Sister Mary-Ashley Esplin: 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