Sister Mary-Ashley Esplin: Turkey Week

BONJOUR! Am I getting repetitive yet? I feel like I might seem like a CD with 6 songs on it that gets stuck in your car’s CD player. At the beginning, you love the CD and you think that you can stand it. BUT, soon enough, you are sick and tired of it and you would rather listen to silence or the classical music station on your radio (in this situation, you only have one radio station available and it is that one). But maybe at this point in my mission you have decided that you really did like the CD and you want to listen to it again, right before you trade in the car for something better. So guys, stick with me! I still have things to say!

Just as a warning. This week was pretty lame because basically nobody was home this week. Seriously. Arkadelphia was pretty much deserted. It was so spooky. It looked like a ghost town.

On Tuesday we were able to go tracting around the apartment complex of a sister who lives in the branch. Nobody was super interested but we met a lady named Miya and her daughter and we were able to give her a Book of Mormon and she said that we could come back and teach her. YAY!

On Wednesday we had district meeting in Camden and we talked about the reviewing progress section from the new part of Preach my Gospel. But actually not really at all. That is what we prepared for, but we actually all left feeling a little confused about what that District Meeting was about. We then drove 50 miles back to Arkadelphia where we had lunch at a Chinese buffet with Brother Crockett. He told us about his conversion story and about how we need to find him a wife. Pretty funny! Also, at the end we got fortune cookies and Brother Crockett didn’t want his so he said we could have it. Well I love getting fortune cookies so I said that I would take it. BUT then Sister Black opened her fortune cookie and it said, “you will receive a fortune (cookie).”. That is literally what it said. So then she got the other fortune cookie. Mine just said that A golden egg of opportunity falls into my lap this month. Maybe a golden investigator??? :)

Well, I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We had a pretty good one. We had thanksgiving “Linner” (lunch/dinner) with the Johnstuns and Sister Johnstun did an AWESOME hosting her first Thanksgiving. Everything was so good. We were instructed to stay at homes for no more than three hours. So, after three hours we sadly left. But then we went and finished making a ton of sugar cookies and we delivered them all! It was so fun! CRAZY THING! We were coming back to the car after dropping off some cookies at the house of a sister in the branch that we visit teach and Sister Black and I were talking when suddenly she was gone!! Oh my goodness I let out a little squeal and then yelled to see if she was okay, but I heard nothing. Then she just popped up! I had imagined that she had slammed her face into the cement and was going to be crying and all bloody but she just told me that she was okay. She had just stepped in a hole (like a rain gutter) that went up to her knee. OH MY GOODNESS! After we got in the car she showed me her knee. WHAT IN THE WORLD!! She had a giant scratch on her knee and she was bleeding quite a bit! What have we learned from this experience? Sister Black under-reacts and I over-react. BALANCE.

This week was a pretty good week though. I have been so excited for the #lighttheworld initiative and it is finally here!!! We were able to go walking around on Saturday and hand out some light the world cards and some people told us that they would visit the website. I think it is going to be so awesome! We also are solidifying the plans for the #lighttheworld table at HSU. WE ARE SO EXCITED!!! It would probably be next week. Yesterday, we had a speaker in church cancel so a member of the branch presidency asked one of us to speak about light the world. Sister Black volunteered me since I am the senior companion. I will get her back though. Lol! I was actually super grateful to get to speak about that. I prayed that the spirit would be able to speak through me and the promise in the scriptures is so true that as you study the scriptures, God will give you the words to speak in the very hour that you need them. I felt that God definitely helped me at that time. I shared Matthew 5:16 “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven”.

I love the gospel. I love the opportunity that we have as missionaries to be representatives of Jesus Christ and proclaim the gospel to every living creature! Something exciting though, is that ALL of you can be representatives of Christ. This season you can be angels to those around you. You can serve and help others. I love Mosiah 2:17, “when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God”. Serve others and do the #lighttheworld activities this Christmas and I PROMISE that your Christmas will be so much better. You will feel the love of christ in your hearts and you will be happy no matter your circumstances.

I read this week in the New Era in November what Elder Hales said. He said: “Each of us was there in the Council in Heaven to choose the great plan of happiness we now enjoy. . . . When you have made a commitment to yourself, your family, your bishop, your employer, be there. When it is time to be in church, at Mutual, or fulfilling [an] assignment, be there. When it is time to graduate from school or training programs, be there. When it is time to serve a mission, be there. When the young woman [or man] you love most kneels at the altar of God’s holy temple, be there (and not as a witness). When your family is gathered in the celestial kingdom, be there. When the Savior waits to greet you as you return with honor from your life on this earth and your Heavenly Father wants to encircle you about in the arms of His love, be there.” I just thought that was really cool.

I love y’all so so much!!! Have a great week and enjoy Christmas festivities this next month!

Love,

Sister Esplin

Ash

A six song CD

Someone who only got ONE fortune cookie

#lightingtheworld