Elder Oldroyd: Blessed In Ashland Ohio

It looks like you guys had a fun time in Park City without me!! I’m jealous you know that?! I’m glad all of you had a fun time! By the looks of the pictures you all look so happy and are loving the time being with each other. Seeing all of you smile makes me smile and warms my heart. I hope you guys know that. Another thing I’m jealous about is that this General Conference all of you will be eating Norg. pancakes without me!! I hope you enjoy chowing down!! Remember to get really full and then eat one for me I’m really glad that tradition will never end. At least it better not! I really am super excited for General Conference. I remember like it was a few days ago watching the last one in Lorain.

I’m glad you all liked the presents! I figured that he would need a basketball and football due to the warm weather that is about to arrive! It’s sad that I won’t be at the end of that football until next summer. But enjoy the gifts!

I’m glad that you enjoyed Women’s Conference! I bet that was cool to go to, especially that 8 year olds can now watch it!! The girls in our ward were pretty excited. They were all going to have ice cream before and all that good stuff. Well we had a huge snow storm. We got about 2-4 inches. It was really bad. They ended up cancelling it! I can’t believe how much snow we got. It was really icy Sunday morning. We only had about 90 people show up to church. There are some members that have to travel an hour to get to church in good weather! So not a lot of people came out. By the end of church all the snow was melted. It was pretty crazy. The weather is now amazing!

This week was truly a blessing. We worked our cans off this week. We actually had a total of 30 lessons this week and also 4 new investigators. On top of that we had 8 hours of service. It was the coolest feeling ever! One of our new investigators is named Jeff. We met him after we worked out at the gym. He asked if we attended the college in Ashland. That’s the typical question people ask and it gives us a great excuse to have conversations with people. We told him we were missionaries from our church. What church? He asked. Well Jeff, we are from The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints. He said Mormons? He said that you boys ran into your best match of the day. He got really defensive and told us that nobody can write more scripture other than the bible and that there is no Prophet on the Earth today and when the Bible was written it was sealed. Done. End of story. He was getting really upset with us and was raising his voice and all that jazz. We both bore our testimonies and talked about differences in doctrine. He was talking about works and that we don’t have to work – Jesus Christ has already done it for us, but then said that you have to prove yourself and work to return to God. We asked if we could come by and talk some more doctrine with him. He gladly accepted. We will be visiting him this week.

Our other investigator is named Shawn. He just moved to Ashland from Masallion. The Masallion Sister taught him everything that needs to be taught before baptism. He had a fallout with his father and is now living with his grandfather. (Remember to treat your kids well or they will have bad things to say about you.) That’s what Shawn told us haha. How he started investigating was from his fiancé. He actually has progressed faster than she has. He gets and retains what is being taught to him. We sat down for lunch for the first time we met him. He is a great kid. Turning 20 this month. The Sisters did a really good job teaching him. He is totally ready for baptism. It’s now the fact when he wants to get baptized. If he gets baptized and receives the Priesthood, he will be able to baptize his fiancé. He thought that was pretty cool. We were both really excited about that!

The other two investigators were people we have seen and had small talk with before. Let me give you a background story first. We got our carpets cleaned Friday morning and came home later that night and our carpets were still wet. We couldn’t walk on it or put any of our stuff back. So we went out for a stroll. We just started walking the city of Ashland haha which isn’t much. It was still fun though. We went to go see Roy Russell. But he wasn’t home from his trip yet. I had a feeling that we needed to go over to Jeremy’s trailer home. We were walking up the street and found his brother Jason standing outside smoking a cigarette. The music was bumping pretty loud in the trailer. You could hear guys and girls inside partying it up. I was talking to Jason and Jenkins was talking to a girl named Angelica. The only two sober ones out of 9 people who were there. It was a little cold outside so we went into this trailer. Jason wanted to know the difference of our church and others. He told us that he sees the way we carry ourselves and that he wants this happiness we have. He recently got out of jail and that humbled him, but he knows there is more change. Jenkins talked to Jeremy in his room with that girl named Angelica who wanted to know more and Jason pulled me aside into his room. I taught the Restoration to him and bore testimony again. The spirit was strong in the room. They both want to learn more and want to come to church. We went out to what was the family room were everyone was partying and having a “good time,” but I felt a bubble around me. It was really a crazy feeling but I knew the Spirit was with me even in that home. It was a great feeling.

It was a very amazing week, we worked really hard. The Lord blessed us, some members, Sister Yates and Bishop Dahl came up to us and basically said we are going shopping. Apparently we are both growing out of our suits and pants. That’s a bummer haha. But they bought us a really nice suit and slacks! We were speechless but we had no choice to be completely honest. They wanted to do that and that’s what they did. We got a really good deal on suits from clearance and also two slacks each.

Count your blessings!! Also Dad I will never forget your words, “Treat others how you want to be treated.” Bishop Dahl had that happen on his mission with a member and he was returning the favor. I couldn’t believe what has happened this week. I’m grateful to be here and love everything about life! Be happy!! Have a great week guys. Love you all!

Love Elder Oldroyd