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