Dear Family,
It was great to talk to you yesterday. I sure love you and miss you! I was really surprised by how hard it was to hang up. But, hey, we´ll see each other soon.
Here is the story of Aylen, told with more details than I explained yesterday:
Yesterday we brought a new investigator to church. We found her last Thursday. A very important lesson with member had fallen through and we had no appointments to teach. But I decided to have faith that Heavenly Father could guide us to someone prepared. So I tried to have a good attitude and we went to visit an investigator who has been difficult to find lately. When we knocked, her niece, who we hadn´t met before, answered the door and let us in. Her name is Aylen and she used to take the lessons from Elder Moore in Palomar. We started teaching and set a baptismal date with her for the 14 of January! Yesterday she came to church and really loved sacrament meeting. She says she wants to bring her cousin and her boyfriend with her next week! Aylen is a miracle. This experience reminded me of the importance of having faith and a positive attitude. Heavenly Father isn´t going to bless me with a miracle investigator every time I choose to have faith despite challenges, but I know he will help me to achieve better results in all my efforts if I exercise my faith and think positively.
One of the things I want to do this week is to use the mission goal of 15 lessons with a member present per week to help our investigators. Last week we only taught 7 lessons with a member. We had more lessons planned, but lately all the members have been standing us up. But I think maybe if we talk to them more about the individual investigators and explain to them what each investigator needs from them personally, they will follow through on their commitment to come teach with us. If they can love the investigators like we do, they will ask us to let them come teach! So this week I will plan better so both the members and investigators can have spiritual experiences in the lessons.
I was thinking today about how important it is that everyone knows that God loves them and that other people love them. Love is the most effective motivator. Love for us motivated Christ to endure inexpressable suffering to save us, love for Christ motivated the original apostles to keep preaching at risk of martyrdom, that same love motivated the pioneers to cross the plains through rain and snow. People who feel loved by others and by God despite their errors are willing to keep trying to change in the face of debilitating addictions. And if these people feel enough love, they achieve those changes and come unto Christ. Love always wins. Despite challenges and suffering and temptations and great wickedness, in the end Heavenly Father and Christ´s love will save everyone who learns to truly love Them back. Love covers our imperfections. If we strive to love God and others, we will naturally be motivated to perfect our imperfections and Heavenly Father and Christ´s love will forgive and heal our imperfections, even the ones we don´t have time to overcome in this life. That is why love is the first and great commandment. True love will motivate you to keep all the commandments, and love is the motor of the grace that will save you after all that you can do.
I want each of you to know how much God loves you. Every day he watches you and is thrilled to have children as fantastic as you are. He loves you for your faithfulness in the preexistence, for your honest efforts in this life, and for your divine, eternal potential in the next life. He is proud of every advance you make, however small. He is patient with your imperfections. His love for you is constant, regardless of your success or your mistakes. He thinks the world of you. He could spend more time telling good things about you than any one else you know.
And I want you to know how much I love each of you. My love can´t possibly compare to Heavenly Father´s, but it has grown a lot during my mission. I think I have the best family ever! I tell other people stories about you. I tell other missionaries and investigators how wonderful I think you are. I have special memories of each one of you, and I am excited to make more memories with you when I come home! I am thrilled every time I get an email or a letter from one of you, even when I don´t have time to respond. My family wouldn´t be complete or as cool if any one of you was missing. I think you are fantastic! Mom, Dad, Eliza, Ben, Emma, and Dan, I love you!
Love,
Hermana Clark
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Friday, December 16, 2011
The Highlight of the Week was Sunday
Dear Family,
The highlight of this week was Sunday, so I will tell about it first. Hna Pullan and I woke up at 6:30 as usual and hurried to get ready and out the door by 7:45 so we could pick up Javier and Marilín, our Paraguayan shoemaker investigators (they are from Paraguay and make Argentine shoes, in case you were confused about my adjective placement). We left at 7:52, but after a short walk across the tracks and through deserted streets, we still managed to arrive early (that doesn´t happen very often.) We knocked on the door of J and M´s one room orange brick and cement apartment/shoe workshop. After a long wait, a very sleepy, pajama clad Javier answered the door. He told us Marilín had to stay home because Jorgito, their 1 1/2 year old son (the only baby I´ve every seen with a visible mustache, but incredibly cute), had a fever. . . but he said he would come. So we waited outside while Javier quickly showered and got dressed (I wish I could get ready that fast!) Miraculously we didn´t miss the bus and we arrived at the chapel just in time to see a sister with long curly hair step out of a remis (taxi) with four little girls. Then she turned around and I realized she was Ramona, our investigator! She came to church BY HERSELF, IN A SKIRT, HER FIRST TIME! I have had a few especially elect investigators arrive by themselves the first time (Mario and Celeste and Olga), but none of them showed up in Sunday clothes. And her daughters Cintia (10) and Milagros (5) and her granddaughter (6ish, can´t remember her name), were in skirts too! They looked like members already! I was so proud! There is an emotional high you can only get from seeing your investigators go to church for the first time. I felt so happy as I entered the church building with Javier, Ramona, and the girls. Convienently the bishop was standing there in the entrance. I had an enormous smile on my face as I introduced him to Ramona and Javier. The meetings went perfectly. Cintia, Milagros, and their niece immediately went to their primary class without clinging to Ramona. And even though the Relief Society lesson was on the final judgement, Ramona seemed to like it and feel befriended by the other sisters. She also said she liked the Gospel Doctrine class--topic:Family History and Temple Work-- and didn´t seem too overwhelmed by the rather inadequate explanations (I thought) of doctrine completely foreign to her. Javier went to a different class with the young single adults (I hope he explained he isn´t single), but seemed to like it. He said he wants to come next week!
Other news: On Friday night, the assistants called us and dropped another bombshell: they want us to go back to the villa! Apparently Bishop Paz has been really concerned about the progressing investigators we left in the villa because the assistants haven´t had much time lately to work in their area (President Carter keeps them really busy. They couldn´t even come to church this Sunday because they had to go to a stake conference somewhere else). So the assistants decided it would be best for the investigators if the area division was erased and we came back to the villa to go back to teaching our old investigators! They´ll keep teaching the investigators they have found, but we get to keep teaching Andrés´ family and our other investigators we gave them. At first I was frustrated that the assistants were changing the plan again and freaked out because I didn´t know how we were going to be able to divide our time between areas. And there was the fact that I had put a lot of mental energy into not being resentful of handing all my investigators over to other missionaries and being sent to a part of the area with no investigators. I had really gotten used to it because the mission is just like that; we hear all the time that we have to accept the transfer changes and just work where we are called. I´m used to liking what I´m given, not being given what I wanted. So I was freaked out until I realized they were actually giving me what I wanted and that it was okay to get what I wanted. I realized that I would be THRILLED to go back to the villa and be able to visit my converts and keep teaching my old investigators.
