Sunday, November 29, 2015


A Savior is born!








Hello family!

Sorry the email is so late! We've been doing stuff all day long! I still gotta grab some dinner before our lesson at 6:30 so I'll make this brief!

The highlight of this week was probably Friday. It was pretty chill during day. Around 4pm, we gathered as a mission at a chapel in American Fork to have dinner. After that, we headed over to the Alpine Tabernacle (about 3 mins away from the chapel) where we prepped for the 1st Semi-Annual Musical Fireside of the Utah Orem Mission! For the duration of the fireside, we had various talks from missionaries in the mission. He keynote speaker was President Matt Holland, President of UVU and son of Elder Jeffery R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. In between talks, the Orem LDS Institute of Religion Choir sung various hymns and medleys which strengthened the spirit ten-fold. Towards the end, all of the missionaries joined the choir up front and we all sang the mission song "Send Me". It was soooo incredible! The fireside as a whole was something sweet and I can't wait for next time!

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I would like to share just how thankful I am for my family, extended family, friends, and other loved ones. Dad, Mom, Jason, Jenise, Mandee, Granny, Grandpa Jim, Nana. I love you all more than you could possibly imagine. I am so thankful for all of the love, support, and strength I receive from y'all. Lee and Crystal, let me express how much I love the Edwards Family. Y'all have done so much for me. Everything from PG and onwards. 

Mom, I hope you told Grandpa Jack about me when you were with him. I really wish I had gotten to know him better. At the end of the day, he's still hot blooded family. I appreciate the pictures. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

With love always,

Elder Ahrens
Utah Orem Mission
612 W 100 S
Lindon, UT 84042

Saturday, November 21, 2015

The Plan Of Salvation! What a blessing it is!



Elder Wainhouse and I! And Elder Greene lurking in the back hahaha

District Activity today! We went roller skating! Left to Right: Sister Schademan, Elder Bradshaw, Sister Denning, Me, Elder McCreadie, & Elder Morales



Hey family!

Well, another week has whisked by. This week consisted of teaching lots, riding lots, and having lots of fun!
On Monday night, we had exchanges with our Zone Leaders. This time around, I stayed I the area while Elder Morales went to their area. I was put with Elder Bradshaw. Now, Elder Bradshaw is hilarious! Needless to say, we had a lot of fun on exchanges. Tuesday morning rolled around...and somehow we managed to plan exchanges on the only day of the week that had snow. Yup, Elder Bradshaw and I walked around...in the snow...for 4-6 hours. Granted, at about 11am, the 4 of us elders went over to Mad Dog Cycles to pick up Elder Morales' bike so we could at least get some riding in there when the streets dried up. For the earlier part of the day, we did some contacting. Met up with some referrals. At 3 and 4, we had set lessons and dinner was at 5. Something I really like about dinner appointments is towards the end, we typically share the message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I have been doing it for quite some time now, but never with Elder Bradshaw. (Keep in mind, our ZL's are Spanish speaking elders.) Well, we got to sharing the message. I started it off, got to the end of Jesus' earthly ministry, then handed it over to Elder Bradshaw. From there he talked about the restoration through the prophet Joseph Smith. Now, he didn't have the first vision memorized in English...so he did it in Spanish! I've been working on memorizing it in Spanish too...but just the overwhelming spirit in that room as he shared that faithful experience of young Joseph. Sooo cool!
After dinner, we rode over to the stake center to have our monthly meeting with the stake president! Us, the Spanish sisters, and the senior couple were all in attendance.
After our meeting with the stake president, we happily rode over to our appointment with our star investigator! He's 9, and he's hilarious! His dad works for Snap-On Tools and he knows a guy I worked with in PG who also works for Snap-On. Small world! Well, this was essentially the last lesson before he can get baptized. Can't wait for that day!
After our lesson, we did some contacting before the night was over. We decided to make a pit stop at Krispy Kreme donuts. Well, when we got there, these two hot girls came over and started talking to us! Come to find out, they both spoke Spanish from their missions, so they and Elder Bradshaw started talking...and I was just listening trying to keep up with what they were saying. I can understand Spanish, but it takes me a while to respond. Either way, we talked, shared laughs, then went our separate ways. After that, we rode home, exchanged back, and went to bed!
Wednesday morning rolled around and we headed to Lindon to the mission office for a meeting for District Leaders, Trainers, and Trainees. Well, since my companion is the District Leader, I had to tag along even though I don't fall under any of those categories. Fast forward to that night! We had a lesson with a young investigator. And guess what?! Sister Killpack, President Killpack's wife, came to the lesson with us! We taught about the law of chastity. Sister Killpack loves kids, and when we told her about this situation a couple of weeks ago, she offered to come with us. We happily accepted! It was a great lesson! The spirit was there so strong. I definitely think this little girl feels better knowing just how important the Law Of Chastity really is.
Yesterday we had Thanksgiving dinner a couple weeks early with a family we're really cool with in the area. It was so much fun and there was so much food! Hey Dad! How bout dem Redskins! 😝😝 47-14 Redskins HAHA in your face Saints! I was ecstatic the rest of the day when I heard!

