Monday, November 30, 2015

It's Hard to Cry Repentance When You Don't Have a Voice

Dear family and friends,
The weather here is literally killing me. The cold rain has my allergies on the fritz which resulted in me losing my voice about half way through the week. Fortunately with the help of some salt water rinses, a whole bag of cough drops, a priesthood blessing, and some silence I had my voice back in time to call bingo at the retirement home and sing in Ward choir on Sunday. I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Sister Pochop and I enjoyed not one, not two, but three delicious Thanksgiving dinners. They were spread out over two days so we didn't go into massive turkey comas like last year. It was wonderful to get to celebrate the holiday with members of the Ward. I loved getting to reflect with many people this week on the many blessings our Heavenly Father gives us.

This year I am especially grateful for the wonderful gift of getting to serve a mission for the past 18 months. I am so grateful for the amazing experiences I have had and the people I have been able to meet and be touched by. I am grateful that I have been able to come closer to my Savior and to understand just a little more about His atonement and how much He loves us. I am grateful that I have become a little more like Him. And I am so grateful that even after I take off my tag I can still continue to come closer to Him and become more like Him.

Yesterday the new Christmas initiative came out called "A Savior is Born"  It. Is. Awesome.  And the website is awesomer. If you have yet to see it I highly encourage you to. The whole idea behind it is that 2000 years ago a Savior was born- find out why. We shared this with a family yesterday and the girls immediately wanted to know the answer to why a savior was born. We told them the answer could be found in the Book of Mormon. Immediately they grabbed their copies of the Book of Mormon and wanted to know where to start reading so they could find the answer. Oh if everyone could have that type of enthusiasm!  This Christmas season I invite everyone to do a little study and a little reflection on why the Savior was born. A wonderful place to start is in the Book of Mormon.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!
Love
Sister Aase




Monday, November 23, 2015

The Rains Came Down and the Floods Came Up

Dear friends and family,

This week flew by!

On Tuesday we were stuck inside for a little bit due to a tornado watch and a flash flood warning. Sister Pochop and I along with the Lonoke sisters were stuck in Beebe. Fortunately there were some wonderful members who let us stay with them and even fed us dinner :)  We were very grateful that we didn't try driving to Lonoke in the rain because there were tons of flooded streets it was crazy.  On Thursday we spent the day in Jacksonville with the sisters there.  It was lots of fun to get to be with them. The work there is going super well. They had so many people to see that we were all running all over the place all day long!  Sunday the elders in our Ward had a baptism. I had the opportunity to speak at the baptism about the Holy Ghost. I am so grateful for this wonderful gift that comforts, guides, teaches, and helps me so much every single day. The best part of the baptism is that Brittany got to come and she loved it! She is so excited for her baptism which is coming up in two weeks!

We are looking forward to Thanksgiving this week. I love this time to reflect on all the many wonderful blessings that our Father in Heaven has given me. I am especially grateful for the opportunity to be serving a mission at this time. I'm so grateful for all the wonderful people that I have meet and who have touched my life. I'm so grateful that I get to study and share the gospel each day. Most of all I'm grateful for my Savior and all that he has done for me. I love this time of year where we all try to think of him a little more and be a little more like him. This Sunday the Church is releasing the new Christmas initiative video called a Savior in Born. I invite everyone to go watch it and share it because it is so good!
Happy thanksgiving y'all!

Love
Sister Aase





    

Monday, November 16, 2015

The Gift of The Book of Mormon



Dear friends and family,
We had two baptisms this week! Daniel and Grace Conyers were baptized on Saturday. They are the children of a less active family that we started working with a few months ago. We realized that even though they were nine and ten they had not been baptized. It has been amazing to see the family get stronger as we have been working with kids to help them prepare for baptism. They are now coming to church every week and are reading scriptures together. It is amazing!

This week I have once again seen the power of the Book of Mormon. We have this awesome recent convert family in the Ward that we are working with. They are going through a lot right now and we were talking about them in weekly planning last week and felt like they needed some extra spirit in their home. So every night this week we came over about 830 and read a chapter from the Book of Mormon with them and said a family prayer. Usually that house is a little chaotic even at 830 at night but it has been amazing the powerful spirit that comes into their home every night we have come over. We have also seen a difference in how they treat each other since starting to read with them. They all get really excited when we come over to read and are all actually understanding the Book of Mormon. We started in Mosiah and everyone gets to read two verses and the rule is no interrupting or getting up except mom. At the end they all share what they liked and it amazing to see that they are all getting something from what we read.

