D&C 24:19

Dearest family!

How have you all been? It's been a long 4 months but it keeps going by faster and faster! Days are long, weeks are short, and transfers (6 weeks) seem even shorter. So I try to have the best attitude and the greatest desire to do everything I can with the time I've been given. On Saturday, we were at a fair (I'll explain later) and we ran into the Stake President, President Stout. He is an amazing man. They just had a Standards Night for the youth and we heard that they were talking about Captain Moroni and how he "rent his coat; and wrote upon it - In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children - and he fastened it upon the end of a pole." (Alma 46:12) So to go along with this, he took off his suit coat, and wrote on it. When I heard this I was like, "WHAT??? He wrote on his expensive suit coat??" Anyway, I thought it was cool. Then there were white shirts provided for all of the youth to go make their own "Standard of Liberty." He is such a great Stake President! Anyway, going back to the fair.....we ran into him and he asked us how we were doing. He then said that his daughter is on her mission and she got physically sick because she was so stressed about being good enough. He asked us if we ever get like that - stressed about being good enough, we proceeded to tell him that we did and that I, Sister Pahl, had actually had a breakdown just the other night! He asked us why? We said because we are girls and we are harder on ourselves than boys are. He then told us that Heavenly Father has called us to be his servants and that he qualifies those who he calls, so why get stressed about being good enough? If we are doing our best, the Lord will do the rest and we will be great in Heavenly Father's eyes. This was seriously such an answer to my prayers! The night that I was not doing so well, I just prayed for help. I didn't know what kind of help I needed but I knew I needed help. Heavenly Father hears AND answers our prayers! I can truly testify to that! If we go to him in prayer, in our darkest hours, or our brightest days, He will answer us. We will be able to know He is there but we have to be looking for those answers. If we aren't looking, we might not find them. The Spirit works in soft and quiet ways. If we don't accept little things as answers, we might miss them altogether. Heavenly Father knows all of us and He knows what we need to hear and how we need to hear it. He isn't going to answer us in a way that we couldn't recognize. If we feel that we aren't getting answers to our prayers, we aren't doing our part. It is never Heavenly Father's fault, He will ALWAYS answer the prayer of his child, what loving parent wouldn't?

Out here in Bella Vista, I am continuously impressed with the members and their efforts to reach out to those in need! On Monday, we had dinner with Sis. Clawson and her two children (her husband was still at work). She is the Visiting Teacher with one of the less active sisters that we are working with! So after dinner, we were sharing a message with them and she started asking how Sister Kelly was. We told her that we hadn't been able to get in contact with them for a couple of weeks but that we were going to stop by after we left dinner. She said that she would try calling once we left and she would try to get a hold of her and invite her to dinner before we got there. To our surprise, when Sister Kelly let us in, she said, "I just got off the phone with Sister Clawson!" I don't know about Sister Knutson but I was so happy that Sister Clawson did what she said she was going to do and that she has made a friendship with Sister Kelly! That is what a true Visiting Teacher should do - make a good friendship with those she teaches! That's the kind that I want to be!

Kate! Kate is the young single adult that some of the Elders transferred to us. Last email, I said that she is going to be baptized on September 8th. Well, we had to push her date back to September 15th because she wasn't aware that she needed to be living the word of wisdom before her baptism date. She had been doing really good with not drinking her coffee, but the day we met with her, she had had a cup because she needed an extra energy boost. But she was okay with it and she is just AMAZING!!! Truly is amazing and has been prepared to receive the Gospel! I love her so much and can't wait for her to be a member of God's church!

We met with Sister Jones this week and we read Joseph Smith History, versus 1-26. The things that she said and agreed with made it seem like she truly believes that what happened to Joseph Smith back in 1820 is true! We all kept saying, "How could these Pastors that are grown men persecute a 14 year old boy if what happened to him wasn't true?" Really, how could they go from caring about him to persecuting and harassing him? It just wouldn't make sense if it wasn't true!

