This week was great! I really love being here in curacao and more than anything being a missionary. I was comtemplating my mission up until now. What i've done what i have not done. and have more than anything realized how many things i have to be grateful for. I have been able to learn so many things. Both from just being in certain situations and also watching other people. Watching how people act and seeing that all is pretty much a choice of attitude. I am so grateful for all that i have learned. We are all finally in our own apartments now. 1 companionship in each apartment. Last transfer with 4 in ours we saved a lot of money on food that's for sure but also it was much easier to create a break in our unity i noticed. When you don't get along with your companion you have two more to talk to not fostering the best relationship with my companion so i am excited to be with just my companion this transfer. It will be good!
So the news i recieved. Monday night president martineau called me monday night and told me that i will be the district leader here on curacao and pretty much i am a zone leader just without another companion zone leader. Then he continued to tell me that there will be 8 missionaries at the end our our mission in the ABC islands. That there is going to be 2 on Aruba 1 in curacao and 1 in bonaire. He mentioned that there will be four missionaries from the Group right before me. Elder Slade my old companion and 3 others. Then he said that there will be 4 from my group to be the last last ones. Myself and three others will be the trainers for the other missonaries we will be here in the islands with the group before me then they die my second to last and my last transfer i will train a new missionary from the other mission. I will be ending in the Santo domingo East mission.
Question is there a senior couple from our stake in santo domingo? i swear in a conference from santo domingo i saw a couple i recognized.
But yeah my final interview will probably be in DR and i might get to go once more to the temple there before i come home. =) i am excited for that. Hace falta.
That is the news. I am going to be in the other mission! WOohoo! This week we got a great new investigator that bore her testimony in Gospel Principles yesterday. She was being taught by the sisters and now is our area. She says that shemoved here to work and worked for a few weeks. Then she lost her job and hasn't gotten more work. She then ran into the sisters. She said at first the Book of mormon seemed strange to her. then she started to read. She has read half way through the book of mormon came to church for the first time yesterday and feels like god wants her to use this time he has given her to prepare. To read and learn more. So i am pumped to work with her.
My companion is a puerto rican and his driving drives me nuts. =) he is always pushing overdrive on and off trying to drive faster. and changing from drive to 2 and low. becuase he thinks thats what your supposed to do. =) he also always turns off the air conditioner before turning off the car. also when we come to a red light he puts it in nuetral and pulls the e brake ....and the list goes on. =) funny. Much better though we get alongand my spanish is just getting better and better. I am trying with dutch and will be for a while now. President also said for the next three transfers i will stay here in curacao. We are getting an extended stay permit for church reasons and so yeah. I have 5 transfers left in my mission next three here and last two in aruba.
FUNNY.... there is a guy next to me chatting with a girl and speaking spanish he's from ecuador. Saying some personal things and she must have told him she couldn't hear him very well becuase he said. "there are other people here i can't talk to loud" then she must have asked how many or something. then he said "well most of them are People from Holland so they don't know anyway but theres more people" It makes me laugh understanding all that he's saying.
Two of my elders here got broken into and things stolen. one his camera (old one and new one) and the other 150 USD and his Social security card and Birth certificate =/ so we went and moved them immediately. Then this morning i moved as well from one apartment to the sisters old apartment. pretty nice one. i'm excited.
Yesterday i was on a tradeoff. It was really good. We went to our new house and toked over there. we tried to follow the spirit and one of the last houses we toked was a party. I normally don't like to talk to parties because if one is against then all of them get a bad view but this time i just felt a last minute nudge. Just like "everyone needs it!". Started talking to someone and they started asking me "Do you know marcus" and i said no... this is my first day in this area. she then said no in banda bao. which is Barber. and then thoughts went flying and BAM he walked out of the house. His cousin was having a birthday party. he was a member that got baptized there and he is 14 now. He was the only one in his family that got baptized hesaid he misses church since they closed it down there. But we set up a time to go see him and get him back to church! Woohoo! The lord!
Thats my life here! Good Stuf!
February 15, 2010
So... um I have forgotten to tell you some things for the last few weeks.
My mission will no longer exist as of July. When President Martineau dies so will his mission. The two puerto rico missions will become one. We will no longer have these islands of Aruba Bonaire and Curacao. They will belong to the santo domingo east mission. we will have three companionships on this island instead of 5 and i have to go close apartments for that. I will no longer be zone leader starting wednesday. He is putting the two zones together and leaving the two zone leaders in Aruba. so i might be district leader might not. So if i am here when they change missions. President will be leaving a companionship on each island to train the new elders from santo domingo. If i do that i will switch missions. I would no longer be part of the Puerto rico mission but i would be part of the Dominican Republic Santo Domingo East mission. Which looks like i might do that. Nothing for sure but if i go through the island rounds i will be here in the time of that change.
