Well this week. I flew down here to curacao. Got a flat tire. Taught some missionary lessons. Laughed at a picture dad sent. and... Not a whole lot more.
No this week was good. I thought i would love a nice open area where you have to ride bike to get everywhere. But now that i am actually in it. We got finding for three hours and only talk to 11 people. It is great! I have gotten 2 flat tires. But this last week we started a dutch class. Yeah i am finally learning my dutch. Slowly but i am learning it. I can't wait till i can say i speak it. we watched a video with a less active member and we put the subtitles in dutch. Ha ha ha. Woohoo! but yeah. I am coming into an area where the last elder tried to talk to every single person. Now everyone as soon as we say bon tardi. they wave us off and don't want to talk to us. He had great intentions just like nephi when he told his brothers about the vision... Just didn't really do it very effectively. I am working on my piano playing juggling and pen spinning too. More the juggling as we wait at bus stops. I can juggle for a little bit then the rocks start to go away from me. i didn't think i stunk that bad. But then as well i am trying to learn to play the piano becuase it would help the members in church...
So as a district we are going to be working on shorter lessons this week. Still good solid lessons but i feel in order to get our contacts and make it to other citas we really need to just teach simple and short. This week was a good get to know a little bit of the area. Church was kind of interesting as well. Sacrament meeting went over by 30 minutes and then to finish it off we sang all 4 verses of the Closing hymn. Then they start the next class with all 4 verses of another hymn. Kind of made me smile. Then we taught the gospel principles class trying to read through and do what we needed to and a member didn't feel we answered the question of the recent convert and so told us we should go back and explain it a little better. It was kind of funny listening to a member complain about how certain members like to gossip as the whole conversation quickly turned into what was happening in each of the members lives.
At the beginning of my mission president told us in our first meeting that as we studied the scriptures and recorded what we studied Nephi would come alive to us. I have been trying to read the book of mormon as a goal for this transfer. NEPHI IS ALIVE! As i read the scriptures and record what i am reading trying to really get into it i feel like i am right there with him. and it kills me when laman and lemuel don't listen! AAAHHHH! But i love it! I love seeing how nephi reciaved his teaching and then how he taught his brothers. Watching what worked and what didn't. President has really helped me apply the scriptures to my life in a completely new way. to really study how they felt how they taught and what they did. It was great! I Love the sacred hour in the morning!
My companion is elder bown from Brigham City Utah. He's got about 7 months. so i am finally not a junior comp.
oh and as well i was called as a District leader. So i call the other elders and see how there numbers are and help them improve and train them and also interview there baptismal candidates. I HAVE AN INTERVIEW ON WEDNESDAY! AAAAHHHH. i have to see if someone is worthy for baptism. AAAhhhh!
Crazy but kind of exciting. So Yeah that is my news for the week. Enjoy!
July 20, 2009
Tomorrow I am leaving for Curacao. So this week was a good one. Just a lot of going out trying to find things to do. We didn't reach our contacts the last few weeks and i know that it was inspired for president to have us get 20 contacts a day becuase when we don't we don't teach. Although we went out and tried. We couldnt get a whole lot done and so we were kind of down. Then we went out one finding time and i was in a lame down mood. But like always didn't stick in it. In the space of three hours we had 7 new investigators. We had 4 investigators come to church and really saw the blessings for working hard. Not only that we had some citas with Angela she's from Venezuela. She is a handful. This week she gave me tons of little gifts. she said my fingernails were too long so she went in and wouldn't let us leave without cutting my fingernails. Kind of awkward. But we worked really hard with her trying to help her quit smoking this week. She tried last week and failed. Pray for her.
Then as well we have Jenny and Reginel. Our best investigators. They are great! They think i am going to get married right after my mission and so they keep telling me to send them an invitation. I don't know why they think i will get married so soon. =) funny. But Jenny gave me a card that said "elder ellis you came to our door and brought with you peace and happiness that i have never had. That i have wanted and searched for all my life. You have really changed my life with the person you are and the important message you share." Then her friend Reginel said. Elder Ellis. You are not just a missionary not just someone that came to our door one day but someone that has changed our lives. You have become a great friend, and a part of our family! We cant wait to see you again.
That made me feel like i really am leaving this area better than i found it! I felt so many great feelings these last few days. Now on to continue in Curacao. Woohoo!Just a lot of going out trying to find things to do. We didn't reach our contacts the last few weeks and i know that it was inspired for president to have us get 20 contacts a day becuase when we don't we don't teach. Although we went out and tried. We couldnt get a whole lot done and so we were kind of down. Then we went out one finding time and i was in a lame down mood. But like always didn't stick in it. In the space of three hours we had 7 new investigators. We had 4 investigators come to church and really saw the blessings for working hard. Not only that we had some citas with Angela she's from Venezuela. She is a handful. This week she gave me tons of little gifts. she said my fingernails were too long so she went in and wouldn't let us leave without cutting my fingernails. Kind of awkward. But we worked really hard with her trying to help her quit smoking this week. She tried last week and failed. Pray for her.
Then as well we have Jenny and Reginel. Our best investigators. They are great! They think i am going to get married right after my mission and so they keep telling me to send them an invitation. I don't know why they think i will get married so soon. =) funny. But Jenny gave me a card that said "elder ellis you came to our door and brought with you peace and happiness that i have never had. That i have wanted and searched for all my life. You have really changed my life with the person you are and the important message you share." Then her friend Reginel said. Elder Ellis. You are not just a missionary not just someone that came to our door one day but someone that has changed our lives. You have become a great friend, and a part of our family! We cant wait to see you again.
That made me feel like i really am leaving this area better than i found it! I felt so many great feelings these last few days. Now on to continue in Curacao. Woohoo!
Then as well we have Jenny and Reginel. Our best investigators. They are great! They think i am going to get married right after my mission and so they keep telling me to send them an invitation. I don't know why they think i will get married so soon. =) funny. But Jenny gave me a card that said "elder ellis you came to our door and brought with you peace and happiness that i have never had. That i have wanted and searched for all my life. You have really changed my life with the person you are and the important message you share." Then her friend Reginel said. Elder Ellis. You are not just a missionary not just someone that came to our door one day but someone that has changed our lives. You have become a great friend, and a part of our family! We cant wait to see you again.
That made me feel like i really am leaving this area better than i found it! I felt so many great feelings these last few days. Now on to continue in Curacao. Woohoo!Just a lot of going out trying to find things to do. We didn't reach our contacts the last few weeks and i know that it was inspired for president to have us get 20 contacts a day becuase when we don't we don't teach. Although we went out and tried. We couldnt get a whole lot done and so we were kind of down. Then we went out one finding time and i was in a lame down mood. But like always didn't stick in it. In the space of three hours we had 7 new investigators. We had 4 investigators come to church and really saw the blessings for working hard. Not only that we had some citas with Angela she's from Venezuela. She is a handful. This week she gave me tons of little gifts. she said my fingernails were too long so she went in and wouldn't let us leave without cutting my fingernails. Kind of awkward. But we worked really hard with her trying to help her quit smoking this week. She tried last week and failed. Pray for her.
