Glorious Christmas Week

What an amazing week! I'll start right from the beginning. Last week, on Thursday, we had an amazing final TRC. I was hoping for Gary and the boys that we had been teaching usually, but we got an even better surprise, we were able to teach some native Kazakhs! We taught this wonderful lady who was converted by missionaries in Kazakhstan and now lived in Utah with her husband. It was super hard to understand her Russian, but luckily she understood us hahaha. She bore an amazing testimony that was so strong. The spirit was so powerful during that lesson. An amazing experience.

Gary, who we taught in our TRCs. He was so fun to teach and share our testimonies with.

Christmas Eve was an awesome experience, but the best part didn't actually have anything to do with Christmas. It came from a substitute we had in class on change.  A few weeks ago, I was thinking about how I need to change and become better, and I thought that I had a lot to change (which I still do) but I was thinking of change in the wrong mindset. Here's an analogy: the gospel is like food - there's soups, there's salads, there's steaks, and there's drinks. Investigators (or friends of the church now) desire that food. They might now know it, but they are spiritually craving sustenance. I, as a missionary, am a utensil. Now, the gospel comes in many forms, with the salads and the steaks etc. Therefore, there are many kind of utensils - there are spoons, there are forks, there are salad forks, there are knives, there are straws, etc, etc. God has made me, for example, a fork. And he did that on purpose. And he wants me to change and become better. And I want that too. Now when he says he wants me to change, he doesn't want me to become a spoon - I'm not a spoon. I'm a fork. He made me a fork on purpose. Instead, he wants to change me into the best fork that I can possibly be. And that's what I want to be too. I want to be the best possible fork that I can be for the Lord. I shouldn't think that I need to be a different utensil. I have my strengths and my weaknesses for a reason and I need to be so very grateful for them and remember that God doesn't want me to be something that I'm not, he wants Elder Day to be the best possible Elder Day there is. And that goes for everyone. All of our gifts, all of our weaknesses, all of our trials, everything is given to us for our betterment, so that we can progress forward and continually improve. I know that God wants all of us to be the best version of us that we can be, and if we turn to him during our trials and our hard times, he will bless us and help us change.

The Kyiv Missionaries with the Ukrainian flag

Christmas day was also amazing. We got to hear from Elder Bednar, who is always fantastic, as well as watch a few movies such as "It's a Wonderful Life." Also I got to shake David Archuleta's hand. He did a little performance at the MTC. Pretty great stuff. The best part was unquestionably calling my family. It was so good to see them. I hope everyone took advantage of this wonderful holiday to express their great love and appreciation for your families and for the great gift that is the atonement that our savior so graciously gave to us. I love Jesus Christ and owe so much to him. I know that if we press forward with faith in him we will be blessed.

Us Kyiv Missionaries again with our glorious flag

Love y'all so very much.

 - старейшина Ashton Day

Seeing Ike and Other Tender Mercies

(Sent on Wednesday, 12/19/18)

Today was a week of the hardest struggles and the greatest tender mercies!

We had our final TRC this week, or so we thought! Me and my companion, Elder Gale, were really sad because our teachers had told us that this was our last in person TRC. We had become such great friends with those that we taught so the TRCs were always the greatest part of our week. One brother who we had taught before was named Gary, and after we were finished with teaching our lesson in Russian he asked for a picture with us.  He was such a nice guy. Lucky for us, we got the wonderful tender mercy of getting another in person TRC! They're seriously the greatest things ever. Although they're so hard they're so spiritually uplifting and gives me confidence that maybe someday I'll be able to give some lessons out to some real Russian speakers 😊

Our new roommates from our zone, Elder Rosenkrantz and Elder Marlow, along with Elder Crockett in the middle who was visa delayed. He stayed with us an extra week and became our MTC 'stepdad.'

