Feliz Navidad everybody !!!

This week was pretty normal.  We walked around in the sun and I might be a little tanner... Haha that is not true. 

One thing I learned is that I will not ever drink alchohol. That is very certain. I have seen how it ruins people who could be so happy and I do not want that at all.  There really are blessings that come from the commandments. If it isn´t something new in your life, it is that it doesn´t take something away either. For example:

We found this cute little girl who wanted us to come to her house to talk to her parents and help them because they are alcoholics.  The mom is absolutely crazy as a drunk and her daughter who is 9 takes care of her as well as the father. Maybe the blessings wouldn´t be out of the ordinary for us, but the lack of those "ordinary blessings" like to be able to live in a family and take care of your kids and to be sober and in control of your life, is proof of the fact that there are blessings as we live the Word of Wisdom. (Sorry if it doesn´t make sense).

Everyone is in the giving mood and for this I am fatter. What they have here are tortillas but they aren´t like normal tortillas. They are super fat and thick and little. They are like rocks of corn, and yesterday, I had to eat 4!!!!  They eat them here to kill hunger and they sometimes cook them in a ton of oil and normally I only eat one on days when I am really hungry.  But yesterday, every two hours,(not kidding), we were given a whole meal complete with tortillas. Everything  was fried in oil and I haven´t seen a single veggie. I am going to die this Christmas. I have already told myself that I will not eat tortillas or bread this coming year. That is absolutely not acceptable any more. 

(Mom insert….In response to my request to know where her home is located so that I can try to find it on Google Earth, Joy responded with) …. Mom, I live by the hospital in the Avenida Utila (Utila Avenue).   There is a school behind us and we have a banana tree in the back yard. 

I want everyone to be very grateful this Christmas for what they have. I am so grateful for every one of you and I want you to all be so happy. I love you lots. 

Nos Vemos Domingo !!!!  (See you Sunday)

Con amor,

Hermana Ashton

First!!!!!

NELSON GOT BAPTIZED!!!!

I am so happy for him and hope that he stays so strong in his testimony. He is such a good kid. He has friends in the church which will help him so much. 

Haha something that was pretty stressful this week was that there wasn’t water in the  church for his baptism. The elders the day before were supposed to fill the pila (font), but they forgot so the morning of the baptism, they went to fill it, they started to fill it a little bit and left to eat lunch and when they came back, it was empty and there wasn´t water in the stake center. This happened at 1:30 and the baptism was scheduled for 3:30! The first thing I thought was "we are not going to have a baptism" and then I thought about all the people we invited and realized it was too late to cancel. Haha I was a little freaked out.

We called the bishop and he talked to one of the people in charge of maintenance in the church, but he wouldn’t be able to get there until 2. So we sat patiently waiting for a call that he arrived. We went to our appointments and called at 2 and there still wasn´t water. 

Finally they fixed the water at about 2:40 and started to fill the font. It was about half way at 3:30 and we ended up having the baptism at 4 but what a miracle! It made me think about Jensie´s story of the water for the baptism. Satan´s old tricks can fool us, but God is on our side ;)

We went to the hospital this week because  one of the scorpions finally got the best of us.

On Friday in the madrugada (dawn), at 1 am I woke up to Hermana Argumedo standing over me with the light turned on, gritting her teeth. She said that an animal had stung her and asked me if it was red. She had one sting on her arm and one on her side. I killed the scorpion and we called the nurse and she said that with stings we just wait. So I went back to sleep, but at 3 am I  awoke again with Hermana Argumedo shaking and breathing less so I called a member to take us to the hospital and they gave her a shot there. Apparently Hna Argumedo is allergic to scorpions! 

What happened was that she couldn´t feel her face, her arms nor her legs. I practically had to carry her to the car. It was a little scary. But, in the end, she is ok.

We also were walking one day and we found a garobo ( a very large lizard, an iguana, found in Central America). It was up under a roof of a house. They are so big and they are everywhere. Everyone says that they are really delicious. I don´t know about that.

We also had a Christmas devotional as a stake and it was good. We had a family come so that was cool and after there was something going on outside and there were huge fireworks. I loved them!!!

About Christmas, I still don´t know exactly, but probs in the afternoon. 