We've been meeting with the Burnetts right after church on Sundays which can be hard because their three children go crazy and it can be really disruptive to us and to the people that are still in church. But, we've decided and they've agreed to commit to a date for baptism! So this next week we are going to pray and give them a date that they can work towards! It won't be for about 3-4 months, but they said that they are goal oriented and so if they have a date, it might help them get over the problems that they are having that are keeping them from being baptized. I hope that this works! I just love them so much and want them to be an eternal family! But they can't be if they can't get over their addictions so I hope that having a date in mind will help them be motivated to overcome their obstacles and temptations that they have in this life.

We have a miracle in the works! One miracle has happened and so I hope that that will lead to another miracle! The first lesson I taught out here in the field was with Brother and Sister Sandford. She recently came back to church and he is her husband who is an investigator. Missionaries have been meeting with them for a while! He is a sweet, sweet man and will one day, I'm sure, be one of God's elect. Every time he's been asked to be baptized, he's said no. He had a job that required him to work on Sundays and so he would sometimes come to church on his lunch break, and in his church attire. He's been looking for a new job that will not require him to work as many hours in the week. Yesterday, to our surprise, he showed up with his wife in a white shirt and tie! We havent' been able to meet with them for a few weeks because they've been doing other things so they told us that he got a new job and he will be able to come to the first two hours of church! So that was miracle number one. Miracle number two starts out with Sister Sandford telling us that she will know when he is ready to be baptized. She thinks that he'll just get up one morning and say, "Okay, I'm ready to get baptized." So, when she was hugging Sister Knutson, she whispered in her ear, "You better start praying to see if it's the right time to ask him again to be baptized." YAY!!!! That comment means that she thinks that he's ready! So, hopefully miracle number 3 is going to be him accepting a baptismal date when we meet with them on Thursday!!! :) That would be so GREAT!!! And we had planned to talk with them about the Atonement. So what better topic to be talking about and then propose a baptismal date? We are super excited!

On Saturday, we attended the 6th Annual Northwest Arkansas Emergency Preparedness Fair. It was so much fun! It is hosted at none other than the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! It was a long and tiring day but I want to do this in Utah! It had all sorts of booths with people that are part of companies that help people get prepared for emergencies! The lady that is pretty much in charge of the whole thing is in our ward and so we asked her for all the information on it and all the different booths they had so we, Sis. Knutson and I, can attempt to put one together in our hometowns! It is so important for us to prepare for disasters! We've been told by the prophets that we need to be doing this!

Another sort of miracle happened yesterday at church! We walked in to our Gospel Principles class and a member of the Relief Society presidency was sitting next to someone that we didn't know! So we introduced ourselves and she said that her son's teacher had told them to try out this church......the website they went to said that the services were at 8:30 and 10 so they came at 9.....odd thing is....our church does not meet at 8:30 and 10, we meet at  9, 11, and 1.....so Sister Knutson and I were discussing it this morning and we came to the conclusion that we think the teacher told them to go to Grace Point, a church right next to ours, so they probably got mixed up and came to our church. Coincidence?.....I THINK NOT!!!! So hopefully they LOVED church and we can get in contact with them and start teaching them! Everything happens for a reason!

One last thought and then I have to go. On Saturday, August 24, 2012, I finished the Book of Mormon. I read it in 4 months. All I have to say is, "IT IS TRUE!!" If you haven't read it, you need to, whether you are a member of the church or not. I promise you as a personal representative of the Lord Jesus Christ, that if you read it, and pray to know that it is true, Heavenly Father will answer you and tell you that it is and it will change your life if you let it!

I love you all and hope you are doing great! I pray for you all the time!

See you soon then!!!!

Love, Sister Pahl

D&C 29:9-10

We had a Zone Meeting last Tuesday and it was really great and has got both Sister Knutson and I are energized and overwhelmed at the same time. Our Zone Leaders set a bunch of goals for us this transfer and it is going to require a lot more work, not like we aren't working already! :) But we are ready to take the challenge and hope that we can do what is required of us. We are on the Lord's errand so we are entitled to the Lord's help. That's what I keep telling myself! We have to teach 20 lessons a week, tract 30 minutes per day, get 5 OTMs a day (OTM stands for "open thy mouth" and it means that we just talk to random people), and do at least 2 hours of unplanned service. Our weeks are going to be packed!! Being busy is the best thing you can do as a missionary! It is the worst when you don't have anything planned and you have no idea what to do. You feel like you are wasting the Lord's time and that is exactly what you DON'T want to do. So I'm glad that we have all of these new goals that we have to accomplish!

