May 25, 2009

This week was very good. We had a bunch of great opportunities one of them being we were talking to an investigator and she just kind of got quiet and started to say somethings about joseph smith and asked us a few questions. Then she sat there and looked at us and said “elders. I read the pamphlet and to be honest with you, I feel that joseph smith was a prophet. I find it very hard for someone to make these things up. I also don’t understand how so many people could have just said that no one can see god. Then on top of all that while I was reading I just felt so much peace. So much Joy” the best part for me was when we finished the lesson finished talking about everything she just sat with a smile on her face and we asked if she had anymore questions and she said “oh no… they have all been answered.” She was so excited to read the book of mormon. She said I need to learn more about this. If it is true then I need to live it. As well she did have some questions about what exactly was the book of mormon and so we read in the introduction with her. She saw the Nephites and Lamanites and said “these names sound like they’re Egyptian, where are they from?” Then we explained to her that the book was written in reformed Egyptian and you could just see everything kind of click in her head. It was such a wonderful experience and only one of many we have been able to see here and I know that it is all because we are contacting so many more people. We’re not perfect but trying to talk to everyone.
We did have many other wonderful experiences this week as well and another one real quick was…We were getting our car fixed and we were waiting, discussing something, and a man walks up to us. We greeted him and he told us he was the mechanic working on our car and had taken it through the carwash. He told us. “The carwash is the only quiet time I have on this job.” He said he was able to just sit and relax for about 4 minutes. He listened to a song about Joseph smith and came out to ask us what the name of the CD was because he wanted a copy. We told him and asked to come over to his house to share more about the gospel. The part in preach my gospel is true! As we look to find people the lord puts them in our path. And sometimes they even come to us. I will definitely keep Natalee in my prayers and janna as well. and yeah i will write her a letter... Have you guys sent me a letter yet? becuase i haven't gotten one...
Today i went to go try to get a little coin purse to put all my coins in because they lowest bill is 10 flourines so i want something small to be able to keep them all in the same place. and so i met this lady she is from colombia and she says i speak better spanish than she does. She is a very cool person. I feel like i have a good friendship with her. He name is Josephina. She was sitting there and didn't have any of the purses i wanted. =) sounds funny huh. But i just started talking to her. She was shocked that we leave of family and friends for two years and that we buy our own food and have to live on our own and everything. She told us to come to her house to have colombian food... =) AREPAS!!! i haven't ever tried them but i am excited next sunday we've got lunch at her house. Then as well we are going to teach her and her husband and her nine year old kid. =) I am very excited. It will be great! My companion and i don't agree on many things and so it is really hard to work with him. He made us go to the store to get new wash mitts to wash the car becuase he washed something else with them... He has to have a seperate set for everything. and we can't use the same bucket to wash the car that we use to mop the floor. He tells me "I owned my own car washing business before the mission just trust me I know" so I just throw my hands in the air and say "your money =) go for it."
He is a "great" driver... =) and all of his companions have "complimented" his driving... I'm trying not to pick on him... its is just too easy some times. But it is really helping me be a nicer person and work on my christ like attributes. Just like missionary work you can't just be perfect at treating people with respect. It requires constant effort and conciousness of all people. Missionary work is the same you don't just get good at it sitting around. Nor with the time you have out. It requires constant effort.
I was studying in Matthew 24 today. and it makes me so sad. So many people don't read the bible don't study the scriptures... if they did they would know that there is one right way to do it. That God does have His way. In matthew 24 it explains alot about the false prophets. False Christs and how the ELECT will be decieved. It makes me sad that so many people don't really pay attention. The bible itself warns of that and says that the world will know and the coming of the son of man will be like the storm of lightning. Whew. So clear to me and my testimony has been strengthened so much by reading the bible and reading joseph smiths translation and reading all of the other works we have to study in the church. Joseph Smith was a prophet of God! The book of Mormon Pearl of Great Price and Doctrine and Covenants asnwers all our questions left unanswered by the bible. Almost every question people have for us we can answer by the book of mormon or bible. The sadness comes from people's lack of desire to search for it.
Maybe its because I am a missionary that I am so excited but I just don't know how someone wouldn't be concerned about doing what God wants. I don't Get that.
But I Love Being a Missionary!
Mi ta stima pa ta mishonero!
Me encanta Ser Misionero!
ik hou van zijn een zendeling!
Elder Ellis

