The Best Way to Spread Christmas Cheer is Singing Loud for All to Hear

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you to everyone who sent cards and gifts and such I very much appreciated it.

This week I gained a testimony of the power of Christmas hymns and caroling. I already had a deep love and appreciation for the Christmas hymns in fact I really feel that we should sing them all year long and Sister Kalahiki agrees with me but I digress. On Tuesday we went caroling with President Wakolo and his family, the Otter Creek sisters, and a girl from our ward. It was so much fun! We went all around the Wakolo's neighborhood and it was amazing the powerful spirit that could be felt as we sang Christmas hymns to people. We were able to hand out many "He is the Gift" cards and help others to really feel the spirit. We even sang to a Catholic Priest though he didn't take a card from us :) The next day was Christmas eve and we had some appointment fall through and so we didn't have any plans for the evening. Since caroling had gone so well the night before we called the ASL sisters and went again this time in our neighborhood. Once again we were able to really bring the spirit to people and share our testimonies with them. It is amazing how the hymns can so quickly bring the spirit. I think that Buddy the Elf had it right when he said "The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear."

I am so grateful that the spirit of Christmas isn't just felt during this season but it can be felt all year long if we continue to keep the Savior in our hearts and minds the way we do at Christmas. We do this by continuing to "Talk of Christ and rejoice in Christ and preach of Christ" and serve one another. One of the very best parts of my Christmas this year was getting to deliver the gifts from the angel tree. We delivered gifts to one family whose situation is very humble. We were met with tears of gratitude from the Mom and squeals of delight from her five children. It was amazing! I am so grateful that the feeling of love and joy that comes from serving and giving to others isn't exclusive to Christmas time but can be felt throughout the year.

As always thank you for all that you do. 

Happy New Year!

Love

Sister Aase

Christmas Came Early!

Dear Friends and Family,

First of all Merry Christmas! 

We had a wonderful week full of Christmas Cheer! 

On Wednesday half the mission gathered together to celebrate Christmas a little early. We were instructed and we sang Christmas songs. We were given gifts that the five stakes in our mission organized- which included lots of random things from toothbrushes to ear warmers. I got to see past companions for most likely the last time before they go home. It was a wonderful day and so much fun!

But the very best part of the week was this past Saturday when Trina was baptized! Oh my goodness it was such an amazing baptism. She is so awesome and was so excited to get baptized! Right after she got baptized she burst into tears and started saying "Thank you Jesus!" Afterward she bore a super sweet testimony about how before she was baptized she felt really heavy but as soon as she came up out of the water she felt light. I am so happy for her and so grateful that I was able to play a small part in helping her come unto Christ. She was confirmed by our mission President himself yesterday in church and she is now officially a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 

I am so grateful to be a missionary! I love getting to talk about Christ every single day and help others to build their relationship with him. It's like Christmas everyday!

This year for Christmas I am giving my time and my family and my friends and my life to the Lord and in return I am receiving a better understanding of my Savior and all that he has done for each of us. I am gaining a relationship with Him and helping others to come unto Christ. And I couldn't think of a better Christmas gift!

I wish everyone a safe and Merry Christmas!

Love

Sister Aase

PS:  I cannot believe I forgot this. At the Christmas Specialized I performed! We do a talent show and Sister Mecham and her two companions and I sang a song while doing the cup song. It sounds lame but it was really cool :)

Another wonderful week of walking!

Dear Friends and Family,

We survived another walk week! Luckily the weather was pretty mild all week and so we weren't freezing like last time. We had a pretty good week. We were able to talk to many people and do lots of service which always makes for a good week.

Trina is getting baptized this Saturday!!! I think the only person more excited than Sister Kalahiki and me is Trina. She cannot wait to be baptized. It has been an amazing experience to get to teach her. She has just fallen in love with the Book of Mormon and the gospel. I love getting to see the change and the light that comes into people's lives as they begin to embrace the gospel. It makes walking for a whole week totally worth it!

On Monday we taught Trina in our mission President's home. We found out at the last minute that the Otter Creek Sisters were also coming and bringing a recent convert. We were a little nervous about how five sister missionaries were going to be able to teach two lessons combine into one altogether in a unified manner. But it ended up being so good. The Spirit guided the lesson from the beginning and everything just went so smoothly and perfectly you would have thought the five of us had been teaching together for months! I am so grateful for the Spirit that takes over when I don't know how I am suppose to teach or what I suppose to say. I'm so grateful for the promise that if I will just open my mouth I will be given the words. I have seen this happen time and time again.

We had our Christmas Sacrament meeting a little early. It was so great. I absolutely love this time of  year. I love Christmas decorations and music and cheesy Christmas movies. I love spending time with family and friends. I love Christmas traditions. Because I'm a missionary for Christmas this year I am giving up all that. But the thing I love most about Christmas is that everyone' s thoughts are turned to the Savior a little more this time of year. And that I don't have to give up. In fact this year more than any other Christmas I am focusing on Christ. I am out representing Him everyday this holiday season. And it is the best Christmas present ever!

I love this work and I love this gospel!

As always thank you for all that you do for me.

Love

Sister Aase

 

 

I Believe in Miracles!

Dear Friends and Family,

The Christmas season has officially started! Tis the season for miracles and we saw many this week!

On Tuesday our mission sent home 21 missionaries who had just completed their missions. We got to spend the day with Hermana Smith whose parents were picking her up that night. There is power in three and we were able to meet lots of new people and have a really great day. WE also got to meet the 14 new missionaries when we dropped off Hermana Smith back at the mission home.

On Wednesday we were all invited to the transfer meeting where President announced what the final baptism count was for the month of November. If you will remember the mission had a goal to baptize 100 new converts in the month of November as well as have 100 reactivations. Throughout November we all sacrificed half of our p-day and fasted and prayed and worked and worked to achieve this goal. The final results were......drum roll.........92 baptisms and 231 reactivations!!! Have miracles ceased? I say unto you NAY! We are so excited and we hope to continue this momentum into the new year!

We continued to see miracles and tender mercies throughout the week. The biggest miracle happened last night though. We have been working with an investigator named Trina who is just amazing in so many ways. Throughout the whole week we have been trying to see her and we kept missing her. We could not get a hold of her. Sister Kalahiki and I prayed and prayed that we would be able to get back in contact with her. She didn't come to church and so we invited her to come to watch the Christmas devotional with us at a member's home. 