We had an investigator get transferred to us from some elders. It is a Young Single Adult female so we probably should have been teaching her the whole time, since we are over the YSA Branch, but oh well. She has a baptism date for September 8th so we couldn't be more excited! She is a really great gal who has been coming to church for a couple weeks! We really love her! More about her later!

We also had a good lesson with Tiffany. She is the friend of a recently returned missionary. We talked a lot about having a sincere heart and real intent when asking if the Book of Mormon is true. She is really devout in her faith and wants to do what God wants her to do so I think that once she knows the Book of Mormon is true that she will do what she needs to do follow what Heavenly Father wants her to do. Josh, the returned missionary, is a great member missionary and he is really an asset in our lessons!

We helped host a booth at the county fair. We were there for 5 hours on Thursday morning. There wasn't a lot of people there and the booth wasn't set up very well and we had been told not to move the display, so we didn't. When the Elders and their Ward Mission Leader, who used to be a mission president, showed up, we told them about how unsuccessful we were and Bro. Abram, the Ward Mission Leader, said, "There's a new sheriff in town! Let's rearrange the display!" So that's what we did and from what we heard, they had more success then we did, so that's excellent!

The Bella Vista Relief Society had a Super Saturday this week and they did dry pack canning. We went and helped out. There were probably 20 sisters who made a food order and all the food needed to be canned! So Sis. Knutson and I went and helped them can all of their food! It made us so happy to see that these sisters are following the counsel of the prophets and doing their food storage! It makes me excited to go home and do my own food storage! I've always had a desire to do all this preparedness stuff but never really did any of it so once I come home, I'm going to start my food storage and everything like that! We all need to be prepared for natural disasters!

As a missionary I'm learning that I am literally an instrument in the Lord's hands. I am a guitar or a piano or a violin and I just wait for the Lord to play my music that he blessed me with! It reminds me of an old movie. I believe it's called "The Maker's Touch." It's about the old beat up violin that is being auctioned off and no one wants it. The movie goes through the life of the violin and how it has had a rough life where it was not taken care of and not played then gets sold and the same thing happens. At the auction, nobody bids for it. Then an old man comes forward and plays the violin so beautifully. All of a sudden, everybody wants it! That's how I feel. I haven't had a terrible life like the violin, but I have definitely had my own challenges. Now I'm on my mission and I'm trying to share the gospel, just as the auctioneer was trying to share the violin. If I teach by the Spirit, the Spirit will be able to testify of the words I speak and everybody will want to partake of the things I share with them, just as everybody wanted the violin after the old man played it. I pray everyday that I will be able to know what to say and to speak by the Spirit so that I can help the people I come in contact with. We all can pray for this, even if we aren't full time missionaries. Members are supposed to be full time finders and the missionaries are full time teachers. EVERYBODY needs the gospel! It is the ONLY way we can live forever with our Father in Heaven and our families!

I'm so grateful to be out here! I hope I can continue to grow and become a better person!

I love you all!!

See you soon then!

Love, Sister Pahl

D&C 1:12, 35

Family!

We had a slow week compared to last week. That's okay though. You have some good and some bad. If we didn't have bad weeks, we wouldn't be able to appreciate the good!

We met with Amber again! Tolliver was in Europe for soccer! Jealous! I wish I was as good as him so I could go to Europe to play soccer for 2 weeks! How cool would that be? Anyway. Amber had read 1 Nephi 1 but had some questions so we read through it and answered her questions. She is a really deep thinker and so she easily doubts herself and her feelings. Next week we will be able to meet with her and Tolliver again and talk a little bit more about the Restoration of the Gospel.