This week has been Karnaval. Lots of Poorly Dressed women. Lots of alcohol. and lots of white people. Here in a predominately Black island (being and island in the Carribean) which is very strange. We have to be home early till tuesday. Then it is all over. Everyone says that this week many young women will get pregnant. in october and around that time there will be many babies born. It is quite sad. We go to talk with people and no one is to be found. Houses are all empty and the parade line has been in construction for three weeks now. They all build little shacks like little houses that they all sit in. Its like portland parades but lasts for weeks and they start preparing putting seats out weeks before it starts instead of the morning or night before. it is crazy!
So because of that we have not had a whole lot of success this week. We taught alot but not a whole lot great investigators. just so so. But yeah That is business here on the island.
My mission will no longer exist as of July. When President Martineau dies so will his mission. The two puerto rico missions will become one. We will no longer have these islands of Aruba Bonaire and Curacao. They will belong to the santo domingo east mission. we will have three companionships on this island instead of 5 and i have to go close apartments for that. I will no longer be zone leader starting wednesday. He is putting the two zones together and leaving the two zone leaders in Aruba. so i might be district leader might not. So if i am here when they change missions. President will be leaving a companionship on each island to train the new elders from santo domingo. If i do that i will switch missions. I would no longer be part of the Puerto rico mission but i would be part of the Dominican Republic Santo Domingo East mission. Which looks like i might do that. Nothing for sure but if i go through the island rounds i will be here in the time of that change.
This week has been Karnaval. Lots of Poorly Dressed women. Lots of alcohol. and lots of white people. Here in a predominately Black island (being and island in the Carribean) which is very strange. We have to be home early till tuesday. Then it is all over. Everyone says that this week many young women will get pregnant. in october and around that time there will be many babies born. It is quite sad. We go to talk with people and no one is to be found. Houses are all empty and the parade line has been in construction for three weeks now. They all build little shacks like little houses that they all sit in. Its like portland parades but lasts for weeks and they start preparing putting seats out weeks before it starts instead of the morning or night before. it is crazy!
So because of that we have not had a whole lot of success this week. We taught alot but not a whole lot great investigators. just so so. But yeah That is business here on the island.
February 8, 2010
Élderes y Hermanas,
Usted:Elder Ellis
Su Compañero:Elder Slade
Su Área:Curacao 4
Escriba sus indicadores clave aquí:
Contactos (sin planificar):281
Contactos (planeados):130
Tiempo Consagrado Para Encontrar (horas totales):12:35
Lecciones (totales):25
Primeras lecciones:13
----------------------
Nuevos investigadores (totales):6
Lecciones con miembros presentes:0
Investigadores asistiendo a la Reunión Sacramental:1
Fechas bautismales:0
Bautismos:0
Confirmaciones:0
-----------------------
Reunión de Correlación Misional (CAR):No
Números de miembros que enseñaron con los misioneros:
Nuevos M&Ms:0
Nuevos investigadores proveídos por los miembros:0
Escriba su carta al presidente aquí:
Well This week was a great. With the day of 200 contacts i really did learn a lot from that. Now its a matter of putting the things i got from it in practice. I was very tired of saying the same things at the end of the 200. I started to make the contacts short but personal. Thinking really about that person. I feel like many missionaries myself included follow such a vain pattern. Ok two principles and then start with the testimony then set a return date. You can see it roll through their Train station of thought. they talk then testify rail takes off. They feel empty sometimes. Especially after doing about 50 i noticed the same words and same beginning end everything. So i tried to change it. I tried making them shorter. God loves us has brought back beautiful simple necessities for us to return to him. Would you like to hear more.
That is what i wrote to president/ But this week i decided to take on a challenge from president martineau. He said that if we contacted 200 people in one day he would by us a steak dinner. He has only had it happen a few times. And i decided on a tradeoff with a younger missionary we would try it out. It was a great opportunity for him and me to see how wonderful contacting is.... I still dont like it the most but i feel like it is what we are supposed to do. I read through my journal and that was what i wanted to do at the beginning of my mission. I wanted to talk to everyone this week i tried. It was great! The younger missioanry hadn't gotten his required contacts the last three weeks. This week after going on the tradeoff he got them for the first time! I was so happy for them.
We didn't get any member lessons this week though. I also found out that President will be changing from 10 missionaries to 6 down here. We are losing two areas. So i need to come up with new areas. Fun! WoohoO! He comes tomorrow night so i will be enjoying my steak dinner! yEAH!
What else. Well the other two dorks we room with got the bikes stolen. They were at a lunch cita and didn't lock them up. I had a spedometer with miles of this transfer... oh well. They're good guys but wonder how much they use their brains at times. =) They are just minor dorks compared to my dorkness. But we got the other bikes fixed so now we're up and running again.
