Focusing on the Love of the Lord this Valentine's Season

February 20, 2017

Hello my dear loved ones and friends!!

I hope that y'all had a wonderful week and that you were able to see God's hand in your life. I am so so so grateful to be able to serve a mission right now and see all of the miracles that happen every single day. I don't always see them right away, but I am so grateful to be a part of this beautiful and marvelous work. God truly is the one in charge of this work, not me. Oh man. If I was in charge we would all be in so much trouble. Luckily, I'm not! 

Anywhooooo, on with the week. This was the week of looooooove. But not for the missionaries in the ALRM! Our hearts are locked and we are all focused on the work. It is super awesome to be on a mission. Seriously, you forget about so many things. Like holidays. And weekends. And life, in general. Someone recently compared missions to the movie "Groundhog Day". So when other people look at you like you are crazy to be working on a holiday, (but seriously? Valentine's Day? Who is honestly a die hard celebrator of that anyway?) it feels super weird,  because it is just another normal day for a missionary. You don't take a day off. It is business, as usual. Except if you are sick....which brings me to this week. SICKNESSSSSSSSSSSSS. What is wrong with ME!?!? Well, this week has been a bit rough. I have been pretty sick. But it's all good.This hasn't dampened our spirits. We are the Lakeland sisters and we preach the gospel!! 

Here are some tender mercies and stories of the week: 🎬

On Tuesday we had dinner with the Holts and it was so sweet. We made personal heart pizzas and heart cookies. It was so much fun and it made me feel so happy and loved that they would include us on that day. 

On Wednesday we had lunch with Rachel, an investigator who had been taught everything and even got interviewed for baptism but then stopped. She took us to lunch and we talked to her and she said she would like to take the lessons again! Yay! She seemed super awesome, we said we were going to do some personal progress with her, as well. Yuuuuuuussss. I love personal progress!! 

Also, when we were having lunch the restaurant manager came up to us and asked us what church we went to. We gave him our card and explained a little bit about ourselves and our faith. He said that he and his wife had just moved into the area and had been looking for a church. He went on to say that since we seemed so nice and happy, he felt like we must belong to a good church. Even though he was not ready for a visit, he said he would come to church sometime. 

On Thursday, we spent an exhausting four hours at the doctor's office getting blood work drawn. Or at least as much as they could find. For those of you who don't know this, most nurses and phlebotomists STRUGGLE to find my veins. Over the years, it usually takes several sticks and even several medical employees to successfully find a vein.  Needless to say, blood work is always a long drawn out, very painful experience. When we went to the doctor this week I tried to explain this, but no one really believed me. Guess what?? I ended up having FIVE different people try to find my veins and I seriously thought I was going to pass out while they were wiggling and digging their needles around deep into my arms and hands. 

For some reason, I have been dealing with some medical issues so they wanted to do some blood work to find out what was going on.  They drew three vials and then they gave me two shots. I felt like a human pin cushion by the end of the visit. I find out the results on Thursday. Yay! I am sure  that it will all be good. Sweet is the work!!

On Saturday we went out with a sister in the ward and we finally were able to visit someone that we have been trying to get a hold of for months! She accepted the restoration pamphlet and we set up a return appointment which was awesome. She has a sweet family and she said we should come when they are all there. Yay! The gospel truly does bless families and I get so excited when we can help others to come closer to God as a family. 

Eddie came to church on Sunday which was wonderful. His baptism got pushed back to March 11th, but he is so excited for his baptism. :)

I am so so so so so so so grateful to serve a mission and to be a part of this great work. I love it so much. I love all of you and I love my Savior, Jesus Christ so much. He truly does everything. 

I have been reading Jacob chapter 5 recently (if you read really deep into it, it will take you forever)  and what I have been so impressed with is how much the Lord of the vineyard goes out and works with the laborers. In Jacob 5:51 I was really touched by how much the Lord of the vineyard cares and doesn't want to lose His tree. The Lord wants us to come back, to repent, and change. He isn't waiting for us to mess up so that He can destroy us. He wants to work with us because He loves us and believes in us. 

