April 28, 2009
Mi Ta Stima Boso
Hello! Family! That is the language I am learning now! Papiamento! AAAAHHHH! It is just like the beginning of my mission! Just like I am right back with a trainer. It is much like a desert here. I honestly feel like I just started my mission again! I feel like I have a much higher bar to work for. President sends people here who he trusts and also people he knows need help learning to work and be obedient. I hope its not the latter. =) Dutch is something that presidents asked that we learn but the papiamento is what everyone speaks. So when I get home I will bear my testimony in English Spanish Papiamento and Dutch! My goal is to get the hang of Dutch before this transfer is over. My mind will be swimming in lanuages. It already is. I sent you guys the tape player and you can hear i can't make up my mind some times on what language to use. for example the word pueblo in spanish doesn't have an exact translation that I can think of it means town and people but to say pueblo just makes more sense to me.
I was in my interview with president and at the very end while he was saying the prayer Islands popped into my mind... =) and so I said. Hey president. I don't want to bother you so I will only say it once...If you ever have the chance to send me to the islands I would love it!
he then replied well how can you know if you've never been? and I said I dont know but I would love the experience. and he replied what a coincidence because you're going on monday! I didn't believe him. But now I'm here. Its much different. Cactus here. Still coconuts and stuff but not so green. More iguanas. I am in curacao right now and on friday I get on another plane to go to Aruba. =) Here in curacao there are tons of white people so you think they are gringos and want to speak english to them but they are all from holland and speak dutch! AAAHHH! GIFT OF TONGUES! I need it. But yes...As for this journey of my mission... Just like the beginning only now I am more comfortable with teaching I just need to learn the language. I don't have a whole lot more time but I just want you all to know that I love you and that more than ever if you could keep me in your prayers so I can get this language down quickly. I love you!
I left my old area. A fabulous family that would have gotten baptized. and the president closed my area after me. So now there are only two missionaries in that ward. I believe that bishopric will be changed here soon. Who knows.
Heat wise. I am pretty much just starting over again... and its only going to get hotter. I sweat nonstop and smell horrible all day long. from when I get out of the shower until I soap up the next day. Its a great feeling I'm thinking after the mission I will only need to shower like once a week. It will be so cold I will never sweat nor do anything because I will be so cold. who knows. That is a long ways away. Shorter than it was. And shorter again. "I'm older than i've ever been and now I'm even older...and now I'm even older."
AAAHHHH!!! I have mixed feelings about being here. I am excited and can't wait to get to Aruba. but the language just like at the beginning is a little overwhelming.
Tell people... especially Galina...that I will only get letters every three weeks. So don't write me a whole ton.... I mean you could but I wont get it for a while. President will be here on Friday. He will bring mail so if you want to send me something do it today or tomorrow and I will get it on Friday hopefully! But probably not. Everything will be sent to the office address because the mail here is even slower. They told me it took a thanksgiving card till february to arrive. So it would be faster to send it through the office and hope President doesn't lose it on the plane=) no big packages...it is hard for president to bring big packages for all 20 missionaries down here. I Love you all time to go! STUDY YOUR DUTCH!
April 21, 2009
Hello. Well This week was great! Here is a great Story… =)I really love being a missionary. We had an amazing experience this last week. I talked a little last week about a family we received. We were fasting for 2 of our investigators to be able to get closer to baptism. It was one of the most dilligent fasts I remember doing in my life. I did everything according to how I have learned to fast. When we closed our fast not even 10 minutes after we recieved a phone call. It was the elders from mayaguez with a refference for us. Someone that had shown up at church and wanted to come again. We had his name and phone number and were ready to call. We didn't end up calling till wednesday. But we were in the area where they live, and called them to see if we could set up a date to come back. He asked us if we had time that same day. We said..."Well were pretty close are you home?" He excitedly said "yes yes i'll come down to let you in" He came down and we started talking with them just to get to know them The first things they said were "I was baptized but she isn't baptized, We're not married but talked to the bishop about getting married and she wants to get baptized when she learns the charlas, and her son wants to get baptized but has to wait till he's 8." So we taught them and then they were asking us to come back. They want us to come by as frequent as possible came to family home evening last night and everything. I Am SO EXCITED FOR THIS FAMILY!It reminds me of Jesus Christ. When he was suffering in the Garden of Getshemany He always turned to the will of the father. In Mosiah 4:9 talks about the many things of god which we cannot comprehend.We started our fast for these two investigators. They aren't progressing very fast but He still blessed us. One of them actually stopped progressing but still he blesses us for our sacrifice. I Love Being A Missionary
I wrote that in a letter I sent you. They are amazing and tonight we are eating dinner there. =)
This week we also had some good lessons and some bummer lessons. I am learning a lot about talking to people in preach my gospel. There are so many promises there that if I really just talk to everyone then we will have more people to teach that we will have more things to do.
On Saturday we went over to Santos and Marias to eat dinner and teach them Spanish. We were teaching Spanish and it started to rain.. Dum Dum Dum. Then the lightning started dum dum dum. Then as it was time to go home the rain started even harder like it is doing now. 90 and raining. =) but then we were heading home and they live out in the boonies. So we were going on curvy roads and on the biggest curve we started hydroplaning. I turned the tires and got them to grip again but before I could get it out we hit the guard rail. At about 20 miles an hour. We dented the front bumper and that was it. Didn’t break the light nothing just dented the front bumper. Then we were over at chory’s house (an awesome member) who owns a tire shop, and he looked at the car and said “bring it by my place tomorrow and we’ll fix it.” So we took it over and one of his employees just took the bumper off and popped it out and then chory sent us over to his brothers tire shop and he gave us some Satin Wax. And we put it on and now its almost as good as new. AMAZING! This member is amazing He feeds us all the time he Fixes our car for free and wont let the mission pay him. And then on top of it Feeds us even more. When I leave this area I am going to miss his family! We are teaching his son right now to prepare for a mission… (he’s 12) =) they want him to start early.
