Ashley Ltr: 2013-02-25

Yo yo yo it's letta time!!!

Hey ya'll!!!

I'm glad ya'll got the pictures, yah our apartment well I don't even know if you could really qualify it as an apartment was tiny! The dishwasher was used as our cabinet space because there was no cabinets at all, instead of cabinets we had a deer head. The bathroom was just around the corner. No there aren't new sisters moving in I guess the Hamns, the family we lived with, is redoing their house this summer and so the mission started to look for somewhere to live and found a place to rent so they jumped on it. Our new address is 716 Signal Mountain Blvd. Signal Mtn. TN 37377.

Sister Gonzalez didn't leave her camera, she said she'd just mail it but I haven't heard from her yet so I might just end up getting one here soon.

Jace I'm so proud of you buddy! That's a lot of pressure to put on a newly ordained deacon but of course you could handle it cuz you're Jace and you're a stud. Not many people can say they've spoken with an apostle!

The meeting with Elder Oaks yesterday was AWESOME!!! He said I'm going to do something a little different this time around and we're only going to talk about one topic, receiving revelation, and I need your help and input. So it was cool, we would say how we've received different revelation or inspiration and then Elder Oaks would expand on those thoughts. I'm telling you the South is where it's at! And it was cool to have all the mission together again, that doesn't happen very often.

No new news with Nancy yet, except she did send Sister Caughman a very nice thank you letter saying how much she enjoyed the lesson and meeting with us, so no baptismal commitment or anything yet but a positive note is a positive sign!!

The latest with Tara is that she I guess moved out and in with her boyfriend... So we left our number at her old place and hopefully she'll call within the next few days.

Oralia and Reynel's baptism is scheduled for this Saturday, but I'm not sure if it's going to happen... :( Her stupid boyfriend just won't marry her right now because he's been Jehovah's Witnessed (I REALLY don't like the JW's right now arghhhh!!!) But we're hopefully going to be able to meet with him on Friday, please please pray hard for a miracle!! I know she has a choice in this but it's so frustrating that one person can hold up someones eternal happiness. It's just not right...

I had a really neat experience at church yesterday, the day before we had met with Oralia and it just didn't go well, she's getting discouraged because of the boyfriend. Anyway after our lesson I just cried, I was really feeling sorry for myself and feeling like a failure because this always seems to happen with the people that I work with who are getting baptized. I was questioning why I'm even out here because I don't feel like I'm doing any good sometimes, 8 months and no baptisms... But yesterday at church during Sacrament meeting one of the counselors got up and said we're going to have the following people come up and bear their testimonies and he said my name first. Honestly I was shocked but I got up there and I just had this flood of emotions come over me and this overwhelming sense of love and I was able to bear my testimony and declare that without a doubt I know that this church is true and that I am suppossed to be here. Honestly I don't remember all that was said but I will never forget that feeling of love. I thanked the branch president afterwards for giving me that opportunity and he said I felt very strongly impressed that it was something you needed to do. :) I was just reminded of how  very aware my Heavenly Father is of me, he knew that I was struggling and he knew that that was something I needed to do. Something so small yet so powerful! The gospel is so incredible, I just love it!

I gotta run, sorry this isn't all that long or detailed someone came and was talking to me for like the last 30 minutes, but it was really good. He'd been meeting with the sisters and would like to again now :) Being a missionary is awesome!!!

Love love love  ya'll!! xoxoxoxoxo

Sister Bedke :)

Ashley Ltr: 2013-02-20

February 20, 2013

Hellooooo family!!

Sorry this is later in the week, the computers have been down at our library and we've been crazy busy packing and moving. Yep we moved. Only like a mile down the road haha and it's really not that much bigger but it's definitely a change of scenery which is nice. It's like a little studio apartment in a U shape and we live right above the Cookie Lady! So we get to wake up the smell of freshly baked cookies every morning :) We'll hopefully be able to sleep there tonight, we went shopping last night with one of the office missionaries and had 4 carts just full of stuff! Man the church forks out a lot of money for missionaries... It'll look really nice though by the time we get everything all arranged. It's just a huge chaotic mess right now.