At the end of the chapter it talks about how there are few laborers (I am a laborer! Anyone who helps in sharing the gospel is a laborer with Christ) but that they labored diligently, keeping all of the commandments of the Lord of the vineyard. 

For me, it was really cool because it made me think. We really cannot afford to be even just a little bit disobedient in this work. We need to be keeping all of the commandments and giving our ALL, so that the vineyard may flourish and so we may be able to help those around us to come unto Christ. There was a quote from the April 1990 conference by Hans B. Ringger called "Choose you this day". He said, "I believe that the foundation and guiding light for all our decisions is the gospel of Jesus Christ and His message to the world. The teachings of Christ must be embedded in our desire to choose the right and in our wish to find happiness. His righteous life must be reflected in our own actions. The Lord not only teaches love, He is love. He not only preached the importance of faith, repentance, baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, He lived accordingly. His life reflected the gospel that He preached. There was and is total harmony between His thoughts and His actions."  

Like the quote says, we need to not only teach obedience and other principles. We need to LIVE IT! 

The lord is laboring with us. We are never alone. He knows what He is doing.Therefore, demonstrate your love for Him by 

trusting Him and obeying Him.

I love y'all. I love this work. I love everything that happens in life, the good and the bad. I have such a testimony of my Savior, Jesus Christ and all that He has done for me. I am nothing without Him. I am everything to Him. 

Love, ❤️ 

Sister Esplin 

Sick sister

Celebrator of Galentine’s Day

Human pin cushion 

Laborer in the vineyard

Back together again!!  Sister VanOrman and Sister Esplin

Because I am sick, Sister Van Orman made me breakfast in bed

What a sweetie!!

This is after I was poked a ton by five different people

and had 3 vials of blood drawn

All of my pokes. There are more on my other shoulder.

Valentine’s Day with the Seamans 

(we live in their basement)

 Valentine’s Day dinner & dessert with the Holt Family 

Freezing cold outside, super warm inside

 Smurf faces

 Hot cocoa party at the end of a long but good day

 As you can see, I DON’T like snakes!!

Tennessee blossoms

My week in Millington

HELLO MY FAMILY!!!!!!! 

This week has literally been CRAZY! Seriously. I wasn't even in my area this week except for about fifteen minutes on Sunday to go to Ward Council. It was nuts.

Sister Fogg was in Bartlett with the Sister Training Leaders (STL’s)  and I was in Millington with Sister Ellis and Sister Ostler and then on Tuesday Sister Quick joined us. It was an emotional week. It was hard to be out of my area and be away from my companion,  but I have to tell you, I have found so much comfort this week in my studies and through the love of others. It was hard but it was also so amazing!! I just love the atonement and the love that Christ has for me and for everyone.

Alrighty, First off, I am staying in Lakeland for another transfer! And my new companion is.................SISTER VAN ORMAN!!!!!!  In case you don't remember who she is, she was my MTC companion! What?!!  It's like living with Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty). She is a deep sleeper by night, but she is a sunbeam of happiness when she is awake.  Needless to say, this transfer is going to be amazing! We have a lot of work cut out for us, but I know that it will be great!

HIGHLIGHT REEL!!!!

One highlight of the week occurred during a seemingly ordinary moment. I was in the car with Sister Ellis and she had a bunch of random church songs on her USB. I was looking through the songs to listen to when all of a sudden I saw a name that was familiar and I clicked on it. Well, I freaked out. My awesome next door neighbor, BOB MURRI,  was singing the song!!! It truly made my day and, for a moment, I felt like I was back home. And really, I felt tremendous love from Heavenly Father, which might sound weird, because It was just "Daddy Bob" singing a song, but I almost cried. God is in the details and small miracles of our lives, right?

