Ashley Ltr: 2013-04-29

April 29, 2013

Hellooooooo family!!!

Man oh man this has been a crazy week! My new area is Athens North! Which is still in the Chattanooga zone, it's the farthest north part, and we opened it up! There are Elders in Athens but our ward boundaries are like 3 hours wide, it's huge!!! So we basically just split the area in half but it's still so huge! My new companions name is Sister Katelyn Clove from St. George, UT, she's cute and we've been having a lot of fun together!

While at transfer meeting our ward mission leaders came to meet us and show us how to get to our new apt, they are both so nice! They were like you have no idea how long and hard we've been praying to have sisters come to this area! We got a brand spankin new car so we followed them to our apartment which is in Madisonville, TN. (I forgot the cord to my camera again but hopefully I'll get some pics sent next week).

Wednesday was a total whirlwind of a day, it POURED the whole way home, then we went out to lunch with Brother Ward (one of the ward mission leaders) and he told us his story about coming back into the church, he said it was the sisters on temple square that did it, so he has a special place in his heart for sister missionaries. :) That night we had correlation meeting and we got so much info thrown up at us it was kinda crazy. There is so much work to be done in this ward it's not even funny. Our bishop wants us to meet every single sister in the ward! So needless to say we've got a lot to do! One of our ward missionaries, Sister Ensminger has agreed though to take us out every Tuesday like all day!

Sunday at church we felt like celebrities haha! Everyone was swarming us and hugging us and giving us their numbers to go on team ups with us, it was awesome! Holy cow I love this ward so much already! They literally are like one big family, everyone is there for everyone and they all have a strong desire to do missionary work! The poor Elders are kinda getting left in the dust haha, everyone was like I want to meet the sisters and a new Elder got brought in too he kinda got forgotten about... I felt kinda bad.

This area is a lot like Chatsworth, there's a lot of poverty, trailers, and rednecks but also a lot of very humble salt of the earth kind of people.

Saturday we had what's known as the day of service so we went and cemented a tool shed and planted different plants. It started pouring as soon as we got there, needless to say we were freezing and a mess. But we seriously had so much fun, this ward is so funny and truly makes the best of every situation. I wish I had pictures we were such a mess haha.

We've already picked up 3 new investigators! One's name is Sandy she lives next door to a less active member and really just wants to know the truth, so she borrowed her Book of Mormon and is already in Jacob! And she asked such good questions, we're thinking she's pretty golden! Then yesterday we went to visit another less active whose husband just passed away so she's living with a friend who came to church with her this week. So we're going to start teaching her and her boyfriend (ugh another one of those live in boy friend situations...) their names are Walter and Cheryl. Not to bad for only being here for 4 days! :)

It was hard saying goodbye to my Signal Mtn family but I'm excited to be here now and to work with some more amazing people. I just got an e-mail from a lady from Signal Mtn telling me how much she'll miss me and how much she loved having me in the branch. :) :)

I'm glad y'all are enjoying the journals, I'm having a hard time keeping up with it lately I feel like I have no time! I used to really enjoy it and it was a release for me but now I kinda feel like it's more of a stressful burden ahhh! I know that I'll regret it if I don't keep it up and I promised President Waddops (I think that's his name at least :/....) that I would do it daily so I will.

I'm sorry everyone is still sick... Man this has been going on for awhile! Does the acupuncture hurt??

I love that y'all are doing neighborhood parties now! That's awesome!! Seriously that's where the missionary work magic happens, because it's a non threatening environment where people can just be around Mormons and know that we're normal everyday people just with higher standards who know you don't have to have a beer to have fun.

I haven't gotten any letters the past several days, my new address is 710 Tellico St. N #3, Madisonville, TN 37354.

The pictures last week were our awkward family photos haha barefeet and rolled pants. It was fun, I'm going to miss those guys but I'll still see them because I'm still in the zone.

Well I think that about wraps it up for the week. I love and miss y'all!!! xoxoxoxo

Sister Bedke :)