Waffles and Apostles

Dear family & friends,

Okay first off, wasn't General Conference the best? Yesterday sister
Starnes & I were talking about how after General Conference you get
that kinda feeling that you get on Christmas after you open all your
presents & then you just get that sad feeling & think, "now I've got
to wait a whole year for this to happen again" haha good thing we only
have to wait 6 months for General Conference;)

Anywhoo... This week has been so much fun! We met this super sweet
lady tracting this week. She has a home in Florida & lives there 6
months out of the year & she explained that in Florida she lives
across the street from some members of the church & she said she
recognized how well they treated everyone & how the man of the house
got sick last year & people from their Ward brought meals over every
night. She said she watched as women in the Ward got out of their cars
every night with crying kids in the car to take this family a meal.
While she was telling us about this I started to cry. Those women in
Florida probably had no idea the influence they had on this woman!
They had no clue that they were planting seeds in this lady's heart. I
thought of my mom not only because of all the meals she has taken to
people, but also on the receiving end, when she had her heart attack &
open heart surgery & how grateful I was for the women in the Ward who
brought over meals to our family. I am so grateful for the women in
the church, for the good things they do, all over the world! I
absolutely loved Elder Nelson & Elder Hollands talk about the huge
roll of mothers & women. Anyway, the woman we tracted into leaves for
Florida this week but we told her there are missionaries in Florida so
we sent off the referral!

The rest of the week was filled with service! We had an awesome
service activity to help out with Oak Ridge High Schools homecoming
football game! We got to work the concession stand & it was so much
fun!! We got to talk to so many people about the church & it was just
great publicity haha. Then Saturday night the Sisters in the zone got
to volunteer at a 5K race. It was like a glow in the dark race & we
got tons of glow sticks. We basically just pointed people where to go
& cheered them on.

Saturday we watched General Conference with the Gladwell family,
Sister Gladwell is so sweet & had doughnuts & orange juice & fruit out
for us! I am so grateful for the amazing families who take such good
care of us missionaries. Then Sunday we watched conference with the
Martins & they had this big waffle breakfast for us! How nice huh?
Such good people:) The 3 new apostles seem like amazing men & it was
fun to get to hear from them. Elder Stevenson is in my favorite Mormon
message, "leave the party" so I was excited to hear he is one of the
new apostles!

Well yeah that was basically my week. I had too many fav General
conference talks, but I especially loved Elder Holland's talk. I only
cried 219 tears during his talk. Hahah but for real, I am so grateful
for the living prophets and apostles we have today. What a blessing it
is to have these amazing leaders to help guide and direct our lives. I
love how a lot of the talks were on how the the gospel is simple & we
try to make it complicated. I remember at the beginning of my mission
when Elder Bednar came & spoke to the the mission & said, "when people
hear the word, 'doctrine' they start to freak out and think it's deep
complex material, but it actually the plain and simple truths found in
the gospel of Jesus Christ"

Hope you all have an amazing week & apply the things you learned from
conference into your life & act on the impressions you have:) LOVE
YOU.

Love always,
Sister Ashley Sobotka