This week, our baptism was cancelled because my companion and I were gone for so long and because of other extenuating circumstances beyond our control. It was really hard for me to understand why this would happen and why satan was working so hard on us. But we all prayed and felt so good that we should push Eddie's baptism date to a later time.

On the bright side, we got to teach some lessons in Millington. It was amazing because we met some awesome people who were so interested in learning more. I could feel the tremendous love that   Heavenly Father had for those people. One thing that is so amazing is that Heavenly Father loves EVERYONE and, as

a missionary, you can feel that Christlike love for others that you

meet briefly or just barely know. It is the most amazing thing!! We met a lady named Lori and she just started saying that she really admired us and that we helped her to be a better Christian. She said that she was a Southern Baptist, but to not hold that against her (they usually hate Mormons) and we said not to hold who we are against us. We all laughed and we were able to give her a Book of Mormon and talk to her while bonding over refinishing furniture (thank you Mom and Dad for having me /helping me refinish the nightstand for Young Women's). Before we left, she told us to come over any time and that she would love to learn more. I love my sacred calling as a representative of Jesus Christ. WE were able to testify to her and help her to feel of God's love for her.

The majority of this week has honestly been a blur, so I would like to share with you my study highlights for this week.

I read the talk "hanging on" by Loren C. Dunn given in April 1974. I really love what he said: " I don't know all the reasons the Lord tries us in this life, but there are two or three that come to mind. First, I think He wants to know whom He can trust. Secondly, the Lord tells us in the Doctrine and Covenants section 122 that adversity came to Joseph Smith to give him experience. There is something about the eternal purpose of life that requires us to meet and experience trial and sorrow as we seek to overcome, for the Lord has told us also, "...for if they never should have bitter they could not know the sweet..." (D&C 29:39) Thirdly, I believe that only through such experience can a person develop true charity and I mean by charity, the pure love of Christ.".

I just loved that. You know, it was hard this week, but it truly gave me experience. It helped me to be closer to my Father in Heaven and to grow to be who He wants me to be...or at least closer to that.

I also really loved a talk that I read entitled "Keep walking and give time a chance" by Virginia H. Pearce from April 1997. She said, " Those who understand their own personal growth patiently continue to pray, do their daily work, and give time a chance".

Truly I have grown so close to the scriptures.  Having patience has been so hard to have, especially when you do not understand everything, but you WANT to understand everything. Still, patience has been required and I have been learning patience everyday. Be careful what you pray for, especially if it is patience. ;) I  really love this gospel with all my

heart. It truly saves my life each day and makes me who I need to

become.

I love y'all so much. I am so grateful for you all. I know the church is true. I know that my Father in Heaven loves me so much and I am so grateful for the chance I have to serve Him each day.

Love y'all!

Sister Esplin

Temporary Millington missionary

Absentee Lakeland missionary

Back in my area

Reunited and it feels so GOOOOOOOOD!!

 Enjoying a great lunch at Chik-Fil-A

 The panda that Sister Fogg gave me before heading home

So sweet!

 The Millington gang:

Sister Ellis, Sister Ostler, & Sister Quick

 Our last district meeting photo with everyone.

Since I was in Millington, they photoshopped

me in with this embarrassing pic!!

Sisters at the Bartlett Building awaiting transfers

 With Sister Ellis

With Sister Lange and Sister Duffin

Patience is a (hard-earned) virtue

Hello Family and friends!  

This week has been.......one that has been sufficiently confusing, hard, and full of blessings. This might be a bit short today partly because I am stressed out of my eye balls and cannot think straight. But ces't la vie. LIfe goes on. 

This week I was sick. Again.  Because I hurt all over my body and had a lot of sharp pains by my heart and stomach, I didn’t get out very much, which was so frustrating.  As a result, a lot of this email will take about how I saw God’s hand in my life this week, because I really truly have.

