Ring Out Wild Bells.... You know what comes next (Ask Vernie Swenson)....

Hello All!

Greetings from the frozen land of Orillia.  It has been a crazy week, weather wise.  It rained really hard on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Monday it was up to +8.  Then yesterday it dropped to -6.  This  morning it was -11 when we woke up, and one of the members told us that it was going to get down to -21 this afternoon (about -28 with wind chill).  Sounds like a grand old time.  Crazy weather.  I never know what to wear - oh wait – I wear the same thing every day.  Anyway....

Christmas was great.  It was good to talk to the family.  Love you guys! Have fun with the Wii (I still can't believe that you got that.  That is not like mom at all).  I hope that everyone's Christmas was  incredible.  I look forward to hearing all about it.....hint hint.... we spent Christmas Morning at the Witlox home.  We went over there and had breakfast and opened some presents that the Branch Members got for us.  We got so much junk food.  Each little present had a scripture written on it. We had to do a scripture chase and read the scripture, then guess what the present was before we opened it.  It was a lot of fun.  We came home, I called home, and we went to a retirement home to talk to a few lonely people.  There were not many there, so our visit was short.  That evening, we went back to the Witlox's (When they found out we didn't have a dinner appointment, they invited us again - nice people) and had dinner with them.

We were there for a little bit, and then we came home to let Elder Ledet make him Phone Calls.  His dad is in Louisiana and his Mom is in Alaska.  So he waited till the evening because of time differences and such.  That was about it for the day.  Thank you everybody who sent correspondence.  It made me so happy to check the mail and see things for me!  I will be working on getting back to everybody.  It might take a while because p-days are very hectic.  The day after Christmas is Boxing Day.  It is essentially the Day after Thanksgiving - Canada Style.  President told us that we could spend part of our normal proselyting time shopping.  Elder Ledet got quite a few things, but the only thing I saw was a little Gerber Multi-tool for $10. Can't pass on that, right?  It's a fun little toy.  That was about it for our holiday festivities.  Other than that, it has been a fairly quiet week.

We were able to meet with Len, our new investigator. We answered some of his questions about the first lesson that the Lindsay Elders taught. We didn't have too much time with him because it took us a while to find his house. He lives in Bolsover, and there was a bridge that was closed, so we had to drive back around and find another bridge and backtrack. We found it okay, though. He was raised Catholic but he disagrees with some of their teachings and he does not practice anymore. He told us that He likes what he has learned and that he will continue to read more from the Book of Mormon. He also told us that he will pray about it. He will not be able to meet with us this week because of the holidays, but we have an appointment with him next Tuesday. We invited him to come to church, and he said that he might show up. Pretty soft commitment, but it's better than nothing. We will continue to work on that as well.

Our other lesson came with Jessica Haime. She has had some time off, so we were able to meet with her. She asked us why our church does not have a collection plate. It is something that she didn't agree with in the Catholic Church, and she liked about ours. We taught her the principle of tithing. She agreed with it and the doctrine behind it. She is still in contact with Elder (Well, FORMER Elder) Johnson, who started teaching her. That is good. He mentioned to me before he went home that he would continue to keep in touch. I think it has helped, especially during the time that we were not able to see her. She told us that she was going to come to church on Sunday, but the family got the Flu and they stayed home sick.   It has been tough to get people to set and keep appointments because of the season, but we are
hoping that things really take off in the New Year.  It has been good.  

I have set a goal to read the entire Missionary Library (Standard Works, Missionary Reference Library, and Preach My Gospel) starting Tomorrow.  It's going to be fun.  I am excited.  Anyway.  I look forward to hearing how everyone's Christmas and New Year’s Festivities go.  Don't be a stranger.  I love you and Miss You All!

