June 19, 2016

 

Es war eine sehr schöne Woche hier in Zollikofen! A lot has happened in one week, wow! It has also been quite the rainy week. All I can say is that I'm glad it's not as hot as back home!

Montag- in the morning we taught Augusto, a Portuguese investigator, some German and read in the Book of Mormon together. He doesn't speak any German or English but he has already made so much improvement the past three weeks that I've been here! After that we finished studies, ate lunch, and then went to the church to write emails and relax. That night we had an appointment with the Von Allmen family (there are two and they are not related.) It was real good! We had some really good Swiss bread with a bunch of different condiments to go on it!

Dienstag- we had zone conference in Zürich, since Switzerland isnsomewhat small. We have a "GA" (an unlimited ticket for any train in Switzerland, including boats.) We go to Zürich instead of Bern. It was really good and I got to see all the Europeans from my MTC group, other than two sisters. That took up all of our day.

Mittwoch- in the morning we met with Augusto and taught him more German. We always read a chapter in the Book of Mormon, in German. We are currently at chapter 1 Nephi 5. Then we went to a member appointment with the Mecurio's. They have some less active kids that we are trying to work with, so we got to know them a little bit better. Then we went by on some people but no one was home. We saw some members by the church so we talked with them and found out that they were doing a primary activity in the forest behind the temple. They invited us so we went home and changed. It was a lot of fun. We played capture the flag and cops & robbers. After we cooked sausages and marshmallows over a fire.
Donnerstag- we met with Augusto, again! Hahaha…We only meet with him so much because he doesn't do anything and he lives in the same apartment building as us. He is super cool so we go over about three to four times a week.

Freitag- we had a member lesson but it fell through. We went by on some people and contacted a few referrals. On our way back we saw the temple workers working on the temple so we went home, changed and worked on the temple for a while. The temple has been closed for two weeks and they are opening it back up tomorrow. They are building a new flower bed in front of the temple with a walkway so you can take pictures. That's what we worked on. After that we went home, showered and had a great lesson with Gabrielle. She is one of our investigators and is progressing really well! We are pretty sure that she will be baptized sometime but she's just not ready yet.


Samstag- we played soccer with the Filbrandt kids, which was really fun! After we went and had an appointment at their house, which was really good! The father is less active and we have been meeting with him one on one to try and help him. He gave really good answers during our spiritual thought! :) Their family is really cool! Their daughter is actually in the France Lyon mission, which is where one of my friends is going so that's cool! After that we had weekly planning.

Sonntag- we had GMK and then church. Sacrament meeting was pretty good. Elder Kilgore gave a talk on receiving answers from God, which turned out pretty well. After church we had a member appointment at the Mössner's. It was so fun! We played some fun games with the kids and got to know them pretty well. After that we went to sister Peterli's/Bucher's to sign some letters they were sending to some less actives about the Mormon tabernacle choir in Zürich.

 

June 12, 2016

Not a full letter this week, but we did get a few emails to him while he was online early Monday morning. Here are some interesting tid bits he shared with us.
 

• President Uchtdorf was in Zürich like two weeks ago! plus his family was in my companions last area and hewould always go over to their house.
• Sometimes the trains are really noisy.
• I have been in the temple for one session. We only get to do one session a transfer but inside the temple everyday. We are even helping them make an area in the front of the Temple to take pictures.
• We go to Basel to grocery shop. I think there are even French missionaries in the French part of Basel.
• There is a regulation on how much Swiss chocolate you can take out of Switzerland.

Thanks to everyone for their love and support for Elder Ashcroft. He is loving his mission. We see that each week in his letters and it is the best thing we could ask for. Continue to keep him and the people he is serving in your thoughts and prayer. We love you ALL!!!

 

~~The Ashcroft Family

 

 



June 6, 2016

The train ride took about 8 hours but it was so beautiful!!! My new area is really small haha! We live next door to the temple and right above the train station. So that's amazing! The work is good but we are looking to improve! My new companion is amazing I love him so much!

 

 The Matterhorn is the peck in the far distance.

(above picture) 

 The view from our balcony.

(above picture)

We traveled to Germany to grocery shop because it's so much cheaper!

(above picture)

May 30, 2016

Well I've had a pretty good run for my money here in Linz but I guess it's time to move on! :(.. I have learned so much here! It's gonna be hard to leave this place. It's time to move on, learn more and help other people. :) I guess I'll kinda go through a summary of my week.