 

We also have a recent convert who is just as amazing who we also have not been able to see because she has been out of town and super busy. We invited her to come to the devotional too.And finally we have another investigator that we just love who we have invited to church many time but hasn't been able to come. At the very last minute yesterday we invited her to the devotional as well.

The miracle....every single one of these amazing women were able to come to the devotional and feel the spirit as apostles and others bore their testimonies of our Savior Jesus Christ. The spirit was so strong and I was so grateful for a Heavenly Father who heard our prayers throughout the week and made it possible for all to be there.

We also were able to watch the new video that the church released for Christmas called He is the Gift. If you have not seen it take two and a half minutes and watch it. It is powerful! The church is inviting everyone to share this video and message with others. The best way to bring the spirit of Christ into Christmas is by sharing it with others.

As always thank you for all that y'all do. Have a great week! 

Love

Sister Aase

It is Good to Give Thanks

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. There were many things to be grateful for this week. These are just a few 

1. Our wonderful ward members! Not only did they make sure that we had some place to go on Thanksgiving but we had three back to back to back Thanksgiving meals on Thursday :) Though by the end I thought I might die of a food overdose, I was very grateful for the love of our ward members

2. Trina. This girl is on fire! She has already read the first two books of the Book of Mormon and she came to church this Sunday. Her baptismal date was set for the 20th but at her request has been moved to the 13th. She is amazing and everytime we teach her the Spirit is so strong. She has such a love for our Savior and I love getting to share my testimony of Him with her.

3. Christmas Decorations. We were able to help decorate three homes this week including the mission home. It was so much fun! One member even gave us an extra Elf on the Shelf to decorate our study. We have started decorating our study and it really is beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Until you go outside and it is 60 degrees, another thing to be thankful for!

4. Sister Kalahiki and I are staying together in Pinnacle Mountain for one more transfer! YAY! 

Most of all I am so grateful to be here serving a mission. I truly love getting to represent my Savior everyday. Missions are not easy. They are not always fun. But they are one of the best things you will ever get to to do and I am so so so grateful to be serving the Lord in Little Rock. I am also so grateful for the person I represent each day. My Savior Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the Atonement that He performed for me and for each of us. I am grateful for this time of year when our hearts and minds are turned a little more toward Him as we celebrate His birth. And as always I am so grateful for all the love and support that I receive from all my friends and family.

Love,

Sister Aase

If you haven't seen this short video, it's really good.  He is the Gift.  Go to christmas.mormon.org

Young Women (and Missionaries) in Excellence!!

Dear Friends and Family,

I cannot believe that it is already the end of November! Where has the month gone?! We had a great week this week! We had a fabulous specialized training meeting where we did not get our iPads, but we were taught some very important things. We also spoke at our ward's Young Women in Excellence night which was lots of fun. And most importantly we were able to set a baptismal date with someone!

The person who accepted our invitation to be baptized is named Trina. She is awesome! We taught her a little bit and gave her a Book of Mormon on Tuesday and when we came back Thursday she had already read into 1 Nephi without us asking her to read that far! That never happens! We taught her the restoration and invited her to be baptized on the 20th of December and she said yes! Sister Kalahiki and I are so excited to keep teaching her and helping her to increase the amazing faith she already has. We are also still working with Carmelita who is in the hospital again and Felicia who is really cool and is also reading the Book of Mormon on her own.

I have really gained a testimony of the power of the Book of Mormon on my mission. I have been able to see first hand the power this book has to change lives and to convert people to the gospel. I have always enjoyed the Book of Mormon and had a testimony of it. But I love it now and am coming to understand what it means to feast upon the words in it. I love getting to bear my testimony of the Book of Mormon to people because I know that it will bring us closer to our Heavenly Father and that it contains the answers to ALL of life's questions no matter how "modern" we think they are. The prophets in the Book of Mormon truly saw our day and were inspired in their writings. Everything in that book is for us. If you haven't read the Book of Mormon or it's been a while I encourage you to pick it up. It truly will change your life!

So Sister Kalahiki joined the Church when she was 14 with her two older brothers and never had the opportunity to receive her Young Women's medallion.  So she was given permission to get it on her mission and guess who her mentor is?  That's right, ME :-)  It has been lots of fun to help her work on Personal Progress every morning and she actually is pretty far and hopefully she will be able to get it while I'm still her companion :-)  Maybe then I'll get my Bee :)

Anyway I hope that everyone has a great thanksgiving. Thank you to everyone who is sending me emails and letters I love them! Thanks also for all the prayers and support!

Love

Sister Aase

Do You Want To Hear Our Message?

Dear Family and Friends,

Winter came to the South early! We had our first "snow fall" this week. My companion was so excited she screamed and wanted to play in the snow. I helped her make a baby snowman which was about the size of my hand. She was so excited :) We were on foot this week out in the cold :) We walked a ton but we also saw many miracles and had many wonderful ward members who took pity on us and gave us rides :) Thank goodness for ward members :)

 

Because we were walking everywhere and therefore had lots of time and because we were cold and needed to keep our spirits up and because it had snowed I made up new song. It's called "Do you want to hear our message"

Tune of "Do you want to build a snowman"  from Disney's Frozen

(Knocks) Do you want to hear our message?

Or just let us in to pray?

We never see you anymore please come to the door we know you're not away

You used to be so golden and now you are avoiding us like the plague

Do you want to hear our message? It's all about Jesus

(silence) Ok Bye

(Knocks) Do you want to hear our message?

Please don't pretend like you're not home

I think some new 'gators are overdue we've starting talking to crazy people on the phone - hang in there Travis*

It gets a little draining walking everyday just watching the hours tick by....

(dramatic music: imagine my companion and I walking all bundled up just hoping that someone will want to talk to us)

(Knocks) Do you want to hear our message. We know it will change your life. 

We know what we teach it true and you can too....just let us in. 

We don't want to be a bother we just want to share our testimonies with you.

Can we please share our message? 

 

That's it :) That pretty much sums up the week. We had lots of appointment fall through and people not want to talk but we also meet some amazing people that did want to hear what we had to say and are interested in learning more and came to church. Miracles happen everyday on a mission. 

 

As always thank you for all that you do :)

Love

Sister Aase

*Travis is a former investigator who gave us a call this week. We talked with him for a while and within our conversation he informed us that he had died already, apple products are associated with the story of adam and eve, and he was checking himself into a metal institution at the end of the week. Never a dull moment :)

Starting Bike Week - It's When Miracles Happen!

