Come Unto Christ: A Missionary Musical Tribute

Bonjour! It is me! Sister Esplin, BACK AGAIN!! I know you missed me ;) To quote phantom of the opera: “Remember me, once in a while; Please promise me you’ll tryyyyyyy!!” This week was a great week, but then again most weeks are in the Arkansas Little Rock Mission. In Arkadelphia, specifically. This week was so much fun, as well! Missionary work is so HARD. But whoever said that missionary work can’t be fun is crazy! We have had some awesome success stories this week and shared some fantastic experiences.

Our Monday night dinner is now pretty much every week with the Johnstuns. Shout out to them!! We love when people feed us :) Not only because we don’t have to spend money on food and Sister Black gets a break from eating my food experiments, but because we get to know the members and help assist and guide them in their missionary efforts. FEED THE MISSIONARIES!!! DO IT! 

On Thursday we went and had a lesson with a member who actually WAS actively trying to become a member of the seventh Day Adventist church, but they kicked her out.  We have been visiting with her and she said we could start teaching her ‘the missionary lessons’. (Side note, I phrased it like that and now she thinks she is taking lessons to become a missionary which she is VERY excited about. She is kind of right). We had lesson one with her and, oh my goodness, the spirit was strong she just kept saying that things made sense and that she felt like a light bulb was going on in her head. She just loved the restoration. It was such a great lesson!!! 

We were also able to teach another member the first lesson this week (side note, as their visiting teachers we are supposed to be teaching them the lessons. That is why we have a lot of lessons with just members). Well, as we taught her, we had quite an interesting experience. Everytime that sister Black talked she LOVED it. Every. Single. Time. I opened my mouth. She FELL ASLEEP!!! Oh my goodness. What in the world?! But it is okay, we ended our wonderful lesson with her singing a song about squirrels getting nuts for Christmas. I really don’t know what is happening with her. 🤷‍♀️ 

On Friday we were able to volunteer at the rehab center’s  Halloween party. It was great, except we were all FREEZING!! ❄️ On the bright side, we were able to see some investigators there and talk to them so it was so so awesome! Just that week we were discussing as to whether or not we should keep serving at the rehab center, but then we had some great missionary moments and we felt like that this was our signal to continue serving in this capacity.  

On Saturday we had our awesome branch Halloween party!!! It was so much fun and we were able to talk to a lot of members that we have been trying to get a hold of, but they have been NOT ANSWERING THEIR: (pick one of the above) phones, doors, Facebook messages, car door. I’m kidding about the last one. But we were able to talk to a lot of them, and guess what!? They came to church yesterday!!! YAYAY!!

Okay, last thing! We had our musical devotional yesterday, “Come Unto Christ: A missionary Musical Tribute”, and it was so good!!! Oh my goodness. I loved it. I definitely cried a lot. We sang in the choir and sang wonderful songs like Joseph Smith’s First Prayer, As Sisters in Zion/We’ll Bring The World His Truth, Called to Serve, and Amazing Grace-My Chains Are Gone. It was so so beautiful. The spirit was so strong and I truly know that what President Hansen has told us about the three things that bring the spirit is true. It is Sacred music, testimony, and doctrine. That is what our performance was. Missionaries bore their testimonies, the stake president spoke and taught everyone core doctrine, and we sang sacred music. It was so delightful. I wish I could be a part of another devotional. 

As I was reading in the Book of Mormon this week, I loved the things that I learned! In Alma 36:14 Alma shared, “So great had been my iniquities, that the very thought of coming into the presence of my God did rack my soul with inexpressible horror.” Then in verses 17-22 he shared: 

17 “And it came to pass that as I was thus racked with torment, while I was harrowed up by the memory of my many sins, behold, I remembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world.

18 Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death.

19 And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more.

20 And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!

21 Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy.

22 Yea, methought I saw, even as our father Lehi saw, God sitting upon his throne, surrounded with numberless concourses of angels, in the attitude of singing and praising their God; yea, and my soul did long to be there.”