We had a pretty good lesson with the K's. Sister K was having a really hard day. Her marriage is going downhill and so that day she was really down and was very emotional about everything. We read 1 Nephi 1 with her and her daughter O. She is a member but her daughter is not. After we had read the chapter and had talked a little bit about it, I brought up the last verse and how it talks about the tender mercies of the Lord. My mom has always loved that scripture and so it rubbed off on me and it was really good for Sister K to know that she can receive tender mercies. She knows she needs to come back to church but we think that she just has a hard time actually doing it. She needs to feel more of a need to go I guess. She put herself through Nursing School and she has a 4 month old right now plus her 12 year old O. If she is determined to do something, she will do it. We just need to know how to help the Spirit help her to have the determination to go to church so she can receive the blessings from that.

I think I'm going to start a tally for how many times I read 1 Nephi 1 on my mission.... :)

We also got a new investigator on Thursday! She seems really great. She is really active in her own church so she just needs to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon and we'll be good. She was a referral from a guy who just got home from his mission 2 weeks ago! He is on fire! He wants to help us in every way he can and he wants to share the gospel with all fo his friends! So near the beginning of the lesson she expressed that her church didn't believe in a need for prophets today so we talked about that a little bit and we expressed how Heavenly Father is the same yesterday, today, and forever so why would he not have prophets on the earth today if that is how he worked back in biblical times? It seemed like the wheels were turning in her head and that that made sense to her.

We didn't get to meet with the Js or the Bs this week. They went out of town this weekend so that's why we didn't get to see them.

This week was also the first week that I've been here that we haven't had a single investigator at church. That was a huge bummer! The people that usually come were out of town so there was really nothing we could do about that, we can just look forward to next week!

One thing I'm super excited about this next week is we get to go to the County Fair!!!!! Apparantly the people in charge of the fair called our church and asked us to do a booth there! We get to host a booth where there will be tons of people to talk to! We are pretty excited about that! Next week I'll let you know how that went.

Well, sorry this one is shorter. Like I said, we had a slow week and so there isn't a whole lot to tell! :)

I love you all!!

See you soon then!!

Love, Sister Pahl

Great week!

Hello!

This week has been pretty great! We had transfer calls on Saturday and......I'm staying in Bella Vista with Sister Knutson!!!! We are so happy we are both staying and staying together! There are a couple people we just did not want to leave! So we are happy that Heavenly Father still wants us both here in Bella Vista!

We have had some crazy rainstorms the past couple of days! It's good though because we have been in a huge drought! Usually everything here is green but it now is all brown because there is no water at all! So now the southern storms have come out and there are trees all over the place because of the wind. Yesterday there was even a stake wide fast for rain. So we really needed it! We heard that 50% of the counties in the US have been declared to be in a natural disaster because of the drought. Crazy stuff!

We had a pretty excellent week this week and ended it off with a fabulous fireside given by none other than our fabulous mission president! We were hoping for a bigger outcome, but what can you do? You can't take away peoples agency, you can only invite them to do things. :) So there are a few things that I want to talk about from what President Shumway said. It was probably one of the best firesides ever! I wish you all could have been there! First there was a BEAUTIFUL musical number. There is a girl named Madi in the branch. She actually goes to BYU but she lives out here in the summer with her family. So her, a girl from Bella Vista, and two guys sang "I Believe in Christ" a capella. I wish I could sing like Madi! She has the best voice ever! So they sang that in a special rendition to fit their voices. I started crying because it was so beautiful so the spirit was really strong! 

So then Sister Shumway talked and she said some things that I really liked. "Everything you need to know to get back to your Father in Heaven, you learned in Primary." It's really true! Unless you didn't grow up in the church, everything we need to know we learned in primary! She also said, "The Gospel is simple. Simple enough for a 3 year old to understand." I thought of Keira and knew that Sister Shumway was right. I feel like Keira knows her Heavenly Father and knows what the Gospel is without really knowing. So that was great!

