Hey lovlies!

How ever are you doing on such a fine and beautiful day as this?  Oh wait... it's raining.  Again!  I don't think I have ever seen so much rain in my entire life!  It's ridiculous!  haha  But you know... life goes on.

I'll do a weekly recap real quick!

Monday-

We woke up, studied, emailed, then we went to go explore P&M Warehouse because that is where the Hunger Games was filmed for part of it.  We think we narrowed down exactly where they filmed it as seen in the pictures that I sent, but it was really fun!  Apart from it being about 30 degrees and windy of course!  Then we went shopping!  We first went to get groceries from Walmart, but then we decided to go over to Kmart and get some NC merchandise (i.e. A Hoodie and some sweatpants).  I absolutely adore them!  I bought them with the money that both sets of grandparents sent me for Christmas!  So thank you Grandparents!  I love them!  Then we headed home to eat lunch, play some games, and Sister B took a nap.  Then we had dinner cancel on us, so she picked us up some "Cook-Out" -- A southern delicacy -- and we headed off to see our Progressing Investigators B and L.  They are progressing sooooo well.  Last week, we were able to teach the Law of Chastity, the Word of Wisdom, and the Importance of the Book of Mormon.  So … they are headed quickly for baptism on the 21st.  If we can get everything taught before then, we can move it up.  :)  After their lesson, we traveled home.  They live a good distance from us, so it takes a while.  Then we planned and went to bed.

Tuesday-

We woke up, studied, and headed out to do some less-active finding that morning.  Two of the three of them weren't home, and one of them was just getting over that nasty flu down here, so she told us to come back another time.  Then the less-active we had a set appt. with blew us off, they didn't even bother letting us know even though we had to drive thirty minutes to get there!  Ugh!  But oh well.  We went knocking/finding around her area with very little success.  You won't believe the finding luck we had this week.  It was so sad.  We then planned for 7 streets.  Okay?  SEVEN!  A whole 3 people were home on those streets, so no luck there, but we did almost get attacked by demon dogs who tried to break through the house's front window just to attack us.  There were like 6 of them!  I don't think we had run so fast and so far in our whole missions!  haha  We also got recognized and asked how many sister-wives we have.  Seriously!?  haha  We then went to uptown to go street contacting and then went to go try to teach a couple of facebook lessons.  Then we got picked up for dinner and were able to teach a wonderful lesson on how the kids of the family could be missionaries now.  We taught them about how they can invite their friends and family to their brother's baptism for the 8th and they said they each wanted to invite like 3 friends and their families.  So hopefully we will get some new investigators as a result of that.  :)  Then we went home, planned, and went to sleep.

Wednesday-

We woke up, studied, and headed straight for District Meeting.  We got there quite early, so we practiced a song that Sister B might be playing at that baptism on the 8th.  Then we walked in, still a few mins early, and the Gastonia Sisters were there.  Oh the things our district talks about.  You'll have to remind me to tell you some of the things Sister M comes up with some day.  But now is not the time... ahahaha  THE SUSPENSE!  ;)  So we had a wonderful DM on how to be more bold and loving!  Then we went to lunch at a place called Newt's.  SUCH GOOD BURGERS!  It's amazing and we have to go!  Then our appt. cancelled on us, so we went to go finding for a couple of hours.  Result -- One person was home on 3 streets and even then, he said he didn't know if he was interested.  But we will be going back soon!  Then we went to teach our recent convert about eternal marriage and general conference.  He has a bit of a problem in thinking that he will be able to marry one of the sister missionaries.  So we are trying to show him other options.  haha  Then we tried to go finding on his street.  Didn't work real well.  So we headed to the church to eat a packed dinner (my idea).  Then we had B and L come to the church for a lesson just before Scripture Study.  Did y'all know the manuals are HUGE for institute now!?  Seriously.  Then we went to send an email to ward council about how wonderful the Shelby ward is in helping the missionaries progress in the work and what they can do to continue assisting in the work.  Then we headed home, planned, and bed.

