...From the Mission President

July 13, 2015

Dear Sister Clawson:

Congratulations on your call to serve as a Sister Training Leader in the Idaho Boise Mission.  Your faithfulness and contribution as a missionary has been exemplary and this calling is a further expression of the Lord's trust and confidence in you to bless, lead, and strengthen those to whom you have been called to serve.

As a Sister Training Leader, you must continue to be exemplary in every area of missionary service.  You must show absolute loyalty to the Lord and to your mission leaders.  You must continue to keep all mission rules and encourage the same from all of those within your stewardship.  You must work hand in hand with local leaders to develop trust and confidence.

As a Sister Training Leader, you are responsible for the training and welfare of the sisters that are assigned to you.  In addition, we ask that you maintain a vibrant proselyting area in addition to working with other sisters.  Please conduct a companionship exchange with the sisters assigned to you every six weeks.  Report the results of those exchanges directly to me.

Sister Clawson, this mission will never rise above the work ethic, teaching skills, obedience, and spirituality of its leaders.  I trust and depend on you to move this great work of "gathering" forward.  Together, I know we can perform miracles for the Lord!  Congratulations, once again, on this high and holy calling in the mission.  May the Lord bless you always.

Sincerely yours,

President John Q. WinderIDAHO BOISE MISSION

New Changes, Experiences and Lessons!

  I love new adventures in life! Me and Sister Dale were both transferred out of the Park Center and Liberty wards. It was not what we expected at all! It's definitely a huge surprise! She will be in the Meridian East Stake, my first stake I served in on my mission. The Cloverdale ward now has Elders tho...  and I will be in Meridian North stake and we will both be in the Meridian North zone, my first zone! Super exciting! Plus I will be her sister training leader! It's like a sister Zone leader. ha! I am now serving over a YSA ward and an STL, the two things I never wanted to do in my mission! hahaha but I'm excited for this new experience and challenge! It's going to be rad!  I have a Tongan companion from Cali! Sister Pahulu! Out of my 7 companions, four have been from Cali! hahaha We also have a family ward we cover!

  Angelica is getting baptized this Saturday, the 18th of July! AND Logan is hitting his year mark of being a member on the 19th! What  a great month!

  Jackie and Natalie are doing great! They are both sooo ready to be baptized they just need to realize it now! We were able to teach them the Plan of Salvation and Gospel of Jesus Christ this  week! They said that things are finally coming together and making sense!

   On Thursday we went as a district to Sonic for half priced cones because I'm a tad addicted to ice cream! hahaha While we were waiting for others to order, Elder Hann sees a Less active member that they are working with and her son and their dog walking and he told us that he was going to go buy them ice cream cones. So he goes over there, such a sweet kid!, and the next thing I notice the lady is booking it after her dog and the elders are right behind her. Her son is just standing in the parking lot..so me and Sister Smith get up at the same time and I give him my ice cream cone and she takes him to sit with her. Me and Sister Dale take the leash and start after them as well. We had no luck finding the dog or the elders so we head back to sonic and get in our car with the other sisters to go out to search for this dog. It could be anywhere! All of a sudden I think of the experience Sister Dale shared about praying with Tate and Tegge Boren about her dog being missing and so I ask Sister Smith to give a prayer and within the next 30 mins, the elders find that dumb dog! hahaha

 It has been really hard to say bye to Elder Hann and Elder Taylor because they have become family to me, like my little brothers! I love these relationships I have been able to make on my mission! and I love having the chance to create new ones in different areas!

   I love this work soo much and can't wait to meet and help the people I was sent here to meet and help! I love you all and wish ya'll could feel the love I have for these people here and have similar experiences!

-- 

<3 Sister Ashley Clawson

pictures:

Elder Taylor, Hann, me and Sister Dale! Some of my BEST friends!

Oh,  my I forgot this epic story! SO! we get a call from Carl, a recent convert, and he tells us that his tire blew so we call a ton of people and I finally decide to just ask the lady we live with and she sent us over to her neighbor and he had the supplies so we went and helped him change his tire on the side of the freeway! I'm so glad I know how to do things like this and to take care of myself! I miss having black hands!

We were talking about spirit blockers and Elder Hann used the gloves to signify things that would block ourselves from feeling and hearing the spirit. and then had sister dale play the piano and see if we could all hear it and understand what it is. it was  a great object lesson

Zach is for you!

We decided that we haven't taken enough pictures together!

4th of July!!! Happy Independence day!!!

