Transfers!

Letter from Ashley today!  June 25, 2012

Hello!!!

It has officially been 2 months since I have seen all of you! Crazy! It seems like longer but it isn't. That's okay. In no time I will be home and reminiscing my mission with all of you!

Transfer calls were this last Saturday. I cannot believe that I'm almost done with my first transfer! 12 more! I am staying in Bella Vista with Sister Knutson! We pretty much expected this since she is training me and the training program that we are doing takes 12 weeks to complete! I expect to go somewhere else next transfer. Sister Knutson hasn't been with a companion longer than 2 transfers so I expect to be transferred out next time. You never know though. The Lord works in mysterious ways!

This last week was kind of a doosey. It wasn't terrible but we didn't have the week we were expecting to have. You have some good and you have some bad I guess, right? If we had good weeks everytime we wouldn't be appreciative of them. We just need to work harder and be more obedient and the Lord will continue to bless us!

We met with the []s' this week and we asked them if they felt they have been coming closer to Christ since they started meeting with us and they said yes! Not as close as they'd like but closer than they were 6 or 7 months ago! I was so glad to hear this because I'd been getting kind of discouraged since they don't want to set a date and so it was nice to hear that they feel closer to Christ! So I am fulfilling my purpose as a missionary! Yay!

We also got a new investigator! He is 17 and has been learning about our church since junior high! He has never officially met with the missionaries but he has read the whole Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, the New Testament, and some of the Old Testament. He has also read through the Gospel Principles book! The only problem is he hasn't and doesn't want to tell his family. They are really Southern Baptist and he wants to respect his parents and not go against what they believe. So he wants to wait to get baptized until he is 18, moved out, and he feels like he can make his own decisions. We are pretty sad because of this so we are praying that his family's hearts will be softened. We will see what happens though. The Lord works in mysterious ways and so I know everything will work out in the end in the way it is supposed to.

I am now about to tell you something that will blow your minds away. Just kidding. But Sister Knutson and I were pretty excited! I mentioned last time a lady named [] and how we have a social conversion challenge for the members. Well we were at dinner last night at the []s' home and another member, Brother [], came over to have a meeting with Brother []....make sense? So they had their little meeting and Sister Knutson and I gave the challenge to Sister []. After their little meeting we were giving a general explanation to Bro. [] and Bro. [] told us something way cool!!! We did the challenge with them a couple weeks ago and so they have been praying specifically for the people on their list. They have a 3-year old daughter, [], and she said the prayer the other day.......she prayed for all the people on their list!!!!!! Since they have been praying for these people a lot and [] hears their names all the time and that her parents are praying for them, SHE PRAYED FOR THEM TOO!! Not only were we excited but Bro. [] was too! It is so great to hear that the members are actually doing the member missionary work that we ask them to do! It is not possible for us to teach people if we don't have anybody to teach and the best way to find is through the members, as I have said many times previously. I'm so excited for the work here in Bella Vista!!

I love and miss you all! Thanks so much for the letters that I continue to receive! I am so blessed to have such great family and friends! Don't blink, I'll be home before you know it!

See you soon then!

Love, Sister Ashley Pahl

Hello Again!

Just sent today!  I'm getting better at this!  :)

Dear family,

This week has been pretty crazy! On Tuesday, we went over to a member's house and she gave us 15 referrals! We have been so busy so we have not yet been able to contact any of them. One of them was at church but left quickly so we weren't able to talk to him. We also received another referral from some elders and have been trying to contact that lady with no success. We don't have a phone number for her. Just an address. So we have stopped by twice with no luck. We did leave a note with our number on it.

We were able to meet with the []s' twice last week and plan to do the same thing this week! We were hoping they would come to the baptism last Saturday. They were planning on it but the adversary did some work and some things came up and they were not able to come. Hopefully they will be able to come to the one this Saturday. We are praying hard for this. They do not want to set a date until they know it's true. So that is something else we are praying hard for. We are praying that they will receive an answer at the baptism on Saturday if not before. We are trying to be more specific in our prayers so that the Heavenly Father can bless us. We met with them on Saturday with our Assistant Ward Mission Leader (his family are their fellow shippers). We talked more in depth about the Word of Wisdom and read Doctrine and Covenants 89 with them. They say that once they know the Book of Mormon is true then they will have an easier time accepting the Word of Wisdom. They won't let it hold them back from getting baptized.