Well, I´m out of time, but thanks to everyone for your emails. Ben, I'm glad you aren´t so sick any more. One thing we try here to get investigators to come to church is offer to make them pancakes or brownies and go to their house to eat breakfast with them before going to church together. Maybe you can make your investigators some sweet avocado smoothies to lure them to sacrament meeting. Anyway, I don´t know if that would work in Brazil, but sometimes it works here. Or you can get members to accompany you to the lessons and make the member invite the investigator to church-- that was what we did with Javier this week. Getting investigators to church is hard, but keep trying! You can do it!
Phone call thoughts: I think I can maybe call during the times you mentioned. A family invited us over for lunch on Sunday, so I´m not sure exactly what time I would call. I´ll confirm plans next week. A conference call would be pretty cool. Could I do that with a calling card from a bishop´s office phone?
I love you and I am so proud of all of you for all the cool things you are doing. Mom, HAPPY BIRTHDAY on Sunday! Dad, I liked your sacrament talk. Dan, your interview made me smile! Eliza and Emma, as usual you are amazing me with your general smartness and talented-ness and funny quoting abilities. I love you all!
Love,
Ellis
The highlight of this week was Sunday, so I will tell about it first. Hna Pullan and I woke up at 6:30 as usual and hurried to get ready and out the door by 7:45 so we could pick up Javier and Marilín, our Paraguayan shoemaker investigators (they are from Paraguay and make Argentine shoes, in case you were confused about my adjective placement). We left at 7:52, but after a short walk across the tracks and through deserted streets, we still managed to arrive early (that doesn´t happen very often.) We knocked on the door of J and M´s one room orange brick and cement apartment/shoe workshop. After a long wait, a very sleepy, pajama clad Javier answered the door. He told us Marilín had to stay home because Jorgito, their 1 1/2 year old son (the only baby I´ve every seen with a visible mustache, but incredibly cute), had a fever. . . but he said he would come. So we waited outside while Javier quickly showered and got dressed (I wish I could get ready that fast!) Miraculously we didn´t miss the bus and we arrived at the chapel just in time to see a sister with long curly hair step out of a remis (taxi) with four little girls. Then she turned around and I realized she was Ramona, our investigator! She came to church BY HERSELF, IN A SKIRT, HER FIRST TIME! I have had a few especially elect investigators arrive by themselves the first time (Mario and Celeste and Olga), but none of them showed up in Sunday clothes. And her daughters Cintia (10) and Milagros (5) and her granddaughter (6ish, can´t remember her name), were in skirts too! They looked like members already! I was so proud! There is an emotional high you can only get from seeing your investigators go to church for the first time. I felt so happy as I entered the church building with Javier, Ramona, and the girls. Convienently the bishop was standing there in the entrance. I had an enormous smile on my face as I introduced him to Ramona and Javier. The meetings went perfectly. Cintia, Milagros, and their niece immediately went to their primary class without clinging to Ramona. And even though the Relief Society lesson was on the final judgement, Ramona seemed to like it and feel befriended by the other sisters. She also said she liked the Gospel Doctrine class--topic:Family History and Temple Work-- and didn´t seem too overwhelmed by the rather inadequate explanations (I thought) of doctrine completely foreign to her. Javier went to a different class with the young single adults (I hope he explained he isn´t single), but seemed to like it. He said he wants to come next week!
Other news: On Friday night, the assistants called us and dropped another bombshell: they want us to go back to the villa! Apparently Bishop Paz has been really concerned about the progressing investigators we left in the villa because the assistants haven´t had much time lately to work in their area (President Carter keeps them really busy. They couldn´t even come to church this Sunday because they had to go to a stake conference somewhere else). So the assistants decided it would be best for the investigators if the area division was erased and we came back to the villa to go back to teaching our old investigators! They´ll keep teaching the investigators they have found, but we get to keep teaching Andrés´ family and our other investigators we gave them. At first I was frustrated that the assistants were changing the plan again and freaked out because I didn´t know how we were going to be able to divide our time between areas. And there was the fact that I had put a lot of mental energy into not being resentful of handing all my investigators over to other missionaries and being sent to a part of the area with no investigators. I had really gotten used to it because the mission is just like that; we hear all the time that we have to accept the transfer changes and just work where we are called. I´m used to liking what I´m given, not being given what I wanted. So I was freaked out until I realized they were actually giving me what I wanted and that it was okay to get what I wanted. I realized that I would be THRILLED to go back to the villa and be able to visit my converts and keep teaching my old investigators.
Well, I´m out of time, but thanks to everyone for your emails. Ben, I'm glad you aren´t so sick any more. One thing we try here to get investigators to come to church is offer to make them pancakes or brownies and go to their house to eat breakfast with them before going to church together. Maybe you can make your investigators some sweet avocado smoothies to lure them to sacrament meeting. Anyway, I don´t know if that would work in Brazil, but sometimes it works here. Or you can get members to accompany you to the lessons and make the member invite the investigator to church-- that was what we did with Javier this week. Getting investigators to church is hard, but keep trying! You can do it!
Phone call thoughts: I think I can maybe call during the times you mentioned. A family invited us over for lunch on Sunday, so I´m not sure exactly what time I would call. I´ll confirm plans next week. A conference call would be pretty cool. Could I do that with a calling card from a bishop´s office phone?
I love you and I am so proud of all of you for all the cool things you are doing. Mom, HAPPY BIRTHDAY on Sunday! Dad, I liked your sacrament talk. Dan, your interview made me smile! Eliza and Emma, as usual you are amazing me with your general smartness and talented-ness and funny quoting abilities. I love you all!
Love,
Ellis
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
A nice insight
Dear Mom, Dad, Eliza, Ben, Emma, and Dan,
Thanks for all your emails this week. Well, Dan, you didn´t email, but thanks for your burnt letter that I got in the mail last week. I wish I had time to respond to all of you personally, but Sister Pullan and I lost track of time this P-day so we started internet late and have very little time.