It's been a fantastic week and I'm grateful for all the blessings and tender mercies I receive on a daily basis from my loving Heavenly Father. This about does it for this week! I love you all! Thank you for all you do!


Elder Ahrens
Utah Orem Mission
612 W 100 S
Lindon, UT 84042
On the Lord's errand.


Hello family!

Well, this has been a heck of a week! A lot of things happened that should belong in a journal, yet, I'm not too fond of writing, so I figure I'll collaborate all of my emails in to something when I get home. Elder Morales are chugging along here in Orem, UT. Anyways, on to the week!

Although we had several cancellations and the weather has grown colder, we managed to have a great, fun, and productive week. It all really started early Thursday morning when our district gathered at a chapel for interviews with the mission president. I was the second one to go. It was an awesome interview. I won't go in to depth about what was discussed, but it contained things I needed to hear. Things that I believe will help me continue to grow over these next 9 months that I have left. It's all becoming very surreal. I've been out for 15 months out of 24 months. I am now in the single digits when it comes to months left and it's blowing my mind just how quickly it has flown by. I can still recall, very vividly actually, things that happened in the MTC, Lehi, and Spanish Fork. Anyways! After interviews, our zone and some other missionaries gathered at UVU (Utah Valley University) and recorded our mission song "Send Me". We had Bro. Eggett, a music major/instructor, lead the recording session. It consisted of about 30 missionaries, and a choir based at UVU. I'm not sure when we will receive the recording, but when we do, I'll be sure to send it on. The spirit that follows that powerful song is incredible. It gave me chills!

The following day, we had Zone Training Meeting. At about 8:30am, we, along with the Zone Leaders, went to a chapel to set everything up. It was pretty cool because they went and got 2 dozen donuts from Krispey Kreme as a little treat for ZTM. We set up the tables, placed napkins, cups, and sheets out in each place. It was very professional 😂. It was a very good meeting. We have an awesome zone. Tons of good people, great missionaries, and we all have a lot of fun together!

So speaking of the zone, we had a little reorganizing of some missionaries in the zone. Our Polynesian elders, who originally lived in south Orem, were moved to Lehi. (In Elder Laffidy's old apartment, actually!) They were typically the ones who gave us a ride to early morning soccer.

Anyways! So after ZTM, I called up Bro. Simpson from Spanish Fork and went out to lunch with him! It was super nice to see him again. We talked about good ol' Palmyra and some of the changes going on in the ward/stake. He had been released as Ward Mission Leader and was placed in the Bishopric! So cool! 

So, finally the best day of the week rolled around! Saturday morning rolled around, and Elder Martz, Myself, and Elder Laffidy got together and headed up to Lehi, UT and attended a baptism for someone that each of us taught while we were up there. It was so cool! None of us were expecting it to happen so soon. Elder Laffidy and I were the witnesses..and man...the difference between when she went down and when she came back up out of the water! Her countenance had changed. There was something special that I noticed...like a light emanating from her. It's times that like that help me understand more fully why I'm on a mission. To see that change in others and the betterment of themselves.

Anyways, that about does it for this week. Thank you so much! I love you all!