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope that everyone had a wonderful week :) This week was a little slow especially compared to last week. Some highlights:

• We had Family Home Evening with our investigator, Carmelita, in our mission president's home on Monday. It was really great and President Wakolo was able to answer some of Carmelita's questions which was awesome!
• We had a fabulous zone meeting on Tuesday. I am in the same zone as Sister Mecham and so it was fun to see her at our meeting. We learned about the importance of being diligent as we work toward our goals. Each day we have the opportunity to set goals and our zone leaders talked about how we need to "own those goals" everyday. 
• We found some really cool new investigators. Hopefully we will be able to see them continue to grow.
• We had 21 baptisms in our mission last week YAY! We are definitely on our way to reaching our goal of 100 by the end of November. 

Sister Kalahiki and I are on bikes this week. It is supposed to get really cold this week so wish us luck :) We are excited though because we know that miracles happen on bike week!!

 

Thanks as always for all the love and support. Hope everyone has a great week!

Love

Sister Aase

Ousheta! Halloween and a False Break in

Dear Family and Friends

I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween! We had a crazy week here in Pinnacle. We taught, we found, we passed out candy and we had a lot of laughs. Some of the Highlights

1. We carved pumpkins with the other Sisters for P-day. Lots of fun. If you can't tell from the pictures we carved an Arkansas :)  

2. We were teaching one of our investigators who is getting baptized on the 15th about receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost this week. At one point in her life she was Pentecostal and in that church often receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost is accompanied by speaking in tongues. So we were explaining to her that that is not the case in our church. We were getting ready to go when all of the sudden this old black lady bursts in and, I kid you not, starts speaking in tongues. She kept yelling OUSHETA! It was all Sister Kalahiki and I could do to not just start laughing. 

3. We are living with members and so we borrowed some of the Halloween costumes to try on. 

4. On Halloween night we went to our Ward Mission leader's house and passed out candy and pass along cards. It was a little cold. I was fine but my poor Hawaiian companion was freezing!

5. On Saturday Sister Kalahiki and I were studying when all of a sudden we heard a loud crash. 

Me: "Do you think someone is breaking in?" 

Kalahiki: "Probably."

So we quickly armed ourselves with the first things we could find, a mop and a vase, send a text to two church members who live close and our district leader "Hey we think someone might be breaking in could you come check on us?" and then we go to investigate. It was so scary! By the time Brother Whiteley got there we were pretty sure no one was in the house but we were sure a window was broken somewhere. However upon further inspection by Brother Whiteley, we found that the "intruder" was actually a ceramic jar full of change that had fallen from a bookshelf. So embarrassing! And to make matters worse the Elders showed up as well only to find that we were worried over nothing. 

The best part of the week though was that we found a wonderful new investigator named Felicia. She is amazing and has such strong faith! She loves the Book of Mormon and is excited to learn more! Stay tuned.

As always thank you for all the support and prayers and love! Hope everyone has a great week!

Love

Sister Aase

Hello Pinnacle Mountain

Dear Friends and Family,

Greetings from Pinnacle Mountain :) I hope everyone had a wonderful week. Mine was a little crazy but super awesome as well.

On Monday and Tuesday Sister Cooke and I ran around Conway saying goodbye to everyone. I was sad to leave Conway but I was also really excited for a change, which if you know me is not at all like me - I blame the hair cut. Anyway Wednesday morning we left for North Little Rock and I got my new companion and assignment.

My new companion is Sister Kalahiki, she is from Hawaii. She has been out almost 16 months and is just awesome. She is lots of fun, knows her stuff, and I love working with her. Pinnacle Mountain is a great place. It is beautiful here! We are living with members which is kinda awesome. We don't have to by any cleaning supplies, they have this adorable dog that we get to have as our pet but don't actually have to take care of, and I get to come home everyday and tell someone (who is not my companion) about my whole day. Oh and I'm sleeping in a queen sized bed. Life is pretty great. Pinnacle mountain is the name of my ward and area. The stake president and President Wakolo are in the ward #nopressure but the ward is awesome. Also the ward is full of doctor's so my Grey's Anatomy knowledge is coming in very handy LOL. This town is CRAZY hilly I am dreading bike week already. They also have a WhichWich, two Targets, and Chick-Fil-A so I'm pretty much set :)

Sister Kalahiki and I white washed the area which means both of us are new to Pinnacle Mountain (kinda Sister Kalahiki served here earlier in her mission). So Wednesday after transfer meeting we were given car keys, an area book, and the name of one investigator and told to get to work. AHHH!  Neither Sister Kalahiki or I had a GPS so with mapquest directions and a car full of suitcases we left for Pinnacle Mountain. I am the driver for the transfer and it was a little scary and stressful to be driving to a whole new place without much direction. Luckily we were able to make it to where we needed to be and were able to borrow a GPS from some ward members so we have been fine the rest of the week. But this situation made me think. All of us are driving through life and often life takes us to places that are new and that we don't really know. Without direction it can be really stressful and scary. Fortunately we have been given our very own GPS, God's Plan of Salvation (get it, G.P.S). Because we know what God's plan is we have direction in our lives. We know how to get where we are going and thus our journey is not as stressful or as scary. We still may face roadblocks and detours. We may take a wrong turn and need to recalculate, but because we have the knowledge of God's Plan and the Atonement we have the ability to make it through anything we find on the road back home. I am so grateful for real GPS's that make missionary work so much easy and help us not get lost and for my knowledge of God's Plan of Salvation which makes life easy and helps me not to get lost.

I am so excited to work in this new area. We have already found some very elect people and are going to find more this week.

Thanks as always for all the support and love. Hope everyone has a great Halloween!

Love

Sister Aase

Goodbye Conway!!

Dear Friends and Family,

We had an awesome week this week! We finally hit fall weather YAY! Arkansas is beautiful! The trees are starting to change colors and the weather is cooling down. I got to wear boots and blazers this week! I was so happy!

Besides the beautiful weather we saw many miracles this week. We were able to visit one of our newer investigators who just had surgery and she really opened up to us and is excited to start learning more. We also found this really cool lady named Aviva. The quick version of how we found her: we were leaving her neighborhood and felt like we needed to knock one more door. So we went and knocked on her door. As we were knocking she came home with her kids from the park. She let us right in and said that she had been thinking about getting baptized again. We taught a mini restoration lesson and gave her a Book of Mormon and if all goes well she will be baptized on the 15th of November! We also were able to see a ton of returning members and we had a great specialized training meeting. And the cherry on top we had beautiful weather all week and a car!

