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