Hi Family,

So obviously the highlight of the week is that we had a baptism.  Her name is Marnajah and she is 11-years-old.  Her father is a convert of one year and was able to baptize her and confirm her.  It made him so happy, it was quite a miracle.  We've been seeing so many miracles this week, I'd like to talk about all of them but there is so many I doubt I'll be able to.

One of the most amazing things that happened this week is we met Lavara.  And I'm actually happy that I have the chance to tell this story because whenever we want to tell this story my companions get super excited and I never get to tell it and I'm excited too.  A while ago we got a referral from the Zone Leaders for this woman named Tia.  We called her about five times and every single time she would answer and then say "I'll call you back" and then wouldn't.  So we decided that we were just going to stop by her apartment.  Well, when we knocked on the door it wasn't Tia it was Lavara, who was half asleep.  We felt bad for bugging her so pretty much all we said was "Hi, we're the missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Would you be interested in hearing a message about Jesus Christ?" and she said yes.  I honestly doubted her commitment but we got her information and set up an appointment for Friday anyway.  When we came back for our appointment she wasn't home so we left a note and then left.  She actually called that night!  Nobody ever calls us.  It was amazing.  She told us that she was so grateful we left a number and that she tried to be home in time but couldn't get off of work on time.  She made another appointment for the next day.  So we went and visited her on Saturday.  It was such a spiritual meeting.  She told us right off the bat that she knew that we had something wonderful for her and that us being there was like Christmas.  By the end of the lesson she was crying and said "I haven't felt this happy for a long time."  We asked her to come to church and she said that she had obligations still but she knew it was true and came anyway.

We were actually able to meet this family too, the Mitchells.  Most of the people we teach are poor but the Mitchells are very rich.  Rich people aren't typically as interested but the Mitchells are very interested.  I think they realized that they have money enough to buy anything that but yet something is missing their lives and their still not happy.  Sister Mitchell was a inactive member of the church that made a call to get missionaries sent over and Brother Mitchell was only interested in learning more about us, not necessarily joining.  They told us they were doing it for their four-year-old son.  The two lessons that we've had with them have been incredibly powerful and has brought both of them to tears.  It's honestly too hard to describe but he's going to get baptized at the end of this month.  Brother Mitchell especially is exercising so much faith.  He doesn't know for sure that it's true, he doesn't know if there's a God or if God loves him but he wants to believe it is so he acts on faith.

Two other amazing stories are the stories of both Danica's (one of our younger investigators mentioned in a previous email) and Marnajah's (check above) moms.  Because both Danica and Marnajah are minors their moms have wanted to sit in on the lessons.  Danica's mom's name is Vicki and when we first met her she admitted to us that the only reason that she was letting us over was because Danica wanted to be baptized and she believed in free agency.  She told us she was against organized religion.  But as we've been meeting with Danica and praying that Vicki's heart would be softened to Danica being baptized, she's not only been more open to that but also to the gospel.  When Marnajah's dad was being baptized Marnajah's mom, Sherri, apparently caused some problems for him to the point that they were even separated.  But she allowed us to teach Marnajah regardless and was impressed with what we were saying.  The gospel has brought so much joy to her life and she's so happy we could baptize Marnajah.  It's amazing that the love mothers have for their daughters work so well with the gospel.

One woman, Sumuthia, that we've been teaching only invited us over because she was stuck.  She couldn't get a job because her husband is sick in bed with cancer and because she can't speak English very well.  So when we came over she was only interested in learning English but she knows the Book of Mormon is true and it makes her so happy.  

Many other miracles have happened this week many of which I don't have time describe.  I am so incredibly blessed right now and so lucky that I get to be a part of this.  God loves me so much and He loves me enough to allow me to be a part of this.   I love you all so much!

Love,

Sister Ashley Naylor

Hi Family,

I don't have much to write this week because not a whole lot of things happened, at least nothing interesting.  We went and saw a bunch of people, we ate dinner at some of the members houses, and it was really hot.  One thing we did do is we managed to commit this 11-year-old girl to baptism for this weekend.  Her Dad is a convert of just over a year so she wants to be baptized as well.  That went really well.  I honestly couldn't care if we baptized her this weekend or another weekend but my companions were happy about it and so I am too.

We went on splits for the first time some time earlier this week with one of the members.  I was alone with the member and my companions went together.  It was great, I definitely liked that and would be willing to do that again.

Yesterday I left my bag in Sacrament Meeting, you know just the bag that has everything in it!  So we went back to get it and the Vietnamese Ward was in there having their Sacrament Meeting.  And so we walked through on both sides and grabbed it, it was really embarrassing.  I imagine we're going to be hearing from the Vietnamese Elders because of that.

I realized that I have that same thing that Dad does where I have to have something sweet after I eat or the meal just doesn't feel finished and I tend to overeat.  So of course I bought Blue Bell.  It's the only logical solution.  I don't think I told you guys how much I love Blue Bell.  It is the best ice cream in the world.  We get fed a lot of Blue Bell at dinner appointments.  People here call it Blue Bell not ice cream so I get really worried whenever they say "we're going to have ice cream for dessert."  Because my first thought is Blue Bell but they could be talking about any brand and I don't want to get my hopes up.  One woman said that and she pulled out Orange Surbert!!!  That's not even ice cream!  I was still grateful that she fed us and that we got dessert.  Some people are crazy, how you could buy any ice cream besides Blue Bell here is beyond me.  I'm joking of course, but I really do love Blue Bell and they have so many flavors.