On Monday we went shopping, then emailed and got our hair cut by some Turkish people. I'm telling’ ya Turkish people are amazingly good at cutting hair!! It's a gift! After that we took a train to Ansfelden to visit the Bachmayers. They fed us and we taught their son it was really good. :) We taught about our Heavenly Father and how he loves us. At the end of the lesson we sang I am a Child of God together.

On Tuesday we had district meeting and then visited Mario, a member, the gospel of Jesus Christ. After, we had GMK (ward mission correlation meeting) at the church.

On Wednessday we had two appointments with investigators fall out so we stayed home because Elder Bensing was still pretty sick. In the evening we visited the Lipp family, which went really awesome! Little did I know that the wife was from the area I am going to next and still has family there. They gave us some Swiss chocolate before we went home, which was amazing! :D

On Thursday we did a service for the Erlacher's in Enns then had dinner with the missionary couple in Linz.

On Friday we did more service for another Erlacher family then went and had a member appointment that night with another Erlacher family.

On Saturday we got transfer calls in the morning and... I'm going to Zollikofern Switzerland! Where the temple is. My new companion is Elder Kilgore, another German companion, haha! After studies we went to Ansfelden to have lunch with the Obermayers, then a lesson feel through with an investigator. Later that night we went to a member appointment with the family Harbon in Enns. Sunday the sisters (because they are taking the sisters out of Linz) and I gave our leaving testimonies in sacrament meeting. It was so sad to say goodbye to everyone! The members are my family away from home! After church we had a ward potluck, which the ward does every Fifth Sunday of the month. It
turned out really well. After we said goodbye to the Persians, which was so so sad!!! :(... It is amazing to see how far they've come. They will be receiving the priesthood in two weeks and have already been interviewed. :) They thanked us so much for teaching them because it "changed their lives.” Then we went home and I packed a little.
 

The spiritual thought for the week is about this quote "Nobody is likely to change, unless they are invited to do so." -Keine Ahnung
A lot of people are sometimes scared to ask certain things because of the answer that they might get or because they think their relationship with the person is at stake. But if we just sit back nothing is likely to happen. I have especially learned how to get over being scared of these things this transfer (mainly because I have a German Companion, hahaha!) and we have seen so much more success because of that. For example we have been meeting with a less active that hadn't come to church since he was 12. He was 23 by this time and no one had really asked him to do anything. Well he came to church the past three weeks, repented of his sins and bore his testimony this Sunday. It is truly amazing what we can achieve when being guided by the Holy Ghost to know what to say.

Thanks for all of your support! I love you guys, and if you ever need anything, I'm here.

May 23, 2016

Howdy y'all! How's it going this beautiful day? This week has been interesting! I'm sorry I haven't had to much time to write any weekly's lately but I have time now.

Montag- at 12:30 we had a member appointment with Claus and Manuela in Neuhoffen. It went really well. The husband, Claus, is only really active in the church because his wife tells him to go to church. we are working with him and have already made a lot of progress! :) After meeting with them we had another member appointment with the Anreither family but it fell through because their daughter came over to talk about some problems. So we did a little emailing instead.

Dienstag- we had a really good district meeting and then ate as a district. After that we had an austausch with the Wels Elders. I stayed in Linz with Elder Bowers. First we went grocery shopping because Monday was a holiday and the stores were closed. Then we made a Fortschritts Bericht für GMK. Then we went to GMK. We have a new GML now so GMK is quite different. It is better and shorter! After that we walked home.

Mittwoch- we did studies and then went finding until 14:32, then took a train to Wels to tausch back. When Elder Bensing and I got back to Linz we had an appointment with an investigator named Axel Tigges, from Germany. The lesson went well, but if he doesn't start progressing we might have to drop him. :( After that we took a Post Bus out to Galneukirchen and walked through the Austrian forest to get to a members house! It was a cool little trail and it even had a little stream. We had a really great lesson with the Vogl family. After we got a ride back to the Straßenbahn, then rode home from there.

Donnerstag- we had lunch at the church and watched some videos because my comp was pretty sick and we didn't really have a p day. Then in the evening we went to Subway because one of our less actives works there.

Freitag- we had a member appointment at the Obermayers. So we took a train at 12:36 to get there. The Obermayers are such cool people! We learned about their conversion story. It's so cool!! Especially because they have a big family in the church now. After the appointment we missed the train back so we doored two houses then did some weekly planning on the Bahnsteig. The cool thing is that the second and last house we found potentials! After we got back to Linz we had an appointment fall out so we went home to finish weekly planning.

