Young Women (and Missionaries) in Excellence!!

Dear Friends and Family,

I cannot believe that it is already the end of November! Where has the month gone?! We had a great week this week! We had a fabulous specialized training meeting where we did not get our iPads, but we were taught some very important things. We also spoke at our ward's Young Women in Excellence night which was lots of fun. And most importantly we were able to set a baptismal date with someone!

The person who accepted our invitation to be baptized is named Trina. She is awesome! We taught her a little bit and gave her a Book of Mormon on Tuesday and when we came back Thursday she had already read into 1 Nephi without us asking her to read that far! That never happens! We taught her the restoration and invited her to be baptized on the 20th of December and she said yes! Sister Kalahiki and I are so excited to keep teaching her and helping her to increase the amazing faith she already has. We are also still working with Carmelita who is in the hospital again and Felicia who is really cool and is also reading the Book of Mormon on her own.

I have really gained a testimony of the power of the Book of Mormon on my mission. I have been able to see first hand the power this book has to change lives and to convert people to the gospel. I have always enjoyed the Book of Mormon and had a testimony of it. But I love it now and am coming to understand what it means to feast upon the words in it. I love getting to bear my testimony of the Book of Mormon to people because I know that it will bring us closer to our Heavenly Father and that it contains the answers to ALL of life's questions no matter how "modern" we think they are. The prophets in the Book of Mormon truly saw our day and were inspired in their writings. Everything in that book is for us. If you haven't read the Book of Mormon or it's been a while I encourage you to pick it up. It truly will change your life!

So Sister Kalahiki joined the Church when she was 14 with her two older brothers and never had the opportunity to receive her Young Women's medallion.  So she was given permission to get it on her mission and guess who her mentor is?  That's right, ME :-)  It has been lots of fun to help her work on Personal Progress every morning and she actually is pretty far and hopefully she will be able to get it while I'm still her companion :-)  Maybe then I'll get my Bee :)

Anyway I hope that everyone has a great thanksgiving. Thank you to everyone who is sending me emails and letters I love them! Thanks also for all the prayers and support!

Love

Sister Aase

Do You Want To Hear Our Message?

Dear Family and Friends,

Winter came to the South early! We had our first "snow fall" this week. My companion was so excited she screamed and wanted to play in the snow. I helped her make a baby snowman which was about the size of my hand. She was so excited :) We were on foot this week out in the cold :) We walked a ton but we also saw many miracles and had many wonderful ward members who took pity on us and gave us rides :) Thank goodness for ward members :)

 

Because we were walking everywhere and therefore had lots of time and because we were cold and needed to keep our spirits up and because it had snowed I made up new song. It's called "Do you want to hear our message"

Tune of "Do you want to build a snowman"  from Disney's Frozen

(Knocks) Do you want to hear our message?

Or just let us in to pray?

We never see you anymore please come to the door we know you're not away

You used to be so golden and now you are avoiding us like the plague

Do you want to hear our message? It's all about Jesus

(silence) Ok Bye

(Knocks) Do you want to hear our message?

Please don't pretend like you're not home

I think some new 'gators are overdue we've starting talking to crazy people on the phone - hang in there Travis*

It gets a little draining walking everyday just watching the hours tick by....

(dramatic music: imagine my companion and I walking all bundled up just hoping that someone will want to talk to us)

(Knocks) Do you want to hear our message. We know it will change your life. 

We know what we teach it true and you can too....just let us in. 

We don't want to be a bother we just want to share our testimonies with you.

Can we please share our message? 

 

That's it :) That pretty much sums up the week. We had lots of appointment fall through and people not want to talk but we also meet some amazing people that did want to hear what we had to say and are interested in learning more and came to church. Miracles happen everyday on a mission. 

 

As always thank you for all that you do :)

Love

Sister Aase

*Travis is a former investigator who gave us a call this week. We talked with him for a while and within our conversation he informed us that he had died already, apple products are associated with the story of adam and eve, and he was checking himself into a metal institution at the end of the week. Never a dull moment :)

Starting Bike Week - It's When Miracles Happen!