Your Obedient Servant.,
Elder Austin James Ashcraft

P.S. - I got the letters from the Primary - Thanks!
P.P.S. - I also got a little Box from Clark and M.J.....I am a little scared of what is in it....Just kidding.  I already opened it.  Thank you for that good-natured ribbing.  I will enjoy devouring the "U" Taffy.  They needed a win to get BCS. BYU was already down one loss.  Ok. Now I’m just making excuses, when I am probably the most uninformed person Ever.  There's always next year!  Thanks!

I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day....

Hello All!

How is everything down in the Blessed land of Utah?  Such a wonderful place.  Elder Ledet is from Alaska and he's got that Alaskan Pride.  It's kind of like Texan Pride, except the phrase "everything's Bigger in Alaska" actually works.  He rags a little bit on Utah, and I on Alaska, but the fact of the matter - Utah - This is the Place!  Anyway, we have had a ton of snow lately.  It snowed all day Friday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, and last night as well.  It has warmed up a little bit today, and it is starting to rain a little bit, but it is still cold enough to be classified as "Freezing rain."  It's fun.  Especially to drive in.  Thanks for your prayers.  I can see them daily.  

There was one experience that was kind of cool.  I don't know if I shared this one already, but I will do it anyway.  We were stopped at a light, and the light changed.  I went to put my foot on the gas, but something stopped me.  I hesitated, not knowing why I was not pushing the pedal, and then a Bright Red Dodge Magnum ran his red light and came screaming through the intersection.  The timing was such that if I had gone, I would have caught a full speed (about 50 km/hr) Dodge Magnum with my Left Shoulder.  That would not have been fun.  Thanks for your prayers.  They help.  Anyway....

We had a good week. It was a bit rough lessons-wise, but the two other lessons that we did get, we made them count. We got two new investigators. One of them is the one that I mentioned last week - Len Longin. We went by and taught him yesterday and he likes what he is learning. He told us that because he was raised Catholic, the Book of Mormon is Foreign to him, but he likes it as he reads it. He told us he will keep reading and he committed to pray about it. The other investigator is Jeff Haime. We have been working with the Haime's for quite some time, and we had been able to teach all of  them except for Jeff. He was working at the casino and was never available when we were over there. We stopped by and he invited us in and we had a good discussion with him. He has some questions that he really wants the answers to. He is really into science and he is amazed that some scientists don't believe in God. He told us that from what he has seen, everything in science points to God. We left him with his own copy of the Book of Mormon and he said he would read it. We left him specifically with Alma 30, when Korihor is contending with Alma about the existence of God. Hopefully he will read and pray about it.

We talked to Jessica last night and she said that they were going out of town this weekend, but that they were planning on going to church in Brampton. Jessica told us that she was planning on coming to church the past few weeks, but she had a lot of unexpected things come up. She also told that she doesn't want to smoke anymore. She has set a goal to be smoke free before 2009. We will be helping her with that. It has been interesting trying to find new investigators. It seems like all of the potential investigators that we have dropped by have told us to try back after the New Year. We have still been going at it, though. The lack of people to drop-by is forcing us to do more finding. Hopefully we will be able to find someone that will accept the Joyous Message of the Restored Gospel....

Have a merry Christmas!  I hope that everything works out for you!  Have a wonderful Day, and  remember - The Gospel is True!  I love you and Miss you all!

Your Obedient Servant,
Elder Austin James Ashcraft

Pale Through the Glow the Newly Fallen Snow....

Hello All!

It has been an interesting week weather-wise.  It was really cold on Friday and Saturday (down to -18 degrees[Celsius]) and then on Sunday and Monday it heated up to +8.  The snow started to melt and people were saying that it was going to be a green Christmas.  Are you kidding me?  This is Canada! Tuesday it cooled down, though, and we got about 8 inches of snow yesterday and another 8 last night.  So any snow that did melt has now been replaced. It was an interesting week. We did a lot of tracting. We have discovered that it is a bit difficult to schedule appointments during the Holiday Season for most people. We have also done a lot of work with some of the less actives in the Branch. Many of them we got in touch with, but they were busy at the time. Most of the ones that we got in touch with were still very friendly to the Church and told us that we can come back. It is just difficult to get appointments set up. We set some appointments with investigators, but they all either rescheduled or didn't show up. It was pretty tough. We did however, receive a new investigator yesterday.

