We had an awesome family home evening this week where all the members of the ward were there talking with our investigators and they made them feel so good and loved! 

We also had an awesome Family Home Evening last night with Roxana and the familia Valencia. They are so awesome! I love them so much!

After that we ate cusuco ( armadillo). It is so goood! Hna Deisy knows how to cook really well. It was sooooo good. 

I still don’t know if I have changes (meaning she doesn’t know if she will be transferred). 

I love it here in Chapa. It is a really great ward. I love the people. They are so loving. I hope I don’t have changes.

We went to Consejo de Lideres otra vez (leadership council) and presidente and Hna Duran are such good people. I love them too. They treat us like their children. They respect us but also love us and know how to encourage us to do everything in our power to help our investigators and to be the best missionaries we can be.

I love my companion Hna Hernandez!  We work so well together!  I don’t want to leave her.  We are good friends too.

We took David to visit more and he will be a very good missionary! 

I love my mission so much!  I don’t want it to end. It is such a wonderful experience!  I love it here. I want to give even more than my all this last change! 

I love this gospel!  I love the lord!  I love Jesus Christ. I love my Heavenly Father! I love love love it all!  I know this is  a huge blessing in my life and that I have the responsibility to share all of this with the rest of the people here. I hope that we can all realize what we have and that it really doesn’t have a price tag. We have everything to share. Let’s share it!

I love you allllllllllllll

Hna Ashton

Joy's mission is getting a new address for  sending packages, and a new address for sending letters and they are not the same address.

Here is an excerpt of the letter that we received from the mission office:

My name is Elder Bailey and I am the General Secretary of this mission.  I oversee making sure that your missionary has their packages and letters.  We, as an office, are changing addresses.  We are moving from San Salvador to Soyapango/Ilopango area.  Therefore, there will be some changes to addresses that you will have to send your packages and letters. 

Before we had a P.O. Box set apart, but for now there is no open spaces in the new area.  Later, we will buy a box and let you know about the correct box number. 

But for right now please send PACKAGES to this:

NAME (Elder or Sister)

El Salvador San Salvador East Mission

Lista de Correos

Centro Comercial Plaza Soyapango

Blvd. del Ejercito km 4 Local Ancla c-1,

Soyapango

San Salvador, El Salvador C.A.

And for LETTERS:

NAME (Elder or Sister)

El Salvador San Salvador East Mission

Col. Santa Lucía

Calle Circunvalación

Y Entrada a Valle Nuevo

CP Soyapango

San Salvador, El Salvador C.A.

The contract with the previous P.O. box address (the P.O. Box 3362) will end on December 31 of this year, therefore the last day to send to that address will be November 30.  Please do not send packages to that address after that day.

The contract of our current office (Edificio La Centro Americana) will end immediately.  DO NOT SEND LETTERS TO THE OLD ADDRESS.   The address given above where letters are to be sent is the address for the new office and the letters will be accepted there. 

Thank you to all of you who love and support Joy!  

Sincerely,

Joy's Mom

So last week, when I said that we passed for the people who were already ready and never arrived at church... they went to church but just to a different ward... Haha.  It was sort of a relief that at least they went, but it also means that we weren’t there to welcome them and help them know what to do. So they felt uncomfortable.  In the other ward they didn’t know where to go or what to do.  So yesterday, at church, they didn’t come. Aaaaahhhhhhh that was sad. So we all learned that the members can always be welcoming no matter what.  If they see a new face at church,  don’t worry, just make people feel loved. 

I sent a few pictures of what I wrote in my journal that you can all read because it takes a long time to write, but I really did like that experience yesterday. We can all be member missionaries!

We’ve been working really well together, my companion and I!  We are really enjoying working together. We are like Moses and Aaron hahaha. That is what people have said to us. It is pretty funny. But it is ok. My Spanish is still improving everyday... but we love the work!

I love you all!

Hermana Ashton

I’m with my new companion Hna Hernandez from Honduras!

She is great!  We arrived to the mission together and we had to do practices together in the CCM so she knows and testifies to the people of the gift of tongues!  Haha!

We are finding a lot of new people here and working hard! 