Turning to christ is the only way we can overcome our sins. As you compare verse 14 to verse 22, isn’t it amazing that in verse 22 Alma’s feelings changed from “the very thought of coming into the presence of my God did rack my soul with with inexpressible horror” to “my soul did long to be there (with God)”. The atonement helps us to approach God’s throne with confidence. Alma was a great sinner, but through Christ and His atonement, Alma became a changed man who desired to be with God. ALL OF US, no matter our circumstances can have that desire to be with God. If we have unworthiness or sin, all we need to do is repent and turn to Jesus Christ. He can help us through everything. He has suffered for us and he always has his arms outstretched for us. 

I love my Savior, Jesus Christ, and I love His gospel. I love the Book of Mormon and I know that it is the word of God. I know that Heavenly Father hears our prayers and knows who we are. I know that through Jesus Christ we can overcome the sins that we make and we can become even better and truly become disciples of Christ and be instruments in His hands. When Alma repented, God didn’t hold back in utilizing Alma simply because Alma had sinned in the past. Instead, God put him to work and He used him for good. We CAN become new through Jesus Christ. We all have worth!!!

I love y’all so so much!! I hope that you have a wonderful week! I would love to hear from you!!!! HAAAAVE A GOOD ONE!!!!

Love,

Sister Esplin

Ashley

A Super Sister

A choir member

THE MUSICAL TRIBUTE!!!

 Some of our Arkadelphia homies! Sister Johnstun and Sister Franklin

 We caught another one!! Sister Moss:)

 LOOK WHO I FOUND!!! ❤️ My baby has grown up so much! She is reppin’ in Sherwood now! :)

SUPER SISTERS!! 

Sister Black’s mom made these cute capes. Shoutout to her!

Halloween party!!

The Johnstuns

Kool (sisters) and the gang 

Sunday morning selfie 

Walkin’ and knockin’ with Sister Black

Our “chili”—I also made homemade pizza and it turned out pretty good :)

Hey, Do you have water?

HELLO! 

The dreaded transfer email came on Saturday the 21st, dun dun dun!!!! And guess what!? I get to stay in Arkadelphia with Sister Black!! Yay!! HALLELUJAH!! IT HAS BEEN SO LOOOOOOONNNNGGGG!!!! I am so so so excited to stay here and to stay with my companion. We are going to do some awesome work this transfer!! Woot woot! This week was cram packed with so much, I am so glad we get to keep working with this fire for another 6 weeks. 

On Tuesday we were able to have district meeting and our zone leaders came and instructed us on some new mission procedures. WE ARE NOT COUNTING KEY INDICATORS. Yup. You saw that right. We are wanting to focus more on the people and less on the numbers aspect of it all. So that is exciting. OH! Going along, sort of, with this, President Hansen has asked us all to have our family and friends pray with us in praying for 80 souls to be baptized before the end of the year. So if any of you would be willing to help in that regard, I know that those prayers are heard and so so so important. Going along with that, here are some more highlights of the week. 

On Tuesday we had a lesson with the Bradys at the church and it went GREAT! We have been struggling to know what we can do to help Michael and Robert focus and be reverent during the lessons. Like any normal young boys, they are quite rambunctious and so they won’t stay seated, and they will sometimes just walk out of the lesson or run off or lay on the ground or just not pay attention at all, which frustrates their mom to no end. So there we were, sitting at the church at approximately 7:45 waiting for them to show up at the church, when suddenly, Sister Black had an idea! She grabbed a bunch of chairs from a room and basically barricaded the lobby off from the rest of the church. I was a bit wary of it, no way was that going help our situation. Well, the Bradys showed up and the boys walk into the church and see all of the chairs and stop and look at us and ask what is going on. We told them that something horrible had happened that day and they shouldn’t go past the chairs. Surprisingly enough they listened. We had the lesson with only occasional outbursts. It was wonderful! When the lesson was over Robert turned to us and asked what had happened (for about the 50th time). We turned to him and with all the solemnity that we could muster, told him that the WiFi had stopped working. Their eyes got big and they stomped outside of the church in frustration. Then we laughed. We didn’t know that would work! Oh my goodness. Later, Sara (their mom) told us that when they got back in the car, they said: “I cant believe they got us!”. 