May 18, 2009

Well family. This week was another great week! I felt so great going through each day and we sat down and realized i hadn't counted all of my contacts each day so i just went with what i had remembered. The wonderful miracle i have been able to see is as i contact more people, try to talk no matter how horrible my Papiamento may be i have the ability to do it. My Papiamento is much better than i thought it could be with just two weeks here. I am able to understand more or less what people are telling me and i am able to teach lessons with my companion.Really this week i feel like my ability to speak Papiamento has increased a ton. I feel like the more and more i try the more the lord allows me to learn the language faster. What a blessing. My Spanish i feel like it is just already another language i speak. No longer do i have trouble understanding people when they talk to me. I feel like it is just a natural thing. I know these blessings are blessings from obedience. Are blessings from work. I haven't sweat as much, smelled as bad, nor enjoyed contacting and talking with people as i do now. I still have more work to do and can improve greatly but i am working.
This week as well i had a huge humbling experience we were talking to a lady that is Jehovah witness. We were talking and asking about the reading we left with her and what she had thought about it and so she just said that it wasn't in the bible so she had some doubts. We kept talking to her and i kept trying to use the book of Mormon to answer her questions but forgot a very important part which my companion quickly reminded me of. As we started talking i was looking for a scripture to share and out loud my companion said...Elder Lets just listen...and i was frustrated. I wasn't trying to fight her wasn't trying to bible bash just sharing a scripture from the book of Mormon. Her heart softened immediately. We started listening. She explained how all the way up until the moment of her baptism as a Jehovah witness she didn't feel good. She felt stressed pressured and just didn't feel like she received an answer.. Then as she got baptized she did. But then she just continued and said she was really just looking for truth and thought she had found it. Then She continued and said... Remember that pamphlet you gave me.... My husband read it took it to work to show his friends and then told me to ask you guys for that book. She told me to pay you for how much it is because he wanted it. Then we gave her one and she asked if she could have her own...she wanted to be able to read it without him taking it. =) When she explained her husband wanted to read it i was shocked. He had started the conversation by saying "I'm Catholic, and She's Testigo" But then how his heart was softened.
I know these things happened by our hard work! I know they happened by obedience. We Taught 16 Other lessons this week! In total Lessons we taught over 25 lessons. WOW!!!
This week was a wonderful week to see peoples hearts softening. There was one contact that started out really bitter towards us and said we had changed the bible and that we don’t worship God. We just talked with him and he started to quiet down and then as we finally ended up the conversation he didn’t want to learn more but oh how his heart was softened. We had many opportunities like that this week. Many!
We also had an opportunity with a member on Sunday she said when she was a kid she was taught that God is only a spirit. So she couldn’t understand that God has a body of flesh and bones. That was pretty hard for her. She has some work to do to strengthen her testimony.
I was listening to the conference talks and something stood out to me so much! President Uchtdorf said “THIS CHURCH IS NOT A SECOND HAND CHURCH! YOU CANNOT RECEIVE THE BLESSINGS BY WATCHING OTHER FULFILL THERE RESPONSIBILITIES!” that’s my translation from the Spanish translation. Not sure if its word for word. BUT GREAT! WOW!
Guess what. I was asked to direct in church again. Then asked to give a talk again. Then asked to teach Sunday school. Then asked to teach priesthood. =) Fun day! I really enjoyed it and it was one of the greatest priesthood lessons that I have been in since before my mission. Not because I taught…but because the spirit guided a discussion just like the manual says it should be. Great!
That was my week. Our Investigator Delia’s Cousin died this week. It was hard to teach her and hard for just about everything but she’s slowly feeling better and better.We had so many lessons.. So much everything. Time is passing by so fast. !!! aaAAAHhhhHH!
I Love you! My Papiamento is in no way shape or form perfect but getting better. But Spanish…Now it is just polishing….=) learning new words from other countries.
Love you all,
Elder Ellis

May 11, 2009

Mijn Liefde Moeder

As it was Mother's Day last Sunday the 10th we received a telephone call from Elder Ellis. Although there is no letter from Elder Ellis this week, we had a wonderful time talking with him. He told us many stories, quoted scriptures, bore his testimony in Spanish and told us how it is even more hot and muggy in Aruba than it was in Puerto Rico. He is having the experience of a lifetime and loves being a missionary. His love for the people in that part of the world is tremendous and his love of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is most evident. We all look forward to a letter again next week.

