And Our Talents Improve....

Hello All!

Greetings from Orillia!  I hope that things are going well down south.  I hope that everybody is back into  the swing of things after the holidays (I mean, it's been a month....;).  Anyway….

We finally got an Investigator to come to church! And we had two of them! We have had 5 or more that have told us they were going to come for about a month, and somebody finally came through.  Jessica Haime came, and we, after church, went over to talk to her. She opened up a little bit about the two obstacles that she has to being baptized - Smoking and the Law of Chastity. She is cutting down on her smoking, and she wants to be done by the end of January. With the other, she is a little lost on what she should do about Andrew, her boyfriend, who is living with her. We advised her to keep reading from the scriptures and to keep praying. We suggested that she pray for understanding and direction, so she will know what to do. We will meet with her later this week and check on her progress. One of the problems that we have in meeting with her is the fact that she works in Barrie from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM. The only time she has at home is the weekend, and she spends a lot of that doing schoolwork. So it has been a little difficult to meet with her, but we are still trying to make it work, and praying that things will work out.

The other investigator that came to church is Kim Bell. She is the girlfriend of a less active member,  Justinn Coombs. They said they would come to church, and we arranged a ride for them, only to have them call us at 7:30 Sunday morning and say that they were taking their baby boy, Deacon, to the hospital. We tried to call and cancel the ride, but we were not able to get a hold of President and Sister Barber. So the ride went to pick them up anyway. Kim had just gotten back from the hospital (everything was fine) and so she came to church with their baby. Justinn didn't come, though. Kim liked the meeting and Deacon slept through the whole thing. That was one of her biggest worries, and he was absolutely fine. We went over there last night and talked about getting them married and Justinn said that he is
working on that. So hopefully in the near future....

We also met with Steve and Brittany yesterday. Brittany has read through 1 Nephi 15 and she prayed about it. She said that she "hasn't seen God or anything," but she "just feels that it is true." We taught them the Plan of Salvation and that sparked Steve's interest and he told us that he would start reading. That was good. We are meeting with them again on Friday. It has been a good week.

Things are going well here in Orillia. We are working on finding more people to teach, and that is a bit of a struggle, but that is how the work goes.  It is difficult to tract in this type of weather (Your nose falls off because it gets too cold), and there are not too many people out on the streets (small town + cold   weather = barren streets).  So we do what we can. How is everybody doing?  You know, I wouldn't have to ask this question if you had already told me....but anyway, here I sit....waiting for some piece of correspondence to come my way....(Thank you to those who have sent, by the way.  I severely enjoy it!)  But anyway....I love you and miss you all! Have a wonderful Week!

Your Obedient Servant,
Elder Austin James Ashcraft

His adorable will, let us Gladly Fulfill....

Hello All!

Greetings from the Frozen land of Orillia!  It was -16 all day yesterday. That's a bit on the cold side.  But we braved it anyway, and got to work. We had a good week.  We didn't get bombed quite as much this week.  We had appointments that went through (which I was very grateful for), and we were blessed by the Lord to receive two new investigators.  The first is Mike Calligaris.  We tracted his house about a month ago, but with the holidays and the weather (He is a snow-plow driver) we had not been able to meet with him since.  We met with him on Wednesday night.  He originally told us that his son, Taylor (6yrs old) had been asking some questions that he could not answer, so he invited us to come back.  I think his intention originally was to have Taylor ask us questions and us give the answers.  That is how the lesson started.  it developed, though, in to a great first lesson.  We got into answering questions and then Mike asked, "So what do you usually share when you visit with someone?"  We explained that the questions that Taylor was asking were very common questions that a lot of people had (Questions of the Soul - Where did I come from?  What happens after we die? etc.).  We continued on that theme and tied it in to a first lesson.  It was great.  We left them with the Book of Mormon and they committed to read and pray about it.  We met with them again on Friday.  We gave them a chapel tour with the Witlox family.  We were talking to him after and he told us that he would be at church.  We were very excited for that, but it snowed pretty hard Sunday  morning and he had to go plow snow and couldn't make it.  We stopped by and set up another appointment with him for Friday evening.

The other New investigator is Kim, the girlfriend/wife/fiancé (We are not quite sure yet) of Justinn Coombs, a less active member.  We stopped by and met with them.  Justinn had been talking about how he wants to start coming back to church.  Kim likes the doctrine and pushes him to go to church.  It is great.  They have a 3 month old son, Deacon, and Justinn told us that that has opened his eyes.  He wants to raise his son right.  We taught through the Plan of Salvation, and they were going to come to church, but Deacon got a rash and they took him in to the hospital Sunday morning.  We stopped by and checked with them last night, and they are doing fine.  They got it taken care of.   We are meeting with them on Friday also.

We have also done some work with some of the less actives in the branch. There are a few who receive us and will visit with us regularly.  Andrew Johnston, Liz Schell, and Cheryl Atkinson are the three that we have worked with the most.  We have been reading from the Book of Mormon with them and trying to get them back into the habit of doing so.  We hope to start practice teaching them as well.  That would help us improve and help them as well to bolster their testimonies.

So yeah..... I was excited about the last week.  It went well.  Hopefully we will be able to keep our momentum.  But anyway....I love you and miss you all!  Have a great week!  Keep on Keeping on!

Your Obedient Servant,
Elder Austin James Ashcraft

Roll Round with the year, And never stand Still till the Master Appear....

Hello All!

Greetings from the Chest freezer known as Canada!  It is pretty cold here.  - 23 last time I checked.  Pretty darn cold.  It's all good, though.  The gospel warm our hearts and keeps us going.  Anyway....