This week we had a situation, so our Sister Training Leaders (STLs) came over and helped us. They are seriously the best! They came over and they left us a really cool challenge to work on in Preach My Gospel. They told us to do the Christlike Attribute Activity where you take a quiz and rate yourself on how well you are doing with certain things. Well, the attributes I found out I needed to work on were not what I thought they would be. But one thing I did pray for was patience- mostly with myself. I feel like it is so hard to be patient with yourself and to just understand that you are doing your best. So Sister King and Sister Decker told Sister Fogg and me to pray together after we did this activity. Well, we both found that we needed work on patience. OH. NO. That is a scary thing to pray for, since the Lord will truly give you opportunities to be patient. And, holy cow, He provided. 

Have you ever played Mario Cart? Well, in Mario Cart there is a little blue tortoise shell that has wings that comes from behind you and hits you so that you blow up and lose all control. That happened this week. YAY PATIENCE!

Since I was sick this week, I was told by our mission nurse to get a blessing so I got one from our ward mission leader. The coolest thing happened. I just felt Heavenly Father's love for me. It was amazing because all of the christlike attributes that I had prayed about with Sister Fogg were mentioned in the blessing. ALL OF THEM. And a couple of weeks ago, President Wakolo had challenged me to study for my investigators and that was mentioned in the blessing, as well. There were things in the blessing that I know our ward mission leader did not know about…but Heavenly Father knew. 

On Saturday came the real test of my patience. We were told that Sister Fogg was going to go spent some time with our STLs and that I would go to Millington with Sister Ellis and Sister Ostler. That was the blue tortoise shell. We both have been out of our area since Saturday night. We will come back this upcoming Friday night. STRESS! We had a baptism scheduled this upcoming Saturday and, of course, everything goes wrong. Since neither of us are in our area, we are not in a position to have daily contact with our investigator, Eddie, and we will have to postpone the baptism, which makes me so sad.  Before I left for Millington, Sister Decker told me to close my eyes and to imagine that I have a box in my hand. Then she asked me to put all of my stress and fears and inadequacies and frustrations into the box. Then, in my mind, I was to walk through a gate where Christ stood. She told me to imagine that He is asking for the box, but that I won’t give it to Him. Finally, she told me to visualize giving Him the box. As I imagined all of this, I was overcome with emotion.  Jesus Christ wants to take all the pain, frustrations, inadequacies, fears, and hurt from me, but sometimes I won’t give it to Him. I realized the only thing I could do was hand everything over to the Lord, but that is such a hard and difficult thing to do. 

On Sunday,  in testimony meeting in Millington, almost every single testimony talked about turning your trials over to the Lord and letting Him bear your burdens with you. Heavenly Father definitely hears and knows me. I just love my Father in Heaven and my Savior, Jesus Christ. 

Sorry y’all for the rough email. Here is the spiritual thought: 

I was reading in 2 Nephi 26:24 and I tweaked it a little bit for me:

It says: “He doeth not anything save it be fore the benefit of Sister Esplin; for He loveth Sister Esplin, even that He layeth down His own life that He may draw Sister Esplin unto Him. Wherefore, He commands none that they shall not partake of high salvation." I love that so much.

Know that I love y’all so much. Thank you for the letters, the emails, and the pictures. I am so grateful for this chance to serve. I love my Savior, I love the gospel. I know this is the true church on the earth today. I know that families can be together and that the priesthood of God has been restored.

Love, 

Sister Esplin

Ash

 Working with Sister Ellis and Sister Ostler

 Valentine’s package from home

Did I seriously shake and apostle’s hand??? Yes I did!!

HOLA MI AMIGOS AND MI FAMILIA!!! 