To be translated by someone because I dont have time to write it again in English:

esta semana estabamos buscando un antiguio investigador de la carpeta y no sabiamos donde la calle era, y habiamos buscado esta dirreccion por meses, siempre preguntando por la calle, y una noche cuando no pudimos encontrar nadie en sus casas, que habiamos planeado, empezamos a caminar mas cerca a la casa cuando una niña en una bici se paro y nos pregunto porque no llegamos a la casa. estabamos sorprendidas, pero feliz que alguien nos queria, entonces ella nos guio a su casa y nos presento a sus padres, suyos nombres fueron los nombres de ellos estabamos buscando! este experiencia fue super especial y ahora tenemos una familia bien positiva. quizas ahora es su tiempo!

Mom insert:

The following is a poor translation from google translate.  It helps us get the gist of what she is saying, but maybe one of you returned missionaries can do a better job than google.It probably has church lingo that google doesn’t recognize.

This week we were looking for a former researcher of the folder and did not know where the street was, and had looked for this address for months, always asking for the street, and one night when could not find anyone at home, we had planned, we started to walk closer to home when a girl on a bike is stopped and we wonder because we never got to the House. We were surprised, but happy that someone we wanted, then she US led to his home and presented to his parents, his names were the names of them we were looking for! This experience was super special and now we have a good positive family. Maybe now is the time!

That happened and it was a miracle too.

I love you all and I hope that this week is awesome. Remember to pray always and to choose the right. Read your scriptures and remember Jesus this Christmas. 

I want photos.

Love,

Hermana Ashton

This week flew by. I don’t know how but we are already at Monday again. I am now 1/3 of the way through my mission. That is so weird. I feel like I haven´t been here a month. Soooo fast. 

This week we worked hard with the members to try to get their support a little more. We are having family home evenings with them to invite investigatores and menos activos (less actives) and it has been pretty good. 

Haha this week we were in a lesson with the investigator Hermana Juana and she was telling us a story about how she heard someone talking bad about "the Mormon church" and she stepped in and defended the church and said that she was a Mormon! Hahahhaha she is so funny. She has only been to church once and says that she is Mormon. She is really great and we love her. But, she can´t get to church very easily.  We have had the members who have cars invite to give her a ride so there is hope. 

But milagrosamente (miraculously), in this week when we passed by the houses of people we had committed to come to church and none of them could come, we came upon one of our investigatores that we hadn´t been able to visit in the week and he was all ready to go to church. He calls himself "Percy" but his name is Porfilio. He climbed up the bus and we all arrived and had a good Sacramant meeting with two babies blessed and Christmas music. It was great up until the sacrament. We were all sitting quietly waiting for the deacons to offer the sacrament when a cell phone went off. The cell phone of hermano Percy.  When he took out his phone I thought he would reject the call but no. He answered and started talking on the phone when all was SILENT. I was horrified. I did not know what to do and I was trying soooo hard not to laugh out loud. The members all looked at us with frowns, with smiles, with confusion. What is more, he couldn’t hear the person on the other side of the call very well so he put it on speakerphone. "Yeah I’m at church what do you need?"  The other guy said, "Oh it is ok,  I just wanted to know what you wanted for lunch..." and the phone continued speaking "because there is a special here for sopa de gallina do you like sopa de gallina?" and percy responded "sopa de gallina? yeah!" and the conversation went on!  What felt like an hour was only two minutes, but the most embarrassing two minutes!  I did not know what to do. It was so painful and funny at the same time. 

Something that was very sad that happened this week was that one of our investigators passed away. It was a shock. His name is Hermano Jose and he had a problem with his kidneys. He had to go to the hospital for dialysis and was really quite bad.  We had no idea it was so bad.  Every time we went to visit, we found him outside with a smile. He was young too… only about 55 years old.  We were passing by his house when we thought we would check in on him because we had visited him with a member the week before and he looked healthy. 

When we got closer to the house we could see the candles and the very catholic sisters. I tried not to cry in front of them. Now we have to teach them the gospel so Jose can get baptized becuase we need their permission. But they don´t want to change. They are veerryy vveeerrrry catholic.  Jose was really hopeful because he had also had an experience with the missionaries when he visited California. But at least the sisters thanked us for helping him be happier. It hurt. But there is hope. God´s plan is perfect.

