The Return of the Trio

Dear Friends and Family,

I have come to learn that the only thing you can really expect on a mission is that things are going to unexpectedly change right when you start to become comfortable. But that's life I suppose.

I think I mentioned last week that we are teaching a Chinese lady name Jenny. It just so happens that we have a few "visa waiters" in our mission who are going to Taiwan so they speak Chinese. One such vise waiter also just so happened to be serving in the Otter Creek area which is pretty close to Pinnacle Mountain. So we talked to the Mission President and got permission to take this Sister with us when we teach Jenny. The problem was we were driving to get her every other day and so we finally we said we either need more miles or we need her. We got her! so Sister Johnson has now joined Sister Hosea and I in Pinnacle Mountain. YAY!

Sister Johnson is from Salt Lake City. She is 22 and graduated in Business from Southern Virginia University. We already all get along really well and I am so excited to work with her. It is fun to be back in a trio. Every time we sing hymns Sister Johnson sings in Chinese, Sister Hosea sings in Tongan, and I sing in English. I'm sure we sound terrible but it makes us happy :)

Speaking of Jenny, she is doing really well. She loves the gospel and loves learning more and more. Sister Johnson does a very good job at interpreting when we teach. Though of course I don't speak Chinese so I don't really know how good she is. But Jenny seems to understand so that is all that matters. Sometimes Sister Johnson tries to teach us some Chinese and every time it just makes me so grateful that I didn't have to learn another language.

We had a really good specialized training this week. We are changing the way that we have been doing a few things in order to get back on the straight and narrow. Why? Because according to an official email sent to President Wakolo by the mission headquarters the iPads are coming in May! I've been promised an iPad for about 9 months now so I'm trying not to get my hopes up but still exciting.

As always thank you for all that you do. I truly appreciate all the support that I get each week.

Love

Sister Aase

PS: ARKANSAS DOES NOT HAVE SHAMROCK SHAKES. Seriously! What is the point of McDonalds if you aren't going to have the one redeeming factor. I have been dragging my companions to like 5 or 6 different McDonalds and have been very disappointed each time. The word Shamrock in fact is now banned because it is so upsetting to me.

It's So Worth It!!!

Dear Friends and Family,

Hope y'all had a great week. We had a fabulous week here in Pinnacle Mountain! Miracles and more miracles! The first miracle of the week was we were not on bikes! Yay! They switched our car share around and now instead of losing our car every fourth week we lose it every seventh week. And in order for everything to work we have to keep the car for three more weeks. So even though we really wanted to walk this week we took one for the team and are still in a car :) The week got better from there.

On Tuesday we taught a husband and wife named Cory and Ashley. They let us right in and we hit it off right away. We started explaining our purpose a little bit and asking a few questions when Cory told us that both he and Ashley, even though they grew up attending a church, they don't really know what to believe anymore and would love to be taught by us. This never happens. Sister Hosea and I were so excited and went right into teaching about the restoration. They were both very receptive and are excited to learn more.

Wednesday evening we got hit by an ice storm and so we were snowed in all day on Thursday. I've lost track of how many snows days we have had in the past three weeks but we were running out of things to keep us entertained so Sister Hosea and I had to find creative ways to entertain ourselves. This led to us making about 15 music videos which consist of us dancing around our bathroom to mission approved songs. We have also watched the movie Legacy about 10 times. 

 

By Friday the snow had all melted and we were back to work. Saturday we had a SUPER cool experience with an investigator named Jenny. Jenny is from China and has been in America less than a year and so she doesn't speak a lot of English. She was introduced to the Church by her friend Sister Lee, who is in the ward and who is also Chinese and also doesn't speak much English. We had an appointment to teach Jenny Saturday and I was a little nervous about how we were going to be able to overcome the language barrier and be able to teach her. Sister Hosea and I used a combination of Google translate and Sister Lee to communicate with Jenny. I was praying so hard that the Spirit would be there to help teach her and help her understand. It was amazing. Even though Sister Hosea and I didn't say much the Spirit was there so strong. We went back and forth typing in questions and statements into Google and then letting Jenny read and nod if she understood. At the end we, Sister Hosea and I, both felt very prompted to show the video "because of him" (which is a super awesome video that I highly recommend). We were able to find it in Chinese and so Jenny could understand. It was amazing to me how strong I could feel the spirit watching the video even though I couldn't understand what was being said. After the video Sister Hosea invited Jenny to be baptized and she said "yes, yes, yes!" It was such a cool experience. 

 

Such a good week! These week make all the really cold and long and hard week so worth it! I love being a missionary!

As always thank you for all that y'all do!

Love

Sister Aase

We Have Reached the Halfway Point

Dear Family and Friends,

As usual we had a great week here in Pinnacle Mountain despite the rain and sleet and snow. Things are going well. We have people to teach and our recent converts are doing well. And there is a rumor that we may have full car........ this rumor was just dispelled, we will be walking this week. But life is still good!

This upcoming Wednesday I will officially hit my 9 month mark of my 18 month mission. I cannot believe how fast time has flown by! I still feel like a brand new missionary most of the time and still have no idea what I'm doing most of the time. But I also can tell that I am not the same missionary or person that I was 9 months ago.

My testimony of the gospel and of my Savior is much stronger. I am much more confident than I was before. I am a lot more patient with people and not as quick to judge. I understand the power of the Book of Mormon and know that it can change lives. I recognize what it means to be humble and why it is so essential to be this way. I think most of all I have come to understand what it means to have a Savior and how to rely on him.

I think about how 9 months ago I thought that I could be a missionary. I believe that I had studied enough and I had a strong enough testimony that I could do this work. I knew that I would need the help of the Savior but I figured that I could do most of the work on my own and Christ would just go behind me and make up the rest. This idea has changed completely 9 months later. I now recognize that Christ is not just there after all we can do but is there working along side of us always. I now understand that this is not my work but His work and I'm not here to do my will but His will. Just as it says in 3 Nephi 5:15 I 'm here to declare "HIS word among HIS people," and that is something I can't do by myself at all. I have realized that it is a privilege to rely on our Savior not a sign of weakness. He is there to help us because he knows that we can't do it alone. I now know that missionary work can only be done by relying on the Savior and that life is so much better when we rely on the Savior. And this knowledge has made me so much more thankful that "God loved us so he sent his son,"

I am so lucky that I get to continue to grow my testimony of the Savior and his gospel and share that testimony with others for the next nine months. I'm so lucky that I still have more learning and growing and changing to do. Thank you for all that y'all have done for me this first half of my mission. I have appreciated all the support that I continue to get. Thank you!

 

Hope everyone has a great week!
Love
Sister Aase