It sounds like ya'll had lots of fun this weekend! I thought about you a lot on Monday and was slightly jealous that ya'll were out snowmobiling and having fun. Here it was in the 60's which was nice, I could definitely get used to Tennessee winters :)

I can't believe Nate is talking marriage!!!!!! Ahhhhhh everyone is having all these huge life changing things happen. I knew that name sounded familiar for some reason. That's so awesome though! Tell him to write me! Brielle wrote me and said that her and Matt are moving to Kansas this summer... :( Which is so awesome for them but man I'm going to miss her!! Brielle you're supposed to be there when I get home still in Rexburg and help me adjust to normal life!! Well I guess I'll just have to plan a trip to Kansas soon :)

And Sydney is engaged?!?!? Oh my gosh!! Honestly I'm not to surprised she is such a cute fun girl I knew she'd get picked up pretty fast, that's so exciting! Give her a big hug for me!! :) And Laura!!! Wow good for her! That's so exciting, can you send me her address and stuff I'd love to keep in touch with her.

Things are definitely going here! Training really isn't as scary as I thought it was going to be. Sister Colwell is pretty great and is so eager to learn and do better which in turn pushes me to do better. All the time she's like we really should go talk to that person but I don't know what to say so that pushes me to go show her how it's done instead of just walking by. I'm becoming a much more confident teacher and more sure of myself when talking with others because I know that I have to be to set that example for her.

Sister Colwell (Valerie) is from Billings, MT and she's 20. And yes we're back to that schedule of personal study, companion study, then training.

Yes I got the Valentines package from you and grandma and grandpa, thank you!!!! I loved all the heart messages haha! Ya'll are the best!! :) I also got grandma Bedke's letter, thank you!! 

Yes I'm staying healthy :) 

 Glad to hear Court is doing better slowly but surely. And that she got her patriarchal blessing that's great!! It'd be even more great if she wrote and told me about it ;) and the others siblings! I haven't heard from any except Amber in months!

Oralia and Reynal are still doing great! Still no wedding date yet but hopefully soon something will come about. Oralia truly is incredible, she had two people there when we met with her last time! Our interpreter said she was basically just bearing her testimony the whole time and she gave them both a Book of Mormon! 

We thought we had had a break through with Tasha this last week because we invited her to a baptism and she actually came! She had to be coaxed along the way but she and her son came! She said afterwards that it was one of the most beautiful things she'd ever seen and her son Jacob, who is 6, has never behaved that well in his whole life! So we thought with all that she'd come to church for sure on Sunday but again it was the same excuse that she didn't feel good so I don't know what we'll end up doing... I think I told ya'll that we found out that she's related to some members in our branch (strong active members!), so we were able to get them together so if we do end up dropping her at least she'll have them she can turn to for questions or when she really decides to get serious about all of it. I honestly think she wants to she's just not willing to yet if that makes sense...

Still no luck with Tara... :( but we are definitely going to keep trying, that experience was to incredible we just gotta get a hold of her!

We had a lesson just a couple hours ago with a lady who came to a Relief Society activity just last week (there were 32 sisters there and over half were non members!! Which I guess has NEVER happened, it was awesome!) anyway but Sister Caughman, one of our branch missionaries, asked her if she would be willing to help us out with Sister Colwell being new and everything since she hasn't had much practice teaching if we could practice on her. She said yes of course and we just had an awesome lesson with her in the Caughman's home. Asking people for help is one of the things suggested in that book I told ya'll about, I really want you to read it. It's called 'The Power of Everyday Member Missionaries' (I think...) by Clayton Christensen. It talks about how deep down everyone has the desire to help people out, and how in prosperous areas (like Signal Mtn.) we as a church need to ask for help then in return we show them what we're all about. But this lady seems really interested and is going to talk with her husband about it, so we're pretty optimistic. Her name is Nancy, so hopefully ya'll will hear more about her soon!