I was really excited to hear that Dad is going to be the first counselor in the ward. I am sure he will be great. The new ward sounds nice. I am glad the Fifes, Carmans and Nielsens are still in the ward. It would have been weird without them. Though it will be weird not to have Mark Wray as our home teacher! And it´s weird that the Smiths, Penningtons, Mosmans, etc., won´t be in our ward anymore (if I understood the boundaries right). But I´m sure now you guys (and eventually me) will make lots of interesting new friendships and have lots of interesting, positive experiences being in a smaller ward.
So this morning I had kind of a positive maturity developing life experience. We had a meeting in the mission office for the new missionaries and trainers. I was sitting there having a moment of feeling overwhelmed and under-confident and worried about the last two months of my mission and thinking that I really wanted to have an interview with President Carter to just express all that and ask for advice, when I realized that I was really just wanting someone in authority to affirm that I was doing a good job as a missionary in spite of my weaknesses. And I realized that the real problem is having to look for affirmation from someone in authority instead of taking responsibility for my performance and recognizing on my own what I´m doing well and what I need to improve. And I thought about how much more important it is to figure out if God is pleased with me and my efforts than if the mission president is pleased with me (though I really value President Carter´s approval.) So I decided to stop freaking out and take initiative and responsibility for my own life and my own mission. I don´t need someone in authority to give me the magic vote of approval--- I can decide with the Spirit (and with patience with and kindness for myself) how I´m doing and what I can work on. Not that it is wrong to seek advice from leaders, in moderation, but today was just one of those times I needed to figure things out on my own.
Yikes! Why does introspection have to become so lengthy? Other brief news of the week:
* we found Carmen (45 or 50-ish), who met missionaries 13 years ago but then lost contact and lost her Book of Mormon. She was excited to hear more of the message after so long and to receive another copy of the Book of Mormon. She is a little hesitant about going to church (she wants to know more first), but I think she can progress and get baptized. She has a lot of questions about life after death too!
* we found Ramona, the mother of an old contact of other sisters who we had barely started to teach. She is married, has 7 kids, and really wanted to come to church! She invited herself and repeated several times that she felt she had to go to church even though she didn´t know why. She said she feels good when we teach her. We were disappointed because on Sunday she ended up getting stuck with two grandchildren who weren´t picked up on time by their parents and was afraid to take the two of them plus two of her own kids to church and didn´t end up coming. (run on sentence. oh well.) But hopefully she will come next week.
* Sister Pullan and I are becoming really good friends and learning lots together. I´m going to try even harder this week to be a good trainer and help her start her mission off well!
I got your Christmas packages today. I already opened the envelope, and I´m glad I did because I loved the history of Dad´s mission. I showed it to all the missionaries who were there in the office for the meeting and they thought it was really cool. Thanks, Dad!
I hope you all have a wonderful week! I´m sorry I didn´t have time to write everyone personally! I love you!
Love,
Hermana Clark
Thanks for all your emails this week. Well, Dan, you didn´t email, but thanks for your burnt letter that I got in the mail last week. I wish I had time to respond to all of you personally, but Sister Pullan and I lost track of time this P-day so we started internet late and have very little time.
I was really excited to hear that Dad is going to be the first counselor in the ward. I am sure he will be great. The new ward sounds nice. I am glad the Fifes, Carmans and Nielsens are still in the ward. It would have been weird without them. Though it will be weird not to have Mark Wray as our home teacher! And it´s weird that the Smiths, Penningtons, Mosmans, etc., won´t be in our ward anymore (if I understood the boundaries right). But I´m sure now you guys (and eventually me) will make lots of interesting new friendships and have lots of interesting, positive experiences being in a smaller ward.
So this morning I had kind of a positive maturity developing life experience. We had a meeting in the mission office for the new missionaries and trainers. I was sitting there having a moment of feeling overwhelmed and under-confident and worried about the last two months of my mission and thinking that I really wanted to have an interview with President Carter to just express all that and ask for advice, when I realized that I was really just wanting someone in authority to affirm that I was doing a good job as a missionary in spite of my weaknesses. And I realized that the real problem is having to look for affirmation from someone in authority instead of taking responsibility for my performance and recognizing on my own what I´m doing well and what I need to improve. And I thought about how much more important it is to figure out if God is pleased with me and my efforts than if the mission president is pleased with me (though I really value President Carter´s approval.) So I decided to stop freaking out and take initiative and responsibility for my own life and my own mission. I don´t need someone in authority to give me the magic vote of approval--- I can decide with the Spirit (and with patience with and kindness for myself) how I´m doing and what I can work on. Not that it is wrong to seek advice from leaders, in moderation, but today was just one of those times I needed to figure things out on my own.
Yikes! Why does introspection have to become so lengthy? Other brief news of the week:
* we found Carmen (45 or 50-ish), who met missionaries 13 years ago but then lost contact and lost her Book of Mormon. She was excited to hear more of the message after so long and to receive another copy of the Book of Mormon. She is a little hesitant about going to church (she wants to know more first), but I think she can progress and get baptized. She has a lot of questions about life after death too!
* we found Ramona, the mother of an old contact of other sisters who we had barely started to teach. She is married, has 7 kids, and really wanted to come to church! She invited herself and repeated several times that she felt she had to go to church even though she didn´t know why. She said she feels good when we teach her. We were disappointed because on Sunday she ended up getting stuck with two grandchildren who weren´t picked up on time by their parents and was afraid to take the two of them plus two of her own kids to church and didn´t end up coming. (run on sentence. oh well.) But hopefully she will come next week.
* Sister Pullan and I are becoming really good friends and learning lots together. I´m going to try even harder this week to be a good trainer and help her start her mission off well!
I got your Christmas packages today. I already opened the envelope, and I´m glad I did because I loved the history of Dad´s mission. I showed it to all the missionaries who were there in the office for the meeting and they thought it was really cool. Thanks, Dad!
I hope you all have a wonderful week! I´m sorry I didn´t have time to write everyone personally! I love you!
Love,
Hermana Clark
Monday, November 28, 2011
I Kept My Eyes Open During the Confirmation...