No, I haven't been reassigned Spanish speaking, but I totally should...right? Just kidding. Teaching in my native language can being trying enough. Plus, I am learning to be fluent in the language of the spirit. True story. Chapter seven of preach my gospel is one of the chapters that our mission is studying right now. Yay! I seriously love our personal study time. It is truly my appointment with the Lord. That is my time when I can pray to my Father in Heaven and ask Him what He needs me to learn and know. What really amazes me is that every time, without fail-if I'm humble enough- He will instruct me through the scriptures, through modern day prophets and through my patriarchal blessing. I would suggest to anyone who wants more answers or who is needing more guidance to set a specific time that you are going to do personal scripture/gospel study  and make sure that you place that window of time as a priority in your life. Make sure you treat it like your appointment with Heavenly Father. Don't let things get in the way. Make sure you set aside time for Him, so He can have more time for you. He loves us and will really truly bless us and our lives. In fact, He does every day. He wants to tell us things, to give us instruction, but are we always looking or searching for it? Are we listening? I have even set aside some study time to truly ponder on the miracles that are around me or try to feel his love.  Well,  that's not even my spiritual thought! I wasn't planning on that, but apparently this is something I felt I needed to share today. 

Okay, here we go!!!!!!!!!!! Sister Esplin's week👏🙌🎉🎬🚗🚌

This week we didn't get to see many investigators because we had a ton of meetings and poor Sister Fogg was sick for several days. On the bright side, we did get to see EDDIE!!! HE IS SO EXCITED FOR HIS BAPTISM! He chose who he wants to baptize him and who he would like to confirm him, which was so sweet. He is getting baptized on February 11th so keep him in your prayers. He is such a sweet person. He doesn't have to be baptized because he is a very special son of God, but he genuinely wants to and his sister is so excited for him. Sister Fogg has been working with him from the beginning and she says that he has changed so much. Yay for the spirit!

This week we had the missionary broadcast which was wonderful. I took tons of amazing notes, but truly the greatest highlight of my week was Elder Anderson's visit to our mission!!!   

Here are some highlights that I absolutely loved:

-we need to be experiencing repentance everyday so that we will be able to teach repentance. (Side note, we often think of repentance asa hard, difficult, pain inflicting thing. That should not be our mentality. In reality, repentance is such a gift that we are given. We GET to repent. Yes, there will be some suffering, but that is the price of sin. I often think of Alma 36:21. Use repentance daily. If you think you don't need to, re-examine your life. You do. We all do. The only one who doesn't need to is Jesus).

-as people change we can see the countenance of the Savior.

-as we teach the commandments, our investigators will feel the love of God.

-The Holy Ghost is the senior companion and the teacher. We need to live our lives in a way that will invite the spirit into our lesson so that the spirit can touch our investigators and help them to receive guidance and revelation from God.

There is so much more that I could share. In a nutshell, our mission conference with Bishop Waddell, Elder Klebingat, Elder Beheshti, and Elder Anderson was SO AMAZING!!!

OKAY so NOW for our trip to ARKANSAS! Yes, my birthplace (in real life and mission life 😃). The ride to Little Rock was about two and a half hours, maybe three. It was crazy fun though. Imagine over 55 missionaries in a big bus. It was crazy. I sat next to Sister King, aka my favorite person ever, and in front of Sister Duffin, another one of my favorite people. Yes! We got to Arkansas and we immediately started getting ready to take our picture with Elder Anderson. That took a long time to get 187 missionaries situated for one  picture. Phew!! But we did it. It was so neat to see Elder Anderson. When he walked into the room you could just feel the authority and power that he held. He is truly a disciple of Jesus Christ. We were all standing there very quietly and he said that we were so reverent! Squeal.

Our first speaker was Elder Klebingat.  The night before he asked President Wakolo to send out a mass text to all the missionaries to read Acts 5:1-12, which tells the story of Ananias and Sapphira, his wife, who both died because they withheld a portion and didn’t lay everything at the apostles feet that was asked of them. That day, Elder Klebingat talked about what we aren't giving up. He shared how in verse 2 we learn that they kept part of the price of their sold possessions, Ananias's wife being privy to it. In essence, they had secret combinations. He then asked us, do you and your companion have secret combinations that get in the way of the work and consecrating yourselves to the work? What are you holding back? What are you not sacrificing? Here are some other amazing things that he shared: Let me tell you, Elder Klebingat basically threw down!!