Elder Ahrens
Utah Orem Mission
612 W 100 S
Lindon, UT 84042

Monday, November 2, 2015

I love the temple. We got to do an endowment session.


Hello family! 

This has been one of the longest/shortest weeks on my mission! It doesn't feel like P-Day was that long ago. It's really consisted of a lot of walking, a lot of teaching, and me trying to figure out where everything is. I've kinda gotten the general feel of where the important streets are and I can pretty much navigate my way home from anywhere in Orem now. I really wish we were biking so I can use the beautiful brand new Cannondale I just bought a few weeks ago. However, Elder Morales doesn't have a bike so we're really getting out exercise!  Orem is really making me really miss Spanish Fork! :) Another interesting fact about our area is that it extends of the Orem/Provo line, so I pretty much leave the mission on a daily basis to go visit houses in the stake within the Provo boundaries. Fun stuff!

So the real highlight of this week was Halloween of course! Around 3:15pm, we headed up to American Fork, UT to a chapel right next to the Mt. Timpanogos temple. There the whole mission got together and we all had dinner together. Around 5pm, we split the mission half and half, walked over to the temple, and did an endowment session! I've never seen, nor has the temple staff, so many missionaries in the temple at once! It was pretty cool actually. But the Celestial room was kinda bustin at the seams!  After that, we drove home and went to bed! We were wiped out! Yesterday consisted of meetings, meetings, and...oh! More meetings. I pray I never get placed in to the ward council or some crazy stake calling. :D

This week we have exchanges with our Zone Leaders...but they're pretty cool so it should be fun. We also have President Interviews so it'll be nice to talk to President for a little while. Speaking of PresDawg! So before he and Sis. Killpack came to the Halloween party, they were in Lehi at a stake conference. Guess which stake they were in? One that I covered! I was really bummed I had missed the whole of it by a week. On top of that, this brother from a family we're super cool with spoke at it.  But overall, blessings in everything we do!

Greetings from Orem, UT




Elder Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Elder Clayton, Senior president of the Presidency of the Seventy


Selfie


Greetings from central Orem, UT!

Holy whip, talk about mixed feelings. Well, I'll just tell ya how transfers went! So we get there with all of our crap since Elder Calderwood and I both got transferred out of Lehi. Same with Elders Laffidy and Martz. So we're all chillen there waiting for the meeting to start. Pres Dawg stands up, introduces the greenies, and moves forward with transfer assignments. After much anticipation and anxiety of sitting there for the better part of an hour, it soon became apparent that I was going to be in one of the two Orem zones. "Elder Morales! Serving in the Orem LakeView area. Meet your new companion Elder Ahrens!" Now...when you hear the name "Morales"...you instantly think Latin America. Well, Elder Morales is from Vienna, Austria. The name comes from Peru where his parents are originally from. They moved from Peru about 25 years ago. Now, Elder Morales and I actually came out together on August 6th, but some complications led to Elder Morales being sent home for a short time, then he returned to the mission field.  Anyways...here we are. In Orem. With almost a week down in the transfer. We taught 20 lessons last week. That's more than I've taught my entire mission! I won't lie, there is a ton of work to be done in Orem.

So on Saturday, the Orem and Provo missions gathered at a chapel in Provo, UT where we were addressed by Elder L. Whitney Clayton of the Presidency of the Seventy, and Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles! Talk about a blast of spiritual wind in the face! It was incredible seeing and hearing them in person! I'm so grateful that they came and spoke to us. They had so many inspirational things to share. They didn't have time to shake everyone's hand so we did a "air hand shake". Still good in my book! Hahaha Afterwards we met with President and Sister Killpack with the whole Utah Orem Mission and talked about the conference and stuff. It was great and I'm thankful I had the opportunity to attend!

Last night, my landlord sent y'all an email saying hi and stuff. She's a super nice lady and she takes care of us. Tender mercies. Truly. The only downside to our set up is we don't have a car and our area is huge! At least I have a way to keep the weight off! 😅

Anyways, we're gonna go do pday stuff. I'll send pics soon!

Love you all!

Elder Ahrens
Utah Orem Mission
612 W 100 S
Lindon, UT 84042
New bike!
Elder Calderwood's pants!