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope that everyone had a wonderful week :) This week was a little slow especially compared to last week. Some highlights:

• We had Family Home Evening with our investigator, Carmelita, in our mission president's home on Monday. It was really great and President Wakolo was able to answer some of Carmelita's questions which was awesome!
• We had a fabulous zone meeting on Tuesday. I am in the same zone as Sister Mecham and so it was fun to see her at our meeting. We learned about the importance of being diligent as we work toward our goals. Each day we have the opportunity to set goals and our zone leaders talked about how we need to "own those goals" everyday. 
• We found some really cool new investigators. Hopefully we will be able to see them continue to grow.
• We had 21 baptisms in our mission last week YAY! We are definitely on our way to reaching our goal of 100 by the end of November. 

Sister Kalahiki and I are on bikes this week. It is supposed to get really cold this week so wish us luck :) We are excited though because we know that miracles happen on bike week!!

 

Thanks as always for all the love and support. Hope everyone has a great week!

Love

Sister Aase

Ousheta! Halloween and a False Break in

Dear Family and Friends

I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween! We had a crazy week here in Pinnacle. We taught, we found, we passed out candy and we had a lot of laughs. Some of the Highlights

1. We carved pumpkins with the other Sisters for P-day. Lots of fun. If you can't tell from the pictures we carved an Arkansas :)  

2. We were teaching one of our investigators who is getting baptized on the 15th about receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost this week. At one point in her life she was Pentecostal and in that church often receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost is accompanied by speaking in tongues. So we were explaining to her that that is not the case in our church. We were getting ready to go when all of the sudden this old black lady bursts in and, I kid you not, starts speaking in tongues. She kept yelling OUSHETA! It was all Sister Kalahiki and I could do to not just start laughing. 

3. We are living with members and so we borrowed some of the Halloween costumes to try on. 

4. On Halloween night we went to our Ward Mission leader's house and passed out candy and pass along cards. It was a little cold. I was fine but my poor Hawaiian companion was freezing!

5. On Saturday Sister Kalahiki and I were studying when all of a sudden we heard a loud crash. 

Me: "Do you think someone is breaking in?" 

Kalahiki: "Probably."

So we quickly armed ourselves with the first things we could find, a mop and a vase, send a text to two church members who live close and our district leader "Hey we think someone might be breaking in could you come check on us?" and then we go to investigate. It was so scary! By the time Brother Whiteley got there we were pretty sure no one was in the house but we were sure a window was broken somewhere. However upon further inspection by Brother Whiteley, we found that the "intruder" was actually a ceramic jar full of change that had fallen from a bookshelf. So embarrassing! And to make matters worse the Elders showed up as well only to find that we were worried over nothing. 

The best part of the week though was that we found a wonderful new investigator named Felicia. She is amazing and has such strong faith! She loves the Book of Mormon and is excited to learn more! Stay tuned.

As always thank you for all the support and prayers and love! Hope everyone has a great week!

Love

Sister Aase

Hello Pinnacle Mountain

Dear Friends and Family,

Greetings from Pinnacle Mountain :) I hope everyone had a wonderful week. Mine was a little crazy but super awesome as well.

On Monday and Tuesday Sister Cooke and I ran around Conway saying goodbye to everyone. I was sad to leave Conway but I was also really excited for a change, which if you know me is not at all like me - I blame the hair cut. Anyway Wednesday morning we left for North Little Rock and I got my new companion and assignment.

My new companion is Sister Kalahiki, she is from Hawaii. She has been out almost 16 months and is just awesome. She is lots of fun, knows her stuff, and I love working with her. Pinnacle Mountain is a great place. It is beautiful here! We are living with members which is kinda awesome. We don't have to by any cleaning supplies, they have this adorable dog that we get to have as our pet but don't actually have to take care of, and I get to come home everyday and tell someone (who is not my companion) about my whole day. Oh and I'm sleeping in a queen sized bed. Life is pretty great. Pinnacle mountain is the name of my ward and area. The stake president and President Wakolo are in the ward #nopressure but the ward is awesome. Also the ward is full of doctor's so my Grey's Anatomy knowledge is coming in very handy LOL. This town is CRAZY hilly I am dreading bike week already. They also have a WhichWich, two Targets, and Chick-Fil-A so I'm pretty much set :)