  I LOVE the 4th of July! Not because of the fireworks, we got to see some from our bedroom window behind a tree. Or the parades, that we went and cleaned up for a service project with our district and I had to pick up the dead bird. But it's because of these inspired men that traveled over the ocean and risked everything for religious freedom that we may worship how ever we want. This great event paved the way for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ to Restore the Gospel back onto the earth! And THAT my friends is the greatest blessing that we have received since the Atonement of Christ was made! How right would it be every 4th of July to watch the Restoration video?! :D!

   I have learned that humanitarian work is one of my FAVORITE things to be apart of! If you haven't signed up on justserve.org go now!!!.....have you signed up......stop reading.....go do it......it only take a couple of minutes......good job! You did it! And for those of you that didn't I'm still waiting!.... We have the opportunity every week to receive assignments of service opportunities to do all over the Treasure Valley, that's what they call the Boise valley! This week we were asked to help at a food drive for the homeless shelters. At firstIi was a tad uncomfortable with this but I have never seen so many people willing and determined to help people! We were only there for 3 hours and collected 2 carts full of food and about 70 to 80 cash donations! That is the person I want to be! To help when I can and even when money is super tight! 

   Wednesday was a great day! We helped move in a potential investigator into the Liberty ward! Liberty ward is finally progressing in the missionary world! hahaha She's super sweet! Then we got to go play Bingo again with the old folks. Sister Lawlis is this really sweet elderly lady who lost her husband about a year ago now and we try to see her every week! She is just the sweetest thing! Me and Sister Dale were talking about what happened when we went on exchanges for a day with the Sister Training Leaders and the sister that she was with would ring once then walk away. I told her that its good to take the time to let them answer the door before just giving up. So we rang, then knocked, then rang again and nothing but we took our time leaving and right as we stepped away from the door Sister Lawlis opens the door out of breath! She wanted so bad to talk with us! She was outside watering her flowers, so she didn't hear us the first 2 times but was so excited that we came over to see her! I love this principle of waiting and never giving up on people! Take Juanita for example, back in my last area! She had missionaries for 15 years in her home and she finally understood and was baptized all those years later! NEVER give up, just don't do it!  

  Natalie and Jackie are two new investigators! They are staying with their sister for the summer and going home in August. They have been going to church here and their whole lives! Sister Brauns, who is their oldest sister, was baptized when she was 18 their age! These girls are so ready to take this next step in their lives! They have some very good questions about the Gospel and some concerns like modesty, which will vanish when they gain a testimony of the Gospel! We taught them about the Restoration last night and they both felt the spirit so strong and believe that Joseph Smith really did see God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ! Plus, they committed to pray about baptism! I love this age group! This is the time that young people have to decided how the rest of their life will unfold! Those who are experiencing this now the only advice I can give you is to pray earnestly for answers and then seek them, don't wait till they fall into your lap. When you wait you put a pause to revelation for your life and guidance through the Holly Ghost.

  We had a great lesson with Angelica this week! We planned a baptismal interview with her for this Saturday and next Saturday she will enter the waters of baptism! Shes so sweet! She wants to serve a mission too! Speaking of baptisms we had our last lesson with little Tate! They are headed down to Utah for the 4th of July and then she will also enter the waters of baptism on July 11th! Our last lesson was so special! You could feel the Spirit sooo strongly when we talked to both of the kiddos about staying strong in their faith and reading their scriptures and praying every night to gain a relationship with their Father in Heaven! 

  We took Neiva and Isemael to Sister Farnsworth's house to learn about family history and how to do it because I'm still not quite sure how to work the system.. ha! The Spirit was there! Sister Farnsworth was basically teaching Isemael  the whole time and we got to talk with Neiva. They came to the point where they had to enter in their marriage date....they aren't married! That sparked a great conversation about marriage and when they would finally tie the knot! Sister Farnsworth makes wedding cakes and cupcakes for special events so I put a plug in theirs and told her that I'm done with my mission in August and I can come back up and help plan it and she liked that idea! Sorry Ma! Once a missionary ALWAYS  a missionary! My work is NEVER finished! Neiva also brought up that Jojo really wants to be baptized so we are going to start all the lessons over and teach to his level and hopefully this will be the thing we needed in getting both of them to feel the spirit and understand the fullness of the Gospel and what Heavenly Father wants for them!

