Well hmm...

Dear family,

 

I regret to say that in the last 3 months in the field, I've had more funerals than I have baptisms....0 baptisms and as of tomorrow, a whopping grand total of 4 funerals.

 

It's been a pretty sad week I guess you could say. Our numbers keep going down. I feel like we take one step forward and then two steps back. We probably need to be more obedient. There's always something to improve on and I think this is something that I can always be better at. I have such a great desire to be exactly obedient, it is really hard.

 

We did have a pretty great thing happen on Thursday though! We were on our way to an activity with the YSA Branch and we got a phone call from an Arkansas number that we didn't know. I answered it and it was a lady who wants us to come teach her! MIRACLE! She knows somebody in the Rogers Ward but she lives in Bella Vista. So the person she knows got our number, probably from the Elders in that ward, and she called us! She said she wants to change her life around and start coming to church every Sunday. She said she was going to have to ask her grandma when we can come over but she really wants us to come teach her! We haven't been in contact with her since but we will probably call her today or tomorrow to see how she is doing! We are pretty excited!

 

We also had a member in Bella Vista bring a non-member to church! It is one of her daughter's best friends. So her daughter is in town right now and the friend is going through a rough time right now so they brought her to church! They went to the Bella Vista Sacrament Meeting and then the YSA Branch Sacrament Meeting since she is YSA age. We are hoping to meet with them before the daughter goes back home to North Carolina! The non-member is super nice and as I was talking to her she said that when she was younger, her and her mom used to go to all different churches and that the Mormon church was her favorite. So she seems pretty promising. I love her already and only spent like 2 hours with her! I just love serving here in Bella Vista and the YSA Branch! I couldn't have started out in a better area!

 

 We had a pretty good lesson with A this week! He didn't have a whole lot of time but we went through the Restoration lesson. He thought the Joseph Smith story was an interesting experience and that he really wanted to know if it was true. So he said he would ask God if it was!

 

The YSA Fireside is also moving right along! The memebrs are being held accountable for bringing at least one non-member. We also invited the Springdale Single Unit so hopefully they all can come up here and bring non-memebrs as well! We are going to have it include "Break the Fast." In singles units, they usually have these on Fast Sundays where there is a meal and we "Break our Fast" together. So we will include that and then there will be a tour of the church building for everyone. Then President Shumway (our mission president) is going to come and do like a Q&A type fireside! It is going to be great! I'm so excited for this to be going on!

 

We had to "soft drop" one of our investigators! [ ] He is the 17-year old that knows the church is true and wants to be baptized but his parents are not aware that he has been researching our church since junior high school. We can't continue to teach him or baptize him without his parents giving us permission to do so. We are going to pray and fast for him so he can get the courage to tell them and that his parent's hearts will be softened and accept the decision and want of their son. If they don't, he says he will just wait until he turns 18 and do it without their blessing, as sad as that is. It makes me even more grateful to have grown up in the church and that my parents, along with me, belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the only true church on the earth!

 

Another great thing has happened! About a month ago we met with a less active YSA member, M. He said that he wanted to come back to church but he was going out of town for a couple weeks. So since he has come back, we have been meeting with him. Last Sunday, the 15th, he came to Sacrament Meeting but left after that because he said he felt awkward. We were so saddened by this! So we challenged him to go to FHE the next day. He did and he said he felt better! So yesterday, he came to all three hours of church! The Branch is also going to be hosting an activity at his house! So he really has jumped back in with two feet! We are so excited! He is such a great guy and he deserves the best!

 

This last week we have taken a few people into the Family History Center to get them jump started in family history work and indexing. I love indexing so much! There was a lady there and as I was talking to her I gained even more love for it! She is what you call an "arbitrator." When you index something, it gets sent to an arbitrator who looks over the information you put in and either accepts it or changes it. So turns out, I can do that! You have to index so many names and have a good percent rank. And I have qualified with both! There are so many things that I want to do when I come home and this was added to the list this week. It just keeps getting longer!

 

Last week I challenged everybody to make their own mormon.org account. Who has done it??? If you have, send me the link to it so I can look at it! ANYONE can email me! I just can't email you back...so if you want a reply, you have to give me an address that I can send your letter to. I would love getting an email from everybody! (ashley.pahl@myldsmail.net) So let me know if/when you make your account! Tons of people get on mormon.org everyday! You never know who needs to know your experiences to have sparked interest in learning more about the gospel! :)

 

So, I always begin my email and feel like I have absolutely nothing to say....then I get going and I have a bunch to say! This was a super long email but please don't expect one this long every week! :)

 

I love you all!

 

See you soon then!

 

Love, Sister Ashley Pahl :)

Another week gone

Dearest Family,

The weeks keep flying by! The days are long but the weeks are short. I can't believe that we are already halfway through July!