Another great story from that same lesson: 

So, we were going to teach the word of wisdom, but then we felt that we needed to read the Book of Mormon with them. So we read Alma chapter 31, where it talks about the people in Antionum, the Zoramites. If I can take you back a little bit, this is where it is talking about the people who would get on the Rameumptom and say the exact same prayers thanking God for making them better then all of the other people. So I demonstrated some bad things to do for prayers, (ie. thanking him for making me better than Sister Black 😉, thanking him for the day and yadda yadda yadda). Then I asked the boys if that prayer was good if I said the same thing every day. The answer they gave was yes. Well, I decided to make my point by raising my right hand high in the air, poising it to slap down into my left hand to make a loud slap. Well, I think that would have worked except for the fact that I didn’t judge the distance all that well and on my hand’s downward descent to my other hand, I SLAPPED MY FACE!!! I also scratched my eye. So. My point didn’t actually get across. Everyone just laughed at me. Oh well! 🤷‍♀️ 

On Tuesday night we were also super blessed to be able to go to a member’s house and visit with her. It was such a tender mercy. We have not been able to meet with her at all the whole transfer, but luckily we were able to catch her at just the right time at her house. A crazy thing happened though that solidifies my theory that people in Arkansas are straight up tough! We were talking to Sister Jernigan and all of a sudden, a she tells us that she killed a wasp. What? She had just been standing there and a wasp had flown into her dress and stung her a couple times and all she did was whack it once and it died. And she just kept on talking to us!! Oh my goodness they are like mighty Amazonian warriors out here! Sometimes... ;)

On Wednesday to Friday we went on exchanges! I went to the Pinnacle Mountain area with Sister Guthrie and Sister Feinga came to Arkadelphia with Sister Black. I came back to my literal place of birth! Oh my goodness gracious. I decided that I am NEVER EVER EVER going to serve in that area. The hills there were CRAZY! We had a walk day there and I seriously about died. 😶 I have never walked that many hills and that steep on my mission. I have truly been blessed with a flatter terrain. As I was walking up the hills of my affliction (as I will now call them), the sage words of the wise Miley Cyrus ran through my head. “Always gonna be an uphill battle; Always gonna want to make them move! Yadda yadda yadda... doesn’t matter how fast I get there... yadda yadda yadda... IT’S THE CLIIIIIIIIIMB!!!!”.  It was indeed a climb. BUT we were able to see so many people and talk to them about the gospel. We were also able to give out several copies of the Book of Mormon. In fact, here is another story for you:) As we headed out into the hill infested land, being beaten down by the cruel sun, I realized that I was thirsty!! I finished my first water bottle and I just turned to Sister Guthrie and said, “It might be a good time to knock on doors and we can also ask for water! “ She acquiesced. So, as we got to this door, I was told by Sister Guthrie that I had that door. So this 20 something year old guy opens the door and asks if there was something we wanted. To which I very smoothly asked if he had water. He kind of looked taken back and responded with a yes and asked if we wanted some. YES. So he went back inside. I turned to sister Guthrie and her eyes were HUGE! Then I realized what I just did and definitely did a facepalm. So smooth Esplin. 🤦🏻‍♀️ But then he came back and he was so nice and we were able to talk to him and set up another appointment and give him a Book of Mormon and later that night we sent him a video and he watched it and started a conversation with us! As we walked away we realized that some people need to be approached in different ways. God knows what we need and often times he uses us to do His purposes. So the next time you have an embarrassing moment, remind yourself that there might actually be a purpose in it all.

LAST THING!! On Sunday we had ‘Friend Sunday’ and it was awesome! So many people brought their friends and it went wonderfully. Well, later that night we were tracting and we came to a street and I just felt like that was not where we needed to be, so we went to the street over and started knocking on doors and NO ONE was answering. Finally we saw a college student outside so we low-key speed walked towards her but then she walked inside and since we didn’t want her to think we were targeting her (we totally were, for the record), we went to her neighbor across the street and knocked. At first we didn’t think anyone was going to come to the door, but when the door opened it was a wonderful surprise! It was a lady that had come to church that day with a member! We all laughed and talked about how God had definitely led us to her. She is great and we are so excited to meet with her on that 2nd of November. 

