February 6, 2017

This week has been pretty crazy, but a lot of fun! The good thing is
that the weather is starting to warm up again. Last Saturday we got
transfer calls, and I got transferred back to Switzerland. My new area
is called Pratteln, and is only about 20 minutes away from my old
area! The church is in Pratteln, but we live in Liestal.

Montag- we packed most everything, emailed, cleaned, and had a lesson
with Jeremy in the evening. They invited us to McDonalds after so we
ate there for dinner.

Dienstag- we took a train at 8:56 all the way to Freiburg for my last
district meeting in the Freiburg district! :( it was a really good
district meeting though. Elder Fröbel is the new district leader
there, and I'm sure he'll keep the district doing good work. After the
meeting we had District lunch together, and everyone brought
something. Then Elder Hofeling and I booked it back to Bad Säckingen
so I could unregister from Germany, then we went home, packed a little
more, then went to a visit a new convert family, the Rehms.

Mittwoch- we took a train at 6:55 and went to Zürich. I stayed in
Zürich for a couple of hours before heading to Pratteln with elder
Jest.  When we got there, I unpacked, then we went to go play
volleyball with some investigators, but couldn't find them, so we
found for a while, and then went to institute in the evening to get to
know some members, and the new district better.

Donnerstag- after studies, we went with a member to go home teach a
less active. Then we had lunch with the Dätwyler familie. Then we had
two lessons fall out, so we found, and called some people.

Freitag- we went to the Temple in the morning with the Bern zone
leaders. It was really nice, and good to be back in my old area! After
that we found, had one lesson fall out, had another lesson, and did
weekly planning.

Samstag- after studies, we had lunch with the familie Schoch, then
went by some people in their town that we have as potentials. Then we
took a train to Läufelfingen and went by people there, and had quite a
bit of success! :) after that we had three lessons, and finished
studies.

Sonntag- we had Ward mission correlation meeting before church. It was
awesome to see four of our investigators in church also! One of them
had to work all night long driving taxi, and still came to church!
After church we broke our fast with the familie Wiesner, then brother
Schulz came and picked us up and we taught his family a small
spiritual thought also. After that we had a lesson fall out, so we
called some people, and went by a potential, then had language study.

January 16, 2017

 Montag- we studied, then headed downtown, to get lunch, and email.
We got some Döners, a Turkish meal, that's really good. After that we
headed over to the Rehm's home to get some signatures for baptismal
records from the two daughters, which took a while, because one of the
bike tires is flat, and we haven't had time to try and repair it yet.
Then in the evening we had a lesson with our supper mega golden
family! The family Schwarz. Since we've been teaching the family
Schwarz we have talked about them every Sunday in church, and the
members are all fighting to try and come joint teach with them hahaha!
The lesson went quite well. We taught the Plan of Salvation.

   Dienstag- we woke up a half an hour early to make it to the train
for zone training in Singen. Once we got there, we ate breakfast, and
studied a little at the train station, because our train gets there
and hour early. Zone training was ok! It was a random surprise zone
training, because we've already had one this transfer, and president
decided to do a spontaneous one so that we could be introduced to a
new self reliance program that our mission is going to try. I'm really
excited for it, because it has had a lot of success with members, and
it seems good. After zone training we took a train with the Offenburg
elders all the way back to Offenburg for an Austausch (exchange). The
train ride through the beautiful fresh snow covered Black Forest. It
really feels like a fairy tale when it's covered in snow! I was with
elder Fröbel from Germany. Elder Fröbel and I went to Freiburg with an
investigator, to play indoor soccer with some members. It was so much
fun. The crazy part was that there was a guy from Zürich Switzerland
there that looked exactly like Tobias Anderson, if you happen to know
who that is. Which I funny, because they both come from Switzerland,
and are really good at soccer hah! After that we came back, and had
dinner and planned. We spent 8 hours in trains that day!

    Mittwoch- after studies we had steaks for lunch, then split up.
Elder Fröbel and I had 4 lessons with investigators, and the other
elders had 2 lessons, and went finding the rest of the time. After we
all got home we planned, ate, then played some Schach or chess in
English.

     Donnerstag- we studied, and then took a train back to Bad Säckingen.

     Freitag- just a normal day of finding, and weekly planning. We
also talked with Elder Moreno from Basel, and he is going to come
teach one of are investigators in Italian about once a week. We are
really excited! :) she we hopefully start making more progress.

     Samstag- was also a pretty normal day. We were able to meet with
three new converts, and help support them.

     Sonntag- we had an awesome time at church. And were able to meet
with our new Ward mission leader which went really great!

 

December 14, 2016

An update on Elder Ashcroft.