We had a pretty good lesson with the J last Monday! We were able to watch the Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration movie. Around the First Vision time, their two kids, ages 3 and 17 months, started getting more roudy and Bro. J phone went off, so we could tell that the advesary was trying to intervene on the situation. But Bro. J turned his phone off and the kids eventually went to sleep and we were able to watch the rest of the movie in silence. At the end, we could tell that Sis. Jones was emotional. Then Bro. J tried explaining to us his logic of how Joseph Smith didn't really see Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ but that it as a trick of Joseph Smith's mind. We then told him no and that Joseph Smith really did in fact see Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in the flesh and bone. We feel that Sis. J knows that the church is true but Bro. J is having a harder time receiving or recognizing that witness. He is out of town this week so we are meeting with just her at least once. Whenever we ask them a question, she always looks at him and waits for him to answer. So we feel like talking with just her we will be able to see where her testimony really is.

Something happend this week that is really sad! We've been told that Diana Hoelscher cannot come! :( We aren't exactly sure why the Stake changed their mind and decided against it, but she can no longer come and do a fireside. We were pretty bummed when we found out. It really was going to make a huge impact on the way missionary work is done out here in Bella Vista. Maybe I can get her to come out to Salt Lake when I come home. Sister Knutson is going to have her come to her ward when she goes home in a few months.

We also had a really good lesson with A! He moved to Bentonville recently to work for Walmart and he came with a friend, M, who is an intern with Walmart for the summer and is also a member of the church. The last few times we were going to have a lesson with A, we had planned to meet at his house and he was going to feed us lunch. But everytime we go, lunch isn't finished yet so 45 minutes into our appointment we are finally eating. Then we have to quickly eat, maybe answer a few questions he has, and then go because we have another appointment. This time we planned to meet at a member's house. She, J, is a branch missionary so we were going to meet at her house. M, who is also a branch missionary, was also going to come. So we got to J's house and she ended up having to leave so us, M, and A sat on their front porch and had a discussion about the Plan of Salvation. It was really good! M did a great job in playing his role as a member missionary. We were able to explain the doctrine of the Plan and testify that it is God's plan and not just a good plan that was set out by man. We have another appointment with him this week and we hope it will go just as well!

I want to challenge everybody to make their own Mormon.org account! Here is my account: http://mormon.org/me/8RMS this is one way that we can do missionary work! Also, if you have questions about our church, you can go to mormon.org and talk live with missionaries who can answer your questions! It is pretty sweet! So that's my challenge!

Sorry this is shorter but I've said all I want for the week! Talk to you next week!

Love you all!

See you soon then!

Love, Sister Ashley Pahl

What a week!

Family!

 

Great news! Remember when I was telling you about Diana Hoelscher and how we were going to try to get her our here? Well......she is coming on July 29th!!!!!!! Sister Knutson and I are so excited! When we met with the Ward Council and they said we were a go for this activity we got right into finding out more about how we needed to get things rolling. So we met with our Ward Missionary Leader yesterday and we picked some dates. He was going to check with the Bishop and we were to check with Diana. We called her this morning and so she is coming on the 29th! This is great news because it is before transfers so both Sister Knutson and I will be here for it!

 

We are also putting on a fireside in the YSA Branch on August 5th - also before transfers. We just got a new Branch Mission Leader and he is moving at the beginning of August and wanted to do a missionary fireside before he left! So we are going to be "acting out the Doctrine of Christ." Sister Knutson did it for a Zone Conference once and she said it was the most spiritual experience on her mission yet. We are hoping that it will be just as good this time! The members will bring friends and we will have a dinner and then the activity. We are also hoping to have a Q&A Session with a keynote speaker. They are going to ask our new Mission President - President Shumway.

 

Speaking of President Shumway, we met him and his family on Tuesday! They are pretty much great! We started at 9, had lunch, and ended at about 3. The meeting was full of spiritual uplifting and scriptural references that will help us all so much! President's message was mainly on obedience. Sadly, I guess we are not the most obedient mission. But we are trying!!! Something cool he said that he was set apart by Elder Oaks and in the blessing Elder Oaks said that he blesses the missionaries that will be working with President Shumway. That means he blessed us as if we were there in the room with him! It was cool to know that we were being blessed by a servant of the Lord! It was a great meeting and I'm excited to be able to work with him and his family for the rest of my mission! His wife is great and he brought a 16 year old son, Taylor, and a 14 year old daughter, Abby. It is going to be great!

 

Church yesterday was PERFECT for the Jones! It was pretty much all on the Holy Ghost! We feel like it was super important for them to hear about that! We will be watching the hour long Restoration movie with them tonight! We pray that it will help them gain a stronger testimony of Joseph Smith and of the Book of Mormon! We'll see how it goes.

 

We have a pretty good week planned and couldn't be more excited or ready!

 

I'm so glad to be out here and to be able to be serving the Lord! I grow each and everyday and have prayers answered all the time! It is great to know that Heavenly Father is right here with me to help me do the work that I need to do. I couldn't do it without him.