Dear Mom and Dad,
Last night I opened the mail I got last week: a couple letters from Grandma Campbell and a letter from Mom with lots of letters inside. One of the letters in Mom´s envelope was from Dan. I especially liked Dan´s letter. He burned the edges to make it look more adventurous or something. Dan´s letters are fantastic. They always make me smile. I have the "mirror of reflection for when you are down" that he drew me pinned to my half of the bulletin board next to my desk. I still want to read his story about the tomatoes.
This week was really great. Here is the brief version of the notable but not that exciting stuff:
* We went to the capital to do paperwork for Hna Pullan´s visa on Friday. Then we went out for pizza with some of the other elders who went.
* Our zone leaders came to our weekly planning session and helped us plan. We learned a lot.
* Elder Godfrey came on divisions with us (accompanied by two pre-missionaries from the ward so it wouldn´t be scandalous) to meet all our investigators in the villa. It was hard to part with them, but I think it will be for the best.
Now for the best part: ANDRÉS WAS BAPTIZED AND CONFIRMED! About ten of his daughters and grandkids came to his baptism, which made it really special. They filled up the whole front row of the chapel! Andrés stood up to give his testimony in his baptism and started crying really hard. He cries really easily. I think he was really happy to be baptized. Afterwards we invited Andrés´s family to eat refreshments: fancy crustless sandwiches ordered by the ward mission leader. I think they felt pretty welcome. Andrés told us his daughters are really proud of him for giving up smoking. I am too! Not even one relapse! He is amazing! I hope he can keep it up after his baptism. I think he will.
Andrés´s confirmation was really neat too. He told me beforehand that he was even more excited to be confirmed than to be baptized. In the mission I´ve learned to appreciate the moment of the confirmation more than I did before. There is something powerful about seeing men holding the power of God encircle someone and bestow a heavenly gift as essential as the constant guidance of the Holy Ghost. I kept my eyes open for a little bit during Andrés´ confirmation, and watched his face. He seemed to look younger than usual, and at peace. Now two of his grandkids and one of his daughters have baptismal goal dates! One of his daughters who missed the baptism and her son and another grandkid came to see the confirmation. I suggested to the assistants that we should show them the baptismal font and invite them to be baptized. So they did it, and Deborah, Axel, and Ariel accepted! That was pretty neat. The assistants will be teaching them because Andrés and his family live in the villa that is no longer part of our area, but I´m still really happy about it.
Well, I´m out of time as always, so this is it for the week. Thanks for keeping your letters mostly free of comments and ideas about my post mission life. It´s been a little bit harder to focus lately because I´m constantly reminded (by other missionaries or by myself) that I don´t have very much time left. I´m trying not to count the days or anything lame like that, because I want the last two months to be the best months. Especially because I want to give Hna Pullan a great start on her mission.
Oops. One little post mission detail. I`m pretty sure I wrote on some BYU form that I would be coming back for Winter semester (January to April). I´m allowed to come back as late as Fall semester of 2012, but I think I need to tell BYU that I won´t really be back until Spring or Fall. Mom, can you look into that and see what, if anything, needs to be done? Ugh. I really don´t want to think about that because I really have no idea what to do with those empty months before I can go back to school. I try to cheerfully imagine (thought not too often or while I´m tracting) spending lots of great family time together, but the truth is that everyone will be in school or at work. I, obviously, will need to work too, and figure out the rest of my life/school/career plans. . . that´s enough. When I get back in January I´ll figure it out. Until then I´m trying not to think about any of that. Please keep helping me out with that by not writing more than ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY about coming home.
Well, have a great week. I love you!
Love,
Ellis
Last night I opened the mail I got last week: a couple letters from Grandma Campbell and a letter from Mom with lots of letters inside. One of the letters in Mom´s envelope was from Dan. I especially liked Dan´s letter. He burned the edges to make it look more adventurous or something. Dan´s letters are fantastic. They always make me smile. I have the "mirror of reflection for when you are down" that he drew me pinned to my half of the bulletin board next to my desk. I still want to read his story about the tomatoes.
This week was really great. Here is the brief version of the notable but not that exciting stuff:
* We went to the capital to do paperwork for Hna Pullan´s visa on Friday. Then we went out for pizza with some of the other elders who went.
* Our zone leaders came to our weekly planning session and helped us plan. We learned a lot.
* Elder Godfrey came on divisions with us (accompanied by two pre-missionaries from the ward so it wouldn´t be scandalous) to meet all our investigators in the villa. It was hard to part with them, but I think it will be for the best.
Now for the best part: ANDRÉS WAS BAPTIZED AND CONFIRMED! About ten of his daughters and grandkids came to his baptism, which made it really special. They filled up the whole front row of the chapel! Andrés stood up to give his testimony in his baptism and started crying really hard. He cries really easily. I think he was really happy to be baptized. Afterwards we invited Andrés´s family to eat refreshments: fancy crustless sandwiches ordered by the ward mission leader. I think they felt pretty welcome. Andrés told us his daughters are really proud of him for giving up smoking. I am too! Not even one relapse! He is amazing! I hope he can keep it up after his baptism. I think he will.
Andrés´s confirmation was really neat too. He told me beforehand that he was even more excited to be confirmed than to be baptized. In the mission I´ve learned to appreciate the moment of the confirmation more than I did before. There is something powerful about seeing men holding the power of God encircle someone and bestow a heavenly gift as essential as the constant guidance of the Holy Ghost. I kept my eyes open for a little bit during Andrés´ confirmation, and watched his face. He seemed to look younger than usual, and at peace. Now two of his grandkids and one of his daughters have baptismal goal dates! One of his daughters who missed the baptism and her son and another grandkid came to see the confirmation. I suggested to the assistants that we should show them the baptismal font and invite them to be baptized. So they did it, and Deborah, Axel, and Ariel accepted! That was pretty neat. The assistants will be teaching them because Andrés and his family live in the villa that is no longer part of our area, but I´m still really happy about it.
Well, I´m out of time as always, so this is it for the week. Thanks for keeping your letters mostly free of comments and ideas about my post mission life. It´s been a little bit harder to focus lately because I´m constantly reminded (by other missionaries or by myself) that I don´t have very much time left. I´m trying not to count the days or anything lame like that, because I want the last two months to be the best months. Especially because I want to give Hna Pullan a great start on her mission.
