THANKSGIVI​NG!!!

Dear Family and Friends,

I start by answering all of your questions. I live in a house with 5 other missionaries. Its an older house but serves its purpose. The nieghborhood is good and its not a dangerous nieghborhood. The food is really good. We eat very well for lunch. Usuall ya lot of food to the point where we are stuffed. No, I havent had a problem with bedbugs and im not sure what letter you are talking about. I have only recieved two of yours. My companion said that from his knowledge we do get to Skype for Christmas from a members house. And to answer the last question this week has been way better and we do get to celebrate Thanksgiving, I believe. I hope i answered all questions.

As i was saying this week has been way better. We had 3 times as many lessons and found a new inactive family who wants become active again. THey have been sealed in the tmple and want to baptize their daughter when she turns 8. We also took two investigators to a baptism and they liked what they felt and saw and asked how they can be baptized. So we are really hopful and excited right now. This week Elder Schildan decided it was time for me to take the reins. I get to lead out with the lessons and with companionship study. The reason for this is because it will help me with the spanish. We have discovered that i can speak good spanish and understand better if im the one who is talking so, I get to talk more during our visits. Its hard but im seeing progress. He keeps telling im doing a great job and the people tell me that i speak really good spanish. Infact an older lady told us that i speak better spanish then my companion does.

We are excited for the coming weeks and are ready to go again this week.

This week as a companionship we talked about desire. My companion told me that he sees the desire in me to learn and improve in spanish and teaching. This is what lead to me leading out with the lessons. We read in 1 Nephi 10:17 and 1 Nephi 11:1. in these scriptures it talks about Nephi was acted upon by the Holy Spirit when his father talked. So because of this he was desirous to see and hear the things his father saw and heard. With this desire he acted in Faith and Courage. Because he acted on this desire he was taken to a place he had never before seen or been. So we decided that since i have the desire that i need ot act in Faith and Courage in the Lord and the Lord will help me do great things. My companion also told me that he has realized that people tend to pay more attention to me then him since they have to listen closly to understand me. He said that we will use this to our advantage by using weak or small things(me) to confound the wise or bring to pass great things(salvation). I just hope everything goes good.

Im sorry to hear that you guys have been sick. I hope you all get better. Thanks for all the support from everybody. Tell the ward thanks for their support. Tell the family hi for me and have fun eating pies without me. Good luck with everything and the snow. Its about 90 degrees down here so its a little wierd.

Love you all,

Elder Ashworth

 

These are some pictures of where I live. My companion is on our street.

 

 

Mixed Emotions

Dear Family and Friends,

Well, im sorry to hear it has already snowed there because we are above 30 degrees celcius every day (which is hot) and it is only going to get hotter. Glad everything is going good and im sorry you are sick again mom. To answer your question daad, I do get to see the kids from the MTC alot becasue our mission is really small and i have a couple in my Zone. Thanks for the pictures they make the day better when i get to see you guys. Oh and Preston, what the heck happened!? The picture of you on the fourwheeler. I had to think twice before i was sure it was you. Your growing up man and im proud of you. Keep up the good work and i love you.

Now im going to start with the bad news. This week sucked. IM not going to sugar coat this week. It was really hard emotionally and spiritually this week. Every appoinment we had planned for the days fell through. We got to teach 3 lessons this week when we had it set up to teach 20. Its just hard here, the people arent home or they are running all over the place because everybody works here. But yeah this week has been ruff but we changed our game plan and are looking forward to a better week.

Now for the good stuff. The week started great with a devotional with Elder Holland. His talk was amazing and he feels very stron about missionary work. He even pounded the podium, it was awesome. He talked about how if the only person we convert on our missions is opurselves then he would consider our mission a success because the saddest thing is to see returned missionaries go inactive. How can someone who served the Lord for two years just leave? Its a great question. He told us that if we ever left the church and he found out he would hunt us down and put pepper in our empanadas. Then he talked about what makes a champion.What makes a champion is "stroke when you dont want to stroke. kick when you dont want to kick". A gold medalist in the olympics for swimming told the press this one line after he won a race. Elder Holland related it to missionary work. We must keep stroking and kicking when we dont want todo it anymore. Then he went into teaching with power and authority. And the last thing he told us was to "Go and asombro somebody!" It was really powerfull. Oh and asombro is astonish.

Then we had interviews with President Cook. They went good and he told he his son (Elder Cook) is in Rexburg right now serving his mission. He is serving spanish speaking and went into Broulims just the other day. He told me to tell you guys to keep on the lookout for his son.

My Spiritual Thought for the week.

I found a Liahona from October 2011 all about the Book of Mormon. I invite all to read it. It was amazing and has made me want to study the Book of Mormon more thoroughly. Because if we DO NOT read and study from the BOok of Mormon daily we will not make it in this life. THings are about to happen that will make things shake alot. If we do not have a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon we will not be able to see it through as members of the church. A lot of us would fall away. So i am sending a loving but firm invitation to study and read from the Book of Mormon daily because i dont to see anyone leave this church.