Well I think that's about the highlights of the week... Oh yah! Elder Oaks is coming to speak to our mission on Sunday! He was coming for the Knoxville stake conference and Pres Irion asked if he'd take some time to talk to us, so he's taking like 2 hours just for our mission! Two apostles in about 3 months! The south is where it's at! :)

Thank you for all the love, prayers, and support. It means the world to me! Love and miss ya'll!! xoxoxoxoxoxoXO

Sister Bedke :)

Ashley Ltr: 2013-02-11

Hey family!!

I'm so glad Sister Gonzalez, I guess Michelle now, called you!! She really is the best and I'm so grateful I got to serve with her, I really miss her, it's going to be different... But like you said change is good right? :)

I can't believe she spoiled my huge news of the week haha but yes!! Oralia and Reynal are both scheduled for March 2nd!!! Ahh it was so exciting! Honestly I was a little nervous going in because we hadn't really had time to prepare because we had had a zone training meeting that morning and we had to leave early so we hurried and threw something together but right before going in we prayed and I really felt like we needed to commit her for baptism. So we talked about it and Sister Colwell shared 1 Nephi 3:7 with and explained that Heavenly Father wouldn't command us to do something and then not prepare a way to make it happen, there is always a way. Then we committed both her and Reyanl, they both are really excited! And so are we, I just hope and pray that everything comes together and they can get married soon. They've got everything they need, it’s just getting Reynal Sr on board. Please continue to keep them in your prayers.

Tasha unfortunately is not progressing anymore... :( She promised that she would come to church yesterday, I even had her set an alarm right in front of me, and we sent some members over and she said she didn't feel like going. Ugh it's so frustrating. We want to do one last ditch effort, but will probably end up dropping her.

Training is going great so far! Sister Colwell is a nice girl, and really wants to be the best missionary she can be which is pushing me to do better, I really have to be exactly obedient. Areas I might have slacked on a bit I can no longer slack in which has been good for me. She is from Billings Montana and went to BYU-I and studied professional preschool education so she knows Brielle! I think she's the one Brielle mentioned to me in a letter a few weeks back haha and now we're companions!

Honestly yah I was pretty nervous but I've been doing A LOT of praying and got a blessing from our branch president yesterday so I'm doing better with it all. It was a really cool experience the blessing, I was reminded of the power of the priesthood. President Iverson blessed me with exactly what I needed to hear. Being bold has always been hard for me but it's something I've really been working on and he blessed me that I would be able to be bold in all my commitments. He also blessed me with health and strength and with the ability to follow the spirit.

We had an awesome first few days!! We got a new investigator within the first hour and a couple other potentials, 2 baptismal commitments, and an amazing experience with a new tracting approach we're doing. It's called leaving the Saviors peace and blessings on families and homes. You start out introducing yourself then you say as representatives of the Savior Jesus Christ he has sent us here to leave the Saviors peace and blessing on your family and home, may we come in? Then you proceed with the blessing. We weren't having any success with the first few homes and then the last home (of course) we found a golden girl! When we talked with her afterward we asked her how she was feeling and she said really warm and good, we explained how that was the spirit. She asked us where our church was and when and said that she'd be there. As we were leaving she said I'm so glad ya'll came, I really needed that, can I please give you a hug? :) Man oh man it was so cool!! The spirit was so incredibly strong. The downer was she didn't end up coming to church... :( But we're going by tonight to see what's up. Something had to have happened, that experience was just to incredible. When I first saw her I was able to see her in white! I've really been praying to see people that way and see them how God sees them and I was able to experience that with her! Her name is Tara, hopefully you'll be hearing more about her in the near future.

I haven't been able to get ahold of Troy Smith yet but I do have his info now! So I just need to give him a call, I'm just not quite sure what to say. The Elders said he's not active and didn't know much about him.