This week I was reading President Uchtdorf’s talk from last conference, ‘A Yearning for Home’, and I just loved what it had to say!!

“The history of God’s work is filled with people who considered themselves inadequate. But they humbly served, relying on the grace of God and His promise: “Their arm shall be my arm, and I will be their shield … , and they shall fight manfully for me; and … I [will] preserve them.”

“How encouraging it is to know, though we are imperfect, if our hearts are turned to God, He will be generous and kind and use us for His purposes.Those who love and serve God and fellowmen and humbly and actively participate in His work will see wondrous things happen in their lives and in the lives of those they love. Doors that seemed shut will open.Angels will go before them and prepare the way.No matter your position in your community or in the Church, God will use you, if you are willing. He will magnify your righteous desires and turn the compassionate actions you sow into a bountiful harvest of goodness.”

I love that! As we are willing and humbly ask what we can do and pray to be instruments in his hands, God will help us help others. We can be instruments in His hands. A member said something in passing to us this week and I just found it super profound. she said, “If you want to be a good learner you need to be able to give your will to the teacher. “. I think that is so so so true! Especially in missionary work. As we strive to be disciples, which ARE learners, we need to follow the Master. we need to know our Savior and do what he would do and listen to the promptings of the spirit and do what our Father in Heaven would have us do. 

I just want to bear my testimony to y’all. I know that this church is true. I know that our Father in Heaven knows us and loves us SO SO SO much! I know that as we do HIS will, we will be blessed and happy. As Elder (formerly President) Wakolo always says, “This is the plan of HAPPINESS! Not the plan of SADNESS”. God doesn’t want us to be sad. So if we feel distant from Him, Who moved? If we feel sad, we can turn to our Savior, Jesus Christ and I know that he can heal us and help us. He knows exactly what we are feeling. I love y’all so so much and I hope that you have a wonderful week!!!

Love,

Sister Esplin

Ashley

Hill walker

Asking for water can actually lead people to the Living Water ;)

Willing learner

 Staying together another transfer 

Exchanges with Sister Guthrie 

 Sister Black’s mom sent capes for Halloween!

We will be the Super Sisters!!!

Baptismal dates, the Book of Mormon, and Spanish lessons

Hello all!

This week was a pretty good week. I hope that y’all had a great week as well and were able to see God’s hand in your life. I also hope that you have been consistently reading the Book of Mormon. I have been studying like crazy!!! Oh my goodness, I love that book. There are so so so many ways to study it, and every time that I open the book I feel like I learn new things and the spirit just flows through me. With this last General Conference, where several people talked about the importance of studying the Book of Mormon and then in our mission tour Elder Klebingat talked about how it was the “great sifter”. Oh my goodness, I have been trying so hard to focus more and more on the Book of Mormon and do you know what? I have really been able to see the blessings in my life. I have found that the Book of Mormon is so relatable to our times. The Prophets in the Book of Mormon saw OUR DAY!! I love the music “Cumorah’s Hill” that we performed when I was in young women’s. I listened to the music this week and I felt the spirit so strong. I love the last song where they say “From Cumorah’s Hill there comes a witness and a warning. Out of darkness shines the welcome light of morning.” As missionaries, we are here to share that light with others. Some people would rather not listen and feel the gladness that comes from the gospel. They would rather hide in the darkness. But I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I know that it’s purpose is to help us and guide us. I invite and beg you all to READ THE BOOK OF MORMON!!!! With the days that are here and forthcoming, we all need the strength that comes from reading it. I KNOW that as we read we are putting on our spiritual armor. We are better able to see the cunning plan of the adversary and fight back and be strong. We will be able to stand on holy ground. Being able to testify of the truthfulness of the Book is such an amazing experience for me. Every time I do, I feel like so many are there with me. I know that I am putting my name with the Prophets in the Book.

