Sister Marsh: 9/1/14

Family-

Well p-day was fun this week! We went to the store really quick and as we were checking out I got a call from a sister saying that Elder Elliott from the Liberia mission was wanting to meet me...we sped home as quickly as we could. Elder Elliott was the missionary who taught Jamah. I had talked to him mulptiple times on the phone and when the ebola virus started spreading, all the missionaries left, so he got reassigned to SLC. So crazy! Then we went to a senior couples house in our mission for the rest of the night. We had a BBQ and just hung out. So so fun!!

Woah. Thursday was crazy. It started off just on a perfect note...waking up LATE! I was talking to Sister Hansen last night as we laid in bed and said wouldn’t it just be the worst if the alarm didn’t go off and we woke up late? Well I woke up this morning at 4:45 and was thinking yayyy I have until 6:15 to wake up (we have what we call early schedule so I wake up at 6:15 not 6:30) well I went back to bed and then Sister Hansen in a panic wakes me up from above me (we sleep in bunk beds) and says, “Sister Marsh its 6:25” NO WAY! So that was the start of the day. Then the whole morning we were SO tired. I felt a little useless all morning to be honest. We finished the tour report and so I felt a little productive, but then I just felt like not doing anything. Me and Sister Hansen were throwing a little pity party for us because we just felt a little off. I kind of grudgingly went to TC. We found the nicest lady on chat. Her name is Nelly and she was so so sweet. She gave me her number so after I ended the chat I called her and she was the nicest! She is a little Spanish lady from Paraguay. She is really really interested in the church and has just barely started meeting with the missionaries. We connected really quickly and she wanted me to help her prepare to be baptized. I told her of course and that I would do everything in my power to help her. Then we finally got to have Square time meaning contacting people outside and taking tours. We have had so much office stuff to do that we haven’t had any in like 3 weeks. Well it was about 2:00 and we were walking by the Temple Model and Sister Galgiani tells us we should play a joke on her investigator and stalk him. So we started following him around by the Temple Model. He was taking a video of what he was looking at and he saw us in the reflection of the glass and was like oh sorry, and he gets out of our way and then we just kept following him! J hahah he was here to have a lesson with the sisters. Well Sister Galgiani’s companion was talking to this girl on the couches by EF desk so the guy was just standing there and he says, “DANG they are good at stalking me” hahhah but anyway Sister Paulino long story short asked if we would talk to this girl because she needed a lot of help. So we sit down and start talking to her. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. We asked her why she came to Temple Square and she said, “I want to be closer to my Heavenly Father.” We thought wow that is really good, we are so happy you chose to come here it is a great place to do that and to feel the Spirit. Well then she says, “Do you think you can have the Holy Ghost if you deny Christ?” Then we were like hmmm wonder where this is headed. So I told her you know we can have the light of Christ with us, but having the Holy Ghost is a gift, and a gift that we have to live worthy of.” She says, “That is true.” She is super interesting because she is like twitching and super spacey and I can tell the whole time she is high on meth. She smelt like meth so bad and it just made me so sad. I felt like an interrogator but that is what I was being led to do...ask her a lot of questions so I know what I can do and what is actually wrong with her because I knew she was having some serious problems. Well she opened up because so many of my questions. She gave all her answers in 1 sentence or less and she said that she keeps breaking the law of chastity. Well we talked to her for a while about that and I asked her what things she could change so that she could keep that commandment. She is obviously really less active. She said that she could leave her boyfriend and it would help her. I encouraged her that if her boyfriend is not helping her be a better version of herself than she should not be with him. She then said, “I also smoke meth.” I was not surprised at all. But she was being so sketchy and so I asked her how many times she smokes and if she is addicted and she said yes. She then went on to