May 4, 2009

e largu karta

ok. Well This week... HMMMMM
Well lets just say i have been on 4 flights in the last week. I am flying back to aruba today. We came down taught people i am learning papiamento and still can't do a contact very good in it so i just give up a little and speak in spanish. I just haven't had time to study papiamento. but i will be learning it much better this next week when i finally get into my own apartment. We had a wonderful meeting with president. All the "Island Elders" It was a very humbling experience. or an experience in which i prayed for humility. he told us that this transfer he hand picked who he wanted down here in the islands. Last trasnfer he had several misisonaries down here that were not obedient nor were doing the missioanry work like it should be done. But he told us that this transfer he has specifically chosen the best missionaries to come down to the islands. He said that the islands have to be a place that baptizes. It has to be a place that leads the mission. He told us he only expects and will accept the highest obedience from us here. We need to pull up the slack. He said he needs us to show the rest of the mission how to work. I felt like i didn't deserve to be here. Honestly the feelings of inadequacy are setting in a little. But the strengthening comfort from my heavenly father help a lot!!! It is a much different culture here. There are millions of cultures. In the airport they anounce everything in like 5 different languages. English Spanish Portuegues Dutch and Papiamento. people here are from all over the world. Everyone that owns a little snack store is chinese. Everyone that is white is from holland people from haiti people from the dominican ecuador columbia ALL OVER!!! the meeting yesterday was in english spanish and papiamento. =) BUT after this meeting with president... it was a great meeting by the way. After this we went to go have lunch... Treat from president... =) islands=) but then we had to leave before the food came out to make it to the airport. They said they were going to bring us our food in the airport. We left... Got in the airport there was a problem with the tickets so we barely got it worked out. There was traffic so we never got our food!!!! AAAHHHH but we barely made our plane. We got to aruba. I made it through immigration but the other elders didn't... I had to go downstairs and wait all by myself with all our luggagefor about an hour. Watching the stairs hoping i would have a companion soon. No one came....Then finally one elder made it through because he had a ticket home since he only has 2 months left on his mission. CRAZY! We The other elders got sent back to curacao we went that night and tried to get in to the other apartments to get them clean clothes. One of them we had the key and the other we had to break in. We broke in and got them clean clothes then left and had to Jerry rig the door so it would "lock"...=) then the next day we had a plane back to bring them their clothes....Thats why i am here =). BUT president bought the tickets for the wrong day. so we had to change the tickets and we finally made it in... Then our plane which was for two oclock was delayed to 6:15 =) super.... So we finally got in. We made a quick stop by presidents hotel to give him some ice cream... since he has had an even crazier week than us. Then yesterday i had the funniest experience i have had yet. =) We went over to a return cita... We called for the guy and no one came out so we knocked on his door and called again. Finally a guy came running out of his house. Not the same guy we talked to last time. He was breathing way heavy and touching his chest. Then through his arms out with huge eyes and looked up to the sky. Then i thought he was going to give me a big hug but luckily he didn't. Then we were trying to figure out what was wrong. He was drunk or very intoxicated by other drugs. He invited us in and we didn't go in. (threesome Elder Ainge Elder Cramer and i) he started to pull us in one by one. So we went in and he did the same thing he just wanted us inside. He started touching elders cramers arm and smelling it and touching it to his forehead. Then elder ainge gave him a passalong card. He looked at the picture of jesus christ and almost passed out. Then elder Cramer (freaked out) asked his name and his eyes got really big and he said "e kosecha" which means the harvest in papiamento he siad it over and over.... We didn't knwo what was going on then realized elder ainge's planner was sticking out of his poicket he had a picture that said e kosecha on it. so he was reading it. It was way creepy. Then he told us to wait he went into another room. I watched him walk down the hallway and the next thing i knew the other elders were gone. They ran out the back door. I didn't want to leave but i guess they were scared. So i ran out too, jumped the fence and ran down the street a little. Next thing we know he's behind us. Walking down the street yelling for us to come back. Elder ainge shouted "Another Day!" Then we kept walking and about 5 minutes later while we were contacting someone we got a call... we didn't answer it becuase we were talking to someone in dutch....(i didn't understand a thing) Then after i checked it and IT WAS HIM!!!! he called us and thanked us for bringing god into his home and wanted the free DVD... =) it was a hilarious experience just becuase it was so weird and the other elders got so scared. =)
I have had a fun week. I head back to aruba at 4 for me... about noon for you...something like that...??? On flight 9h 2998 Dae Dutch antilles express if you want to track it. From CUR to AUA
I Love being a missionary!