Crazy Christmas Week!!

Dear Mom, Dad, and Preston,

I will begin by answering all of your questions. My next transfer is in 2 weeks on January 13. That is when i will finish my training. I don't know if i will be transferred or have a new companion yet but i will know that this Friday. As for a number of missionaries in my district we have 6. We have 20 missionaries in the zone and about 170 in the mission. For New Years we have to be in early on New Years Eve and have to clean our pension because we are going to have inspections then we cant go out till later on New Years Day. We have about 5 investigators that we visit frequently but only 2 that are progressing. Then the rest are less active members, there are about 6 families. Then we finish with members which differs every week because they fill up empty space. The best food i have eaten down here is the asado. Its a BBQ. The people down here really know how to BBQ. There is sooo much food and its amazing. The worst is probably this casserole thing that we didn't know what it was. As for the shoes i have no idea.

Alright now for my week. It was crazy and fun. We made two care packages full of food and detergent for two ladies, Gema and Celia, that we are teaching because they are having economic problems right now. It was great to see their faces and to give instead of be given. 

We also found a new investigator this week. Her name is Andrea and when we talked to her she was full of questions about the gospel. She was really attentive and answered all of our questions during the lesson and invited us back. One of the questions she asked was, Why do Catholics baptize children when they are babies, they don't have sins do they? It was awesome to see how willing she was to listen to us. We have high hopes for her and her family.

It was great to get to talk to you guys on Christmas and experience that. It was weird being away from home but it was kinda cool too. It was a new experience and i enjoyed it. For Christmas Eve it was just me, my companion, rice, and a big fire. We had fun and talked about the gospel. 

As for the rest of the week, it went the same. We went preaching and taught lessons. We also went to mutual and taught about the birth of Christ. Then we had a End of the Year ward party. It was crazy. Lots of food, music, and dancing. 

Oh, i forgot to tell you guys that i got to go to the temple on Friday and see the new movie. It was good. The temple is always a great place. We also got to help with sealings. I got to be a witness during a couple of sealings. It has been a great experience so far in Chile and i look forward to more.

Thanks for all you do,

Love,

Elder Ashworth

 

So a funny story.....The members in Chile cannot say his last name of Ashworth. I guess they butcher it.  So they call him Elder Ash. So he went out and bought a hat to mimic the same hat that the boy named Ash on Pokemon wears. So the third picture down is him wearing the Pokemon hat. :)

 

Christmas!!

Dear Family and Friends,

Well to answer your questions everything is going fine here in Chile. Im not having any problems with anyone. Yes, it is hard at times but thats the mission. Also i am not having any problems with fleas so i do not need flea collars. That sucks that the power went wacky in grandmas house, its not the best time for something like that to happen. It looks like Preston had fun scubadiving for mutual. That is something i never got to do but i think would be fun. Once again thanks for all the Birthday wishes. Also tell Seth that he works really fast, hes only been home for 4 months ;).

Now to share a little bit of my week with you all.

On wednesday a sister in the ward help a little Birthday party for me with cake and food. It was fun and I got a tie from one of the missionaries in my house. Then on saturday another sister did the same thing for me again and her family gave me a stuffed animal, a donkey with red, white, and blue. The people here are awesome. On Sunday we had a great lunch with a family in the ward and i drank my first champaign (champin), it didnt have any alcohol, but it was supposed to be funny - drinking on your Birthday. Also on Thursday we went caroling to the widows of the ward with the young men and young women. It was really fun but wierd at the same time because of the heat.

Friday was fun because we had a mission conference for Christmas. In the morning we played sports: soccer, football, frisbee, and more soccer. Then we had a great lunch and watched a movie. We watched Remember the Titans in spanish. It was funny but you lost some of the humor with the language change. After we had a gift exchange and i got a candle that smells really good. We then had dinner which was good and recieved mission gifts: a journal, bag, and t-shirt. To end the day we had devotional about peace and trials. We will all have to go through peace but we can choose to have peace about them.

This week will be good too. I get to speak to you guys. We are thinking about 1 in the afternoon your time. So be ready for a call at 1 oclock. we will be using skype so we can see each other. It will last one hour and will be a great christmas present.

