Fever Mania!

Well.....this week has been pretty uneventful besides the fact that I was in bed with a 101 degree fever, give or take, for 4 days.  And then still had the last bit of the virus for the next 3 days. So yeah, a WHOLE WEEK I've been sick.  When does that ever happen???  Apparently a bug has been going around the mission and a bunch of sisters have it.  Thankfully though I am better now and continuing to get back to my normal health!  :)

Me with my two baggies of goodies, ha.  (Ibuprofen and cough drops in one and Gatorade powder in the other.)

Happy and smiling because I was feeling better! :)

                Something cool from this experience though was on the 4th day of having a fever, I decided I needed a priesthood blessing.  I texted Elder Frost and we set a time for me to come to the Square.....yikes right? Haha. I was looking pretty rough.

The blessing he gave me was so wonderful!  He touched on other things in my life that I needed to hear and there were multiple times throughout it that I teared up.  I could feel the love that God had for me and how proud He was of my missionary efforts thus far.  It was such an amazing feeling.  Elder Frost also blessed me that I would heal quickly.....and do you know what? Just a few hours later, and my fever was gone!! Gone! Hallelujah!  I still had a bad cough until the evening, but then at night it finally stopped and I could sleep.  I was so incredibly grateful for that.  I still get tired pretty easily these past few days after the blessing, but I have been continually getting better.  Heck yes to progress!

The beautiful temple that I love so much!!

I also went to the Teaching Center for the first time all week last night with my companion and it was awesome!!  We had 4 lessons in less than 2 hours and I realized, once again, how much I LOVE teaching the Gospel!  I had called one guy named Colton who I met at Conference and it was great talking to him!  He has gone to the LDS church every now and then ever since he was in middle school.  He is very prepared and loves the Church so much already!  I just need to teach him the missionary discussions and get the local missionaries involved!  And then we had a chat with a guy named James who also really wants to learn, but I'm still trying to see how sincere he is.  I have gotten pretty hesitant with chats, even though I've seen 3 baptisms by meeting people from chat.  He seems pretty legit and I'm excited to keep teaching him!  The other 2 lessons were Spanish ones so I couldn't tell you too much about those besides their names and the basic principles that were taught.  It was a wonderful night and I loved seeing just how happy missionary work makes me! :)

Cheesin in the sunshine!

Well, I think that's about it for now! I love you all!

Sister Asay

The sun keeps shining! :)

I am having a hard time remembering all that has happened this week, but I will do my best!!  Something funny that happened though was when Sister Lopez and I were at desk assignment and I started talking to these two ladies from England.  One had just turned 70 and they were doing a girls trip across America.  We started talking about SLC and how clean it was and the 70 year old exclaimed, "Yeah, it's SO clean!  Makes me want to do graffitti".  I just started laughing and told her what a rebel she was.  They both started cracking up and her friend told me to keep an eye on her. Haha. This is going down in my journal. 

We didn't take many pictures this week, so when I got a package from my mom today we took a few! Haha.

Happy Easter from my family!

I am teaching a girl who is less- active and I have mentioned her before.  She is someone who I met at the beginning of my mission and then we lost contact for a while and then I have been teaching her again the past few months.  We have really been trying to help her and have been extending different commitments, like praying daily for one week, and then adding daily scripture study to that the next week, and then adding fasting for one day to both of those the next week, etc.  She has struggled with drug addiction and it is so amazing to see how these little challenges have changed her life!!  Her cravings have gone from a 10 to 1 and the light within her just shines!  She always tells us how grateful she is to us, but the credit goes to the Gospel and our Heavenly Father!  I know for a fact that this Gospel changes people for the better and that it can bring true light and joy to our lives.  And this situation is an example of that!

One day after leaving our apartment for dinner, we walked across the Conference Center area to go to the Square and saw this one lady sitting by herself.  I walked over to her and asked how she was.  Turns out she was struggling with things in her life and just needed to look at the temple.  I shared words of encouragement and tried to help her as best as I could.  I then tried to think of a scripture to share, but none came to mind.  So I wished her a good day, said everything would be okay, and we continued to the Square.  It was a few minutes of walking when a scripture popped into my mind and I knew we had to share it with her!  So Sister Lopez and I turned around and saw the lady walking to her car, so we started running! But we caught up to her before she left and I shared part of Alma 36:3 with her.  "...I beseech of thee that thou wilt hear my words and learn of me; for I do know that whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day."  The lady got emotional and said that this meant a lot to her and that she was so grateful to us for coming back.  

After this experience, I had wondered why the scripture didn't come to my mind sooner.  And it was a few days later when I realized that having us run back to catch up with her and share a scripture probably meant a lot more to her than if we had just shared it with her on the spot.  How it happened showed her that someone really did care, and missionaries nonetheless who are Christ's representatives.  Christ couldn't be there to run back and give her encouragement, but I'm glad Sister Lopez and I could be.