Another thing that has been so great about the TRC and has been a consistent tender mercy in my life - exercise time. It's the greatest stress reliever in the world. Every Saturday, we get super hyped for exercise time with the zone. We have this little chant we do and the oldest elders in the zone wear their mission's flag on their back and we all sprint over to the volleyball courts. It's so much fun to play volleyball with the zone. I like to switch back between 4 - Square and volleyball depending on how well I'm doing at one thing or another. This past week on Saturday we built a dream volleyball team to challenge other competitors from the zone and we were destroying. It honestly felt dirty we were playing so well. Every time we would score, we would cheer "Glory to Ukraine!" in Russian. We started to feel bad that we were winning too much so we purposely tossed a game and then ran over to the 4 - square court and joined in the fun. I love my zone so much. They're such great Elders and they make the MTC a great experience. I'm going to miss all of them so dearly.

Flag Bearer Slav Squat
The zone flag bearers for our Saturday exercise times.

Another great tender mercy this week - me and Elder Gale needed to give a lesson on the apostasy and the restoration in priesthood. We didn't have a lot of time to prepare it and it was supposed to be a pretty long lesson, so we were a bit stressed. We started to give the lesson and tender mercies were so apparent. People started a great discussion about the apostasy and interesting concepts such as the reformers and the truth in other churches. Super interesting stuff and we were so blessed that the spirit was in that room and that the discussion helped carry us. Was a small tender mercy but meant so much to me to have that lesson go well.

Another incredible tender mercy - Russian is HARD. So unbelievably hard. It's borderline impossible but I'll keep working on it. A great tender mercy that happened to me this week was when we were reading the Книгy Мормонa (BoM, in the accusative case) and it was about to be my turn and I was just really concerned that I wasn't going to do well, so I said a quick prayer in my heart asking Heavenly Father to please bless me with the gift of tongues that I may be able to read my lines well. After the prayer, I read the lines and I was able to do them super fast! It all made sense to me in that moment. I felt so blessed and I was so grateful to my Heavenly Father for helping me during that moment.

One more amazing tender mercy in my life. Yesterday, during lunch, I got to see one of my best friends in the entire world, Ike Melanson! It was so amazing to see him. He works for BYU taking pictures, and he said that they were in the MTC taking pictures of the food and things for his job. He was in the cafeteria and he said that he was hoping so badly that he would see me. Luckily, I walked in at the exact right time! When I saw him, I couldn't believe it. It felt surreal to see him. It was just such a nice moment and so great to see one of my greatest friends again. We were able to talk for a few minutes and say hi. It was such a wonderful blessing for me during such a challenging week. Really lifted my spirits and I just felt the love from my Heavenly Father so much for blessing me in that moment.

Me and one of my best friends, Ike Melanson, taking a picture together in the MTC cafeteria.

Love y'all so so very much and I hope that you all have an amazing Christmas. It's been really fun and challenging to be here in the MTC during Christmas time. It's been nice to just be focusing on the savior and be thinking about what he has done for me and his love. Remember what this Christmas season is all about, and I'm sure that it'll be one of the best!

Love everyone so much.

Russian and Ukranian

Ashton mentioned in his first email that he would have to learn Ukranian too. This week I asked him how that works. This was his response.

"And yes, I really am expected to learn [Ukranian]. I have two books all about learning Ukrainian that are very similar to my Russian books and I have every single pamphlet in English, Russian, and Ukrainian as well as a Preach my Gospel in English, Russian, and Ukrainian. It’s not very different from Russian, but it’s definitely not the same. My Russian teacher went to Kyiv, learned Russian in the mtc, but speaks Ukrainian too because he learned it in the field. I’ll be doing the same thing."