So of course after this fabulous week we found out this morning the sad news that I am leaving Conway :( Sister Cooke and I are really bummed but we both know that I am needed somewhere else right now. I had my five minutes of being sad and now I'm just excited and a little overwhelmed at all the goodbyes and packing I have to do by Wednesday!

I love Conway and I love my companion and things are finally picking up! AHHH! But I have learned that you don't grow in your comfort zone and I was definitely starting to get comfortable here. So I know that I need this and that Heavenly Father has a whole new set of adventures for me. I think my new hair gave myh Mission President the impression that I actually was ok with change and that I was getting bored. Dang it :)  As sad as I am to leave Conway I know that it is what I need to do and I am excited to get to go somewhere new.

Thanks as always for all the support and love. Also I appreciate all the complements on my hair :) Hope everyone has a great week. Next time you here from me I will be somewhere new!

Love

Sister Aase

A long wet bikey one

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope that everyone had a great week, as for me and my companion it was a long wet bikey one. But still great. We were able to see a lot of people and do a lot of good. We also had the chance to see the new movie put out by the church "Meet the Mormons." SO GOOD!!! If you get the chance I definitely recommend going to see it!

Funny story from the week. So we met this old lady the other day and she told us to come visit her sometime. So yesterday we went to see her. We got the feeling that she didn't get company very often so after finding out she enjoyed card games we offered to teach her how to play the card game golf. However we didn't realize that this lady had no short term memory when it came to cards. She literally asked the exact same questions every round. "What game are we playing?" "How do you count the cards?" "Wait I can't look at my cards?" by the fourth or fifth round we realized that we weren't bad at explaining it was just that she had no memory :) So funny though and so sweet.

I found a really cool scripture this week during my studies. Alma 5:38-39 It talks about being a part of the Savior's fold. Alma asks "of what fold are ye?" If we want to be able to answer that, we are in the fold of the Savior then we have to listen to him. We have to do the things he says and the things that his prophet's and the leaders of His Church say. And if we will, then we are promised that we will find peace and rest in the Savior's fold.

Anyway not much else from this week. We are excited to have a car again and to be able to really go to work! Thanks as always for all the support. Hope everyone has a great week!

Love 

Sister Aase

PS I cut my hair. I finally have the pixie cut I've always been too afraid to get :) pictures next week I promise :)

General Conference !!

Dear Friends and Family,

I hope everyone had an awesome conference weekend. I love general conference (see below). As I prepared to hear the leaders of the church speak this weekend I reflected on how grateful I am that we have a prophet. There are a lot of crazy things that are going on in the world today and it can be really easy to get discouraged or overwhelmed. But we don't need to feel that way. If we listen to the council given by the prophet and other leaders of the church we will find peace and refuge amidst the craziness of everyday life. I also reflected on how much I took for granted watching conference in sweatpants. You can't do that as a missionary and not going to lie I missed it.

I loved all the talks but Elder Bednar's and Elder Ballards were two of my favs. I also loved what the prophet spoke about, that it is more important to walk as Christ walked rather than where he walked. I'm grateful to know that he has already walked the path and he knows exactly how hard it is. i am grateful that he invites us to walk with him so that we don't have to face this world alone. 

 

I am excited to go back and study the talks more. That is the best part about general conference is that we get to continue to study and learn from the speakers even after it is done!

Thanks as always for the emails, letters, prayers, and support.

Love

Sister Aase

NOTE:  General Conference is a semi-annual worldwide conference where the Prophet, Apostles and other leaders of the LDS Church speak and offer guidance, counsel and inspiration. To know more about General Conference and listen, read or watch any of the talks given this past weekend, visit www.lds.org

How's Your Heart?

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope everyone had a great week! This week was long but good :) On Tuesday Elder Zwick and his Wife came for a mission tour. Half the mission came together for an all day meeting with the two of them and President and Sister Wakolo. It was such a great experience to be taught by the Zwicks. They both are wonderful. It was also lots of fun because Sister Mecham was there and we got to talk and eat lunch together.

In Sister Zwick's talk she asked the question "how is your heart?" She talked about how unless our heart is in it we will not be changed. She brought up how Nephi and Laman did all the same things. But the difference was the Laman's heart was hardened while Nephi had an open heart. I've been thinking a lot about this question throughout the week and have thought a lot about how my heart is. Is my heart happy or discouraged? Is my heart open to growing or is it set in its ways? Is my heart fearful or confident? Do I ponder things in my heart like Nephi? Questions Questions Questions? It has been really good for me to think about these things and I have realized that there are definitely some areas where I can improve. I think that this question is a good one to ask ourselves every now and then. How is my heart? 

After we ask this question we must asked a question that President Wakolo posed also at this meeting this week which was "Therefore What?" What am I going to do differently? What do I need to change? What can I do to be better? He talked about how when we are given instruction we must ponder on it and then decide what we are going to do and then do it do it do it! 

Anyway the rest of the week was just normal. Finding, teaching, and lots of laughing :) Sister Cooke and I have a lot of fun together. We are excited for this upcoming week. We have a lot of new investigators we are teaching and it General Conference!!!! I am so excited! 

As always thank for the letters and emails and the love and support! Hope y'all have a great week!

Love Sister Aase

 

 A postcard we received from Maddie

I guess she's lucky she's not in Toad Suck

Catfish, Okra, and Miracles

Dear Family and Friends,

I had my first experience eating catfish and fried okra (two southern delicacies) this week. Verdict: catfish super good! okra not so much. We had a really great week. We had exchanges that went really well. Sister Cooke is no longer sick which is good. And we found some new people to teach which is always good.

 

One thing I really love about Sister Cooke is that she finds a miracle everyday and writes it down. We do this as a companionship and so all day long I'm looking for what our miracle is going to be. It has been amazing to see all the miracles that happen to us everyday. But unless I am looking for them, I miss them. One of my favorite miracles that happens on a pretty regular basis is getting to be the answer to someone's prayer. There are so many times when we feel prompted to do something, usually it is something we wouldn't normally do, and then we find someone who has been praying for something that we are able be the answer to. For example we met a lady this week and we said a prayer with her and set a return appointment a week out. We don't really like to set appointments so far out because it gives people time to forget the spirit they felt with us when they first met us, so we knew that we were going to have to stay in touch with her throughout the week. So on Friday I had this thought that we needed to text this lady her name is Kristina. So we send her just a short text that said something along the lines of hope you have a great weekend we were thinking about you. We get a reply a few minutes later and she tells us that it is her birthday and that she has been having a hard time staying positive and our text was exactly what she needed. So cool. It just shows how aware God is of us. We didn't know it was her birthday or that she needed some encouragement but her Heavenly Father did and allowed us to be the answer to her prayer. He used us to let her know she wasn't forgotten.