Then as well we have Jenny and Reginel. Our best investigators. They are great! They think i am going to get married right after my mission and so they keep telling me to send them an invitation. I don't know why they think i will get married so soon. =) funny. But Jenny gave me a card that said "elder ellis you came to our door and brought with you peace and happiness that i have never had. That i have wanted and searched for all my life. You have really changed my life with the person you are and the important message you share." Then her friend Reginel said. Elder Ellis. You are not just a missionary not just someone that came to our door one day but someone that has changed our lives. You have become a great friend, and a part of our family! We cant wait to see you again.
That made me feel like i really am leaving this area better than i found it! I felt so many great feelings these last few days. Now on to continue in Curacao. Woohoo!
July 13, 2009
Well this week was a good not great but good week. Time like always went by toooooo fast. I have 8 more weeks till i have been a missionary for a year. This week was good because we had P-day then we had interviews with president. then one of the APs came down to teach us how to teach. The only problem was that we didn't get to teach anyone that day. =) had some really awkward contacts with some teenage girls. But then to celebrate the 30th year of the mission we had a 2nd Pday on wednesday and president and sister martineau came down and we all played basketball and soccer and then they took us all to wendys to eat. =) After that we went to try to teach and again didn't teach anyone. then on thursday we had to paint the church and so lost more time there then on friday the young women had an activty and we were the only priesthood that could go so we went to the butterfly farm. then Pizza Bobs which is the resaurant that our Elders quorum is chef at. =) Good pizza. Then saturday we had a real full day of missionary work. BUT none of our lessons were there. Every lesson we had was a backup. Then on sunday exact same thing. Every lesson we had was a backup. except with the elders quorum presidents kids we taught them and had a little family home evening. I love little families. You better have one when i get back erika! =)
But yes my week wasn't super exciting. I did get a nice set of goat horns that i wanted to send home but it would be way too much so i will have to just bring some back when i visit after the mission. =) I will get good pictures.
President also joined two branches together here. Not mine but the other two on the island. They are now a normal size branch. instead of two tiny branches. Its great! He asked us who the branch president should be. He did it in 3 days. then flew to curacao the same day and did it there too. =) He's crazy!
But yah this week we had many funny little kid stories and i need to get better at writing in my journal. so i can remember all of them. Well love you!
But yes my week wasn't super exciting. I did get a nice set of goat horns that i wanted to send home but it would be way too much so i will have to just bring some back when i visit after the mission. =) I will get good pictures.
President also joined two branches together here. Not mine but the other two on the island. They are now a normal size branch. instead of two tiny branches. Its great! He asked us who the branch president should be. He did it in 3 days. then flew to curacao the same day and did it there too. =) He's crazy!
But yah this week we had many funny little kid stories and i need to get better at writing in my journal. so i can remember all of them. Well love you!
July 6, 2009
(Picture this week is Aaron wearing a "Mormon Helping Hands" vest)
Hello. Well this week was full of different things happening. We started the week out strong with three lessons on monday after p-day. It was great! then on monday night when we were on the way home I went to go contact a man. His heart was so hard. He told me that i knew only a few words in papiamento after I had pretty much taught him a whole first lesson. Man. we talked to him and he really didn't want anything. My compnaion was riding his bick behind me and I turned around to tell him something. He was trying to text while he was riding his bike...=) (texting is allowed for us here, becuase for many people it is cheaper than calling) so he was trying to text and I turned around and he thought something was wrong. So he squeezed the brake one handed and flipped right over the handlebars. =) the phone went flying and broke apart in a few pieces. I pulled his bike off of him as he faked he was crying. Then I looked at the handlebars and the left handlebar was bent down about 5 inches. I started laughing my head off. Then I went and got the phone as he was just sitting on the ground laughing. I got the phone and a little boy ran up and asked if he crashed then asked to ride our bikes but we wouldn't let him. Then he asked to see our phone. So I handed it too him he flipped through the menu... then started to run. I grabbed his shirt and took the phone away from him then we went home...=) Then next day we lost a lot of time taking the bike to get it fixed. Someone stole our lights last week as well...=( Then this friday we had pretty much everything fall through. NOTHING... so we went to just try to contact. IT STARTED POURING. We just continued and trying to talk to a guy as he ran under a shelter we talked to everyone under the shelter. Then we left in the rain because we had to get money for the bus the next day. So we went to the ATM... we left a little pool in the ATM room. =) then went to Wendy's to get the change split up. So I ordered two burgers and two frostys and while I was ordering my companion started to talk to this couple. Then as I was waiting for our food the power just shut off. Everything went out. I gave my new bike light to the workers to finish making our burgers and then went over to talk with my companion and the two people. He was teaching them a first lesson...=) in spanish... but he was talking to them and then she asked where she could get the book of mormon. Then elder johnson said we would bring one by and she asked if she could have the one in his hand. he said "no this one is wet we'll bring you a dry one. she said no I want that one. So we gave it to her and got her address and talked a little more to find that they were going to puerto rico to play baseball in a tournament. Then we left and as we left she said "please come over I want to learn more" so we assured her we would. we went home and when we got home noticed our perfect new investigator lives...in the sisters area. two streets over from our area boundary... MAN! But we left and then said our prayers and I asked for the power to come on so we could sleep in comfort. After the prayer as I pulled my sheets up... the air conditioner clicked on...I said "God answers prayers elder" and then it clicked off and he said "on his own time"... Then the next day we had the beach cleanup and then went to the church to clean up and then to a members house then went out to teach. YESTERDAY!!! We woke up, went to church, they had cake and everything after for me. =) sang happy birthday in English spanish dutch and papiamento. Woohoo! then after we went home and found that the sisters had broken into our apartment and put a bunch of balloons in. Then we ate and started our Four hour suicide.... 4 hours of finding time is a long time. but we started and actually we were able to teach four people. We ended with four new investigators and then had one lesson after with two kids of a member that arent members. It was great and we made them investigators too... So on my birthday I made more investigators finded for more time and taught more lessons than I did in whole weeks in puerto rico. I Loved it. Then this morning we wake up to find out our laundromat is closed so we had to take our clothes to the sisters place to wash it. Now we are emailing.... Tomorrow we have district meeting and president interviews. So tomorrow hopefully I get my package but dont know. Then tomorrow we are having one of the AP's come to monitor our teaching... aaaahhhh. Then on wednesday president is letting us celebrate the 30th year of this mission by playing sports and a big BBQ all day long. WOohoo!
This week will be great! Starting it off with two really good lessons tonight! We are teaching the quit smoking lesson tonight Pray for us!
I don't know if I have grown much past 5' 9"
I Love the Gospel.