I'm sorry to hear Court still isn't feeling good... Dang. Hopefully the vudu doctor can cure her haha that guy was really weird I loved what he did but he was an interesting fella.

I'm so proud of you Brooker for doing all this family history work that’s awesome!! You'll have to show me the ropes when I get back.

Glad to hear our ward didn't change to much, that really sucks to have lost the Hansens and Weeks though...

That's so exciting all these babies!! And Nate!! Tell him to write me! I wanna hear about this girl.

Well I think that about wraps up this week... Thanks for all the continued love, prayers, and support it really means a lot and keeps me going. I love and miss ya'll!! xoxoxo

Love,

Sister Bedke

Ashley Ltr: 2013-02-04

Hey family!!

Well it's official... I'm training! We were on the conference call Saturday, all the sisters in the mission are training! I guess there will be two 3 somes. Then we're getting 8 more new ones in March so the newbies will probably be training after just 5 weeks. Craaaaazy! So the next time you hear from me I will be Sister Bedke- trainer! I'm both excited and a little nervous. I just hope and pray I get a happy sister who wants to work. They are white washing two areas in our district so only 4 of the original 10 will be in the district now... It's going to be weird but change is good, I have to keep telling myself that.

This last week was kinda crazy, I was in Chattanooga for 3 days because we did exchanges and Sister Mickelson was in Knoxville for a day. It was fun being with Sister Gonzalez and Tate though, then Sister Gonzalez and I did exchanges which was so fun! We stayed up talking til like 1 in the morning, I'm really going to miss her!

It's always an adventure coming downtown you never really know what to expect, we got totally cussed out by this lady, we were teaching this lady's son (which was going really well!) and she just comes storming out of the room saying how he doesn't need to follow a prophet just Jesus Christ. It was just a big misunderstanding she thought we had said only a prophet I guess but we were not about to leave because the lesson with her son was going so well and he was excited about what he was hearing anyway it was really cool because the spirit just completely took over, we calmed her down and re-explained and by the end she was like wow I really like what I'm hearing and the holy spirit is confirming to me that it's true! It was awesome, the spirit truly is an amazing thing.

So an update on Tasha... We were able to see her this week and read from the Book of Mormon with her but she's starting to backslide again... She knows its true what she's learned and that the priesthood power is real but she's just not willing to work for it ugh it's so frustrating! Like with church yesterday she said she wanted to go so I told her to set an alarm and to call. Well 8 o'clock roles around and she still hasn't called so I call her and she's still asleep and her dad wouldn't wake her up. So I don't know what we'll end up doing with her. I'm kinda wondering if we were just meant to help her through this trial with her grandma and now is the time to drop her, which makes me so sad but she's just not progressing... :(

Oralia and Reynal are doing great though! The only downer is that her boyfriend is being dumb right now and not wanting to marry her at the moment. He says he just wants to wait a couple months... I have no idea why, they've been together for so long I don't understand why he won't just commit. We were hoping to get them both baptized before Sisters Gonzalez and Mickelson left but it won't happen... :( But I really think it'll happen within the next couple of weeks. Please continue to keep them in your prayers.

We were also able to get in touch with an old investigator who is anxious to learn his name is Jim, so we were really excited about that.

The branch is getting really fired up about missionary work it's so awesome!! :) :) There is a book that just came out that a lot of them have been reading and I wanted to tell ya'll about it so you can check it out, it's called, The Power of Everyday Missionaries by Clayton A. Christensen, the members here are swearing by it. I guess he just gives a lot of different ideas on how to look at incorporating missionary work into your everyday life.

We've been meeting with a lot of members lately which has been fun and productive, this branch really is amazing, I love serving here!

Dad I think I found that Troy Smith guys info! I'm planning on calling sometime this week.

Well I think that about wraps it up for the week. It's going to be a crazy upcoming week! But I really am excited for a new gal with a completely fresh view of things.

Love and miss ya'll!! xoxo

Sister Bedke :)