December

Dear Family and Friends,

First off HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!! I hope you have a great Birthday!

Second, GOOD LUCK PRESTON!!! You will do great in the Christmas Classic!

Well I have officially survived the first change of the mission field. Im still in the same area with the same companion. So yeah, nothing new. Changes are every six weeks. And each change you have the chance to be moved to another sector with a new companion. But my mission president likes to leave you in one place for awhile. There are some missionaries here who have been in their sector for almost a year. My companion, Elder Schildan, Iis starting his fourth change here which by the end of this one will make 6 months here. As a missionary we have about 17 changes before we are sent home and the next one is the second week of January.

Mom you wanted to know what a normal day for us is like, so here you go. We get up at 730 excercise and eat breakfast and get ready. Then at 9 we start study, an hour for each one, personal, companioniship, language. Then we have lunch at 130 with a member and are out working in the field till 930. And to end the night we go to bed at 1130. That is a normal day, our prosilyting differs but is pretty much the same. Walk, teach, door shut on us, walk some more.

My Thanksgiving was great, i had a little bit of rice and a hamburger patty. We didnt get dinner or anything. We just cooked some rice because we didnt have much food. So Thanksgiving was a little different this year. Im glad you all had a great time eating and playing games. 

The mission is deffinately not an easy thing. We couldnt get into any doors on Saturday and Friday and Sunday we got into one each day. Things are going slow but we have the trust of the ward and are helping the ward grow. This week we had the highest attendance ive every seen, 65 people, with about 3 or 4 of them were our investigators. So things are looking up. 

This week i did some things i didnt think i would do in my first six weeks as a missionary. I gave three blessings, all in spanish, two were blessings of comfort and one was a blessing of healing. When we asked them who they wanted to give them the blessing they pointed and said HIM, since nobody here can say my name. It was a cool experience and i know i had the lords help because i wasnt that nervous and said the things i needed to. Then on Sunday i taught the Gospel Doctrines class. At the beginning of class my companion said ¨My companion is substituting today for the sister¨, then sat down. It was a little nerve racking but everyone said i did good and they understood me. Even the investigator there said that she understood.

So yeah, Everything here is going good. Its hot and the sun just stares down at you. The bugs are coming out and i found two cockroaches in the shower this morning when i went to shower. But yeah everything is going great and i cant believe its already December.

I love you all and thanks for all of your support,

Elder Ashworth

Picture of me on the street