Saying Goodbye to My MTC Friends

This has been one roller coaster of the week. As I go back through my journal it's sometimes really hard to believe that I used to feel that way just a few days ago. For example, on Thursday I wrote that I might have had my best day in the MTC yet. I think that I was probably right, it's going to be a tough one to beat. That morning we had class and we were working on Russian grammar and things seemed like they were making so much more sense. Russian grammar is tough stuff, especially considering that I don't know anything about English grammar. That's one funny thing about learning Russian - English slowly starts to make a lot more sense. It felt so nice though to feel like I was progressing in the language and that some of the basic puzzle pieces were being put together. Like anything in life, but especially a language, you just have to put in the time. It's like moving a huge pile of sand - right now I'm using tweezers, picking it up and moving it grain by grain, but slowly over time as I continue to progress with the language, I can start moving that pile a little faster and a little faster. Eventually, I can probably graduate from a pair of tweezers to a small spoon. While it doesn't feel like I'm making much progress in the moment, the effects over time will show. The amazing thing about this work though, is that while I'm moving the sand grain by grain with tweezers, the Lord is behind me with a shovel, scooping sand into the other pile for me. Without his help I wouldn't be anywhere close to where I am now, and without his help in the future, I'll never get to a place with the language that I need to be. I love the Lord so much and I know that as I continue to put my faith in him, he will bless me.

Me and Elder Jones, one of my best friends here at the MTC. He's going to Lithuania.

Another amazing event that happened Thursday - we had another TRC meeting, which is a teaching lesson with a member who probably is going to BYU who speaks Russian. We had so much to prepare for it and so little time. Me and my companion were a little stressed out. But as we were changing after exercise, I noticed that our roommates, Elder Hansen and Elder Becktel hadn't made their bed or changed their old sheets, so I decided that I was going to do some service. I grabbed some new sheets for them and completely made their beds. It took out like a solid 20 minutes of valuable planning and practicing time but I knew that if I did this service for them, me and my companion would be blessed for it. It absolutely manifested. We barely finished planning our lesson in time for the TRC. We literally showed up at the very last moment - arriving right as we were told which room we were supposed to go to. Could not have been a few seconds later. We immediately entered into the first room and to our surprise, there were two men. We had only taught solos before so this was a new experience, but we had an amazing lesson. Could not have possibly gone better. It was so much fun and it all went so well. We asked some good questions, they asked us some tough questions, and the spirit was so strong. At the end, one of the brothers that we taught gave us both a big hug. It felt so good to know that the Lord was guiding us in the work and that we were able to touch his life with our message. Our second lesson went just as well. I know that we were blessed because we decided to put ourselves second and to put others before ourselves.

Me and Elder McCann, another one of my best friends here at the MTC. He looks a little confused about the posing for this photo even though he is the one who suggested it.

The TRC was also really fun because we got to see Gary again! Gary is the brother that we taught in the last TRC. He was so excited to see him and came over to talk to us. It's just so much fun to be able to develop a friendship like that through spreading the message. Gives me great hope that I can develop that kind of a relationship with the members out in Ukraine. The opportunity to spread joy, hope, and happiness is one of the greatest aspects of missionary work, so it's very encouraging to feel like we're doing well at that section of missionary work while we're here at the MTC.

Elder Frazier, another good friend here at the MTC. He's also going to Kyiv, speaking Ukrainian.

Sadly after that the week only got harder and harder. On Sunday I was called to be district leader, which really isn't that hard considering that now I'm just a glorified mailman, but it does add a little bit of responsibility onto me that didn't use to exist before. It's just made me realize that I have a lot to work on. There's always room for improvement in our lives, sometimes it's just daunting to realize how far that improvement has to go.

Me and my MTC fathers, Elder Hansen and Elder Becktel the night before they left for Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine.

Another really sad moment from this week is that my MTC Dads "died" this Tuesday morning. They left for Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine at 3:45 am. I will miss them so dearly. The rest of our zone that arrived before November 14th, left on Monday, so our zone went from being the biggest in the MTC to one of the smallest in 4 quick weeks. Elder Hansen and Elder Becktel were such a great source of knowledge, encouragement, and joy to me during this first month in the MTC. It was fun to grow a great relationship with them and to become great friends. They'll both be going to BYU when they get back, so our experiences together aren't over yet, but it'll be a long 23-month break.

