Assigned to Pleasant Grove, UT & tie burning!

Surprised Jordan Capt who served his mission in Manassas, VA!

Tie burning ceremony!

Serious fuel!

6 months as a missionary!

Greetings from Pleasant Grove, UT!

So this has been a very interesting and eventful week. I found out I was getting transferred and I had to say my goodbyes to all the families I'd gotten close to. I've met and come to love so many people in Spanish Fork. Fortunately, I'm not too far from there, and many said they would come visit me!

Then, transfer day came. I was scrambling that morning to gather the rest of my belongings and squeeze it into my suitcase. (Note to self: buy more space bags next time) gosh those things are miracle workers. Anyways, we stuck my bags in the car and off we went to Provo.

There I got to see a lot of my missionary friends who were also there for transfers. Chatted with them and caught up. Eventually, we moved into the chapel. We all sat down and began. President McCune introduced the rookies and assigned them to their trainers. THROWBACK! After that the assignments began. They started with Eastern Utah and the Uintah Basin Zones...I was a little bummed because I wanted to go out there. Nope, we got to the Timpanogos Zone and President called me up and assigned me to the Grove Creek area with Elder Greenacre. We did our usual bro hug and off we went into the gym to collect my belongings. There I found out who was in my zone and district. Let's just say there are going to be very fun zone activities and training meetings! What I thought was kind of neat was that one of my Zone Leaders in Spanish Fork, Elder Jiles, is now my Zone Leader here in Pleasant Grove! Pretty happy about that. So after the conversing and goodbyes, we took my stuff out to our car. Super stoked we have a car! It's a 2013 Chevy Malibu LS! Pretty nice car. Spacious and comfortable!
Elder Greenacre is the designated driver so I'm just along for the ride. Can't tell if I like the break or if I want to drive. Oh well. It will eventually turn to me.

We got back in our area and began doing what we do best. I met some really cool families and was asked all of the usual questions. Name? Where are you from? How long have you been out? Where have you served in the past? Family? Girlfriend? Lol pretty happy I left all sort of relationships at home. That night we got back to the apartment and I unpacked everything. We live with the Walker family. They're an older couple and we live in the basement but we share the middle floor. It's really nice here!

So let me tell you a little bit about my companion. His name is Elder Greenacre. He's from Bournemouth England. He's been out almost a year. He has served in Payson, Orem, and here.

Let me tell you a little bit about our area. Pleasant Grove is kind of like Woodbridge. It's ALL suburb. Personally, it's a little big for me. I preferred Spanish Fork just because of how small it is mixed with rural living. Yeah but I'll manage. It's a good area! Plenty of work for us. Lots of people to meet. Yeah!

So as you may know, I hit my 6 month mark! I guess you saw that pic on Facebook. We went over to our "mom and dad's" house and burnt our ties. The only reason Elder Greenacre is burning his is because he never did it at his 6 month mark. Pretty soon here though he'll be burning a shirt to celebrate his year mark! So Lee and
Crystal Edwards are our mission area parents. They really take care of us and help us out. It's super nice having people like them! I love them already!

What else....yesterday we taught one of the ward's youth group's how to teach the Plan Of Salvation. What was really cool was one of the youth brought their non-member friend and afterwards she asked for one of the pamphlets so hopefully we'll be able to teach her soon! Also, yesterday, I went and saw Elder Capt. It was so chill seeing him again! I missed that guy! Poor dude messed himself up doing a trick snowboarding yesterday. He thinks he broke his foot. Made me miss shredding the edge with Jason, Jeff, and Aric and doing cartwheel
after cartwheel. Apparently he went with Elder Edgington and Elder Musso! Remember them?! Yeah it was cool.

Anyways...I think that about sums up the fun of this week! I'm hopefully going to snag some piano sheet music this week. Elder Greenacre is really good at guitar so we're hoping we can pull something together!

Anyways...until next week! Love you all!

-Elder Ahrens

Just like this Mustang is quicker than other vehicles, "The study of the doctrines of the gospel will improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior will improve behavior."

—Boyd K. Packer, "Do Not Fear"

Frozen lake!

Hello family!

We've had several lessons over the past week! Lately, we've been so much busier and have had 15-18 lessons a week as opposed to 7-8 when I first got in the area. Slowly but surely, we've been working the area back up and have gotten each Ward Mission Leader involved even more so. Pretty soon Spanish Fork West will be shining even brighter!

So over the course of the past week, my "just do it" attitude has kicked in quite a bit and it has totally been a good thing. LOL! Something I've noticed over these past 4 months that I've been in this area is that folks tend to want to break the ice when it comes to working with new people that we as the missionaries have never met before. They want to work with them a little bit and then slowly integrate the missionaries into their visits. We end up waiting for the opportunity to work with them, then sometimes lose the opportunity. I feel us missionaries should be involved very quickly, and there are creative ways of doing it. 

