What matters most is what lasts the longest

Dear Family,

Well Hello again. Can you believe another week has pass and gone? I can, but at the same time I can't time here is going by so fast! Just so you know I love getting your letter sent right to my apartment it makes me so happy to come home after a really long day and see a letter from my family in the mail so thank you!!!! Dad I was wondering, did you ever get the package I sent you? I was just curious. Oh so Sister Hudson and I are most likely moving apartments soon, so in the near future I will give you our new address, but until then you can keep sending me stuff to my apartment.
So this past week has been pretty good, President Simpson and his wife came to our companionship study last Thursday and they ended up letting us drive Sister Simpson's car which is the nicest car in the mission. We just have it until Monday, but it has been super nice, because as you know I have been just walking around for the past 5 months pretty much, so it has been such a blessing. We are able to get a lot more done and its just fun. My mission is making me appreciate everything that I have so much more. I realize that sometimes I am ungrateful. That's something that my mission is helping me work on. I believe that it is very important to be happy with what we have and not always want more, because if we can just see the blessing that we already have been given then it makes Heavenly Father want to give us more because he sees that we can see. If that makes any sense what I am saying. :D On Sunday I taught a lesson on missionary work in Gospel principles and it went really well. One thing that someone said that I want to share will you, is that we need to stop praying so much that the missionary's will find someone to teach, but that we as the members may find someone for the missionary's to teach. Member referrals are the greatest thing ever. 2 of the 3 three people I have been able to teach and help them receive the ordinance of baptism have been member referrals. So family start thinking who you can find for the missionaries to teach. I know you all have a lot of friends that are less active or non-members. So I want to challenge you to share a little bit of the gospel with them. Mom, dad, Jo just so you know a little more about the Shawn thing. Pretty much he was writing me letters telling me that he missed me and wished I was there, but he was always supportive and wanted me to stay on my mission, but come on the love of your life telling you he wishes you were home! What are you going to pay attention most definitely not the latter. So I started to really think about coming home. I talked with my mission president and then stake president and even the branch president here in Halifax. And I really did want to come home to get married, who wouldn't want that. But even though I thought for sure that this was what I should do, the Lord showed me that what I want really isn't always what is best for me. I am so glad that Shawn was open about his relationship, because if he hadn't been I would most likely be home right now in a terrible mess. But I am still here in Halifax and to be perfectly honest. I am doing really well. I am handling this way better than I ever thought possible, maybe it is because I am so busy and I am worrying about everyone else that I don't have to worry about my own problems, but really family, I am strong and what doesn't kill me only makes me stronger. Because of this heart wrenching experience I have learned to rely more on the Lord. I like to think of it like this: I heard a story once of a man who saw a beetle crawling across his kitchen floor, he could see in the near future that the beetle was going to run into a wall and was going to be a little lost. The beetle finally did run into the wall and it kept running into the wall until it finally found its way around the corner. now we can compare this to our lives, because we are like that beetle who could only see what was right in front of him, but the man who stood above had the big picture and could see what was up ahead. Its the same for us and our Heavenly Father. He has the big picture and all he wants us to do is ask and he will help us know which way we need to go, so that we don't get hurt or lost. Sometimes I am like the bug and I run into the wall a couple times, before I will ask for some help. But I am learning that if we are wise we will ask for help even before we find ourselves in a predicament.God truly does care about each of us and our indivdual issues and problems. You can always true to him and he will be there to help. But I must say family I LOVED the treats you sent! Mom you are so wise to call a bakery here it was so good so thank you so much!! My companion Sister Hudson says she loves you! So thank you!
I just want you to know that I am so grateful that I have this blessed opportunity to be here on a mission. I am learning so much and I really love serving the people here in Canada I love it also because a lot of people that I am teaching right now are not even from Canada, but from India and China. Vivek Hari is doing well. He told his parents this week that we has been learning about this church and his parents were not to happy well I should say his mom, because he hasn't talked to his dad yet. Hari's parents are Hindu and they are very rooted in there beliefs so it has been really hard for Hari to tell them, but he did and hopefully as time goes on his family will be more excepting of it. I am sure you haven't learned very much about the Hindu religion, and to be honest I don't know that much either, but they believe in many gods and they choose one and worship that god. Also they have many many traditions which are very routed in there culture. But Hari is a really amazing person with a lot of faith. I will get a picture soon so you can see him. When I come to the computer sometimes it is really hard to think about what has happened this past week. Did I mention that almost every night this week we have dinner appointments!!! I love free food! Peanut butter and Jelly gets really old after eating for the past three months, but things are looking up. Also I am super excited because all the students are coming back so our YSA is going to be big again which will be awesome! Sorry I am just rambling about nonsense. one more thing that I wanted to share with you is a quote from one of my favorite authors which is....J.R.R. Tolkien "Other evils there are that may come....Yet it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succor of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule." I really love this quote and I am sure you can inturprit it how ever you want, but what I got out it is that this life is short maybe a 100 years if your lucky. But really we need to not sit idley by, but we need to grab the bull by the horns are do as much as we can to bring good in this world so that those after us, may prosper. We will not know what weather may come their way, but we can take care of what we have been asked to do and be okay with that. I understand that not everyone will listen to my message, but I know there is someone who will. I love this gospel! I know with my whole heart that is is true! Thank you again for all your love and support!

Love,

Ash