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)

Invites all wearied nature to repose...

Hello All!

Greetings from the Snowy land of Orillia.  We have about a foot of snow on the ground and it is just lovely.  Who knew that Tracting in a foot of snow could be so fun?  That just reminded me of the song "Tracting in a Winter Wonderland" by Voicemale. Anyway....

This week has been rough. We have not been able to teach many lessons. Our one other lesson was taught to Jessica. We went over and gave her a copy of the Bible. She has finished the Book of Mormon and wanted to start the Bible. We talked about the Bible for a little bit, and that was about it. We set up an appointment with her on Monday night at 6:00, which she called and moved to Tuesday at 8:00. She called at 6:30 asking if we were coming. She had gotten confused at the time. That was when we went over there and met with her. We tried to meet with her a few times later in the week, but every time, something was not going right. On Friday night, her little sister threw a party and kept them up all night, so they slept all day Saturday and her mom slept all Sunday. Jessica did come to church, though. She only stayed for sacrament meeting, and she told us that she would call us when her mom woke up, but I guess that didn't happen. We stopped by to see her last night and talked with her for a bit. We also were talking with her Boyfriend, Andrew. He told us that he had been reading bits and pieces of the Book of Mormon. That was good. Hopefully we will be able to teach him as well. We met with Heidi and Pam, the Recent Converts in the Ward, and they are both doing well. Pam is still trying to kick that last cigarette a day. She says it is now just a habit thing, and the sometimes doesn't catch herself. Heidi is doing very well. she is going to school, working, keeping up with two very energetic little boys, and still managing to study the scriptures more than any recent convert I have ever seen. We were able to go over there and discuss what she read. She has a lot of material to cover (She was given a whole bunch on Sunday, Preach My Gospel, True to the Faith, the Joseph Smith Manual, etc.). She is doing great. We have done a lot of finding lately. A lot of tracting, and we have found some potentials that we hope to meet with later in the week. The work is progressing, slowly, but surely. We hope to meet with Jessica and Her mom tomorrow and re-set her for baptism and possibly her mom as well. It should be a good day tomorrow. But anyway....

Not too much time for randomness, but.... BYU vs. Utah - a bit disappointing, considering how high both teams were ranked.... Thank you to Pace for the little note about it.  Bryson - play-by-play would still be
nice.  Hope they both do well in Bowl-games.....Monday night's festivities sounded like a blast.  We will have to do that again when I am there.  See Mom's e-mail for details on that....But anyway....I love you and miss you all!  Have a wonderful day!  Have a great thanksgiving!  Tell me how it is!

Your Obedient servant,
Elder Austin James Ashcraft

The wintry day, descending to it's close....

Hello All!

Greetings from Orillia, Ontario!  Things up here are going great!  We are getting acquainted with the  area, and I anticipate great things here.  We were able to meet lots of members on Sunday, but some of them were not able to be there because of the weather.  It pretty much rained from Wednesday when we got to Orillia, until Saturday night, when the rain turned into snow.  We got about 4 inches that night.  So needless to say, there were some who were not able to make it out to church.  The members here are great and are all excited to help with the missionary efforts.  The branch President, President Watt, has a son who is serving a mission right now in Salt Lake City!  He is currently in West Jordan, and from what I hear is having a grand old time.  So if you ever run into an Elder Watt, take care of him.  

Anyway, it has been a good week.   I was not quite sure how I would feel leaving Sudbury (it being my first area and the fact that I had been there for 3 transfers), but everything is going swimmingly. Orillia is a great place. I am excited to be here is this great branch. That is probably the first thing I noticed about it. The members of the branch are wonderful and the Branch is very missionary minded. They all want to be a part of the work. There is a missionary correlation meeting tomorrow night with the Branch Mission Leader, Bro Cook, and all the Branch Missionaries. The meeting is open to all members as well, I believe. So anyone who wants to participate in the missionary efforts in the branch will be able to. We have been familiarizing ourselves with the area, we have met most of the investigators, and many of the members. There were some who did not make it out to church on Sunday because of the snow, and we hope to meet them this week. We met with Jessica Haime, probably the most progressing investigator. She is still struggling to quit smoking so she can be baptized. We are also not sure yet of the situation with her boyfriend. He at one point had been living with them, but we are not sure if he still does. We will be meeting with her later this week. She has a testimony, and has read the entire Book of Mormon. She just needs to take care of a few little things before she can be baptized. Her mom, Michelle also has learned most everything. We were able to answer a lot of her questions when we went over there. Jessica's Friend (also named Jessica), started coming over for the lessons lately as well. She saw how Jessica Haime had been turning her life around, and was interested in learning more. Hopefully we will be meeting with her again as well. We also met with Rob and Samantha. We retaught a first lesson and again they agreed to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, but when we went back yesterday for our appointment, Rob told us that now wasn't a good time and that we should try back in a few weeks.

We also met with Heidi and Pam, two recent converts that were baptized about a month ago. They are both doing well and were at church on Sunday. We also have been doing a lot of drop bys. We organized them and made it so that we can be more efficient in dropping by. We were able to set quite a few appointments with many of them (we had 8 yesterday) and we hope to turn them into new investigators.

Elder Ladet is great.  He has a strong testimony and I am learning from him.  He is from Alaska and is one of 4 boys.  He is the only one in his family that is really active, though.  That must be tough for him, but he does very well.  I am excited to work with him.

