Hello!

Dear Family and Friends-

How's it going in Utah? What's the weather like there? It hasn't been too bad up here at the top of the United States :o) The hottest it has gotten is 80 degrees and it hasn't felt too humid. Today is a little bit more humid, but it is still bearable. I got my first sunburn yesterday. I need to start wearing sunscreen now :o) I have a sweet farmers tan too! (or we can call it a modesty tan). Anyways, yesterday was the first day I didn't have to wear nylons. We have to wear nylons if the temperature is under 75 degrees. I think when the mission is over, nylons will be the one thing I will be happy to get rid of :o) not that I'm thinking about coming home, but I got the date I will be coming home. it is December 20, 2011. Right before Christmas! I will be the best Christmas present anyone ever got! jk. Just thought I'd let you know just in case you wanted to make a countdown or something. :o)

Okay, funny story. Yesterday we were tracting and ran into a lady and 2 men that were sitting out in the woods having a little BBQ. They had us sit down because they wanted to hear more about our church. We were excited to teach them. We noticed they were drinking beer and asked them if they were drunk. They said no, so we moved on. As we were talking to them trying to get to know them better, they would laugh like every 10 seconds at things we said. We didn't say anything funny. Well, we started to teach them a little bit, but would only get a sentence in before they would laugh more, or change the subject. Well, while my companion was talking, I started counting how many empty beer cans there were just around them. From where I was sitting, I counted 20 between the 3 of them. Is that a lot? I don't know much about beer. Well, anyways, we weren't getting very far with teaching them, so we said we would come back when they weren't drunk. Yup, we said that to them. The one guy agreed that would be better... I don't think we're going back there. We said if we do come back, that we would bring our friends, the Johnson's. (The senior couple in our area of the mission). so yeah. I don't know if that is funny to you, but it is funny to My companion and I. You may have just needed to be there for it to be funny.

Anyways, the area out here is really struggling. We get really good investigators, but no one is willing to keep commitments. There are a couple of investigators who KNOW all of this is true, and they know what they need to do, but they aren't willing to do it. Like coming to church is one of those commitments. Church is so hard for people sometimes because they have to drive so far to get there. I think the furthest someone has to drive in our branch is like an hour and a half. Talk about commitment there! But we are working with them.

So, I told you all that our branch is really small right? well, it is shrinking. We have two families moving soon. That's like 25% of our branch gone. We are working hard to build the branch up. If all of the inactives came to church, we could have a ward! So we are working with a lot of the less actives, and then trying to get more investigators.

Well, I am working on becoming a better missionary and learning a lot. I think I will be working on it my whole mission. There is always room for improvement right? and I have a lot of improvement to do!!! I think the one thing I have learned the most is that I can't do this on my own. I need the Lord. This is the Lord's work.

well, my hour is almost up and I have to write my letter to my Mission President still. But write me back!!!

Love you,

Sister Ashleigh Simmons