-A member becomes a saint when they are willing to give up all their little sins

-It is a privilege to serve and it is a privilege we must earn. 

-We never approach the throne of God with conditions. 

Bishop Waddell

-we are representatives when we open our mouths.

Elder Beheshti

-Our parents need to be strengthened and nourished by our spiritual experiences and testimony

-We should bear testimony as frequently as possible to our family and loved ones

Elder Anderson later said that he was there to soften the blow of Elder Klebingat. Haha!! Here are some things that Elder Anderson shared:

-They want us to be disciples our whole life

-Set our feet on a course we can stay on moving onto eternal life (both of these were conserving the new schedule changes. How they will

help us our whole lives. Namely our studies . *insert eyebrow raise here*).

-We need to not only be converted to the church, but converted to the Lord.

-We should find ways to make our mission work for us and plant our feet firmly in the gospel.

-We should strive to have the pages of the Book of Mormon come into our hearts like fire!

-I should promise myself that I have decades to fill in the gaps of my knowledge. That I am never going to be just a material-oriented being. That throughout my mortal life I will always deal in things that are unseen.

-If a person hasn't suffered then he hasn't repented. In a way, we are bringing our investigators suffering, but it is the best kind for it yields eternal blessings :)

-Testimony is to know, conversion is to become.

I truly loved everything. I have such a testimony of this gospel. I truly believe and know that this is Christ's church restored to the earth again. I know that he loves us and suffered for us. I know that there are prophets and apostles on the earth today, that the priesthood is restored. I love all of you. You are amazing. Keep upthe work you do each day and know that God loves and recognizes your work and effort. You are sons and daughters of God. I know that. I love y’all!

Love,

Ash

Sister Esplin

P.S. They said President Wakolo is the best mission president serving right now. I truly agree. :) Full heartedly.

The bus to Arkansas. It was a blast!

This hand shook an apostle’s hand!

 Drinking immunity smoothies which Stella, Dallin and I made.

Woot! Woot! They’re SOOO good!

 Every week we visit Rosie (a member) and her brother,

Eddie (who is preparing for baptism). This is a pic with

Rosie’s granddaughter, Mia!

 SEVEN MONTHS!!!!

LakeLAND of Plenty

Hello beautiful friends and family! I love you all and I just love and adore all of your emails, letters, and pictures. Thanks for all the love and support that you give me each day and week. You are all truly amazing and I feel extremely blessed to have y'all in my life. 

I just adore Lakeland. Can I just say that? The ward is just fantastic and they just saved my life this week. Since our mission has to put limits on car miles each month, we were scheduled for a walk week  (🎶 walking in Memphis🎤), but I was super stressed about going on walk week with my ankle-yes it's still a problem (I'm acclimating to the pain).  Fortunately, the amazing (member) sisters in our ward took such good care of us. We made a sign up sheet for people to pick us up and come out with us, and seriously, SO many people did! And miracles really did happen!! WE SET TWO BAPTISMAL DATES!!!!!! HOORAY!!! 

Here is the highlight reel for the week! 🎬

On Tuesday we had district meeting, which was awesome. Our district leader told us to share gospel truths with those we meet. So we did! When we went out with the Young Women's President, we met a boy named Jay-who is now avoiding us, so dang it- and I gave him a restoration pamphlet and told him that the priesthood of God had been restored and is on the earth today to bless each one  of us! 

Thursday was truly our miracle day!!!! We started out our day by going out with Sister Miani. We were attempting to visit some former investigators, and when we got to the first house the lady told us her dog had made a huge mess so we would need to come over some other time. Well, we were walking down her driveway and I saw this girl with a straight outta Memphis beanie on and decided to run over to her and give her a card. Well, the spirit obviously had other plans because, oh man, I invited her to baptism. Outside. On the curb. In the rain. Two minutes after meeting her. We actually gave her the restoration pamphlet and the Book of Mormon and she looked at us in wonder and asked how she could learn more! Crazy! She accepted the baptismal invitation and Dominique is her name. We just got in the car and I just sat there for a second. It was so amazing. I felt like the spirit definitely was the one that did that. Not me. We just testified of God's love for us. And she wanted to know more. 