We also had a funny lesson with a man that told us that the Book of Mormon is just taken out of the Bible so me and my smart alek attitude pulled out 2 nephi 29 and he again said it was taken out of the bible. It was pretty funny!
I Love you all! Can't wait to read some more letters =) Tomorrow!
Hello. Well this week was full of different things happening. We started the week out strong with three lessons on monday after p-day. It was great! then on monday night when we were on the way home I went to go contact a man. His heart was so hard. He told me that i knew only a few words in papiamento after I had pretty much taught him a whole first lesson. Man. we talked to him and he really didn't want anything. My compnaion was riding his bick behind me and I turned around to tell him something. He was trying to text while he was riding his bike...=) (texting is allowed for us here, becuase for many people it is cheaper than calling) so he was trying to text and I turned around and he thought something was wrong. So he squeezed the brake one handed and flipped right over the handlebars. =) the phone went flying and broke apart in a few pieces. I pulled his bike off of him as he faked he was crying. Then I looked at the handlebars and the left handlebar was bent down about 5 inches. I started laughing my head off. Then I went and got the phone as he was just sitting on the ground laughing. I got the phone and a little boy ran up and asked if he crashed then asked to ride our bikes but we wouldn't let him. Then he asked to see our phone. So I handed it too him he flipped through the menu... then started to run. I grabbed his shirt and took the phone away from him then we went home...=) Then next day we lost a lot of time taking the bike to get it fixed. Someone stole our lights last week as well...=( Then this friday we had pretty much everything fall through. NOTHING... so we went to just try to contact. IT STARTED POURING. We just continued and trying to talk to a guy as he ran under a shelter we talked to everyone under the shelter. Then we left in the rain because we had to get money for the bus the next day. So we went to the ATM... we left a little pool in the ATM room. =) then went to Wendy's to get the change split up. So I ordered two burgers and two frostys and while I was ordering my companion started to talk to this couple. Then as I was waiting for our food the power just shut off. Everything went out. I gave my new bike light to the workers to finish making our burgers and then went over to talk with my companion and the two people. He was teaching them a first lesson...=) in spanish... but he was talking to them and then she asked where she could get the book of mormon. Then elder johnson said we would bring one by and she asked if she could have the one in his hand. he said "no this one is wet we'll bring you a dry one. she said no I want that one. So we gave it to her and got her address and talked a little more to find that they were going to puerto rico to play baseball in a tournament. Then we left and as we left she said "please come over I want to learn more" so we assured her we would. we went home and when we got home noticed our perfect new investigator lives...in the sisters area. two streets over from our area boundary... MAN! But we left and then said our prayers and I asked for the power to come on so we could sleep in comfort. After the prayer as I pulled my sheets up... the air conditioner clicked on...I said "God answers prayers elder" and then it clicked off and he said "on his own time"... Then the next day we had the beach cleanup and then went to the church to clean up and then to a members house then went out to teach. YESTERDAY!!! We woke up, went to church, they had cake and everything after for me. =) sang happy birthday in English spanish dutch and papiamento. Woohoo! then after we went home and found that the sisters had broken into our apartment and put a bunch of balloons in. Then we ate and started our Four hour suicide.... 4 hours of finding time is a long time. but we started and actually we were able to teach four people. We ended with four new investigators and then had one lesson after with two kids of a member that arent members. It was great and we made them investigators too... So on my birthday I made more investigators finded for more time and taught more lessons than I did in whole weeks in puerto rico. I Loved it. Then this morning we wake up to find out our laundromat is closed so we had to take our clothes to the sisters place to wash it. Now we are emailing.... Tomorrow we have district meeting and president interviews. So tomorrow hopefully I get my package but dont know. Then tomorrow we are having one of the AP's come to monitor our teaching... aaaahhhh. Then on wednesday president is letting us celebrate the 30th year of this mission by playing sports and a big BBQ all day long. WOohoo!
This week will be great! Starting it off with two really good lessons tonight! We are teaching the quit smoking lesson tonight Pray for us!
I don't know if I have grown much past 5' 9"
I Love the Gospel.
We also had a funny lesson with a man that told us that the Book of Mormon is just taken out of the Bible so me and my smart alek attitude pulled out 2 nephi 29 and he again said it was taken out of the bible. It was pretty funny!
I Love you all! Can't wait to read some more letters =) Tomorrow!
June 29, 2009
did you not get an email last week? I sent and email last week! I sure hope you got one! Man!
Well
i am almost 20! Wooohoo! ok yeah that over with...
Back to missionary work!
This week we worked so hard! We really did. We fullfilled all that our president asks of us. This week we plan on doing it as well and I would honestly like to say there is no reason for me ever to not do it. Laziness. It is not easy that is for sure. But it is worth it! This week on Sunday night we felt so successful so Obedient that we had done everything we could have. We had some pretty funny events happen too. We wanted to get a baptismal date but she said she still has some things she wants to fix before she wants to do it. BUT I went to church this week. I felt much better...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! Sorry late I sent you a letter I hope you got it. My dutch is a big Joke. =).
But now I think I have a sinus infection. I am going to be going to a doctor soon. My face hurts. Right next to my nose. But i talked with sister Martineau about it and she told me to do the neti pot... =) i did it this morning and took a video of it. but then as well I am seeing a doctor. Today we went up to Oranjestad on the Bus. we got there bought some dushi yui shirts and then some bags. all of which i have pictures attatched. DUSHI YIU means (sweet child) Its from a surf shop here and it just makes me laugh every time i hear it.
This week i believe we got a record for flat tires. But my companion didnt crash this week. We had three people feed us and an adventist lady is giving us homemade bread! Woohoo!
We were contacting a guy who said that he really wants to follow Jesus Christ but everytime there is an opportunity where he can steal something and decides not to he wishes he had. so he said it is just so miserable following christ. Then he told us he had never asked god for help. It was great so see him realize that he really can and needs to ask God for help. He said he made up a bible game and no churches would let him use it. So a leap of faith and trust in the promptings of the spirit i told him to come to our church and we would make an activity out of it. I was really nervous... But he never came to church.
This week was a great week work wise, came home sweating like crazy every day. My shirts are turning brown... I think i am going to use that hundred dollars on one more shirt so i don't have to wear a longsleeve shirt on sunday.
JOSH MISSION LIST!
AT LEAST 8 SHIRTS and PANTS.
If he is in a hot place he wont want to wer the same clothes over again and at least eight will last him every day of the week plus P-day. i had 8 shirts but one got a big stain in it. Pants i have 6. So that is what i will get Thank You so Much grandma and Grandpa.
This week we were riding home one day and dogs love to chase us here. So we were riding and i kicked to get him away and kicked him in the face... he yelped and ran away... I felt bad but then i almost fell off my bike laughing Becuase as soon as i turned around I passed a house with a Big BIG black man in tighty whiteys standing on his porch with his beer out saluting us. it was pretty funny.
