Hello All!
Greetings from Sudbury, Ontario. It has been another week of
interesting weather, with temperatures ranging from 13 degrees to -9
degrees. Some days feel really cold, but the temperature does not
indicate it. Temperature, Humidity, and Wind Chill all combined make for
some interesting weather. We had one day with the Temperature at
-3, a wind chill that took it to about -10, and 100% humidity, which
allows the cold to bite right through you. It has been interesting, but I
am keeping warm.
How are things back in Utah? Halloween is coming..... What is
everyone going to be? How much candy are we all going to eat that
night? How hyper will we be on Saturday Morning? Anyway....
It has been an interesting week. We were on such a spiritual high
last week, but it seemed like we hit a wall this week. It seemed like
almost every appointment bombed us, and the times that we did get in to see
people, we had to cut the appointment short, either because they had to go
or we had another appointment. We are still having a hard time getting a
hold of most of our investigators, but the few that we have that are somewhat
progressing seem to be doing well.
We are still meeting with Matt. He is the only one that comes to
church. We did not meet with him last week for an actual lesson, but we
did talk to him last Wednesday. His family went out of town for the last
part of the week, so that put a damper on things. We met with him
yesterday and taught him the second half of the Plan of Salvation by reading
Alma 40 with him. We also will be meeting with him on Thursday. He
expressed a concern about the Word of Wisdom. He mentioned that for some
reason, he wants to drink when he gets older. It might be that he rides
bulls and wants to be a cowboy and "that's what cowboys do." We
will see what we can do about that. Hopefully the Spirit will get to him
and he will no longer have that desire.
We met with Victoria and taught her most of the Plan of
Salvation. She doesn't really have the real intent necessary,
though. She keeps telling us that she feels that the path she is supposed
to be on is right in front of her and that she just needs to figure out how to
get on that path. I just had a moment of inspiration writing that.
Next time we meet with her, I will share 2 Nephi 31:16-17, which talks about
"getting on the straight and narrow path." Thank you. Anyway, we
had Dave MacIsaac with us for a lesson with her and he bore a very strong
testimony of finding the truth. Hopefully she will be able to find the Book of
Mormon to be true and act on that.
We also met with Gurdeep Saini - our new investigator. He is a
very smart man from India. We tracted into him and gave him a copy of the
Book of Mormon. We met with him on Sunday and presented the first
lesson. He told us that the testimonies and the introduction of the Book
of Mormon were very convincing. He agreed to start reading and we will
meet him again on Sunday to talk about it.
We had an interesting experience a while ago. We were out proselyting
and it was raining. The night was getting dark, and the streets were
barren. Nobody out. It seemed almost as if we were wasting our
time walking around in the rain. We decided that the Lord had
someone that we needed to talk to that night, so we pressed on. We were
both soaking wet, but we kept walking and talking to anyone we saw. We
stopped by to see Paul, but he was not home. His wife was and she told us
that he had not come back yet. She kind of shooed us away, so
we kept on walking. We had gone for about 20 more minutes
when I reached into my pocket to offer someone a pass-a-long card and I
realized that my tag was missing. The tag on my jacket was still
there, but the other was not clipped on my shirt pocket like it should
be. I knew that I had it when we started that evening, so we decided to
backtrack. We followed the path we had trod, and we walked past Paul's
house, and much to our surprise, he had just pulled in the driveway. We
started talking to him and found out that his mother was on her deathbed in the
Hospital. He talked about that for a few minutes, and then mentioned
something that was very interesting. He said, "God told me the other
night that he had something big in store for me, and he told me that tonight I would
find out what it was." We then related the experience about running
into him, and we gave him a pamphlet about the Plan of Salvation. We both
shared our testimonies with him and he agreed to read and pray about the truth
of the message we shared. We left Paul and made our way back to our
apartment. As soon as I got in the door, I felt my pocket. My tag
had fallen off the front and somehow made its way right into my pocket.
It was a wonderful experience, and I know that we were guided by the Lord.
But anyway....Randomness again prevails..... It is good to know that
the Musical went well.
Taylor....hook me up with the details on what happened. Also everything
else - yearbook, nSEMble, Calculus, Seminary council, Braughnt! (Ask Bryson
about that one), you know-the works.....Bryson - same thing. I want the
play by play of everything - not just the BYU game (this really applies to
everybody who reads this and even everyone who doesn't have a ball - write a
letter - Make a Missionary's day!). Anyway....Mom - it's okay. Only three
more days and Halloween will be over. I got the candy yesterday. It
made me so happy. Real American Candy. I was very excited about
that....It sounds like red Ribbon Week was good.....Dad - I bet that the
experience with Bishop Linford was incredible. Was it someone that was in
the ward? Do I know them?....I haven't gotten the belt buckle yet.
He doesn't compete again until March. Maybe he will mail it to
me....Anyway....I love you and miss you all! Have a great day, and keep
smiling!
Your Obedient Servant,
Elder Austin James Ashcraft
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