Oops. One little post mission detail. I`m pretty sure I wrote on some BYU form that I would be coming back for Winter semester (January to April). I´m allowed to come back as late as Fall semester of 2012, but I think I need to tell BYU that I won´t really be back until Spring or Fall. Mom, can you look into that and see what, if anything, needs to be done? Ugh. I really don´t want to think about that because I really have no idea what to do with those empty months before I can go back to school. I try to cheerfully imagine (thought not too often or while I´m tracting) spending lots of great family time together, but the truth is that everyone will be in school or at work. I, obviously, will need to work too, and figure out the rest of my life/school/career plans. . . that´s enough. When I get back in January I´ll figure it out. Until then I´m trying not to think about any of that. Please keep helping me out with that by not writing more than ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY about coming home.
Well, have a great week. I love you!
Love,
Ellis
Monday, November 21, 2011
Last Week's Letter that I Accidently Sent to the Mission
Dear Family,
What a week! I really enjoyed working with Hna Reales for a week. Even though we only spent a week together, I learned a lot from her about how to plan more effectively.
My new companion arrived on Saturday. Her name is Hermana Hannah Pullan and she is from Payson, Utah. She was an art major at BYU. So far we have a lot in common and get along really well. She speaks almost no Spanish, but we are going to work on that.
After the meeting this morning, I decided to teach Hna Pullan how to do contacts. I tried to focus entirely on helping her be confident and helping her understand how to contact people. Sometimes she didn´t know what to say and some people didn´t listen, but she kept trying! I was impressed by how hard she tried and how much she wanted to share the gospel. I felt the Spirit that Hna Pullan brought with her from the MTC, and it helped me be excited about the rest of my mission and about helping her learn. I´m so excited for the opportunity to train and to learn from Hna Pullan! I really need her spirit to help me stay focused for the last 2 transfers of my mission. I think if I just focus, like I did this morning, on helping Hna Pullan be the best missionary she can be, I won´t have time to worry about anything else and I will be happy and excited about the mission.
Last week I was able to find and teach Daniel and Rubén, who disappeared the week before. And we started teaching Daniel´s mother too! Daniel told me he finished reading the book of Mormon and that now he wants to read Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price! He says he really wants to get baptized too. He is one of the strangest investigators I have ever had. I was explaining the Word of Wisdom to him this week and I told him his body is the temple of his Spirit. He told me "Oh, that makes sense, because the spirit has the same form as the body." What? How did he learn that? I asked and he said "Inspiration." Apparently the reason he knows the Book of Mormon is true is because it says a lot of things that God already revealed to him. It´s kind of weird. I think it has to be a good thing, as long as he doesn´t think he is destined to be the next prophet.. . .
Unfortunately, neither Rubén nor Daniel nor Daniel´s mother came to church on Sunday, so this week I have to figure out how to help them with that commitment.
The biggest focus of my week was helping my investigator, Brian, get a testimony of the Restoration. I wanted him to be baptized because he had a testimony, not just because his aunt and uncle wanted him too. So we taught him about the first vision again. I decided to tell it to him like a story to help him imagine what it would be like to be Joseph Smith. The next day we asked him if he had received an answer to his prayer and he said yes! He said he felt happier and more excited to work-- he decided that was his answer. I asked him if he believed the church was true and he said yes! On Saturday he was baptized! It was really special to be able to help him gain his testimony.
My investigator Andrés is doing really well! He met every goal we set for the number of cigarettes he was allowed to smoke this week. He smoked the last one on Saturday and on Sunday told me he will never smoke again in his life! Now his daughter, Julia, has baptismal date too. I´m pretty excited about it.
Well, I am out of tiempo. Thank you for your emails and have a wonderful week!
Love,
Ellis
What a week! I really enjoyed working with Hna Reales for a week. Even though we only spent a week together, I learned a lot from her about how to plan more effectively.
My new companion arrived on Saturday. Her name is Hermana Hannah Pullan and she is from Payson, Utah. She was an art major at BYU. So far we have a lot in common and get along really well. She speaks almost no Spanish, but we are going to work on that.
After the meeting this morning, I decided to teach Hna Pullan how to do contacts. I tried to focus entirely on helping her be confident and helping her understand how to contact people. Sometimes she didn´t know what to say and some people didn´t listen, but she kept trying! I was impressed by how hard she tried and how much she wanted to share the gospel. I felt the Spirit that Hna Pullan brought with her from the MTC, and it helped me be excited about the rest of my mission and about helping her learn. I´m so excited for the opportunity to train and to learn from Hna Pullan! I really need her spirit to help me stay focused for the last 2 transfers of my mission. I think if I just focus, like I did this morning, on helping Hna Pullan be the best missionary she can be, I won´t have time to worry about anything else and I will be happy and excited about the mission.
Last week I was able to find and teach Daniel and Rubén, who disappeared the week before. And we started teaching Daniel´s mother too! Daniel told me he finished reading the book of Mormon and that now he wants to read Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price! He says he really wants to get baptized too. He is one of the strangest investigators I have ever had. I was explaining the Word of Wisdom to him this week and I told him his body is the temple of his Spirit. He told me "Oh, that makes sense, because the spirit has the same form as the body." What? How did he learn that? I asked and he said "Inspiration." Apparently the reason he knows the Book of Mormon is true is because it says a lot of things that God already revealed to him. It´s kind of weird. I think it has to be a good thing, as long as he doesn´t think he is destined to be the next prophet.. . .
Unfortunately, neither Rubén nor Daniel nor Daniel´s mother came to church on Sunday, so this week I have to figure out how to help them with that commitment.
The biggest focus of my week was helping my investigator, Brian, get a testimony of the Restoration. I wanted him to be baptized because he had a testimony, not just because his aunt and uncle wanted him too. So we taught him about the first vision again. I decided to tell it to him like a story to help him imagine what it would be like to be Joseph Smith. The next day we asked him if he had received an answer to his prayer and he said yes! He said he felt happier and more excited to work-- he decided that was his answer. I asked him if he believed the church was true and he said yes! On Saturday he was baptized! It was really special to be able to help him gain his testimony.
My investigator Andrés is doing really well! He met every goal we set for the number of cigarettes he was allowed to smoke this week. He smoked the last one on Saturday and on Sunday told me he will never smoke again in his life! Now his daughter, Julia, has baptismal date too. I´m pretty excited about it.
Well, I am out of tiempo. Thank you for your emails and have a wonderful week!
Love,
Ellis
Food for Thought: Does Eternal Life Have a Cherry or Peach Flavor?
