Miracles on Temple Square

Hellooo!

Sister Carvalho and I were taking this newly engaged couple to something called "God's Plan for Families".  It's one video, but there are 6 rooms that we go to and watch different sections of the video. Each clip/room is about 2 minutes and then we move to the next room and so forth. We have given about 3 tours in God's Plan for Families and each time the clip in the last room, the best part where the spirit is the strongest, hasn't worked! :/ However, this particular day we heard earlier that it might be working again, so we were excited to take the couple there!

We start the video and we go through each room and arrive at the 5th room. While they were watching the video, Sister Carvalho and I check the last room and press the button to see if the video will play, but nothing happens...and we were so bummed!  We really wanted this sweet girl, who just converted to the church a year ago, to be able to feel the Spirit and have it testify to her that she will have happiness and blessings from her decision to marry her fiance in the temple.

Well, the 5th room video ended and we led them into the 6th and last room, not knowing exactly what we were going to do. I looked at Sister Carvalho and she paused for a second, and then suddenly just pressed the button.  As the lights dimmed, I prayed so hard!  "Please work, please work".  And all of a sudden, the video came on!! Ah! Sister Carvalho and I looked at each other with HUGE smiles on our faces! We knew that both of our prayers had been answered!  The couple watched the video and when it ended the girl was crying.  We asked her how she liked it and she said "this was amazing" and we then continued to share our testimonies of the blessings of the temple. 

After the tour, Sis Carvalho and I went back through God's Plan by ourselves to see if the 6th video just hadn't been working before because the 5th room video was playing simultaneously.  We went through and walked into the last room and pressed the button....nothing happened.  We tried again, and still nothing happened.  The video was still broken like it had been.  We then prayed and thanked our Heavenly Father for the small, but important miracle that had happened just 10 minutes earlier in that room.  Miracles of all sizes happen all of the time! :)

Yesterday, because some of the sisters had Leadership Training, so we had Sister Ma from Taiwan with us!  We gave a Mandarin tour and all 3 of them referred!  So cool! Sister Carvalho and I also learned some Mandarin while with her! I can now introduce myself and hold a simple conversation...as well as say "I'm hungry". 
 

Celebrating Bob's Birthday, a regular visitor at Temple Square

Funny of the Week
Last week a lady got on chat and asked "why don't the bible talk about dinosaurs?" and then signed off. Haha. So random!

 

On Wednesday we had District Meeting and my District Leader asked me to give a talk on diligence. It went really well! And I think one of the scriptures that I shared during that lesson is now one of my favorites.  It's D&C 88:78, "Teach ye diligently and my grace shall attend you, that you may be instructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in the law of the gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand"

I love this scripture so much and I felt prompted to share it with the sisters because a lot of the time we, as missionaries, feel inadequate.  We are all very humbled on our missions and we see our own weaknesses, but the point of a mission, or life, is not to have those weaknesses be what brings us down. Instead, we should look at the knowledge of us knowing what our weaknesses are as a blessing, because we then know what we need to work on! Having struggles is a part of growing, and this scripture promises us that if we are diligent we will be blessed to understand more and also to know what to say when it comes to sharing the Gospel. God wants all of us to succeed and to live as best as we can :)  

I love you all and I know this Gospel is true!

Have a great week :)

Sister Asay

Birthday Fun!

Hello, hello!

First off, thank you everyone for all of the birthday wishes!!! You all are the best and I felt so loved!! :) Thank you!!

Last Friday, my whole District went to dinner for my birthday.  The entire time I was planning on going to BJ's (it's delicious and has pizookies! Cookies with icebcream on top) and I was so excited! But when we walked over to the restaurant, I realized I had mixed the names up....this place was called JB'S not BJ's and it's basically a dumpy version of iHop or Denny's. Hahaha. But we ate there anyway since we were running out of dinner time and it ended up being a lot of fun! We took lots of pictures and I was so stuffed by the end!

Birthday Dinner w/ my District!

On our P-Day, I picked out a cake mix that I wanted to make so I could celebrate with other sisters and invite them over for cake on my birthday. I bought a milk chocolate mix and then rich chocolate icing to go on top.  My mom sent me a few boxes on my birthday and one of them had the exact same cake mix and icing in it!  I just started laughing because my mother seriously knows me SO well!  Haha. Love you mama :)  And don't worry, one box won't go to waste...Sister Carvalho's birthday was yesterday so I am making her a cake tonight :) 

Happy 21st Birthday!!