We met a wonderful lady this week who was really interested in church and everything but didn't end up coming i really have a lot of hope for her. She has a big family too! Woohoo! THIS SATURDAY WE HAVE A BEACH CLEANUP! we are going to clean the beaches in orangestad. I get a cool ARUBA MORMON HELPING HANDS VEST! Yeah! I really hope president brings me back here next transfer. I am loving this transfer. My companion is honestly the best one yet. I would love to stay one more trasnfer but becuase of immigration days i have to leave the island. =( so i will most likely be going to curacao. Woohoo!
DAD FAVORITE SCRIPTURE DEFINITELY IS ROMANS 1:16-1716 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth...... 17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
I found that in response to a prayer and absolutely love it! WOohoo!
Wow. What power has that scripture.
Right now I am reading Truth restored by Gordon B Hinckley! What a life Joseph Smith and the Saints had. He was arrested and acquited 37 times before his death. Then the last time he said in his journal "i told them that if i was to be arrested again it would be my death, if not i was not a prophet of God." Surely enough it happened.
Then the mormon batallion was called to go out. the mormons had been pleading the goverment for relief and safety from the mobs and they said they couldn't do anything other wise they would lose votes. Then all the sudden the government comes back and pleads for 500 men. They agreed and Brigham young told them if they didn't complain and said prayers each morning and night they would not have to fight. Surely enough after an over 2000 mile journey through iowa to texas new mexico colorado arizona and ending in calfornia the fight was over and they returned home. What a grueling trail. The goverment issued a certificate of congratulations to the mormon batallion and said "a search history would result in vain to find such a valiant march made by a batallion so brave. They crossed plains whare animals didn't dare go for a lack of water. Crossed mountains that only goats roamed and fields only savages and wild beasts would enter. but they followed the admonition of the prophet and were saved.
I saw a picture of the Prophet Brigham Young. and below it said Modern Day Moses. I completely understand why.
I Know this church is true! I know we have a living prophet and Just as an early convert of the church said regarding the Book of Mormon " either God or the devil has a hand in that book, man could not have written it." I know we have it directly through the power and inspiration of God himself! What a wonderful message!
I Love Being a messenger of him!
Sometimes I like to argue a little too much. and it is something I am working on. I don't understand why so many people harden their hearts to God himself!
All we ask is that they ask God what is true. How many people don't do it! they say they believe in God but dont believe he will tell them the truth.
This morning I also noticed that you know what. To my knowledge we are the only church that Really firmly states that the lord himself has said this is the true church. Other churches believe theres is the true church by interpretation of the Bible. for example this morning i was reading a testigo book this morning and they said that christ didn't begin to reign in the heavens untill 1914. Not only does that have absolutely no importance to us and our salvation... but the said that a bunch of students cae up with that calculation. Then they show world events that are proving that God turned over his reign to his son. that things started to get worse as soon as 1914 passed.
Very strange. But religion and everything fascinates me. It really does! I am trying to not argue with people or its not really argueing more persisting. But I love this gospel and the more and more I read the scriptures the bible especially the more and more I gain a testimony of the need of the b
Book of Mormon the more and more the book of mormon makes sense. Who else can explain the baptism for the dead scripture in Corinthians who else can explain the third heaven in Collosians who else can explain the Two powers the order of melchizedek and levitical found in Hebrews. I Love learning about the gospel! Why did I not read my scriptures more before my mission!? AHH!I LOVE THEM!
I Love you All! Thanks for emailing me.
Erika you are pretty! Congratulations!
Adios! Ayo! Todoeloe!
Elder Ellis
Well
i am almost 20! Wooohoo! ok yeah that over with...
Back to missionary work!
This week we worked so hard! We really did. We fullfilled all that our president asks of us. This week we plan on doing it as well and I would honestly like to say there is no reason for me ever to not do it. Laziness. It is not easy that is for sure. But it is worth it! This week on Sunday night we felt so successful so Obedient that we had done everything we could have. We had some pretty funny events happen too. We wanted to get a baptismal date but she said she still has some things she wants to fix before she wants to do it. BUT I went to church this week. I felt much better...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! Sorry late I sent you a letter I hope you got it. My dutch is a big Joke. =).
But now I think I have a sinus infection. I am going to be going to a doctor soon. My face hurts. Right next to my nose. But i talked with sister Martineau about it and she told me to do the neti pot... =) i did it this morning and took a video of it. but then as well I am seeing a doctor. Today we went up to Oranjestad on the Bus. we got there bought some dushi yui shirts and then some bags. all of which i have pictures attatched. DUSHI YIU means (sweet child) Its from a surf shop here and it just makes me laugh every time i hear it.
This week i believe we got a record for flat tires. But my companion didnt crash this week. We had three people feed us and an adventist lady is giving us homemade bread! Woohoo!
We were contacting a guy who said that he really wants to follow Jesus Christ but everytime there is an opportunity where he can steal something and decides not to he wishes he had. so he said it is just so miserable following christ. Then he told us he had never asked god for help. It was great so see him realize that he really can and needs to ask God for help. He said he made up a bible game and no churches would let him use it. So a leap of faith and trust in the promptings of the spirit i told him to come to our church and we would make an activity out of it. I was really nervous... But he never came to church.
This week was a great week work wise, came home sweating like crazy every day. My shirts are turning brown... I think i am going to use that hundred dollars on one more shirt so i don't have to wear a longsleeve shirt on sunday.
JOSH MISSION LIST!
AT LEAST 8 SHIRTS and PANTS.
If he is in a hot place he wont want to wer the same clothes over again and at least eight will last him every day of the week plus P-day. i had 8 shirts but one got a big stain in it. Pants i have 6. So that is what i will get Thank You so Much grandma and Grandpa.
This week we were riding home one day and dogs love to chase us here. So we were riding and i kicked to get him away and kicked him in the face... he yelped and ran away... I felt bad but then i almost fell off my bike laughing Becuase as soon as i turned around I passed a house with a Big BIG black man in tighty whiteys standing on his porch with his beer out saluting us. it was pretty funny.
We met a wonderful lady this week who was really interested in church and everything but didn't end up coming i really have a lot of hope for her. She has a big family too! Woohoo! THIS SATURDAY WE HAVE A BEACH CLEANUP! we are going to clean the beaches in orangestad. I get a cool ARUBA MORMON HELPING HANDS VEST! Yeah! I really hope president brings me back here next transfer. I am loving this transfer. My companion is honestly the best one yet. I would love to stay one more trasnfer but becuase of immigration days i have to leave the island. =( so i will most likely be going to curacao. Woohoo!
DAD FAVORITE SCRIPTURE DEFINITELY IS ROMANS 1:16-1716 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth...... 17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
I found that in response to a prayer and absolutely love it! WOohoo!
Wow. What power has that scripture.