Dear Family,
I was excited to hear that Ruby was born! I loved the picture of her and Josh. He and Brenda must be so happy. I can´t wait to meet Ruby. I´m also slightly dismayed with you to hear about the ward boundary change, but I am sure it will be for the best in the long run. Do you think the Nielsens and the Carmans will still be in the ward with us?
Sister Pullan and I had a pretty great first week together. We´ve found out we have a lot in common: a love of hiking and cooking, really liking the Lord of the Rings movies, etc. I think I will have to share a Sister Pullan quote weekly, she is really funny. This week´s quote: "I wish the dogs here were intelligent so we could teach them the gospel. I would tell them, 'Don´t freak out! It´s okay! You´re going to be fine!'"
Speaking of quotes, I just got the letter mom sent with Elder Morse´s email about the top 10 reasons senior missionaries shouldn´t go trick or treating. I couldn´t stop laughing.
Highlights/News of the Week:
* I don´t know if I mentioned that this transfer our area was divided in two and the assistants to the president now share the area with us. They conveniently drew the area boundaries so that they have the Carlos Gardel Villa (aka government housing project) where ALL our investigators live. Elder Godfrey, one of the assistants, who is usually really sweet and spiritual, is not able to conceal a demonic gleam in his eyes whenever he mentions it. At any moment I expect him to break into a villainous cackle and squeal "La villa es mia!" while greedily rubbing his hands together. Well, to be fair, the villa is in the half of the area closest to the mission office where they spend most of their time, so it just makes more sense for them to have it, but it´s kind of a bummer for us. However, Elder Baudon (the other assistant, from Cordoba) and Elder Godfrey decided we could keep teaching our investigators in the villa until they got baptized. So for the last couple weeks we have been running back and forth between our half of the area and the villa. But the assistants told us to stop looking for new investigators in the villa, which made it really difficult to reach our goals for new investigators and lessons because we had to spend most of our time in the villa with the progressing investigators and didn´t have time to work in our half of the area. I got fed up with the situation and accidentally complained to my district leader, who held some sort of over-the-phone council with the zone leaders and the assistants, who decided for us that we have to give all our investigators to the assistants, except for Andrés, who is getting baptized this Saturday (WOOHOO!). Anyway, I´m relieved because now I can focus on finding new investigators in our half of the area, but sad because I won´t be able to keep visiting my convert César or his awesome family (the Monserrats) or teach Andrés the lessons of retention after his baptism. I can only imagine Elder Godfrey´s grin.
* Andrés becomes more amazing every day we visit him. Every time I ask him how the quitting-smoking process is going, he says, as if he doesn´t know why I bother to ask something so obvious over and over again, "I never smoked again!" He says he has cravings but that he can hold them off by eating caramels. A favorite moment with Andrés this week:
* Teaching about the importance of scripture study using the story of the iron rod in Lehi´s dream: Andrés has begun reading the Book of Mormon from 1 Nephi 1 and is determined to read the whole book. We brought him the extra large one with enormous print (he has vision problems) and he loves it! After we taught him about the iron rod and the tree of life, we had a conversation that went something like this (forgive my meager translation):
Andrés: Can I ask something?
Me: Of course
Andrés: What kind of tree is the tree of life?
Me: (laughing) Well, it´s symbolic, but I think. . .probably a peach tree, because I like peaches.
Andrés: Could be. Or maybe a cherry tree. Yes, I think it is a cherry tree.
Me: (still laughing) Why not? A cherry tree.
Andrés: (seriously) Listen to me, sisters. I have to heed what you say, so you have to heed me too. We are going to become closer to God and we are going to find out what that fruit is. We will be there with God and we will see that tree. (reflecting) I have to read this whole book, to find out what the fruit is!
It was a funny, tender, beautiful moment. I am impressed by the strength of Andrés´ budding testimony. I have every confidence that he will arrive at that tree and taste its fruit. I´m joyfully anticipating his baptism on Saturday.
Well, I´m out of time to write. Thank you as always for your many emails, letters, and prayers. I´ll try again to send pictures next week. I love each of you! Have a successful, interesting week!
Love,
Ellis
P.S. César update: CÉSAR STOPPED DRINKING! And he went to church on Sunday! He is still smoking, but I haven´t bothered him about it because I figure he has to tackle one vice at a time. I am really hopeful that he can keep working through his problems, hopefully with the help of a church psychologist. His mother, Arminda, prays for him every day. I think that is really helping him.
I was excited to hear that Ruby was born! I loved the picture of her and Josh. He and Brenda must be so happy. I can´t wait to meet Ruby. I´m also slightly dismayed with you to hear about the ward boundary change, but I am sure it will be for the best in the long run. Do you think the Nielsens and the Carmans will still be in the ward with us?
Sister Pullan and I had a pretty great first week together. We´ve found out we have a lot in common: a love of hiking and cooking, really liking the Lord of the Rings movies, etc. I think I will have to share a Sister Pullan quote weekly, she is really funny. This week´s quote: "I wish the dogs here were intelligent so we could teach them the gospel. I would tell them, 'Don´t freak out! It´s okay! You´re going to be fine!'"
Speaking of quotes, I just got the letter mom sent with Elder Morse´s email about the top 10 reasons senior missionaries shouldn´t go trick or treating. I couldn´t stop laughing.
Highlights/News of the Week:
* I don´t know if I mentioned that this transfer our area was divided in two and the assistants to the president now share the area with us. They conveniently drew the area boundaries so that they have the Carlos Gardel Villa (aka government housing project) where ALL our investigators live. Elder Godfrey, one of the assistants, who is usually really sweet and spiritual, is not able to conceal a demonic gleam in his eyes whenever he mentions it. At any moment I expect him to break into a villainous cackle and squeal "La villa es mia!" while greedily rubbing his hands together. Well, to be fair, the villa is in the half of the area closest to the mission office where they spend most of their time, so it just makes more sense for them to have it, but it´s kind of a bummer for us. However, Elder Baudon (the other assistant, from Cordoba) and Elder Godfrey decided we could keep teaching our investigators in the villa until they got baptized. So for the last couple weeks we have been running back and forth between our half of the area and the villa. But the assistants told us to stop looking for new investigators in the villa, which made it really difficult to reach our goals for new investigators and lessons because we had to spend most of our time in the villa with the progressing investigators and didn´t have time to work in our half of the area. I got fed up with the situation and accidentally complained to my district leader, who held some sort of over-the-phone council with the zone leaders and the assistants, who decided for us that we have to give all our investigators to the assistants, except for Andrés, who is getting baptized this Saturday (WOOHOO!). Anyway, I´m relieved because now I can focus on finding new investigators in our half of the area, but sad because I won´t be able to keep visiting my convert César or his awesome family (the Monserrats) or teach Andrés the lessons of retention after his baptism. I can only imagine Elder Godfrey´s grin.
