From Chinese to ASL

Dear Friends and Family,

It has been another whirlwind of a week here in Pinnacle Mountain. Sister Benson returned home last Tuesday and I have two new companions. I am now serving with the American Sign Language Sisters, Sister Jensen and Sister Kennach. They are both wonderful. They are attempting to teach me sign language which is just slightly easier that Chinese. I am still getting the hang of it. I had my first lesson with a deaf investigator this week and I tried to sign "nice to meet you" at the end and ended up signing something that was not very sister missionary appropriate. As I said still working on it. 

 

It is a little challenging and stressful working with the ASL sisters because we are covering both their area and my area. On Sundays they have to go to their ward to interpret and so the stake has provided a returned sister missionary to be a temporary companion for Sundays. Because working two areas, with two languages wasn't stressful enough, we are going on walk week this week. It should be fun.

 

Despite all the changes and craziness of the past three weeks the Lord's work is moving forward. WE are currently working with lots of really amazing people and more elect souls keep popping out of the woodwork. The Lord is truly hastening his work here in Little Rock. One girl we are working with is named Nygee. We taught her about the restoration this week. It was so cool to see her face just light up the more we explained to her. You could tell that she was understanding and feeling the Spirit testify the truth of our words. We invited her to be baptized at the end of the lesson and she said YES! She was just beaming with the light of Christ. IT was so cool! 

 

I love getting to be a part of this great work! I love getting to see and be a part of miracles each day. It is the best!

 

Thanks as always for all the prayers and support. I have really felt them this week!

Have a wonderful week!

Love

Sister Aase

The Spirit is Truly the Teacher!

Dear Family and Friends,

We had a wonderful week here in Pinnacle Mountain. We survived the crazy storm last night complete with rain, thunder, lightning, hail, bigger hail, and fog. It was quit intense :)

Last week I said goodbye to my trainee Sister Child and tomorrow I say goodbye to Sister Benson who has completed her mission and is returning home. Luckily the American Sign Language Sisters are moving to Pinnacle Mountain to be my companions for the rest of the transfer so I don't have to fly solo. This area is really on fire right now and I am so excited to get to stay and continue to work here this transfer.

One of the highlights of this week was getting to see two less active sisters that I have worked with for a long time at church this week. It was so exciting and it made me so so so happy.

We had an amazing experience with our investigator Linda this week. Linda is an older lady and struggles to comprehend some of the points of the gospel. We were teaching her the restoration for the third time and we were doing our very best to be simple and to use objects and analogies and everything we could think of to help her understand and she was still just not getting it. And to be honest Sister Benson and I were beginning to get a little frustrated. We had invited her to be baptized the lesson before and she agreed she would when she knew. During our companion study earlier that day Sister Benson and I felt very prompted that we needed to ask her to pray and ask if the Book of Mormon was true with us during the lesson. So after trying and trying to explain the restoration perfectly to her, we finally just asked if she would pray to know that the Book of Mormon was true. She agree and so we knelt down and she began to give one of the most humble and sincere prayers I have ever heard. She pleaded to know if the Book of Mormon was true. As she prayed, I prayed that she would be able to receive a witness that she would recognize. As she ended her prayer we sat in silence and Linda just started crying. Earlier she had told us that when she really feels the Spirit she doesn't yell or jump around but instead she cries. I knew that she was receiving a strong witness from the Holy Ghost that the Book of Mormon was indeed true. Sister Benson asked her if she was feeling the spirit. She said Yes. Then Sister Benson asked is she knew the Book of Mormon was true and she said Yes. Then Sister Benson extended the invitation to be baptized on the 16th of May and this sweet sister joyfully accepted :) It was one of the most spiritual and wonderful experiences I have gotten to be a part of on my mission.

I know that the Spirit truly is the teacher. It is more powerful than anything I can say or teach. A latter-day prophet once said "The Spirit is the most important single element in this work." I know that is true. We cannot do anything without the Spirit. I know that this is truly God's work and that I am only the tool. I pray everyday that I can be humble enough and sensitive enough to the Spirit to be the instrument that Heavenly Father can use to bless his children and help them to have eternal life. I am so grateful to be a missionary.

As always thank you for everything that y'all do. I appreciate all the love and support I receive.

Have a wonderful week!

Love

Sister Aase

PS.  After six months of showering in ankle deep water because my drain didn't work I finally fixed it. It took THREE snakes and I pulled almost a full weave of hair out of my drain which was disgusting to say the least but the drain is defeated and I have had the best showers this week. The only down side is I had been timing my showers based on how full the tub was getting and I can no longer do that but I am not complaining.

Also Sister Benson, who suffers from allergies, told me I breath like someone with allergies. She then demonstrated the as mom puts it "the annoying nose thing" that I do. I have accepted the fact that I'm not getting a cold but that I truly have allergies and I have begun the repentance process and am taking allergy medicine.

Come What May and Love It!!!

Dear Friends and Family,

This week was a little crazy. I have been with eight different sisters this week. Two are now in Australia, Four are in Taiwan or on the way to Taiwan, one is home and one goes home next week. Which if you do your math right will leave me companion-less by next week. I have no idea what is going to happen but as a wise apostle once said "come what may and love it."