This week we had a lesson with Maria and oh my goodness! It was amazing. She was kind of distracted because she had her little nephew but we were able to talk to her about the Book of Mormon and she just loves it! I shared 1 nephi 15:7-11. We need to ask god to help us to understand things that we don’t understand. As we turn to him in faith, he will answer and teach us. We talked more about how she feels about the Book and we asked her if she would pray about it and again she told us that she doesn’t need to. She already knows it is true. We still asked her to pray about it though. She agreed and then we invited her to baptism....and she said YES! We set the date for November 4th. She said that it was about time for her to rededicate her life and this time she didn’t want to do it for anyone, for friends, for family, because of pressure. She wants to change her life to the Lord. We are excited to keep teaching her.

We were also able to be in a Spanish lesson this week with Jose while the Little Rock Hermanas Skyped in. We had to use our phone since Jose didn’t have any way to have a lesson with them. But it was cool to see how the spirit was there even if I couldn’t understand a word. Sister Johnstun also came with us and I am so grateful for her help because she was an amazing member helping teach the lessons to him!!!! I love the Arkadelphia branch. The members are seriously amazing.

We also were able to have some lessons with the Bradys this week and we were able to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Before my mission, ‘the gospel’ felt a little abstract to me. I just heard everybody talk about it all the time and just thought it was this “thing” that we did. When I went to the MTC I realized that the gospel was actually much easier than I thought! Knowing that through Christ we can be cleansed from sin, then having faith in Jesus Christ, which leads to the next step of Repentance, which leads to baptism (or if you are already baptized, working towards the temple and partaking of the sacrament), receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost (and trying to keep him with us all the time), and enduring to the end. We had Michael take giant leaps with every scripture we read about those things. He would take a leap towards a picture of Jesus Christ. It was great!!!

I love y’all so so much!!! I want to end with a quote from elder Holland, “[The Lord] has offered us one last covenant, given us one last testament, as part of his final outreach to fallen man. He has offered us one last written witness of his love and his mercy extended for the final time. … That testament and culminating witness, that ‘new covenant’ offered to the children of men but once more, is the message of the Book of Mormon. “No record teaches more of God’s promise to those in the last days.

Those promises focus on his Only Begotten Son, on ‘the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah … [who] shall make intercession for all the children of men; and they that believe in him shall be saved’ [2 Nephi 2:8–9]. “The task of the children of God in these concluding days of the world’s history is to proceed with ‘unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save,’ to ‘press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men[,] … feasting upon the word of Christ, and endur[ing] to the end. This is the way; and there is none other way nor name given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God’ [2 Nephi 31:19–21]. “No other book helps us do this so well. No other book was ever divinely produced and protected solely for that purpose. No other book has ever been written with such a full view of the future dispensation to which that record would eventually come. … “… In its message of faith in Christ, hope in Christ, and charity in Christ, the Book of Mormon is God’s ‘new covenant’ to his children--for the last time” (Christ and the New Covenant, 8–10). I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is Christ’s Church once again restored to the earth. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. I know that as we turn to our Heavenly Father in prayer, he will answer us-but not always in the way or time that we want. I know that God sees the big picture and that He is taking care of us. I know that when State Farm asks “Are you in good hands?” I can say, “YES!!! I am in God’s hands!!” :) There were definitely days this week that were kind of hard, but yesterday before church I knelt down in prayer and asked Heavenly Father to help me and strengthen me. I asked for answers and reassurance. In sacrament meeting my prayers were answered. As we turn to Christ and our Father in Heaven, they can help us. I tell people that if we want to feel better spiritually we need to evaluate how our Church attendance is going, how meaningful our scripture study is, and how personal our prayers with our Father in Heaven are. As we strive to strengthen those areas I know that we will be okay. I love y’all so so much!!!! Thank you so much for the updates and emails and letters! I am so grateful for all of you. OH ALSO!!!! President Hansen has asked that we ask all of our friends and family to pray that we can achieve 80 baptisms for the rest of the year so that we can get every soul that is ready. Please do that if you can:)

Thanks!

Love y’all!!!