But I am fine one elder in back wasn’t wearing his seatbelt and So now I don’t start the car without all seatbelts on. He had to write that he wasn’t wearing it on the report. We called and talked with the car coordinator and told us not to worry about it just get on with the work and be more cautious next time.
That was my week… By the way no one else in the car got hurt either. We’re all fine.
WOOHOO! Only one more week of this transfer. New Companion? New area? I will know next Monday. =)
I love you miss you!
I wrote that in a letter I sent you. They are amazing and tonight we are eating dinner there. =)
This week we also had some good lessons and some bummer lessons. I am learning a lot about talking to people in preach my gospel. There are so many promises there that if I really just talk to everyone then we will have more people to teach that we will have more things to do.
On Saturday we went over to Santos and Marias to eat dinner and teach them Spanish. We were teaching Spanish and it started to rain.. Dum Dum Dum. Then the lightning started dum dum dum. Then as it was time to go home the rain started even harder like it is doing now. 90 and raining. =) but then we were heading home and they live out in the boonies. So we were going on curvy roads and on the biggest curve we started hydroplaning. I turned the tires and got them to grip again but before I could get it out we hit the guard rail. At about 20 miles an hour. We dented the front bumper and that was it. Didn’t break the light nothing just dented the front bumper. Then we were over at chory’s house (an awesome member) who owns a tire shop, and he looked at the car and said “bring it by my place tomorrow and we’ll fix it.” So we took it over and one of his employees just took the bumper off and popped it out and then chory sent us over to his brothers tire shop and he gave us some Satin Wax. And we put it on and now its almost as good as new. AMAZING! This member is amazing He feeds us all the time he Fixes our car for free and wont let the mission pay him. And then on top of it Feeds us even more. When I leave this area I am going to miss his family! We are teaching his son right now to prepare for a mission… (he’s 12) =) they want him to start early.
But I am fine one elder in back wasn’t wearing his seatbelt and So now I don’t start the car without all seatbelts on. He had to write that he wasn’t wearing it on the report. We called and talked with the car coordinator and told us not to worry about it just get on with the work and be more cautious next time.
That was my week… By the way no one else in the car got hurt either. We’re all fine.
WOOHOO! Only one more week of this transfer. New Companion? New area? I will know next Monday. =)
I love you miss you!
April 13, 2009
Aaron Ellis to me show details 9:00 AM (3 hours ago) Reply
Hello family. I went to the doctor today. I told her about it all and she perscribed me a few simple small medicines and one is for allergy to see if thats what is it. I also talked to her about the........... She said she thinks its trauma from the bicycle and that she will put me on an antiinflamatory to see if thats what it is she also doesn't want me to ride a bike for a while... uh... hmm
She said i do need a better bike seat. and I am looking around here but there aren't a whole lot of bike stores. This week. We had a few great lessons with our investigators and we are helping a few get closer to baptism. This last week we really had a big Breakthrough with our investigator Zully. Her mom Madeline is the one who got baptized already. Madeline says things like “I just wish my family would understand this message so That they could know about the temple and about how our families can be together forever. That has really brought me So much Joy this week also makes me miss the fam as well but more joy than anything else. I really realized that The reason I came out was because I loved my family. I knew that we have the chance to be together forever. I know that god loves us and has given us this opportunity. How wonderful are the opportunities we have. We also had some great lessons with Madeline’s mom. Who is close to baptism as well and Madeline said about her. “Shes hard to get to but when she understands that she can see her children that have died again she wont waste any time getting baptized. So we are planning to talk more about the Families in the Plan of salvation.” We found out one of the biggest doubts Zully Had was serving a mission. She thought that the church just calls you to serve a mission. So we talked to her about that and how its something that you apply for and that brought comfort to her. But we did explain that She will be making a covenant to always be a witness of Christ. We answered questions and helped her realize that she can have answers easier if she just gets baptized. Her mom testified of the Holy Ghost and it was wonderful. We fasted for her to get closer to her baptism and a few hours after we ended our fast we saw these blessings we were finally after 6 month able to Crack this M&M Find what was inside. She talked more openly with us and asked questions for the first time. Even corrected us on a few things. It was a great lesson. I have now gained a strong testimony of the Fast. BUT something else I want to make sure I do is follow up because just like faith without works a fast without works won’t work either. I can Prepare my field for rain but if I am not harvesting it when it comes it wouldn’t have been worth it. I had a great week in that sense. In Puerto rico and every other Catholic Country, they celebrate the Holy week. Or in Spanish “La Semana Santa” This week people don’t have school places are closed and SO MANY PEOPLE WORSHIP THEIR CROSSES AND STATUES OF JESUS AND MARY. Man it is honestly so sad. Something I noticed as reading through doctrine and covenants is that In Gods Judgement he has his church and then all the rest are one. There is the one true church and then all the rest are Together forming as described in The vision of the Tree of life. So many people say the one thing that bugs me the most. They have 2 phrases that they say all the time. “Si dios Quiere” or in English “If God wants it.” And “Solo Hay un Dios” “There is only one god.” They say it but they don’t mean what they say. They don’t understand it. If there is only one God then why do the different religions explain or describe such different Gods. The scriptures mean what they say. One Lord One Faith One Baptism. Ephesians 4:5 I don’t get it. But on Friday we got to go to the house of Elsie. Madelines mom and we watched the Processional. There were thousands of people walking through the pueblo (town center?) Walking behind three big things they were carrying. A Huge cross. A Statue of Christ Carrying his cross. And a Statue of Maria. It was scary. Completely drove the spirit away. We didn’t stay long just because it was so disheartening. I couldn’t believe that they were so engrossed in this tradition. They were reciting prayers. Another thing that I just don’t get. They recite these prayers but reject the teachings that Christ gave about the prayer. In matthew 6 he teaches the apostles how to pray. He tells them in this manner pray. And gives them this example. BUT right before that he tells them NOT TO USE VAIN REPETITIONS. And TELLS THEM NOT TO PRAY IN THE STREETS AND ON THE CORNERS TO BE SEEN. I don’t understand how they say they follow Christ but break the first two commandments by worshipping Mary and then don’t follow Christ’s teachings. But for this reason I am here. I am here with HOPE. Ether Chapter 12 is my favorite chapter in the Book of mormon. There are 4 or 5 verses that I absolutely love. Starting with the trial of your faith. The Faith in verse 4 Faith is a hope for a better world. This chapter explains the progression of life. Or the mission or anything. Starting with the faith I have the faith That I have been sent here for a purpose to teach those that are ready to listen and who have decided to open their hearts and follow the direction in proverbs 3:5. I have been trying my faith My faith is put to trial every day when I see someone who I know I should contact knowing that God has called me to talk to all. But I never let my faith waiver and try to always follow through to see the blessings of this trial. Then as it explains in verse 26 in Ether 12. Fools mock but they shall mourn. I know that although they may mock and make fun of us and throw rocks at us whatever, it does not change the fact that I am here to handle it and serve. Explains the prayer and the blessings in verse 27 and says I the lord give weaknesses unto man so they can humble themselves before me. And when they come unto me Then shall I make their weak things become strong. Just like was said in general conference. The lord shapes the back so we can carry the burden. This week in church in someone’s testimony he said “Dios no va a quitar el cargo pero dara fuerza a la espada para que podemos sostenerlo” I am so grateful to be a missionary and to be able to bring this message to the people. