Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Weekly Update 4/28/2014

This week has been an amazing one, as always! We were a little discouraged because more than half of our lessons cancelled on us and we had to find other things to do. Yesterday evening this happened to us again. A big windy thunderstorm was rolling in from Centerville and it started to rain so we went home to grab our jackets. As I drove down our street, I pulled over after a block or so to look at my planner and figure out who we should visit. Sister Juarez looked at her list of less active members and said, "Sister Blodgett?" and looked out her window and said "Woah we're right in front of the Blodgett's house!" We took that as a sign we needed to go visit them! Sister Blodgett was really kind and appreciated that we came and said "Thank you for listening to the Spirit to come visit me, I really needed it." She also told me halfway through our visit that I looked so familiar to her and it was almost eerie, like she's met me before. I know we are sent to the exact area and people that need us and Heavenly Father really knows what he's doing when he inspires your mission president to send you to a certain area. I love the people in Bountiful so much!

We've been getting a grip on this stake slowly but surely, through coordination with our 9 ward mission leaders and Bishops. I've been working on meeting with more Relief Society Presidents, because they often are the most knowledgeable about the people in the ward and help us with splits too. We've been improving on using the Book of Mormon with those we teach and also family history! We have 5 lessons set up to teach family history, most with recent converts. One person said that they've been praying for someone to help them figure out how to do family history for 10 years and I'm the answer to their prayers. I'm so grateful for the Spirit of Elijah and that I could have the skills to help others fulfill their work too. My little sisters in Illinois are teaching others in their ward how to do genealogy as well, and I am so thankful for their example to me and my family. I know that the restored gospel truly changes lives and I'm so grateful to bring it to others every day! 

--Love, 
Sister Ashley Fluegel

 Aunt Lorraine, Sister Fluegel, Grandma Ramona and Great Grandpa!

Monday, April 21, 2014

April 21, 2014

This week I've grown in my testimony of Jesus Christ and the power of his atonement. A woman we are teaching has been reading the Book of Mormon faster than I've seen anyone read it! As I've tried to keep up with her, I've learned truths about Jesus Christ that mean a lot to me. Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and lived a perfect life. He set the example for us in all things, by being baptized, by showing compassion, forgiveness, and love to every person he came into contact with. He was the only one who could perform a perfect atonement to pay the price for our sins. He suffered and bled from every pore for us, and he died on the cross for us. He was resurrected 3 days later, conquering physical death, making it possible for all of us to live again with perfect bodies that won't die, like his body. 

Because of Him, we don't need to fear physical death at all. We need to focus on our spirits, and follow the commandments, and participate in the ordinances of the gospel. Then we can be spiritually resurrected, and saved from everlasting spiritual death. We are so blessed to know of the restored gospel and the Book of Mormon--2 Nephi 10:23-25 explains how the power of the resurrection will raise us from death, and the power of the atonement can raise us from spiritual death or estrangement from God. We are free to act for ourselves, to choose the way of eternal life in the kingdom of God! I'm so grateful to my Savior, Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the world, and I just want to serve Him my whole life and never let His great sacrifice for me be in vain. 

Happy Easter!

"I believe in Christ, so come what may!"

 Easter Sunday!

Monday, April 14, 2014

Weekly Updates

April 14, 2014
Adjusting to Bountiful this week has been quite the experience! I said goodbye to everyone I knew in Layton on Monday and got to Bountiful on Tuesday afternoon. I am Senior Companion now, which has been really fun, and my companion Sister Juarez is amazing. Meeting with 9 Bishops and Ward mission leaders has been putting my memory to the test, but I'm figuring it out and having a lot of fun meeting all these wonderful people!

My first night here we had 2 dinner appointments back to back! The second one was where a family in our stake invited her friend from work to hear the missionaries, and we taught her about the restoration of the gospel and the Book of Mormon, and she was just so ready to hear it! We've been meeting with her often and she is getting ready to be baptized in May. She told us that she watched General Conference on her own last week and that's what made her so interested in talking to the missionaries!

We also had the baptism of a girl whose family is returning to activity and it was so neat to see her make those covenants and be an example to her family. Sister Holbrook who was here before I was, got to come back and see the baptism too.

I met a Brother Jeffrey at church on Sunday and he said he was from Freeport Illinois, and found out he grew up with my Grandma and knew my whole family! It was so neat to talk to someone who knew my family so well! It's definitely a small world!

Hope you all have a great week!

-- Sister Ashley Fluegel






The Dennings! Used to live in the Rockford stake back home!




April 7, 2014
This morning I found out that for this transfer, I'm leaving Layton and going to Bountiful! That really surprised me but I'm excited for my new companion, Sister Juarez, who I've met before and she's really friendly. She's from California and joined the church less than 2 years ago and then came on a mission! I really admire her for that and am so excited to be her companion. My friend Sister Holbrook who's from the Buffalo Grove Stake in Illinois just finished training her and now I'll be taking her place there. Pretty neat!

This last week in Layton has been so wonderful! We've seen a lot of success, especially with finding new people to teach about the gospel and helping them progress. I had the privilege of attending General Conference at the center in Salt Lake twice, with an investigator and his fiance to Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon with Daxton who was baptized last January and his parents. The messages were so inspired and I really felt like they were just for those people we brought to conference. Sunday morning we went over to the home of a woman we are teaching and she told us she really liked the last few talks, especially Elder Bednar's and President Monson's. 

I feel like I'm on a spiritual high after the last 2 weeks, and I've come to really appreciate my testimony and all the experiences that have caused me to rely on faith. President Packer's talk inspired me to write in my journal all the lessons I've learned through each trial, and the things I learned from different people. I've learned from my companions the last two transfers how to take prayer more seriously, how to be patient and kind, how to believe in the potential of those we meet and teach, and to be diligent and hard-working and endure to the end. I cherish the six months I've been able to spend in Layton for all the lessons and virtues I've learned and improved on, and look forward to the new adventures that await me in Bountiful! 

March 31, 2014

This week has been so wonderful! We went to the Women's General Meeting at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City with some women that we've been working with and had an amazing experience. There was an issue with having enough tickets because our recent convert invited her sister-in-law but didn't tell us she was bringing her daugther too, and we only had 6 tickets, not 7. We took a step of faith and prayed it'd all work out and went there anyways hoping we'd find a way in. As we lined up at the doors, the group in front of us had an extra ticket they gave to the man at the door, and we asked for it and were all able to get in! It was a miracle and I knew Heavenly Father was watching out for us and placed us there at the right time to be able to see the meeting together. 

Also, we found 3 new people to teach this week, because we've been specifically praying to find those ready to hear the gospel. It's amazing as you exercise the faith to find, and show that you truly believe He's placed people in your path, you see the greatest blessings and answers to prayers. The work just keeps hastening and it's so exciting! I love the scripture in Alma 37, vs 46 that says, "Do not let us be slothful because of the easiness of the way, for so was it with our fathers; for so was it prepared for them that if they would look they might live; even so it is with us. the way is prepared, and if we will look we may live forever." I am so grateful that the gospel is so simple that it applies to every human being, and so great that we can have eternal joy and happiness if we just look up in faith.

I hope you all have a great week!