Monday, March 30, 2015


Wednesday, March 25, 2015

....Another text from Idaho!

Another text from Idaho! I know this is not my blog but I LOVE THESE!!


Sister Clawson hard at work!! She is spending her day hard at work cleaning my elderly mother's kitchen. She's lived here for 42 years. Your daughter is a delight and such a cheerful worker!! Bless her!

She wants to say, "I love you forever and always!"

Carole Gates

On their way to do more good!!!
 
Can't tell you how much I miss and love this girl!!!

Monday, March 23, 2015

Changed by Grace!

I probably sound like a broken record or at least I do in my journal but this week was AWESOME!!!! We were blessed to teach 32 lessons!!!! That is the most I have ever taught in one week! And the crazy thing is that we could have taught so many more! These wards have sooo much potential its awesome!!!!!
  One of the saddest things is when you meet a returned missionary who loves the Book of Mormon and loved his mission and wants nothing to do with the church anymore.....I just don't understand that, but I guess that goes back to the title of this email. CHANGE. Something really cool that Sister Robison talked about in her talk at church yesterday is that by Christ's grace we are saved, yes, but it's also by His grace we are changed if we allow ourselves. By His grace we will all be resurrected but it's by how much we allow His grace to change us and help us become more like Him determines where we will live for all eternity and it's His wish that we will ALL change and return to live with our Father in Heaven!
  Saint Patrick's Day was super fun! We ate sooo much food tho! This super sweet guy that we teach/help took us out for lunch with Sister Arler and he took soo many funny pictures of us and our food with his camera! We had dinner at Sister Bishop's house which was super fun we had finger food and everything was green!!!!! Super fun! I was asking how old her boy was and he's 3 but he said I'm just a boy! hahahaha was way too cute!!!! Later that night we had a Relief Society dinner and it was a big birthday party that was really fun and a lot of people showed up! Neiva couldn't come but she was able to drop her son JoJo off for scouts and got to meet some people so that  was really good! I wore my green suspenders with my fully green outfit just like last year! It's awesome!!!!!
   I love working with people whose testimonies are there but they don't realize it! When you see that light bulb turn on its like fireworks in their eyes!!!! They realize that they do have a testimony and that the Lord has answered their questions! This month me and Sister Schulte have set some pretty high goals for our area and we were worrying about achieving them or having the faith enough to achieve them. After we had said a prayer before we left our apartment for the day we went to see this really sweet older lady and much to our surprise she had a young college student over chatting with her and we were able to talk with her and share a message and give her a Book of Mormon to read and she seemed very receptive! What an answer to prayers!!!! I know that the Lord loves us and wants the best for us and all we have to do is asking him for help and then go and do!
   We met Carl's wife! She just got out or prison and she was definitely not what we thought she would be! That teaches us to judge!!! Still working on that Christ like attribute!!! hahaha We went over the baptismal interview questions and then set up the actual interview. He passed the interview then we get a call last night from a couple of sister missionaries who saw Carl out smoking.....So we have to confront him with that and help him quit completely before he can get baptized! Me and Sister Schulte don't understand the struggle in trying to quite old habits...so we have picked some habits that we have and we are going to try our hardest to not do them for a week and then hopefully we will have more empathy and understanding and receive revelation in order to help Carl reach his goal of being baptized! We started today and it's already a lot harder then I thought! haha
   We had some open time the other day and we were wondering what we should do when we get a text from Brother Ayad asking us if we could come over and take Sister Ayad, the one that is dying of cancer, on a walk in her wheel chair. So we booked it over there and helped her get dressed and in her wheel chair and down some steps to go see the beautiful spring time! He has such amazing love for her and wants her to be the most happiest she can be right now. It was a great testimony builder of love and unconditional love! Sacrifice and Enduring to the End!
   We taught Rick about Family history this week at the Bunns and he really enjoyed it!!! He came to our ward this week too!!!! So CRAZY story!!! We have a member who hasn't come to church in a couple of years and he knows Rick! He rides with him on the temple riders association which is a bike club that I want to join some day!!! hahahaha He said he was going to come to church to see Rick but he didn't show but who knows? Rick might be an answer to somebody's prayer for this guy! Doubt your Doubts before you doubt your faith!
  I want you all to know that I love this work and the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ! As I have been studying more about the Atonement of Jesus Christ the more I come to know and realize that He gave us an immeasurable gift and that He expects us to do something with it! There is this story that I want to share with Ya'll!
         During a seminary class the teacher before had asked a football player that everyone in the classed loved so much if he would be willing to do pushups for everyone in the class and he agreed to. So class starts and the teacher brings out 2 boxes of donuts and explained to the class that the football player was going to do 10 pushups for everyone in the class so they could have a donut. He does the first 10 then the next 10. Soon he hits 100 pushups and he is starting to get weak. Some kids in the class ask if they can just do them themselves and still receive the donut and the teacher says no he has to do it for everyone. Some felt that they didn't deserve the donut because they didn't do the work for it. The teacher explained that it was a free gift why not eat it? Why let it sit on the desk going to waste...why not appreciate what the football player did FOR them?         
      This isn't to the extent of what Christ did for us but its a pretty good example to the smallest amount of pain that we could even fathom that He went through for us. So I pose the question to you......are you going to let it go to waste or take this gift and let it work in you and reap the blessings that come from it and really show your Savior your appreciation for what He has done? Cuz it's done and He can't take it back.... This is my testimony that I leave with you that I know my Savior lives and that He has given me the BEST gift possible and I'm not going to let it go to waste!

