Meeting the New Mission President!

Hello!

Wow, where to begin? I feel like I just wrote a weekly email yesterday!  Last Thursday, the Gillette's were in their offices at Temple Square for the last time and Friday morning we had a meeting with our new Mission President and his wife.  And they are just AMAZING!  Everyone was kinda nervous about seeing the Gillette's go, but I had a feeling that the Poulsen's would be just as wonderful!  And guess what? They are!  They are kind, loving, and have strong testimonies.  I seriously love them both so much already!  I'm excited to have a year serving with them!!  I have ONE year left. What?  Where has the time gone?! 

One of our roommates had a birthday this week! So after our Planning Meeting that night, we threw her a little party!

Eating cake and ice cream :)

A few cool things from this week -
- I was on exchanges and we gave a couple from Ethiopia a tour of Temple Square! Ethiopia! They were pretty interested and asked a lot of questions. Such a neat experience!

- Sister Mathias "announced" Sunday morning in German and there were four German men that came up to her afterwards and wanted a tour!  They could speak English, so it was pretty funny when we were teaching at the Temple Model because Sister Mathias would explain something in German and then they would ask a question, she would translate it for me, and I would respond in English.  Then they would respond to me in English, ask another question, and then Sister Mathias would answer them in German.  It was so cool!  And everyone understood each other, besides me when they would speak German, but it was awesome to notice that whenever I would stay focused and pay attention to the German, I kind of had an idea of what was going on.  Not every time, but most of the time, and it was a great experience to see how the Spirit will work in us to help us understand when we put in effort!  It was a great tour and we gave 3 of them a Deutsch Book of Mormons! :)

Mustache time! haha...

One of the many things that I love here at Temple Square is something called an "investigator lesson".  This is when Elders or Sisters from the surrounding Salt Lake City missions (there's like 8 or 9 SLC missions) bring their investigators to the Square for us to take them on a tour and to teach and focus on different Gospel principles specific to that particular investigator's needs.  I have given about 3 or 4 of these in the past few weeks and they are amazing!  It's cool to see how prepared and open the people are!  I love sharing my testimony and seeing the light in their eyes as they learn and feel the Spirit from walking around the Square!  For example, last night we had an investigator lesson that I feel was meant for Sister Mathias and I because it's so crazy how it all worked out!  We initially had an appointment at 7, but it didn't work out.  Then we were asked to give an investigator lesson at 7 with a pair of SLC sisters, but then around 4 pm we found out it was cancelled. THEN, at 5:30pm, we were asked again to be present for a different investigator lesson at 7 pm with elders and their investigator.  And let me tell you, it was one of the most spiritual experiences I have had during an investigator lesson!!  We looked at the paintings of Christ and answered all of his questions, then we went up to the Christus and testified that He is our Savior, and then the investigator testified as well of God's love and shared a personal experience with us!  His story made me tear up because he had prayed and felt the love of His Heavenly Father.  It was amazing to see his new and unshakable testimony that God IS there and listening.  Then we took him through “God's Plan for Families” (the video presentation) and at the end he said, "This is what I want...this is what I want for my family".  And he committed to baptism right then and there!  I know that the Gospel can bless so many lives and so many families.  I teared up again after he committed to baptism because he was so happy and I was so happy for him!! 

We ate so well this day! We had fish (which I cooked myself, what? I cooked fish?), salad, bell peppers, and peas and carrots. So yummy!

On another note, something I have learned this week is that attitude is everything! I was sick from about Sunday night until Monday afternoon and I just felt horrible.  I was sad and frustrated about not feeling well and I just wanted to be back on the Square working. I had started writing in my journal about it, kind of complaining, but then I took a second and decided to write about all of the things I was grateful for in my life.  I starting writing different things like my family, my Savior, the opportunity to serve, good friends, my companion, and even things like yogurt, a comfy bed (my bed last transfer didn’t have springs, haha), my name tag, etc.  Once I started, I couldn't stop!  I started realizing all of the things I had in my life that I was grateful for and my attitude went from negative to positive within about 5 minutes!!  I learned then that we really do have the power to control our thoughts and how we act in situations.  There is something called the 90/10 rule where 10% is what happens to us and 90% is how we take it.  We can change any situation just by how we look at it!  Glass half-full everyone! We have so many things to be grateful for in life :)

A cool story along the lines of this is when Sister Mathias and I were teaching our investigator Roshin on the phone. We were talking about commandments and explaining more about our prophet who leads and guides the church today.  It was a great lesson and at the end I asked him, "Roshin, will you strive to follow the prophet each day?" And he responded with, "No..I won't strive. I WILL follow the prophet each day".  So cool, right?!?  It's all about our attitudes!! I strongly believe we can do anything that we put our minds to :)

Well, this week has been great and I am constantly learning each day! I love you all!!

Sister Asay