Well, I hope everyone has a great week! Do your best to notice little helping opportunities all around you!

Love you all!

Sister Asay

What a week!

Hello everyone!

Wow, wow, wow!! Conference!! I don't even know where to start, but it was truly amazing!!  And tiring....haha.  We had to be on the square at 7:30 am and didn't go home until 10 pm and we had 25 minutes meal breaks.  I seriously loved all of it though!  The Spirit was so strong on the Square because of all of the people that had just been uplifted and edified and I think I was smiling from morning ‘til night!   

Before Conference! Had to take a pic with the pretty cherry blossoms :)

Cute story:

I was assigned to the Map desk in the North Visitor's Center and a father with 2 kids came up to me looking kind of frantic.  He asked if I had a bobby pin or a clip because his daughter's hair was going everywhere and his wife was in the Conference Center.  I looked at his daughter and her hair truly was everywhere...haha.  What's funny is that I had brought a hair band to the Square, which I usually never do, so I took that off from around my phone and fixed the little girl's hair into a cute ponytail and put her headband back on.  The dad said, "Wow, it looks so much better- thank you!!"  The poor, sweet dad :)  I loved being able to help out!

First day of Conference!

At Conference, it is mainly members, but what is amazing is that I was able to find 2 new investigators this weekend!  Here is the story about one of them.  My companion and I were walking on the Square when this lady came up to us and asked if we could explain to them a bit more about the Temple.  It was 3 girls and 1 guy and we gladly started sharing some history and gospel principles with them.   I found out that all of the girls were members and the guy wasn't and had just recently moved to Utah and they all met at the food court about 10 minutes before.  I asked the guy if he had seen the Christus statue before, and he hadn't, so we continued our conversation while walking over there.  It was so great because we talked about temples, prophets, Christ, and the Book of Mormon.  We were able to share our testimonies and so were the members.  He accepted a Book of Mormon and wanted to stay in touch!  I am looking forward to meeting and sharing more about the Gospel with him! Yay for a Conference miracle :)

Barbara Benac!!  I love to see people from Texas! 

Another cool thing happened this week, yesterday my companion and I came to the Square and went downstairs to put our food in the fridge.  As we were walking by the offices, we saw this lady sitting in a chair and I smiled at her, but she gave me a less than pleasant smile in return.  We continued to the kitchen and then on the way back by the offices, my companion said she needed to use the restroom before we went the Square.  So I set my stuff down and said hello again to the lady again.  She still wasn't very friendly, but I was determined to talk to her.  I asked her more questions, like where she was from, etc. and we started up a conversation.  She was from SLC and her cousin was preparing to serve a service mission in Africa.  She asked about Temple Square and I explained what we do, and then she revealed to me that she was a less-active member ever since she was a child because of some difficult things she went through.  We then started discussing the Gospel and we eventually got to the topic of what had happened when she was younger.  She had lost her brother and she had become angry and bitter towards God, and left the church.  I explained how I used to be confused as to why bad things happen to good people and then shared something that meant a lot to me when I was taking a class at BYU.  I told her that my professor said that God doesn't give us bad things...that bad things happen because of our environment, choices of others, and our own choices.  She looked at me with surprise and said "That all makes sense".  It had hurt her when people told her that losing her brother was a test and I mentioned that trials happen, but it is how we deal with it that is the test.  She just kept nodding and then I shared my testimony.  The Spirit was so strong and I was almost tearing up.  Then her cousin came over from her meeting or something and the lady stood up and told her cousin what I had told her.  After this, she then started crying and hugged me.  And she gave me her email so that we can stay in touch!  What an amazing experience!  I was super grateful that I decided to talk to her, even if she didn't seem too friendly in the beginning.  I'm grateful I was persistent and responded to the promptings of continue to talk to her.

Something funny too is that my companion told me afterwards that when she came out of the bathroom and saw me talking to the lady that she thought, "Oh my companion, always talking with people." haha.)  

At the Sunday afternoon session :)

Our view!

Some awesome things have happened at Conference and there are many more too that would take way too long to write about!  But I am so grateful for the chance we have to be uplifted and encouraged by our leaders!  They turn to Heavenly Father and prepare for months to know what to share with us during Conference weekend!  I was able to go to the Sunday afternoon session and things I had prayed about were mentioned in their talks!  I know that God watches over each of us and knows our hearts.  I know He has called a prophet in our modern day to help us and to guide us!  If you haven't watched Conference, go to lds.org and watch it! You won't regret it :)

Love you all!

Sister Asay