Hello family!

Well, a lot of things are on my mind right now. As you may or may not know, we received transfer calls today. Sometimes, if you are receiving a special assignment or certain things need to be relayed to you through a call or something, you typically receive a call from the assistants to the president, and in some cases, the mission president himself. Well, Elder Calderwood and I received a call from the AP's telling us that they're closing the area, we're both getting transferred, and that I might be a district leader. I'm still waiting to hear something from President Killpack. He's the one who usually informs you if you are being put in a leadership position. I know I don't want a car...I'll get fat again! Riding a bike all over creation has kept me in shape haha. We have a totally awesome district! A great group of missionaries who all have a good time together! So hoping to stay here in Lehi!

Anyways, moving on from the stress and unreality of transfers. The week has been good. Plenty of things have been moving forward in the Lehi East Area! Investigators getting close to baptism, less actives getting close to the temple. 

I'll keep you posted on transfers and where I end up when the time comes.

+++later in the evening: So we've been hangin out embracing our final pday in the area! We went to Thanksgiving Point to the Cornbelly's Fall Festival! There we explored a big old corn maze, messed around for a while..now we're here at our DL's apartment chillen and playing pool! No call from the President so I think I'm out of the woods.

With love always,

Elder Ahrens
Utah Orem Mission
612 W 100 S
Lindon, UT 84042


My bike didn't make it another year.
Hello hello!

So this week has been filled with many different things that have no sort of relation to each other whatsoever. For example, on Tuesday night, we were invited to a chili cook off/fall festival! There we were asked to "judge" 15 different chilies and see which one was the best. Few were good in my opinion :D   We were asked to find the top two. After that we awarded the victors with their prizes and off we went. That night we exchanged it up with our District Leader, Elder Paulsen, and his companion, Elder Tagg. Elder Tagg stayed in the area with me and Elder Calderwood went with a Elder Paulsen in to their area.

The next day we all got up at 6 and went to a stake center to play some basketball. It was fun. Taxing...since I kinda suck at basketball but all was well! From that point on, we went our separate ways from the day. Just shy of noon, we rounded up with the Lehi North elders and went to lunch. After that we started walking around. Why were we walking, you may ask? Well, when we were on our way to lunch (we were biking), Elder Tagg was riding Elder Calderwood's bike. As we were riding along, (bless his heart) Elder Tagg shifted to a higher gear and the next thing we heard was a big crunch noise and a bunch of bending metal. What had happened was the derailer had gotten caught on one of the spokes of the wheel and completely twisted it around and got it all caught up in the sprocket. Bad deal. So, Elder Laffidy called up one of his senior couples to give us a lift. Thank goodness....tender mercies...kinda. That's why we WALKED around. It took a tad bit longer to get around but that's okay. Used up time, I suppose. We visited a number of families, each switching off on who would do the door approach. We finally made our way to a less active family's house. (That's when we saw the black widow) We went in, he chatted for awhile, and finally it was time to go and have dinner! He was nice enough to throw our bikes in the back of his truck and haul them up the ginormous hill in our area. We had dinner, then got a ride down to our next appointment....which fell through...so we got another ride from a cool guy in our area to our lesson up north with our investigator. It was a super good lesson! The spirit was there as we taught the Plan Of Salvation. We also introduced the Book Of Mormon stories picture book to her since she is kinda struggling with understanding the lingo of the Book Of Mormon. After that, we packed it up and headed over to a ward mission leader's house to go in a couple of visits. We were able to set up an appointment which was pretty rad. After that, the WML took us home and we got ready to exchange back.

Aaaaand I've been typing this throughout the day and I'm running out of time! We had Zone Training Meeting on Friday. Today we had Zone Activity! The whole zone got together at a chapel in south Lehi and we played soccer, football, and basketball. It was pretty rad. Then our district went and got lunch. OH! So in ZTM, I found out that we won't be getting Facebook back until next year...so...I probably won't have it for the rest of my mission. Oh well....doesn't bother me none. 

Anyways, today was a good day! I'm gonna jump on getting my shocks fixed. I'm so scared my bike is gonna fall apart every time I go over a bump hahaha

Love y'all.