Right now I am reading Truth restored by Gordon B Hinckley! What a life Joseph Smith and the Saints had. He was arrested and acquited 37 times before his death. Then the last time he said in his journal "i told them that if i was to be arrested again it would be my death, if not i was not a prophet of God." Surely enough it happened.
Then the mormon batallion was called to go out. the mormons had been pleading the goverment for relief and safety from the mobs and they said they couldn't do anything other wise they would lose votes. Then all the sudden the government comes back and pleads for 500 men. They agreed and Brigham young told them if they didn't complain and said prayers each morning and night they would not have to fight. Surely enough after an over 2000 mile journey through iowa to texas new mexico colorado arizona and ending in calfornia the fight was over and they returned home. What a grueling trail. The goverment issued a certificate of congratulations to the mormon batallion and said "a search history would result in vain to find such a valiant march made by a batallion so brave. They crossed plains whare animals didn't dare go for a lack of water. Crossed mountains that only goats roamed and fields only savages and wild beasts would enter. but they followed the admonition of the prophet and were saved.
I saw a picture of the Prophet Brigham Young. and below it said Modern Day Moses. I completely understand why.
I Know this church is true! I know we have a living prophet and Just as an early convert of the church said regarding the Book of Mormon " either God or the devil has a hand in that book, man could not have written it." I know we have it directly through the power and inspiration of God himself! What a wonderful message!
I Love Being a messenger of him!
Sometimes I like to argue a little too much. and it is something I am working on. I don't understand why so many people harden their hearts to God himself!
All we ask is that they ask God what is true. How many people don't do it! they say they believe in God but dont believe he will tell them the truth.
This morning I also noticed that you know what. To my knowledge we are the only church that Really firmly states that the lord himself has said this is the true church. Other churches believe theres is the true church by interpretation of the Bible. for example this morning i was reading a testigo book this morning and they said that christ didn't begin to reign in the heavens untill 1914. Not only does that have absolutely no importance to us and our salvation... but the said that a bunch of students cae up with that calculation. Then they show world events that are proving that God turned over his reign to his son. that things started to get worse as soon as 1914 passed.
Very strange. But religion and everything fascinates me. It really does! I am trying to not argue with people or its not really argueing more persisting. But I love this gospel and the more and more I read the scriptures the bible especially the more and more I gain a testimony of the need of the b
Book of Mormon the more and more the book of mormon makes sense. Who else can explain the baptism for the dead scripture in Corinthians who else can explain the third heaven in Collosians who else can explain the Two powers the order of melchizedek and levitical found in Hebrews. I Love learning about the gospel! Why did I not read my scriptures more before my mission!? AHH!I LOVE THEM!
I Love you All! Thanks for emailing me.
Erika you are pretty! Congratulations!
Adios! Ayo! Todoeloe!
Elder Ellis
June 22, 2009
Here family. This is the letter i recieve from my mission president every week. This week is great becuase it is about two people i worked with a whole lot when i was in Arecibo and Hatillo. They are great members! Really Great!
Elders and Sisters,
Every missionary, sooner or later, must decide why he or she is here. What motivates our service, our daily labors in the face of heat and discomfort and disappointment? The answer to that question will make all the difference.
At the end of his mission, Ammon spoke of his love for those he had helped come unto Christ:
Behold, the field was ripe, and blessed are ye, for ye did thrust in the sickle, and did reap with your might, yea, all the day long did ye labor; and behold the number of your sheaves! And they shall be gathered into the garners, that they are not wasted. Yea, they shall not be beaten down by the storm at the last day; yea, neither shall they be harrowed up by the whirlwinds; but when the storm cometh they shall be gathered together in their place, that the storm cannot penetrate to them; yea, neither shall they be driven with fierce winds whithersoever the enemy listeth to carry them. But behold, they are in the hands of the Lord of the harvest, and they are his; and he will raise them up at the last day. (Alma 26:5-7.)A key phrase is found in verse 7, "and they are his". What does this mean?
Paul taught:
Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. (Acts 20:28)The Lord has prepared thousands to receive His restored Gospel. They are His because He suffered and paid the ultimate price for them. We have accepted the work of seeking them out, teaching them by the Spirit, and inviting them to make sacred covenants with Him. Can we see that each one we find is precious to Him? That we have taken upon ourselves a sacred stewardship, for each one? That we will account to Him one day, for each one?Do we love them as He does?
Ramón Caraballo and Efrain del Toro were sitting together about 2 1/2 years ago, talking about life's problems. Ramón said, pessimistically, "There are no opportunities in life!" Efrain had been struggling with personal issues that seemed too big for him. He could see no way out. He felt that he lacked the power to resolve them. As Ramón spoke, Efrain turned and saw two young men dressed in white shirts and ties, approaching on foot. He recognized them as Mormon missionaries because he had visited briefly with two other missionaries nearly a year earlier. Then, he had no real interest. But now, when he saw the two missionaries, he felt something different. He replied to Ramón, "No, there really are opportunities in life!"
The missionaries were looking for an address. They were lost. Efrain helped them, and then readily agreed when one asked if he was interested in learning more about their message. A few days later, they arrived at his home a few minutes after the appointed hour. They found him sitting outside his home, waiting for them, pointing at his watch as a mild chastisement for being late. He insisted that they return almost daily, and soon he accepted their invitation to be baptized.
What did he find when he attended church, and as he became involved in his branch? Friends, real friends, who stood by him and helped him, loved and cared for him. He found a diligent branch president who shepherded him along the path to full membership and activity in the restored church of Christ. He was spiritually nourished by the word of God in sacrament, quorum and other meetings. He received and fulfilled assignments, and was ordained a priest. He helped the full-time missionaries teach their investigators. Eventually, he received the Melchizedek Priesthood.
Later, he invited the missionaries to contact Ramón, who also accepted the invitation to learn more. Efrain helped teach Ramón, and bore his testimony often. Ramón was baptized. He entered into the same path Efrain had found 6 months earlier.
In March of 2008, at a district general priesthood meeting in Arecibo, Ramón was presented to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood and to be ordained an elder. I asked both Ramón and Efrain to stand and help me as I spoke in the meeting. They related their experiences since joining the Church, and each expressed gratitude for blessings from a merciful Heavenly Father. They thanked the other brethren for welcoming them into their branch family. I asked their branch president to express his feelings about these two valiant members of his branch. With emotion, he expressed his love for them, and in response to my question, described the great sorrow he would feel if they were ever to fall away. It was clear that this wonderful priesthood leader felt toward his flock the same way Christ felt.And the missionaries who found and taught them?