Then President Shumway spoke. Let me tell you, this man...is AMAZING! I feel so blessed to have him as my mission president! He told a story about one of his kids. His boy was in teeball and he was a coach. One game his son hit the ball and was running and his dad was the "third base coach" where they tell them to stop or keep going. He was telling him to stop but his son didn't stop....make sense so far?....so his boy noticed that the catcher already had the ball so he leaped in the air to slide for the base. He hit the ground and rolled until he came to a stop about 10 feet from the plate....he was all tangled up and Pres. Shumway was sure he was unconscious. So he walked up to him and slowly turned him over and his son was covered in the red sand stuff with big wide white eyes and he says, " Dad, that was like a carnival ride!" So in the fireside, President Shumway related this story and asked why we don't like life like a carnival ride. We fall all the time and we mess up. We need to live life like a carnival ride! So I challenge all of you to live you life like a carnival ride! It will be fun, right? :) He also talked about how there are 32,000 different Christian religions, none of them believing the same thing and none of them besides our has the authoritative right to say, "Thus saith the Lord..."  Another thing he said was a story about a little girl who was talking about the First Vision and somebody asked if it was true and she said, "Well, why don't you ask God? He was there!" It's so true! Heavenly Father was there in the First Vision with Joseph Smith so if you are having doubts about that experience being true, why don't you ask God? He was there! :) I know he was! Another thing he talked about was his great x3 or 4 grandpa and his conversion story and how he met Joseph Smith. His grandpa said, in relation to the Book of Mormon, "No bad man could have written that book and no good man could have without the power of God."  I KNOW the Book of Mormon is true. If I didn't, I wouldn't be out here on my mission. This gospel is super important to me. Again, if it wasn't, I wouldn't be out here. If you don't know it's true, or are having doubts, ask God. He would know and he WILL tell you.

So now to the work that we are doing....

We met with a 12 year old girl, O, and her less-active mom, Sister K, this week. They are just great! O loves to play soccer so we are going to be best friends! :) They have had the missionaries over to teach them before. We taught the Plan of Salvation last week and O just soaked it all up. She said that it made sense now, she didn't really understand it when missionaries had taught it before. She totally accepted it. We were telling them how we can explain it and say that it's true and how it's God's plan but they have to ask for themselves. O said in response to that, "I totally believe it. Who wouldn't believe that?" It was really great! And Sister K really understands that she needs to be sealed to her husband in the temple if she is going to be with her family forever in the Celestial Kingdom. We are hoping to get in with them twice again this week! We just love them!

A few lessons ago with the J, we just met with Sister J because Bro. J was out of town. We asked her where she thought her testimony was at and she said that she didn't even know if she knew there was a god. So we invited her to pray about it. Start at step one and go from there. So this week we met with them and she told us a story of how she had her prayers answered! So she now knows that we have a Heavenly Father and he knows and loves her. It was a great experience to have her share that and then Sister Knutson and I each shared how we know that we have a Father in Heaven. It was a fantastic lesson!

M is another one we've been working with! He is less active. For about the last month he has been coming to church every week! He even stayed for the whole fireside yesterday! We are so excited for him and happy that he is coming back to church. He is happy to be there and he has an amazing home teacher that is taking real good care of him! That's always nice to have help from the ward and it's not all on us. That's how it should always be!

There are lots more to say but I think I'll stop with that. :)

I love you all. Thanks for everything you do for me and for all you love and prayers! I can feel them every day!

See you soon then!

Love, Sister Ashley Pahl

I never know what to put here...

We had a pretty good week this week! And we have an even better one planned this next week!

We have been doing this "Social Conversion Challenge" for a lot of our dinner messages and active member lessons. A couple weeks ago we did it with a girl named Terra. She is from the YSA Branch. She also graduated from Murray the same year as me; and yes, she knows David Archuleta, she went to junior high with him as well as high school. Anyway, we challenged her to do this and she accepted our challenge. Last Wednesday we had dinner with her, and three of her friends were there! We made it pretty casual and talked a little bit about "the Mormons" and answered some questions that they had. They also asked what we did as missionaries. So we told them. At the end of dinner, we told them we would love to meet with them all again and they all said yes! So we are going to get in touch with Terra again (she went to Utah over the weekend) and set up meetings with them! We gave them all a Book of Mormon and a Mormon.org card with our names and number on it. They all seem pretty friendly and interested in learning more!