And now, the moment you have all been waiting for....RANDOMNESS!!!!.....Noelle, Happy birthday tomorrow.  I hope it is a good one.  and congratulations on losing your tooth.  Keep reading and
learning. Thanks for the painting.....Brindy - thanks for the letter.  Keep learning, and even though school is sometimes not that fun, it will get better....Braden - Thank you for the superman card and the letter.  When kids are picking on you, remember this - they only pick on you because you have something that they don't.  You are very smart, and they know that. They just wish they were as smart as you.....Tan - what's the deal?  How is Junior High?....Bryson - life?  Braughnt?.....Tay - are you still alive? How is Ensemble?  What are you doing in your Christmas show?  How is the yearbook?....Mom - You are using the computer?  wow....and I thought that Brindy and Braden were going to change the most while I was gone....Dad – it sounds like work is going well.  A lot of exciting things are happening. Keep me informed.....I got the Thanksgiving Package yesterday, and it made my day.  I was very excited for everything.  The CD's, the candy, and especially the pictures.  Mom - were those just a bunch of random pictures? I really enjoyed that.  Pictures.  Those are great.  But Anyway.... I am running out of time.... I love you and miss you all!!!  Have a wonderful day and keep smiling!

Your Obedient servant,
Elder Austin James Ashcraft

Victory! Victory! Through Jesus Christ Our Lord....

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

Austins very short letter

Hey!

I am in Brampton right now for transfers and the computer only has 15 min. But I am going to Orillia.  My new companion is Elder Ladet.  I don't know my address yet.  I will get back to you as soon as I can.  Depending on Elder Ladet, I might e-mail the full report tomorrow.

Love You!

Elder Austin James Ashcraft

Victory! Victory! Through Him that Redeemed Us....

Hello All!

Greetings from Sudbury, Ontario.  It was hot yesterday.  15 degrees and 100% humidity.  We have had a lot of fog lately, too, which is kind of fun.  you can feel the water in the air.  Halloween was kind of interesting.  We were told by President to not be out on Halloween, so we went over to a members house and ate dinner, then came home early.  That was about it.  We did help pass out candy at their house, though.  We stapled Pass-A-Long Cards to the bags of chips they were handing out.  (hehehe.  Sneaky missionaries we are....)  Anyway..... 

It has been a good week in Sudbury, Ontario.  We had a few interesting experiences.  One of which was on Thursday and Friday.  We had been called by a religion teacher at Marymount High School to come and teach about the church, and the days that we were to teach this class were Thursday and Friday.  We went there, and had a great lesson both times with them.  Interesting, but ever important little tiny detail - Marymount is an all-girl Catholic high school.  That was kind of interesting and a bit awkward (Especially because the second day was Halloween), but the spirit was felt in the lessons.  We taught the first and second lessons to them.  It went well.  The second day, particularly.  We were teaching the plan of salvation and we made sure to let them know that they could ask questions if they were confused.  There were some who were asking questions for clarification, but there were some who were asking what I would categorize "inspired questions."  There were a couple of these girls that sincerely were searching and wanted to understand.  We left the  teacher with a few copies of the Book Of Mormon and some pamphlets, and hopefully someone will read and want to know more.  There was one girl, who asked (this was actually the last question that was asked) "If someone wanted to become a member of your church, what would they have to do in order to do that?"  I hope that we were able to plant some seeds, if nothing else. 

Saturday was our travel day.  I was with Elder Siady.  We spent a lot of time doing drop bys.  We went to a few of the little suburbs and stopped by quite a few houses.  It's a bit more difficult when the area is larger.  We had a few appointments to go to, but none of them went through.  Elder Smart and Elder Lahaderne were in our area, and they picked up a new investigator, Lynn.  Lynn is actually a friend of Sister Gascon, in the ward.  She has Muscular Dystrophy and is afraid of what happens after this life.  They taught her with Bro Babin, and apparently the lesson went very well.  We have another appointment with her tonight. 

Monday and Tuesday were spent finding, mostly.  We talked to a lot of people and planted a lot of seeds for missionaries to harvest in the future.

The transfer calls come this next week.  I will know by the next time I e-mail where I am going to be serving.  It will be interesting.   

But anyway....once again, the King of Randomness rears his head....We are not really supposed to discuss politics in any way, but All I need to say is "One Nation, UNDER GOD!!!!"(Exclamation points added for emphasis).  As long as everyone remembers that we will be fine.....Mom - I got all the winter stuff taken care of.  Don't worry.  And Christmas?  I have really no idea.  I don't really need anything.  If I could get one thing for Christmas, though, it would be a long letter from everyone I know, pictures included, telling me about how their life has been and what is going on.  That's it.  Here it is, everybody - in the words of our Beloved Prophet Joseph Smith, "Write to me a long letter, and tell me all you can...."  Pictures are great as well.  It's hard to believe that it is that time again.....Speaking of food - I found something that made me very happy.  Canadians are very bland in taste -literally.  They don't season anything.  I did, however, find some Bull-Dog.  Good Old Tonkatsu Sauce.  It was (and still is) glorious.....I found out that Elder Smart is related to Abel Smart.  Except his line came from a different wife.  So my companion and I are fourth Cousins.  It's great.  Good man.  I have learned a lot from him.  He is about 18 months out, so he is on his last legs now.  Not too trunky, though, which is good....The trunk or treat sounds like it was crazy.  150 kids?  Wasn't the first time we did it only about 30?  And the costumes sound great!  An Indian in a bush?  Where does Braden come up with these ideas?....Bryson - thanks for the play by play.  Hopefully our defense will pull it together....I wait for your letter - BRAUGHNT!.....  Anyway..... I love and miss you all!  Have a wonderful day, and keep smiling!  

Your Obedient Servant,

Elder Austin James Ashcraft