Hello All!
Greetings from Sudbu - Wait - not Sudbury. I have been
transferred! I am now serving in Orillia. It is a smaller town
(Only 30,000 people) and I am excited to be here. My new address (for
those of you who are just dying to send me a letter) is:
Elder Austin James Ashcraft
201 Barrie Rd. #1
Orillia, ON L3V 2P6
CANADA
I hope to hear from you all soon. My new companion
is Elder Ladet. He is from Alaska and is the only Black
missionary in the mission. I am excited to work with him. Guess what
else? I am finally driving again! After almost 5 months of not
touching a steering wheel, I am the designated
driver. Elder Ladet does not have a license,
so Elder Barberi (The fleet coordinator called me on Tuesday and told
me that I would be driving. He told me that Orillia is in what they call
the "Snow Belt." (hmmm.... I wonder what that means...)
He said "There is going to be some snow and, Where are you from,
again?" "Salt Lake" "Good! You know how to
drive in snow!" Anyway. That will be fun. I am driving a
2007 Malibu. It's pretty nice, but believe it or not, it is one of the
older cars in the Mission. The Entire North Zone this transfer got brand
new Ford Fusions. I guess they have a really good All Wheel Drive, so all
the areas (Except Sudbury - no car still.) got Ford Fusions for the
winter. Pretty sweet. But anyway, let me tell you about the last
week....
The end of the transfer was good. We picked up a few really good
contacts in the last few days, and we met with a lot of less
active members. We met with Bro and Sis Cecol and watched a movie with
them. We still didn't get him to come out to church, though.
Hopefully Elder Smart will keep working on Him. We also met
with Mitch, who is kind of lost right now. He knows what he needs to do
and he just is not doing it. Anyway. We had to help out
quite a bit at church on Sunday. Rene did not show up, so the Zone
Leaders had to teach Sunday School. Elder Smart and I were in
Primary teaching the Valiant Boys. 12 of them. It was a lot of
fun, to say the least. We had to deal with quite a few things that could
have broken out into fist fights. I also was asked by Sister Mantysaari
if I could come into her class to sing "Search, Ponder and
Pray." So I stepped out during Opening Exercises in Primary, we
left the boys for a few minutes and went and sang the song for her.
Interesting ward.
On Monday we did our deep clean of our apartment. The place was
spotless. We got our transfer calls that night. We went home and
got a flood of phone calls from all over the mission asking where everyone was
going and such. Tuesday was spent packing. I was still able to get
everything in my suitcases, lucky me. We drove to Barrie (3 hours) and
spent the night there with about 12 other missionaries. I slept in a ball
in the corner. It was great. We got up at 5:00 the next morning
because some of the missionaries had to leave by 6:00 and then I waited
for Elder Kemp to come pick me up and take me to Brampton. I
waited in Brampton at the Stake Center for a long time. Elder Ladet
showed up at about 2:30, and the Car showed up at about 3:45. We packed
it up, left for Barrie, where we dropped off Elder Rollins and picked
up My stuff. We then drove to Orillia, grabbed a bite to eat and went to the
church to help with Young Men's (we had a little note from the Other
Elders) We are whitewashing the Area, by the way. I have to learn
another area from the ground up. It will be good. I am not quite so
timid and shy as last time that happened.
RANDOM!!!!.....Dad- work sounds like it is going well. Let me
know how things turn out with Brad...Greg Smith is the Choir Director - I bet
he does a good job. What songs are you singing? And Veteran's Day -
Alex Boye? What a great concert that must have been. Oh, Alex My
Boye.... What a Champ.....Mom - Sister Knowleton is a lot of fun. It's
always great when she comes for Zone Conferences. She makes all the
missionaries laugh.....I hope all goes well with Sharon and Harley, as well as
with the Agnews....Anyway.... I Love You All and I miss you! I hope that
Everything is going well. Have a wonderful Day!
Your Obedient Servant,
Elder Austin James Ashcraft
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