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! I really do It is by far the hardest thing I have ever done but the Most rewarding the most satisfying the most Strengthening Work I have ever done. I Love You Family! I Really Do. I miss You and I wish you all a great week!You son and Super Dooper Missionary. (Well trying… Then shall your weak things become strong =)P.S. I encourage you to find the smiley face in the book of mormon. There is one I have found for sure. =) I love it!
I Love You!Les Amo. Mama Te amo!
Hello family. I went to the doctor today. I told her about it all and she perscribed me a few simple small medicines and one is for allergy to see if thats what is it. I also talked to her about the........... She said she thinks its trauma from the bicycle and that she will put me on an antiinflamatory to see if thats what it is she also doesn't want me to ride a bike for a while... uh... hmm
She said i do need a better bike seat. and I am looking around here but there aren't a whole lot of bike stores. This week. We had a few great lessons with our investigators and we are helping a few get closer to baptism. This last week we really had a big Breakthrough with our investigator Zully. Her mom Madeline is the one who got baptized already. Madeline says things like “I just wish my family would understand this message so That they could know about the temple and about how our families can be together forever. That has really brought me So much Joy this week also makes me miss the fam as well but more joy than anything else. I really realized that The reason I came out was because I loved my family. I knew that we have the chance to be together forever. I know that god loves us and has given us this opportunity. How wonderful are the opportunities we have. We also had some great lessons with Madeline’s mom. Who is close to baptism as well and Madeline said about her. “Shes hard to get to but when she understands that she can see her children that have died again she wont waste any time getting baptized. So we are planning to talk more about the Families in the Plan of salvation.” We found out one of the biggest doubts Zully Had was serving a mission. She thought that the church just calls you to serve a mission. So we talked to her about that and how its something that you apply for and that brought comfort to her. But we did explain that She will be making a covenant to always be a witness of Christ. We answered questions and helped her realize that she can have answers easier if she just gets baptized. Her mom testified of the Holy Ghost and it was wonderful. We fasted for her to get closer to her baptism and a few hours after we ended our fast we saw these blessings we were finally after 6 month able to Crack this M&M Find what was inside. She talked more openly with us and asked questions for the first time. Even corrected us on a few things. It was a great lesson. I have now gained a strong testimony of the Fast. BUT something else I want to make sure I do is follow up because just like faith without works a fast without works won’t work either. I can Prepare my field for rain but if I am not harvesting it when it comes it wouldn’t have been worth it. I had a great week in that sense. In Puerto rico and every other Catholic Country, they celebrate the Holy week. Or in Spanish “La Semana Santa” This week people don’t have school places are closed and SO MANY PEOPLE WORSHIP THEIR CROSSES AND STATUES OF JESUS AND MARY. Man it is honestly so sad. Something I noticed as reading through doctrine and covenants is that In Gods Judgement he has his church and then all the rest are one. There is the one true church and then all the rest are Together forming as described in The vision of the Tree of life. So many people say the one thing that bugs me the most. They have 2 phrases that they say all the time. “Si dios Quiere” or in English “If God wants it.” And “Solo Hay un Dios” “There is only one god.” They say it but they don’t mean what they say. They don’t understand it. If there is only one God then why do the different religions explain or describe such different Gods. The scriptures mean what they say. One Lord One Faith One Baptism. Ephesians 4:5 I don’t get it. But on Friday we got to go to the house of Elsie. Madelines mom and we watched the Processional. There were thousands of people walking through the pueblo (town center?) Walking behind three big things they were carrying. A Huge cross. A Statue of Christ Carrying his cross. And a Statue of Maria. It was scary. Completely drove the spirit away. We didn’t stay long just because it was so disheartening. I couldn’t believe that they were so engrossed in this tradition. They were reciting prayers. Another thing that I just don’t get. They recite these prayers but reject the teachings that Christ gave about the prayer. In matthew 6 he teaches the apostles how to pray. He tells them in this manner pray. And gives them this example. BUT right before that he tells them NOT TO USE VAIN REPETITIONS. And TELLS THEM NOT TO PRAY IN THE STREETS AND ON THE CORNERS TO BE SEEN. I don’t understand how they say they follow Christ but break the first two commandments by worshipping Mary and then don’t follow Christ’s teachings. But for this reason I am here. I am here with HOPE. Ether Chapter 12 is my favorite chapter in the Book of mormon. There are 4 or 5 verses that I absolutely love. Starting with the trial of your faith. The Faith in verse 4 Faith is a hope for a better world. This chapter explains the progression of life. Or the mission or anything. Starting with the faith I have the faith That I have been sent here for a purpose to teach those that are ready to listen and who have decided to open their hearts and follow the direction in proverbs 3:5. I have been trying my faith My faith is put to trial every day when I see someone who I know I should contact knowing that God has called me to talk to all. But I never let my faith waiver and try to always follow through to see the blessings of this trial. Then as it explains in verse 26 in Ether 12. Fools mock but they shall mourn. I know that although they may mock and make fun of us and throw rocks at us whatever, it does not change the fact that I am here to handle it and serve. Explains the prayer and the blessings in verse 27 and says I the lord give weaknesses unto man so they can humble themselves before me. And when they come unto me Then shall I make their weak things become strong. Just like was said in general conference. The lord shapes the back so we can carry the burden. This week in church in someone’s testimony he said “Dios no va a quitar el cargo pero dara fuerza a la espada para que podemos sostenerlo” I am so grateful to be a missionary and to be able to bring this message to the people. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! I really do It is by far the hardest thing I have ever done but the Most rewarding the most satisfying the most Strengthening Work I have ever done. I Love You Family! I Really Do. I miss You and I wish you all a great week!You son and Super Dooper Missionary. (Well trying… Then shall your weak things become strong =)P.S. I encourage you to find the smiley face in the book of mormon. There is one I have found for sure. =) I love it!