He has completely immersed himself into the mission, which mean me don’t hear from him every week anymore. We couldn’t be more proud of him. He has 2 upcoming baptisms (yeah…out of the blue. It’s the first we’ve heard about them too.) When we do hear from him it is only a few sentences here and there but just enough for us to know he is doing good. We had thought maybe he just forgot English, haha. But we got a cute little video of his companion and him singing, “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, “ in English. (I can’t find the video at the moment but once I do I’ll post it.) Transfer calls are coming up and he is really hoping to stay in the area a little longer. He was prompted to tell the President to keep he and his companion one more transfer. So we will see what happens, transfers should be this weekend. Thank you everyone for the prayers and support. We love you all!

~The Ashcroft Family

November 20, 2016

Just a real quick story!

Someone ordered a Book of Mormon online and agreed to have the missionaries (us) bring one by. We didn't really have time to do it but we eventually made it out to her house by bus. We knocked on the door and introduced ourselves. She was really happy to see us and invited us in. They have a really nice house by the way. Her husband works in Switzerland. We greeted the husband and he was super nice. We sat down and she got us some water. We started talking with them and found out that she was trying to track us down because she wanted a Book of Mormon. She was wanting to learn more about the church. She had been to the church two times and talked with someone from Salt Lake multiple times online. She even rang the doorbell at our apartment. All for the sake of coming in contact with the church. So that's why she was so happy when we came by. We talked about the Book of Mormon and explained a little about it. Right after I asked them why they ordered the book in the first place she started telling us about this intricate dream she had.

She was outside a big Temple with three big spires and a big front door. She said that there were three sets of doors. She felt so at peace and felt one of the best, happiest feelings she's ever felt. Then there were other people walking around outside the Temple, and she started talking to these people. She had noticed they were taking the Temple for granted but somehow she knew how great it was!

That was all of her dream. We were really quite shocked when we heard this! She said that after the dream she wanted to find this place, so she searched the internet for it. At first she thought it was Solomon's Temple but wasn't sure. Then she found it. The exact same Temple and place that was in her dream. It was the Salt Lake Temple! So she really wants to go there. This is crazy how she has been being prepared but whats even crazier is that her husband has had, as of late, the sudden interest in Jesus Christ and finding what is really true. He started reading through the Bible. They've been being prepared together! She said how she wanted to go to the Temple but knew the you have to be baptized in order to go to the there. We talked about the lessons and how our job as missionaries is to help people come unto Christ through the gospel and that we do this through 5 lessons. And that after the lesson we baptize them. We asked if they had interest in taking the lessons. Her eyes lit up she said yes realy fast. She then looked at her husband for support and he also said, “sure why not!?” We taught them the first lesson and it was funny because she just sat really still listening with wide eyes. The lesson went really well. They had a few questions but understood it pretty well. At the end they had a question or two about the word of wisdom because, they heard, or read about it somewhere. It was if we eat pig or not. We clarified a little and they had no complaints. They even seemed to be ok with the thought of not eating pig meat, haha! We said a prayer together and we're getting ready to leave. They didn't seem to want us to leave. She kept offering us some cake. It happened to be her birthday. We sang happy birthday and she blew the candles out. She's turned 32 and her husband is 36. We ate cake and talked with them for about 15 minute more then left. They are coming to church this week and we are meeting with them on Monday to teach the next lesson. :)

I also felt the ancestors of this family that day confirming that they are helping so that their work can be done in the spirit world. He is also really into the stories of his ancestors and thinks that part of the church is really cool and how we are baptized for them in the temple.

Cool right!?

October 10, 2016

***unedited this week. So no mind the mistakes. Enjoy!!!

Hello wonderful friends and family! The week has been a good one and my new companion (ElderHofeling), and I have been having a great time together! The work is going ok, but the weather is really really cold, and moist!! :(... I freeze.

Montag- we didn't really do anything interesting. Just shopping, cleaning, emails, and such.

Dienstag- we had District meeting in Freiburg. District meeting was really good considering it was my first time being a district leader. After district meeting, we handed out flyers for a celebration from the church in Freiburg as a district for an hour. After that we took a train home, and found some more.

Mittwoch- we had studies, and then we did some dooring in Switzerland. We came back in the evening to finish some of elder Hofelings in field training on the computer, and had dinner after that.

Donnerstag- we did studies and then went finding which went well. We came back a little early so that we could have dinner, then have a lesson with sister Rehm, but the lesson fell through. We ended up just having a member lesson with the joint teaches family anyways.

Freitag- we had studies, we found, we worked on Elder Hofelings in field training, and we had weekly planning.

Samstag- we went to Murg, contacted a referral, and went from door to door.

Sonntag- we had church. The mom and the kids of the Rehm family all came. :) after church we went over to sister Rehm's house with a member to bless her house. Ever since she has had a baptismal date, she has been being experiencing a lot of scary things from evil spirits. The good thing is, she takes this as a sign that the church is true, and is still determined on being baptized! :) after the blessing, we stayed and ate dinner with their family, then taught them one of the lessons.