In District Meeting on Friday, we did a some real plays on how to better introduce the Book of Mormon. Well, we had an appointment at 3 o'clock after our meeting and we used what we had done in District Meeting and they seem really excited to read the Book of Mormon! They also accepted a return appointment so they are now new investigators! YAY! They have met with the missionaries before but it didn't last very long because their schedule is so busy so hopefully that won't be a factor this time! We are praying and crossing our fingers! :)

We also had interviews with President Shumway on Friday. He is the best ever! I truly think he was meant to be the Mission President here in the Oklahoma Tulsa Mission just because of me. I had intended to ask him for a blessing when I was in the interview but just from talking to him I got what I needed to hear. I am a cry baby and so I cried during pretty much the whole thing. All I have to say is that I KNOW I am so blessed to have the family and friends that I have! I am so blessed to get letters from many of you! Lots of missionaries go their whole mission without hearing from their families and I don't know what I would do if that was me! I LOVE getting letters and hearing how everybody back home is doing! So thank you all for loving me and supporting me and sending me letters! I love you all!

We are working with a recent convert, Amanda, and last week she texted us and said, "I was going to wait until our meeting tomorrow but I couldn't wait. I've been thinking about going on a mission and I've decided that it's the right thing for me to do!" What! So she is going to go on a mission! She got baptized in January and its July and she's decided that she's going to go....she's been a member for 6 months! How awesome is she?! We are so excited for her and she is just amazing.

We are also working with a less active, Michael. He is the sweetest guy ever! He came to church again yesterday and stayed for the whole thing! They are trying to set up a service project/BBQ at his house so that will be some good fellowship for him!

There is a family that we have been trying to contact for the last 3 months, the whole time I've been here in Bella Vista. Well, we finally got in to see them! We saw them TWICE last week and will see them again this week! The wife is the only member but is less active. They have a 12 year old and a 4 month old. So we are excited to be able to continue working with them and seeing progress made with them. They are a great family but have many challenges, as do the rest of us.

Thank you SO MUCH for the package and pictures! I'm going to get a photo album for the pictures so I can look at them easier :) You all are so cute and I miss you so much but I know I'm out here for a reason and I'm going to do everything in my power to fulfill my calling and do the things that the Lord needs me to do out here. I only have so much time and I know I have the rest of eternity to be with you but only a short 18 months to strictly do the Lord's work. So that's what I'm going to do! :) Another thing that happened in my interview with President Shumway: I said that I have a huge desire to be the best missionary ever. He said that he liked that statement all except for one thing. He then changed it to the best missionary I can be. So that is my ultimate goal: to be the best missionary I can be! :)

So the church out here is different in one way....the time changes with the school year. So instead of changing times in January, they change in August. Pretty strange. So next Sunday Bella Vista moves to 9 AM but the YSA Branch stays at 2:30 PM. So we will be at the church starting at about 7:30 AM to about 6 PM. Sounds like a Bishop's schedule! The good thing is we won't have to split up. Right now, Sister Knutson and I go to Bella Vista Sacrament Meeting together and then split up because the Branch starts right after. Then we rejoin for Relief Society in the Branch. So now we won't have to split up anymore!

Next Sunday we will be at church until probably about 9 PM. We have a fireside!!! The YSA Branch is putting on a missionary fireside where you can bring your friends! With a keynote speaker - President Shumway! How cool! So we have a full schedule next Sunday but we couldn't be more excited!

We have transfer calls on Saturday so next week I'll know if I'm going to be staying in Bella Vista or going somewhere else! I hope I stay here! There are so many people to teach and I just love the area and the people! But I know that I'll go wherever the Lord needs me to go! :)

Love you all! Have a great week!

See you soon then!

Love, Sister Pahl