We had a week of ups and downs.  The beginning of the week seemed like it was going to be not very good, but we kept our attitude up and had some success.  We were blessed with 3 new investigators this week.  Jack, the first one, is a native man who has talked to missionaries before.  He was raised Roman Catholic but now follows his Native Beliefs.  He was told by one of his Shamans that this is a time of learning for him, and he wants to learn more about our church.  He applauded our Church's focus on the Family.  That is one thing that he likes about our church.  Another thing that he mentioned is that he likes how we "live what we believe," and how we "are not hypocritical, like most other religions."  We gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and he said that he would read it.  He told us that he will not be able to meet with us until mid-February.  We will try to stop by and check on his progress before then.

The Other two are Steve Ellis and Britney.  We met with them on Saturday and had a great lesson.  Steve does not believe in God, but He doesn't not believe either.  He is not sure.  We told him that there was a way to find out if God was there.  Britney believes in God but doesn't know what to do or where to go because of that belief.  We gave them each a copy of the Book of Mormon and they said they would read and pray about it.  They also told us that they would come to church, but they didn't show up.  We have an appointment with them later this week, and we will answer their questions and resolve their concerns.

We had Steve and Britney, Jessica, and Christina ( a potential Investigator) all tell us that they were going to come to church, and a few others that gave soft commitments, but no one actually showed up.  We are hoping to find out the reason for them not coming as we meet with them this week.

Last night we went to see Justinn Coombs, a less active member.  We met with him and his girlfriend, who isn't a member.  They recently had a child and Justinn told us that being a father has really opened his eyes.  We were able to talk to them and answer some of the questions that they had.  They told us that they were planning on coming to church on Sunday.  His Girlfriend, Kim, is great.  She is pushing him to start going back to church, and she wants to learn as well.  We have another appointment with them on Saturday.  They want to raise their son right, and Justinn knows what he needs to do.  He seemed very sincere as well.  That's good.

The work is going good.  Sometimes it is difficult, and you don't see anybody because it's colder than a well-digger's knee, and who in their right mind would be out walking around in it?  But that's okay.  It's a
great work and I love it. We had our interviews with President Middleton on Monday.  I love that man.
So inspired.  That was great.  I don't really know how to describe it.  I am grateful to have a man like that leading the work here.  But Anyway....I love you and miss you all!  I hope that everyone has a great day.  Keep on Keeping on.  Love ya!

Your Obedient Servant,
Elder Austin James Ashcraft

Come let us anew our journey pursue…

Hello All!

Greetings from the Cold, snowy land of Orillia.  It is snowing right now, and it's going to be fun to drive in it later today.  This e-mail will be short, I don't have too much time left, but here goes....

Interesting week. Our one investigator lesson came with the Haime's. We dropped by to see them on New Year's Day and we were able to talk to them about some things that they had been reading. We had asked Michelle to read 2 Nephi 2, and she remembered a verse that stuck out to her - Verse 13- that said if there was no law, there is no sin, no punishment, no happiness, and no God. And if there is no God, then we are not. She liked that verse and we encouraged her to keep reading. We were not able to meet with them again that week. They all got sick, and when we stopped by on Saturday to invite them to church, they were all trying to recover. So they did not come to Church, either. And then on Monday, Michelle's Father passed away, so they will be out of town until probably Saturday with the funeral and such. We will stop by then and hopefully be able to comfort them with a refresher on the plan of Salvation.

We did a fair bit of tracting and the Lord blessed us with a couple contacts. Some of them seem very solid and we will be stopping by them later in the week to teach them.

The Goals that the Barrie Zone has set (to improve the key indicators) will make Elder Ledet and I stretch a lot, but I know that with the Lord all things are possible. We just need to work as hard as we can while being prompted by our third companion - the Holy Ghost.

I enjoyed Zone Conference on Monday. I have been thinking a lot about how to apply everything into my missionary work, especially the part where we learned about the Holy Ghost using the Light of Christ, and how we need to help our investigators learn the language that cannot be taught (How the Spirit Speaks to them. I came to a realization that, as missionaries, we need to bring the spirit, and point out when we feel it, so that the spirit can work and they can learn what we can't teach. The spirit is what will give them a testimony as well, so we need to live our lives so that we are worthy to bring that spirit to them, so they can utilize their agency and come unto Christ. It all starts to fall together. I love that about the Gospel. Everything just makes sense.

We had a travel yesterday with the Zone Leaders. I was in Barrie with Elder Persons. What a great missionary He is. I learned a lot from him, and he helped me to overcome some discouragement that I was feeling.

I also was very grateful for the instruction that we received at Zone Conference from the  Assistants. Elder Castro's lesson about goals was inspired. His cycle of setting goals was a new idea that I hadn't thought of before. I like what he said about how if we master the concept, our thoughts and desires will turn into our actions, and that will achieve our desired results.  I was very grateful for the opportunity to learn from Elder Anderson as well. He is such a powerful teacher, and I learned a lot from his about finding, especially in these cold winter months. And to top it all off, extraordinary testimonies from Sister Larson, Elder Boren, and Elder Summers, as well as the final comments from President and Sister Middleton. I felt thoroughly uplifted by the Zone Conference. A great experience that I look forward to Every Transfer....

That's what I’ve got.  Have a great week.  New Year's was great.  We had a branch ball hockey game that morning.  That was fun.  Life is good and I am excited to be living it.  Happy New Year!  I love and Miss you all!  Have a wonderful Day!

Your Obedient Servant,
Elder Austin James Ashcraft