Thanks for all you guys do for me. I love you all.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Elder Ashworth

P.S. I got shot at last week!................By an airsoft gun :)

Pics: Birthday Cake, party!, and gifts.

 

My Champin! My alcohol free champagne

Missionary Stories

These stories were in a  previous email but I shared them with our family at our Christmas Party first before I share them with you. So here you go, Brianna

Also some funny contacting stories. We went up to this one house and a little boy answered the door we asked if his parents were home and he said no. So we asked if his grandma was home and he said "yes". We asked if we could talk with her and looked inside the side then looked out and told us that she only speaks russian. We asked if he spoke russian too, he said "yes". We then asked if he could speak some to us and he said "i dont know". we then said goodbye and left laughing once the door shut. Some of the things people come up with so they dont have to talk to the missionaries. 

Another one is that we came up to this door and knocked. We weren't paying attention but the dog of the house, a rottweiler, came up to the fence and peed on my comps shoe. I laughed and he was kind of ticked but oh well, it wasnt my shoe. The last on that i will share is we made a contact with a young mother who had a baby. While we were talking to her i told her "the Gospel will help to become closer to you" instead of "closer to God". We laughed afterward because my comp told me that i was trying to make a move on a married young mother. We just have to laugh when we make mistakes with the language.

Knock, Knock!

Dear Family and Friends,

Its nice to hear that you are all doing good and that everyone in healthy and happy for the Christmas season. I guess i wont be answering questions this week since nobody had any. But Thanks for all the Birthday wishes. This year our mission Christmas party is on the 20th. We get to spend the day playing sports, eating food, singing, watching a movie, exchanging gifts, and having a devotional. It will be a good day and lots of fun. Oh, and sorry its so cold up there, I'm roasting down here.

Now for my week. We spend a lot of time contacting. we go knock, knock, knocking on doors. We walk so much that my shoes are going to wear down fast. But its paying off. We found two less active members who gladly recieve us and allow us to teach them. They are nice and are hopeful to get them reactivated. Then we also found a new investigator. He has friends that are members of the church and he had never heard of Joseph Smith. So we taught the first lesson and he said that wee could back even though he also said that he was really busy with work. So there is hope in the future with him also. 

This last week on Saturday we took a recent convert to the temple to attend a Christmas Devotional out on the grounds. It was the first time that she had ever been to the temple. She was so excited and it was great to share in her joy. The Devotional was good. Elder Ceballos of the Seventy spoke and there was a lot of singing. Elder David Archeleta sang about 5 songs. It was really cool and helped to get us in the Christmas spirit. We also attended our stake Christmas activity. It was good and they sang English Christmas Carols in English and they also sang the Grinch song from the movie in Spanish. It was funny and helped with the Christmas spirit also.

In all this week was a good one. We had success and had a great time. I hope you all have a great week and have fun at the Family Christmas party.

Love you all,

Elder Ashworth

 Pics: Birthday of Elder Real (Spaniard) with his comp and Sister Carolina, me and a Christmas tree

Going Fast!

Dear Family and Friends,

Sorry to hear that it is so cold there and that pushing the snow is your hurting your back because its really freaking hot here. Its about 90 degrees every day. Im glad to here that everything is going well. And congrats on your success in the Christmas Classic Preston. 

As for me here this week was a trying week. All of our investigators dropped this week so we didn't have anyone to really teach. And to make matters worse i got a really bad headache, almost a migraine, and had to stay inside the house for the day on Tuesday. We have been contacting all week and have seen some success. We found this one guy who is a member of the church but has been inactive for a long time. He has a wife and daughter who are not members of the church. He wants to change and invited us back to have a lesson with him and his family. We are hopeful about this family and getting them into the church. We also found another inactive lady who told us that we could come back and two other investigators that said that they were interested and set return dates. So hopefully something will come out of all of this work.

Well i hope everything keeps going good for you guys in Iceburg. Have a Merry Christmas and remember the true meaning of Christmas. If you could give anything to the Savior this year for Christmas what would it be? Think about it, after all it is his birthday and everyone deserves a present on their birthday.

Love you all,

Elder Ashworth

Pictures: My mate cup with mate, Me and my comp drinking mate (mate is a drink down here that every drinks its make out of Yerba(weed) and it helps you wake up in the morning and keep you regular), and me on Gran Avenida.

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