Pues Buenos Dias Mi querida Familia! Gracias por escribir la carta. Estaba triste porque no tenia una carta. Pero después de escribir la carta a presidente Recibi una carta! =)
Well This week was wonderful! Let me tell you! We started our week with a wonderful phone call from president Martineau. He told us. Elders. Your Area has never been a good finding area. BUT has never lacked in baptisms. You just have to go about it a different way. You need to make sure you are working through your members and really working on strengthening your less actives. Less finding more strengthening reactivating and bringing people back to the fold. So that we did. We started focusing a little more on this subject of finding the members and working with all of them. At the same time we changed a couple things. My companion…Knows Spanish, thinks he knows more than he does but he knows Spanish. He usually tries to get to know the people much better at the very first. This week I suggested we just make them quick and to the point. We are missionaries preaching a message of the Restored Gospel. So this is we did. This week we had less finding time than all of our previous weeks. Although when we focused our message on this small simple Fact we were able to see much more success. This week we had a goal of 7 new investigators. We received 6 ! Woohoo! One of them is named Max! He’s from new York and we just taught him on Saturday. We contacted him the same time we contacted Eduardo, He lives right across the street from Eduardo. We had to drop Eduardo this week because he doesn’t want to progress. He said. Well. I think god knows that I am busy in my life right now so he understands that I’m not ready to be baptized. This made us sad but instead of getting down we walked across the street to talk to max whom we hadn’t taught yet. He let us come in and talk with him we talked to him and found out he knows much more English than Spanish. So he is yet another person we are teaching in English. We taught him. Then that night we had a priesthood meeting with David Bednar and President Eyring…They were in Jamaica for a whole Caribe “Area Conference” It was pretty neat. But max agreed to come. We explained to him more about the church and he was excited to get to know some people. He is from New York he’s 19 and moved here because he didn’t like home and wanted to come help his grandma. So that is what he is doing. He is way cool. We taught him yesterday and Set a baptismal Date for the 25th of February. Hopefully I won’t get transferred. Who knows. The whole time we were teaching him he kind of had a half smile waiting to burst out I asked him what he was thinking if he had anything to say or ask. He replied. “Well I haven’t smiled this big and been this happy since before things at home got bad. He knows the church is true started reading from the beginning of the book of mormon and loves it! He said he has read books from other churches before and none have felt as right as this one. We also had an exchange this week. My companion went with one of the assistants and the assistant’s comanion was my companion. He has three transfers in the mission. Only 1 More that me. So I was way nervous. It was a great calming experience . The work did not stop. I am very comfortable with where my Spanish is at because frankly his was horrible. He tried hard. He just is having a hard time. Not only that but we had 2 new investigators on our exchange day. WONDERFUL! The lord Helps Gringos! We did fine. I Loved that day. He was a little weird, messy and girly but it was wonderful day! President made a new rule this last week. Someone will be getting a new MP3 Player back home… He is not allowing MP3 Players. We can have CD Players but not MP3 Players. So the new one I just got for free will be getting home soon. Not till next week though when I get my mission money. This next week we get to go pick and squeeze canya. Or Sugar Cane. =) I’m excited about that one. I am loving being a missionary and loving teaching the gospel! I miss home and will be excited to come home but not till that time rolls around. I Love Being a Missionary!
Thanks for all your love and support!
Elder Ellis!