Elder Ahrens
Utah Orem Mission
612 W 100 S
Lindon, UT 84042

Sunday, November 1, 2015




Families are Forever



Elder Leavitt and I were able to attend a family sealing!




Hello family!

This has been a heck of a week! We have been running around like crazy with barely any time to catch our breaths! I guess you could say there was a lot of anticipation building up for General Conference. A lot of changes were made amongst the General Authorities and general officers of the church..but I'm getting ahead of myself!

So the fun really began on Tuesday when I got a call from Elder Leavitt telling me that a guy I worked with in Pleasant Grove, UT, Don, is getting sealed to his wife in the Salt Lake City temple on Friday and he wants me to come! Without any hesitation, I quickly called President Killpack seeking permission to leave the mission and attend this momentous event. I received the green light and off I went to PG on Friday morning to meet up with the family who we would be riding up to SLC with. Elder Leavitt and I jumped in the car and off we went! It was a very wet ride up the freeway. It was literally raining buckets! It was almost like we were driving through a river on I-15 headed north. When we neared downtown Salt Lake, the rain subsided. We grabbed lunch and off we went to the temple! We arrived at about only to find out that the sealing ceremony wasn't until later. We looked at each other and went off to do some initiatories to pass the time. We reconvened with the family around 3 in the marriage waiting room. They took all of us back to the sealing room (which was quite small btw). The sealer came in, gave them the whole spiel and performed the ordinance! Despite it being a brief performance, it is still one of the most profound ordinances held within the temple. To think that they are now sealed to each other for their time here on Earth as well as throughout eternity...like...forever and ever....is quite a feat to comprehend. Yet, it's super cool! Well, the ordinance was finished and we were filed back to the marriage waiting room. Elder Leavitt and I took another route to avoid the congestion all these slow moving old people were making... Well, we rounded a corner..and who walks by us? President Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. We stopped dead in our tracks like a deer in the headlights. We were so starstruck we didn't say a word until he rounded another corner. Though, I can confidently say that I was smacked in the face by the spirit as we walked by us. Man...the power coming from that guy...and apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. A powerful moment I won't soon forget. Looking back now, I really wish I had said something...but oh well...maybe next time! (hopefully there will be a next time!) We joined the rest of the family outside of the temple, took some pictures, and headed back to Utah County. Well, so we thought. I-15 south bound was completely bumper to bumper from 4000 S in Salt Lake to Timpanogos Highway in north Utah Valley. Holy whip it was a very long drive. Fortunately, I brought my iPod so we had some music to help pass the time.

Saturday morning arrived and we went over to a family's house to watch conference. What a wonderful round of talks from Apostles and Seventies. We met up with the other elders for the afternoon session at another members home. This was the session we were all waiting for. This was when they called and sustained 3 new apostles to take the places of President Boyd K. Packer, Elder L. Tom Perry, and Elder Richard G. Scott. Warmly welcomed, Elder Ronald A. Rasband, Elder Gary E. Stevenson, and Elder Dale G. Renlund joined the holy apostleship on that faithful day. Sunday morning had to have been my favorite session! Amazing talks. The one that really got me going was President Monson's talk. I wasn't sure if he was gonna make it! He progressively got lower and lower on the pulpit, his words were drawn out and his breaths were shorter. Poor guy had to be carried back to his chair by his escorts after his talk. What really got me though was the power of his testimony. He wasn't about to give up. He was determined to finish his talk no matter what. He is a true example of the believers. I love President Monson. He is the man! 

Well, that about sums up the excitement of this week! I hope each of y'all had an awesome week chocked full of the spirit!

Love you guys! Y'all are the best! Until next week,

-Elder Ahrens

Saturday, October 3, 2015

2015 October General Conference!


Hello family!