The []s. They forgot to get the supplies needed for the Stop Smoking Workshop so he is now planning on starting today. We were not able to meet with Brother [] but we met with Sister [] and her children. He had an AA meeting at the time we were supposed to meet with him so he was not able to be present. We are planning on getting a time to meet with them before Sunday. We feel they are super close to being able to set a date.

Sister Knutson and I have been listening to this talk on CD called "The Missionary Next Door" by Diana Hoelscher. Look her up on Youtube! She is great! She also has one called "Prayers that Reach Heaven." Anyway, we have been trying to implement her idea that she gives in her talk/presentation (she is like John Bytheway). Sis. Knutson has been listening to this CD since she was like 14. So we decided that we were going to write her a letter and see if she would come do a fireside out here in Arkansas! We gave her our number and sent off our letter and have been patiently waiting for any kind of response! Well, the other morning, we had just gone back to our room after having breakfast and the phone rings. The area code is 801 so I'm like....who could this possibly be? I answered and said, "Hello, this is Sister Pahl." The other line said, "Hi! This is Diana Hoelscher!" I freaked out and pretty much threw the phone at Sister Knutson! We were super excited!!! So Diana said that she would love to come out here and do a fireside!!! So that is in the works right now. We hope that she will be able to come before either of us are transferred out of this area. We will see! Ah!! We are so excited! That's all I can say!

Bella Vista is so great! Wild blackberries grow pretty much everywhere!! Sister Knutson and I like to pick them when we are on our morning walk/run. It is fun to pick them and eat them! We also have beautiful sunsets! You know me, I love sunrises and sunsets.

I now just want to say that our Heavenly Father truly answers our prayers. He even answers the prayers that are not said kneeling down. He knows what we need and when we need it. He will answer us in the way that we will best understand and recognize that answer! I was feeling pretty discouraged yesterday morning. We had just gotten a call telling us that one of our investigators dropped us. We were supposed to go see her that night and we were so excited to meet with her! But nonetheless, things happen and people are not ready to receive the Gospel. So I was feeling down and just said a little prayer. In Sacrament Meeting, I received an answer to my prayer! A lady was giving a talk on fathers and she said something that really hit me and I knew that that was my Father in Heaven talking directly to me! It was so humbling and such a great feeling to really know that He cares for me and has a plan for me and a purpose for me to fulfill here on my mission and also in my life. I just need to have faith and trust in Him and His plan for me.

Transfer calls are this Saturday! I can barely believe how fast this transfer is going by. There is a 99.99999% chance that both Sister Knutson and I will be staying in Bella Vista since she is training me. So that will be good! I love Bella Vista and never want to leave! It is not like the rest of the mission. Since we live in "Walmartville," (EVERYBODY and their dog work for Walmart) pretty much the majority of the houses are super nice and not a lot of people struggle with money. On the way to a lesson the other day, we took a wrong turn and ended up in Missouri. The difference was like night and day of what the houses look like and what the area is like. It made me so sad to see these houses, if you can call them that, that are so run down and barely livable. It makes me want to go home and change the world somehow so people do not have to live like that!! I am so blessed to have grown up where and how I did and I am realizing that more as I am out here.

Well, I truly love you all! Thanks for all your prayers.

See you soon then!

Love, Sister Pahl

Great Week!

Monday, June 11, 2012:

Dearest family!

What a great week we have had here in Bella Vista, Arkansas! Sister Knutson and I are feeling super blessed right now. We feel that we are struggling but at the same time we are having more and more people to teach. Every investigator we have has come through a member. We got four new investigators this week! We are hoping and praying that someone will just soak in our message and a miracle will happen.

We are working with the [] who, this week, we are planning on setting a date for baptism. The only problem we will have is their struggle with the Word of Wisdom. He smokes and drinks and she doesn't think that drinking socially is a problem. This week we started the Quit Smoking in 7 Days Workshop with him. He was planning on starting today so we are going to be checking on him during the week to see how he does. He really wants to quit smoking so we think it will be a success as long as he sticks to the program. We are hoping and praying that they continue to have a desire to be baptized. They have been coming to church for two years and have decided that it is time to either be baptized or to stop coming. I hope they choose the first! We are going to do all we can to help them. They both had blessings yesterday from Bishop Peterson. Bro. [] wanted a blessing to help give him strength to be able to quit smoking and Sis. [] wanted a blessing to give her more of a surety that the church is true and to help her stop going back and forth between is it true or is it not. We hope they continue to progress and that we can set a date for them soon!

