HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM

I love you Mom!

Hey sooo....

Okay so we have a baptism scheduled this Saturday with a girl in another ward, she's 17 and the Inlet View sisters (that's me now!) have been teaching her this whole time. She works and so hasn't been to church in a few weeks and she is very quiet---not really shy, she's just kinda withdrawn and quiet, it's like her personality, and so people have been worried she wasn't ready or wasn't comprehending the doctrine and Sister Burbank and I have been stressing over that and invited her to really, really try and switch work so that she could go to her ward on Sunday and we found out yesterday that she was there, so that was probably really good for her and for her ward, and we are SO excited her baptism is gonna go through this Saturday.

SO THAT'S EXCITING.

We've had lessons set up with several potentially new investigators and we had members from the ward show up with us and everything and not ONE of them happened...my favorite was this woman downstairs from a member couple who referred her. We talked to her, she really liked us, talked our ear off, we set up an appointment for after church the next day and she actually CALLED that Sunday and talked our ear off but had pneumonia so she had to reschedule, had a member come with us and when we got there saw that she had put a note on her door saying she was still sick and could we reschedule. I left her a book of mormon in front of her door. Called her a few days later. She said she didn't know how to say this but that she wasn't MORMON, she was CHRISTIAN...and explained how she had been raised with a Mormon foster family for a few years (from what she said they really did sound quite um interesting) and really didn't like it and thinks we are weird. We told her we are Christian too. She got all happy and had no idea we were Christian and started chatting our ear off and at the end she goes, "Oh, I'm just so happy you guys aren't MORMON, that you guys are CHRISTIAN! I've been so worried you were Mormon and I told my friends and they were saying all sorts of things like, 'Just don't answer the door when they come' and that just gives me a lot of relief." MEANWHILE I'm freaking out and looking at SIster Burbank in a panic and had no idea if I should correct her then or just wait....I decided to correct her then and explained that we ARE christian but also Mormon at the same time and that the Mormon family she grew up with sounded really strict and we're not really like that, and she got a lil more serious, but everything was good, we set up an appointment for that Saturday.

Well, that Saturday we were at the mission home for a rehearsal cuz we're doing this musical number for zone conference this week and while I was rehearsing and then recording some music with one of the elders SIster Burbank called about a million people to try and see who could come with us to this lesson with this woman. No one could come. She said, "In my expereince this happens because the lesson won't go through." On the way to the lessson, we called some more people, and there was even one woman who was like, "Sure! Right now? Sure I can come. Let me ask my husband real fast." Two seconds later, "OH....sorry sisters. Now is not a good time." Sister Burbank after she hung up said, "Remember that time we got so happy for like two seconds?" I said, "Let's just go to this woman's door and see if she left another note and if not we'll call some more people." (You see guys, it is SO IMPORTANT to bring members to lessons, they add so much and help the person get to know the people who are part of the church who actually LIVE here.) Well, we got to the woman's door and---there WAS a note. Guess what it said. "Sisters. I don't want to join your 'church.' Have a nice day!" We read it, looked at each other, and walked outside. "I wonder how Heavenly Father manages everyone else's lives so that no one has to come to this one lesson because it was just gonna fall through anyway," said Sister Burbank.

HAHa oh heavens so this was just one tiny lil story from this week, I feel like our weeks are so crazy. We talk about this week as "pre-Sterling" and "post-Sterling" cuz we went down to the Kenai Peninsula to serve with the sisters in Sterling for a day so we got there Tuesday night and left Thursday morning and got back to Anchorage in time for training. Basically, we have been quite busy. Like Mormon says, "I cannot write a hundredth part of the history of Sister Ashbrook's past week..."

Things have been good, we met our goal for lessons with a member present---we got eight this week and our goal was seven!!--so we're gonna go get some Mort's Frozen Custard to celebrate--um, I've never had frozen custard in my LIFE but it's right by our house and Sister Burbank used to work at a frozen custard place so CLEARLY that's where we should go to celebrate.

Kay, so we picked up a Russian Woman and her 6 kiddos as investigators, all are over 8 yrs old except for the youngest who is 7, so really only 5 of the kids are investigators. Such sweet kids. But at the end of the month they're all going to Ohio for 3 months to be with dad. Russian Mommy seems wonderful, she said her oldest daughter (she's 13) wants to get baptized, and that she herself wants to get baptized too but not yet, she says she still not sure about it and wants to keep learning. Russian Mommy has been taught for several months already down in South Anchorage but just moved into our ward boundaries.

We have a Filipino investigator, he lives with a Filipino woman who's less active and they have a coupla kids. He's on date for July 20th and actually READ This week and was visibly happier and more open. BUT, he didn't come to church on Sunday. BUT, we know he was starting a new job and maybe he works on sundays now.

We have 2 investigators who have come several times now to church, I will call them M & R, cuz that's how I write them in my planner. They are a couple with 2 kids, not married, they rarely read on their own but maybe they will tonight! We had dinner with them last night and have a lesson with them tonight.

Sister Burbank is doing great, she really brings the Spirit into the lessons and I appreciate that a lot. She's wonderful.

So, like, that's cool and stuff.

I LOVE YOU! The gospel is so amazing. As we study it and learn how to really communicate with the Lord, and as we learn to let the Spirit teach us the underlying messages of the scriptures that we don't catch at first glance, our understanding expands and we see ourselves more clearly and our spot in Heavenly Father's plan for us. It's so important to stay faithful and keep a sense of hope, not get discouraged, not doubt. I love the scriptures. I love following the prophet (he's more important than the scriptures anyway, true story). I love the people we teach.

KAY BYE LOVE YOU
Sister Ashbrook