Things are coming to a climax and we need to be ready and prepared for things we have never seen before.

I love you all and wish you luck in all of your endevours,

Elder Ashworth

P.S. I forgot. We had a going away BBQ for a missionary who goes home in two weeks. These are the pictures from today.

Middle of November! WHAT!

Dear Family and Friends,

¡Santa Vaca! Its already the middle of November and this is my third week in the mission field. Everything is going good down here in the Sur. We have gotten a few new investigators and are still meeting with the less actives and members. Our main goal is to strengthen the wards so we focus alot on the less actives, getting them active again, and the members, keeping them active. So we spend alot of time getting to know the members and encouraging the less active members.

This last week was a crazy one. On friday we went to a colegio (school). it had grades K-12 in it. We gave presentation on the United States. It was so funny to see all the kids with a look of awe in their eyes and you know the thought going through their heads is "GRINGOS!". It was cool to talk to the youth of Santiago and help in their school. Then we raced to a meeting with President Cook. The meeting was for all the newbies in the mission. We talked about what are expectations were and how reality isnt what our expectations were. It was a good meeting. Then Yesterday (sunday) while we were at church the bishop called us into his office and asked us to be couselors to the youngmens president! So yeah, I still get to be in youngmens while serving a mission, BOOYAH!!

I also would like to rub something into all of your faces. Tomorrow we are going to a fireside and at that fireside we will be talked to by, none other then, the big man, JEFFERY R. HOLLAND. Thats right i get to be talked to by Elder Holland or Jeff ( thats what the people call him down here). Im so excited for this opportunity and will share what i learn with you all next week.

As for things in Rexburg, im glad everything is going good with school, dance, and work. I have emailed my friends but havent gotten anything back so i dont know about that one. Sorry to hear its getting cold up there but thats what you get for living in Rexburg. Love you all and thanks for all you do.

Also mom can you get me the recipe for scones because i would have to make them from scratch and the Latinos have never had them.

Love you all,

Elder Ashworth

 

My new companion and me.

New Address

For anyone wanting to write Zach a letter here is his new address

ELDER ZACHARY ASHWORTH
CHILE SANTIAGO SOUTH MISSION
APARTADO POSTAL NO. 544
SAN BERNARDO, SANTIAGO
CHILE

CRAZY WEEK!

Dear Family and Friends,

Im sorry to hear that the weather there is pretty crappy and cold. Because the weather here is HOT! It is in the 80´s and im sweating like crazy. The nights are hot with a fan and im sleeping under only a sheet. That sucks that Grandma Ashworth died but Im glad that she can get away from the pain of this world. Send my love to your family when you get to Utah. Sorry you guys have been sick ever since i left, que fome (thats lame). 

Its cool you guys got to go down to Soda Springs and visit grandma, im sure it was nice to see them again. Also im sorry the picture made you guys cry. I thought it was a good picture but i guess everyone has their opinions. So if you want to think of it as a bad, ugly picture go ahead. Im just going to remember it as an awesome picture. Im glad everything else is going good for you guys. Im sure everyone is getting ready for Christmas now that its November. Holy Crap, Its November! Its so weird for it not to be cold but i guess its ok. On Sunday when we went over to a Hermanas house to eat lunch they turned on Christmas music. It was so wierd to hear Christmas music and be sweating in their house eating lunch. Also to hear all of their stories about hanging out by the pool for Christmas when im used to being stuck inside because its freakin cold. Lets just say this will be an interesting Christmas.

My week was pretty crazy. We had a ruff time. Everyone of our appointments got dropped, we were denied over and over again, and ignored by those who had set appointments when we arrived at their houses. It was spiritually, mentally, and emotionally hard. But we got through it and had a change of attitude. We just kept trying and things are starting to turn around. We have found about 3 or 4 new/future investigators and are trying to talk to everyone. We now almost have a full week of appointments to go to. The people we talked to were a girl who was crying in the park because of some family issues, the husband of a less active member in the ward who just lost his mom, a woman who has no religion but believes in God, and a man who is lonely and has lost his three sons so he doesn't believe in a God. So yeah, this should be a good week. 

They have this Flea Market thing that is just down the street from our house. Its HUGE! its called the Feria. You can find anything there, its so cool. Also we just learned that Elder Holland is coming down to talk to all of the missionaries in the south, east, west, and north missions of Santiago on November 12. IM so freakin stoked. It will be an awesome experience. 

Thanks for sending me those things even though i dont need a Christmas package. Im looking forward to talking to you guys around Christmas. It should be on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. It will be nice to see you guys. I think thats all for this week. 

Love you Guys,

Elder Ashworth