Other than that this week was just more missionary work...
We had a great lady in church yesterday! She came in and said she had been looking for the church for the last hour. She said she had showed her daughter about the book of mormon and her daughter asked why do we need that if we have the bible. She said she told her daughter. THEY SAY IT IS MORE FROM JESUS CHRIST. Why not read it!? I was very excited hearing that we have an appointment on friday with her! WOoho! ....My companion... well he leaves next week. So i'm not too bummed! But hings aren't that bad. Love You!
Usted:Elder Ellis
Su Compañero:Elder Slade
Su Área:Curacao 4
Escriba sus indicadores clave aquí:
Contactos (sin planificar):281
Contactos (planeados):130
Tiempo Consagrado Para Encontrar (horas totales):12:35
Lecciones (totales):25
Primeras lecciones:13
----------------------
Nuevos investigadores (totales):6
Lecciones con miembros presentes:0
Investigadores asistiendo a la Reunión Sacramental:1
Fechas bautismales:0
Bautismos:0
Confirmaciones:0
-----------------------
Reunión de Correlación Misional (CAR):No
Números de miembros que enseñaron con los misioneros:
Nuevos M&Ms:0
Nuevos investigadores proveídos por los miembros:0
Escriba su carta al presidente aquí:
Well This week was a great. With the day of 200 contacts i really did learn a lot from that. Now its a matter of putting the things i got from it in practice. I was very tired of saying the same things at the end of the 200. I started to make the contacts short but personal. Thinking really about that person. I feel like many missionaries myself included follow such a vain pattern. Ok two principles and then start with the testimony then set a return date. You can see it roll through their Train station of thought. they talk then testify rail takes off. They feel empty sometimes. Especially after doing about 50 i noticed the same words and same beginning end everything. So i tried to change it. I tried making them shorter. God loves us has brought back beautiful simple necessities for us to return to him. Would you like to hear more.
That is what i wrote to president/ But this week i decided to take on a challenge from president martineau. He said that if we contacted 200 people in one day he would by us a steak dinner. He has only had it happen a few times. And i decided on a tradeoff with a younger missionary we would try it out. It was a great opportunity for him and me to see how wonderful contacting is.... I still dont like it the most but i feel like it is what we are supposed to do. I read through my journal and that was what i wanted to do at the beginning of my mission. I wanted to talk to everyone this week i tried. It was great! The younger missioanry hadn't gotten his required contacts the last three weeks. This week after going on the tradeoff he got them for the first time! I was so happy for them.
We didn't get any member lessons this week though. I also found out that President will be changing from 10 missionaries to 6 down here. We are losing two areas. So i need to come up with new areas. Fun! WoohoO! He comes tomorrow night so i will be enjoying my steak dinner! yEAH!
What else. Well the other two dorks we room with got the bikes stolen. They were at a lunch cita and didn't lock them up. I had a spedometer with miles of this transfer... oh well. They're good guys but wonder how much they use their brains at times. =) They are just minor dorks compared to my dorkness. But we got the other bikes fixed so now we're up and running again.
Other than that this week was just more missionary work...
We had a great lady in church yesterday! She came in and said she had been looking for the church for the last hour. She said she had showed her daughter about the book of mormon and her daughter asked why do we need that if we have the bible. She said she told her daughter. THEY SAY IT IS MORE FROM JESUS CHRIST. Why not read it!? I was very excited hearing that we have an appointment on friday with her! WOoho! ....My companion... well he leaves next week. So i'm not too bummed! But hings aren't that bad. Love You!
February 1, 2010
Not a whole lot of time left. But I just want you to know i love you. So i am the temporary Gospel Principles Teacher. Pretty fun. I really love teaching. I think that's one of my favorite aspects of the mission. Now that also brings in one of my trials. Teaching well with a companion. Getting unified. Not just free of argueing but us both having the same righteous desires. Both realizing what we have to do and coming together. I feel like its too much one way or the other. Either his idea or my idea. That isn't very beneficial. Because one of us is usually still wondering how our own idea would have worked. I was on two different trade offs this week. and both were great because we were together. We had great companionsip studies made choices together and more than anything agreed on the points to teach. Now i need to find out how i can do that with my companion. I feel like he has lost desire to progress. The other missionaries I was with are both studying constantly the Scriptures and PMG and my companion commented this week to one of them. If you don't stop reading your head will explode. Jokingly but kind of shows he doesn't have a desire to improve anymore. He thinks he knows it pretty well and is satisfied. I have so much room to improve.
AAAAHHHHH
But things are going well!
I am enjoying my stay.
AAAAHHHHH
But things are going well!
I am enjoying my stay.
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