Let me share an example. Last week, we met with this guy and he's a cowboy for goodness sake! Mom, you and Granny can relate ya Texans! :)  We got to meet with him on the first visit instead of waiting for somebody else to establish a relationship first! They're not going to do any of ice breaking. No, we're going in on the first visit. :) 

Let me give you another example. We spoke with one of our Ward mission leaders and he told us of a man who lived nearby who has been inactive for a while. Without hesitation, we went and visited him. We met him, introduced ourselves, and asked if we could share a spiritual message. He declined and we left on good terms. We didn't waste any time and didn't wait for a member to say anything. Yes, we were declined but at least we know! At least we didn't miss out on the chance that he could have accepted.

This is what I've learned over the past week. Please, feel free to share this with the missionaries in Ogden, Manassas, Louisa, wherever! It's time that we start moving forward with sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ in these latter days! The heavens have been opened as we receive modern day revelation through a Prophet and 12 Apostles on the earth today and that message needs to be shared. What Mormons Believe.  As our Prophet has counseled us, we need to "Hasten the Work" by way of every member and the 88,000 missionaries serving throughout the world. Millions of people are being denied the gospel because there are missionaries and members/leaders who are skeptical and hesitant to act! Don't just break the ice, destroy the ice. Remove that barrier.

I love you all! I invite all of you to be member missionaries the best you can! Obviously it's not as prevalent in Utah, but when you go back east, share it. Don't worry about offending! If it was meant to be, the Lord will soften their hearts and open that door of opportunity!

Dad, I've been thinking about this for a while now. When you head back east in March, I'd like you to give our friend a call. He felt the spirit when we shared the gospel with him.  He needs to be baptized! I don't want that to be a lost opportunity!

Until next week!

-Elder Ahrens

Hola mi familia!

So this past week there was one particular day I really wanted to touch on! One of our Assistants to the Mission President went out with Elder Doherty and I all afternoon and into the evening. He's been on his mission about 23 months, and he's been serving as an AP for as long as I've been out. When we first met up with him, we were a little skeptical about a few things...kind of like "Why are you with us? What did we do?" Haha but as we started our day and began to contact a few people. It only took a short time to realize what an awesome missionary he was and what a tremendous testimony and love for the gospel he had. This initially kindled a fire of motivation and inspiration in me. As the day went on, we went and contacted a few more people before we had lessons, and it led to having more lessons right there in the spot! Then we continued as our schedule went along. Eventually, we ended up at a young couple's home.  Their Bishop had expressed just how much of a desire this couple had to learn. So we contacted them, set up an appointment, and went and visited them. They have such a desire to learn about Christ and his gospel! We proceeded to teach them the discussions. AND they were married this past week! They invited us too! It was at their Ward building, and their bishop married them. It was pretty sweet because it was cowboy style. I said there ain't anything like a good ol country wedding. It was an awesome ceremony and we're super happy for them! We met with them this past week with Elder Moreno and we talked about the Book of Mormon.

Just overall we saw so many blessings and miracles that day serving with Elder Moreno. Seriously, that guy is fearless! Talked to everybody! True inspiration.

Anyways, that was the highlight of our week. Love you all! It was truly a blessing to be able to talk to all of you a couple of weeks ago!

With love,

-Elder Ahrens

Myself & Elder Doherty at Christmas time.

Skyping with mom and dad on Christmas Day!

Me & my companion at the Christmas Créche

Ol' Smoky

Hello family!

This has been a very quick week! Plenty of things going on.

Last Monday night, we went over to one member's home. We had the ward mission leader there and his wife and had Family Home Evening with them and mainly went to fellowship them. I feel so many members need to know that they have a friend at church and that we are all struggling with various things in life.

We had Zone Conference last week. That's where typically 3 zones that are relatively close to each other come together where we usually have a general authority and President McCune speak to us. This time we had President and Elder Don Clarke of the area 70. He's such an awesome speaker! He had so many insightful things to share with us all! Essentially the bottom line was that we all needed to be more obedient to mission rules because they say obedience reaps blessings, but exact obedience brings miracles. After that, my comp and I have been trying to focus more on the little things that we need to work on.

One of our stakes put together a Christmas Créche. It's a humongous display of nativities and it was open to the
public as a missionary tool and to help everyone feel the spirit. Centreville Stake needs to do something like that! It was very cool!

We were with Jason R. and his family all day. We went to a team roping event where we supported their two oldest kids. Then we all went back to the ranch and did some service, then had like a super FHE. We invited over this guy and his girlfriend (who also happens to be the Bishop's daughter) and he is getting baptized in Orem.