We later went to Rosie and Eddie's house. Rosie is a returning member and Eddie is her brother. They have been taught for a little while, but last week Eddie came to church which was HUGE! We went to their house and we talked about the priesthood and about learning and serving in the church and he was so excited about everything, so we set a date with him,  as well!!!!!! He also asked us to please keep teaching him about baptism so he can learn. Okay Eddie!

On Saturday our Sister Training Leaders spent the day with us. We actually went and cleaned someone's house in the morning and then we split off, Sister King worked with me, and Sister Decker worked with Sister Fogg. Well, lucky for me....Sister King was assigned to CLEAN THE TEMPLE!!!!!!! It was so amazing and peaceful and just fantastic. I truly felt so clean and happy. And the coolest thing happened. I walked into the temple and who did I see? Brother and Sister Pierson from the NLR ward!!! Later, Sister Wing (the wife of my former Stake President in NLR) came  up to me, as well, and gave me a giant hug! It was like I was home! All these people at I had grown to love in NLR were here at the temple. Then, I saw some other people I knew from Tennessee! It truly was amazing to me. For a moment, I felt like I had a small glimpse into comprehending what  it will probably be like in the spirit world someday. That everywhere we look we will rediscover people that we love and have missed and that it will be such a happy and joyous reunion. It was such a privilege to clean the temple. As I was dusting I felt so strongly that my Heavenly Father knows me and He trusts me and that He is proud of me. When I glanced into  the mirrors where you can see for eternity I noticed that it when I looked only at myself I could only see a little ahead of me, but when I would look at Sister King or someone else in the mirror, I could see forever. This experience reminded me that I truly need to be looking towards eternity for my investigators. I need to stop looking at myself and noticing how I am right now and start looking at how I can help others to come closer to the temple and to having eternal life. When I could see others forevers, I could better see mine. I just love the temple. 

This week our Sister Training Leaders had us do an exchange for several days and it was so much fun to be in Bartlett with Sister King! She is adorable and we laughed so hard, but got a lot done. We even went out with a cute girl in the ward. It was so fun. 

My spiritual thought actually comes from the Book of Mormon. I have been studying leadership qualities so that I can better appreciate my leaders and recognize their love for me and one thing that I have really loved is that in the Book of Mormon Nephi often says that he is telling us these things for our own eternal welfare. In 2 Nephi 6:3-4 it says, " 3 Nevertheless, I speak unto you again; for I am desirous for the welfare of your souls. Yea, mine anxiety is great for you; and ye yourselves know that it ever has been. For I have exhorted you with all diligence; and I have taught you the words of my father; and I have spoken unto you concerning all things which are written, from the creation of the world.

4 And now, behold, I would speak unto you concerning things which are, and which are to come; wherefore, I will read you the words of Isaiah. And they are the words which my brother has desired that I should speak unto you. And I speak unto you for your sakes, that ye may learn and glorify the name of your God."

I love that we lead and serve others for the welfare of their souls. I love you all. I hope you all have a wonderful week. I am so grateful to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and have a part in this great work. There are hard days, sure. But they are so worth it. I just adore everything about Lakeland. Everyone is great. The work is good. I love my companion! Life is just dandy. It is hard, but so fulfilling. I love y'all.  Have a fantastic week!!!

Love, 

Sister Esplin

Ash 

 Cleaning the Memphis Temple with Sister King

 Memphis Temple

 Picnic outside the temple with my STL’s Sister King & Sister Decker

 Raising the roof with Gracie

Miracles in Memphis

Hello everyone! Good day!

