Hello From Down South!

Buenas!

Not much has happened this week here. Things slowed down again because school starts this next week so everyone headed to the beach for the last time. But I'm doing good nonetheless. Changes were today and i didn't get changed. I'm still in el Bosque with Elder Terra. We are looking forward to this next change and hope to see more growth in our ward. We are now having youth attend mutual and attend church. We now have a Sunday school class for the youth in the ward, which i have to teach , but its good because the youth are the future.

This last week we also attended a broadcast for 4 countries down here in South America for the Priesthood Brethren. We were talked to by Elder Ceballos, Elder Rasband, and Elder Ballard. They talked about how the priesthood holders have a duty to help the missionaries. They talked about how to use facebook to help the missionaries get appointments and help reactivate less active members. Then Elder Ballard talked about the best way to help reactivate somebody. Talk to them. He related some stories as always then asked the question: How many people are going to greet you when you die and thank you for sharing the gospel with them? its a pretty heavy question. It has made me think: Am i doing all i can to share the gospel with others? If not what can i do more? But it was a great talk and hopefully it will help push the work forward here.

Well not much else for this email. Take care and enjoy your week!

Love you All,

Elder Ashworth

 

We had a flour fight!

Full of Service

Family and Friends,

All is going good here in Santiago. The temps are high and the sun is hot but we are having fun. I'm happy with what we are doing but really surprised at how fast this last change has gone. We have changes next Monday and we will see what happens. Congrats to Preston and Chloe for dancing this weekend in Utah and doing great. I hope you both had a fun time. 

As for me im healthy and walking around like crazy. We walk and walk and walk just to show up to a persons door and find out that they forgot that we had a cita and have to come back some other time. But that's the work. Its also difficult to find investigators because every person here is baptized. We will be talking with someone and they say "oh, actually I'm a member of your church but I'm inactive." The missionaries before us baptized everyone and now we get to reactivate everyone. Its a little easier because they have had the lessons and know a little bit about the church. But its still difficult just like any other work.

This last week we had interviews with President Cook and set some new 3 month goals as missionaries. Its great to be able to talk with the mission president like that. Also we spent just about everyday doing service from 8 in the morning to 2 in the afternoon helping a sister build part of her house. The only thing we have left is the roof. Its great to serve people. When you lose yourself in the service of others you are happier. 

Also this last Sunday i gave a talk in sacrament meeting about geneology work and temple work. It was a good experience to get to talk on something i have never talked about before. Also we had a reactivation, Hermano R. He is a great guy with lots of pets and he loves to visit with the missionaries. He is now the Sunday school president in our ward and is working on being sealed to his wife in the temple.

Other then that nothing else really happened. Love you all!

Elder Ashworth

5 Months

Dear Family,

Everything is going well here in El Bosque. We have been staying busy and this week flew by. As it is i cant believe that i have 5 months in the mission. The other day somebody ( i think my companion but I'm not sure) asked me how much time i have on the mission. I had to stop and think and came up with 5 months. Its insane how fast the time flies by. The temperatures just keep rising and the sun just beats you down everyday but we keep pushing.

This week we have helped a sister named Hermana Vilchez do some construction on her house because she is older and cant do it herself. We have poured concrete, raised walls, and cleared land. Its really fun and great to help people. I keep learning more and more everyday about the people here and how to love them more and more. Its true that when you are in the service of your fellow beings you are only in the service of your God. When you serve you come to love the people just like your own family. Its a great experience and i recommend it for everyone.

Also this week i had a cool experience with hermano J. He is a reactivation that me and my companion have here in El Bosque. We were talking about ways that we can get more people to be active in the church because he is the Secretary to the Bishop in our ward now and wants to help bring more young people in to the ward. And since I'm one of the young mens counselors we were talking about activities. Well during the discussion he told me "Did you know that the reason that i became active in the church again was because of you?" I was surprised and asked him why. He then told me "It was the scripture that you shared with me the first time that you came to visit me. It was just what i needed at the time. Thank you." It was a really great experience. The scripture that i shared with him was 1 Nephi 7:17. Its about how Nephi prays for strength to break his bonds. It was a testimony that the Holy Ghost can help you know what people need when you don't even know yourself.

Then today we went to Santa Lucia. Its a tourist place that has a huge Flea Market and a castle thing. It was really cool and i will be sending some pictures.

Other then that not much else happened this week. Just a few things that i would like. A recipe for Cinnamon Rolls and a wedding invitation for Samantha because i am now away from the house and need my own :)

Thanks for everything and love you all,

Elder Ashworth

Me and 3 Chileans, one is my companion. The outside pictures are of Santa Lucia, we went there today.

February!

Dear Family and Friends,

I cant believe that it is already February. The last month has flown by. Its true what they say, If you lose yourself in the work the time flies by and you want it to slow down. We have been busy trying to find people to teach and to teach people. Its vacation time right now and so all of the people have left to the Beach or the Southern part of Chile for vacation. 

But this week was pretty good. We only had 5 lessons all week but we had a fun time. We had our fist Zone Conference and learned how to set worthy and edifying goals. Then on Saturday we went and did a cosechon in a sector in our zone. They are all brand new missionaries there so we went and did a contacting night for two hours. All of the missionaries in our zone, which number 28, went and contacted for two hours. It was pretty fun. We went on divisions and i got paired up with a missionary from Paraguay named Elder B. He is really fun to talk to and we also had a youth from the ward with us. It was a learning experience and a chance to meet new people.

Not much else is happening down here except the temperature keeps rising. Its been almost 9 months since i have seen snow. Its really weird but its not that bad. Anyways its great to hear that you are all doing good. 

Love you all,

Elder Ashworth

P.S. Preston, break a leg in the Competition in Utah. Have fun and show them who is the boss