January 20, 2009
This week… Wow. Well since we had P-day Tuesday and have it Tuesday again the week went by a lot faster. We worked hard with our investigator Eduardo and worked hard to find more people as well but unfortunately we didn’t have any success. Well we did find one person. We go back to teach him today. I am really disappointed about this week and need to go get happy. We had P-day moved again because of Martin luther king day yesterday and because we didn’t know it was going to be a holiday had planned appointments today. So we are barely fitting in our email and other stuf today which makes me disappointed and then on top of it the computers here are basura or trash and I have only a little while left. You email sizes were great this week. I’m fine with having a little longer emails because in this area I don’t get mail at the house only 1 time a week and only have family writing me because I guess none of my friends know how to write. On top of that we have a CAR meeting and I love the members here it is just extremely difficult because our branch is split into 3 missionary areas and we have only a few members to go out with us. Eduardo our only investigator is having troubles with his car and can’t afford to get it fixed so he was having a hard time with that as well. We asked him if we could do anything for him and he told us that he needed toothpaste. So we went and got him toothpaste then brought it to him and talked to him for a while. About an hour and a half. He was having such a hard time recognizing the times in his life when he has to choose God first or others first. He talked about how he doesn’t feel welcome in the church because of all of his tattoos and we asked him if he would not get anymore tattoos if God asked him not to. He hesitated and said well if it is god telling me to. Thenw e asked well if god told his servants to tell you not to get anymore tattoos would you get them and he still hesitated. Then we asked him if your girlfriend asked you not to get more tattoos would you…and he said of course not. So we talked with him for a long time and share with him the importance of putting god before everything in our lives. He realized that he was putting his girlfriend in front of god and felt bad about that and wanted to change. While we were sitting there I felt prompted to share with him about jesus Christ. At times we want what we think is best and leave god out of the circle. When Jesus Christ was suffering in the Garden of gethsemane He even the greatest of all The only perfect man to ever walk the earth pleaded for the suffering to go away…but pleaded with his fathers will in mind. Please take this cup form me if it be thy will. What a great example Jesus Christ is to all of us. Enduring the trials as they come Choose the right even when its hard because just as Christ did. We can ask for help we can ask for things to go away and if it is his will they will go away. President has been sharing a lot from the movie Facing Giants. I don’t remember much form it but the quote he uses is preparing for rain. We are always preparing for rain. We don’t know when it will come but we are always preparing for it. If not it will come and just as the people with Noah they will be washed away. I am loving my reading in Alma 50s It is some great war chapters and what amazes me is how much Moroni always has a plan. For everything he is always preparing. He prepares in times without fear he prepares still in times of War and he prepares after he wins the war. What an amazing example he is.I Love being a missionary. Its hard when all of your num,bers are 0s. We had 2 other lessons this week and that was it. No one at church. Eduardo finally found someone to fix his car and so couldn’t come to church because the only day this guy could do it was Sunday. Other than that a lot of finding and we didn’t find many at all.Now we gotta head off to our other appointment and then have the meeting tonight. Woopdeedoo!
I love you! This week I missed Christmas more than I did at Christmas. Remembered all of the wonderful Christmases I have had with my family.
I love you! This week I missed Christmas more than I did at Christmas. Remembered all of the wonderful Christmases I have had with my family.
January 12, 2009
Hello Family,
Well last week started off pretty good. We taught our investigator Eduardo, He had a really hard time this week. His cars aren’t working very well. He has two of the same exact car and so just takes parts from one and puts them in the other but somethings wrong that he can’t fix that easy so he’s worried about money because he is receiving social security and can’t pay too much for it. He’s taking car of his dad with alsheimers and has diabetes and just can’t quiet seem to get things in order yet. So we’re helping him. We took him dinner this week and that turned his whole week around. he was way down and didn’t know if he wanted to be baptized or not. Then the next day after we brought dinner over I asked him what his goals are for the new year and he told me above anything else, to be baptized. He still forgets a lot but we are working on that having him write everything down and showing him videos and piuctures and everything just like a little kid. Last night we went to visit him but he wasn’t there so we sat and talked with his dad. I asked him if I could share a scripture with him and he said no then a minute later asked again and he said no then again and he said he’d love to hear a scripture. Then he took the book and told me it’s the best book in the world. Then he went inside grabbed eduardos book of mormon and said we have to throw it away because it’s a bad book. =) that was an interesting night. Eduardo never showed up so we just left him there listening to his music. My companion wont stop talking about his dads corvette. His dads brother died and left his corvette in his will for him so he’s writing about all the perks and stuff and he just keeps shoving it in that he will be driving it in less that a year. He’s a good companion but full of himself and kinda trunky. Although last night we had a great Family Home evening with The Gracia familia. They are a family that was baptized 25 years ago and their conversion story is so neat. But we shared the Tree of life story and then at the end shared somethings very special to us. We shared pictures of our families. I loved that! Sharing piuctures of all ya’all I Liked finding the pictures to take as well I really only have pictures from MTC and stuff before that but they worked perfect! I Loved it! This last week we went out to find a lot! But have no new investigators. This has been a pretty hard area. Trying to stay under our miles for the weeks and find new people. We need to come up with some other ways to find. Like light contacting or something like that. Something to spice up our time. Woohoo!I Would Love some pictures! If you guys have prints that you would like to send go for it. That way I can have them to show to familias and stuff. Well There really wasn’t too much else this week. Just A bunch of food and yeah. We got sams club cards so we can buy our food in bulk at the beginning of the month and be set. I like it! I hope I don’t get transferred to the islands now. This week didn’t really have any other exciting things. We did a service project scraping paint of the sidewalk at this one lady’s house. He son is the Crazy one Nelson Plays the guitar and sings and just flat out crazy!