This upcoming week is going to be a week of miracles. I just know it. Do you know why? First of all, because I'm on a mission and Heavenly Father is a God of miracles. But secondly because "🎶 I'll be walkin in Memphis". If you don't know that reference, that's fine. I don't really like the song anyway. It is my first walk week in 5 months. I have to admit that with my bad ankle I am a little stressed out, but I know that walk weeks bring miracles and heaven knows that we need some miracles. Recently,  Lakeland has seen some MIIIIIIIRRRRRAAAACCCCLESSSSSSSS!!!

Alright. This week was just awesome. We started out with EXCHANGES!!  Sister Decker, who served in Conway as my sister training leader for three of my four transfers in

Sherwood came over to the Memphis north zone with me and is my Sister Training Leader again! She is simply amazing and I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to serve with her again. She is also in my district now! Yay! We recently had exchanges which were fantastic. It was a really neat experience and it was really a time of reflection for me to see much we have changed. Even in six months. I feel like I have changed a lot. I truly feel like our trials are such a blessing. I can see that the trials which have occurred in my life have been the refiners fire that I needed to truly make me who my Father in Heaven would have me be. There is so much growth that takes place when we are going through the difficult times in our lives. At least there is a lot of growth, if you turn to your Father in Heaven and ask for His help. The most comforting thing that I have in my life is that my Savior, Jesus Christ, is someone that I can always turn to in faith and ask for help. He has already suffered for our sins, our pains, our afflictions, and our sicknesses. He wants us to come to Him and ask for help. His hands are reached out still. 

When we had exchanges we had an amazing lesson with a former investigator named Hope. She was awesome, we sat down and started talking to her but the weirdest thing happened. The spirit just said to stop teaching her and ask to come the next day. We stepped out of the lesson and I turned to sister Decker to apologize and she just said not to worry, that she was not in the right frame of mind anyways because she was stressed out. But she then encouraged me to invite Hope to be baptized the next lesson because she felt really strongly that Hope needed that invitation. So the next day we went over and taught her the Plan of Salvation and she was really happy to talk about it. We also talked about the temple and how we can be together with our families forever and she thought that it was really neat. She was so interested in the lesson. We then extended the invitation of baptism to her and she said she would, if she wasn't on partial bed rest for the next 3 months. NO. Oh well, she is truly being prepared and we will continue to teach her and help her to grow in the gospel.

On Thursday we had zone conference and some really cool things happened. First of all, Elder Anderson is coming!!! We get to see him in Little Rock on January 28th. So exciting! 2nd thing. We are now a skype mission. We are now allowed to skype our investigators and mission leaders. That is seriously a huge step and truly an example of how our Father in Heaven is hastening the work and truly putting everything that we have to work to bring the gospel to everyone. I don't fully know how it is all going to work, but I am excited. We had phenomenal instruction from our sister training leaders, zone leaders, and President Wakolo. President Wakolo talked about how this is a gospel of miracles. Setting goals is an act of faith. That goals are the desires of our hearts. He also talked about how high expectations and high love for ourselves/Jesus Christ/our

investigators brings miracles. Our zone leaders talked about if we don't receive the spirit we cannot teach others. We need to be teaching by the spirit. And asking what the spirit would like us to share. They also talked about how when our investigators feel the spirit and receive it, they will gladly be baptized. The STLs talked about how our name tags are just a piece of plastic. We need to have the words written on the 'fleshy tablets of our hearts' (as President Wakolo says).

This week was just  a bunch of talking and preparing for miracles and I cannot wait to share with you the miracles that I am sure are going to happen this week. I know that Heavenly Father will provide a way. He has done it for me time after time. It is often after a trial of our faith though. I am so thrilled to be serving here right now. This

year we are reading the book of mormon in six months and it has been such a joy for me to do that. Here is my highlight for today. I really loved 1 Nephi 13:37. I love that I have a chance to bring forth Zion. I love this work and I love all of you! Have a wonderful week!

Love, 

Sister Esplin

 Exchanges with Sister Decker and Sister King

 This group of photos are entitled:

 “Oh no, I haven’t taken any pics this week. Quick Sister Fogg, come outside and snap some random pics with me!”