Yesterday we got up early to go and get all our investigatores ready for church and although everyone says that Jucuapa is super fresh and cool, I was literally soaked in sweat when we got to church. And then they told me to conduct the hymns. So I had to go to the front where everyone could see how wet I was. When we sing hymns the conductor has to give the tune so I started singing the tune of I Stand All Amazed, but singing the words of another hymn. It turned out to be a mess and I tried to correct it when I realized what I had done, but everyone kept singing and I felt so bad. So I started sweating more hahahahahahah. It was the most embarrassing thing ever! Hahah, but ya paso! 

This week was great though. I was reading in Alma 54 and it is Moroni writing to Ammoron and saying that if they don´t chill, the Nephites are going to destroy the Lamanites and in the end is super confident and says "Ya, I’m Moroni. You should be scared because I run this business." Haha, that is how I took it. I thought it was really funny and I shared it with my companion and the whole day we kept saying, "Soy Moroni," when we felt cool! Haha.

Love you all,

JoyJoy Hna Ashton

We got to go to the temple this week and it was awesome. I wasn’t sure if I should go in or not because I threw up in the bus on the way there, but I thought, naw I’m going in because I haven’t been to the temple in centuries.  So I put my trust in the lord that he would help me feel good and guess what.  I didn’t feel sick. I felt great all the rest of the time we were at the temple and I ran into people that I taught in Pacifica who are now married and baptized and waiting a year to get sealed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I really was soooooooooooooooooooo happy!  They came and found me and were so happy to see me. They wanted to invite me to the wedding and the baptism but I could not go. But it was soooooo awesome to see them so happy!  The whole family!  Hno Douglas said how happy he and his family are and they were so happy to let us in to teach them. They said that their lives have changed completely and that before, they had been visited by other missionaries but never let them in, but with us,  we were able to help.  I was so happy!  I wish I could see them get sealed!  I love the temple!

Also we had stake conference in Usulutan and it was all about temples and eternal families and we had Roxana and Tony and Gladys there listening. Roxana is so sweet!  She is so ready for the gospel. We taught her about the Book of Mormon and shared our testimonies about it this week and we asked her if she would read it and she said yes.  We asked why she would read it and then she touched her heart and said that she felt like she needed to and she wanted to read it. I was sooooooooo happy and then when she said the closing prayer, she started to cry and thanked Heavenly  Father for the peace she was able to feel.  I was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo happpppppy! Ahhhhh this week was so awesome! I love this all!

We had to take a bus to Usulutan for the conference and Tony and Gladys needed to come if they are going to be baptized this month so we were waiting and waiting and calling and calling and we almost left but they arrived and got on the bus!  I was so relieved!  But the bus was so crowded that we gave them our seats and I sat on the cooler but some liquid spilled and stained my dress but only my bottom haha so I was walking around the stake center with my backpack super thug and low and a little penosa but also I didn’t care because I am happy.

So that is a little chunk of my week. It was pretty cool. I love you all!

Con mucho amor con handshakes and  high fives!

Hna Ashton!!!!!!!!!!! 

This week I learned to have more patience with people because the gospel cannot be learned in one day. I realize that I was taught the gospel for 19 years before I got here and only now am I understanding parts of it.

We had intercambios con hna rivera and hna osuna and we visited lots of really great and receptive people. They only needed to understand the restoration better. I think that it can be really fun to teach the people and when they understand, it is so rewarding.

With my companion Hna Salguero this week we were able to remember all the events in our lives that helped us gain a testimony of the gospel. Then we were able to know that what we are doing is one of things in other people’s lives that will help them gain a testimony.

I love the gospel so much.

I remember that I could receive a testimony when I read the Book of Mormon. If we read the Book of Mormon every day, we will have the shield against the temptation to doubt. I know this better now.

For many weeks I had been studying all the scriptures that I could in the Bible to be able to teach the people with their own scriptures, and I was leaving behind the keystone of the restoration. The Book of Mormon is the evidence that this is the true church of Christ. I was very weak. But on Saturday, after one of our lessons, I was frustrated, because I wasn’t able to feel the spirit. I wasn’t able to remember how I gained a testimony. I couldn’t remember anything in my history of the church.

We were in the street and we sat down. Hna Salguero helped me remember about all the events that have happened. How every goal that we have had, is because we have the gospel and we know that it is true. I was able to remember how when I had read the Book of Mormon, I was able to gain a testimony of Joseph Smith and of the restoration of the gospel. I was able then to get up and go. I felt so much better, because for a good while, Satan was attacking my testimony of the things that make the church of Christ different from all the others.

I know that the Bible is the word of God, but every church has the Bible. What we need to read if we want to know if the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true, is the Book of Mormon. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that through him, Jesus Christ was able to restore the priesthood to the earth and we are able to perform the ordinances that will get us back to the presence of God with our families. That is what the true church of God can do for us.

I love you all, and I love the gospel, and I love the Book of Mormon, and I love with all my heart, my Savior.

Con amor,  

Hna Ashton