We went to the Colonia Kury (must be the name of the bakery), and we got conos (cones) which is what I was eating in the pictures. Super delicious.

There was also a mariachi band in front of our house this week. They were celebrating the birthday of one of our neighbors. They sang and played and it was really great. We entered the house when they were there and watched from our window. I took a video of them but the file is too big to send. I´ll show you in a year ;) 

But that is what happened this week. 

Our investigator Nelson got to go to the temple to see it with his friends that are in our ward. He really is progressing and he wants to know if the church is true.  We keep inviting him to read the Book of Mormon and he is little by little. 

I am praying for you all and I looooooovvvved reading all your letters this week and all the photos. Very cute. 

I loveeeeeeeeeeeee  youuuuuuuuuuuuuu!

Hermana Ashton

This week we had our entrevistas con presidente y hermana Vasquez (interviews with President and Sister Vasquez). That day we were invited to a Thanksgiving dinner with them, but we couldn’t make it because we had an activity in the church that we were in charge of.  It turned out really well.  We made it a treasure hunt of the gospel of Jesus Christ that would lead to places in the church where the things take place. It was pretty cute and our investigatores who came really liked that activity. The familia Trejo came and they are pretty interested and after the activity, all the kids are more interested as well. It makes us super happy.  

We are also teaching a joven ( young person) named Nelson. He is a friend of a member and started coming to church with her. From the first lesson with him he has wanted to get baptized. He has said that since coming to church and learning more about how to follow Christ, his relationship with his dad is better and that he wants to know if this is the true church. He is a really good kid and we have a lot of hope for him. 

There was supposed to be a big storm this week but we didn’t get a drop. Apparently we are in cold weather now because it feels like what summer is in Utah.  Thank heavens for our refrigerator. We can at least eat cold things.

Today we went to a salon to get Hermana Argumedo’s hair dyed. Now it is a little bit darker. What is really nice is that the owner is a member and it is free for the missionaries. 

We have been focusing a lot on the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ this week and in this month. It is the basis for the rest of what we teach. Presidente Vasquez wants us to make it more personal for the investigatores.  He wants it as if  they are experiencing what Joseph Smith experienced.  We have been working harder to do this for them. 

Keep praying and doing what is right. Bring people to church because the missionaries can’t do it all. Investigatores who are references become members. Do your  part to help the work of the lord. 

I love you all and I hope that all is well.  Happy Thanksgiving and I want pictures.

atte: Hermana Ashton

This week we had the birthdays of our ward mission leader and also de Elder Lugo, our district leader. So we had a nice helping of cake for both. I really am a lot more in love with 3 milk cake than before the mission. That is a type of cake I enjoyed. 

This week has been a miracle because we didn´t sweat as much as usual.  We have had breezes and clouds and there have been times when we are in a house at night and it is the perfect temperature. 

We had an activity here in the ward with our investigatores and we were told to prepare to teach a class because the people didn’t plan what they were supposed to prepare, so we, in the moment, made a family home evening based on gratitude. It went well in the end. I really like the story of the 10 lepers and the way we can show our gratitude con Heavenly Father is by sharing the gospel and keeping his commandments. 

We found a bakery that is in our area but really far away from anything, but now we have investigators in that part, so the bakery is dangerous.  They have these cones of whipped cream with powdered sugar and they are soooooo goood! 

I made French toast this week and it was pretty good. 

I need to learn how to make beans.  They make them so well here. 

I just realized that I’m hungry so that is why I am talking about food. 

I hope that everyone is soo happy this week and really grateful for their blessings. Show your gratitude by sharing the gospel. Ok? 

You will receive even more blessings.

I love you alllllll sooooooooooooooo much!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Be good!

Love, Hermana Ashton

Joy Ashton

Things I have forgotten to tell you:

- I am washing my clothes by hand. Everything. It has become a little better but in the beginning I did not know what I was doing. But now it is a lot easier and it cleans better than with a washing machine. So that is good. Washing is washing.