Our MTC family posing in a Slav Squat and our Russian smiles.

The last challenge from the second half of this week is that I got really sick with a nasty cold. Made it so much harder to focus, to stay positive, and to feel the spirit with a clouded mind. When it's tough to feel the spirit, everything here gets so much harder. The MTC is a tough experience. It's hard to do the same exact thing every single day, but there are so many good moments as well. Missionary work has brought me so much joy into my life so far, along with reading the scriptures, obeying the commandments, and actively striving to become more like Jesus. It's crazy to think that I'm almost 1/24 of the way done with my mission already. There's still so much to go, but I'm excited to be able to experience this level of happiness another 23 times.

Love y'all so very much. Keep on remembering what's most important in life, especially during this Christmas season.

4 Square at the MTC

Another week in the MTC!
The MTC slowly but surely keeps getting better and better. It's still a grind with the language and things, but it's getting more and more fun and bearable.

Me and my coolest 4th cousin, Elder Rosenkrantz.

One of the most fun things about the MTC is the exercise time. We like to go to the big gym that has a track upstairs. Our district goes on splits based on who wants to go where. I usually head upstairs with a few other members of our district to do some lifting for the first half, then we head downstairs to play some 4 square. I would play volleyball because it's super fun, but most of the people who play played in high school so they're really stinking good. 4 square is more fun that way because when I mess up, I'm the only one who suffers, but in volleyball, it's the entire team that now suffers, and the less suffering the better, right? So I willingly make that sacrifice for others and play 4 square 😊

4 square in the MTC is really funny though. It's a very strange crowd that lines up in the 4 square line. The strangest of the bunch by far though are the affectionately named "4 Square Gestapo."
They treat the game like it's the most serious thing that they have ever done and that they ever will do. It's almost like their salvation rides upon whether or not they can reach the king square. They're kind of annoying and shy away from honestly calling when the ball is in or out, but besides that, it's just a really fun time. A good way to relieve stress and a nice break from focusing on Russian.

Us studying. Elder Marlow on the left, Elder McQuivey on the right.

Us studying more!

We had our first TRC this week, which is where we teach a member of the church a lesson in only Russian. They're usually returned missionaries going to BYU, but sometimes it's legit Russians who immigrated. We were pretty stressed out about it and planned this big lesson. During TRCs, you teach the same lesson to two different people. The first lesson we did went horribly. It was so so bad. It ended pretty early and it just did not go well whatsoever. Afterward, my comp and I were both pretty majorly in the dumps, but I brushed it off pretty quick. We got some tips from our teacher, Brother Henderson, and went into the next lesson. The next lesson was the best one we've given so far in the MTC. We taught this returned missionary named Gary. He was so cool and super funny and we just had an amazing time. Our Russian was really bad, but he helped us along the way. The lesson wasn't incredible, but the fun we had and the joy that was there was really just an amazing experience. Spreading joy is a huge part of missionary work, so it was very nice to see that if we just try our best and make the most out of everything and have fun with it, we can spread the joy that we have of the gospel even if we can barely say anything.

L-R: Elder Hansen, Elder Gale, Elder Day, Elder Becktal

Elder Ashton and Elder Gale.
First snowfall at the MTC.

The weeks keep going by faster, thank goodness, but it will be sad to leave the MTC. My district and another district that entered the MTC the same week as us, are about to become the oldest elders in the zone. Everyone (except for one elder and one sister) in our zone that came here before me is leaving on Monday or Tuesday. It will be really sad to see them all go. They've been so fun to be with throughout this experience and they've helped me a lot, particularly my MTC "Dads" Elders Hansen and Becktal. They've taught me so much and have helped me through so many things during my time here at the MTC. Sadly, they're going to the other mission in Ukraine so I won't be seeing them for a long long time, but I'm sure we'll meet again when we all go to BYU.

Love y'all so very much.

My mission badge in Russian. I just now realized that I have never sent a picture of mine.