....Christmas message from Ash

She left a short message during her Skype visit home on Christmas day.

....Merry Christmas from Boise!

We enjoyed the Sisters at out Christmas Eve party!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

   Hey y'all! Things are going great her in Boise Idaho! We taught 18 lessons this week, which was awesome!!!!!  Saturday, cute Payton was baptized! She is 10 years old and has one of the strongest testimonies I have ever heard! All her siblings are baptized but her dad doesn't go to church any more and her mom is a non-member. Her Grandapa baptized her and he has Parkinson and is up and down. They have such a special bond that when they were in the font he started crying! It was so sweet! He loves her soo much! 

   We had a lesson with Enrique and his brother John. We taught them the Plan of Salvation and invited John to be baptized and he accepted! The spirit was SO beautifully strong! He wants to be baptized with Enrique but Enrique has to be off parole first and stop smoking. We told John that if he gets baptized first he could baptize Enrique! How cool would that be?! I can't think of a better way to get a closer bond for them than for John to baptize Enrique!

   So I go to the Chiropractor now because in turns out that my spine is curved and my hips are out of place and this doctor that I see said I should fix it while I am young. He asked us to go see his son that is in a mental hospital for suicidal thoughts and tendencies and we aren't exactly sure why he is there. He is a very sweet kid! and super smart and has a love for God and Christ! We have been there twice to see him. It's a very interesting place.

   I got to play three songs on flute for the prelude for church! It was great to be able to play again! Just an amazing feeling!

   We were asked to be in the Institute Choir Christmas program and our part was when Brother Thompson from my last ward sang I'll be home for Christmas was to introduce ourselves and say somethings we were going to miss.  I said. "My name is Sister Clawson. I'm from Mesa, Arizona and im going to miss going to McDonalds with my family on Christmas Eve. But we are going to rock it here in Boise!"  It was a very nice concert! It was Brother Spjuts last concert! He is in our ward and has been the director for about 25 years! He did a great job! We had five sets of missionaries there and we got to pass out or throw candy canes. It was a blast! After the concert we found out that the Cuellars house had caught on fire.....their old stove started it and not sure about how much damage was done. The kitchen we know is gone and pictures are melted to walls and all the windows are broken from the Firefighters doing their job. Thank goodness for those men and women who protect us! 

  I will write more next week when I have more time! I love you all! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!! Remember to share your light that He gave you!!!!!

 

 

<3 Sister Ashley Clawson

 

 

 

Payton!

 

Don't worry. We have finally checked ourselves in!!!! hahaha

...From the mission Office

 

Dear Idaho Boise Missionary Families,

 

At this wondrous time of year, our hearts are filled with gratitude and love for Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer, and for the exceptional missionaries in the Idaho Boise Mission who bring His light, truth, and love to so many who are in darkness.  We love your sons and daughters!  They are unique in personality and style, yet so united in their love of the Lord and devotion to His work.  They are so wonderful and we are truly blessed to daily witness their sacrifice, obedience, and diligence.  Thank you so much for sharing your sons and daughters, and for your continued support and love.

 

We are attaching our Christmas greeting to you with this e-mail.  Please click on your attachment icon to see a very special Christmas tree.  Feel free to forward this to other family members.

 

Merry Christmas and our very Best Wishes to you!

 

President and Sister Winder and the Idaho Boise Office Staff
 

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21 years old!!!!!! 10 months!

      Thank you all for the Birthday wishes! I had a great birthday, being able to go to the temple to see Juanita Aaliyah and Nick do baptisms for the dead for the first time! It was the best present I could have ever asked for! Also got to see a few missionaries that I haven't seen in such a long time! Okay, I know, 4 months really isn't that long but on a mission...it seems like years! hahaha I got a package from Ma for my birthday and it was wrapped is sparkly glitter wrapping paper.......thanks Ma! I still have glitter everywhere! haha! Had a great dinner at home with Sister Wilkes.