Where to begin? Let's start with Tuesday. So, early Tuesday morning, Elder Calderwood and I got ready and headed on over to Eagle Mountain, UT (about 20 mins east) with our Zone Leaders to attend the mission tour with Elder Wilson of the Second Quorum of the Seventy. There we joined our zone, as well as two other zones (so basically half of the mission), and sat and chatted and waited patiently for President and Sister Killpack as well as Elder and Sister Wilson to arrive. It was an 8 hour conference. President, Sister Killpack, and Elder Wilson had a lot of great things to say. Much was taught, much was learned. Elder Wilson actually got in to it quite a bit! Towards the end, he actually had us make "movie trailers" for chapters 2-4 of the Book Of Mormon which was pretty sweet I'd say! Only 3 districts were chosen to share their trailers and sadly ours wasn't one of them. That's okay though. So at different portions throughout the conference, there would be folks sharing different musical numbers...well, right after lunch, it was my turn. After much practice and anticipation, it was my time to shine. I got up there and things went really well. I messed up a couple times so I got a little frustrated with myself. I don't think it was because I didn't know the song...more along the lines of stage fright. I've always hated performing in front of other people...but now I'm pretty sure I found my way on to Sister Killpack's radar for future gigs such as this.

So on Wednesday we met with our newest investigator.  She comes from a background where she had the church in her life, but had the choice of her own about getting baptized. She decided against it until she was more ready.  Elder Calderwood and I have been invited to visit with her and we are excited to work with her!

So over the past couple of weeks, Elder Calderwood and I have made it a point to meet with and get to know each Stake President, Bishop, and Ward Mission Leader on a personal level. By doing so, we hope to develop a relationship and trust with these men as we each move forward hastening the work in their respective stakes/wards. President McCune drilled in to our heads on countless occasions: "These leaders will NOT direct you to the folks in their wards if they don' trust you first!" By meeting with each of these leaders individually in a formal Missionary to Bishop/Stake President/WML meeting, we hope to accomplish that. That's kind of what this week has consisted of. Being that I didn't really have the opportunity to familiarize myself with the East and Cedar Hollow stakes in the short 6 weeks I've already been here, things should start to look up for us now that we know each of these wards.

Lee and Crystal Edwards took me back to PG so I could meet up with Elder Leavitt to attend a baptism of someone whom I worked with while I was there. It's this little 8 year old girl. It was nice to see people who I knew back there. The baptism was something special! That's for sure!

So yeah...that's this week! Getting to know people. Evidently, it will probably continue in to next week. We've got 20 wards! That's a lot of tracking to do! It's keeping us occupied since people we teach like to cancel on us -_-

Anyways, thank you all so much! Until next week!

-Elder Ahrens 
Never thought I'd do this!


Hey family,

So this has been a great week filled with excitement, disappointments, and a whole lot of biking. .  Ya know, you really start to appreciate the simple things in life..like a car...when you're forced to bike/walk around everywhere.  Needless to say, I'm staying in shape! I'm going to have thighs of thunder and buns of steel!

So there was a copious amount of precipitation this week.  Which, of course, made biking a challenge. Tues afternoon, we camped out in a chapel due to the insane amount of rain that day.  We were there with the Lehi North Elders so it wasn't too bad.  When the rain finally let up, we headed off to someone's house to do a quick pop in visit.  While we were there, they fed their snakes some rats which was pretty cool.  Following that, we committed the whole family to reading the Book of Mormon together.  After that, we went to the ward BBQ and at there a with a couple of families that we know.

We finished off that night with a coordination meeting with the stake presidency and high counsellors of one of the stakes we cover. It was a really good meeting we discussed everything going on within the stake as well as things we would like to see through prior proper planning to prevent poor performance. The 6 P's. Anyways, we're hoping to see some sort of fruition from the plans we made. You best believe we'll be following up soon.

On Wednesday evening, we met with a family for the first time. It's a part member family. He's a member, she's not. She was blessed as a baby but not baptized at 8. She was one of those kids that was given the ability to choose whether or not she was baptized at 8...which is fine. In the past, she's met with missionaries. However, she didn't feel like it was something she wanted to pursue.  We got to know her and her family! They are way cool and she is so ready to receive the gospel at this point in her life. We're excited to help her along this journey. 

