the shower and wash everything out. I washed my pajamas and my interiors. I dried off and put on clean clothes. I went back to bed. About 2 hours later, I felt sick again. I lipped on my sandals again, and ran around the throw up, around the poo and barely made it to the toilet in time. Again, my bowls opened up and bad stuff came out of both ends at the same time. Now, this has only ever happened one time before. It was at boyscout camp with the lasagna. But if you have ever experienced this, it is not fun. So, I finished again and took another shower. I washed out my clothes yet again. I dried off and this time, I didn´t not replace my unders (as Aleena calls them) for fear of soiling another pair. So I went back to be again. I made it the rest of the night. My comp woke up and I laid in bed feeling bad still. Now, just so everyone knows. My comp did not wake up once, with all the throwing up and everything. But I laid in bed. The member that we live with went and bought some anti dehydration stuff called suero. I drank it too fast and threw up again. But this time it was in a bag. Now, while i was laying in bed sick, my comp, what a champ, cleaned up all the throw up and poo. He was really helpful and I felt so bad that he had to clean it up. But he did it. I had diaria all morning long. I started to feel better around 10. So i took another shower and got ready. We went and eat lunch. I only ate 8 Ritz crackers. We went out and worked for a little bit and then we came back because i didn´t have very much energy. We didn´t do much that day.that night for dinner, I had 4 bites of a casadilla. That is the picture of us eating dinner. My comp had a huge nice meal while I couldn´t eat anything. I went to bed that night, and the next morning, i felt fine and we worked like normal. Now, I´m fine again. Hermana Arredondo called us on Tuesday to see if I was alright. Anyway, all is fine.

I think that is about all for now. I will talk to you all next week. Thank for your continued sup`port. The church is true. Always share the gosple. Don´t have fear of sharing the joy!!!

With Love,
Elder Ashby

Q & A Sept 13, 2010

I had a hard time coming up with questions this week, so this is kind of lame.

1. How are your feet doing? I have heard lots of the elders have trouble with their feet if they don't have the Ecco boots. Just wondering since we didn't get you those.

My feet are doing fine. I´ve had a few spots of athlete´s foot, but have been using that cream. I´m trying to prevent ingrown toenails is all. But my feet are fine.

2. Did the lady get your suit pants fixed yet so you can fit into them? Can you buy a suit there if you need to?

I could find a place to buy one if I needed to, but I wouldn´t. I had to just wear my suitcoat with a pair of black pants because she still hasn´t fixed them. I think i will take them to her today. The other problem is that with all the humidity and sweat in the suit, when they sit for like 3 or 4 weeks, they get mold all over them. So if you have any ideas, let me know.

e-mail Sept 6, 2010

Dear All,
Well, it is true, we are already half way done with the change. I can´t believe it either. Much happened this week. I don´t even know where to start. First, we the area is a little bit harder because we have to focus on the people who are actually going to keep their commitments and want to find out the truth. We have had to really focus and think about who actually wants to find out the truth.

We also spent a lot of time with our possibilities for baptism. We had 4 possibilities. One, Henry. He is 31. He is awesome. His friend is the bishop of another ward and he is the uncle of a recent convert. He was just in the house the first time I went to get to know the RC. So we taught him and he was positive. We had his date for baptism as next week, but he was ready. So, we talked to him and baptized him saturday. Juan Juarez is the spouse of a member. He is 22. He was really positive and was easy as well because all of his inlaws are members and they all supported him and helped teach. Francisco is 20. He is the granchild of some awesome members. anyway. He was possitive as well. His grandpa baptized him. We were going to baptize Francisco´s little brother, but his dad is really catholic and won´t marry his spouse, who wants to get ba`tized and wouldn´t give us permission to baptize his son. So we couldn´t baptize him.

