It Will All Work Out!!

Dear friends and family,
We had a pretty great week in Searcy. It was one of those weeks where the days seems really short but the week seems extra long. We finally got some rain which has helped bring in the cooler fall weather and brighter fall colors.

There is a sign here in town reminding me every time we pass it how many Friday's there are until Christmas which in turn reminds me of how little time I have left to be a missionary. 50 days to be exact. That is so crazy! I can't believe how fast time has flown by. I am still loving every minute of being here and am still growing and changing and being shown my weaknesses everyday everyday everyday.  There is a Missionary Myth that at some point you become a perfect missionary. FALSE! I feel like I still don't know what I'm doing most days but I have just gotten really good at faking it and trusting in the Lord to make up for my weaknesses :) I don't think you are ever suppose to become perfect on your mission, just better. And I have definitely become a whole lot better on my mission and will continue to become better.

One thing that has been helping me become better is reading the Book of Mormon. We were invited as a mission to read the Book of Mormon and highlight the names, attributes, words and doctrine of Christ. I am learning so much. I finished 1 Nephi recently and one of the attributes that stuck out to me from that whole book is how Christ always provides a way for his people. There are many examples in the life of Nephi where everything is going wrong and the odds are stacked against him but Nephi's faith never waivers because he knows that the Lord always provides a way. And every time, the Lord miraculously provides a way. He always makes it all work out like Sister Marriott taught us in general conference. I have seen that this is true in my missionary work. We said that a lot this week "it will all work out." And it usually did. For example this week we really wanted to set a baptismal date with some one. We had our own idea of who we would set those dates with but unfortunately those plans quickly fell through. So we turned to the Lord and asked him to help us to set a date with someone. And as always he provided. Daniel and Brittany are both people who we have been working with for a while but haven't been able to set dates with but miraculously both were able to set a date this weekend. Daniel's father finally received the answer that his son needed to be baptized and allowed us to set a date. And Brittany finalized when her boyfriend would be in town to baptize her and committed to being baptized and so we could set a date with her too.

I'm so grateful that the Lord does love us and always will provide a way for things to work out for us. It usually isn't the way we think it should work out but it always is a better way than we could imagine. I love this work and I am so grateful that I get to keep being a part of it even after I am no longer a full time missionary.

As always thank you for all that you do. Have a wonderful week!
Love
Sister Aase

So We Go To WAR!!!!

Dear friends and family,
A civil war has broken out in the Searcy zone this week!  Let me explain. We have a goal in our mission to reach 100 baptisms in the month of November. For the past few weeks we have along with our zone leaders been trying to get everyone super excited for this goal.  But alas it has not been working very well. So last week us and the zone leaders held a council to figure out what to do to get some more pep going in the zone. After some brainstorming we came up with the idea to engage the whole zone in some friendly competition and thus the Searcy Civil War began. We divided the whole zone into the union and the confederacy. The zone leaders are the confederate generals and Sister Pochop and I are the union generals. We kicked off the civil war at zone meeting this week and it was a major hit! The battle for the week was finding new investigators and our side unfortunately lost this round but the battle is not over! The truly miraculous part of this whole thing is that our zone was able to double the amount of new investigators we found this week. And everyone is getting a lot more excited for the November goal! Yay!

Miracles are happening everyday out here in the battle/mission field.  And it is amazing to get to be a part of it everyday everyday everyday.
As always thank you for everything y'all do. Hope y'all have an awesome week
Love
Sister Aase

Another Good Week

Dear friends and family,

It has been a good week here in Searcy. I am just loving this fall weather! It is perfect bonfire weather and we were lucky enough to go to two this week :)  We were almost attacked by a chicken that was just strutting about an apartment complex, helped a 90 year old lady set up a facebook, witnessed some bingo drama and dealt with many a crazy person. All this makes for a good week :)

 

We went on exchanges with the Jacksonville sisters this week. The beautiful Sister Hyer came to Searcy with me and we had a wonderful time together. She is awesome! Together we experienced one of the oddest culinary inventions I have ever seen....the pickle and onion sandwich. It was surprisingly very good, though we still can't figure out why.  Also this week we had a really great specialized meeting. President Wakolo talked about the plan of salvation or the plan of happiness. He reminded me that this plan of our Heavenly Father's really is for us to be happy. Many times things don't work out and we have trials and hard days but that doesn't change the truth that God wants us to be happy. That's why we have the gospel. Because the gospel makes up happy. It just does. I can't tell you how many times Sister Pochop and I have said that this week. The gospel makes us so happy! That's why we are trying our best to share it with everyone.

 

Hope everyone has a wonderful week! As always thank you for everything! 

Love

Sister Aase

General Conference!!

Dear friends and family,
This week was a little bit like the week before Christmas as I waited with great excitement and anticipation for one of the best weekends of the whole year, General Conference. Oh my goodness conference was amazing! It is such a blessing to have a living prophet and apostles on the earth today. I loved the words of our dear prophet President Monson, who like King Benjamin has worn out his whole life in service to others. He spoke about letting our light shine by being an example of the believers in " word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith and in purity." What a wonderful and inspired message. I also loved President Nielson's talk about the need for covenant keeping women in the world. It made me very grateful for all the covenant keeping women who have influenced my life and helped me to become the person I am today. The best part about conference was that I felt like every talk was just for me. All the questions that I came to conference with were answered. I was given direction and counsel as to the things that I need to do as a missionary and as a soon to be returned missionary.

I am so so so grateful for conference! I'm grateful for inspired leaders who receive revelation from our Heavenly Father and can help us to navigate our journey here in mortality. I echo the words of a friend "how do people live their lives without general conference?"  I don't know and that's why I spend my days telling people about the restored gospel. That we have a living prophet once again. That God loves us and still speaks to us today.

As always thank you for all that you all do. Hope you have a wonderful week and if you did not get the chance to watch conference this weekend the church website is super on top of things and so you can go and watch what you missed today! You won't regret it.
Love
Sister Aase