 

I love you all!

 

See you soon then!

 

Love, Sister Ashley Pahl

Don't mess it up.

Hello everyone!

We'll just jump right into it.

We were able to teach [] again this week! I don't remember how much I told you about him so here goes. He is 17 years old and he's been investigating the church since he was in junior high but he has never met with the missionaries. His friend that is helping with the lessons is []. She is the bishop's daughter and is a great girl. [] has looked up at [] for a while as an example in the church. He recently let her know that he had read the Book of Mormon and that he had questions. So we have met with him twice so far. He has read the whole Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, some of the Doctrine and Covenants, the Gospel Principles book, the New Testament and some of the Old, and when we met with him and talked about the Restoration, he practically quoted the Bible Dictionary where it talks about the Atonement and what it does for us. He is as golden as they come but his family is Southern Baptist and he hasn't told them anything. Not even that he doesn't believe what they believe or that he's been looking in to our church since junior high! He is planning on waiting to get baptized until he moves out so he feels like he can make his own decisions but we are praying that something will happen and he will be able to be baptized sooner.

 

We had a pretty cool experience this week. On Thursday, we had 6 appointments set and we were so excited! So we woke up and were getting ready and we got a text letting us know that our first one cancelled. Oh, how sad were we. Then we had one set for 12:30pm and so we drove there and we were supposed to meet with a less active youth member named []. We were going to meet with him at one of his active member friends house. We got there and they had forgotten, even though we had reminded them the day before. So the mom was gone getting an oil change and [] wasn't going to be able to come but he said we could come by his house later that day. We got in contact with him and were able to set up a time for Friday. So on Friday we went over there and, long story short, one of his friends was there and she was super excited to receive her own Book of Mormon and wants to learn more! Destiny. This was meant to happen. So even though we were sad that we didn't meet with [] on Thursday, we were able to meet [] on Friday and who knows if we would have ever met her had [] not cancelled the day before!

Then there's the []. We've been trying to get them to come to a baptism for like a month and on Saturday they finally did! Bro. [] said he's never seen a baptism done like that before(immersion). We had someone watching their kids so they were able to pay attention so I hope they felt something and have a greater desire to enter the waters of baptism. We feel like they are super close!

On Saturday night we went and had dinner with the [] family. After dinner we were giving our message and when we told them to turn to Mosiah 28 in the Book of Mormon, [], their 11-year old said, "I love this story!" So we asked her to start telling it for us and so she started with King Mosiah and we are pretty sure that had her dad not stopped her, she would have gone all the way to Moroni's promise at the end of the Book of Mormon! She was explaining things that I didn't even understand until I entered the MTC! And she is ELEVEN YEARS OLD!!! She is more qualified to be a missionary that I am! And she is 11! So she was a great example for me to learn my Book of Mormon better! I urge all of you to do the same! If an 11 year old can do it, so can we. She also just finished reading the book of Psalms and when we asked her what she thought of it, she said things that an 11 year old would not normally say. Again, if she can read the Bible, so can we!

Yesterday, we had the opportunity to attend a fireside that the YSA Branch was holding. I was really dreading it at first but I'm so glad we went! The speaker was Patriarch Severe. It was so good! I wish I had a tape recorder so I could forever have record of what he said! I'll just mention a few of the notes I took:

-words in your Patriarchal Blessing will stay the same but the meaning will always change

-Patriarch means father. A Patriarchal Blessing is a Father's Blessing from your Heavenly Father

-Prayer - get down to the nitty gritty. Tell Him about the day and tell Him you will report at the end of the day. Make sure you report and say what you did good and what you did bad. Don't avoid the bad stuff! That's what Heavenly Father wants to talk to you about!

-Priesthood holders should ALWAYS wear a white shirt and tie when giving a blessing.

-the ACT of reading the scriptures will bring blessings no matter if you get something out of it or not.

-Your Patriarchal Blessing can answer ANY question that you have if you are in tune with the spirit.

-If your blessing is short, Heavenly Father tells you less because you need to hear less. Study it and you can get more out of it.

-There is a clock on the wall of your life. Heavenly Father knows what time you are leaving this life. Don't procrastinate the important things in life(repentance) because you don't know what time it is.

-You have a calling in life. You may not know it yet but don't mess it up by making wrong choices now. Have courage to choose the right. Have courage to repent. Have courage to study your scriptures. Have courage to say your prayers morning and night. One day you are going to find out what your life calling is. Make sure you are ready for it. Dont' mess it up.

I'm so grateful to be out here on a mission! I've grown so much already and can actually see the ways that I have grown! It's not just someone else telling me I have but I can see that I have! I hope and pray that I can continue to grow and that I can help others come unto Christ and fulfill my purpose as a missionary.

I love you all! Keep the letters coming!

See you soon then!

Love, Sister Ashley Pahl