We had transfers this past Wednesday the 16th and guess whaatttt?!?!  I 'm staying with Sister Carvalho for another transfer!  Which never happens here at Temple Square besides when training. I am excited to be with Sister Carvalho for another transfer!!  She is wonderful!!

Also, Sister Carvalho and I are the new Sacrament Meeting Coordinators! This means that we will be the ones to pray about and assign different sisters and topics to speak in wards around Salt Lake City. We work hand in hand with President Seppi (one of President Gillette's counselors for our mission) and we get to call and talk to the Bishops around the city!  We have worked a bunch so far and I love this calling!  It's so cool to pray to Heavenly Father and feel inspired to know what sisters to choose and what topic each particular sister should speak about.  :)

Hanging with Brigham Young at the Beehive House

I'm so grateful for my companion and for the opportunity to teach.  I have grown and been made aware of my strengths as well as my weaknesses. It's kinda cool to see, really.  I feel that I know myself better.  I have felt Heavenly Father's love and awareness of me and I know that this is His work.  I know that Jesus Christ lives and visited His people in the Americas. And something awesome that I learned this week is that there are little miracles in our lives every single day.....we just have to look for them :) 

I love you all!! Have a great week :) 

Sister Asay

General Conference Weekend

So I survived Conference! Hallelujah! :)

Conference on the Square is seriously so fun, but extremely exhausting....like exhausting to the MAX.  We are usually on the Square for about 10.5 hours per day doing different assignments with 30 minute lunch breaks and hour dinner breaks. However, during Conference we are on the Square for 14.5 hours and we only get 20 minutes to eat our meals. So by the time the weekend was over I had a sore lower back, my feet hurt, and my eyes were so droopy- not a pretty sight, haha. But talking to and uplifting the members all day, sharing scriptures, and asking if they had friends that we could teach was so wonderful!! I had so many great experiences this weekend. 

Ready for Conference Weekend!

Also, the food that different stakes were kind enough to make for us was the bomb-dig. We had sandwiches, lasagna, annnd Cafe Rio!! I about died. I was so excited to eat dinner that night! I miss Cafe Rio, haha. Something crazy, too, is that during the day I would forget I needed to eat lunch- and I never forget about food- but I was just so engulfed in the work! It's cool to when you're enjoying what you're doing so much that time just FLIES by!

My brother came and surprised me at the Beehive House and once I saw him I just started crying! Haha. We were doing stations in the Beehive and Carvalho and I were in the last room. One of the groups walked in and then, when I thought everyone had filed in, my brother walked through the door! Ah! I ran and tackled him with a hug! I then realized that there were people there watching me hug a male while crying, haha....I awkwardly pulled away and asked if they knew the that he was my brother. They said yes and that they had been looking forward to seeing my reaction...haha.  

My brother Andrew!!!!!

I also saw Heather Richardson, one of my best friends!! We saw each other from a good distance and basically ran to each other, haha. And, of course, I cried!  It was so good seeing her :)

More shout-outs to Ben Gong, Andrew Johnston, Megan & Mindy, Nicole, Krysta, Hannah Baker, Russell Ochoa, Elder Quiroz, Elder Kuck, Elder Clark, and Elder Totten.
The last three Elders were all in my freshmen ward at BYU and we seriously all saw each other at the same time! It was like a mini 51st ward reunion! 

Heather!!!!

Anyway, it was so great seeing so many familiar faces and I hope that I got everyone's names in there. It was a whirlwind of commotion at the Square!

Sarahi!!!

At the end of Conference, we had a meeting for the entire mission.  The mission President's wife, who is about 60 years old, opened it with a rap about sharing the Gospel. It was hilarious! Haha. Just imagine a cute grandma trying to rap...it doesn't work, haha, but it was defs one of the greatest things I had ever seen.

Also, word to the wise, never eat a blue sucker before going out on the Square to talk to people...I spent about 5 minutes in the bathroom scrubbing the blue off my teeth with a paper towel. Haha.

The goal for the Sisters at Temple Square was to have 486 baptisms from the referrals they received at the April 2013 General Conference.  We surpassed that and had a whopping 504 baptisms! The Church is true! :) Our new goal for the next 6 months is 603 and I'm excited to be a part of it!! 