- I cut my hair. The ends were dead so now I have a short little ponytail but it is a lot better because it is not half as hot. I am sure it will grow back someday. Maybe not while I’m here but someday.

- Yesterday in Sacrament Meeting we sang only Christmas hymns so it is really starting. It is funny how in the USA  people get mad when we start seeing Christmas stuff before Thanksgiving, but here we saw Christmas stuff before Halloween. The sister de mi companñera (of my companion) has already put up her Christmas tree.

- This week was my half birthday. Feliz cumple (happy birthday) to me.

- HERMANA ARGUMEDO Y YO DO NOT HAVE CAMBIOS!!!! (Hermana Argumedo and I are not being transferred!). 

- I don´t know what else is new. I am pretty sure that I am used to living here though because I forget sometimes that the people are speaking Spanish and I forget how unacceptable it is to litter because everyone here does it. It is quite horrible how much they do not respect that this is the world of everyone. I am getting over that they burn their garbage. 

- We had a conference with President Vasquez this week and it was really nice.  We could feel the spirit

- We had the Hermanas here for this p-day. It was good to see them again!

I don´t have much else to say but I love you and I  hope that you are all happy and living the gospel and reading your scriptures!

Love,

Hermana Ashton

No pictures this time 

                                   

This week we had El Dia de Los Muertos and it was really cool to go into the cemetery because the cemeteries here are above ground.  They don’t dig very deep. They have the graves covered in cement and they paint them and it is actually really pretty.  I always wanted to go into the cemetery but we couldn’t until this day.  There were so many people there and we took fotos with them and we are going to bring them their fotos.  It was a way to get references and we got a ton. 

The cemetery was full of people. It was pretty interesting because they make it a market there too. There are venders all along the passages and they are all bustling about. A day that you would think should be more reverent but instead it is a day to sell. So it’s cool.  There are so many flowers and everyone goes and makes huge flower arrangements at the site of the grave. They bring chairs and chat and light candles and sing and it is all pretty different than what we have in the U.S.A. 

                                                                  

This week we also did a lot of service...

One guy was in front of his house making cement and filling in a dip in the calle (street), so we stopped to talk to him and then we decided to help him make the cement and fill in the hole too. 

Another time was a little more crazy. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

    

We were at the end of our day when we still had some time left before we could go home and make dinner and we were both hungry, so we decided to stop at a little store and ask for crackers. We got there and the little old woman who is always so cute and friendly gave us the crackers at a discount because we are her "Sisters in Christ" and we asked her how she was and she explained that she had opened up one of the rooms in her house that had been closed for a year and she had found it completely lived in and ruined by a rat. She found the rat a day later, dead, so she needed to clean the whole room out and clean EVERYTHING that was in the room which was filthy. We told her that we could help her and started taking things out and putting them to one side. I had never seen so much rat poo in all my life and I hope I never see it again. I was a little disgusted, but I kept going. She is such a cute little old woman. Tiny.  She needed help so we were there. 

At that point I did not have hunger and I just wanted to clean the place up and go. So we kept taking stuff out.  It was like a hoarders nest and we got to a chest of drawers. Hermana Argumedo took one drawer out and I pulled out another. I knew deep down inside of me what would happen, but I wasn’t prepared for it. It was the bottom drawer, so my face was a little bit close to the ground when I was taking it out, when a big furry rat jumped out of the drawer and ran across my feet! I screamed. It was so disgusting. It ran across my feet and left fresh poo too. I was so shocked and Hermana Argumedo ran back into the room and the little old woman was laughing because I am a "gringa americana." At that point I was even less hungry and just wanted to throw-up.  In the end we were all laughing but it was so gross. If a rat ever jumps out at your face you will have the same reaction. Haha so gross. But the next day we went back to help her more because there was a lot to do and she is old.  She made us lunch though which was nice of her. 

                                      

But, the lesson from this story is that we all need to take half of what we have in our possession and give it away. We do not want 600 table cloths that we never use anyway because a rat will find them and live in them and we will have to clean them all after. 

That night I was in the bathroom and I heard a plunk and I looked over and there was a scorpion. They don’t phase me anymore. I would rather have alacranes (scorpions), than rats. 