The spiritual thought of this week is on fasting. I have thought a lot about fasting lately, because as a mission we have been reading in the New Testament, and I read the part where Jesus fasted for forty days. I never really thought to much about it before, but this time reading through it, it made a lot more sense.
When Jesus fasted in the wilderness he was preparing for his ministry. But why fasting? I read something in the institute manual about fasting that I really like and gives a good answer as to why he fasted.

“Fasting, coupled with mighty prayer, is powerful. It can fill our minds with the revelations of the Spirit. It can strengthen us against times of temptation. Fasting and prayer can help develop within us courage and confidence. They can strengthen our character and build self-restraint and discipline. Often when we fast, our righteous
prayers and petitions have greater power. Testimonies grow. We mature spiritually and emotionally and sanctify our souls. Each time we fast, we gain a little more control over our worldly appetites and passions” (“The Law of the Fast,” Ensign, May 2001, 73).

I challenge everyone the next time fast Sunday rolls around, to really pray, and fast to find out what your personal strengths, talents, and gifts are, and then, and pray every day to be able to use those talents, and abilities to help other people.

I know that fasting, and prayer are two of the best ways that we can draw upon the powers of heaven, and that God gives us everything that we have, because he really does love us, and he loves us because we are his children. He wants to help us.

I hope that everyone has beautiful week, and a great time doing all the things you guys do! :) if you ever need anything, hit me up.

~Elder Ashcroft~

October 3, 2016

 

Hello friends and family! :) It has been a great week here and it's finally starting to get cold. Really cold! :( But I'm just a wimp for the cold I guess…haha!

Monday we went shopping and packed a little for Elder McDaniel. In the evening we had a member appointment in Rheinfelden with the family Kamm as a farewell for Elder McDaniel.

Tuesday we had our last district meeting with Elder Jensen, McDaniel, and Sister Petitt. District meetings take a huge chunk out of our day. It takes two hours to get to Freiburg then we meet for an hour and a half, eat lunch and take the same two hour train ride
back. I guess a positive side is that the train ride is absolutely beautiful because we go through the Black Forest the entire time. :D When we got back we had an appointment with the family Rehm, an investigator family. The wife is from Peru and cooked us some really really good dishes from her home country. After the meal we shared a scripture and then went home for the day.

Mittwoch we had transfer day! We took a train early in the morning to Zürich where I spend a total of 10 hours before my trainee arrived. It was such a good time!! I got to see all of my good friends in Switzerland and got to catch up a little. After the first group left
I went around Zürich with the zone leaders. We had a service project, ate lunch then went finding for a little bit. It was a really good time. :) My Trainee came into Zürich at about five o'clock so we helped everyone get their luggage off the train. We all waited for our trains going back home after that. We got home at about 6:00pm. I helped my companion unpack a little, we had dinner then went to bed.

Thursday we had studies then went to the church for some in field training for Elder Hofeling on the computer. Then we went dooring in Switzerland for his first time dooring.

Freitag we had studies and a service project helping sister Jung carry some furniture. After she feed us some really good food and we went home. Then we had an appointment with Frau Singh fall out. We had an early dinner because we had an appointment that night with Sister Rehm. The lesson with Sister Rehm went really well. We shared the Restoration with her, which Elder Hofeling, my companion, did very well for his first time, not to mention it was in a foreign language! Elder Hofeling is a great guy and he really has the gift of tongues because he can understand seemingly a lot. Sister Rehm is progressing a lot and is committed to her baptism happening. :)

Samstag we had weekly planning, had to fix the light on my bike, because the Germans are super strict about you having a light, then we had to go shopping because Monday is a holiday. After that he found a bit.

Sonntag we went to Basel with an investigator and some members to watch the preisthood session. Then came back and ate lunch at the members house with the investigator family and all watched conference after that.
Cool beans.

September 26, 2016

Hello everybody, I have been very bad at getting my weekly mails out
but I will start doing it again I promise! There have been some very
big changes this past week! First of all we set the date for Schwester
Rehm's baptism for the 29th of October and planned everything out on
a calendar. Her daughters will also get baptized so we will also
start teaching them the lessons. Joshua has also been expressing his
desire to be Baptized into this church and we set a date with him for
the 12th of November.

I can really say that this area has improved so much from before. I've
definitely had the most success being here than anywhere else on my
mission.

The second big thing that has happened this week was transfer calls.
I will be training next transfer, which really excites me. I am
also supper nervous because I've never trained! To make things
crazier I will be the new district leader and the district is the
youngest district I've ever seen! Hahaha….Three people are going to be
trained in our district and I'm the oldest, on the mission,
missionary in the district.

There have been a lot of other things that also happened but these
are the two big ones. I will just sum up by sending some pictures,
but I promise I will send my weekly next week…haha! ;)