I love the Book of Mormon. I love the peace that it brings every time I read it. I love that I can answer the questions of my soul and the questions of others simply and clearly by turning to its pages. I love that this book was written for our day and can help us with all the challenges and trials we face. I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon!

Because of this, Sister Pochop and I are inviting people to do something for Christmas. We are giving each family in our Ward a blank copy of the Book of Mormon and inviting them to write their testimonies in it and then to give it to someone before Christmas. The gift of the Book of Mormon is a gift of peace and hope and a way to come closer to the Savior as we celebrate His birth. It is one of the best gifts you can give to someone.  So I want to invite y'all to do the same.  If you are nervous, start by reading the Book of Mormon. As your love for this book increases so will your desire to share it with others.  I'm so grateful for the gospel and for this wonderful work I get to be a part of each day.

Thanks as always for everything you all do!
Love
Sister Aase
 

Monday, November 9, 2015

Sweet is the Work!!



Dear Friends and Family,
We had an awesome week this week!
On Tuesday Sister Pochop and I got to go to Little Rock to welcome the 22 new missionaries into the ALRM mission. It was a little weird to be back in Pinnacle Mountain but it was so much fun to be with all the new missionaries. Sister Pochop and I spent the night answering questions about what the real mission field was like, helping Sister Wakolo with dinner and whatever else she needed and getting everyone really excited to be missionaries. It was so fun and exhausting! I don't know how the Wakolos and the assistants do it every six weeks.

One of the coolest parts about getting to welcome the new missionaries was getting to participate in the testimony meeting at the end of the night. Hearing the testimonies of all the new missionaries uplifted and energized me. It also made me reflect on how much my testimony has grown since I was sitting in the mission home bearing my first testimony 17 months ago. (I can't even believe it has been 17 months!) I am so grateful that I am not the same person and that I have grown an even stronger and more sure testimony of this gospel than I had when I first entered the field.

Another cool experience from this week. On Saturday we got a call from the Elders asking if either of us knew sign language. Luckily my companion knows sign, because my four week ASL crash course being with the ASL sisters has left my mind almost completely. The elders were asking because they had stumbled upon an older deaf lady named Margaret who recognized their tags and showed them her two copies of the Book of Mormon. We were able to visit Margaret and teach her more about the books she had and about the restored gospel. It was a very cool experience and the spirit was so strong. I love these teaching situations because I have to rely so much on the spirit and on my companion to know what to teach and say. And we have to teach so simply in order to understand one another. It was so amazing to testify in my very limited sign language ability that God loves us and Jesus loves us and to feel the spirit confirm my words.

This week we are preparing for a specialized zone meeting that we are instructing at and exchanges and a baptism. It will be a busy week :) But as President Wakolo says "sweet is the work". I love this work so much! I love getting to serve with all my heart, might, mind and strength everyday everyday everyday :)

Thank y'all for everything!
Have a wonderful week

Love
Sister Aase

Monday, November 2, 2015

I'm Dying in Searcy!!

Dear friends and family,
So transfers calls went out this morning and it looks like I'm spending my last six weeks here in Searcy with Sister Pochop. I'm super excited! We have lots of things to do together and miracles to be a part of here in Searcy.

This week was pretty good. We found a super awesome new investigator named Billie Jo. She really wants to have a relationship with God again, in fact she says she needs it in her life right now.  She has loved what we have been teaching her and we are exciting to continue to help her come closer to Christ and gain that relationship with God that she is seeking.  Also this week was Halloween. We had the Ward trunk or treat which was lots of fun. There were some awesome costumes we saw there, unfortunately we didn't have enough time nor creativity to come up with a costume. But I think being a missionary is the best thing to be anyway so I didn't want to really dress up.

Other fun things from this week. I went on an awesome exchange with the beautiful and talented Sister King. She is so fun and we had a great exchange together.  This week Sister Pochop and I get to help welcome all the new missionaries into the field. I'm super excited. It feel like just yesterday that I was getting picked up from the airport and started my first transfer here in the mission field. However that was 17 months ago and I am now the oldest sister in the mission. Sister Pochop lovingly refers to me as the grandmother of the mission. Haha

Anyway thank you for all y'all do. Have a great week!
Love,
Sister Aase