Love,

Sister Esplin

Ashley

MISSIONARYAYAYAY!!

Book of Mormon testifier

Happy Dancer

 Sweet is the work with Sister Black!

Our new car!

Whoah! Christmas is already at Walmart!!!

General Authorities, Testimony meeting visitors, and A BRAND NEW CAR!

Hey y'all!

I hope that your weeks have been AMAZING! I know that ours here in Arkadelphia has been pretty great. I sure do love this area. The people are so sweet here! I also for a moment have to talk about how much I love being a missionary. There is nothing like it. I love being able to talk to people about Jesus Christ and witness how He changes people and see through His eyes how no one is a lost cause. I love the fact that I am able to feel even just a little bit of my Heavenly Father's love for my brothers and sisters and that I can share that love with them. I love that I am out here in Arkansas finding my brothers and sisters and helping them to repent and come closer to Christ. Seeing the light of the gospel enter into their lives is so breathtaking. I love it when people hear a truth (that I take for granted because I have known it my whole life) and, as they come to understand it,  it becomes an aha moment. I love that as I help others to come closer to our Savior, I also come closer to Him. I know that He understands and loves these people here and that He cares about them so much. He wants them back. I love it when people have a genuine desire to learn and are "truth seekers”, as we call them. I feel a little bad that they get me as a teacher, but God works with the weak. 

Okay!!! So this week was seriously AMAZING. I don't know how else to describe it. We were able to have interviews this week with President Hansen and that was great! Also, this week we were able to go to North Little Rock and have a meeting with Elder Klebingat of the quorum of the seventy. He was amazing! He had so many wonderful instructions and I learned so so so much! My mind felt like it was just going to explode-in a good way. :) I was taking so many notes. Here are some of those awesome notes:

There are two types of pain in life:

-pain of discipline, which weighs ounces

-pain of regret, which weighs tons

The pain of discipline brings joy. The sooner you will come to love the pain of discipline, you will be blessed. 

He talked about how when you take anything to an extreme, the adversary will use it against you. Don't be a Pharisee. (That was my own little note)

He talked about how knowledge saves us ultimately and how the adversary will always attack first prayers and scripture study. He also told us some amazing things about the plan of salvation and, oh my goodness, it has changed my life. Seriously. He talked about how if you are from the tribe of Ephraim you have the RESPONSIBILITY to share the gospel. So when people ask why I am on a mission he said that President Nelson would want us to say, "I am here to fulfill my pre-mortal covenant to gather Israel". I promised before I was born to be here and to bring my brothers and sisters back. To prepare for our brother's return. This mission is so much bigger than we thought it was. He said that we already did this in the premortal world, as we begged our brothers and sisters to follow God's plan. That, as a missionary, Heavenly Father is asking us to be his witness one more time. 

He also instructed us on how to use the Book of Mormon more in our missionary work. We need to be reading with our investigators and helping them. He said that people who are elect will respond to the book.  He also told us that the less that we speak in a lesson the better we will teach. We need to be using the pamphlets and the Book of Mormon. We are there to lead, guide, and clarify, but  I cannot speak better than the Prophets and apostles, and actually, God. 

He taught us a lot and I learned SO MUCH! I wish I could just have had more time to learn even more! It was amazing and it gave me a renewed energy to work and find all of my brothers and sisters. We got to shake hands with him afterwards and he shook each of our hands and then STARED INTO OUR SOULS and asked how long we had been out and then lifted us all. 