Yesterday morning, the missionaries in Lindsay (The East Mission) called us and said that they had gotten a media referral for a man in Bolsover (Which is in our area). They had called and set up an appointment with him, and they went to teach him the Restoration. It went very well. I guess he has read the Book of Mormon Before, and is super prepared for the gospel. They set him for baptism on the 11th of January. We will be meeting with him on Monday morning, and we are going to call him later today to introduce ourselves. It was great. I am so excited. I am also very excited for Zone Conference (Tomorrow).  Anyway.... I love you and miss you all!  Merry Christmas!

Your Obedient servant,
Elder Austin James Ashcraft

Like Sable Curtains Closing O'er the Past...

Hello All!

Greetings from the winter wonderland of Orillia.  we have had quite a bit of Snow lately.  Yesterday we got about a foot.  It was great snow, too. Probably the best Snowball Snow I have ever seen.  It's too bad that we didn't have a big group of people to have a snowball fight with.  I'm pretty sure it would have been a great one.

We had a pretty slow week. The two new investigators that we got were Clint and Olive. We (Elder Johnson and I) taught them on Tuesday and we set a return appointment for Saturday afternoon, but when we called to confirm on Friday, Olive said that she had talked to her daughter about us (Her daughter is, I believe, a Pentecostal minister). She told us that she wasn't really interested, but that she could not speak for Clint. She cancelled the appointment but said that we could drop by anytime we were in the neighborhood. We stopped by yesterday and she said that Clint wasn't feeling well, but we talked with her for a few minutes. We were able to clarify Prophets a little bit. She thought that we worshipped Joseph Smith. We were able to clear that up, and she asked for a few more passages out of the Book of Mormon to read. We suggested to her to start at the beginning and read the Introduction and the Testimonies. Hopefully she will keep reading. If nothing else, it is a seed planted for a future harvest.

We have done a fair bit of tracting this week, but have not met with too much success. It being the holiday season, many people are busy and they don't have time to let us teach a lesson. I guess it is just a trying time of year, but we will press on anyway.

We got a phone call from Michelle Haime on Saturday morning. They are having some family turmoil right now, and so we are waiting for things to cool down. Michelle is supposed to call us when they are ready again. On the bright side, when she does, her son, Jeff, might be ready to be taught! Hopefully it will all work out soon.

Christmas is coming.  You can feel it in the air.  It is such a great time of year, and hopefully more people will be receptive to a message about Christ.  There is nothing we can do but to try.

But Anyway.... Randomness prevails! ....Bryson - thanks for the commentary and that stellar Letter that you wrote me- "BRAUGHNT!"  Beautiful - literally.... Tay - only about 10 days left until Christmas Break - Hang in there....Shanna - Still no dice on the Music....Zone Conference is Next Week - I am  excited.  President Middleton has picked a Book of Mormon Theme.  It is going to be stellar.... Dad, Good luck with the Atmel Guy.  I sent you a little bit to work with, but it's been a while.  Hopefully he will be smart and realize what they need to do with the ranging technology.....I love you and miss you all!  To all who are taking them - Good luck with Finals.  Hopefully they are already over.  Have a wonderful Day!

Your Obedient Servant,
Elder Austin James Ashcraft

And Shades of Night are Falling Dense and Fast....

Hello All!

Greetings from Orillia, Ontario!  Things here are quite Christmasy (I hope that is a word).  There is plenty of Snow, and the Christmas lights are out in abundance!  It is an exciting time of year!