Thursday-

We woke up, studied, had 3 hours of weekly planning, lunch at home, then we went to go contact a media referral.  She was really sweet, but she doesn't live there permanently.  We are still hoping though, that we will be able to teach her on a regular basis.  She is expecting a baby in august and getting married next year.  Maybe we can teach them the gospel so that they can get married this year.  We'll see!  :)  Then we did 3 hours of finding.  We did have some success though!  We met a woman named R.  We taught her a solid Restoration Lesson and she said that she believes it could be true, but she would have to come to the church first to find out for herself.  We are planning on going back next week.  (She wouldn't come to church yesterday because it was Super Bowl Sunday).  Football is kind of a big thing down here.  haha  So I will let y'all know how that goes.  She is super sweet and we are hoping that she enjoys church so that she will be open to reading the Book of Mormon.  Then we pretty much headed to dinner that night and came home and worked on our "Member Map" which enables us to see which less-actives we can/can't see and where they live.  Then we planned and went to sleep.

Friday-

More finding!  All the finding!  We woke up, studied, and headed out to park our car at DQ because we were running sadly low on miles.  So we parked it there and went finding for about an hour and a half.  But silly me didn't put my hair up that day and the wind was blowing at 40 mph.  GEEZ!  Unfortunately, no success before lunch.  So we headed to the church to eat packed lunches (also my idea).  After lunch, we headed to go finding over by the Bishop's house.  We came across a neighborhood that we just had some members move out of, so we figured we would go finding there.  As Sister B calls it, we went "Castle Knocking".  This was one of very few seriously wealthy neighborhoods.  Everyone was either not home or super rude.  Some of the few things I am sick of hearing while knocking are: "Girls, I am a baptist."  DOOR SLAM!  "Girls, I am a Christian."  DOOR SLAM!  (Btw... SO ARE WE!  Hence the name JESUS CHRIST in the center of our nametags!)  "Girls, I am saved."  DOOR SLAM!  "Girls, I already know Jesus!"  DOOR SLAM!  Quite comical if I do say so myself.  But after 20 houses saying the same things... it gets a little old.  But we "Keep Moving Forward"! #waltdisneyquote  So after we did that for hours, we headed to Pizza Hut to get dinner and Walmart to get a cake!  (SUPER GOOD!)  After that, we met some members at B and L house to teach them a lesson on the Book of Mormon.  :)  After that, we headed home to plan a lesson for church on Sunday and attempt to plan for the Family History activity for the ward.  Then we planned and went to bed.

Saturday-

I TURNED 20 THIS DAY!!!!!!!!!!  And yes, it feels super weird.  I can't quite explain it.  But anyway... We woke up, studied, then we went scowering the town all morning to find the appropriate supplies for a stop smoking lesson we were going to teach a less-active.  (I say "going to teach" because after all of this, he cancelled on us an hour before).  :(  But anyway... we had to find cinnamon mouthwash, cinnamon toothepaste (the easiest), and white grapefruit juice.  You wouldn't believe how tough that is.  Did you know that only CVS carries cinnamon flavored mouthwash.  There's a little tid bit for you.  haha  So then we went to the Library to print some things off, and home for lunch.  After lunch and every appt. for that day fell through in the course of an hour, we decided to head to Habitat to do service for a few hours.  1.  We were low on miles.  2.  A family in our ward that we love manages it.  :)  So we priced things for about 3 hours.  Then we headed home to share a message of love and try to do some finding through facebook.  Then the Bishop and his wife picked us up for dinner at FATZ.  Again, super good.  We need to go.  Then we came home, did tons of planning for the week, planned for the next day, and went to bed.