   Monday we had lunch with Sister Wilkes for her birthday with Gary and Merilee Andrew from my last ward! It was really fun! Gary says I'm their favorite missionary! Awe! hahaha 

   We had a really good week of lessons and miracles happening all around us! Gosh Ican't remember what we did this week and I left my other planner at home so I guess I will finish this letter the way David likes it :D! Love you all so very much!

 

<3 Sister Ashley Clawson

 

 

Pictures! 

 

 Thanks David! love you too!!!

 

 ASU! pitch forks!

 

  Thanks for the older card! hhahah From my family - won't send a picture of Brittys tho! hahaha

 

 At the temple after baptisms!!!! it was sooo cool to be in there with them!!! Sweetest experience EVER!!!!!!!!!

 

 

My district!!!!  from left to right   Elder McArther,  Elder Ysla, ME!, Sister Lassen, Sister Nelson, Sister Kingsolver, in the front, Elder Jijon, and Elder Stapley, love them all!!!!

Wait.....It's December?!

I can't believe how fast December came this year! Was definitely not counting down for this one! This week was pretty good.  We were able to see a lot of people. The week started out fantastic and then it was one of those where the last 3 days went painfully slow! No one wanted to let us in or talk to us...that's just part of the missionary life tho. But great news, yes I'm going to go worldly here right quick (just for you Matt!), BSU won their last game and are going to go play U Of A down in the Fiesta Bowl!!!!! The only reason I'm excited about this is because my home and my mission home football teams are playing against each other. Now, the question is do I wear an AZ shirt or a BSU? hahaha

   Well, back to spiritual stuff again. I am still human! hahaha The temple was AMAZING, like usual! Brother and Sister Morgan and Sister Cluff came with us to do a session! It was really nice! Brother Morgan and I talked for a bit. When I come back me and him are going to go to the temple and just spend hours talking!!!! I'm excited! I learned a ton! 

  We had a great Christmas party but we didn't get a picture with Santa, sad day! hahaha It was really neat! We showed He is the Gift. If you haven't seen it yet, go watch the clip on christmas.mormon.org! It's beautiful!!!!! It has a great message to it! We got to help decorate 2 Christmas trees as well! I love the people in my ward. They ALWAYS make us feel at home, especially during these holiday seasons!

   So last night we had dinner with a ton of people at the Siddoways house. Their next door neighbor, the one that we got with silly string last week, well, he came over with his brother and decided to get us back and Seran wrapped our car! I have pictures! hahahaha So we decided since he had already put 2 cookies on his plate to put some extra ingredience like toothpaste in his cookie! It was great! He took a bite of it said it tastes a bit like toothpaste and then ate the rest!!!! hahaha We told him what it was before he ate the 2nd cookie!!!! It was sooo funny! I was crying and my face was beat red!!!! hahaha It is a really good bond that we have with him and we are hoping it will help him in the long run! We went and watched the Christmas Devotional with the Andrews in my last ward because Sister Wilkes invited us to go and they sang happy birthday to all the December birthdays, including me. Their new daughter-in-law Emmalia and me share the same birthday and are both turning 21! Super cool!

  I love you all and am so thankful to have ya'll in my life! Best wishes to everyone!!!!

<3 Sister Ashley Clawson

 

 

 My car and it's decorations..... ha!

 

 

   

 Our temple trip!

 

  BSU ornament!

 

 Christmas tree!

 

This guy pulled up right behind us when we were going to lunch with Sister Wilkes for her birthday!

 

So the tree picture is me with Elder Jaden Andrew. He is serving down in the mesa mission.  

 

 This one is of me, Emmilia, and Sister Wilkes. Sister Wilkes birthday is December 8th

Me and Emmilia's birthday is December 9th and we are both turning 21! How cool! Birthday buddies!!!

 

 

Yummy sweet potatoes!