So It was a good week.  We did a lot of tracting.  We did not have too many opportunities to teach our investigators (Or so it felt like).  We were, however able to teach Jessica and Michelle.  Jessica is trying to decide if she wants to quit smoking.  She does, but she said that she might want to wait until after Christmas because she doesn't want to gain a lot of weight during the Christmas Season.  We told her about the Stop-Smoking Workshop, and we are hoping to meet with her to teach her the  steps.  Everyone else in the house also smokes, and that would be very difficult for her if she is still around it.  She is afraid of that as well.  She also started a new job this week, so she is now working from 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM.  That's kind of out of the window that we have to work with.  She gets weekends off, but she is busy this weekend, so we will have to try and see how things work out.

We were also able to talk to her mother, Michelle.  She is struggling to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon and of Joseph Smith as a prophet. She was raised as a Jehovah's Witness, and there are some remnants of that that she is still dealing with.  She has since been baptized as an Anglican and as a Catholic, but she has not found the truth and she is worried that she will be baptized into our church and then find out that it is just another church and that she has not found the truth.  One of the Members of the Branch Presidency, Brother Witlox, has volunteered to go with us, as he is a former searcher.  He also searched for which Church is true, and was, for a time, a Jehovah's Witness.  The problem with getting him into an appointment with us, is that the appointments that we set with the Haime's all seem to fall through.  It is when we just drop in that we are able to teach.  Brother Witlox is also paralyzed from the waist down, and it would be difficult for him to get into their home.  We will have to invite them to meet with us at the church.  Michelle also caught Bronchitis this last week and didn't want us to catch it, so she cancelled another appointment.

We were able to meet with Nadia Schubert on Friday.  She hadn't read the Book of Mormon yet, but we recommitted her to do so and to pray about its truthfulness.  We had an appointment with her yesterday with Brother Crosby, but she was not home.  She told us that she works a lot.  Because of the holiday season and the layoffs that have happened, she is having to work more to cover for people.  She is a PSW, and essentially is the hands and feet for people who have been immobilized.  We asked her if she was willing to act on the answer she received, and she told us that she was.  She is having problems parenting her 13 year old son.  He is apparently very bright and knows that.  She is also faced with a decision of whether or not to take in her 13-year old nephew, who is now not allowed to go back home to live with his mom because of substance Abuse Problems.  So she is going through a rough time, but we promised her that the Book of Mormon can Help her.

Yesterday was out travel day.  I was with Elder Johnson.  What a great man he is.  We found a lot of common ground.  We actually found out (Random as this is) that we were born on the same day (1 May 1989) in the same hospital (Cottonwood).  We stopped by to see Clint and he let us in.  He and his mother were there and we taught them the Restoration.  She was asking some very good questions and they both agreed with the things that we taught.  We left them with the Book of Mormon (She asked us if there were any passages that we would recommend) and we have an appointment with them on Saturday Afternoon.  As we were leaving, however, she said, "I think there is a reason that you are here."  Yes, Olive - There is a reason.  I am excited to go back and teach them more.

The work is going well.  We have done a lot of tracting and have found a few potentials that way.  Hopefully, the Christmas Season will make people think more about the Savior and soften their hearts to the message of the restoration. It is such a great work that we are able to do, not just as missionaries, but as those who know the truth.  If I recall, Dallin H. Oaks, in his talk entitled "Testimony" (April 2008 - one of the best talks I have ever heard) said "Those who have the gift of knowing the Gospel is True have the responsibility to share that with those who have the gift to believe." (Referencing, of course, to the gifts of the Spirit).  What an incredible opportunity that we have, especially at this time of year, to proclaim our Faith in our Savior Jesus Christ.  There was a talk by Bishop Burton that I remember where he told us that we should not be ashamed to say Merry Christmas.  Many people say happy holidays or something like that, but Christ should be at the center of everything that we do.  December just gives us another reason to do it!  But anyway....Thanks for all your love, support, and prayers.  Miracles happen when Prayers happen.  I love you all and miss you.  Have a wonderful Day!

Your Obedient Servant,
Elder Austin James Ashcraft

Thanks!  Love You!  Tell Tay to let me know how Ensemble is going and how the Holiday Spectacular went  (AKA The T-Cash Show)