Sunday-

We woke up, had personal study, went to church, had an amazing fast and testimony meeting.  We FINALLY got a teacher called to teach Gospel Principles because the missionaries were teaching it every week.  I told that to President Craven when he was here and it was more than quickly resolved.  THANK YOU PRESIDENT CRAVEN!  Then we went to teach Sharing Time in Primary.  Okay.  Y'all have no idea how small the congregation until you know that there are only 10 kids in junior/senior primaries combined.  Weird right?  But it was super fun.  We talked about events from the Savior's life and how he did everything he did for us because he loves us so much.  Then we went to go find some less-actives.  Again, no luck.  :(  But we went home to have dinner after a few hours of finding.  Then we headed to Sister P's for a ride to Charlotte for a mission home fireside given by President Craven with our recent converts.  That was an amazing meeting, then we traveled home, planned, and went to bed.

I want to share with you all some of the things discussed in the Fireside last night.  I have such a love an appreciation for President Craven.  You wouldn't even believe it.   

At the fireside, he discussed that we have 3 elements as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints that make our church unique.  They are: 1. The Fullness of the Doctrine.  2.  Priesthood Power.  And 3. A unique testimony of Christ.  It is so amazing that we have been given the opportunity to have these things readily available to us.  Think about it.  Heavenly Father could've said, "Well, congratulations.  You made it to Earth.  Now figure it out."  But instead, he has given us the tools and the privilege to have everything we need right in front of us.  There is no guessing as to what we need to do in order to return to Him.  And I for one, am so thankful for the undying and unconditional love that He has for each and every one of us as his sons and daughters.  I would also like to share a brief testimony of the Book of Mormon and Prophets that I have gained while being on my mission thus far.  The Book of Mormon truly is the word of God.  There is no possible way that this book is false. And when we come to know the truth of it, we will discover things about ourselves, this church, and the Savior that we didn't even know were possible.  I encourage each of you as you are reading your scriptures to think of their history.  The trials and the testimonies of those that have written and translated this book all because of the love that they have for you and that your Heavenly Father has for you.  I also encourage all of you to read "Safety for the Soul" by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland.  Then come to find your own testimony of the Book of Mormon.  As I was reading this talk, among many others that I studied this week, I was reminded how lucky we are to have Prophets, Seers, and Revelators on the earth today to lead and guide us.  These men are the closest thing we have to council given straight from God!  (Apart from blessings and prayer of course!)  They love each of us uniquely and they care about each of us.  When Elder Christofferson was here he said something along the lines of, "You should hear President Monson pray for the members of the church.  We all pray for you, hope for you, and love you."  Please remember that these men put their lives on the line in order for you to have the council we need from our Father in Heaven.  I love each of you as well and encourage you to think about what I talked about today and how you can improve your testimonies and keep growing closer to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ every day.

Now, the weather here has been rainy, windy, and gloomy most of the week.  I guess this must be what spring is actually like in most places other than UT, where, we don't really have one.  haha

I am glad to hear that Genealogy is still going well and I really appreciate the stories you have been sending me.  Hopefully we will be able to use a lot of them in the ward activity.

Visiting Teaching is a HUGE focus in this ward.  The Bishop's wife and the RS Pres. spent about 100 hours on it this month.  INSANE!  haha

I did get the birthday package!  THANK YOU SO MUCH!  I think I died laughing at all of the cards!  Although I loved each of them, I think Beth's takes the cake! ;)  SOOOO GOOD!  haha  I also thank you for the shirts and socks.  Much needed.  Daddy - I loved the Despicable Me figurines!  What did you guys end up sending the Elders?  Did you take pictures?  I want to know!  :)  I think my favorite thing though, had to be the earrings.  I LOVE THEM!  Thank you!  It feels really weird to be 20.  I can't believe I am old enough now to finish my mission out with a bang and have the possibility of going home and getting married.  I'm too young for that!  haha

But I am going to wrap it up for now.  I love you guys sooooo much!  More than I could ever describe to you!  Let me know next week if you have any specific questions I could answer for you!  LOVES YOU!

Ash

P.S.  We only got 5 lessons taught this week.  :(

P.P.S.  THANK YOU FOR THE DRAWINGS!