Yesterday, I interviewed Ramón and gave him a recommend to receive his endowments in the Lord’s holy temple. He has been dating a lovely and faithful sister, and they have talked of marriage. His happiness showed in his face. Both he and Efrain are living the marvelous blessings of the restored Gospel. Ramón wanted to tell me about something that happened to him shortly after his baptism. He learned that his sister had been diagnosed with cancer. She had signed authorizations for surgery to remove the cancer. She was not a member. Ramón had learned that Melchizedek priesthood holders can give blessings of health using consecrated oil, but he was only a priest. So, he invited his sister to receive a blessing from the missionaries. She accepted, and the blessing was given.Ramón’s eyes filled with tears as he told me what happened after the blessing. Some time later, but before her scheduled surgery, his sister had more tests. This time, every single test came back negative! Her cancer was gone, completely. The surgery was cancelled, and his sister is healthy and well today. Ramón bore fervent testimony to me that the Lord healed his sister. His faith was strengthened.Then, with a serious and earnest look in his eye, Ramón explained why he wants to go to the temple. He recently dreamed that he saw a deep pool of water. He saw three people swimming in the pool, and somehow sensed that they needed his help. When he awoke, he understood that the three were his father, his mother and his brother, all of whom died without hearing the Gospel. Ramón has worked diligently with his family history consultant to prepare their names so he can do the work for them when he goes to the temple, after receiving those same blessings himself.The ripples in the pond will go on forever.Why are we here? To find Christ's own, and to invite them to return to Him, to Him who bought them with his blood. And to do all within our power to keep them secure within their newfound faith. To love them as He does, and to pay our own little price that they may find Him again. To labor all the day long, every minute of every day, that we might not miss even one.
To lose ourselves in His work, and thereby to find ourselves. And that will make all the difference.
President and Sister Martineau Puerto Rico San Juan West Mission
Elders and Sisters,
Every missionary, sooner or later, must decide why he or she is here. What motivates our service, our daily labors in the face of heat and discomfort and disappointment? The answer to that question will make all the difference.
At the end of his mission, Ammon spoke of his love for those he had helped come unto Christ:
Behold, the field was ripe, and blessed are ye, for ye did thrust in the sickle, and did reap with your might, yea, all the day long did ye labor; and behold the number of your sheaves! And they shall be gathered into the garners, that they are not wasted. Yea, they shall not be beaten down by the storm at the last day; yea, neither shall they be harrowed up by the whirlwinds; but when the storm cometh they shall be gathered together in their place, that the storm cannot penetrate to them; yea, neither shall they be driven with fierce winds whithersoever the enemy listeth to carry them. But behold, they are in the hands of the Lord of the harvest, and they are his; and he will raise them up at the last day. (Alma 26:5-7.)A key phrase is found in verse 7, "and they are his". What does this mean?
Paul taught:
Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. (Acts 20:28)The Lord has prepared thousands to receive His restored Gospel. They are His because He suffered and paid the ultimate price for them. We have accepted the work of seeking them out, teaching them by the Spirit, and inviting them to make sacred covenants with Him. Can we see that each one we find is precious to Him? That we have taken upon ourselves a sacred stewardship, for each one? That we will account to Him one day, for each one?Do we love them as He does?
Ramón Caraballo and Efrain del Toro were sitting together about 2 1/2 years ago, talking about life's problems. Ramón said, pessimistically, "There are no opportunities in life!" Efrain had been struggling with personal issues that seemed too big for him. He could see no way out. He felt that he lacked the power to resolve them. As Ramón spoke, Efrain turned and saw two young men dressed in white shirts and ties, approaching on foot. He recognized them as Mormon missionaries because he had visited briefly with two other missionaries nearly a year earlier. Then, he had no real interest. But now, when he saw the two missionaries, he felt something different. He replied to Ramón, "No, there really are opportunities in life!"
The missionaries were looking for an address. They were lost. Efrain helped them, and then readily agreed when one asked if he was interested in learning more about their message. A few days later, they arrived at his home a few minutes after the appointed hour. They found him sitting outside his home, waiting for them, pointing at his watch as a mild chastisement for being late. He insisted that they return almost daily, and soon he accepted their invitation to be baptized.
What did he find when he attended church, and as he became involved in his branch? Friends, real friends, who stood by him and helped him, loved and cared for him. He found a diligent branch president who shepherded him along the path to full membership and activity in the restored church of Christ. He was spiritually nourished by the word of God in sacrament, quorum and other meetings. He received and fulfilled assignments, and was ordained a priest. He helped the full-time missionaries teach their investigators. Eventually, he received the Melchizedek Priesthood.
Later, he invited the missionaries to contact Ramón, who also accepted the invitation to learn more. Efrain helped teach Ramón, and bore his testimony often. Ramón was baptized. He entered into the same path Efrain had found 6 months earlier.
In March of 2008, at a district general priesthood meeting in Arecibo, Ramón was presented to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood and to be ordained an elder. I asked both Ramón and Efrain to stand and help me as I spoke in the meeting. They related their experiences since joining the Church, and each expressed gratitude for blessings from a merciful Heavenly Father. They thanked the other brethren for welcoming them into their branch family. I asked their branch president to express his feelings about these two valiant members of his branch. With emotion, he expressed his love for them, and in response to my question, described the great sorrow he would feel if they were ever to fall away. It was clear that this wonderful priesthood leader felt toward his flock the same way Christ felt.And the missionaries who found and taught them?
Yesterday, I interviewed Ramón and gave him a recommend to receive his endowments in the Lord’s holy temple. He has been dating a lovely and faithful sister, and they have talked of marriage. His happiness showed in his face. Both he and Efrain are living the marvelous blessings of the restored Gospel. Ramón wanted to tell me about something that happened to him shortly after his baptism. He learned that his sister had been diagnosed with cancer. She had signed authorizations for surgery to remove the cancer. She was not a member. Ramón had learned that Melchizedek priesthood holders can give blessings of health using consecrated oil, but he was only a priest. So, he invited his sister to receive a blessing from the missionaries. She accepted, and the blessing was given.Ramón’s eyes filled with tears as he told me what happened after the blessing. Some time later, but before her scheduled surgery, his sister had more tests. This time, every single test came back negative! Her cancer was gone, completely. The surgery was cancelled, and his sister is healthy and well today. Ramón bore fervent testimony to me that the Lord healed his sister. His faith was strengthened.Then, with a serious and earnest look in his eye, Ramón explained why he wants to go to the temple. He recently dreamed that he saw a deep pool of water. He saw three people swimming in the pool, and somehow sensed that they needed his help. When he awoke, he understood that the three were his father, his mother and his brother, all of whom died without hearing the Gospel. Ramón has worked diligently with his family history consultant to prepare their names so he can do the work for them when he goes to the temple, after receiving those same blessings himself.The ripples in the pond will go on forever.Why are we here? To find Christ's own, and to invite them to return to Him, to Him who bought them with his blood. And to do all within our power to keep them secure within their newfound faith. To love them as He does, and to pay our own little price that they may find Him again. To labor all the day long, every minute of every day, that we might not miss even one.
To lose ourselves in His work, and thereby to find ourselves. And that will make all the difference.
