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