Today we had the p-day de hermanas and it was really fun to hang out with Hermana Jara again.  She is an awesome Hermana Lider.  I am so glad that she trained me and that I got to be her companion. 

Don’t forget to write in your journals. I have been really bad about that so these emails are my journal for now. It is sad, I know.  But you guys can write in your journals your inspirations and stories and then when we talk at Christmas you can remember what you have to tell me. Record your inspiration and you will recognize it more when it comes and you will see that the spirit is a bigger part of your life than you thought.  It is such a blessing to be a member of the church and to have the gift of the spirit to guide us and bless us. I can’t imagine my life without the gospel and without the knowledge that I have. 

Something else I learned this week is that we really don’t need a perfect knowledge- one of our investigators wants to know certainly, wants a vision if you will, that the church is true.  I realized that Heavenly Father really doesn’t care about our knowledge. He doesn’t care if we have a degree in neuro-science and he doesn’t think any less of someone who hasn’t been given an education, as long as we have faith and put our confidence in him.  The first principle of the gospel is faith, not knowledge. We are children to him and we know nothing in comparison to him. What we need is to trust that he does have all power, all knowledge, and all understanding. When we can do this, everything else makes sense. We will do what we need to do to follow him because we are small and in the dark, but when we take his hand, he will lead us and guide us and walk beside us. and he will teach us all that we must do, but we have to be willing to do it. This is faith.  God asks for our hearts not our heads.  When we have faith, we have the key to all the blessings that god has for us.  Faith comes first and after that, we will see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

I love you all and I hope that everything is going well at home. You are all in my prayers and I hope that all is well. I want more pictures too. 

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Ashton

This week flew by. I can´t believe it is p day already. 

This week was pretty good. The lord is testing us a little bit but it is okay because we´ll learn from it. We were able to find some really great people though who now have baptismal dates and we are going to work more with these new people because a lot of the people we were working with were really great but would not progress. It will be hard, but we need to focus on the people who are actually ready to change. We are also trying to work with the members more, but there aren´t very many who want to help. Please help when the missionaries ask. We came home very tired this week every day. It was good. 

On Monday night we were so tired that when 10:30 hit, we were out. Not only that, but Tuesday morning when I woke up I realized that the alarm didn´t go off. I shot out of bed and said "I´ll say the prayer," and that was when Hermana Argumedo shot up becasue it was her turn to pray. We knelt and said our morning prayer and after, we were worried about how long we had slept in. Hermana Argumedo got the cellular and began to laugh and said to me "Hermana! Es la una en la mañana!" I took the phone and looked at it and it said 1:11. We moved the curtain from the window and sure enough it was very dark. I for some reason had dreamed that it was day time and we were late. So when I woke up I thought it was just cloudy. We died laughing and went back to sleep laughing for the rest of the day about our little adventure. 

This week we had an activity in the estaca con todos los misioneros (stake with all missionaries), about the plan de salvacion which was really nice. We only had one investigator there but that was good enough. She really does want to get baptized and we are going to get her there. Her name is Guadalupe. The thing is, she has to have someone bring her to things. She will not leave the house if someone does not bring her. This will be tricky. For this we need more members to participate.

I had to speak in sacrament meeting yesterday and so that was scary. That was a surprise the night before. But I feel like it went well enough. They understood me so my accent isn´t too ugly. 

On Saturday we had the reunion de Hermanas which was really nice. Hermana Jara y Hermana Lopez had a nice presentation for us and it was all about our attitudes. We really need to have a good attitude out here because that is what the people see. They can sense it. They can smell bad attitude. Happily, Hermana Argumedo y yo tenemos un buen actitud allllll the time. We are very happy people. 

We had some really good chocobananos this week which are 2 for 25 cents. It is such a good deal. It is exactly what it sounds like. It is a frozen banana covered in frozen chocolate on a stick. It was really delicious.

I hope that everyone is very happy and is reading their scriptures and saying their prayers because these things help our relationship with our Heavenly Father.

Ooooh. We are teaching Yukiko who is from Japan and she has no background in Christianity. We are starting very slow with her. We have hope for her, but she doesn´t understand very much Spanish. We had to explain the work bendicion, which  means blessing. We are going very slow. 

There are a lot of great people here. 