  Bob and Barb took us out to dinner again and he gave me a huge stuffed duckie!!! I love that man! He's is the sweetest and funniest guy ever! So we went to Chuck-o-rama again, this is what he calls the birthday place, and I got him good! I told his friend that works there that it was his birthday this time then I told Bob that I set it up so it was Barb's birthday and he went along with it! They started clapping and then they put it in front of him! He got sooo red! and through his head back and then told me that I got him! hahahahaha 1 for Sister Clawson! Wahoo!!!

   On the 4th we went downtown and did a downtown pick up service day. I learned that NO ONE can learn the truth when all they want to do is argue. If the Spirit is not there no one will learn! We were able to pass out a Book of Mormon to a homeless man and talk to him about Christ a bit. I love talking to people now! Dad! I understand now! Lets go talk to EVERYONE!!!!!!!! hahahaha 

  I love you all so very much and want everyone to know that the prayers for Sister Taufa are working! That night she remembered Hula dancing and everything just clicked! She's a great dancer and taught for many years! That was the key to getting her memory of her family and home life back! Prayer is sooo powerful! It can help us find our lost keys and our not so safe safe spots and can help people heal from serious injuries! Our faith for healing can bring about great miracles like the ones that I have seen on my mission! love you all!!!!

<3 Sister Ashley Clawson

 My duck!

Downtown pick up day! It smelled sooo bad!!!!

 The garbage! Sooo many cigarette butts!

Love these kiddos!

This week has been a very stressful, drama filled week. This question has been one I have been comtemplating over and over this week. Who is Sister Clawson? Now? past? Future? Who do I want my posterity to know me as.

   We didn't see very many people this week but we were able to do a lot of service. We have a member that let her daughter, our recent convert, go with her dad to the east coast after he totalled her car and was charged with a DUI with her daughter in the car. So we had FHE up on table rock which was a blast, I got sunburnt, of course! It's that time of year again, and we were able to talk about the ups and downs of life. We shared the scripture Helamen 5:12 about planting your feet on the our Savior Jesus Christ. That scripture help both me and Sister Dale A LOT this week. 

  Boise is a remarkable place with all the service opportunities and all the charity work they do. I just LOVE it! We were able to help two days this week sort books that were donated from everywhere to clean up and hand out to other places that gave them to kids that don't have anything! I was so dirty the first day on the ground in big boxes sorting dirty books! I never knew books could be so dirty! But it was THE best feeling to just get out of yourself and do work for other people! The second day we went we were filling orders by putting books into boxes and labeling 500 books at a time to different organizations. They do sooo much for people! I never knew what one book that looks semi new could do for a kid that had nothing! I have found that situation a lot here on my mission that families have nothing! It's the hardest thing to watch and not have anything to help them out with! Except the Gosplel will do more for them then any monetary thing can do, I have seen it change the lives of people in the homeless shelters and given them that drive to do for others what others did for them. Its amazing!

  We were invited to teach the mission prep class this tuesday! I was able to see one of the kids from my first area whose ward met at the same building Cloverdale ward's did and he recieved his call to go to Mexico on his mission in a couple of months! We taught them how to teach the restoration and did a little role play. I have learned to love role plays on my mission, somtimes they are still a tad awkward! That's when you just embrace it tho! Right?! 

   We play Uno every week with a less active couple. They know the church is true but work and family keeps getting in the way, and Sister Dale is pretty good at Uno and has beat him every time we have played! hahaha It's great to see because every time he looses he swears revenge on her, in a playing manor! hahaha 

  I love the people in my wards. they have become some of my best friends for life! I know that this church brings people together in and through Christ!  Now back to my original question that has been plaguing me. Who is Sister Clawson? Who will Ashley be in 8 weeks?  

       "We may plan things in life. But have you planned your greatest work? Have you envisioned        who you will become?  Do you plan for what kind of person you want to become? Can you see           in your mind who you want to be? Do you know?" " you not only can change but you do             change all of the time." " you are right now the sum total of what you have thought, said,             seen, heard, and done. What you think, say, do, hear, and see, causes you to change; to change for good or evil, to become either stronger or weaker, to either internalize the  qualities of light of the qualities of darkness. You are responsible for who you are and you  are responsible for who you will become." 

  "Do you know what kind of person you want to become? Do you see in your mind who you want to be? Do you know?"

  These quotes come out of a talk called the Fourth missionary, yes its for missionaries BUT these questions apply to ALL of us! We ALL need to ask ourselves these important questions of who are we and who we want to be and who we will become and HOW we will achieve these goals! I love you all and I ask that you keep Sister Taufa in your prayers! She is a sister from Tahiti that I live with and part of this crazy week involved her falling down the stairs, loosing all her memory including English, she speaks French. She has most of her English and mission memories back but home life is not there and its a struggle for all of us. I don't want any prayers for me, just her PLEASE! I love you all and you all mean soooo much to me!!!! I know that Heavenly Father will heal her through all of your prayers! 