President and Sister Martineau Puerto Rico San Juan West Mission
June 15, 2009
This week i have really been struggling mental wise. I really want to contact and want to do it. I am pumped in the morning and then when i get out i just keep talking myself out of it. Now that Elder Johnson is my companion and is learning the language i have really had to step it up. and DO!This week i had a wonderful conversation with a testigo. They came to our door. Of course they didn't want to accept what i was saying but i was trying to share it with the most love for them i could.I don't think i could be with a better companion. We get along great. We both see things pretty much eye to eye except he's about a foot taller than me. and i just overall have loved these first few days. Last transfer was just different. I really struggled to feel the spirit. it was hard on me. But towards the end i really just tried to put differences aside and continue on and try to complement him instead of bring him down.This week we had a good experience with one of our great investigators jenny. Almost like the power of a member refference. She is not a member yet but has just as much excitement. She knows the book of mormon is true and knows that god has a plan. The questions she asks are to seek information instead of to disprove. but she invited her brother over to speak with us. He sat there content the whole time as we taught the lesson. Then afterwords he leaned forward and asked us. in english "i don't understand spanish so well, could you come back and explain that in english or papiamento?"
I was so excited. Then we went back and had a great lesson with him. =)
That moment made me feel so good about missionary work! It made me feel like they were really one of those people that will listen... as preach my gospel tells us to find such.
I need to get my contacts. i want to baptize. I need to be able to try the promise. I really want to do it this week and i will!
This week we also got the sisters. BIKE IS super. Man its so hot here and i sweat like a pig all day long. My shirts are turning yellow brownish... its so dry and there is so much dust. so i get wet a little dust storm comes through then everything is light brown. its great!
I am teaching the sisters and my companion papiamento. President is crazy! I just started learning this language 6 weeks ago and now he makes me island train! AAAHHH! no its good. Its only made my papiamento get better. But i don't know what president was thinking. He's the district leader though so thats good. I don't want leadership yet. Teaching papiamento is good enough. You should hear some of my phone calls. They are about as far away from communicating as possible. =) no its really not that bad. every one tells me HOPI LIHE HOPI LIHE. which is very fast very fast. You are learn fast!
But yeah i have already lost a lot of water weight. My face is getting a little skinnier. all the good stuff! Yeah! my skin darker and darker. my shirts browner and browner. My deoderant weaker and weaker. It is quite the life! That's for sure!
Tur Kos Ta Hopi Dushi Pa Mi!
Mi Ta Stima Boso!
Ayo
Me encanta ser misionero!I Love Being a Missionary!Mi Stima Pa Ta Mishonero!(dutch womps...its hard)Ik ....???.... Zendeleng
I was so excited. Then we went back and had a great lesson with him. =)
That moment made me feel so good about missionary work! It made me feel like they were really one of those people that will listen... as preach my gospel tells us to find such.
I need to get my contacts. i want to baptize. I need to be able to try the promise. I really want to do it this week and i will!
This week we also got the sisters. BIKE IS super. Man its so hot here and i sweat like a pig all day long. My shirts are turning yellow brownish... its so dry and there is so much dust. so i get wet a little dust storm comes through then everything is light brown. its great!
I am teaching the sisters and my companion papiamento. President is crazy! I just started learning this language 6 weeks ago and now he makes me island train! AAAHHH! no its good. Its only made my papiamento get better. But i don't know what president was thinking. He's the district leader though so thats good. I don't want leadership yet. Teaching papiamento is good enough. You should hear some of my phone calls. They are about as far away from communicating as possible. =) no its really not that bad. every one tells me HOPI LIHE HOPI LIHE. which is very fast very fast. You are learn fast!
But yeah i have already lost a lot of water weight. My face is getting a little skinnier. all the good stuff! Yeah! my skin darker and darker. my shirts browner and browner. My deoderant weaker and weaker. It is quite the life! That's for sure!
Tur Kos Ta Hopi Dushi Pa Mi!
Mi Ta Stima Boso!
Ayo
Me encanta ser misionero!I Love Being a Missionary!Mi Stima Pa Ta Mishonero!(dutch womps...its hard)Ik ....???.... Zendeleng
June 8, 2009
Ok so. This last week was a very different week. As most end of transfer weeks are. The time seems to pass so fast and then i realize i am starting another month another transfer and soon i will be moving on to another area...or maybe not... but everything just passes so fast.
This last transfer was good companion wise. He was very different i feel like i really finally got to know him and learned to work with him towards the end. It took a while some argueing and much patience but now i feel much more tolerant. I feel like i can put petty differences aside much easier now.
This week has also been good teaching wise. I was kind of upset because i didn't have the focus or motivation rather to get my ten contacts a day as president nos exhorto.
I practiced my dutch.... yep still dont know a thing except Ik Spreek Niet Nedelands and Ik ben een zendeling . That is about the extent of my dutch right now but should be increasing soon. We are going to start working with members to help teach us.. I still need to find a good book.
I ate some funny things this last week. I wanted to try some cactus. So there was a cactus broken over so i took my knife out and cut through the middle and took a big chunk out of the middle. It tasted like a baked potato kind of. But much gooeier. Not bad... I didn't know if it was edible but i didn't die...=)
We went to a lady's house to eat lunch one day ... =) She had talked about making arepas which are like venezuelan tacos. i was pumped then we got there and she had decided to make Sopa de rabo de vaca. Which is COW TAIL!!! Fun! It wasn't very good but not too digusting. Just huge chunks of bone all over and she just ate it like a pro cow tail eater. Just pick out the bones sucked on them for a while then spit them out for her dog to eat. It was cool.
Then on sunday we went to a sisters house who made.... Rice Potato salad (much different than what you're thinking of) Ribs Chicken and a big chunk of beef. More meat than i have eaten my whole mission in one meal...=) no. On sunday i had a great experience. I really felt the promise of the atonement. I felt completely clean new and ready to start working hard again. It was wonderful! I felt like afterwards i was able to teach with much more clarity and i felt the spirit working through me! Just how preach my gospel tells us we can know we are successful and the lord is pleased with us. Wonderful!
This morning my companion flew out. wednesday the other island elders fly out. thursday the new missionaries fly in including SISTERS that are taking over half our area. We had to split out area this last week find a new apartment and get a bunch of stuff in line for them. Whew.
Thursday i hand over the keys to the car and i am on bike again. WoohoO! Time to lose a little weight. I've been getting chunkier. not bad staying the same weight but now i am going to work it off again. President also made a rule a few months back that elders and sisters can't ride in the same car... and he is imposing it here in aruba too. so we are going to have to ride the bus up to do email and everything on Pday. How fun!
This last transfer was good companion wise. He was very different i feel like i really finally got to know him and learned to work with him towards the end. It took a while some argueing and much patience but now i feel much more tolerant. I feel like i can put petty differences aside much easier now.