I Love You!Les Amo. Mama Te amo!
April 6, 2009
Sorry these last few days have been way busy tons of driving and not a whole lot of work done but a lot learned. I will just about know the whole west side of the island when i finish my mission. The best part is its a small island so it wont change much when i come back. =) BUt this week aside from an awesome conference we had contacted a guy last sunday that really wanted to talk to the missionaries. So we went on friday after our weekly planning session. We showed up and first thing he said in english (he speaks english) was. I TOLD YOU TO CALL ME BEFORE YOU CAME. immediately I am thinking OH crap...in my head. but then he said. But don't worry about it i need to talk to you guys. He said that three times previously missionaries had come by but never returned. He wanted the book of mormon every time and no one brought it back to him. So i told him we had it for him and then talked. He told us that we showed up on the perfect day and if I would have called him he wouldn't have answered nor let us come over but he was glad we just showed up. Turned out his Dad died a few days before and he had just burried him that same day. How sad it was but he accepted us and let us teach him a lesson which was a little long but really good. I feel bad however becuase my companion doesn't know perfect english and so I taught too much. I should have trusted in him and the spirit to say what needed to be said because its probably the same with him and my spanish. I feel really bad about it and from now on i am going to trust in him and his english. It was weird to be on the other side of the spectrum. But Other than that this week was not so productive. We had a wonderful zone conference I got a doctors appointment set up for next week. because i have had a cold now for about 2 months.
As far as the pain I was having. It is fine and Nurse Jones said that since it isn't hurting now that it should be fine. But if it starts hurting or other symptoms then i need to go in right away. but she said according to my description it sounded fine. That call scared the crap out of me. We were driving and sister jones told me she needed to talk to me when i could be in private. so i asked her if i could talk to her later that night. So the rest of the day i was terrified. "What happened. Why does she want to talk to me what happened to my family." I had the worst day ever worrying about everything. then finally the day ended I called her and she said... Ok.. Elder. You father called and told me something. and myheart sank "I knew something must have happened", he says youve been having pain........". It was about all I could do to not start cracking up! Oh Man that was one of the funniest things I had ever heard. Sister Jones asking me about that........ =) all my worry went away. That was about two weeks ago but still brings a smile to my face.
Yesterday i was uh... Jumping on my bed. =) HAILEE WHEN PARENTS SAY DONT JUMP ON YOUR BED THERE IS A REASON.. I was on my trip down and my foot just happened to catch on the bed frame next to my bed. and Boy did it feel and bleed great! SUPER!!! I cleaned it out and put a bandage on it. Should be fine but it hurt like crazy! =)
Well don't have too much more time. But I love you!
As far as the pain I was having. It is fine and Nurse Jones said that since it isn't hurting now that it should be fine. But if it starts hurting or other symptoms then i need to go in right away. but she said according to my description it sounded fine. That call scared the crap out of me. We were driving and sister jones told me she needed to talk to me when i could be in private. so i asked her if i could talk to her later that night. So the rest of the day i was terrified. "What happened. Why does she want to talk to me what happened to my family." I had the worst day ever worrying about everything. then finally the day ended I called her and she said... Ok.. Elder. You father called and told me something. and myheart sank "I knew something must have happened", he says youve been having pain........". It was about all I could do to not start cracking up! Oh Man that was one of the funniest things I had ever heard. Sister Jones asking me about that........ =) all my worry went away. That was about two weeks ago but still brings a smile to my face.
Yesterday i was uh... Jumping on my bed. =) HAILEE WHEN PARENTS SAY DONT JUMP ON YOUR BED THERE IS A REASON.. I was on my trip down and my foot just happened to catch on the bed frame next to my bed. and Boy did it feel and bleed great! SUPER!!! I cleaned it out and put a bandage on it. Should be fine but it hurt like crazy! =)
Well don't have too much more time. But I love you!
March 30, 2009
Hello Family,
This week was great. It was a lot of work and at times a little discouraging but because of my numbers this work is becoming more and more enjoyable. My companion and I were talking this week about how we are enjoying finding more this week. We started counting our contacts and because of this I feel like I am working more and getting more done. It is a great feeling. This next week should be good as well. Although we are losing miles this next month and so we are going to be moving all around either on foot or on bike.
We had some great lessons this week and I really enjoyed the spirit I felt in most of them. We spoke with a member that is on the virge of divorce. Because of this he has been really sad and we started sharing scriptures with him and he like always loved it but as well the spirit was so strong SO STRONG!!! Oh man I loved that lesson. He was touched by it and his wife who hasn’t come to church in months came! Woohoo! She came.
