I love Arkansas!!

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was really great! Not quite as exciting as our bike week last week but that is just fine with me. Update: my bike has been fixed and is ready for next bike week in two weeks :)

Baby Blue in the shop

Bike nails for bike week

This week we focused on finding new people to teach. We were talking to everyone we could see and knocking on doors and calling former investigators. It was a lot of hard work but we were able to find some great new people who are ready to hear the gospel which is so exciting! The Arkansas summer that everyone has been warning me about finally hit this week and we are expecting 100+ degree temperatures all this coming week. It is going to get a little hot and we are very grateful for the car :)

This week a member took us to Petit Jean, pronounced "petty jeen", which is basically a giant hill that the locals call a mountain. But it is SO beautiful up there, we took lots of pictures and jumped on rocks. Lots of fun :) I'm serving in one of the prettiest places!

We also did a lot of service this week. We helped a member organize her home, we painted fences, we cleaned a yard, and of course we called bingo. I love doing service and we certainly do a lot as missionaries. But it is always fun and gives us a good chance to meet people.

In other news my companion just found out that she will be attending BYU this winter. I'm so excited for her! It is a little weird to think that I won't be going to school this fall. School started today for everyone down here. But don't worry I will still be learning, in fact I was emailed a four page study guide for our zone conference this week. But I'm excited I love to learn and I especially love learning about the gospel. Speaking of learning and studying the gospel…This week I had some really great studies about babylon. Sister Mecham and I always joke about having Babylonian songs or thoughts in our heads which basically means anything worldly. In the scriptures it talks about how we need to come out of Babylon and separate ourselves from it. As missionaries it is really important to do this because we are representing Jesus Christ but it is just as important as members of the Church. We need to make sure that we are staying out of Babylon. That we are in the world but not of the world. It is so important that we do this so that we are able to keep ourselves clean and also so that we are able to lead by example. One thing that I have really come to see as a missionary is the power of example. So many people that I meet want to know more about the Church because they have seen the example of their LDS friends or co-workers. When we bring investigators to church they are impressed by how the other members act in church. Even if you don't think other are watching you they are and so it is important that we are always trying our best to do what it right.

As always thank you for all that you do.

Love

Sister Aase