I have definitely learned that God is aware of us as missionaries. He knows our needs and our desires and everything about us. And he will go out of his way to let us know that we are loved. Sometimes we just have to look for his miracles to see it.

Hope everyone has a great week. As always thank you for all that you do!

Love

Sister Aase

Bitter or Better

Dear Friends and Family,

I hope that everyone had a good week. I think the summer has finally ended and the weather the past few days has been beautiful here! I am truly serving in one of the most beautiful places :)

Sister Mecham left on Wednesday. We spent Tuesday running around saying goodbye to everyone and crying every now and then. On Wednesday Sister Mecham was transferred to the Otter Creek Ward in Little Rock so not in my zone or stake but still on the Arkansas side of the mission so I should still get to see her at specialized training which is coming up soon. My new companion is named Sister Cooke, she is from Las Vegas and has been out on her mission for about 14 months. She is super awesome and I am excited to work with her. Unfortunately she came to me with the flu and has been really sick this whole week :( On Saturday I finally made her call the mission nurse and she was ordered to stay in bed all day. Which mean I was stuck at our apartment all day long. Luckily she is doing much better today and I haven't felt sick so hopefully I won't catch whatever she had. 

 

I'm not going to lie, this week was a little rough but I have come to learn that sometimes the harder weeks are the ones where you learn the most. It was hard to say goodbye to Sister Mecham. It was hard to have to be in charge of planning everything because Sister Cooke didn't know anyone in Conway. It was hard to be navigator all week. It was hard to have a sick companion. I spent a whole lot of time on my knees this week asking Heavenly Father to just help me get through the next hour or to just help me know what to do next. And as I was reflecting on the week on Saturday as my poor sick companion slept, I thought about how it would have been really easy to let all these hard things make me bitter. And there were definitely times when I felt a little bitter, when my situation felt a little unfair. But instead of being bitter I decided I was going to let my situation make me better. Instead of giving up and being upset I was going to try my best and learn from it.

We all face hard things in our lives and we all have the choice to let those trials make us BITTER or BETTER. The difference between these two words is the second letter, the "I" verses the "E" and the difference between the two perspectives is the same. We become bitter when we only think about what I want or what I don't have or how I feel. When we focus on the "I" or ourselves it is easy to let our trials make us bitter. But if we focus on the "E"ternal instead we become better instead of bitter. We focus on the positive, we focus on what God is trying to teach us, we turn outward instead of inward. It is not always easier to focus on the eternal but I promise that as we do we are given strength to get through our hard weeks. I know that because I chose not to be bitter and upset, I was blessed with the ability to get through the week to know what to do and where to go. Even though I had no idea what I was doing we were able to see miracles this week.

I am so grateful for the gospel and I am so grateful that I get to share it with others. The gospel is what helps us see the eternal perspective when things are hard. Thank you as always for all the support.

Love

Sister Aase

No More Tears

Dear Family and Friends,

We found out yesterday that Sister Mecham is getting transferred on Wednesday :(   Since then there have been many tears shed. Like a lot of them. We are going to miss each other a ton but we both know that the Lord knows what he is doing and he needs Sister Mehcam somewhere else right now. We have no idea where she is going or who my new companion is going to be but we will find out Wednesday so stay tuned.

Besides the drama of transfers this week has been very good. We have three people scheduled to get baptized on the 27th of this month so we have been working with them a lot. They are all progressing slowly but surely now we just need them to come to church. My mission has definitely taught me how important coming to church is and made me really grateful for a mom who woke me up every Sunday and made sure that we all got to church on time.

We had an awesome zone meeting on Friday. The whole mission is excited and a little nervous about the goal President Wakolo has set to baptize 100 people in November. But we know that he is inspired and we are all doing what we can now so that we can reach that goal. So we increased our baptismal goal for our zone to an all time high of 19 this month. It's a little daunting but I have faith that if we will all work hard and make changes we can make it. Sister Mecham and talked about what changes we could make personally and as a companionship in order to reach our goal and have started to see differences as we have made those changes.

I am excited that I am staying in Conway I love it here but I am going to really miss Sister Mecham. We had our very last companionship inventory Thursday and we cried. Sister Mecham told me how President Petersen had told her a month before I got to the mission that she would be training me. And she began praying for me that night. This shows me how mindful the Lord is of us. He knows all of his children and he knows what they need and what is best for them. He knows me and he knows Sister Mecham and he knew that she would be exactly what I needed. I am so grateful that the Lord didn't just put me with a good trainer but he gave me a friend. We have already decided that we are going to be apartment mates when we are both at BYU and that we are going to stay in touch even after she goes home. But it is still really sad and hard to say goodbye to a great missionary and friend. Wish us luck at transfers it may be a cry-fest :)

Hope y'all have a great week
Love
Sister Aase

Keeping our Lights Burning Continually

Dear Family and Friends,

Happy September! We had an awesome week. Lots of teaching and finding and spreading the good word to the people of Arkansas. The most exciting part of the week is that we invited two of our investigators to be baptized near the end of September and they said yes! YAY!  It is a grandmother and granddaughter Rhonda and Nevaeh and they are both really great. Rhonda loves learning about the plan of salvation and is excited to learn more. We briefly mentioned the word of wisdom when we went over on Friday and when we visited her Sunday, Rhonda informed us that she has not had any coffee since we mentioned that it was something we didn't do. A-mazing!

Early this week the Sister Training leader came down and went on splits with me and Sister Mecham. It was really great and we were able to find lots of new people to teach.

