Sister Mary-Ashley Esplin: Be Ambitious For Christ

Merry Christmas!

I hope that your Christmas season is going great and that you are doing the #lighttheworld activities every day.

Life has been so crazy busy! I feel like I have been running around like a chicken with her head cut off. There is so much to do before my departure on January 4th and I have so little time! Since Sister Winn is going to be with me for these remaining four weeks, there is so much to cram into her brain about the area. Poor thing, but she is such a trooper!! It has been such a blast working Sister Winn this week! She is so fun and is excited to do the work. It has been a great transition. Usually the first week together is super awkward and weird, but I feel like we just dove in and have been getting along well.

We got SO MUCH visiting teaching done this week! ✅ Yay! It really is helpful to have a new sister with you that you can introduce to people. We had a lesson with Sister Beatrice where we read the Book of Mormon. She didn’t really want to read, but I reminded her that she had promised to read the Book of Mormon the last time we met. She kind of grumbled but then she got over it. Fortunately, she is doing well and I can see that she is enjoying the book of Mormon more and more. She gave Sister Winn a 25 pound bag of pecans! What!? She also told Sister Winn that when she “faxes” her parents she needs to tell them that Sister Beatrice loves her. FAXES her parents....She is adorable!!!

We also had a lesson with Sister Nisbet! We read Enos with her. We read with her in the chapel, and there was such a sweet spirit there. You could just feel love from Heavenly Father. She was so sweet and so overwhelmed by the love she felt. It was just one of those moments that the you just feel so happy to be a missionary.

We did so much service this week. It was crazy! We put up two Christmas trees and we cleaned for a bunch of people, as well. Another great thing that happened this week was our branch Christmas party!!! It was so fantastic. It was so fun to be able to be around the branch members and there was so much fun to be had. Everyone had a blast! It was crazy how everybody turns out for the Christmas parties.

We also did quite a bit of finding this week. It was not super fruitful and it left me wondering and pondering about what more I can do to improve and help this area to grow and how we can find people to teach effectively. This week, I turned to prayer a lot and felt that Heavenly Father truly answered my prayers and I was able to learn a lot from Him. I also felt like I was able to understand more of what He wants me to do while I was partaking of the sacrament yesterday. I am so grateful for the sacrament and the opportunity that it provides us to renew our covenants and to turn to our Heavenly Father and to our Savior, Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for that experience I had to feel the spirit in more abundance.

I am so grateful for the time that I have to be a missionary and to be able to proclaim the truth to all that will hear and to be able to help others to come unto Christ and be a part of their lives. I am so grateful to be serving in Arkadelphia for the rest of my mission! I know that this is where I am supposed to be and that there is so much to do and so little time. I love the people here, both the members and the people who are not members. People are so kind and I love the spirit of Christmas that is in the air.

My spiritual thought this week is from a conference talk from October 2016 “Be Ambitious for Christ”. “What does it mean to “be ambitious for Christ”? Being ambitious for Christ means being motivated, focused, and dedicated to His work. Being ambitious for Christ will seldom mean that we are singled out for public honor. Being ambitious for Christ means that we serve faithfully and diligently in our wards and branches without complaint and with joyful hearts.”

I am so grateful that I can strive to be Ambitious for Christ. I invite y’all to strive for that as well. Remember striving is a consistent effort. It isn’t just trying. I have an invitation for y’all this Christmas: Get a new Book of Mormon, write your testimony in the front of it and then pray to either come in contact with someone who will need the book or a name of someone to give the book to. Then wrap it up and deliver it to the person with a plate of cookies. President Hansen has invited us to invite the members in our wards and branches to do that and I know that it can bless y’all as well! SO PLEASE DO IT AND RESPOND BACK and TELL ME HOW IT GOES!!!!

LOVE Y’ALL!!!

❤️ Sister Esplin

Ashley

Master tree decorator

Being Ambitious for Christ