Ashley Ltr: 2013-01-29

Hellooooooo family!

Sorry this is a day late and will probably be short, yesterday was really busy and today we have to take Sister Mickelson to the stake center so she can go to Knoxville for meetings (by the way her sacrament meeting is at 1:00 and she's speaking February 10th. I'm still not sure about Sister Gonzalez yet... I'll ask her today and let ya'll know)

Well the motherly reminder kinda worked haha I haven't been taking my vitamins but I sure think about it more now! You're so great momma :)

We ended up not being able to have squirrel because we had an ice storm that day so I guess all the squirrels must have been frozen but hopefully I'll get to experience that within the near future! :)

Ugh I really wish I had more time this week was great!!! So I'll give the quick highlights...

First off Oralia and Reynal... We found out everything we need to do to get them married so now we just gotta make it happen! I know Sisters Gonzalez and Mickelson would both really like to be there so we gotta get it together fast if her boyfriend Reynal will cooperate we could make it happen maybe on Saturday or Tuesday! Keep them in your prayers. They really are both doing great. There was a baptism for another branch on Saturday and we brought Oralia and Reynal and Oralia said afterward that she felt like everything that was being said was meant for her and she is so excited to get baptized!! :) :)

Tasha... So after all that mess this last Thursday we were able to go over with the Elders and give her and her grandma both blessings. Her grandma's blessing was that she would be able to heal and get better and Tasha's was of comfort and strength. So we tried calling her that night no answer. The next day several times no answer. Same with the next day... We were getting pretty worried something bad had happened. Then finally on Sunday we get a call from her! I talked to her for a good hour on the phone and she said my grandma is doing better! I know that it was because of that blessing and I've been doing better and I know it was because of that blessing!! I know that it's all true! Oh my gosh I about started crying on the phone! It was so amazing! She just kept saying that over and over, I know it's true! AND we found out that she is related to some good strong members in our branch! They are her second cousins, so she will have that family support after all! Man oh man the Lord works in mysterious ways! I just love it!!! It's crazy that we were going to drop her but because we followed the prompting not to look at her now!! I LOVE THE GOSPEL!! It's so true and it's so exciting to see when people you've been working with forever finally start to get it. Thank you so much for all the prayers I know that's also what made the difference. She realizes that she needs to make some changes in her life and slowly but surely she's doing it, she has risen above so much, it's amazing. I don't know why I was so privileged and blessed to be born into the gospel but I am so grateful! And I'm so grateful for the experiences I'm having out here getting to share the good news of the gospel, it's so exciting!!

I haven't heard anything about Christy or Austin and Laura... I guess they pulled missionaries out of Chatsworth completely for now but I did tell the Elders serving in Dalton to go check on them, so hopefully they will. I haven't heard from Keyaundra in a few weeks so I hope she's doing well. I got a Christmas card from Em and she's doing great :)

I can't believe ya'll had an ice storm!! Has Utah ever had one of those?? We had one to I sent ya'll some pictures today. It looks pretty cool but it's so slippery and cold, I was glad it only lasted a day. I really am wishing we had snow though, I really miss it. It has been pretty nice here since the storm, we're talking high 50's low 60's :) out tracting in just a jacket it January, who'd of thought?!

OH MY GOSH JESS I BETTER BE GETTING A VERY DETAILED LETTER SOON!!!!!! AHHHHH!!! I screamed in the public library haha man I need to calm down. I'm so happy for you!!! :) :)

Since you mentioned President Pitcher it reminded me that there is a family in the branch here the Gruwells, whose daughter married President Pitcher's son! I seriously have found connections everywhere it's pretty cool :)

I forgot to tell ya'll we started volunteering at the nursing home here on the mountain, this is a NICE place sheesh. We're talking very plush environment, I don't even wanna know how much it costs to live there a month... But it's fun. We're helping out with Bingo again.

Sorry this letter is kinda all over the place but I gotta get going. Hopefully I'll have some even better news for ya'll next letter. I love and miss ya'll!!!! :) :) xoxo

Love,

Sister Bedke :)

Ashley Ltr: 2013-01-22

Hey family!!