--

<3 Sister Ashley Clawson

 

  Here you go, David!

 

Pictures 

 

Look how much the Meridian temple has grown!

 

We went as a district

 

 Elder Hann teaching how to teach people not lessons using a video game that I forgot the name to...I didn't really get it! I love this kid!!!

 .BOB strikes again! He knows me soo well!

 Bob and my duckie!

 

My favorite answer and be4! hahah get it?!

 I was trying to get to the book service project but somehow found my way to the airport! I paniked!
 I swear I'm not trunky!

Creepy tree but sooo awesome!

Barb cut Sister Dale's hair it needed it! ha she's the best! Bob's wife!

Holiness to the Lord is up!

 

 

 

BSU colors, not to be confused with Westwood colors, she wanted everyone to know. LOL!

Two Months exactly and a Chance to Catch Up!!!

  So this all might not make ANY sense but I'm going to try to catch ya'll up on some awesome things that have happened out here on the mission! I appologize for being so short just had to deal with things but that's life right?! hahaha Here we go! :D!

    Updates on Neiva and Isemale and JoJo! They are FINALLY progressing! They have come to church twice now and are reading from the Book of Mormon! We had a great lesson on Faith with Neiva. We read out of Ether 12 and talked about how faith is our foundation in life. I like to say if we don't have faith, you have nothing! JoJo said the prayer with his dad's help, which was awesome! We taught Repentance this week on JoJo's level and talked about Baptism. They still don't understand the whole importance of the priesthood and baptism, but they do want to be baptized to follow what God wants them to do. They just need to gain a testimony of it for themselves first! She wants so bad to belong to a church and more importantly have a testimony KNOWING that the Gospel is true! 

   We are teaching a girl named Angelica and she is pretty awesome! She comes from a family who is not super active and all she knows is that she wants to be baptized! She said the prayer for her first lesson and it was beautiful! She thanked God for sending her Jesus Christ to help her with her life and take away her sins! She has come to church once and when she got there she said that the Holy Ghost talked to her and that July 18th is the day she will get baptized!!! Wahooo!!!! So exciting!!! 

  We have this sweet family who has been homeless for the last past year but have finally got an apartment to live in. The oldest daughter is 17. Her name is Erinn and we caught her at home and shared Ether 12 27 with her and it was exactly what she needed! She could apply it to herself in sooo many ways! I love experiences like that! It truly shows that our calling as missionaries is not one to take lightly! It is a serious responsibility and gift for us to help others with! 

   Rebecca is a lady we met while walking to see Sister Sabbah and she was just outside on her deck thing of her apartment. We have been visiting with her a lot lately. We had a really awesome discussion about Faith where we gave her Almas' definition of faith. The next week we came back and she said she had been thinking about it a lot over the past week and she asked us where we got our faith without using any scriptures! That was such an amazing question and it has been something we have been talking about a lot with people lately! I told her that Faith is a gift and I believe that some people have that gift from the start but some have to acquire that gift. For me I have always had faith! There is not a time in my life that it had hit me that oh,  now I have faith! Yes, it has grown tremendously! But I have always had it! It's one of the spiritual gifts that I was born with! Then we shared Helaman 5 12 which strongly supported what she had told us about the last 4 months with four of her friends dieing suddenly! That scripture bolstered her faith sooo much! She loves having us over and is soo ready to learn just has to get done with her 4 majors! I know CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

   Brother Sexton is one of my favorite people right now! He is a RM from the great IBM (Idaho Boise MIssion) who has become less active and has realized it and is doing everything he can to come back to church! He has gone to church two times this month and who knows how long it has been! He hasn't come to our ward becuase of work but he goes! AND he is looking to take a pay cut so he can have his Sundays off and free to go to church!!!! His testimony has come back full force and he's headed for the sun!!!! [get the hint ;)]  I love being able to watch someone's testimony be rekindled and see that moment when they receive that peace back into their lives again! 

  We met with Mark Aims again this week and he quickly hid his beer can! His nephew also showed up with a friend and we were only there for like 10 mins more and his friend had downed 2 beers and one cig! I can't stand the sweet smell of beer! Its an awful sweetness, not good at all! He still had that testimony of Jesus Christ being his Savior which is sooo good!