This week I also learned a very important lesson. If you do not want to get eaten by a dog you have to run faster than/sacrifice your companion. I learned this when Sister Mecham and I were going to visit a potential investigator. We got to her front porch and this giant pit bull was just sitting there. Then it got up really fast and barked at us. And what does my dear companion do? She turns around, pushes me out of the way and bolts as fast as she can! Luckily the dog was on a chain and we were in no real danger but I know that Sister Mecham will not be shielding me from any dog attacks anytime soon :)

Yesterday I gave a talk in sacrament meeting. I was asked to speak Saturday around 11 so I had basically no time to prepare, but thanks to lots of prayer and inspiration it ended up going really well. I spoke on the parable of the 10 virgins and how important it is to be spiritually prepared. There is a scripture in Leviticus 24:2 that talks about having our lights burning continually. If our lights are going to burn continually then we must be putting oil in our lamps continually. We have to continue to say prayers and read scriptures and go to church or we run the risk of our light going out. WE see this so often as missionaries. People stop reading scriptures then they stop saying prayers, then they stop coming to church and pretty soon they are far away from where they want to be and their lamps are very dim. But the great thing about the gospel is that Christ is always there with his arms outstretched ready to welcome back all who have gone astray and help them fill their lamps again.

This is the last week in the transfer! Where did it go?! Sister Mecham and I are praying that we get to stay together for 1 more transfer. We find out next Monday so keep your fingers crossed!

As always thanks for all the love and support! Have a great week! And if you get the chance, wish my dad a Happy Birthday for me!
Love
Sister Aase

PS.  We came up with a name for the evil sweater wearing dog I mentioned in last weeks letter ....Luci-fluff....like Lucifer....like the devil....which it is!!

Do it! Do it! Do it!

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was HOT! The Arkansas summer that everyone here has been warning me about finally came. Temperatures we in the triple digits all day every day! But blessings come when you are working in the heat and humidity and we were able to teach a lot of people this week and see a lot of miracles. Perhaps the biggest blessing of the week is we are getting full car until the end of the transfer. Sister Mecham and I did a dance of gratitude when we heard.
 

We had an AWESOME Zone conference this week. President Wakolo is a spiritual giant and an amazing teacher. He encouraged us to Lead like the Savior, to Live like the Savior, and to Love like the Savior. He also talked about how even if people don't want to hear our message that's ok we love them anyway. President Wakolo is one of the most loving people I have ever met. He truly loves everyone he meets and those he hasn't met yet. One of my favorite things that he spoke with us about was faith. Faith is the first step to everything that we do as missionaries and members of the Church. Without faith nothing else happens. It is the first principle of the Gospel because it is essential. Faith leads to action, without faith we are either not acting or just going through the motions without getting anything out of it. In the words of my sister Kate (with a little tweaking) "FAITH FAITH FAITH, we care, we care, we care!"

At another part of the meeting we were talking about things that build faith like scripture study, companion study etc. President Wakolo's response to everything is "Do it Do it Do it!" So that became the mantra of the week. Should we knock on this door? Do it Do it Do it! Should we talk to this person? Do it Do it Do it! With this attitude we were able to talk and teach many more people than we thought we could.

Speaking of lessons we taught Kam's mom this week. Kam is the nine year old we baptized a few weeks ago. It was an intense lesson because not only was his mom there but her sister came as well. Kam's mom was very open and we could tell she really felt the spirit but her sister was extremely closed off and threw every hard question she could at us. It was a little intense but at the end we just bore our testimonies and told them that they could find out for themselves if they asked God. We will see what happens :)

Funny moment from the week. On Monday all the missionaries went out to get Pineapple Whips together. We were sitting there and one Elder out of the blue goes "I love pineapple whips because they support the Law of Chastity." He then points to the no smoking sign out front and says "See look no smoking" He had totally mixed up Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity. So funny we gave a hard time and have been quoting him all week long!

Also there is a dog that lives in our apartment complex. A little white fluffy thing that wears a sweater and is the meanest dog I have ever seen. This week I went to get the mail and who do I run into (like literally) the sweater wearing dog! I jumped back so quickly! The owner literally had to drag this dog away barking and snarling at me. It would have eaten me if it had not been on a leash. After this whole escapade I get back to the car where Sister Mecham had been watching the whole ordeal and she is just laughing hysterically not concern that I could have DIED just then. Death by dog is not how I want to go!

I hope that everyone has great week. Thank you as always for all the love and support.

Love

Sister Aase

I love Arkansas!!

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was really great! Not quite as exciting as our bike week last week but that is just fine with me. Update: my bike has been fixed and is ready for next bike week in two weeks :)

Baby Blue in the shop

Bike nails for bike week

This week we focused on finding new people to teach. We were talking to everyone we could see and knocking on doors and calling former investigators. It was a lot of hard work but we were able to find some great new people who are ready to hear the gospel which is so exciting! The Arkansas summer that everyone has been warning me about finally hit this week and we are expecting 100+ degree temperatures all this coming week. It is going to get a little hot and we are very grateful for the car :)

This week a member took us to Petit Jean, pronounced "petty jeen", which is basically a giant hill that the locals call a mountain. But it is SO beautiful up there, we took lots of pictures and jumped on rocks. Lots of fun :) I'm serving in one of the prettiest places!

We also did a lot of service this week. We helped a member organize her home, we painted fences, we cleaned a yard, and of course we called bingo. I love doing service and we certainly do a lot as missionaries. But it is always fun and gives us a good chance to meet people.

In other news my companion just found out that she will be attending BYU this winter. I'm so excited for her! It is a little weird to think that I won't be going to school this fall. School started today for everyone down here. But don't worry I will still be learning, in fact I was emailed a four page study guide for our zone conference this week. But I'm excited I love to learn and I especially love learning about the gospel. Speaking of learning and studying the gospel…This week I had some really great studies about babylon. Sister Mecham and I always joke about having Babylonian songs or thoughts in our heads which basically means anything worldly. In the scriptures it talks about how we need to come out of Babylon and separate ourselves from it. As missionaries it is really important to do this because we are representing Jesus Christ but it is just as important as members of the Church. We need to make sure that we are staying out of Babylon. That we are in the world but not of the world. It is so important that we do this so that we are able to keep ourselves clean and also so that we are able to lead by example. One thing that I have really come to see as a missionary is the power of example. So many people that I meet want to know more about the Church because they have seen the example of their LDS friends or co-workers. When we bring investigators to church they are impressed by how the other members act in church. Even if you don't think other are watching you they are and so it is important that we are always trying our best to do what it right.

As always thank you for all that you do.

