Sister Mary-Ashley Esplin: 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!