We were not able to meet with the [] last week but we are meeting with them twice this week!! They are still coming to church and Sis. [] is hoping to attend the Relief Society activity this week. They are going to be working on family history work! We are always praying for them to receive a witness that the church is true. I think they know it is but they just want to make sure. We will keep working with them and hopefully have a date for them soon as well! They are so close!

Then we have []! He came to church yesterday to the YSA Branch with a girl, [], of which we had dinner with her and her family earlier last week. This is his situation: he is from China but he is attending school up in Ohio. He was supposed to leave last Friday to go back to China for the summer but when he got to the airport, his passport was expired so he now has to wait for a while to go back home. His dad and []'s dad work together so [] is probably going to be staying with them while he is waiting for his passport. Once he goes back to China he can't learn about the gospel because the members of the church there are not allowed to proselyte. So, what an opportunity for us to teach! I keep thinking that this was supposed to happen. We were able to meet with him briefly yesterday and talk about how he liked church. He loved the fact that he was surrounded by people his own age group and that they were so welcoming and friendly towards him. He didn't understand why we separated for the third hour so we explained that we have the same lesson but as males and females, we have different roles in our lives so we separate so we can have the lesson according to what we need to be taught so we can apply it to the roles that we have. Once he understood that, it made total sense to him. Other than that, he loved church! We also gave him a Book of Mormon to read and he said he would because he doesn't have a lot of other things to do. We are going to meet with him and []'s family this week and teach him about the Restoration and see how he liked reading the Book of Mormon! He is such an awesome guy and he has such a sweet spirit!

It is amazing to see how the Lord works in our lives. Sometimes things happen for reasons we can't explain. If we are trying our hardest to obey and be good saints, even if we fail, Heavenly Father is going to bless us for our efforts! Sister Knutson and I are prime examples of this! We struggle so much as missionaries. I mean, come on, we are only human, of course we are going to have our shortcomings. :) But even though we are trying our hardest, we are still being immensely blessed!!

I am so grateful that I am out here on a mission. There are some days where I still doubt the reasons I am out here but then something happens and I just think I am so silly for doubting. I know I'm supposed to be here. I love the leaders in our church! There is a certain talk by Elder Holland that I constantly think about out here on my mission. I had the opportunity to watch it while in the MTC and I am so glad because it has helped me have a lot of strength when I felt the weakest.

I am grateful for my Savior and the sacrifice that he made for me and for all of us. He is there for us when we feel like we have nobody there. We just need to remember that He IS there and He is watching us and waiting for us to reach out to Him and ask for his companionship and guidance.

I love you all and hope you are doing well!

See you soon then!

Sister Ashley Pahl

Bella Vista!

Sent on Monday, June 4, 2012

Family!!!

Oh, where do I start?? First of all, I'm sorry if I ever repeat anything. It's hard for me to remember what I have said and what I haven't said.

I guess I'll start with tracting. I don't like it in the least bit! Nobody is interested and they are just rude to you and like to slam their door in your face. That's not fun AT ALL!!! That's why Sister Knutson and I work in a more effective way - through the members. It is a much more effective and a more fun way to do missionary work! Then you get to know the members as well! The majority of the people we are working with have come to be investigators as the result of a member either being a friend or inviting them to learn.

We have a couple, Brother and Sister [], who have investigated the church before but Sister [] has health issues and so they stopped because she didn't want anything to do with the church. Her son, unfortunately, passed away recently from a drug overdose. The Bishop called us and told us that this might be an opportune time to go and see if we can help. Then the Branch President of the YSA Branch and his wife told us the same thing. Their daughter works with him so we called and talked with her a little bit and she said that Brother [] gets up at 4:30 AM every morning, reads the Bible for 45 minutes, and then reads the Book of Mormon for 45 minutes! Amazing! Most members don't even do that!!! We just hope that his wife will be open to hear our message. So we have a lesson with them tonight. We hope that we can be of some help and offer comfort for them.
We have another couple that have been going to church for about 2 years but they haven't been baptized yet. We ran into them at a ward activity last Monday and they told us that they have been thinking about moving forward with baptism. The Bishop called us this morning and said that his family had dinner with them last night and that they said the same thing about baptism to the Bishop. We have an appointment with them on Wednesday and we are excited to see where their testimonies are at and what we need to do to help them move forward with this decision they have made.