I was writing my email to you but it all got deleted again… I hate that. But this letter will be a little short because I don’t have a whole lot of time left. But this week was a great amount of work with a great amount of being completely wiped at the end of the day. It is kind of taking me back to my first transfer but without the feelings of wanting to go home. Man it is hard to believe that 1) I already have almost 7 months as a missionary. 2) that my first transfer was so hard. It really was a huge change. A huge shock to my attitude, my life. I just always thought about home about what I wanted to do when I got back what I could have been doing if I were home instead, all of the things that I did before.
Now it is almost completely different. The mission is hard but the wonderful opportunities are so amazing! Not having the worry about homework about work… I just know that every day I go out to find people and teach people. The simple truths of the gospel. I do have to work with some meatheads at times but the amount of blessing I receive are so worth it. The wonderful feelings I receive are so much more than I deserve.
Our stake president had an awesome meeting last night for the priesthood. All of the missionaries were in a room and teaching a priesthood ordinance. I taught about dedicating graves. The stake president started by telling all the men. “It doesn’t matter if you have 95 years in the church… If you have a month, welcome. If you have a day, I would like to personally welcome you. If you have been in the church more than a year more than 50 years I want you to know this night is your night to be quiet. Your night to listen to these trained missionaries. Then we taught all the priesthood ordinances and then afterward when we met all up again the brothers started arguing about how to do a blessing. It was pretty funny to watch how heated it got but the president just said “brothers please. Just listen we are reading this straight out of the General Handbook for the church. It doesn’t matter who taught you where you read it before…we are reading it tonight straight out of the book.” Then a member stood up (who just got home from his mission) and said “brothers. You are all acting like Pharisees. Listen to the stake president. Listen to the book that the prophet has approved. Forget what our fathers did listen to modern day revelation.” President pretty much ended the meeting with that and it was great. It was fairly entertaining. But a great activity.
We are getting a new mission leader for our ward. He is great. He has a strong testimony and is in Guiness book of world records for the only person to live from a stage 3 west nile virus. Hector Morales. Look him up.
We are going to be training him straight from the Preach my gospel DVD’s DAD… you should get them for the ward. Watch them use them. They gave us as missionaries so much excitement to do this work! Really they are great.
Well I love you! Have a wonderful day!
This week was great. It was a lot of work and at times a little discouraging but because of my numbers this work is becoming more and more enjoyable. My companion and I were talking this week about how we are enjoying finding more this week. We started counting our contacts and because of this I feel like I am working more and getting more done. It is a great feeling. This next week should be good as well. Although we are losing miles this next month and so we are going to be moving all around either on foot or on bike.
We had some great lessons this week and I really enjoyed the spirit I felt in most of them. We spoke with a member that is on the virge of divorce. Because of this he has been really sad and we started sharing scriptures with him and he like always loved it but as well the spirit was so strong SO STRONG!!! Oh man I loved that lesson. He was touched by it and his wife who hasn’t come to church in months came! Woohoo! She came.
I was writing my email to you but it all got deleted again… I hate that. But this letter will be a little short because I don’t have a whole lot of time left. But this week was a great amount of work with a great amount of being completely wiped at the end of the day. It is kind of taking me back to my first transfer but without the feelings of wanting to go home. Man it is hard to believe that 1) I already have almost 7 months as a missionary. 2) that my first transfer was so hard. It really was a huge change. A huge shock to my attitude, my life. I just always thought about home about what I wanted to do when I got back what I could have been doing if I were home instead, all of the things that I did before.
Now it is almost completely different. The mission is hard but the wonderful opportunities are so amazing! Not having the worry about homework about work… I just know that every day I go out to find people and teach people. The simple truths of the gospel. I do have to work with some meatheads at times but the amount of blessing I receive are so worth it. The wonderful feelings I receive are so much more than I deserve.
Our stake president had an awesome meeting last night for the priesthood. All of the missionaries were in a room and teaching a priesthood ordinance. I taught about dedicating graves. The stake president started by telling all the men. “It doesn’t matter if you have 95 years in the church… If you have a month, welcome. If you have a day, I would like to personally welcome you. If you have been in the church more than a year more than 50 years I want you to know this night is your night to be quiet. Your night to listen to these trained missionaries. Then we taught all the priesthood ordinances and then afterward when we met all up again the brothers started arguing about how to do a blessing. It was pretty funny to watch how heated it got but the president just said “brothers please. Just listen we are reading this straight out of the General Handbook for the church. It doesn’t matter who taught you where you read it before…we are reading it tonight straight out of the book.” Then a member stood up (who just got home from his mission) and said “brothers. You are all acting like Pharisees. Listen to the stake president. Listen to the book that the prophet has approved. Forget what our fathers did listen to modern day revelation.” President pretty much ended the meeting with that and it was great. It was fairly entertaining. But a great activity.
We are getting a new mission leader for our ward. He is great. He has a strong testimony and is in Guiness book of world records for the only person to live from a stage 3 west nile virus. Hector Morales. Look him up.
We are going to be training him straight from the Preach my gospel DVD’s DAD… you should get them for the ward. Watch them use them. They gave us as missionaries so much excitement to do this work! Really they are great.
Well I love you! Have a wonderful day!
March 24, 2009
Well family this week. Hmmm. Many things going on. Many changes and now we are out of miles in our car so not able to visit our investigators. Which is great. Not necessarily something I enjoy.
We had a great meeting with the bishopric here. It was one of the Most spiritless meetings I have ever been in. I left kind of upset and unexcited to do the work. But decided to just stick it to em and found like crazy Sunday night. It was good. And Monday yesterday we had a great time as well.