  Mary, one of our investigators, finally picked a baptismal date as  a goal for her to quit smoking...its not going too well tho...so all the prayers for her would be great!

  Less spiritual here, I had some cavities that had to be fixed so Brother Brown did them for me right before district meeting so I couldn't talk, how fun right?! haha District meeting was great! So yes here I go becoming like my mom!!!! My district leader is sooo awesome and I have decided he will be my brother in law! :D!!!!!!!!!! hahaha I LOVE to tease people and when I talk about that, his face gets all red its super cute!!!! I can say that cuz he is younger then me! Even though I'm a missionary I am still Ash! hahaha

   So those pictures that I sent last week were of 'Paint the Town Boise!' So Boise is awesome! They have every summer great projects where they pay for paint for volunteers like ourselves to paint folks home that can't do it themselves! Brother Woodland is in charge of helping get the Justserve.org kicked off in Boise and man is it going great! We had a blast painting! I would have to say I'm pretty pro at it with painting ours a thousand times and driving 2 hours south just to paint Aunt Debbie's house! hahaha BUT I ALWAYS get paint on me! It's just how I roll! hahaha

  So as I said we got moved out of our apartment due to the Elders house getting sold and moved into live with the sisters. That house is also on the market so we have people come down and tour our living area on occation! Its very interesting! I remember a talk that was given, don't remember by who, but it was talking about how the missionaries couldn't go out of their apartments because of crazy country things so the people would come to them for the lessons. So when the first couple came down to look at the basement apartment I had to control myself from laughing and then inviting them to sit down so we could teach them about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! That would be soo nice tho! hahaha 

  We have had a ton of service projects! We moved in a sweet elderly lady which took a whole 15 mins because she had nothing! Then we moved someone into Liberty ward! Yay!!!! And her sister is LDS! So a possibility there!!!! wahoo!!! That ward needs somthing! Four Elders came and helped out and a couple men from the ward! We had such a blast! I love these Men I serve with! Yes, they can be boys but they wear the title of Elder very well when it really counts the most!   

  Well I will have to catch up more next week! I love you all so much! and I LOVE what they say about  missions, that the greatest convert on your mission is yourself and man can I attest to that! Sorry David! I'll have pictures next time!!!! :)

--

<3 Sister Ashley Clawson

16 months!!!

This week was pretty awesome like most! hahaha So I am known as "the Claw" in our zone now! We play ultimate football a lot and I've always been pretty proud (in a good way) of my throwing abilities! I made a couple catches to win the game! I LOVE football! One of the funniest things is when missionaries get together and you can see who they really are past the name tag! I have made some of the greatest friends out here on the mission!

   It was bout 8:30pm and we were driving down Rossi going to see Sister Stidmon and we see Mark Aims sitting out on his porch smoking and has a can of something (turned out to be beer) sitting right next to him. We were pretty sure it was him but hadn't met him yet so we go to Sister Stidmons to set up an appointment but instead talk for a bit and turns out that she is going to go to church with a friend up in Garden Valley this week! Such a step for her! She's coming back! The whole time I was praying that Mark would still be outside and when we parked the car he was still sitting right where we saw him! It was pretty awkward at first he said that he was  very embraced and then proceeded to put down the cig and tell us about his mission to Italy! Things like this turn out to be very good experiences for people to help them realize that what they are doing is wrong and they know it and help them rekindle their faith! He committed to start reading from the Book of Mormon again! 

 We had a great lesson with Neiva and Isemale about having faith to get out of their comfort zone and try what we have been teaching them. It's from one of the articles in the Ensign for this month titled Faith to leave the harbor, go read it is great! They came to church for all 3 hours and really enjoyed it! Things are starting to move forward with them! It's quite exciting!

  I'm running out of time so I will catch ya'll up next week! love you all soo much!  --

<3 Sister Ashley Clawson

Just for you David! Picture time!

 

 Double rainbow! And all of the colors so bright and vivid!

 

 We moved last week! By old house!

 

  My trunky papers! Can't believe its almost here!

 We do bingo every week! It's always fun getting to know these folks!

 Our little room! We use to have bunk beds but I couldn't deal with hitting my head on the ceiling every morning so we changed it. Not a lot of room to move around but it fits its purpose!

  When it was a bunk bed!

 

 It was Bob's birthday and we did paint the town! I'll explain more next week! Love this man! There is no one quite like Bob!

 

 Yes, I got more on me then I did the house!

 

Gotta love Bob!!!!!!