Samstag- on Saturday we had a finding day as a district in Linz. So we all met at Bahnhof then split up. Elder Wiberg and I went to Leonding for about 3 hours. When we got back Elder Bensing and I went back home because he was sick.

Sonntag- church went really well, and the weather was beautiful. After church we had an appointment with Anneliese and Günther in Galneukirchen. It also went really well. It was just a good relaxing day in its self. After we came back home to do studies and I had the most in depth craziest scripture studies I have ever had!!! It was amazing! And just what I needed.

Here is my spiritual thought for the week. It has helped me quite a bit!

“The ability to turn everything into something good appears to be a
godly characteristic. Our Heavenly Father always seems able to do
this. Everything, no matter how dire, becomes a victory to the Lord.
Joseph (of Egypt), although a slave and wholly undeserving of this
fate, nevertheless remained faithful to the Lord and continued to live
the commandments and made something very good of his degrading
circumstances. People like this cannot be defeated, because they will
not give up. They have the correct, positive attitude, and Dale
Carnegie’s expression seems to apply: If you feel you have a lemon,
you can either complain about how sour it is, or you can make a
lemonade. It is all up to you.” (Hartman Rector, Jr., “Live above the
Law to Be Free,” Ensign, Jan. 1973, p. 130.)

May 9, 2016

 

Hello everyone! How's it goin!? It has been a great week, even though I was sick for two days! Aber so ist das Leben! I'll try and wrap my week up.

So on Monday we went shopping, emailed, then took a train to Bishop’s house. Then went to Benjamin Mielachers 22nd birthday party! Tuesday we had district meeting then ate as a district. We went home and did a lot of area book work until our appointment with brother Viekbauer, a member. Our lesson went pretty well and we plan on meeting with him more often now! On Wednesday we ate lunch at Tokyo Running Sushi with Klaus the Sisters and the Graham's. After that Klaus came with us to teach Mario Meixner, another member. We taught the restoration because I wanted to practice it more. It was really good! The spirit was so strong when we got to Joseph Smith’s vision! Then we had GMK, which took the rest of the day. On Thursday we met Lukas at Bahnhof to give us a ride to the sport day in Salzburg that the Salzburg stake was doing. We spend all day there and it was so fun!!! It was also really beautiful because we were right next to an alp! It was really good because all of the new converts came and we were able to introduce them to everyone. They got a lot of support. I played a lot of soccer and volleyball. Then I taught people how to throw a football and played a little bit of rugby. Friday I was sick! :( It was really awesome! Saturday we had a finding day in Wels, which was fun! Elder Bakewell, from England, and I went finding together! :) After we came home I rested because I was still sick. But in the evening we went with a bunch of ward members to a play to support one of our less actives! :) Sunday was really good and beautiful weather. After church we ate at Sister Wagner Hachenberger's it was sooooooooooooo goooooooooooooodddd!!!! Awwweee!! Then we came back to the church and skyped! :)

Well that was a short basic run down of my week! :) So here is my spiritual thought for the week.

It is a simple truth that all of us have heard but do we believe it? God loves us and we are his literal children. I am a Child of God is one of the most sang hymns in the Church.

Romans 8:35-39

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation,
or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or
sword?

36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we
are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him
that loved us.

38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

3Nephi 22:10

10 For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my
bkindness shall not cdepart from thee, neither shall the covenant of
my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.

In Memory of Charlie Sefita

My heart goes out to the Sefita and the Yardley families. Charlie has had a very big impact on my life. His passing has torn me up pretty bad. He's had one of the biggest hearts I've ever known. I would like to ask everybody to pray and fast for these families. My mission president called me last night and told me of the news and talked with me for a while. It was really heartbreaking and I couldn't think straight. Then today when we came to the church to write emails I saw a picture of him and just started bawling. That was when it really hit me. The hardest part is that there was no warning. When Brian Scott died, Charlie was there for me and we cried together. Now I feel as if Brian is on the other side helping me cope with Charlie's death. Charlie will always be in my heart and in all the hearts of the people of Hurricane.

Be still, my soul: The hour is hastening on

When we shall be forever with the Lord,

When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,

Sorrow forgot love’s purest joys restored.

Be still, my sou: When change and tears are past,

All safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

-Be still my soul.