This week has also been good teaching wise. I was kind of upset because i didn't have the focus or motivation rather to get my ten contacts a day as president nos exhorto.
I practiced my dutch.... yep still dont know a thing except Ik Spreek Niet Nedelands and Ik ben een zendeling . That is about the extent of my dutch right now but should be increasing soon. We are going to start working with members to help teach us.. I still need to find a good book.
I ate some funny things this last week. I wanted to try some cactus. So there was a cactus broken over so i took my knife out and cut through the middle and took a big chunk out of the middle. It tasted like a baked potato kind of. But much gooeier. Not bad... I didn't know if it was edible but i didn't die...=)
We went to a lady's house to eat lunch one day ... =) She had talked about making arepas which are like venezuelan tacos. i was pumped then we got there and she had decided to make Sopa de rabo de vaca. Which is COW TAIL!!! Fun! It wasn't very good but not too digusting. Just huge chunks of bone all over and she just ate it like a pro cow tail eater. Just pick out the bones sucked on them for a while then spit them out for her dog to eat. It was cool.
Then on sunday we went to a sisters house who made.... Rice Potato salad (much different than what you're thinking of) Ribs Chicken and a big chunk of beef. More meat than i have eaten my whole mission in one meal...=) no. On sunday i had a great experience. I really felt the promise of the atonement. I felt completely clean new and ready to start working hard again. It was wonderful! I felt like afterwards i was able to teach with much more clarity and i felt the spirit working through me! Just how preach my gospel tells us we can know we are successful and the lord is pleased with us. Wonderful!
This morning my companion flew out. wednesday the other island elders fly out. thursday the new missionaries fly in including SISTERS that are taking over half our area. We had to split out area this last week find a new apartment and get a bunch of stuff in line for them. Whew.
Thursday i hand over the keys to the car and i am on bike again. WoohoO! Time to lose a little weight. I've been getting chunkier. not bad staying the same weight but now i am going to work it off again. President also made a rule a few months back that elders and sisters can't ride in the same car... and he is imposing it here in aruba too. so we are going to have to ride the bus up to do email and everything on Pday. How fun!
June 1, 2009
Sorry this letter wont be so long. We are going to go to THE BEACH today! Woohoo! but this week was a great week. Like always. Ups and downs Goods bads but I AM A MISSIONARY!SOY MISIONERO! MI TA MISHONERO! IK BEN EEN ZENDELING!
This week as well i really realized how much i love spanish! I LOVE IT! it is so much easier for me than papiamento. Just becuase it makes sense to me. Papiamento doesn't make sense becuase its too easy! I have gotten used to the spanish grammer and structure and so anyhting other than spanish structure throws me off even english sometimes. I feel like it is my second native language. Although it isn't, i feel that confident with it. I can understand almost everything. I am learning new words everyday but i feel fluent and feel like it is a beautiful language. Now papiamento will be the same soon. But Dutch... uhhhh... There arent as many people here in aruba that speak just dutch nor are there many that know it good enough to really teach me. I need a dutch for dummies book. a very basic book.
but yeah. I will be feeling great when i can understand it good. I want to learn many languages. many more =) French i am working on a little with some hatian people. and as well our neighbors are from the philippeans so maybe a little tagolog. Who Knows! but yeah this week I learned many great lessons. This week i was very humbled by someone that knew a whole lot about the bible. I tried to convince him but tried to do it by logic with scriptures from the bible and he would bring back other scriptures from the bible or tell me more about the story of that person in the bible. There are many scriptures that i have in my head that prove (to me) certain things. But i really don't know as much of the background. I remember the part in chapter 5 of preach my gospel that talks about answering doubts with the book of mormon but i just kept wanting to prove him wrong with the bible. I made a great mistake and the contact never really got anywhere. He did invite us to go back but i have quite a process of repentance to go through in regard to the first impression that he got of me and the church. It wasn't anything bad just back and forth bible bashing. But he knew much more. Then our next cita i tried to really apply what preach my gospel says and use the book of mormon and the testimony i have to answer their doubts. I felt the spirit so strong! I really did i knew that i was doing what i needed to do.
I love debating. I do, but as i learned this week I don't know as much about the Bible as I would like but i do have a testimony that it is true and that the Book of mormon is true as well and by sharing that testimony i felt strong and like i had the help of my heavenly father. It was great. The best part was at the end of the lesson they were talking to each other and i know they understood. They understood perfectly it was a great exerience!
That is my week more or less. I learned a lot. about the scriptures and about everything! WOoHoO!
I Love you all! Mi Ta Stima Boso! Yo Amo a ustedes! (sorry dutch will come)
Elder Ellis...
This week as well i really realized how much i love spanish! I LOVE IT! it is so much easier for me than papiamento. Just becuase it makes sense to me. Papiamento doesn't make sense becuase its too easy! I have gotten used to the spanish grammer and structure and so anyhting other than spanish structure throws me off even english sometimes. I feel like it is my second native language. Although it isn't, i feel that confident with it. I can understand almost everything. I am learning new words everyday but i feel fluent and feel like it is a beautiful language. Now papiamento will be the same soon. But Dutch... uhhhh... There arent as many people here in aruba that speak just dutch nor are there many that know it good enough to really teach me. I need a dutch for dummies book. a very basic book.
but yeah. I will be feeling great when i can understand it good. I want to learn many languages. many more =) French i am working on a little with some hatian people. and as well our neighbors are from the philippeans so maybe a little tagolog. Who Knows! but yeah this week I learned many great lessons. This week i was very humbled by someone that knew a whole lot about the bible. I tried to convince him but tried to do it by logic with scriptures from the bible and he would bring back other scriptures from the bible or tell me more about the story of that person in the bible. There are many scriptures that i have in my head that prove (to me) certain things. But i really don't know as much of the background. I remember the part in chapter 5 of preach my gospel that talks about answering doubts with the book of mormon but i just kept wanting to prove him wrong with the bible. I made a great mistake and the contact never really got anywhere. He did invite us to go back but i have quite a process of repentance to go through in regard to the first impression that he got of me and the church. It wasn't anything bad just back and forth bible bashing. But he knew much more. Then our next cita i tried to really apply what preach my gospel says and use the book of mormon and the testimony i have to answer their doubts. I felt the spirit so strong! I really did i knew that i was doing what i needed to do.
I love debating. I do, but as i learned this week I don't know as much about the Bible as I would like but i do have a testimony that it is true and that the Book of mormon is true as well and by sharing that testimony i felt strong and like i had the help of my heavenly father. It was great. The best part was at the end of the lesson they were talking to each other and i know they understood. They understood perfectly it was a great exerience!
That is my week more or less. I learned a lot. about the scriptures and about everything! WOoHoO!
I Love you all! Mi Ta Stima Boso! Yo Amo a ustedes! (sorry dutch will come)
Elder Ellis...
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
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
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.
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!
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!
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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