* Andrés becomes more amazing every day we visit him. Every time I ask him how the quitting-smoking process is going, he says, as if he doesn´t know why I bother to ask something so obvious over and over again, "I never smoked again!" He says he has cravings but that he can hold them off by eating caramels. A favorite moment with Andrés this week:
* Teaching about the importance of scripture study using the story of the iron rod in Lehi´s dream: Andrés has begun reading the Book of Mormon from 1 Nephi 1 and is determined to read the whole book. We brought him the extra large one with enormous print (he has vision problems) and he loves it! After we taught him about the iron rod and the tree of life, we had a conversation that went something like this (forgive my meager translation):
Andrés: Can I ask something?
Me: Of course
Andrés: What kind of tree is the tree of life?
Me: (laughing) Well, it´s symbolic, but I think. . .probably a peach tree, because I like peaches.
Andrés: Could be. Or maybe a cherry tree. Yes, I think it is a cherry tree.
Me: (still laughing) Why not? A cherry tree.
Andrés: (seriously) Listen to me, sisters. I have to heed what you say, so you have to heed me too. We are going to become closer to God and we are going to find out what that fruit is. We will be there with God and we will see that tree. (reflecting) I have to read this whole book, to find out what the fruit is!
It was a funny, tender, beautiful moment. I am impressed by the strength of Andrés´ budding testimony. I have every confidence that he will arrive at that tree and taste its fruit. I´m joyfully anticipating his baptism on Saturday.
Well, I´m out of time to write. Thank you as always for your many emails, letters, and prayers. I´ll try again to send pictures next week. I love each of you! Have a successful, interesting week!
Love,
Ellis
P.S. César update: CÉSAR STOPPED DRINKING! And he went to church on Sunday! He is still smoking, but I haven´t bothered him about it because I figure he has to tackle one vice at a time. I am really hopeful that he can keep working through his problems, hopefully with the help of a church psychologist. His mother, Arminda, prays for him every day. I think that is really helping him.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Sister X is Actually Sister Pullan
Dear Dad,
The bus salesman are still hard at it here in Argentina. They do exactly what you described. I guess some things haven´t changed in the last 25 years. They sell stuff in the trains too. My announcement in the bus was thrilling, but not terribly effective in proselyting terms. I handed out the new mini pass a long cards about eternal families, but no one wanted an appointment. I want to try again this week though, if Sister X is up to it.
I´ll share more in the family email, but Sister X is actually Sister Hannah Pullan from Payson, Utah. She is the second oldest in a family of five kids-- three girls and two boys just like us. She studied art at BYU before her mission. She described her artwork as glorified paper snowflakes--- apparently she draws pictures and then cuts out the shapes. I wish she had a picture to show me. I haven´t yet asked her if we have any mutual acquaintances from BYU. She speaks very little Spanish, but she has that fresh out of the MTC spirit of wanting to work hard and share the gospel. We practiced contacting this morning-- she impressed me because she kept trying despite several rejections and struggling to speak. I noticed though that she seems to soften people´s hearts. When people realize she doesn´t speak Spanish well, they listen harder and are more polite. It´s kind of cool. I think we will work well together.
[Ellis said she would write more in another family letter, but we didn't get one!?]
Love,
Ellis
The bus salesman are still hard at it here in Argentina. They do exactly what you described. I guess some things haven´t changed in the last 25 years. They sell stuff in the trains too. My announcement in the bus was thrilling, but not terribly effective in proselyting terms. I handed out the new mini pass a long cards about eternal families, but no one wanted an appointment. I want to try again this week though, if Sister X is up to it.
I´ll share more in the family email, but Sister X is actually Sister Hannah Pullan from Payson, Utah. She is the second oldest in a family of five kids-- three girls and two boys just like us. She studied art at BYU before her mission. She described her artwork as glorified paper snowflakes--- apparently she draws pictures and then cuts out the shapes. I wish she had a picture to show me. I haven´t yet asked her if we have any mutual acquaintances from BYU. She speaks very little Spanish, but she has that fresh out of the MTC spirit of wanting to work hard and share the gospel. We practiced contacting this morning-- she impressed me because she kept trying despite several rejections and struggling to speak. I noticed though that she seems to soften people´s hearts. When people realize she doesn´t speak Spanish well, they listen harder and are more polite. It´s kind of cool. I think we will work well together.
[Ellis said she would write more in another family letter, but we didn't get one!?]
Love,
Ellis
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
"May I Have a Moment, Fellow Bus Travelers?"
Dear Mom and Dad and Siblings,
Here is the big news: Hermana X hasn´t arrived yet. All the new missionaries are stalled because of visa problems. There are supposedly arriving this Friday.
Meanwhile, Hna Azcurra was transferred to Junin (in the middle of the country) and Hna Reales (from Cordoba) is my new companion for a week. Hna Reales will also be training and has been serving in Libertad. She has to leave her area for a week to work with me in Ramos. She´s been worried about her area and her investigators, so I feel bad. We did get to visit Libertad and work there for an afternoon though. Otherwise she is a great companion.
One of the highlights of this week was contacting a whole bus at once for the first time in my mission (with Hna Azcurra before transfers). I thought I would be terrified, but about 5 minutes before I did it I started feeling the Spirit really strongly and I was excited to invite everyone! I asked permission from the bus driver, then made an announcement to the whole busful of passengers. I talked about the Restoration, bore my testimony, and invited them to church. I loved being able to invite the whole bus at once! I felt a little bit like the prophet must feel when he has the opportunity to speak to the whole world at conference!
The rest of the week was a little more difficult. Daniel, my new miracle investigator who read half the Book of Mormon all by himself and wanted to get baptized, could not be found the whole week and didn´t come to church. I couldn´t find one of my other investigators with a baptism date, Rubén, either. And a recent convert has returned to an old addiction. WHY MUST THESE THINGS HAPPEN TO THE RECENT CONVERTS??? AAAAAAH!