Sister Kalahiki and I white washed the area which means both of us are new to Pinnacle Mountain (kinda Sister Kalahiki served here earlier in her mission). So Wednesday after transfer meeting we were given car keys, an area book, and the name of one investigator and told to get to work. AHHH!  Neither Sister Kalahiki or I had a GPS so with mapquest directions and a car full of suitcases we left for Pinnacle Mountain. I am the driver for the transfer and it was a little scary and stressful to be driving to a whole new place without much direction. Luckily we were able to make it to where we needed to be and were able to borrow a GPS from some ward members so we have been fine the rest of the week. But this situation made me think. All of us are driving through life and often life takes us to places that are new and that we don't really know. Without direction it can be really stressful and scary. Fortunately we have been given our very own GPS, God's Plan of Salvation (get it, G.P.S). Because we know what God's plan is we have direction in our lives. We know how to get where we are going and thus our journey is not as stressful or as scary. We still may face roadblocks and detours. We may take a wrong turn and need to recalculate, but because we have the knowledge of God's Plan and the Atonement we have the ability to make it through anything we find on the road back home. I am so grateful for real GPS's that make missionary work so much easy and help us not get lost and for my knowledge of God's Plan of Salvation which makes life easy and helps me not to get lost.

I am so excited to work in this new area. We have already found some very elect people and are going to find more this week.

Thanks as always for all the support and love. Hope everyone has a great Halloween!

Love

Sister Aase

Goodbye Conway!!

Dear Friends and Family,

We had an awesome week this week! We finally hit fall weather YAY! Arkansas is beautiful! The trees are starting to change colors and the weather is cooling down. I got to wear boots and blazers this week! I was so happy!

Besides the beautiful weather we saw many miracles this week. We were able to visit one of our newer investigators who just had surgery and she really opened up to us and is excited to start learning more. We also found this really cool lady named Aviva. The quick version of how we found her: we were leaving her neighborhood and felt like we needed to knock one more door. So we went and knocked on her door. As we were knocking she came home with her kids from the park. She let us right in and said that she had been thinking about getting baptized again. We taught a mini restoration lesson and gave her a Book of Mormon and if all goes well she will be baptized on the 15th of November! We also were able to see a ton of returning members and we had a great specialized training meeting. And the cherry on top we had beautiful weather all week and a car!

So of course after this fabulous week we found out this morning the sad news that I am leaving Conway :( Sister Cooke and I are really bummed but we both know that I am needed somewhere else right now. I had my five minutes of being sad and now I'm just excited and a little overwhelmed at all the goodbyes and packing I have to do by Wednesday!

I love Conway and I love my companion and things are finally picking up! AHHH! But I have learned that you don't grow in your comfort zone and I was definitely starting to get comfortable here. So I know that I need this and that Heavenly Father has a whole new set of adventures for me. I think my new hair gave myh Mission President the impression that I actually was ok with change and that I was getting bored. Dang it :)  As sad as I am to leave Conway I know that it is what I need to do and I am excited to get to go somewhere new.

Thanks as always for all the support and love. Also I appreciate all the complements on my hair :) Hope everyone has a great week. Next time you here from me I will be somewhere new!

Love

Sister Aase

A long wet bikey one

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope that everyone had a great week, as for me and my companion it was a long wet bikey one. But still great. We were able to see a lot of people and do a lot of good. We also had the chance to see the new movie put out by the church "Meet the Mormons." SO GOOD!!! If you get the chance I definitely recommend going to see it!

Funny story from the week. So we met this old lady the other day and she told us to come visit her sometime. So yesterday we went to see her. We got the feeling that she didn't get company very often so after finding out she enjoyed card games we offered to teach her how to play the card game golf. However we didn't realize that this lady had no short term memory when it came to cards. She literally asked the exact same questions every round. "What game are we playing?" "How do you count the cards?" "Wait I can't look at my cards?" by the fourth or fifth round we realized that we weren't bad at explaining it was just that she had no memory :) So funny though and so sweet.

I found a really cool scripture this week during my studies. Alma 5:38-39 It talks about being a part of the Savior's fold. Alma asks "of what fold are ye?" If we want to be able to answer that, we are in the fold of the Savior then we have to listen to him. We have to do the things he says and the things that his prophet's and the leaders of His Church say. And if we will, then we are promised that we will find peace and rest in the Savior's fold.

Anyway not much else from this week. We are excited to have a car again and to be able to really go to work! Thanks as always for all the support. Hope everyone has a great week!

Love 

Sister Aase

PS I cut my hair. I finally have the pixie cut I've always been too afraid to get :) pictures next week I promise :)