We rely so heavily on the members here to do missionary work I invite you to pray to find more missionary opportunities and remember that it is the responsibility of all of us to build up the kingdom of God.  If you pray for missionary opportunities the Lord will give them to you.  Also go to this website (https://www.lds.org/training/wwlt/2013/hastening/special-broadcast?lang=eng#media= also https://www.lds.org/training/wwlt/2013/hastening/special-broadcast?lang=eng#media=16902107223790014226-eng) and watch "I'll Go Where I Want You to Go."  This is what we show to members when we go and visit them.  It's really good.  (Side Note:  Will you also attach that video to the blog?  Also how is that going?)  Let me know how your missionary work is going.

I love you all so much and love hearing what's happening.  I'm so grateful for that package that you sent me with the pictures of you and of my puppy.  It makes me so happy to look at.

Love,

Sister Ashley Naylor

Dear Family,

This 4th of July we were so blessed because we got to do a service project at one of the members of the ward, Sister Sanders, house.  Because of health problems Sister Sanders is unable to go to the 2nd story of her house very often and so she wanted our help cleaning it.  She takes in a lot of different tenants that stay up there, a lot of which don't have anywhere else to go or any money to pay her.  It was quite a mess up there and she was upset about how ungrateful her tenants had been and how they treated her home and her stuff.  It was something that anyone would have been upset about but she kept on telling herself that she just needed to be okay with that and let them in as they were.  We told her that even though her tenants didn't show gratitude that God was grateful that she was so willing to do that.  I was reading in Mosiah 2 today and I read "And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn ^awisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the ^bservice of your ^cfellow beings ye are only in the service of your God."  Sometimes we just need to remember that we should do good things even when it seems that we those we do them for aren't grateful for what we're doing because God is grateful.  I try to remember that as I'm doing missionary work and those that I teach don't seem to care the sacrifice that I'm making for their salvation.  But God cares.  It was also neat learning about her past and looking through her "treasures" and learning more about her.  Overall it was a fantastic 4th of July.

Yesterday I had a wonderful day.  Because Sister Laurent is the president's niece they invited our companionship over for dinner.  We had chicken-pot-pie and coconut cream cake and it was so good.  It also made it so that I was more comfortable around President Ashton being able to sit with his family in a very casual setting.  It's also nice to see how his family behaves and their personality.  They have such a wonderful family.

I've been really working on building courage this week.  Pray for me to have the courage to admit to things that I've done wrong, to have the courage to teach confidently, and mostly just have courage over all.  I think about all of the prophets and how much courage they have.  I think about my mission president and how much courage he has.  It truly takes a lot of courage to be a missionary.

Love,

Sister Ashley Naylor

Letter on July 1st

Hello Family,

How are all of you doing?  This week Sam was baptized and it was amazing!!!  It was way too easy to get him into the water.  Every investigator has problems before they get baptized thanks to the father of all lies but not Sam.  Every night and every morning I would pray that he would safe from Satan's influence and God is a God that answers prayers:  he was safe!  It was truly a miracle.  I think his mom was praying for him too and also protecting him from the spirit world.  She was converted years ago and passed away not too long ago and I just kept thinking about how happy she was that her son, who's still alive is being baptized.  It's quite an amazing thought.  I had a feeling that I should have Sam chose the hymns at his baptism even though he didn't know of any.  So my companions and I sang 5 hymns to him on Monday.  One of the songs we sang was "Nearer my God to Thee."  It was his mom's favorite hymn!  I'm pretty sure I was inspired to chose that one.

On that same day however we had an investigator tell us that he had received an answer to His prayers and that it was that the Book of Mormon wasn't true.  I didn't understand he thought that because we've prayed with him before and I've felt the spirit witness to us and to him that the Book of Mormon is true.  I know that he's received witness that the Book of Mormon is true!  It was really hard for me but I just had to remember that everything will happen on the Lord's time and just because Satan managed to deceive him now doesn't mean that he'll never be converted.

This week I've really been working on being positive.  I didn't realize that I was naturally a pessimistic person.  But I also think Sister Laurent is a little over-the-top optimistic so it's quite a comparison.  Like I don't think me saying "I don't think we'll be able to see as many people as we normally do because I feel like a lot of people will be out of town for the 4th of July" is pessimistic but I said that and then companions said, "Sister Naylor be positive!"  But it's something that I've been working on regardless.

We've been very successful lately.  We can see the hard work and obedience pay off.  It's been wonderful.  On Friday we got all of our daily goals except for new investigators (we set five which is really high but we got three.)

I've also had the chance to get really close to Grandpa Roskelley recently.  I've been reading his biography, I didn't know he had such a sense of humor.  He talks about Grandma a lot, I can tell that he loves her so much.  There are some great stories in there, some of which I share with my companions.  It means so much to me that I can be so close to my Grandpa because I know that he's just in the spirit world and because he wrote that biography.  It truly is wonderful.

I love you all so much.  Yesterday I said how hard it would be for me to move far away from my family to a member and she said "Well, you're away from them now."  I told her, "Yeah, but they feel so close."  I can feel the prayers that you have for me and that makes you feel so close.  I hope you're all doing wonderful.  The Lord answers prayers and I've been praying for you so I know that you're doing okay for the most part.

Love,

Sister Ashley Naylor