say that she has evil thoughts to deny Christ. That was her big thing “denying Christ” so she says that she smokes to get her evil thoughts away, and has even tried to kill herself. I immediately had the impression that she is abused by her boyfriend. So I tried to look at her wrists or anything that I could to see if she was physical abused and her wrists were scarred up. I just wanted to cry. I was looking at a daughter of God who is abused and controlled in such a manipulating way that she has no idea who she is anymore. I was so sad. The Spirit was so strong, I had to be bold and I knew that she needed it that way. I said, “ You are a daughter of God. Heavenly Father loves you so much. He wants you to follow Him and follow His Son Jesus Christ. He is really really sad when you disobey him and smoke and break the law of chastity. He doesn’t want you to do that. He wants you to follow his commandments so that you can become closer to Him. But the things you are doing are doing the exact opposite. Smoking and breaking the law of chastity is taking you farther and farther away from Him.” The Spirit was so powerful she felt it and I was pierced hard at that moment. After about an hour, we tried to get her number and she wouldn’t give it to us. She only wanted to take ours. I understand now why but not at the time. She has a sketchy life and doesn’t want to be found or caught. Well she left and we stood up and we looked at each other and were like that was intense and scary. We looked out the sliding doors and she was using some guy’s phone. At first we were like SHOOT no way she is in on drug deals and sketchy things and this guy is with her, but then we got the impression that this guy had NO idea who she was. So I was like, “Ashey do you need to use a phone or anything?” She said she did so we left the poor guy alone and we walked inside the South Visitor’s Center. I called security to come because she was on crack! She was crazy seriously I was feeling a little uneasy to tell you the truth and I have seen a lot of weird things here, and then security comes. My favorite Italian security Giovanni comes J He says can I help you? She was like, “What did I do? I should go. Then Giovanni’s like oh shoot “no no you didn’t do anything wrong we just want to help you. Do you need a phone to call someone?” So she calls her boyfriend and it is so just wrong. So creepy and she gets it all settled and so he is on her way to pick her up. Well then she just starts crying and says, “I hate the person I am.” I said, “Ashley remember the talk we had with you. Heavenly Father loves you so much. This gospel is for you to be the person you want to be. You can change and be whoever you want.” So as we are waiting security gets her first and last name and asks for her ID. She says, “I don’t have one.” Then they ask for her DOB and she says, “5,20,1990” I then felt prompted to ask if her boyfriend was the one picking her up, she said yes and I asked her how old he was. “20 years older than me.” So 45ish? “Yes he is old enough to be my dad but it is ok.” I was like okayyy this is just NOT RIGHT! She then walked out and walked the opposite way of where he was picking her up and so we were like um wrong way! Then we followed and stalked her the whole way until her sketchy 45 year old boyfriend comes flying down the road and she runs across the street and jumps in the car.....and there went Ashely Herrick! Everything made sense after. We came to the conclusion that her boyfriend threatens her, abuses her, makes her do things she shouldn’t and makes her do drugs. He manipulates and controls her in every way of her life and she is trapped and stuck. I left so sad and feeling TERRIBLE for her wanting to do anything to help her. Heavenly Father wanted to slap me across and face and show me that when I am throwing a pity party that there are people in this world that have it a WHOLE LOT worse than I do. That some people are not blessed with the testimony that I have of the gospel. I cannot complain. Heavenly Father has blessed me so much with a good family, with a testimony of the gospel, with strength to overcome trials that come my way and to have been raised in a good environment with good people and friends. My life is dream compared to hers. My life is nothing compared to hers, it is SO easy. I have nothing to complain about. I am a missionary. I have the opportunity to share the gospel with everyone around me and share the best news in the world. The gospel can transform people and bring true happiness to their lives. It is a wonderful thing!