Some fast forward...we went to the Cedar Hollow 7th ward where one of our recent converts attend. The chapel where this ward meets is actually in the Lehi North elders' area. We were hoping to meet up there with them since Elder Laffidy had a pivotal roll in his conversion. Unfortunately, the other elders had other ward obligations and our recent convert was sick. So we just kinda hung out. That night, we went to a fireside in the west stake. It was from the movie, the Cokeville Miracle. If you haven't seen the movie, it's about an elementary school bombing in Cokeville, Wyoming. There, I met the filmmaker/producer for it, who has also filmed 17 Miracles, and a few other church films. Also, one of the survivors from the bombing 29 years ago was in attendance. She spoke to us and told us about the traumatizing experience she had on May 16, 1986. It was way cool!

This morning, we woke up and went to a member's house to burn a shirt for an elder in our district. It was his year mark today! Happy first day of Fall! Let the crisp mornings, bonfires, and pretty leaves begin!

Well, that about sums up my week!

Lee and Crystal, could you please help me with something? So this upcoming Saturday, Elder Leavitt is holding a baptism for someone he and I worked with in the Grove Creek stake. I was wondering if you could please take me to it! Pleeeeeease!

Anyways, that about does it! Thank you so much! I love each of you and pray for you every day!

Take care,

Elder Ahrens
Utah Orem Mission
612 W 100 S
Lindon, UT 84042

Sunday, August 16, 2015

Myself, Elder Laffidy, Will & Randy from VA

Our hike to Mt Timpanogos Caves

Hello family!

Here is my weekly email...a day late...as thing a usually go! 😅

So Elder Laffidy and I have been doing a lot of stuff here in the Lehi North Area! Despite not having a car, some how we make it happen. Whether it be walking, biking, or getting rides from local members, we make it to our appointments! It's been really fun serving here with Elder Laffidy so far! There's never a dull moment between us.

So yesterday for P-Day we hiked up the Timpanogos Cave Monument in American Fork, Canyon which was a ton of fun! Me, Elder Laffidy, Will, Randy, and Crystal all set out around noon,1100 feet up in an hour and
a half for the mouth of the cave! It was a pretty neat hike. We had the most incredible view of the canyon as well as the valley from up there. Several rock formations as well as vegetation. Will and Randy had struggled a little bit due to the elevation and air thinness. Elder Laffidy and I did pretty well considering we've been here for a little over a year so we're acclimating to it all. The cave tour was pretty sweet! Lots of formations. It was pretty chilly in there! It was nothing like caving in Boy Scouts when we could explore and go off and check things out. Here we all stayed on the path they had created. Anyways, we finished the tour and went back down and went our
separate ways! It was really nice to see Will and Randy again. We were reminiscing quite a bit and poor Crystal and Elder Laffidy had no idea what was going on. Anyways...that's that!

So before the hike, we had a little extra time so we all drove up to Tibble Fork Reservoir a few miles up the canyon and hung out there for a little while. While we were there, we hiked up to a higher spot and
enjoyed the view and talked for a while.

That night we met with a inactive who is really good friends with one of our families. We met in their home and this poor girl has been through a lot and wants the direction of the gospel in her life...needless to say...it was one of the most spiritual lessons I've ever been in. It was incredible. We shared D&C 18: 10,14-16 with her. Wonderful verses to discuss that God loves every single one of his children unconditionally. 

I'm looking forward to the awesome adventures that God has in store for me over the next week! Until then...I love you all!

-Elder Ahrens

Monday, August 10, 2015


Transfers for necessary growth!



My new companion, Elder Laffidy.

Saying good-bye to Pleasant Grove :(



Hello family!

Greetings from wonderful Lehi, UT! Yep, transfers were last Wednesday and I was put BACK in to Lehi. The same exact area that I started in a year ago! I'll tell ya what, it's really nice to come back and see everybody again! So while I was gone, the area had taken over another area...so right now we cover 4 stakes in Lehi....and we're on our bikes...so that's fun. Makes getting to our lessons a little challenging.