We went to Jason's Ward expecting it to be one of our last times going there because of transfers. After that we went back to Spanish Fork and taught some great lessons. Good day! That evening we had correlation meeting for one of our stakes and we found out that one of our recent convert's brother had been baptized in Salina over the weekend. Now granted, it's the St. George mission down there,. But we're still overjoyed that it happened! Our next step for convert is getting his Patriarchal Blessing.

This morning at the crack of dawn, we got up and went to the Provo Temple to do an endowment session as a district! It was so nice!. Then we all went to lunch in Provo.

So the transfer list came out....AND ELDER DOHERTY AND I ARE STAYING IN SPANISH FORK YAY YAY YAY YAY

I would have been so bummed if I left because I know this area so well and have created a friendship/relationship with a lot of the members and also the leaders! I'm feeling so blessed to be able to stay here!

Also, Jenise, Dad told me everything that has been going on with you! I hope things continue to end in your favor! Also, that pic of me was with Ol' Smoky at a team roping event in Lake Shore. Hope you had an
awesome birthday!

Mom, I love you unconditionally and I'm glad you hit that final stage and completely kicked cancers ugly behind! Dad, I love you so much! Brother and Sister dears, I love y'all so much! I truly am appreciative of how supportive y'all are about my mission. It truly is a privilege to lead the pack when it comes to missions! I want all the nephews and even nieces and eventually my kids to go on missions to serve the Lord! It truly is a life changing experience! The things you encounter... holy cow! So wonderful!

I can't believe I get to skype y'all in only 10 days! It's incredible just how quickly things have picked up these past few transfers! I remember very vividly saying to myself...."I'm at 3 months"....then a few days later saying..."holy cow I'm at 4 months!".....it's indescribable just how things go.

Anyways....I think that about does it for this week. Looking forward to all the many lessons we have planned next week!

Love you all!!!!

-Elder Ahrens

 Learning to lasso the cow. You never know when this will come in handy.

Lake Utah

Hello family!

So as Jason so thoughtfully brought it to my attention, I should be telling you about what I learned this week rather than what I did. Well, I'm going to do a little bit of both, but instead of going on the day to day, I'm going to go over the highlights.

Last Monday night we had exchanges with our Zone Leaders. I was paired up with Elder Roberts, and Elder Doherty was paired up with Elder Jiles. Elder Roberts is from Wales!  We had a super awesome time. We really had a great time working together! We did a number of finding activities. Later in the day we did a little bit of contacting. We ended up at a member's house. Now this member is an older guy who is originally from Florida. He has been living in this dilapidated house for a little over 10 years. When Elder Roberts and I arrived, he had this flat bed truck loaded up with split wood. We offered our assistance and he obliged. We had a nice long conversation for about an hour or so while we were helping him sort this wood and stack it next to his house for firewood. We had a good time and got to know him really well. That night we exchanged back.

Wednesday we had a Thanksgiving Pie Party at one of our Senior Couples' home.

Thursday was turkey day! We had 3 Thanksgiving dinners lined up and we were prepared! The first family we went to, we are really close to and they always look out for us. He is a ward mission leader so we already see him a ton anyway! We actually returned to their home that night and played games with them and all their family that was visiting! Then we went to the 2nd member's home. After dinner, we went out and I practiced some of my roping. Getting a little better at it but still needs a lot of work! Mom, you're from Texas. Roping and cowboys are your ancestry! The last family we visited was a Bishop's family we really like...one of our favorite Bishops! So we always go over to his house during the week and visit. We're actually doing quite a bit of work in his ward so it keeps him and us up to date. Then we went back to the first member's home and played games.

Saturday we had a baptism in the early afternoon.

On Sunday, we spoke in Sacrament meeting. It went well...but it just rekindled my fire of dislike of public speaking haha. After that we took some Elders in our Zone all the way down 89 to Birdseye, UT. Population 70. :P It's in the canyon so it was quite a view. We went out there so my companion (being the District Leader) could conduct a baptismal interview for them. We'll be going back out there next week to witness the baptism..which is going to be held in a pond by the way! After that we went to Ashley P.'s ward and taught Primary Sharing time for her! So that was fun I guess haha.

That about sums up this week! I really do appreciate all of the support y'all have been giving me!  It truly is picking up quite a bit! I'm still in shock that I get to FaceTime y'all in a little under a month! Transfers are on the 18th and I'm really hoping I get to stay in this area for the new year.

Elder Doherty and I get along so well and have a great time together!

Love you tons!

-Elder Ahrens

P.S - loved the pics of the deck work! keep em comin! I love getting pics!