<3 Sister Ashley Clawson
Pictures
 

Monday, March 16, 2015

29 Lessons?!?!?!?!?!?!? 13 months! People


...An Email from the Robisons

Attached is a picture of your daughter and her companion in front of our home. They have been teaching the gospel to the man in the background in the plaid shirt. His name is Rick Gibson and he is truly excited about the opportunity he has to be baptized into the church. Your girls are doing a wonderful job teaching him and preparing him for baptism. It is has been our pleasure to watch them work with Rick in gospel discussions in our home the last three Saturdays.
They are great missionaries and truly carry and convey the Holy Spirit of God.  You have every reason to be proud of their service and dedication.  Thank you for your sacrifice and letting them come to Boise to share the Gospel.
The other two men in the picture are Dennis Wallace, a member if the Church who is Rick Gibson's best friend and motorcycle buddy. He is the tall one. The shorter man on the left is Rick's future bishop, Bishop Don Arnold.   
It is always a blessing for my wife and I to have your daughters in our home. Our youngest son, Samuel, is also serving a mission. He is in Irvine California.  We always appreciate hearing news of his activities and seeing pictures of him that the members there occasionally send to us. We thought you might like the same.

With warmest regards,
Theron and Rebecca Robison
 
 

Monday, March 9, 2015

So Tired!


Monday, March 2, 2015

Meetings upon Meetings Make Days Confusing!

