Pilot Mountain North Carolina 

In the Fall - Can You Understand Why I Love It Here !!! 

Hey you guys!  This week has been soooooo slow.  So what I might do is send you a little bit of a shorter letter this week.  Mom - I have been writing the day by day letters because I have been horrible at journal writing the past few weeks.  So when I get home, I am going to print them all out and glue them into the back of the journal.  Oops!  Haha!! Still trying to get the hang of time management.  You weren't kidding when you said you literally have no time for yourself.  Ugh!  So this week isn't going to be day by day, but hopefully it'll still be good.  :)

This week started out with the trainer/trainee meeting down in Charlotte.  We had two options: get a member to drive us, or waste some of our limited miles (meaning 200 out of the 1,025) and driving ourselves.  Luckily, last minute the relief society president and her husband offered to drive us down that day.  The only downside was getting up at 5:30 in the morning.  We had fun at the meeting.  Just A LOT of guidance, rules, and role plays.  It is so difficult to follow every single rule out here.  I had one day this week where I swear Sister B wanted to kill me because I was so overwhelmed with all the things we can't do!  Haha

Then another time this week we went to go to a member's house in Westfield.  Apart from our stupid GPS getting us lost in the freaking boonies, we were alright.  Not kidding though, I was somewhat terrified.  It was like those movies where the people in the car get lost, drive into a forest, and get killed by people hiding in the trees!  Was that too dramatic?  Oh well!  You did say you guys missed my sense of humor!  ;)  When the whole ordeal was over with, we got to her house to find KFC on the table.  I am quickly learning that KFC really is some of the southerner's favorite food

There were about two days between the meeting in Charlotte and Zone Meeting down in Winston-Salem.  Let's just say in brief terms, that those two days consisted of A LOT of getting lost and unfortunately getting no new investigators.  :(  We are even having to drop some of our current investigators because they were never taught "How to Begin Teaching".  So they don't really understand the point of us being there.  So we are making it our goal to find new "gators" as Lauren calls them! ;)   (Lauren is a friend of Ashley’s who is serving her mission in Florida – with the Gators - Investigators)  The main areas we are focusing on is Holly Springs (Where the H's live) and Westfield.  Although, we tend to like Holly Springs more because it doesn't seem like people are going to chase us away with guns like it does in Westfield sometimes... Even though it's a little farther away.  :)

Let's see... The weather here is good.  Just getting colder and colder every day.  We woke up to frost on our car the other day.  But that melted fairly quickly.  No snow yet... Thank goodness.  Just really windy and cold.  But hey, I grew up in Spanish Fork!  I should be used to that by now... Right?  ;)

The work is pretty decent.  The problem is, like I've said before, (I think), Pilot has been knocked for about 5 years.  So our mission president doesn't allow us to knock doors in Pilot.  And since the fall/almost winter has come, people decide to go into their houses to hibernate.  So we are trying to branch out to both of the other cities that I told you about above for now and seeing where we get with that.  Not much luck this week, but we keep trying.  We haven't been able to teach many discussions.  The goal for our mission was 20 lessons a week before the training in Charlotte.  This time, president told us that the new goal according to the Standards of Excellence is 18.  This week we only got 7.  Not so great.  But the silver lining is that  I am here to help the people not achieve a number, and two of our days this week were taken up by meetings all day.  Haha

The way we go contacting is by walking around Pilot, driving/walking everywhere else because the houses are so far apart!  But oh well, life (and the work) must go on right?

Oh!  And last night, we had interviews with the mission president.  The thing about President Craven is that he is very in tune with things.  Even if you don't mention anything.  Sister B warned me of that before interviews.  Now as I have told you in previous emails, I have had a rash on my arms because of bell peppers, my ankle is still really swollen, and my migraine hasn't gone away.  So I go in, sit down, and he says "Sister Irwin, I am not going to talk about the work with you in this interview.  I am up to date on your emails to me and we talked in Charlotte.  So what's wrong?"  This threw me off a little bit.  I replied, "What do you mean President?"  He said, "There is something bothering you.  And I'd like to know what it is."  So he started getting specific and I figured it would just be better to tell him than to lie to him and say I am fine.  So I told him about all three emphasizing the fact that it is not impairing the work in any way.  He said he was glad about that, but that he still wanted me to watch them and work with the medical coordinators to see what we could get done.  So there is an ER Doctor in our Ward that we are going to go talk to about my head and my ankle to see what he says. 

I have been focused a lot on my patriarchal blessing this week because people keep talking about the state of the nation and politics and things like that.  Ugh!   Did you hear about the new senator of West Virginia?  She's 18!!!!  Like, you're not even old enough to know how to pay bills!!!  What the heck?  And she is prolife and pro heterosexual marriage!  And what's with Mia Love getting elected? Keep me up to date on that as well.

Know that I love you guys lots and lots!  As you saw on my Facebook post this week, I have also been thinking about what a blessing temples are and how much our eternal family means to me. Never forget how much I love and miss you!  To the sun and back!  (Because the Sun is farther than the Moon). ;)

Love,

Ash

P.S. 

I am currently working on getting a family history night started in the Ward.  So I'll keep you updated on that.   Tell grandma and grandpa thank you for the package.  (Check Beth's letter for what I want in mine). And also tell my sisters to step it up when it comes to letters.  I didn't get one from Cait or Beth this week.  Which is fine because theirs were long last week, but Em's was short and I want to hear from all of them.

And Daddy, so glad the Ward is going so well.  I constantly pray for you to have strength in guiding the Ward because working with the bishop here has made me realize how hard it is.  I admire you so much for it!!!!!

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!