Sister Mary-Ashley Esplin: The Final Countdown Begins

The Final Countdown Begins

Hello. It is me. Your favorite missionary. Potentially. For my ego’s sake, let’s just say that I am your favorite missionary. Hehe. 😉 WELL. On Saturday we got BIG TRANSFER NEWS! For my LAST TRANSFER. I. Will. Be.............(drumroll PLEEEEASE!!!).........STAYING IN ARKADELPHIA!!!!!! WOOT WOOT! I am so so so excited to stay, even if it is just for a few more weeks. Sadly, Sister Black is leaving me, but she is going to Millington (if you remember correctly, Millington was my last area) and I know that she is going to do great and wonderful things there and bring joy to her new companion and area just like she did here for me and for the Arkadelphia branch. She is a great servant of the Lord and I feel so grateful for the opportunity that I have had to serve with her and get to be companions with her. She is so funny and just so great! But you may be wondering at this point, “Wait, if Sister Black is leaving, who is going to be with Sister Esplin?” Good question! I am going to be a solo missionary...JUST KIDDING! My new companion’s name is Sister Winn! She is from Arizona and she has been on her mission for about three months and she seems fantastic! I am so excited to serve with her.

It is really weird. Since I am staying for only a month of the transfer I thought that I would be in a trio. I thought wrong. I feel bad that she will have to be involved in some sort of emergency transfer, but I bet she will be tough. My hope this transfer is that we can have fun and work hard talking to everyone we see.

This week was a pretty good week! We were able to get in contact with a lot of people and have some great lessons! We took a walk day on Tuesday and we were able to see Brandy! We intended to go and teach her a lesson but what was interesting was that we ended up doing service for her instead. We came to her house and she was super stressed out so instead of teaching her we helped her fill out paperwork. It was great because after we helped her she had so many questions for us and we were able to teach her a little bit more. It is amazing how service softens people’s hearts.

We were also able to do a lot of visiting teaching this week! We had a lesson with Sister Smith and it was so interesting! She was talking about how her life was horrible and how she always feels depressed and then she started talking about how the whole world was going to die (pretty dismal). We tried to teach her the plan of salvation and she just kept making it seem like it was the plan of sadness. I told her that this is a plan of happiness! I then felt like I was should ask if how her Book of Mormon reading has been going. She told us that she hasn't been reading. I promised her that if she read the Book of Mormon she would have peace and comfort and help along the way. In fact, we are starting a book of Mormon reading group with her!

Since today is a transfer day, it has been a super busy today so all I am really going to say is to read the Book of Mormon! There are so many blessings that come from it. We have seen both the blessings and consequences of reading and not reading the Book of Mormon this week.

We also had a mission tour by elder Robbins of the presidency of the seventy this week and I will tell y’all about that next week! I am so sorry! The email next week will be amazing! Hopefully ;)

Also, the “Light the World” initiative is amazing and I love it and I hope that y’all are enjoying doing it and if you aren’t doing it... START NOW!!!!!

Love y'all!

Sister Esplin

Ashley

Sister missionary

In her last transfer…EEK!

FREAKING OUT!