So the baptisms were actually easy. Everybody came on their own. This was the first time we didn´t have to bring our investigators to their baptism. It was really awesome. That was the easy part. The hard part were the confirmations. Henry came on time. Juan can at the VERY end of sacrament meeting and we had to do it after. We talk to francisco before church, then, after the sacrament, we went to go get him, and he said that he was waiting for a friend and then we could come. He never came. We went again at the begining of Priesthood meeting. He wasn´t at his house. He needed to bring him to the church. So we started off walking to his mom´s house. I felt like we should pray to find him. We needed more that luck. So I told my comp we were going to pray right there on the side of the rode. He looked at me kind of strangely, but we did. We kept walking and not 3 minutes later, I saw him turn the corner about a block ahead of us. We put on the pilas and walked fast. We started making some ground. He turned around and saw us. He kept walking. So we ran a little. And then we ran until we caught up with him. I asked him what was up. He said he didn´t like that we were following him. He didn´t like that we were like chasing him. I told him that we were just trying to help him complete the baptism and recieve the Holy Ghost. He was mad and ran off. It was really sad and my comp took it really hard. I was sad, but I´ve experienced things like this. I was in San Ramon. It was just interesting to see how fast and how hard Satan works to stop people from doing what they need to. We have never seen him act like that. He turned really fast and we think something had to have happened. But his grandparents talked to him and we are going to try to do it tonight or tomorrow. We will see.

But 3 baptisms, 3 sacerdocios and 1 completion of a family. It was a good week. But now, we have to really look for new people to teach and people who are positive. It is just interesting how different the people are here. Yesterday, we contacted a family for the first time and they invited us in, and gave us tortillas, guajada ( like cheese) and Pinolillo. They are just so loving.

My comp and I are getting along really well and working hard. He is really easy to get along with and it is always easier when both people want to work hard. Not much else has happend. It has been alot easier to forget myself here. I haven´t hardly had time to think about myself with all the people we have to teach. Things are good and We are working hard. It is hot like normal and rainy. My eyes has been better. I don´t think there is as much sand in the air here. I haven´t had to wear my glasses.

Well, thanks to everyone who has given me support. Thank you for your prayers. The church is true. The work is true. Share the gosple. If we are truely converted, we will want to share the gosple with everyone we meet. We need to remember that this is one of the purposes of the church is to spread the gosple. Read, pray, go to church, and attend the temple. We don´t realize how easy it is to go to the temple in the states. It only costs the people 25$ here to travel for 2 days in bus just to get there, but it is hard for many just to save up 25 dollars. so go to the temple. The church is true and you will here from me next week.

With Love,
Elder Ashby

Q & A Sept 6, 2010

1. How are your garments holding up? Do you think they'll last? I wonder if we'll have to send you more.

No, don´t send me more! Mine are fine and Elder Ensign gave me a couple pairs of his. If I ever need more, they are about 75 cents a piece at the distribution center in Managua.

2. What is the best thing about your comp.

He is really willing to just going out and work hard. I have pushed him pretty hard and he just keeps on trecking. And he understands spanish.

3. How close are you to the ocean? It looks close on the map.

Yeah, it is about 20 or 30 minutes in bus. We have an activity to go baptize in the ocean the 25 of Sept. but we have to baptize 5 before and 5 for the activity.

These questions and the comment are from Emily:

4. More time to write? does that mean you have more time to write and READ emails or just more time for you to write so still stick with the dearelders?

No, we don´t have more time to write. It´s just that no one writes me, but I don´t take as much time reading. It is just nice to get emails from people. But for you Emily, stick with DearElders. I don´t have THAT much time to read lol. Just short little things or pictures sometimes is cool.

5. Do you have a cook and a maid in your new area?

Yes, Hermana Fran is like a mom. She washes our clothes and cooks far too good and far too much. Her son just got back from A misison in Guatamala my first week here. She will be trying to fix my suit pants this week because they don´t fit anymore. She is going to try to make the bigger in the waist.

6. Last week you said you're doing your "workout". What exactly do you do for your workout? Climb a tree? (hee hee)

ha ha ha very funny. I do sit-ups and crunches on my bed (because the floor is really dirty) and I do pushups. I also have those elastic things I bought before the miss.

last week scott told us that he now weighs 133. Do you think it would make him feel better to know that that's what I weigh now 8months pregnant? haha Or maybe to know that at one point in Nate's mission he got up to 200 lbs?!! (don't worry he lost most of it before he got home!)

emily, no, that doesn´t make me feel any better. One, you are pregnant. Two, could you imagine me at 200 pounds. All my weight from before has now gone from my legs to my waist. I am going to work had not to eat as much and more than anything lay off the sugary drinks.