First off... HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACER MAN!!!! I hope you have a great year bud! I love you!!! :) :)

I'm so glad to hear Court is doing better! How much longer does she have to sit out? How's the team doing this year?

Still no luck with boots and I just kept the bag ya'll sent. Smaller bag= less stuff to carry!

I'm glad Jace's  card was still in there and that they didn't take it man that makes me mad that you have to worry about sending things in the mail... I'm glad the check was still in the other one.

Brooke is snowboarding now?? That's awesome! Good for you babe! You'll have to show me a thing or two when I get back, I'd love to try it out sometime. Everyone out here is shocked every time I say I've only been skiing once in my whole life and I live in Utah.

The campouts have started for Jace! I've heard that those snow caves are really warm to sleep in but I don't know that I'd want to try it out when its 0 degrees outside. I'm glad he had fun. 

  

How was Get Air?? Did everyone make it out alive?

So far I've stayed healthy, but yah there has been a lot of sickness going around the mission and the area. I'm so grateful that Sister Mickelson and I both have stayed healthy, which really is a miracle because we've been around A LOT of sick people. Thank you for the motherly reminder of taking my vitamins, you're right (as usual) I do need to start doing that again. 

An update on the week... When we went and visited Oralia and Reynal we talked about baptism again. Oralia really does want to be baptized, she also said that she wants to marry Reynal Sr... So I don't know if she sees that as her only option or if things are maybe starting to get better. But we run into another problem with them getting married... They're both illegal and so if they wanted to get a marriage license they would have to lie about being born in America or start taking the steps to becoming legal which I've heard is a really long process. Man... It just gets more and more complicated, we think we're about to cross a bridge and then wham something else comes up. We have a lawyer in our branch though so I think we'll try talking to him and see what he suggests would be best. Sometimes I just wish that people would do things the right way the first time... It really saves a lot of heartache and trouble in the long run.

We had a crazy week with Tasha... We were going to drop her because she really wasn't progressing so we head over there and every time I would get started with telling her we couldn't come by anymore we would get interrupted by something (which usually never happens) that happened seriously 4 or 5 times. So I stopped and thought maybe this is a sign that we're not supposed to drop her just yet. Oh before all this happened we walk in and the first thing she says is "Look!" she was holding up a fake cigarette and said I haven't smoked all day! (we went around 4:30) which for her is a HUGE accomplishment! She's been smoking for the past like 15 or so years (and she's only 31) anyway so that was really exciting! And we hadn't really talked with her about it for a couple weeks so that was all on her own that she's making that decision to stop! (and the help of many prayers in her behalf! Prayer is amazing!)

So the next day we get a text from her saying her ex husband is going to sue her for not paying child support (which is a long and complicated story, that I don't want to get into) but long story short her ex is a loser and doesn't even really take care of her other son and also they aren't technically divorced so she shouldn't have to be paying child support in the first place right? So that's a big mess and then on Sunday after church we get another text from her saying please call me I don't know how much more I can take, there's been an accident with my grandma. So I hurry and call her and she is just sobbing on the phone, I guess her grandma (who is 92 and weighs maybe 80 lbs she's tiny!) fell off the porch and was bleeding pretty bad on her head and all over her arm. Tasha pulls up and there is an ambulance at her house so she asks her step mom whats going on and she just starts screaming at Tasha, I'm not sure what about but Tasha runs around back and sees her grandma laying there bleeding all over and her sister starts screaming at her and the EMT's (her family is kind of psycho... especially her sisters) so they rush her grandma to the hospital and when I called her she was in the car on her way there. So I tell her we'll meet her there and that I'll call the Elders to come and give her a blessing which she was so grateful for, honestly I don't think anyone's ever really cared for or about her before. So we hurry down to the hospital and the Elders meet us there, we had to wait before we could go in because she was in the ER so we're outside waiting for 15 min or so then her sister comes out yelling at Tasha again that they're rushing their grandma to another hospital because they found bleeding in her brain. We tell Tasha to call us as soon as she knows whats going on and we can come meet her there later. As we're pulling out of the parking lot we see Tasha standing there on the side of the road so we pull over and ask what was going on and I guess her sister literally shoved her out of her car in the middle of the road because she got mad about something and then left Tasha there. So we asked if she wanted us to wait with her until her ride got there but she said she'd be okay I think she wanted some time to be alone, so we left. I felt awful leaving her there but there really was nothing more we could do, I hate that feeling of being absolutely helpless for someone. Last I talked to her she said that her grandma is in the ICU, with not much change, I think we're going to try and go down there sometime today and see how she's doing. I hope all that makes sense, it makes me so sad that some families treat each other like that, you're supposed to have your family to lean on when times are hard not cause more problems and make you feel worse.

