March 2, 2015

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Hey Everybody!!! ​My branch president let us write our families today because we won't really have a P-day tomorrow. SO YAY! I was so happy that I got to be able to e-mail you guys before I leave the MTC. It sounds like everyone is doing great with a lot of adventures! SO..... Carolina here I come!!!!! I keep singing the song in my head by James Taylor, "in my mind I'm going to Carolina, can't ya see the sunset, and can't ya just see the moonshine, yes, I'm going to Carolina in my mind!" I am so excited to go! I have loved my stay here in the MTC but I can't wait to go serve and teach. This week has been really good. It has been a total blur but so many great moments. We first started the week with welcoming the new sisters coming into the MTC. It was really fun to get to know them and give them a tour of the place. I felt inadequate giving a tour though because I have only been in the MTC for a week so what do I know! Haha. It turned out well though. I can't remember the middle of the week. Haha I need to go check my journal. I just remember it being good and teaching a lot of lessons and  learning a whole bunch. SaturdaySister Simpson and I taught 5 lessons after our class time. It was a good, long day. I PASSED out when I went to bed. Cool experience: This whole week I have had the thought pop into my head that I needed to study Eve. I kept telling my companion that I had no idea why I needed to study Eve's life but I just knew that I needed to. So I spent hours of my personal study time reading Genesis and looking up talks about the role of women and how important women are and our purpose. I  had no idea why I was researching Eve so much I just knew that I needed to. I learned a lot. It really helped me understand my importance of a women and I grew to understand women's role in the priesthood and how essential women are to the plan. 

On Saturday my teacher was explaining some of her trails that she was going through and  she said her Bishop just gave her a blessing. During the blessing her Bishop said that she needed to study Eve and it would help her in her trail. I was kinda just shocked for a moment. I wasn't sure if I was hearing things. Sister Simpson spoke up and was like, that is really interesting because Sister Ashton has just been studying all about Eve these past few days. I don't really remember what I said but I just testified to her how important Eve's role was and what I learned while I was studying about Eve. I told her that she was a good wife and she was doing an incredible job of nurturing her husband and she was following the example of Eve. It was a great reminder to me that God knows the needs of His children. I had no idea why on earth I was studying so much about Eve but He knew. :) 

 This week was just filled with moments like those. I wish I could tell them all to you. I just had my last class in the MTC! It was really great! I am going to miss my amazing teachers. We ended our time in the MTC with teaching a girl named Steph. She asked Sister Simpson and I how you find scriptures that answer your life questions. She said that she kept hearing all her Mormon friends having these amazing experiences with scriptures and she didn't understand how that happened. Sister Simpson began to explain that answers to our questions don't come instantly. Sometimes it takes a lot of studying, prayer, faith and time for our questions to be answers. I then decided to pipe in and said, "Our society today is so fast passed, we are all about grab and go. We want results right now. It's kind of like the difference between eating at wendys and eating at your favorite fancy sit down restaurant. Fast food is fast and easy but it doesn't usually taste as good, and it isn't very high quality. A sit down restaurant takes more time but the experience and the end result is so much rewarding and better. OH goodness, I don't know why I say these things. To make matters worse we were being observed by that one way window thing. I had no idea I had people watching our lesson. Haha  oh well, Step said that the analogy made sense. Anyway, I can't wait for tomorrow!! Thank you again for all of the e-mails! I love you all dearly. Thank you so much for your support and prayers. 

Love, 

Sister Ashton