Love

Sister Aase

Bike Week

Dear Family and Friends,

Sister Mecham says that some weeks are for teaching others and some weeks are for teaching us. This was definitely a teaching us week. There were lots of set backs and many times where it would have been very easy to give up but we never did and we learned that we can do hard things. There were many times when we had the choice to cry or laugh about our situation but we chose to laugh because as my good friend Camille Niebert once said "You can either laugh or cry but crying would just ruin your mascara and then you would have bigger problems"

So this week was bike week. We traded our car for our bikes on Tuesday and that's when our troubles began. The day actually went pretty well until we were coming in for dinner. We were biking up the hill to our apartments when I had a pretty epic bike crash that involved my shoe flying off and hitting my back tire sending my bike straight into the curb. Fortunately I was only a little bruised and scraped up so we went on our merry way to dinner thinking that was the end of our bike week troubles. Unfortunately we were mistaken.

Wednesday we started out strong. Then I ran over a piece of glass and punctured my tire. We were luckily close to one of our member's home so we stopped there and called for help. A nice couple in our ward came and picked us up so we were late for Bingo (the old folks get very cranky when their bingo game starts late) and then picked up my bike to take home. The missionaries down here all buy their bikes from a bike store owned by a bishop who lives here and they all have a two year guarantee. So we called the bike store and they said they could fix the bike no charge. So bike week became walk week for the night....or so we thought.

The next day we had a member drive us around because we were still waiting for the bike people to call us back. Unfortunately every single appointment we had for that day fell through. So we went back home and at this point we were starting to feel a little discouraged. So I turned on my favorite song as loud as my little speakers would allow and I danced all the discouragement away. Sister Mecham was in the bathroom when the dancing began and she was a little surprised when she came out to her companion jumping and twirling all around the house :) But we both felt much better after that.

The next day we still were down a bike and we hadn't heard from the bike people. So we gave them a call and they said that because it was just a flat tire they didn't want to make a trip all the way down to Conway to fix it and they had meant to call us earlier to tell us this but had forgotten. So we made plans to go get the bike fixed the next day and were determined that bike week would not get the best of us.

So we called a member to come get us Saturday and take us to the local bike shop. When we got there we found out that it is open everyday...except Saturday. So we went to Wal-mart with my bicycle tire in tow so we could make sure that we got the right sized tire tube. We got to Wal-mart and got the tube and then had some members put the whole tire together. Now all we had to do was put it on the bike. Which we did but in the process we messed up my brakes. So the elders came over and attempted to fix it. Which they did. Now all we had to do was fill up the tire and we could hit the road. YAY!   But unfortunately the new tire did not want to fill up nicely and so Sister Mecham was lying on her stomach trying to get the tire filled when all the sudden the bike tipped over and landed right on her. At this point we didn't know whether to laugh or cry so we did a little of both.

We laid on our living room floor and just laughed at how our week had gone. Then we got up and went back to work. We did finally get air in the tire but when the elder fixed my front brakes they also decided to "fix" my back brakes which is now rubbing against my tire permanently.

Sunday was good and we thanked Heavenly Father for helping us to get through the week. I was asked to playing for primary this week! So I had about two hours to practice during the week and then I get into primary and the chorister hands me a list of songs that I had not been told to practice. Oh my! It ended up going really well though. The Lord guided my fingers and somehow I was able to play without being nervous at all. Tender mercy :) It reminds me of one of my favorite songs by Cheri Call that talks about all the names for Heavenly Father like "mathematician and concert musician, master physician, and listening friend." Who knows all about cars (or bikes) and my fragile heart. So the best name would still have to be "Heavenly Father." He was definitely all of those things for me this week. But I really learned how to rely on my Savior and my Father in Heaven this week because there was nothing that I could do. It was hard but we never gave up even when it seemed hopeless. We were blessed with the ability to see the positive and to not get discouraged. I'm so grateful for the hard weeks because they teach us so much. We saw so many small miracles this week and even though my bike still isn't ridable I'm not discouraged. I know that the Lord knows where I'm at and that everything is going to work out. Because it always does.

As much as I learned this week though I'm really hoping next week isn't quite as eventful :)

Love

Sister Aase

Off with the Natural and in with the New

Dear Family and Friends,

So sorry about the short email last week. My companion and I had the amazing opportunity to go to the temple. The closest temple is three hours away in Memphis so it was a bit of a trek but lots of fun. Also last week Tami and Kam got baptized! Their whole family came to support them and many pictures were taken and many tears were shed. It was great. Sister Mecham and I were asked to sing "Amazing Grace" accappella #onlyinthesouth and it went fairly well. I don't think either of us will have a record deal anytime soon but Tami appreciated it and that's all that mattered :) One of the best parts of the whole baptism was when Tami got to bear her testimony. It was so simple and sweet and you could tell that she knew she had found the truth. I am so grateful that I was able to be a part of her and Kam's conversion. I truly love both of them and can't wait to see them progress in the Gospel. Kam is already talking about how excited he is to serve a mission. I love it!

Of course because we had a baptism and a temple trip over the weekend, this week was a little more slow. But that's ok. We did a lot of searching but not too much finding but we are so excited for this upcoming week because we are on bikes and finding is always easier on bike week. That's about the only good thing about bike week :)
 

This is how they serve watermelon in the south. This is also why the average weight gain is 40 pounds. we were eating at this lady's house and we had just finished a full meal and she asks if we want some watermelon. And I'm like sure I love watermelon. And this is what she brings me. My face must have been priceless because Sister Mecham just started cracking up. Don't worry I didn't finish the whole thing I brought most of it home :)

 

Last week we had a specialized training meeting with our whole zone and our mission president. He presented to us the new focus of the mission which is to increase the spiritual capacity of the missionaries. He said that we have been focusing a lot on investigators and members but forgetting that it all starts with the missionary. If we can increase our own spiritual capacity as missionaries all the other things will fall into place. So this past week I was studying about how to increase my spiritual capacity and I was reading a scripture in Colossians 3 verse 10 that talks all about putting on the new man and then in the following verses it goes on to explain how to do this. We need to put on kindness and mercy and charity etc. This made me think of another scripture, one of my favorites in the Book of Mormon Mosiah 3:19 that talks about putting off the natural man. Just as we can't put on another outfit once we are already dressed (well technically you could but it would look pretty silly and you would die in the Arkansas heat). We can't just put on the new man if we do not first put off the natural man. Likewise we can't use put off the natural man and be done, but we must also put on the new man. We must put off the natural and put on the new. And by doing so we come closer to Christ.  

 

Next week is bike week - BRING IT ON!