Her grandma is her everything though she raised her, so I don't know how she'll react if she ends up dying. It's sad and frustrating that she finally starts to take steps forward and then wham the adversary hits her so hard. I just really hope and pray that she makes this horrible situation turn her towards Heavenly Father, this really could be a make it or break it point for her. I hope she makes it. Please keep her in your prayers.

I told ya'll about Jean last week who I was so excited about. Well we go over there and she tells us that I want to be fair and let you know that I don't want to continue studying... Punch in the face. A little later she asked do you wanna know why and I said yes! Her main reason is that she doesn't feel like she needs to be re-baptized so I briefly re-explained priesthood authority and she said that she'll keep praying about it. Then I asked her before you make up your mind will you please just come to church one time? She said that she would, so hopefully she'll be coming this Sunday. I also asked if she would want to hear the rest of the lessons just for her own information and she said yes so hopefully and prayerfully something will happen there soon. She is absolutely perfect and so sweet, she would be an awesome addition to the branch.

This weekend I get to have a real Southern experience and eat squirrel! Haha! I'm kind of excited I'll let you know how it goes!

Well I think that about wraps up my week. Thank you for your continued love and prayers they mean more than you'll ever know.

Love and miss ya'll!!!

Love,

Sister Bedke :)

Ashley Ltr: 2013-01-14

Hey family!!

Sounds like eveything is going great! I hope Court gets feeling better soon, not starting off the year to great health wise, I'm pretty sure she knows how to fix it though ;) A little hint... pick up a pen and paper!

No I haven't found boots yet. But I need to soon, you're right it's really rainy here, it's been in the 60's though! Its crazy the middle of January and I'm out tracting in short sleeves! I guess this is really unusual though. Out here rain brings fog and it is bad! Driving in it is kinda scary, somedays you can only see a few feet in frot of you.

Zone conference was great! Pres Irion talked about becoming more of a Preach my Gospel mission, Sister Irion talked about the difference between a testimony and being converted to the gospel, the assistants talked about leadership (which was my favorite part, I've struggled some with having to be the leader but I'm getting a lot better, and starting to rely on the Savior a lot more.), and then the zone leaders talked about teaching more like the Savior. It was an awesome conference, they always are and they always touch on what I need to hear.

Oralia is still about the same... I think she knows what she needs to do to she just hasn't taken the needed leap of faith yet. We're not giving up on her though. We're going to hopefully help her get a job so she can become more independent and self reliant. She's doing great with the English classes and so is her sister in law, it's been fun. Sister Gonzalez and I started them going but one of our branch missionaries is teaching them. She does a fantastic job and really enjoys it.

We  had a pretty great week. We got ahold of an old investigator, Jean, who I think I've told ya'll about before. And she wants us to come back. We also found a family to start teaching soon hopefully! We had a great visit with them last night and they want us to come back. We also found another lady who had a lot of great questions and wants to read the Book of Mormon, the only downer was she didn't set a return appt but we left her with our number and I really think she call. Fingers crossed!

Church yesterday was great! We had branch council that morning and it was a complete 180 turn around! Almost the whole thing was centered around missionary work when before it was for maybe 2 minutes. The branch is starting to turn around and make missionary work more of a priority, it's awesome!! Oralia and Reynal also came to church again, they're so great! I look forward to the day when I can actually talk to her.

I'm so jealous ya'll have snow!! We have none! People were mowing there lawns this week! I don't think there's any in the near future either... :( I kinda miss it.

Trek sounds like it's going to be great! Where are ya'll going? I'm excited to hear more about it.