We had transfers on Wednesday and I got a new companion Elder Esturban. He is from Guatemala in the City south mission. So Ben might have served in his ward. My roommate matt might be serving in his ward right now. Pretty cool. He was almost a professional skateboarder right before the mission. He sent in his papers and everything and got his mission call then two weeks before he left he received an offer to be sponsored on a Guatemala competitive skate team to go compete all through central America. The missionaries spoke with him and said he just needed to pray and know what he needed to do. He prayed and received the strongest answer of his life that a mission was exactly what he needed to do. He is now in the mission and says that his family never thought he would serve a mission. That he was not worthy nor had the disres to serve a mission but decided to change. He came out and has been struggling since. He hasn’t broken any rules to get him sent home but has done quite a few things that aren’t so good. He came into this transfer tired of being a joke missionary. Tired of having the ward refer to him as Travieso or Mischief. So I am working hard with that. His biggest problem now is music that isn’t appropriate for a missionary. We are going to send those home pretty soon here. =) He’s Changing and I hope for the rest of his mission.
He has more time in the mission and for that I think he is the Senior comanion. He has a month and a half more than me. But he said he was told I am the senior companion. Either way we are both trying to work hard. Missionary work isn’t easy. And it takes some desire and diligence to not be lazy. To leave on time to not take too much time for lunch and so we of course still have a lot of room to improve but we are trying.
Today we are out of miles we are out of Money and so this P-day is going to be a beach day I’m thinking. =) Volleyball or something. Although I am excited for just a day of rest.
In Aprils Liahona or ensign for you guys it talks about a new book being published Volume 1 of the Joseph smith papers. It is a 30 volume series with two books coming out every year started this December. It is journal entries papers and anything that we have about or form joseph smith. Pretty cool sounding if you ask me. So ya. Check into it.
Last night we had Family Home evening at Chory’s house like normal but right before we had our Consecrated Finding time. We finished and walked back to the house and on our way home someone stopped us. He told us his life sucked and he wanted to change it. That he doesn’t agree with catholics and other religions because they worship Mary and all that. He said he is coming to church this next week Woohoo! He told us he was going to kill himself last night. So we talked to him and told him that god has a plan and not to worry. It was a nice little talk that we had with him. I felt great afterwards.
Other than that. Yeah
Life is great I’m am missionary. Got a lot of letters the other day. Mom that picture of you is beautiful! I showed it to our recent convert Madeline and she said “OH MY. HER EYES!!! YOU LOOK JUST LIKE YOUR MOM. HOW GORGEOUS!!!” =) she was amazed at how blue your eyes are.
JOSH WOOHOO!!! WAY TO GO!!! BRO!!! Hailee My favorite song from Wicked is
I’M DEFYING GRAVITY =)
I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY
We had a great meeting with the bishopric here. It was one of the Most spiritless meetings I have ever been in. I left kind of upset and unexcited to do the work. But decided to just stick it to em and found like crazy Sunday night. It was good. And Monday yesterday we had a great time as well.
We had transfers on Wednesday and I got a new companion Elder Esturban. He is from Guatemala in the City south mission. So Ben might have served in his ward. My roommate matt might be serving in his ward right now. Pretty cool. He was almost a professional skateboarder right before the mission. He sent in his papers and everything and got his mission call then two weeks before he left he received an offer to be sponsored on a Guatemala competitive skate team to go compete all through central America. The missionaries spoke with him and said he just needed to pray and know what he needed to do. He prayed and received the strongest answer of his life that a mission was exactly what he needed to do. He is now in the mission and says that his family never thought he would serve a mission. That he was not worthy nor had the disres to serve a mission but decided to change. He came out and has been struggling since. He hasn’t broken any rules to get him sent home but has done quite a few things that aren’t so good. He came into this transfer tired of being a joke missionary. Tired of having the ward refer to him as Travieso or Mischief. So I am working hard with that. His biggest problem now is music that isn’t appropriate for a missionary. We are going to send those home pretty soon here. =) He’s Changing and I hope for the rest of his mission.
He has more time in the mission and for that I think he is the Senior comanion. He has a month and a half more than me. But he said he was told I am the senior companion. Either way we are both trying to work hard. Missionary work isn’t easy. And it takes some desire and diligence to not be lazy. To leave on time to not take too much time for lunch and so we of course still have a lot of room to improve but we are trying.
Today we are out of miles we are out of Money and so this P-day is going to be a beach day I’m thinking. =) Volleyball or something. Although I am excited for just a day of rest.
In Aprils Liahona or ensign for you guys it talks about a new book being published Volume 1 of the Joseph smith papers. It is a 30 volume series with two books coming out every year started this December. It is journal entries papers and anything that we have about or form joseph smith. Pretty cool sounding if you ask me. So ya. Check into it.
Last night we had Family Home evening at Chory’s house like normal but right before we had our Consecrated Finding time. We finished and walked back to the house and on our way home someone stopped us. He told us his life sucked and he wanted to change it. That he doesn’t agree with catholics and other religions because they worship Mary and all that. He said he is coming to church this next week Woohoo! He told us he was going to kill himself last night. So we talked to him and told him that god has a plan and not to worry. It was a nice little talk that we had with him. I felt great afterwards.
Other than that. Yeah
Life is great I’m am missionary. Got a lot of letters the other day. Mom that picture of you is beautiful! I showed it to our recent convert Madeline and she said “OH MY. HER EYES!!! YOU LOOK JUST LIKE YOUR MOM. HOW GORGEOUS!!!” =) she was amazed at how blue your eyes are.
JOSH WOOHOO!!! WAY TO GO!!! BRO!!! Hailee My favorite song from Wicked is
I’M DEFYING GRAVITY =)
I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY
March 17, 2009
Ok this week! Whew. Me and my companion really wanted to finish out strong. He talked with a few investigators telling them he’s leaving this week and tried to get them to church because of that. Telling them that he would love to see them in church before he left. It worked with one and he loved it so much that he wants to come back next week. I taught the gospel priciples class this week AAAHHHH In spanish and on prophets and 1 whole hour! AAAHHH. Man it was scary. But we had our investigators ask a lot of questions which was great!
