"How does the oh so marvelous garage band sound?"
"Tweety says hi by the way" <--- parakeet
(Good. I saved his life so he BETTER say hi.)
"I practice the hymn a few times -- I very beautifully play the right hand"
(Man I wish I could hear. That is lovely. I love the starting note hmmmm so that everyone can start on the right note, I am sure you direct the music wonderfully. And that is ver ver sweet you think of me whenever you go into the piano room. Love you!!!)
I haven't got the study guides yet but it's okay if it takes 3 weeks to get here! Man I don't want you to spend too much money.
UM CANDACE IS ENGAGED?! That's it. I'm writing her a letter today. I love my chan chan! I am so happy for her!!! Learning all this missionary stuff has taught me so much about how important PROGRESSION is. And that baptism is the FIRST STEP. Well guess what, getting married to the right person in the right place and by the right authority is a goal that can be hard and perceived as somewhat impossible by some people, but it is that last sacred ordinance we make with our Heavenly Father, getting sealed--married for eternity--in the temple, which is the house of the Lord here on Earth. Progressing towards eternal life = happiness.
That is awesome that you looked at some old records. There is a lady in my ward who Sis Brown and I do service for, she has two huge crazy dogs and the dust and hair upset her asthma. She has a room with eight five-foot shelves all filled with records, and there is a victrola or whatever it's called. That could be a pretty exciting room. She also has about a billion books, and about a billion dvds. All alphabetical. I want to come back after my mission and closet myself away in her house. She cooked us dinner the other night and she is from New Orleans and anyway she cooked us the most amazingly beautiful gourmet lasagna. And her food storage in the garage is unbelievable. And she joined the church just a few years ago. hee hee.
I can't wait to hear about when my lil cousin Annalisa will have her adoption finalized...I love the Northrups!
"Lily and Adam are good; the little spitfire Jessica is letting her mom sleep most nights better and only waking up twice."
"She gave him the Christmas present from James that he forgot at Mom and Dad's that day - a cd of Led Zeppelin I picked out, with "The Immigrant Song" on it. If you say you don't know what that is, I'll say you should!"
How exciting about Laura n Josh my cousins moving to Santa Ana hopefully. SANTANA HUEYYYY <---- my vato slang.
And yes I barely hear about politics and economy problems here, but I was talking about it the other day, about how California is strugglin with a coupla things right now. haha. Sighh.
Mama how is nursery going? My mama was called to look after the lil babies during church, yeah? Can be very tiring. There is a woman in our ward who is soo delightful. Mama you would love her. And she tells lurvely stories. Anyway she has done nursery for about seven years I believe...and is happy about it! GASP! Crazy. But I think there are only about five babies.
I want to write you guys a handwritten letter today hee hee hee. I have about fifteen people I gotta write...but I want to write you guys handwritten! I just got a letter from yiddy fwen, my sister oh so dear, about how she loves to do handwritten letters cuz you can see personality and you can HOLD it in your hands, the letter, which is how she wrote her WHOLE mission. And I had been thinking for days, I wanna write a handwritten letter to mom and dad! Cuz I want them to SEE and HOLD my letter. Cuz I love them so very much!
Last week like EVERY APPOINTMENT fell through and so hopefully this week will go so much better. My relationship with my companion is improving and it is wonderful. We have a blast. We always have a good feeling between us so the Spirit can be there and if there isn't, we hate it and we resolve it, and it's horrible until we resolve it, and it happens about once a week, but each time we learn something from each other and come out closer to each other. Man. Of course in normal friendships there can be disconnect and misunderstandings and I am learning that if you really address it and see where the other person is coming from, and not get defensive, and try so hard to love that person, you have such a strong bond. Yup. The majority of the time we are happy and giggly.
I am starting to really love the people here. We went tracting last week and a teenage boy opened the door and I said "Hi" all brightly and stuff and then froze. Pretty much didn't say a word. Goofy smile on my face. Looked at sister brown. She just smiled back. I tried to keep going but no hay nada. BAHAHAH. Looked at sister brown again. Luckily she took over. BAHAHAH. I still have, erm, a lot to learn about tracting... It was actually an interesting house the teenage boy's mama came and talked to us and wasn't RUDE but wasn't very OPEN and that's great, she has her opinion and that is what life is all about, choosing for yourself, but sister brown bore such strong testimony about the book of mormon and that we are NOT looking in "other places" that will "confuse us" for God's word, but that God DOES speak to more than one nation and HAS and that the Book of Mormon IS God's word, and I felt the Spirit as she spoke, I knew what she was saying was true....but the woman was like "No. uh-uh" kinda thing, sighhh so sad.
The wind has pretty much blown all the snow away. It's quite ugly. There is this crumbly icy brownish stuff everywhere. All the trees are brown.
We got to go to the temple in Anchorage last Friday...it was lovely. We went with our district, the cottonwood elders (they serve in the cottonwood ward) and the YSA (young single adult) elders. I bought, at the LDS bookstore in Anchorage, and so did Sis Brown cuz she's the one that wanted it, an Alaska CTR ring. It is kind of a thick sterling silver band with the CTR-shaped shield like a normal CTR ring but it is the Alaska flag instead...blue background, big dipper stars, with a star up in the corner...yay! CTR stands for Choose the Right. So my ring doesn't actually say that but the shape of it is like other ones, so I still remember to choose the right. Hee hee. A lot of missionaries here get this ring. It's like tradition. LIKE. HAHHAHA.
Love you all
xoxoxo
Sister Ashbrook
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