2020

Well this week was a tiring week, with some good old-fashioned missionary work. Hours and hours of street contacting haha, it's been long but it's been good to push myself and speak to people and try my best to share the message of the gospel with the people of Poland. We've actually found some success, we've set up a lesson for this friday and we might have some other people to set up with soon hopefully. It's fun being a missionary, you spend every minute of every day trying to find ways to help people and to spread happiness, you face rejection, you're working for 12 hours a day every day just to find ONE soul to save but it is so rewarding and so fulfilling. Knowing that I am on the Lord's errand and knowing that He is with me brings so much joy and so much strength. I really wouldn't want to be anywhere else, being a missionary is such a blessing. It was New Years last week obviously, and not much exciting to say about that honestly haha, it was just another day in the life of a missionary, we worked our regular day and then went home and I was so tired by the end of the day so I just went to bed and missed all the fireworks, but I'm sure fireworks will still be around in 2 years so I just figured I'll enjoy them when I get home instead haha. 

The work was tough though the last few weeks, it's been the holidays so it's been hard to meet with people and there haven't been many people on the streets and so it's been quite tough, but I've found so much strength in reading the scriptures, and also in prayer. My Stake President told me that my scriptures would be my best friend on my mission and he wasn't wrong. I find so much peace and so much comfort in the scriptures, and I know that all of you can as well. 

This week I was reading in 3rd Nephi where the Saviour comes down and visits the Nephites and it is such a powerful verse and it really moved me, as I read the words of the Saviour and felt His love and compassion for the Nephites and also the pure and perfect love that He has for me and all of God's children. These words really stick out to me, 

"Arise and come forth unto me, that ye may thrust your hands into my side, and also that ye may feel the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet, that ye may know that I am the God of Israel, and the God of the whole earth, and have been slain for the sins of the world."

I cried as I read these words. He invited all to come and feel the prints in his hands and in his feet, and to know that He really is the Son of God, and the same invitation is there for us, to come, to see, to feel and to know. We may not be able to feel the prints in his hands and his feet just yet, but one day we will, and we will see our Saviour once again. I also love that the resurrected Christ, with a perfected body, still kept His wounds, He still kept the prints of the nails driven into His hands and His feet. That pain and suffering is a part of who He is. He did this to remind us of the love which He so freely gave, to remind us of the pain which He suffered at our expense. I know that He loves us, I have felt that love in my life and I feel it each day. I have a testimony of my Saviour and of this gospel, it's why I'm here in Poland because I want to share it with others, I want people to know what I know and to feel what I feel.

Have a blessed week everyone, speak soon!

Starszy Ashworth x 

I've had to find new ways to keep warm, hence the Mary look.