Monday for P-day we went to Caborojo to play arouind on the beach. We played football. There were some women sun bathing so we had to wait till they left. We played football in this coco feild. (coco is coconut in spanish) There were tons of coco trees and also these little spike things on the ground like they have at the beach house. We all took of our sandals because they were sandals and we didn’t want to play in em. So we were running all over and by the end my feet were very bloody and i have marks all over them. It was wonderful! They are healed now. Then we started a tradeoff with elder parodi from spain. He is pretty cool but i like having a gringo much more. You have to work a little harder to get along with a latino. Becuase the language isn’t there and also because they are a very different people. But yeah he was my companion for a day. We met with Madeline.....Last week we left her with this last Saturday to pray about to be baptized. She told me “Elder ellis don’t pressure me” and i told her i was just offering and she had her agency to choose. So we asked her to pray. Then at this Cita on Tuesday (cita is spanish for appointment) i called in the morning to comfirm and told her i was waiting for her answer and we would talk about it on Tuesday! So Tuesday rolls around we had a few more principles to teach and then here came the baptism question. We taught and asked. And she said yes! I didn’t believe her at first so i asked her again. She replied and said “Elder Ellis be careful or i might not” so i just sat there content as ever. What a great feeling of joy came over me. We taught over all the lessons. The cita was 3 hours. Way too long but we resolved doubts and Set a baptismal date. We asked about her daughter Zully and she still didn’t want to be baptized. So we just accepted it and moved on. She told me the water had to be warm or else she would get sick. So we devised a plan. Wednesday we got companions back and we worked hard. Thusrday we had a lesson with madeline again just to makes sure she was firm on her way to baptism. She was doing great.
Then we went and met with Madelines mom. Madeline gave her mom a book of mormon and her mom has read to Jacob 5 already and loves it. She asks us questions and we went over to teach her the first lesson. She honestly taught us. We went through and she told us things we forgot or didn’t mention and it was perfect. Friday we had another tradeoff and i was with elder galloway from redding california. He is way cool, a great elder and we enjoyed it thouroughly But we went and helped some people paint. I wore shorts.... Stupid. Man i got over 30 mosquito bites on my legs. Honestly. I stopped counting at 30. My leg was bright red. Luckily i didn’t get Denghey. That wouldn’t be fun!
Had a great afternoon and then we went home to go make dinner and i started making some pasta and we got a phone call. It was Maria Ramos. She told us she had dinner for us! Man it was amazing! Holy cow!!! We also got to meet her friend and he knew everything about the bible but wouldn’t listen to us. Said “oh it says that in the bible i don’t need the book of mormon. It was kind of a bummer but man dinner sure was great!
Then Saturday arrived! Elder Galloway and i arrived at the chapel at 8. We started filling up the font for 1 oclock and also we threw in some odd 40 pots of boiling water to try to heat it up a little. Didn’t do much becuase it was still cold... BUT it made it not freezing. We also in that time helped set up for a Quincenera. Or a 15th birthday party (like a sweet 16) They lady said this one was a small one and a small one costs over 3 thousand dollars. It was honestly like a wedding reception. Man.... Way to much for a 15 year old girl.
The baptism rolled around and it was wonderful! She was way excited her mom was way excited and the bishop was way excited. The bishop told us not to go visit her anymore... we continued to visit her because she wanted us to. And she finally got baptized. Like i said still working on her daughter. But we’ll see. Then on Sunday we had church and everything and Madeline was so happy to be there and we had her mom there as well. He mom said she felt like she was breathing pure air. =) she lvoed it and said it was a little long but loved it. Then as well we had an investigator named tony who we haven’t taught yet. He came and loved it. Said in elders quorum that He loves this church because he learns in church not just listens. And as well the other investigator said he would come just to say goodbye to my companion and so he came and Loved it as well and now he is excited to come back! MAN IT WAS GREAT!
Sunday afternoon we went and taught madeline about temples and sacred ordinances and she loved it. She has a goal to make it to the temple as soon as she can. Then on Monday yesterday we stopped by to each lunch at her house. She told us she had a dream about the temple. =) She said she saw everyone in white. The spirit was so strong and she was able to feel the presence of god and that she knew she had to make it to the temple as soon as she could. We were also talking with Herminio the man in the picture i sent you. He is her “boyfriend” more or less on and off. And we were talking and she reffered to going somewhere with everyone and i just shot in “after you get married in the temple right =)” Her eyes got huge...=) it was pretty funny. THEY JUST NEED TO GET MARRIED!!! HOW HAPPY THEY WOULD BE! ESPECIALLY IN THE TEMPLE!!! Oh man.
This week was a wonderful week... oh by the way I am staying! My comp is going ZL and i am going to be a Senior companion this tranfer! AAAAHHHHH I ONLY HAVE 4 TRANSFERS AND I’M GOING TO BE A SENIOR COMPANION!!!! That is crazy! Downright crazy!
****Maybe this is just what i am hearing i will know for sure tomorrow we’ll see!
It’s going to be a great transfer. I will be having a baptism or three. Woohoo!
Well i think that covers it all. My apartment is old gross and i am cleaning it up like crazy this week. Elder galloway and i are talking about doing some District cleaning one p-day at one apartment and the other at the other. Our sinks leak and the washing machine is almost unusable but these things will get fixed this transfer. My comp didnt want to call the reyes but i’m going to do it . The reyes are the housing coordinators and will get everything fixed. So i’m going to clean things up and get the stuff fixed. This morning we cleaned our couch and found some delightful Cockroach egg sacks. They are like little Mike ‘n’ Ike size black things full of eggs and then in a little while all these little baby cockroaches come out =) we have a kitchen drawer that every time you pull it out a few cockroaches run out and under all the utinsels. That will get cleaned and sprayed this week. Other than that i Love Being a missionary! Really!...
JOSH BETTER BE EXCITED TO GET TO THE GREATEST PLACE ON EARTH! Man i wrote that letter to galina and it made me realize how much i loved BYU-I My comps brother is going and he had the chance to go but he doesn’t think he wants to. He’s going to miss out.
But yeah! Love You all! Bye!