On Wednesday at transfer meeting I was a little blindsided when I was not only given a new missionary, Sister Child, but also another sister, Sister Benson who was not told she was getting transferred until her name was said over the pulpit at transfers. Sister Child was a Taiwan visa waiter who got her visa the next day. We dropped her off at the airport this morning and she is making her way to Taiwan. I am so excited for her. She is already a missionary pro :) She got the chance to practice her Chinese teaching our recent converts and two new Chinese investigators.

We have had a really great week. Even though we have been very busy the Lord has blessed us for doing the best with the time that we have had and we have been able to find many new people to teach.

Thanks as always for all that y'all do!

Have a great week!

Love

Sister Aase

 

Maddie included the following note to us, but we really wanted to share it. It's the small, simple miracles that happen every day in the life of a missionary that provide perspective, humility and hope.

Sorry the emails have been short recently. We have been just running like crazy. I really am having some amazing experiences I just don't always know how to put them in words. I remember someone telling me before I left that I was going to have lots of experience that I would want to share with other people but that only me and my companion and the Lord would truly understand. It is so true. This week has been full of moments where I had the thought to go see someone and it was exactly the right moment to not only catch them but they needed to talk with someone or we meet someone on the way to their home. There are part member families that are progressing in the smallest and simplest ways but it means the world to me and makes me so happy and excited. There have been sisters who say the thing that I need to hear so that I don't snap because I'm so stressed. I have had so many prayers answered this week and gotten to be the answer to so many prayers. I have really felt this week that I am an instrument in the hands of the Lord. And so even though I have no idea what is going to happen in the next few days I'm not worries because the work that I am a part of isn't mine. And it is going to go forward no matter what. And though many things are changing or could be changing I know that I will continuing to work with all my might, mind and strength to build up the kingdom of God. That won't change.

Love you so much!

Maddie 

An Assembly of God, Non-Denominational, Spirit Filled Methodist

Dear Family and Friends,

My little trainee is currently on her way to Australia. I dropped her off at the airport this morning! I drop Sister Johnson off tomorrow morning for Taiwan.

This week has been a little crazy.

Jenny and Sara were baptized on Thursday! yay! It was such a cool baptism. Even though most of it was done in Chinese, the spirit there was so strong! It was wonderful!  Saturday and Sunday we had the awesome privilege of watching LDS General Conference. Oh my goodness it was so good I don't even know where to begin! I love conference! My new missionary comes on Wednesday. I am excited to train again. And a little nervous but mostly excited :) 

We met such a cool lady last week. Her name is Margaret and she is as she says "an Assembly of God, non-denominational, spirit-filled Methodist." She is awesome! She has such great faith and a love for Christ. You can feel her spirit as soon and  you walk in the door. Many others in her situation would turn away from God but she hasn't not even a little. She is such an example of faith.

As always thank you for all the prayers and support.

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love

Sister Aase

Happy Conference & Happy Easter!!

Hello!

Oh my goodness this has been a CRAZY week. On Monday, hopefully you heard there was a worldwide computer glitch with the myldsmail system. To most people this wouldn't seem like a big deal but to the missionary community it was kinda like the world was ending. Anyway the glitch was finally fixed in the afternoon but we didn't have a lot of time so I let my two companions email and took one for the team and cleaned while they wrote to their families.  Anyway fortunately, because both of my companions are leaving this upcoming week to their actual missions, we get today as a p-day as well so I have time to send a quick email before conference.

We have been running around all week trying to get Sister Hosea and Sister Johnson ready to leave the country. We have been shopping and packing and saying goodbyes all week. Meanwhile we also had a baptism this week. Sara and Jenny are officially baptized YAY! They were supposed to get baptized on Saturday but long story short it had to be rescheduled to Thursday so there was lots of last minutes changes and stress and such. But, with a WHOLE lot of help from the Lord, everything came together and it was a really awesome baptism.

 

Today is the LDS World Wide Semi Annual General Conference and I am so excited! As you know I LOVE General Conference :) Plus I'm wearing a super cute outfit and the weather is sunny and beautiful. And we are getting to spend time with lots of my favorite people today. It gonna be a great day!

Some other things. I'm training again next transfer. My new missionary comes on Wednesday :) I'm excited to get to train again and a little nervous but if I have learned anything from my training experience so far it is that the Lord makes up the difference and does the real training. This also means that I'm staying in Pinnacle Mountain. Yay!

 

This week is going to be a little crazy. I'm taking Sister Hosea to the airport on Monday and then Sister Johnson on Tuesday. They are giving me the truck to drive which is going to be a little scary since I have never driven anything like that before. But I'm excited that I get to be the one to drop them off before they leave for Australia and Taiwan. 

 

Anyway sorry this is a really random email. I don't have that much time because we have a million things to do today to get everything ready for these two sisters to leave. But I love you all! Thank you for the Easter Package! I LOVE the dress :) Also the pictures from Vegas are so super cute! I'm so glad that everyone had a good time. It looks like everyone got a little bit a sun which is good too :)

LOVE YOU!!

Love Maddie