We have been working with less actives and their families because a lot of the time if there is a less active then there is a baptism in their house. We have found lots of less actives! 

They always gift us lemons, so today we are going to make lemon pie.  It is delicious.

My comp loves lemons. She taught me to cut up apples and to eat them with salt and lemon juice. It is really yummy. 

Haha and this story isn’t sugarcoated either. It has a lot of lemon and even more salt…… because of sweat eeewwwww...(I think Joy means she is sweating a lot). 

This week before we went to church we pretty much walked our whole area because a lot of people were committed the day before to come to church.  But  the members who have cars wouldn’t be able to know where the people live so we got up early and walked all over the world and made sure that everyone was getting ready to go and thankfully there was one investigadora who would have a car and she is friends with the rest of them so she would pick them up and all go together. We passed by for her and she was getting ready so we went to the house of another friend and she and the kids were all dressed and ready to go so we thought "MIRACLE" and so we went to get two other people who had said ‘very surely’ that they would go and we got to their houses and they weren’t there because they were at a wedding "but don’t worry, it is a Chrisian wedding" and we went to the other house and that house was locked and they couldn’t leave... so we hauled it to church and got there right when it was starting and we looked around for the investigatores who were all ready and they weren’t there and it worried us a little but we were patient and we waited and looked out the door and windows every time a car passed and we waited and waited and waited and in the end, no one showed up. The only investigator that we had was Yancy who was brought by members. 

So we learned yet again not to trust anyone...  because that is a lesson that we learn a lot down here. No one does what they say they will. I’m sorry to all you people who, if I ever said to you that I would do something and then didn’t do it. I have recognized a pattern and I know that I have done that several times in my life... but repentance is real. I am very grateful for it!  Jaja.

But at church I was sweaty and gross as usual. Sundays are like that. 

So we also learned that members are great people too who can go and get investigatores and I know that you all live in Utah and that there aren’t missionaries asking for your help but that is also because the members should bring their own references. So I want all of you..

ALLL…..

to think of a family who you can invite to your family home evening this next week. Plan it well. Have snacks, and invite the missionaries.   It also doesn’t have to be on a Monday. You never know who might want to learn more. 

If you do it, you will all see how the hand of God works.  Your own testimonies of missionary work will be strengthened. 

So pray today to know who you can invite to the family home evening and

then invite them to church. 

It is really fun!

Mom. You have asked about Mario’s family. They are never there to answer the door. So we’re not sure what is up with them... 

But I am good. All is really good here. I think this is my last change in this area so I am making the most of it!  We are going to give it everything that we have!

I love you all so much.

Hna Ashton

This week we killed a tarantula that was in our bathroom. We also went to a waterfall today. And, we carved out names in a tree.  Also, this week are changes and my comp goes home.

But a general authority came and spoke to us and told us that we need more faith. I liked when he said that everything we do as missionaries is to bring people to repentance. So when the spiders in the house are really big and scary, and when we have to kill them to take care of ourselves, it is to bring people to repentance. Cool right?

But the truth is, is that that meeting was super powerful. I was really motivated to be able to better my relationship with God and to be able to focus more on the repentance of the people.

Repentance is the gift that we bring to them and share with them that they will be able to accept and practice. 

Repentance is not a hard thing. I actually learned in a lesson that we were teaching that repentance really is such a gift from God. 

An investigator asked why we should be able to repent for the same mistake over and over and the spirit was able to teach when we shared an example of a child learning to walk. The parent,  after helping the child up the first time, will not stop helping the child every time he tries to get up again. In the same way, God helps us up every time because we are really trying.  We fall down but someday we learn to walk. We learn to be obedient to his laws.  She understood, and we learned too, and so the spirit was there. D and C: 50

But I know that this is true. That repentance is a process. We will not be perfect the first time , not the next time and never in this life, but we can get better. What God does not want is for us to get discouraged and stop trying because He sees our potential and sees how keeping the commandments will bless our lives.  We can be like him.  We just have to try and try and try.  That is repentance.  We cannot give up. We cannot say that we are diligent or determined people if we have stopped  repenting. 

That is not diligence.

I know that this is true and I know that God loves us!

I love you alllll!

Hna Ashton