This week I have had some great study times. Reading around alma 40’s and how alma is preparing his sons to preach and be missionaries. I have really realized that everything we do is Preparing us for something bigger something greater further down the road. We are preparing the investigators for their baptisms and to be Members of the True church of Jesus Christ.
I know that this is the work of the lord! I am so grateful for Jesus Christ so grateful for te scriptures and the joy we can have in our lives through the gospel! I Love You!Send me Pictures and letters and CDs and Love! =) Sorry this is a day late! Muah!
Well last week started off pretty good. We taught our investigator Eduardo, He had a really hard time this week. His cars aren’t working very well. He has two of the same exact car and so just takes parts from one and puts them in the other but somethings wrong that he can’t fix that easy so he’s worried about money because he is receiving social security and can’t pay too much for it. He’s taking car of his dad with alsheimers and has diabetes and just can’t quiet seem to get things in order yet. So we’re helping him. We took him dinner this week and that turned his whole week around. he was way down and didn’t know if he wanted to be baptized or not. Then the next day after we brought dinner over I asked him what his goals are for the new year and he told me above anything else, to be baptized. He still forgets a lot but we are working on that having him write everything down and showing him videos and piuctures and everything just like a little kid. Last night we went to visit him but he wasn’t there so we sat and talked with his dad. I asked him if I could share a scripture with him and he said no then a minute later asked again and he said no then again and he said he’d love to hear a scripture. Then he took the book and told me it’s the best book in the world. Then he went inside grabbed eduardos book of mormon and said we have to throw it away because it’s a bad book. =) that was an interesting night. Eduardo never showed up so we just left him there listening to his music. My companion wont stop talking about his dads corvette. His dads brother died and left his corvette in his will for him so he’s writing about all the perks and stuff and he just keeps shoving it in that he will be driving it in less that a year. He’s a good companion but full of himself and kinda trunky. Although last night we had a great Family Home evening with The Gracia familia. They are a family that was baptized 25 years ago and their conversion story is so neat. But we shared the Tree of life story and then at the end shared somethings very special to us. We shared pictures of our families. I loved that! Sharing piuctures of all ya’all I Liked finding the pictures to take as well I really only have pictures from MTC and stuff before that but they worked perfect! I Loved it! This last week we went out to find a lot! But have no new investigators. This has been a pretty hard area. Trying to stay under our miles for the weeks and find new people. We need to come up with some other ways to find. Like light contacting or something like that. Something to spice up our time. Woohoo!I Would Love some pictures! If you guys have prints that you would like to send go for it. That way I can have them to show to familias and stuff. Well There really wasn’t too much else this week. Just A bunch of food and yeah. We got sams club cards so we can buy our food in bulk at the beginning of the month and be set. I like it! I hope I don’t get transferred to the islands now. This week didn’t really have any other exciting things. We did a service project scraping paint of the sidewalk at this one lady’s house. He son is the Crazy one Nelson Plays the guitar and sings and just flat out crazy!
This week I have had some great study times. Reading around alma 40’s and how alma is preparing his sons to preach and be missionaries. I have really realized that everything we do is Preparing us for something bigger something greater further down the road. We are preparing the investigators for their baptisms and to be Members of the True church of Jesus Christ.
I know that this is the work of the lord! I am so grateful for Jesus Christ so grateful for te scriptures and the joy we can have in our lives through the gospel! I Love You!Send me Pictures and letters and CDs and Love! =) Sorry this is a day late! Muah!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)