Ashley Pics: 2013-10-21

Kingsport District

Our Missionary!

Elders Darrington, Woolums, Ashley - Duck Dynasty T-Shirts

Ashley Ltr: 2013-10-21

Subject:  Some weeks are definitely better than others...

October 21, 2013

Hey y'all!!

I loved hearing what that lady said about Amber and seeing her as a missionary!!! Dang that was way cool. I couldn't really see the tag though so next pic you send Amb make sure you've got a full view of the tag.

Hadderly... Why do I know that name? Was that someone’s maiden name or something? Shauna Shaw's maybe...?

Oh man... Well this week kinda sucked. Haha sorry to start the e-mail out like this but it really was so bad that it was funny. Sister Fox, Roundy and I just started laughing way hard Saturday night to keep from crying. But you know things really can only go up from here right? :) The up's and downs of being a missionary, you're just guaranteed to have some bad weeks.

The week consisted of being screamed at, literally this lady was screaming at us she was so mad that we had come by trying to contact her LA husband, we're talking there was spit flying from her mouth ugh I don't understand why some people are so ornery. We didn't even get the chance to say anything. I just wanted to be like "I'm sorry that we care about your husband and want to see if there's anything we can do to help."

We pretty much lost two of our investigators, Betty Yates and Debbie Short. We texted Betty to see if we were still on for our appt and she texts back, "I don't recall giving you my phone number, no we can't reschedule, don't contact me again." How else would we have gotten your number?? Geez... She had so much potential too, I think we'll try and go back in a couple of days and see if we can talk to her.

Debbie Short as of right now is basically refusing to come to our ward... She wants to keep going to the Powell Valley ward where her family is which is understandable but that’s just not how it works and she's driving like an hour and half just to get there, where if she was going to ours it’s only a half hour. Hopefully her father-in-law who is a good strong member will be able to talk them into coming to ours.

Remember Debra Smith that lady that randomly contacted us and said she's a member and wants to come back? Well we've been doing a nightly text to everyone with a scripture and we get a text back from her number that said it's not her phone anymore and that we better stop texting her. We apologized and asked if she had her new number, she said no, now LEAVE ME ALONE. Oh and I'm a Christian not a Mormon.

We got accused of spreading stories about a lady to her sister, doors slammed in our faces, Patty Nisbet is going out of town for a month, and it's cold (ok that's not that bad) but pretty much you name it, it happened this week. BLAH!!

BUT>>> Sunday was the start of a new week and it was a good one!

Sydney came to church yesterday!! While we were on exchanges the sisters went and saw her they said they had a really good visit and that she'd like to start coming to church again! Heck yah!! Wow it was so good to have her there and the ward just swallowed her with love! I LOVE THIS WARD!!

Yesterday we finally were able to meet with Gloria!! She has been living up in Johnson City for the last month and a half which is why we haven't been able to get in contact with her but I just couldn't take it anymore so we went to her work and got to talk to her. I was bracing myself for the worst that she wouldn't want to meet with us anymore but we had just the opposite happen!!! We asked if she'd still been reading from the Book of Mormon she said yes and that she knows it's true! Also she's been reading Joseph Smith's history and said why would someone go through everything that he went through for a lie? That just doesn't make any sense, it has to be true! Yah buddy of course its true!! :) It was such a good visit!

We also were able to see Patty before she leaves for a month, and had a great lesson with her on the Atonement and letting go of past grudges and bitterness. She had a really rough childhood and is still pretty bitter about it. But she is so stinkin close!! I hate that she's leaving for so long!! But she said she'd keep reading and praying.

The Carters fed us dinner last night to and I just love their family. Sister Carter is one of the most amazing people I think I've ever met and is kinda like a second mom here. I LOVE her and am so grateful for the smile she always has on her face or a funny story to tell to brighten my day.

So things are definitely looking up, sorry again that this letter is semi-depressing I just finished reading Amber's letter and teared up. Wow it was like a total flashback, I know exactly how she's feeling and I know why you cry sometimes when you read our letters Mom.

Thank you so much for everything family and friends! I really couldn't do this without y'alls help and prayers. I love, love, love you!!! xoxoxo

Sister Bedke :)

p.s. Jace I'll try and get a letter off to you soon bud! Sorry I've kinda been slacking in the letter writing department.

Ashley Ltr: 2013-10-14

Subject: Remember that one lady Beth Starkey...? :) :)

October 14, 2013

Hey hey hey!!

Geez I had sooooo many e-mails today!! It was great! Definitely feelin' the love. Amb I love the fact that we are both Sister Bedke missionaries at the same time. I'm so glad you're enjoying the MTC, I just know you'll love Georgia even more! I'm just fine with the double letter thing. :)

Sounds like things are going great back home! I love y'all.

This has been another perty good week! Mom you mentioned the fact that I haven't talked about tracting that's because we don't do it really anymore!! It's awesome, it really is such a waste of time and there is a much better way of doing things. They're really encouraging us not to if at all possible. They're really stressing working more with members and LA's which is where it's at.

We did A TON of LA work this week, we were able to meet several new families that we'd never met before and hopefully we'll be able to start teaching their families the lessons again and help get some people reactivated. There are so many LA's here its insane, I love working with all of them though, that is probably one of my favorite things to do, when you see that light re-kindled in their eyes, it's incredible.