As always thank you all for all the support and love. I appreciate it so much. Hope everyone has a great week. 

Love

Sister Aase

50 Words or Less - GO!

Dear Family and Friends,

Sorry this week is going to be quick. We were at the Memphis Temple the whole day so we didn't have time to email. This week was great. TAMI AND KAM WERE BAPTIZED!! And Sister Mecham and I are staying together for another six weeks. Woot Woot!! 

That's all I have time for. More next week I promise!

Love

Sister Aase

 Sister Mecham, Tami, Kam and Sister Aase

Welcome to Tennessee - on our way to the Memphis Temple

The Cougar and the Aggie can be Friends

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope that everyone had a great week. This week was awesome as usual. We were on bike week but the Lord blessed us with the best bike weather EVER. Seriously 70s and lower 80s all week long and no rain. Can it get any better!?

This week we helped an older lady in the ward paint her home. She is getting ready to sell and wanted a more neutral color. So Sister Mecham and I put on our painting clothes and got to work. It was really funny when we realized that our painting shirts just happened to be our college shirts. So I had on my BYU shirt and my companion had on a Utah State University shirt. But don't worry we have decided that even though she goes to the wrong school we can still be friends. Also she is transferring to BYU when she gets home so that helps :) We had a lot of fun painting together and this lady's house look really good.

Sister Aase (BYU) vs. Sister Mecham (USU)

TAMI AND KAM ARE GETTING BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!!!! We are so excited for them and they are both counting down the days. Tami asked Sister Mecham and I to sing Amazing Grace A Capella. We are both a little nervous, but we told her that we would do our very best to which Kam replied "that's all we ask." Kam is 9 yrs old btw. We both love Tami so much and I have loved getting to see her life change as she has embraced the gospel. She brought her little granddaughter Gracie to church again this week. Gracie has finally warmed up to me and Sister Mecham and now won't let us leave without hugs. She is too cute. To keep her quiet in sacrament meeting, after the coloring books we had no longer held an appeal, Sister Mecham gave Gracie her EOS chapstick. Gracie loved it and kept putting more and more on. By the end she had chapstick from cheek to cheek. So funny and so cute. Also I have never seen a girl love nursery more than miss Gracie. She wanted to leave sacrament meeting early just to go to nursery. She loves it!

I love being down here. It is crazy that I'm already at the last week in this transfer! Time has flown by and I am loving every minute of it. The longer I'm here the more I get to love the people in the south. One thing I love about them is how they pray. I have never heard such humble prayers before. Everyone thanks God for getting them up in the morning, and giving them air to breath. They seldom ask for anything in their prayers and if they do they always acknowledge God's will above everything. You really can tell how much these people love God and see His hand in their lives. As I've prayed with more people I've noticed that my prayers are beginning to change. I pray less for the laundry list of thing I need and spend more time thanking my Heavenly Father for all that he has given me even the little things. A Sister in our ward posed a question this week that also has helped me to be more thankful when I pray she said "what if tomorrow you only had the things that you had given thanks for the day before?" We have so much to be thankful for! I get to teach and work with so many people down here who are struggling to get by and yet they don't ask for anything when they pray. It is truly amazing.

Anyway I must close. As always thank you for all the love and support

Love

Sister Aase

Dinner & a visit with the Duke Family

Looking cool on "Baby Blue"

The Rains Came Down and the Floods Came Up

Dear Friends and Family,

So I've been getting a few questions about what kind of food they are feeding me here in the south. Well first of all I've been eating a lot. The members of the Conway 2nd ward are very good to us missionaries and if I'm not careful I will have to be rolled to my next area. I haven't eaten anything really strange yet though we have a member who has promised to feed us raccoon and squirrel next time we come over. Don't quite know how I feel about that yet. But I have had a lot of southern staples over the past month and people are always so surprised when I tell them I have never had _____ before. For example chicken fried steak, southern cheese dip, banana pudding, and chicken spaghetti. Also EVERYONE here has a garden so every veggie that we eat is home grown which is really cool. The best food that I have discovered here in Conway though are pineapple whips. OH MY GOODNESS SO GOOD! They are kind of like pineapple ice cream but without the ice cream and added stuff. So Good! 

Sister Aase & Sister Mecham with Pineapple Whip - YUM

This week was awesome as always. It is really cool to be missionary. I wake up everyday with a purpose and with excitement to go forward and I go to bed each night exhausted but so happy to be where I am. This week we started teaching Tami's grandson Kameron who is seriously the most spiritual 9 year old I have ever met! It was really cool we taught him about the restoration and he was absorbed! He brings his Book of Mormon everywhere, even the grocery store! We asked him after our first lesson to pray about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. Then we came over the next day and before we could even ask if he prayed he says "Just so you know I prayed last night and I got a really good feeling and I know that Joseph Smith is true!" #coolestkidever! I wish I was more like him. He is so excited about the gospel and he truly loves the Lord and loves learning about the gospel (I mean seriously who takes their Book of Mormon to the Grocery Store!) He is a great example of why Christ tells us again and again to become like little children. So he is getting baptized with his grandma and he is so excited! Tami and him both came to church along with another one of Tami's grandkids Gracie who is two and the cutest thing ever! I wish I had taken a picture of her on Sunday she was dressed in a pink dress with sunglasses and high heels and she strutted into sacrament meeting #socuteIcoulddie

Also this week Sister Mecham and I became inspired and decided that our ward needed to have a big activity so that members could invite their friends to the church. So we are putting together a carnival. It is going to be awesome! And while the carnival is going on outside we will be giving church tours inside. We are pretty excited!

Yesterday in church the sacrament theme was missionary work. One of the speakers was talking about how members don't need to be worried about knowing everything before talking to a friend about the gospel and he quoted the same thing I've been quoting to myself since I got out here that is "You know enough" Then he added and if you don't know something ask the missionaries. And I suddenly became very aware that the ward looks to me and Sister Mecham a lot. We are suppose to be the experts they can come to with questions about sharing the gospel or teaching the gospel. That is a little overwhelming for a month old missionary. But I love that I'm learning along with the members how to share the gospel and how to be a better missionary and I hope that I would be able to answer their question if they ever came to me with them. 

As always thank you for the emails and letter I read and appreciate all of them!

Love

Sister Aase

PS   This week the rains came down and the floods came up and my raincoat was amazing! Also I am loving my little bike basket. Bike picture next week for sure.