Well this morning at around 3 AM we text the Branch President in Liberia to skype Jamah’s baptism...well he text back and it says, “So sorry we are unable to skype because the internet is down. We will email you pictures.” I just wanted to cry so bad. It broke my heart. I was going to watch Jamah be baptized and also meet 2 of my other investigators on skype, but not anymore. We got to the square really early to open all the doors and buildings, and while we waited a couple minutes we called Jamah. He could not say anything except, “Thank you so much, thank you so much. I am so happy so soooo happy!” It made me cry, he is so happy and so appreciative of all that we did to help him and all the members did to show love and support to him. So so cute! I will go to Liberia so I can meet him and my other investigators, there is no option, I have to go. I love them sooooo much and it kills me I cannot see them in person every time I talk to them.

Also the most unfortunate thing happened to Sister Hansen this morning. I about died! So when we were opening the square we were opening the South Visitors Center and there are 2 doors next to each other, well one of the doors is automatic at 9 AM but the other one we unlock, so I used my access card to open the automatic door so I could go unlock the other one and Sister Hansen didn’t walk in the door fast enough so it started to close on her (they are sliding doors that have a realllly strong magnet on them) well it started to shut so she stuck her arm in it and it just kept closing. It was not opening at all and it was getting tighter and tighter and was smooshing her. She was screaming OUCH OUCH help me help me! It was so sad I opened the door for her and her arm was sooo red and her eyes were all watering because it hurt her so bad! So unfortunate that I didn’t know what else to do but laugh!

Sunday was also the best day of my mission! I was soooo stressed about my going away talk this week. It is a tradition in the mission that the sisters going home soon are the sisters who speak on Sundays so I spoke yesterday. I was so nervous and had not really had time to plan or prepare for it. The AP's and me and Sister Magidson spoke. I am super close with the AP's because of office and staff meetings, and us 4 were MTC companions so it was a special time for all of us. Sister Briggs and I sang the musical number. The Spirit was SO strong...it was emotional we were trying so hard to keep it together so we could finish the song. Then I spoke right after. It was good...so everyone said, but I feel so relieved to be done. Then we had staff meeting which is always good. The First Presidency has asked all the missions in Utah to double our baptisms so we were talking about how we could increase the number of baptisms. President has a saying he ALWAYS says, "If we do what we have always done, we will get what we have always got." So we brainstormed a lot about what things we could change to bring different results! Then we went the Swahili Ward in SLC. President gave us permission and I literally walked in and was in heaven. I cried right away. The whole ward is Africans and I cannot express how much I love African people. Their ward is 2 hours long and one of the members in their ward that I have gotten to know really well had his farewell yesterday so they had a HUGE feast after church that fed the WHOLE ward and it was delicious. I about died though playing with all the little African children...they melt my heart they are sooo cute!!! We met a new investigator that is coming for a lesson on Tuesday!! Also the elders in that ward are amazing. We have gotten to know them so well because they teach so many of our investigators and they teach with us at Temple Square. Well we left the ward and we came back to have a lesson with Benson. If you remember Benson he was the guy from Kenya who was supposed to be baptized but didn't know he couldn't have a girl roommate....well he has completely IGNORED the elders for like 2 months and has not entirely ignored our texts or calls but he wouldn't come to Temple Square anymore. Well I invited him to my talk but he said it was too early for him but he promised he would come at 5...so without him knowing we invited the elders to come and show up! It was awesome!! We talked to Benson for 30 minutes before the elders came and it was so spiritual...Benson felt the spirit so strong and was pretty speechless. Then the elders came. We addressed all his concerns and we talked to him about being baptized. He loves the church and knows it is true. His testimony is so strong. Well I was happy to find out that my consistent texts about praying for him and sharing scriptures with him paid off. He said, "Ignoring the elders was pretty easy, but I just couldn't continue ignoring you after all the effort you put in" YES it worked! So anyway he is now investigating again and is coming Wednesday. He said he would never ignore us or the elders again and that he would prepare himself again to be baptized!! What a wonderful day!! I am so so happy. This was honestly the best week of my mission! I love this work. It brings me so much joy. Serving others in any way that I can is the thing that I love most. I love you all.

The church is true.

Sister Mindy Marsh