So do y'all remember Beth?? She finally was able to get baptized on Saturday!!! It really happened. She even bore her testimony at her baptism which for Beth is huge. I wish Sister Burningham, Sister Johnson and I could have been there so bad. But she finally was able to get there! I just cried when I found out, I was beyond thrilled, miracles really do happen. :)

We picked up a new investigator this week, her name is Betty Yates she's an older lady that was a referral from a member. She recently lost her son a couple of months ago and was open to our message, she accepted a BoM and agreed to read from it. Hopefully something will come of that, I'll keep y'all updated.

Everyone is soooooo busy now-a-days seriously we tried so hard to get in with each of our progressing investigators and weren't able to meet with any of them this week... Hopefully this week will be better investigators wise.

We woke up to a great text this morning! Debbie Short that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, we haven't been able to see her because she had a couple of surgeries, but she said that they went to church in Powell Valley yesterday and it was an incredible meeting and now her son Hunter wants to be baptized! So basically a baptism just fell in our laps, I'm hoping that we can get Debbie baptized the same day, how cool would that be? We're finally going to be able to see them on Wednesday! :)

There were several changes made in the mish this transfer, we got a new Elder in our ward, Elder Shumway, from Moab, UT, he's the oldest of 14 kids!!! Geez... He's a nice guy a little awkward but nice. There's only 7 of us in the district now, it's kinda weird... And they split our zone in half, I'm now in the Kingsport west zone. Its crazy when I first got here there were only 4 zones now there are 9! Big things are happening.

Quote for the week...

"The crowning characteristic of love is loyalty." -Elder Holland

If we really love something or someone we'll be completely 100% loyal to that person or cause all the time.

Well I think that about wraps up the week... I sure love y'all a lot. xoxo

Sister Bedke :)

Ashley Ltr: 2013-10-07

Subject:  Church is true. Book is blue. JOIN IT!!!

 

October 7, 2013

Hey hey hey y’all!!!

I have to admit my thoughts have been kinda elsewhere this week... I've been thinking about Amber and hoping and praying that she's doing great, I'm sure she is I just wish I could talk to her and see how she's doing. I'm so happy for her!! Please forward me her e-mails, I added her to my e-mailing list. Will you send me her mission address?

Sounds like things are going great at home! Holy smokes Court you look GORGEOUS!! Is someone going to tell me who Cameron is?? Are y’all dating or what? He's cute, I approve. :) And mom I am so proud of you and the time you got that sent out haha! I sure love you a lot. Yes I got your pictures and the journal (that's journal #5!) Thank you!!

Well the big news of the week is that we're all staying for another transfer!! I'm thinking they'll probably just have me finish my mission here, unless they ship me elsewhere for the last transfer. I'm way excited we're all staying! Things are finally starting to pick up again and we're all working well together! It's hard to believe that I only have 2 transfers left... You better believe I'm going to make the most of these last 3 months, there will be no getting trunky here!

I almost feel like this week was a week off, Monday was p-day, Tuesday Sister Fox and I were in Knoxville ALL DAY for mission leadership council, literally our meeting was 6 hours long (only a 5 min break) with a 2 hour drive there and back ugh... It was good though. Wednesday half the day was spent at a zone training meeting, Thursday we had to go to Rogersville for exchanges which took a couple hours round trip, Friday we had weekly planning which took a good chunk of the day because we kept getting interrupted, Saturday and Sunday were full of General Conference! So it's just been a crazy week with not a whole lot of missionary work getting done.

Geez wasn't conference incredible?!? So many answered questions and revelation was flowing! The only downer was that none of our investigators showed... Except for Patty because we watched the Sunday morning session at their house, she watched all of them and loved it! She is sooooo close! I'm just tired of people saying they'll do something and then not doing it you know... I have made a promise to myself though that I will never be like that. If I say I'm going to do something or be somewhere, I'll be there.

I loved President Uctdorf's, Elder Holland's, Sister Oscarson (I think that's her name at least...), President Monson's, and Elder Maynes I think those were my tops! So many incredible messages I'm way excited to re-read everything!

We finally were able to see Sydney! It was so good to see her! I just hugged her and held on, she just has these stupid little things she doesn't agree with like coffee and tea, and we told her well that doesn't mean you can't come to church, and she was like really? I thought I wouldn't be welcome anymore... Noooo!!! So we squashed that concern and she said she'd like to start coming back slowly! We mainly just talked about how much we love her and miss her, baby steps that's what it's going to take. She went to the Carter's (Bishop) house for the last Sunday session then we came over later for dinner. She was smiling and laughing and said she enjoyed what she saw of conference.

We had this less active lady call us randomly this week saying that she'd like to come back to church, she hasn't been in over 13 years so that was exciting! We met her for lunch and she seems genuine, she said I'm ready to come home! Her name is Debbie Smith too haha. We have 3 Debbie's we're working with right now!

Recent convert Debbie Smith is doing fantastic!! Geez I love that lady so much! We had an older sister from the ward, Faye Wampler come with us when we saw her this week and they totally hit it off! When we got in the car Sister Wampler said "I promise you she will be taken care of, I'm going to take her under my wing, she's in good hands." She also said I feel like I've known her my whole life, we were definitely friends in another life. That is probably one of the best things I have heard my whole mission! When you know that your recent converts are going to be taken care of after you're gone. This ward is incredible.

I'm excited for this upcoming transfer good things should be happening!

Thought of the week...

"Doubt your doubts, before you doubt your faith!" -Pres. Uchtdorf

I think that about wraps up the week. I sure love ya'll a lot!! xoxoxo

Sister Bedke :)