Also, a quick story not pertaining to Conference, but I had such a great experience last Friday on a Portuguese tour with Sister Carvalho. We took the two couples around to different sites and lastly we watched a short 12 minute film called "God's Plan for Families".  At the end, they all had tears in their eyes. Sis. Carvalho then shared her testimony about families and then I shared my testimony in Portuguese- first time ever! I always get choked up when I share my testimony at the end, English or Portuguese, since the movie is focused on a family who lost their grandfather. I still miss you Gramps! And I'm so grateful that I'll see you again.  

I hope everyone enjoyed Conference and was uplifted by the wonderful insight and revelation from Heavenly Father which was told to us by our prophet and church leaders.  I know I was. I love this Gospel and I'm so grateful to have a living prophet today. 

Zone Service Project

"...remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation...a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."  Helaman 5:12

Love you all,

Sister Asay

Conference is coming!

Oi! Hello Family and Friends!

Soooo.....WHO'S GOING TO CONFERENCE?!?

The sisters here have been talking about it for weeks and are all so excited! If anyone is going, PLEASE say hi to me if you see me! :) For those of you who don't know what General Conference is, it's a meeting where our living prophet speaks to us and address the members of the church. It is broadcasted world-wide and it takes place in Salt Lake City- across the street from Temple Square. We have a huge Conference Center for the occasion and it seats 21,000 people. The conference is translated into 16 different languages, eventually 70, so that members around the world can watch :) It happens only twice a year so it's something we all look forward to!

So, last Saturday there was a General Relief Society Meeting (part of General Conference) for all of the women in the church. The Relief Society President, her 2 counselors, and then our beloved prophet spoke to us.  It was such a wonderful meeting and I got so much out of it! All of the sister missionaries were sitting on the far right at the front of the Conference Center where the prophet enters, and when he walked in the room I could feel a change in everyone- the Spirit was definitely present. He sweetly waved to all of the sister missionaries and my heart was seriously pounding! Haha. Here were some men who have been SO influential in my life and they were only 15 feet away!!

Relief Society General Broadcast w/ Sister Carvalho

When President Monson stood up to speak, after the Relief Society presidency gave their talks, he mentioned that he "missed his wife more than words can express" and it made me tear up....It helps you put it in perspective that, yes he is a prophet called of God, but that he is also a man like us with different trials. He then continued his talk where he testified to us that Heavenly Father loves each of us and that God does answer prayers. Every word he spoke was truth and I definitely have had so many experiences in my life where my prayers have been answered either by God or by God through someone else. We are placed on this earth to help one another and answer someone's prayer. I testify that He is watching over us and I invite everyone to watch conference this weekend to hear the words of a living prophet! The different sessions are Saturday at 10am & 2pm and then Sunday at 10am & 2pm. I promise that watching will make a difference. 

District dinner at the Lion House

I saw Kayla Black after the Relief Society broadcast!! I started crying I was so happy! Haha. Love you Kayla!! :)

Also, whenever I do something goofy or random my companion always says "soo yellow!" Haha. That's my core color if anyone has ever taken the Color Test. We had an activity a few weeks ago where all of the sisters got to take the test as well as hear from the psychologist who wrote the book...it was so awesome! I seriously love this stuff. Maybe because my dad is a psychologist? ;) So, yellows are the social, easy-going ones who can't live without their fun, reds are the leaders, whites are the peace-keepers, and blues are the emotions. When I tallied up my answers I had the most yellows, next highest was red, had a good amount of white, and then only a handful of blues....haha, I guess I'm not very emotional?  But it was such a fun activity and for daysss it was the topic of conversation amongst the sisters! 

And Bob, the man in the wheelchair who got in a car wreck at age 18, now says "hey y'all" whenever I say hello to him. Haha! He's knows what's up ;) 

I love you all!! I am loving being a missionary and I am continually getting better at giving tours and teaching! It's cool to see the change in yourself. Anyway, everyone have a wonderful week! :)

I was also able to go to my cousin's wedding this week at the Salt Lake Temple! I got permission from my Mission President and I was SO grateful I could go! James and Nicole both looked so happy :) It was wonderful being there for their sealing and seeing some family! A tender mercy :) I love you guys!  

James & Nichole's Sealing!  What a beautiful bride!!

Here is the link to watch Conference or you can watch it on BYU tv.

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/invite-others?lang=eng