We also have a new potential investigator for the YSA Branch!!!!! His name is []. We met him last Wednesday when we went to have dinner with some of the YSA members. He came to church yesterday! He stayed for the whole thing, plus Break the Fast, plus the fireside after that! He said he liked it and we will be calling him today to set up an appointment. He started a new job at Walmart today so he didn't know what his schedule was going to be like.
Our Progressing Investigators are the [] family. They have a 3 year old and an 18 month old, both boys. A couple of lessons ago we tried setting a date with them but they didn't want to do that yet. Other than that they are doing really well. The only thing for Brother [] is he wants to read the Book of Mormon first. We expressed to him that he doesn't need to read the whole thing to know that it's true. So we just keep teaching them. They come to church every week and we are pretty sure that if they were going to drop us, they would have done so already. I want to share an experience that Sister [] shared with us. She is really into yoga and so one time she was doing it and in the last part they are supposed to relax and think of something that calms them down. She told us that she usually thinks of nature but this last time, the first thing that came to her mind was the Sealing Room in the Kansas City Temple!!! (They went to the open house.) She remembers looking into the mirrors and how they just reflected forever. She really liked it! So that tells us that their goal is not only baptism, but the temple!

So that was really cool!! We were excited to hear about that experience of hers! Oh! And I ate fish at their house!!!!!!! It's a miracle!!!! Sister [] made salmon and it had some type of orange glaze on it. It was actually quite good because it didn't have the "fishy" taste that I don't like. So I ate salmon, liked it, and I'm proud of it! :)

This last week and a half has been really quiet. We live with the [] family and there are 5 kids ranging from ages 3-12. Their parents went on the trek this last weekend so the kids went up to their grandparents house in Missouri and they have been there for the last week and a half. It has been super quiet. It will be weird but great to have them back! Their grandparents also have sister missionaries living with them. I thought that was pretty funny. :)

I think that's about it for today. I'm going to start making a list during the week of the things I want to talk about in my emails so that I can remember everything I want to write!

See you soon then!

Love, Sister Ashley Pahl :):)

Great Week!

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Hello family!

The work is going great! It's been a trying week. Sister Knutson and I have been super fatigued the last week. She has been out a year and she's never been so tired in her life so it's not the normal "missionary exhaustion," it's more. So we got a blessing from our District Leader and his companion and we have felt better. We are still working up our stamina though!

We have a lot of investigators and a lot of potential investigators but only a couple that are progressing. But we have a bunch of lessons set up this week so we are hoping to get a couple more progressing! We have a couple and they are so close to baptism! They want to read more of the Book of Mormon before they do. We told them that it is not necessary to read the whole Book of Mormon in order to know if it is true. So at our last appointment, we challenged them to pray and know if the Book of Mormon is true. They said they would. I am so excited for them! They come to church every Sunday and love it. They also come to the ward activities like the Memorial Day breakfast that the ward put on yesterday morning. There were a few non-members there that came with members and we talked to all of them and they all said that we could come meet with them! Members are a HUGE factor in the conversion process! A person needs two types of conversion - social and spiritual. The spiritual conversion is obviously the job of the missionary and the social conversion needs to be done by the ward! 1/1000 doors we "tract" result in baptism. BUT 660/1000 people we teach in a members home are baptized! There is a huge difference! It is only because they know they have a friend. As Pres. Hinckley said, a person needs three things. One of them is a friend. It is so true!

Yesterday as we were leaving a ward activity, we ran into some people that are on our potential investigator list that we haven't been able to get a hold of. They have been coming to church for a while but have never been baptized. So as we were talking to them they said that they were thinking that it is time for them to be baptized. Ahh!!! Without us even having a lesson with them or asking them to be baptized, they said they are seriously thinking about it. How cool is that? So we are hoping that we can get with them sometime this week and set a date for them to work towards! ---what do you know, they just walked into the library!---

In the MTC we are told that one super important thing to do is to earn the trust of the memebrs. So Sister Knutson and I had a meeting with the Bishop on Sunday where we talk about what the successes and improvements are for the ward and for us as missionaries. Near the end of the meeting, he said that he feels that we have earned the trust of the ward! HUGE!! Sister Knutson said that she has never had a bishop say that to her. So we are excited about that and trying not to let it get to our heads. :) Having the trust of the ward means that they are more willing to give us a referral of someone that is close to them, like a family member or a close friend. So we are happy and are working hard so that we can keep that trust.

Well, I think that's about it for today. I hope you all are doing fantabulous!!! I pray for you everyday!

Love you!

See you soon then! :)

Love, Sister Ashley Pahl