Okay, so after that amazing day on Saturday, we had a CRAZY Sunday. Oh my goodness gracious. So it was fast and testimony meeting in the Arkadelphia branch and this is probably one of my craziest church stories that has happened YET! So there we are sitting in testimony meeting, feeling the spirit, listening to the testimonies of those around us, and there is a new couple in the branch who have just moved in. The sister that was sitting in front us of would ask Sister Black at the beginning of each testimony who it was that was speaking so she could write it down and remember. Good idea, I thought. Well, I looked over and there was a man that kept trying to stand up to bear his testimony, but since he was in the very back everyone in front of him would stand up without seeing him and get there first. I just wanted to look at him and tell him to just keep walking. Well, he finally DID get up and he went to the stand and started talking and he introduced himself. Sister Black didn’t know who he was. He then said that he wasn't a member of our church and that he just felt like he should come here. At this point, our eyes went huge and we looked at each other and freaked out silently (in our heads, of course). The branch presidency kept looking at us as if asking if he was one of our investigators. Not yet. Then he said that he heard everyone having confessions and he felt like he should speak as well. So he started Confessing, which was a little awkward. But then he said that he just felt a very good spirit and he just felt love and that he has a lot to offer this church. He spoke for about 15 minutes. I turned to sister Black and told her that if he finished and walked out we were going to chase after him and talk to him. He luckily just sat down once he was finished. After the meeting, we walked over and talked with him and introduced ourselves and he looked at us and said, you have to be pulling my leg. He thought that we were 15!!! But, he really did want to meet with us and learn more. Also, last crazy thing. The man that just moved in came over and talked to Willie and introduced himself and GAVE HIM IS QUAD. His engraved, giant, written in quad. We were not even able to give him a standard Book of Mormon and now he has all of the standard works. Miracles never cease, folks.

Well, I just want to end with what I studied this week. Some of my favorite scriptures are in Mosiah 27 and 28. 

In Mosiah 27, it says:

36 And thus they were instruments in the hands of God in bringing many to the knowledge of the truth, yea, to the knowledge of their Redeemer.

37 And how blessed are they! For they did publish peace; they did publish good tidings of good; and they did declare unto the people that the Lord reigneth.

In Mosiah 28 it says:

3 Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble.

I know that there are people that are ready to hear the gospel and they "know not where to find it" and I feel so blessed to be a missionary right now and wear out my life in the service of my God and my brothers and sisters. I hope that I can be an instrument in the Lord's hands. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I KNOW that I am a child of God and that He loves me so much and that He loves each and every one of you. I know that He will help us as we come to Him in prayer. He is always there to lead and guide us. I am so grateful to be a missionary now and I know that even though my time might be getting shorter (sob), there is still SO MUCH TO DO. I know that my name tag is just a piece of plastic if I do not become changed inside. If my heart and my soul are not truly converted and desirous to help those around me to repent and come closer to christ it means very little. So I will strive always to wear my tag proudly and reflect what is in my heart and truly be a disciple of Jesus Christ (3 Nephi 5:13). 

I pray for you all and I am so so grateful to have y'all in my life. I know that Jesus Christ is our savior and Redeemer. I invite y'all to read the Book of Mormon every day. EVERY DAY!! I know that as you do that and pray that you will come closer to Jesus Christ and feel even greater of God's love for you, and understand what he wants you to do. I know the Book of Mormon answers questions. I love y'all so so so much!!! I hope that you have a great week! Remember that I LOVE to hear from you!!!

Love,

Ashley

Sister Esplin

Shocked testimony meeting attendee

Mind blown missionary

Searching for my brothers and sisters

This week we also got a brand new car!!! YAY!!! 

It is a RAV4 and it is red and it is ADORABLE. 

Also, it drives really well on the dirt roads. 

 District meeting. 

Oh my goodness all of these missionaries have been

out for so little time, I am the grandma of the group!!! AHHH!!
The person that has been out the 2nd longest has been out for 8 months.

General Conference Week!!

HELLO FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!!! 

I hope that y'all had a wonderful week and enjoyed watching General Conference. I know that I did. Oh my goodness. I loved it. It never ceases to amaze me how spiritual General Conference is and how my questions are always answered. I hope that you were all able to watch General Conference and that you were able to feel the presence of the spirit, whether you were watching in the Conference Center, at home in your pajamas, at your church building, or listening to it on the radio. I know that those that who spoke were inspired by God and that they are truly called of God. I am so excited to listen and watch the talks again soon, the Conference Ensign cannot come soon enough!! If you were not able to watch, DO IT NOW!!!!! I know that it will bless your lives. These talks were truly inspired for our time and to give us guidance in the coming months. 