I love you all,

Hermana Ashton

Yesterday we had the devotional with all of El Salvador where Elder Oaks and his wife came and spoke to us. We all went to San Salvador and it was packed. Every member of the church in El Salvador was there. With investigators too. We filled the [national gymnasium and more with] 16,000 people there to hear and watch. It was so cool. 

This week in our [zone study], (every pday we have our [studies] together) we had the goal for [every one of our] areas to have 6 [investigators to] sacrament meeting. This has been the hardest thing in the mission. The people are not attending church. They are not putting in their part to gain a testimony. They think that we will feed it to them, but they really have to have the will to come to church to learn and to take the sacrament, repenting and changing themselves so that really the lord can change them the rest of the way. Our goal was to have 6 people to the [sacrament meeting], so this week we have been working really hard to get those people there. 

We found a [man] outside listening to his radio and he was really friendly and excited to have us back. We left him with a Book of Mormon even though he can't read, his wife can read. We visited them this week and the wife is more interested in the church. She loves life and is so excited about everything. She is hilarious. I hope that when I am old I can have so much life in me as she has. 

We committed 12 people to church and [stopped by] for all, but they weren’t home, they had other plans, they changed their minds, etc.  It was a little frustrating, but we kept going. We were [stopping by] the house of the [brother] and his [wife] and even though they hadn't committed to go to church, we found them outside and invited them, with 10 minutes to the start of church. [Sister] Juana was in her night gown and was not ready, but when we invited to accompany her to church she jumped up and started getting ready. Her daughter too who lives with them got ready. They were ready and her husband took them to church in his GIANT truck. It is pretty much a dump truck, but they arrived and so did we. Running,  because it is a rule that we couldn't get a ride from them.  We "remembered"  that we needed to [stop] by for another "[sister] martha".  After their truck was out of view, we ran down the street in our Sunday best and luckily this street was paved. It is always dangerous to run on the streets with rocks. There are so many of them, but we didn’t trip at all. 

We got to church and we had the hope that Carlos [and] Alejandra would be there because they are pretty much the only ones who follow through with their commitments. They were there. So we had 4 investigators and we were happy, but [miraculously], two members had passed for other [investigators] that we hadn’t committed that week and there sat [brother] Jose and [sister] Rosa Emilia.  We reached our goal of 6 people in the [sacrament meeting].  It was really such a blessing and testimony builder that Heavenly Father is listening to our prayers. He sees our efforts. He will help us reach our goals when we put in all our hearts. This week we were always looking for ways to get people to the reunion and we couldn’t do it all ourselves.  The members helped us too. Everything will fall into place. We were sooooooooooo happy!!!!!

After that we had to go to the devotional and the [sisters] couldn’t go, but Carlos [and] Ale were ready. It was so awesome. Elder Oaks explained the Book of Mormon, and how it is a second witness of Jesus Christ. He charged everyone to read it and to ask the missionaries for help with passages about Jesus Christ.  That was when I realized that I need to study harder so that in the moments that people have questions, I can have an answer. 

Sister Oaks also spoke to us and I really liked how she talked about our time and that we might not have control over everything in our lives but we do have control over our time. I really liked that. And I have been thinking about it too. Every minute is a minute that we have to [improve in something].  We can have more patience,  more love, a better attitude, a bigger smile, a greater understanding.  We have control over these things. 

I had a really good week. We are working on [making ourselves better] and every day we can be better missionaries. We can be more like Christ. 

I also liked one other talk by Elder Lorenzo when he was talking about the disciples of Christ and when they were fishing. I don’t remember what he said exactly but it made me think about how we can be fishers of men. Every one of us is here. Some of us have the gospel in our lives and how selfish is it to keep it only as ours. Why would we not want to share it with other people? Christ came to the world to save it, and we are all trying to be more like Him.  We may not have to give our life for someone else to save them, but we have what they need to survive. We have the gospel and how better can we be more like Christ than to save the world with the spreading of the gospel. We are now the tools to bring others to Him. 

I don’t know if that makes sense in writing, but it works in my head. 

I love you all. 

I pray for you.                                             WRITTEN BY JOY OCT 24, 2016       

Love,  [sister] Ashton