   Thanksgiving was great! We ate WAY too much had only two dinners thankfully! Had two sets of parents try to hook me up with their sons, both RM's that served in Cali weird, hahaha that was fun! Got to love parents! SO I have decided that my favorite Thanksgiving food is sweet potatoes with a ton of butter and brown sugar! Yumm!!!! Forget the marshmellows on top though! ha  

Temples

Houses

A Prophet

New investigators

Knowledge of the Restoration

Scriptures     also sleep :)

God, Jesus Christ and the Holly Ghost

Invitations to grow

Visiting Gods children

Inspiration

New members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

Good works

  These are only a bit of things that I am thankful for! I love this work and being able to help people in their lives! 

  We had a great lesson with Henry Cuellar about temples and their purpose. He said he does want to be baptised but there are a lot of questions on his mind. Juanita really wants him to so she can be sealed to him for all eternity. It was a very touching moment when she told him that! We are still working with him and Josh and Enrique. We can already tell the difference in Juanita  Aaliyah and Nick  and we can feel a difference in their home and even Henry looks happier. He was pretty grumpy there for a while hahaha. Henry said the prayer! It was really sweet even though he called us pains in his butt he was still thankful for us! 

  We had the New missionary training for the new missionaries. Of coarse, I don't know why I felt like I need to explain who that was for.... hhahahaha. Oh, well. It was a really good meeting and I got several ideas of how to help Sister Lassen become more confident in herself. You know, I see soo much of myself in her it's kinda scary! But hopefully I can help her the way I wanted and needed to be helped so she has an easier time and can arrive to her full potential way before I did! She's already a fabulous  missionary so it shouldn't be too hard! hahaha

  I love how Heavenly Father directs our paths so well that he puts us in unplanned opportunities to help and teach! We were driving to go see a less active member of the ward that we hadn't met yet and Lynn, an investigator, was outside puting lights on her tree so we stopped by and asked her if she needed any help. She agreed to let us help her and we laughed and got to know each other better and we were able to leave her with a spiritual message too! We hadn't been able to talk to her like that at all,.The first steps to teach someone most of the times is to become their friend first and show them that you truely love them and that they arent just a number or name. If we keep our eyes open for times like those we will be able to change someones whole day and even their outlook on us and the Church!

   We had exchanges this week and that was pretty fun. Remember that tree trunk I helped take out? Well, we stayed there that night. It was fun. So funny story this shows that I am still good ol'Ashley that everyone knows me to be. It's weird to type my name! hahaha but anywhoes! We had a service project that day and it turns out that not only do I keep my belt on my pants when I pack them but so does Sister Lassen and we put out clothes in the same bag when we do service so I had taken her pants. So I was changing and talking to Sister Molbeck about weight gain on the mission and then I put on Sister Lassen's pants and scare myself silly! Untill I realized they were her pants!!!!! hahaha thank goodness!!!!! I thought I had gained a ton of weight because of our 2 dinners for thanksgiving!

    So i got roped into playing flute for out misson Christmas program and devotional. I have missed playing sooooo much! it feels so good to play and put my heart and soul back into it!  Sister Layton is playing the piano for us and man does it sound good! She's awesome! I absolutely love her! Even though she was the one of the parents that introduced me to her son, then told him in front of me that she found his future wife while pointing at me......I still love her! hahahaha  I never thought I would be in so many awkward situations on my mission!

   I get to go to the temple today that's why I wrote today instead of yesterday! I'm soooo excited to go again! I miss the temple soooo much! I love ya'll and hope the best! Till next week! Oh! and Sister Wilkes, the lady I live with says hi to everyone!!!!! :)

Oh, it started snowing again yestarday morning -_- I dont believe the whole banana belt thing....

--

<3 Sister Ashley Clawson

 

 

Arizona license plate!!!!!!!!!! whoot whoot!!!!

 

 

 Everyone this is Mason! He is a funny kid and Sister Delahoyde was wanting to spray him with silly string forever and so we finally got around to doing it for her. Now we have started something, he told us he has somthing for us too..... uh oh!!! I will keep you informed ;)