Congrats Brooker on 3rd place! That's awesome!! I'm excited to see you in action when I get home. :)

We get fed by the branch usually a couple times a week but it just varies from week to week. This week though we have an appt every night!! I think we have one for 10 days in a row! That never happens! I put on the calendar this week John 14 maybe (I can't remember the exact reference...) But I put, Jesus saith unto the unto the Signal Mtn branch, "If ye love me feed me sheep." We got results. :)

 Well I think that about wraps up the week. I love and miss ya'll!!! xoxoxo

Sister Bedke :)

Ashley Ltr: 2013-01-07

Hey fam!

It sounds like things are going great at home! That's kinda scary about Court though... I'm glad she's starting to do better. They say it was sports induced asthma but I think it's because she's feeling so guilty about only writing her sister once in almost 7 months and her body just couldn't take it anymore, pretty sure that's the real cause.

No I haven't gotten rain boots yet I really need to though! I just don't really know where to get any... Any suggestions? No I haven't slammed yet either! I was going to bring them to district meeting so everyone could experience the slam but I forgot and this week we have zone conference. But next week it's gonna happen.

Mom I love the new look on the piano!! It looks beautiful! Nicely done. :)

So Shauna is cutting hair now?! That's awesome! Does she wanna fly out here and cut mine? I could really use one and all the hair cutting places here are closed on Monday! I just have so much stinking hair! I don't want to really cut it yet I like it long, just a trim and thinned, probably bangs too.

That's so exciting Jace about the Priesthood class, I'm so proud of you buddy!

Well its been kind of another slow week... We're working hard and not really seeing any results right now. Honestly it's getting a little discouraging, most of the branch has it in their minds that there is no one on the mountain who is willing to listen so why really try. We just need to find a golden investigator and then I feel like the work will just take off, we just need that spark to be lit.

Tasha didn't come to church again, I'm thinking we might drop her soon. She's just not progressing at all :( It's sad because this gospel can help her so much and I think she realizes that to an extent she just needs to take the initiative to work for it. She's been so sick, I'm kinda worried about her, and she won't go to the doctor!

Thank you so much for teaching me the value of hard work and that if I want something out of life to work for it and not give up until I've achieved it. So many people just haven't been taught that and it's sad. Ya'll are the best! :)

Oralia and Reynal did come to church though! Poor Oralia is in a tough spot and she's starting to get discouraged with her boyfriend. She really is to the point where she needs to take that leap of faith and do something. She knows that she needs to change but she has nobody and no money. It's really sad and we're really not sure what to do anymore. Please keep her in your prayers she really needs them.

I did have a cool experience with her though yesterday. We have a Spanish gospel principles class so I went with her to that and while I was sitting there I felt like I was a new investigator. Sitting there listening to a foreign language not fully understanding what was being said but occasionally I would hear a word or phrase I recognized (there's a quote by Pres. Packer in Preach my Gospel that says the gospel isn't something completely foreign to those who have never heard it because we knew it before this life, he said if the spirit is there and these people really want to know the gospel will have a familiar ring to them). The spirit was definitely there in the class and I could feel it even though I really didn't understand what all was being said. It was really cool and reaffirmed to me that it's my job as a missionary and as the Saviors mouth piece that I do my part to invite the spirit to every lesson so these people can feel it.

So I had my first bash I guess you could call it haha. I really tried not to but this guy was ridiculous! One of the guys we met last week is a devout Jehovah's Witness and he invited us back and I made the mistake of asking him a question at the very beginning and that led to him trying to indoctrinate us. I was able to get my two cents in every once in awhile but that's about it.

We started our English classes this last week, there are two people learning right now, Oralia and her sister in law Adelina. One of our branch missionaries, Sister Caughman, has been teaching them we go when we can to help out. It has been exciting to actually understand Oralia! She's doing great!

Well I think that about wraps up the week. Thank you for the continued love and prayers they really make all the difference.

I love and miss ya'll!!

Sister Bedke :)

P.S.    We were at a members home last night for dinner and she was telling me about a website for missionary moms that I thought you might be interested in... it's http://emailgroups.ourldsfamily.com then your request Tennessee Knoxville mission. Then I think they might send you something just to verify that you really do have a missionary out because it's a private site.

Okay one last thing... Dad do you know a Ned Iverson from the church office building? He's my branch president's dad and he said he's worked there for years.

K I think that's everything now.

Love ya'll!!! xoxo