Monday for P-day we went to Caborojo to play arouind on the beach. We played football. There were some women sun bathing so we had to wait till they left. We played football in this coco feild. (coco is coconut in spanish) There were tons of coco trees and also these little spike things on the ground like they have at the beach house. We all took of our sandals because they were sandals and we didn’t want to play in em. So we were running all over and by the end my feet were very bloody and i have marks all over them. It was wonderful! They are healed now. Then we started a tradeoff with elder parodi from spain. He is pretty cool but i like having a gringo much more. You have to work a little harder to get along with a latino. Becuase the language isn’t there and also because they are a very different people. But yeah he was my companion for a day. We met with Madeline.....Last week we left her with this last Saturday to pray about to be baptized. She told me “Elder ellis don’t pressure me” and i told her i was just offering and she had her agency to choose. So we asked her to pray. Then at this Cita on Tuesday (cita is spanish for appointment) i called in the morning to comfirm and told her i was waiting for her answer and we would talk about it on Tuesday! So Tuesday rolls around we had a few more principles to teach and then here came the baptism question. We taught and asked. And she said yes! I didn’t believe her at first so i asked her again. She replied and said “Elder Ellis be careful or i might not” so i just sat there content as ever. What a great feeling of joy came over me. We taught over all the lessons. The cita was 3 hours. Way too long but we resolved doubts and Set a baptismal date. We asked about her daughter Zully and she still didn’t want to be baptized. So we just accepted it and moved on. She told me the water had to be warm or else she would get sick. So we devised a plan. Wednesday we got companions back and we worked hard. Thusrday we had a lesson with madeline again just to makes sure she was firm on her way to baptism. She was doing great.
Then we went and met with Madelines mom. Madeline gave her mom a book of mormon and her mom has read to Jacob 5 already and loves it. She asks us questions and we went over to teach her the first lesson. She honestly taught us. We went through and she told us things we forgot or didn’t mention and it was perfect. Friday we had another tradeoff and i was with elder galloway from redding california. He is way cool, a great elder and we enjoyed it thouroughly But we went and helped some people paint. I wore shorts.... Stupid. Man i got over 30 mosquito bites on my legs. Honestly. I stopped counting at 30. My leg was bright red. Luckily i didn’t get Denghey. That wouldn’t be fun!
Had a great afternoon and then we went home to go make dinner and i started making some pasta and we got a phone call. It was Maria Ramos. She told us she had dinner for us! Man it was amazing! Holy cow!!! We also got to meet her friend and he knew everything about the bible but wouldn’t listen to us. Said “oh it says that in the bible i don’t need the book of mormon. It was kind of a bummer but man dinner sure was great!
Then Saturday arrived! Elder Galloway and i arrived at the chapel at 8. We started filling up the font for 1 oclock and also we threw in some odd 40 pots of boiling water to try to heat it up a little. Didn’t do much becuase it was still cold... BUT it made it not freezing. We also in that time helped set up for a Quincenera. Or a 15th birthday party (like a sweet 16) They lady said this one was a small one and a small one costs over 3 thousand dollars. It was honestly like a wedding reception. Man.... Way to much for a 15 year old girl.
The baptism rolled around and it was wonderful! She was way excited her mom was way excited and the bishop was way excited. The bishop told us not to go visit her anymore... we continued to visit her because she wanted us to. And she finally got baptized. Like i said still working on her daughter. But we’ll see. Then on Sunday we had church and everything and Madeline was so happy to be there and we had her mom there as well. He mom said she felt like she was breathing pure air. =) she lvoed it and said it was a little long but loved it. Then as well we had an investigator named tony who we haven’t taught yet. He came and loved it. Said in elders quorum that He loves this church because he learns in church not just listens. And as well the other investigator said he would come just to say goodbye to my companion and so he came and Loved it as well and now he is excited to come back! MAN IT WAS GREAT!
Sunday afternoon we went and taught madeline about temples and sacred ordinances and she loved it. She has a goal to make it to the temple as soon as she can. Then on Monday yesterday we stopped by to each lunch at her house. She told us she had a dream about the temple. =) She said she saw everyone in white. The spirit was so strong and she was able to feel the presence of god and that she knew she had to make it to the temple as soon as she could. We were also talking with Herminio the man in the picture i sent you. He is her “boyfriend” more or less on and off. And we were talking and she reffered to going somewhere with everyone and i just shot in “after you get married in the temple right =)” Her eyes got huge...=) it was pretty funny. THEY JUST NEED TO GET MARRIED!!! HOW HAPPY THEY WOULD BE! ESPECIALLY IN THE TEMPLE!!! Oh man.
This week was a wonderful week... oh by the way I am staying! My comp is going ZL and i am going to be a Senior companion this tranfer! AAAAHHHHH I ONLY HAVE 4 TRANSFERS AND I’M GOING TO BE A SENIOR COMPANION!!!! That is crazy! Downright crazy!
****Maybe this is just what i am hearing i will know for sure tomorrow we’ll see!
It’s going to be a great transfer. I will be having a baptism or three. Woohoo!
Well i think that covers it all. My apartment is old gross and i am cleaning it up like crazy this week. Elder galloway and i are talking about doing some District cleaning one p-day at one apartment and the other at the other. Our sinks leak and the washing machine is almost unusable but these things will get fixed this transfer. My comp didnt want to call the reyes but i’m going to do it . The reyes are the housing coordinators and will get everything fixed. So i’m going to clean things up and get the stuff fixed. This morning we cleaned our couch and found some delightful Cockroach egg sacks. They are like little Mike ‘n’ Ike size black things full of eggs and then in a little while all these little baby cockroaches come out =) we have a kitchen drawer that every time you pull it out a few cockroaches run out and under all the utinsels. That will get cleaned and sprayed this week. Other than that i Love Being a missionary! Really!...
JOSH BETTER BE EXCITED TO GET TO THE GREATEST PLACE ON EARTH! Man i wrote that letter to galina and it made me realize how much i loved BYU-I My comps brother is going and he had the chance to go but he doesn’t think he wants to. He’s going to miss out.
But yeah! Love You all! Bye!
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