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

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

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