I'm going home, back to the place where I belong

So this letter comes in a bit of an unusual way – via Facetime with my Dad.  So he will be providing this week’s update from me to him to you.

Yes, it is true, I will be going home very soon.  The date has been set for April 26^th flying into Salt Lake City. The actual transfer date is May 1^st, but since I plan to start Spring Semester at BYU Provo, I spoke with my Mission President who said, well just go home a few days early.  Which really isn’t early because I will hit my 18th-month mark on April 10^th – so I will have served 18 1/2 months on my mission.

That said, even though I will come home a few days early, that only gives me 3 days before school begins – YIKES!!  (seriously I question if this is the right thing to do, but after much prayer, I feel calmer than ever about where I’ll be living, who I’ll be rooming with and starting school so quickly – I guess I’ve learning to trust my Heavenly Father when he provides me with answers to my prayers.

The reason why this letter comes via Facetime is because my dad and I met at our storage unit where all my earthly belongings are stashed.  Yup, about 12 plastic bins of clothes, books, and various souvenirs and mementos.  We went through 6 of those bins of clothing so I could have my dad bring some “non-missionary” clothes to Utah with him.  I feel like I did pretty well considering the circumstances and my Dad’s lack of skill with the camera phone, haha. 

I left one box of t-shirts and stuff, two of winter clothes, one overstuffed box of clothes for Goodwill (yay me just getting rid of stuff I don’t need) and just two tiny little bins for my dad to somehow pack into a suitcase and bring with him, and like 10 pairs of shoes – easy right.  And it only took us 1 ½ hours to go through all that!!

Anyways, I’m excited to come home, see all my family and friends I’ve missed so much, but boy will it be hard to leave my Nampa Idaho Mission and all of the wonderful members and friends and great missionaries there, but I know I’ll be back up there again soon

.

Love you all . . . and see you soon,

Sister Aase

The Beginning of the End

Welp, it is happening.

This is my last transfer. It feels really weird but at the same time, I am so excited about this transfer because so many amazing things are happening. But first, let me tell you what did happen this week. Richard decided to move his date up. He will now be getting baptized this weekend. He started chemo this week and God is moving him along and helping him every step of the way. He amazes me every day and reminds me of the reason why I'm out here.

Hailey and Cynthia both came to church this week. Man, did that make me happy. They are both just such amazing girls and really just need positive role models in their life and I'm so happy we can be that for them.

We did service this week which was so fun, painted nails, painted a shed, and sang karaoke to old people. I love service.

... and now the sad part. On Saturday we found out that my dear friend Sister Hansen was leaving. I have loved being with her and have learned a lot. I now have Sister Vaughn. She is from Paradise CA. She is so sweet and I already love her. Also, we are living in a new place. Our ward mission leader realized that we were not living in our area and so he decided he would let us stay with him and his family. He also owns a palace so that is a plus. So I will be ending my mission with a bang! 

I love you all. Thanks for all you do 

Sister Aase 

Cows Vibrate . . . FACT!

Hello everyone! 

So this week I was able to go on exchanges and go to a little town named Letha. It was awesome because Letha is the place that my dear "mom" Sister Soelberg went when she left me. She used to tell me about it all the time. It also was super crazy because my whole time on my mission I've stayed within a 20min radius, including all my exchanges, but Letha is out in the boonies. It was so weird to leave all of civilization for a day. 

When we were driving there, I kept on looking out the window and then saying to Sister Frandsen (my comp for the day) "where are we?" "Are there houses here?" "Do you live in a house?". She was getting a kick out of it... but I was legitimately concerned. Ha. 

Anywho so that was fun and she reminded me that conference is only like a month away! Craziness. I love conference so much and I'm way excited for it! 

Also while I was there, I kept on oddly hearing my phone go off. But every time I checked it, there was no notifications bo nothin. I finally asked Sister Frandsen at the end of our exchange if she heard the weird vibrating noise. She then laughed and told me it was all the cows outside mooing. Yep, that was a thing. So cows mooing apparently in my head sounds like a phone vibrating... fun. 

Man lots of service happening this week. It’s our new mission push. We want to be doing community service as much as possible. It is also pretty fun and breaks up the day a bit so that’s always good. 

Richard is doing so well and is really excited about his baptism. He starts chemo tomorrow and we are just hoping that it goes well so he can continue meeting with us and learning and growing. We are also trying to figure out how the logistics of a baptism will work because his immune system will be so weak and he will be hooked to an IV. Lots of things. So pray for us to get revelation for a solution and pray for him that everything will go well -- would be very appreciated!

Thank you for all you do. 

Sister Aase 

YOU'RE HOT & YOU'RE COLD

Hi everyone!

So it happened. It was bound to happen. People guessed it would happen. Even I knew that it would eventually happen... I got sick. This was the weirdest illness I have ever had. Positives - no running nose, no congested anything, no upset stomach yeah none of that. I will now try to describe what my symptoms actually were. It felt as if I had just done a full body work out and depending on the second, it was either in Antarctica or the Equator. Fun times right. yeah literally every 5 minutes I would go from sweating to having freezing sweat on my body. It was insane.

YOU’RE YES AND YOU’RE NO

So we met this sweet Ukrainian lady this week and afterward she immediately invited us back so we could meet her single 25-year-old son.  ... this happens quite often when your companions with Sister Hansen. But we are missionaries so of course, we came back. When we showed up guess who wasn't there, the single 25 years old. Apparently, he was a little offended that his mom was trying to set him up so yeah he was a "no" to hearing the gospel, but you know who was a "yes" Ludmela the Ukrainian lady and her husband Roy. It was great. 

I would finish the rest of the song but I don't really know how to tie it all into the rest of my week. But just know Nampa is still on fire, God is still so good, and the Gospel is still truer than true. 

Love you,

Sister Aase 

Pray for 

Richard Swegman (Baptism day March 30th)

Dylan Knudsen (Baptism day April 13)

Arianna Manning (Baptism Day April 5th)

Santana Griffin (Baptism Day April 13th )

Hailey Drennon (Baptism Day April 27th) 

Cody Jonstun (Baptism Day May 11th)