Okay, now onward with the rest of the week. This week we got our car back from the shop and we were finally able to visit a lot of further-to-get-to places in our area that require longer distance driving!!! We had a lot of people on our schedule, but we were not really able to see very many people, which was really sad. Still, we had some beautiful drives, so that was our consolation. There was one family that is on our visiting teaching route and we drove for about 40 minutes to the middle of nowhere and then the GPS told us that we were there, and we stopped and looked both directions and not one house could be found. Then we drove a bit more and then turned around to look again. AND NO ONE LIVED THERE! I turned to sister Black and I said, Sister, unless this family is a family of Bears I don’t think anyone lives here. I basically just shared this story because I thought my one line comment was really funny. 

On Tuesday this week we were able to have a lesson with Maria. She was great! she told us all about her life and how she had seen God's hand in her life. We asked her if she had been reading the Book of Mormon and she told us that she had read a little bit, but that she loved 1 Nephi 1:1, which says, “I Nephi, having been born of Goodly parents..." She really identified with that because she had been born of good parents who had taught her the right. She loved that and really connected with that. We also talked about the atonement with her and shared Alma 7:11-12. It just floored her. She just sat there for a moment reading it. and then Looked at us and said, "WOW.  He has suffered for my infirmities." I personally love that scripture so much because I know that He has suffered for me and not just my sins, but my afflictions, my sadness, and my weaknesses. 

Another cool/funny story this week is that we drove down to Gurden and we were trying to see a former investigator but as we were driving down this gravel road it suddenly turned into an unpaved dirt road. As we drove, I drove into a pot hole! but we got through it and we kept driving VERY CAREFULLY, trying to avoid even more giant potholes, but eventually there came a point that it looked like the whole road had been dug up by a giant backhoe and Sister Black and I just turned to each other and said NOPE!! So we did, what I would call a 16 point turn (bless Sister Black, she was a wonderful backer, plus there were tons of bugs outside. She is AWESOME) and turned back around. As we were driving back, Sister Black looked at the pothole I had driven in and she looked at me with wide eyes and told me the hole was HUGE! Oh my goodness. I truly believe that angels were there helping us. 

One last thing, yesterday as we were going to watch the last session of General Conference it was only us and a brother from the branch at the church. We waited for a little bit, waiting to see if any sisters were going to come and then we faced a predicament. If no one showed up, where would we watch conference?! A name came to mind of a sweet sister in the branch, Sister Cordova, who is super busy though. But I thought that we should ask if we could come over and watch with her. She texted us back and told us that we were more than welcome to, so we skedaddled over there and afterwards she turned to us with tears in her eyes and thanked us for coming over. She thought there wasn't going to be another session after the Sunday morning session that day so she hadn't hadn’t planned to turn it on until we texted. She shared that if we hadn't come over, she would have missed the last session! Oh my goodness, I love the spirit. 

This week was truly amazing. I love being a missionary and I am so grateful for all of you. Thanks for all that you do. I am so blessed to have y'all in my life. My spiritual thought this week comes from my Facebook post (I am not good at Facebook, so please forgive me). In Mosiah 2:9 it teaches, "My brethren, all ye that have assembled yourselves together, you that can hear my words which I shall speak unto you this day; for I have not commanded you to come up hither to trifle with the words which I shall speak, but that you should hearken unto me, and open your ears that ye may hear, and your hearts that he may understand, and your minds that the mysteries of God may be unfolded to your view". I invite y'all to read conference and to listen to it again and to ponder the things that were taught and to not trifle with the words which they spake unto us. I know that they are for us. I hope that you all have a blessed week! love y'all and remember to pray and read!!!

Love,

Sister Esplin

Ashley

MISSIONARY

General Conference Fangirl

Also, my favorite talk was definitely Elder Holland’s…He is the BEST! 

 Happy General Conference! Thank you, family!!!

I made this in preparation for General Conference.

15 months out! 

This is my tradition for every mark. I get a shake :)

When you are driving down a deserted dirt road and you see beautiful scenery, you take a picture. 

Arkadelphia is beautiful!!

Sister Black made crepes for Sunday Conference! She is awesome!