So here's how transfers went. So we all gathered in this chapel in Lindon, UT. Transfers begun. President Killpack introduced the 3 new guys who were called to the Utah Orem Mission! Could you imagine getting that on your call letter? Anyways, the areas started to come around. We finally got mine. "Elder Laffidy, serving in the Lehi North Area. Meet your new companion, Elder Ahrens!" He and I shot up and was just relieved and excited! Gave each other a big ol bro hug and off we went! We couldn't get over the fact that we were serving together! It was awesome! Over the past few days, he and I have had a great time catching up! Walking around, seeing people. Elder Laffidy and I have a lot in common. We talk openly, we aren't afraid to talk to people. It's so nice! We really enjoy working together! I can't think of a day this past week where we didn't have a few good laughs!

I'll quickly tell you a little bit about Elder Laffidy. He's a great guy. We hit our year mark together. He's from Hartsville, South Carolina. He's the oldest of 4. He's 2 months older than me. And he is a fantastic missionary.

Which reminds me! On Saturday evening, we're gonna go up American Fork Canyon with a family and Elder Laffidy and I are gonna burn our shirts together to celebrate our 1 year mark!

I'm sure gonna miss the folks of Pleasant Grove but I'm glad to be back here in Lehi. I knew I had unfinished work to be done. Many stories and experiences to come!

I love you all!

-Elder Ahrens

Wednesday, July 29, 2015


Final Days in Pleasant Grove, UT then transfers!




Kirk's spongebob imitation.


Running into friends from VA!


More friends from VA!

My companion Elder Leavitt.

Elder Leavitt





Hello madre y padre!

So since yesterday was always on the move, I didn't have "time" to get a good solid email home! So here we go!

So last Monday night, we went to a Family Home Evening night with one of our YSA wards. Their activity for the night was Life Lessons 101: Auto Maintenance. I decided why the heck not? So I told the guy running the show that I was a bit of a gear head and could help him with anything he needed. This night consisted of taking this girl's car and inspecting the basic things. Oil, tranny, washer fluid,antifreeze, tires, etc. I soon realized that this car was on the verge of killing itself. It was about 1.5-2 quarts low on oil and the tires were over-inflated by about 20 pounds. Yikes! I ended up talking more than I expected. I guess when you know your stuff, people expect you
to use it! It was fun! Good people. I got to help a bunch!

So on Wednesday we had interviews with President Killpack for the first time ever! He took us in one by one, and interviewed us briefly.

Anyways, on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, we met with one of our recent converts who has asked us to teach him the Temple Prep Lessons. It was kinda cool to go through those with him just because I never went through them before I went through for my own endowment. There is some interesting insight shared in the manual. It was all stuff I knew but it was cool to see what it said.

On Friday, we had Zone Training Meeting. This is where our whole gets together and we're taught by our Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders. It was one of the longest ZTM's I've ever been to but was really good.

Saturday we had exchanges with Elder Carder and Elder Romriell. I went to their area with Elder Romriell and man did we have fun! Elder Romriell and I get along really well. We have similar interests and all of that good stuff. In the morning, we did some service from Bro.Edwards. We took three loads of crap to the dump with his big ol crew cab Ford. It was fun! After that, we did some contacting. I met one of Elder Holland's mission companions! There is a story that he shared that I'm going to have to put in a voice memo or something because it's way too long to type. But yeah! After that, we had a few lessons. They went really well! After the lessons, we went and talked to Bro.Capt (Elder Capt's father) who was outside working on his boat getting it ready to head down to Lake Powell for the weekend. Elder Romriell wanted to take a picture with his 1972 Dodge Dart Swinger. I asked
Bro. Capt to back it out. I'll send some pics. Then we talked about a bunch of stuff! After that, I packed my stuff up and went back to my area with Elder Leavitt. Good day!

Sunday was where things really were put in to perspective. Fast forward to the evening where we had a fireside at the AlpineTabernacle in American Fork, UT with the Alpine YSA Stake. President Larry Gelwix was the keynote speaker. President Gelwix is the head coach of the Highland Rugby Team and he and his team are the ones
represented in the movie Forever Strong. He also presided over the California Fresno Mission. He told of several experiences that helped him acknowledge the promptings of the spirit in his life. Another experience I'll have to share in a voice memo because it's too long to type out.

So yeah! Better late than never, but there it is! My week! I love you sooooo much!

-Elder Ahrens

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