So these last two weeks have been crazy and super confusing...I'm still not totally sure what day it is. SO what went on during the week of Feb 16....
   We had this awesome lesson on the Plan of Salvation with Pam, an investigator. It went really well and I asked her to be baptized then she over analyzed EVERYTHING, and said probably not, after she said yes, might I add, and that she rather take the chance of being wrong and only making it to the Terrestrial Kingdom....WHAT?!? That's one thing I don't get is that we teach about this wonderful plan and tell her how easy it is to achieve, living with God and she wants to settle for less. BUT she loves the LDS people! We are still working with her and gave her some things to study. She loves to study...that's confusing too!! hahaha We had another Nerf war at the Tolman's for dinner. It didn't last very long because Calen was attacking me for my bag so I sat on him. His mom gave me permission though, kinda like I would sit on Joey and Zach! Ha! We went to the Relief Society meeting that night where they taught how to sprout things...ya I had NO idea what was going on! Everyone was eating these sprouts and I looked everything over and picked up a cucumber and said that I know what this is and ate it and Sister Farnsworth made fun of me for it the REST of the night! Ha Just like the good ol' days back home!
 Wednesday we helped clean this really sweet guy's house. He has the same camera I have at home so I got to play with it for a bit and then he took some "action shots" of us cleaning! It was great! Then we went and taught Neiva about the Priesthood and the organization of the church and how important missionary work and service is. The lesson was SO great that we were late for zone choir practice. Then we went to institute with Alex again and she was there early sitting next to Josh, who is in her ward! YES! It is awesome to see investigators be independent! Dinner was a GREAT adventure! We showed up at the wrong Grover's. This one, his wife isn't a member so we went in and stayed 15 minutes, then rushed to dinner 20 minutes late! Ha! So awkward! We have decided if a college had a class on being awkward, me and Sister Schulte would teach the 400 class!!!!! We are PROS!!!!!
  Thursday was our Zone Conference! It was great, like always! hahaha We learned a lot about not giving up on people and to stay focused so we can let our mission change us as people and not just as missionaries. We had some GREAT lessons these last two weeks!!! We had to pass Samuel off to the YSA Elders though, kinda sad, but he's doing pretty great we hear! Which is sooo exciting!!! We went over to the Ayads house and had the most emotional talk/lesson that we have ever had! Sister Ayad is dying and Bruno is having such a hard time with it! He is also having a hard time getting answers from God and feels so alone! We told him that he is never alone and that maybe his question is being answered in a way that he doesn't comprehend.....in a way that he doesn't realize...maybe through others and the ward? We were all in tears.
    On a bright note we have another investigator and we taught him the Restoration at the Brown's house and it went SOOOO well!!! He has had such a hard life and really wants to change and not be selfish anymore and put God first. At the end of the lesson I asked him if he would be baptized and he said yes!!!!! We are so excited to teach him two times a week and get him prepared to enter the waters of baptism! He wasn't able to come to church this week like he said he would so we will see how we can help him get there. That is one of our goals that we are working on is to do our best and pray for ways to help our investigators get to church! Oh! Two of our less active members came together to church this week!!!! It was sooo exciting seeing them both help each other get there!!! It's true if they have a friend its easier to go back to church!!!!
  We also had leadership exchanges where all the senior companions go together and the juniors go together. I was with Sister Shepherdson and we had such a great time! We talked a lot about much deeper things then I would talk to anyone about. She also goes home in a couple of days so she understands where I'm coming from and visa versa. The training that we had was great! We were challenged to teach a one minute lesson on any of the lessons that we teach and use things around us to connect to the people that we would be talking to. President Winder gave each of us a rock that said Be a little Bolder on it! How cute huh?! It's so true and let me tell you if we just open our mouths the Lord can and WILL make miracles happen!
   We were able to go to the temple on Friday! I love the temple soooo much! I wish I could go more often  and just be closer to my Heavenly Father! Ya'll should go as MUCH as you can! We will NEVER stop learning from the temple, never! After we went with Sister Cluff to the new Meridian temple site and saw the progress there. There isn't much you can see but they are doing a lot with plumbing and digging holes as well. We went to CafĂ© Rio for lunch and there was one Elder there. weird huh? just 1. He just got back from his mission and then it hit me - I have 5 1/2 months till then! Wow! It will be nice to be home but I don't want to leave the mission field! I have decided to give it my all, more than my all! To give even more than I have and then I have been giving! Go and do no matter what! Never giving up!
  We have a baptismal date for Alex for March 26 and her baptismal interview with President as well!!! It is going to be SOOO great!!! We are super excited!! We had a great lesson with Cynthia! She is so excited and ready to be baptized but because her dad made such a big deal when her mom got baptized she is scared to ask him for permission and to disappoint him. My heart hurt so bad for her when she had to excuse herself to go cry! We are praying sooo hard that his heart will be softened when she asks him, when he sees how important it is to her!
  We were able to hear From Elder L Tom Perry this Sunday and it was so eye opening! First off, Sister Marriott spoke and she spoke about loving everyone and understanding how to love people by understanding how God loves them! It felt like she was directly talking to me! Mom had brought up letting grudges go and becoming a forgiving loving person like Jesus Christ and that is one thing that I have been working on a lot lately and then Sister Marriott talks about it! Apparently it need to sink in that I need to try harder and  fix things at home as well!!! So that is exactly what im doing! Elder Perry gave us 4 things to work on
1.) Keep our Body's pure and clean and healthy
2.) Value truths and the sources they come from and seek for them
3.) Become a trusted generation and a foundation for others - be that example like the Savior
4.) Learn eternal truths by studying the Scriptures!
   Honestly is sucks to be away from family! I receive the strength to do it from what Doctrine and Covenants 31:3, 5&6 has to say! Read it! 
  Lift up your heart and rejoice, for the hour of your mission is come; and your tongue shall be loosed, and you shall declare glad tidings of great joy unto this generation.
 Therefore, thrust in your sickle with all your soul, and your sins are forgiven you, and you shall be laden with sheaves upon your back, for the laborer is worthy of his hire. Wherefore, your family shall live.
 Behold, verily I say unto you, go from them only for a little time, and declare my word, and I will prepare a place for them.
 I know that the Gospel is true and that it WILL change peoples life's if they just let it! I love you all sooo much!!!!!
--
<3 Sister Ashley Clawson
 
 Temple time with cluffs at the new site
 
 Temple Time!

  I stole sister schultes glasses! hahaha
 
Sister Workman's last day! She came in with me a year ago!