Despite all that, I tried to work hard anyway and remind myself to have a good attitude. I know if I keep working hard to plan and reach the key indicators and if I love my investigators and the people I will be able to have success here this transfer. Another good point of the week was setting a new baptismal date with the mother of two recent converts. She promised to pray to know if she should get baptized. I´m going to help her recognize her answer this week.
I´m sorry I don´t have time to write more or answer your questions. Ask me again next week and I will answer. I love you all!
Love,
Ellis
Here is the big news: Hermana X hasn´t arrived yet. All the new missionaries are stalled because of visa problems. There are supposedly arriving this Friday.
Meanwhile, Hna Azcurra was transferred to Junin (in the middle of the country) and Hna Reales (from Cordoba) is my new companion for a week. Hna Reales will also be training and has been serving in Libertad. She has to leave her area for a week to work with me in Ramos. She´s been worried about her area and her investigators, so I feel bad. We did get to visit Libertad and work there for an afternoon though. Otherwise she is a great companion.
One of the highlights of this week was contacting a whole bus at once for the first time in my mission (with Hna Azcurra before transfers). I thought I would be terrified, but about 5 minutes before I did it I started feeling the Spirit really strongly and I was excited to invite everyone! I asked permission from the bus driver, then made an announcement to the whole busful of passengers. I talked about the Restoration, bore my testimony, and invited them to church. I loved being able to invite the whole bus at once! I felt a little bit like the prophet must feel when he has the opportunity to speak to the whole world at conference!
The rest of the week was a little more difficult. Daniel, my new miracle investigator who read half the Book of Mormon all by himself and wanted to get baptized, could not be found the whole week and didn´t come to church. I couldn´t find one of my other investigators with a baptism date, Rubén, either. And a recent convert has returned to an old addiction. WHY MUST THESE THINGS HAPPEN TO THE RECENT CONVERTS??? AAAAAAH!
Despite all that, I tried to work hard anyway and remind myself to have a good attitude. I know if I keep working hard to plan and reach the key indicators and if I love my investigators and the people I will be able to have success here this transfer. Another good point of the week was setting a new baptismal date with the mother of two recent converts. She promised to pray to know if she should get baptized. I´m going to help her recognize her answer this week.
I´m sorry I don´t have time to write more or answer your questions. Ask me again next week and I will answer. I love you all!
Love,
Ellis
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Looking Forward to Training Sister X
Dear Mom and Dad,
I really enjoyed your emails today. I liked the idea of being in the right place at the right time and it made me think of how important it is in the mission (and in life) to be punctual. I really, really, really have to work on that. I do feel good though about being in the mission at this time of my life, being in Ramos at this time in my mission, etc. I feel like I am in a position to create lots of positive changes in myself and in my area and help my companion in the last three months of my mission. I´m gearing up to train Sister X in just a few short days. Dad, thanks for your talk outline. It was actually really good. I liked the diagram. I feel like this transfer has taught me a lot about not letting the box in your diagram limit my choices. I´ve been doing pretty well about expanding the box or dealing constructively with the limits I face.
This transfer is ending a few days early, on Thursday, so I´m about 72 hours away from meeting my hijita, the long awaited "Sister X", as I think of her. I´ve been praying for her almost every night since I found out I was going to train. I hope I can do a really good job of helping her. President Carter definitely knew what he was doing when he put me and Hna Azcurra together this transfer though. She has taught me so much about being friendly and expressive to the investigators and about planning well and working productively. I was in a productiveness rut when I got here, but she helped me pull out of it. I´ve also learned a lot this transfer about being patient and not being moody or irritable. It´s been humbling to see how impatient and irritable and moody I really am, but I´ve really been able to improve this transfer. I arrived in Ramos in a very moody state and Hna Azcurra has a strong personality that sometimes rubbed me the wrong way, but I prayed a lot and tried to serve Hna Azcurra and pray for her and feel confident so I could pull out of my moodiness. It worked! Heavenly Father helped me heal some of my moodiness and I´m learning to keep the rest of it under control and be merciful instead of impatient. I really learned to love Hna Azcurra and we learned to work well together and be unified. I feel like all of this is preparing me to be an excellent trainer for Hna X.
Eek! I´m almost out of time as always. Big news of the week:
* We achieved all 5 of the key indicators our mission is focusing on! It was our goal to be able to achieve all five this week and we did it! We had 8 investigators in sacrament meeting and we have 5 investigators with baptism goal dates! I´m really excited for this month because all 5 investigators actually really want to get baptized. They have challenges, but I think that they can all make it! They are:
* Carlos, my homeless investigator. We are going to ask him this week where he sleeps and talk to the ward council to see how they can help. I´m going to teach him to read too. And help him quit smoking.
* Rubén, a really fantastic 17 year old kid who this week recieved an answer and told us he knows the church is true! We just have to convince his mom that he doesn´t need to get baptized in the Catholic church first. Err. . .
* Andrés (55ish) is the most prepared of my investigators. He is so humble and his heart is so ready to receive the gospel! He says he knows the church is true! He has to quit smoking though.
* Braian (14), the nephew of the young men´s president. Just when I thought he wasn´t really interested we had a really spiritual lesson with him and when I asked him if he wanted to follow Christ he said yes, so he can start a new life and move forward! He is going to get baptized in 2 weeks!
* Daniel (23), is our miracle of the week. We found him on Thursday and he listened to us explain briefly the Restoration. He said it was a sign that we had found him and told us he thinks the 2nd coming will happen in Argentina. I thought that was kind of weird, but we ran into him again later that week and he said he wanted us to pick him up for church-- excellent! When we went on Sunday to pick him up he had a Book of Mormon that a non member friend had given him and he had already read until Mosiah! He said this is the perfect church and that the Book of Mormon says all the things he already thought but hadn´t found in any other churches. He asked all by himself how he can get baptized! I´m really excited for him! I´m sure that when he learns more doctrine his wacky ideas (which I think are just because he is really intelligent but not very prudent) will fade away. And he miraculously already gave up drugs and drinking weeks before he met us. So the only thing he has to give up is smoking, which he says won´t be a problem now that he has his baptism to motivate him.
Anyway, I´m really excited about all 5 of my investigators. I think Gaston was the beginning of a new phase in my mission. Before, most of my progressing investigators were women. Now all my progressing investigators are men with smoking addictions (except for Rubén, who fortunately doesn´t smoke). Gaston update: Hna Navarro wrote to me and told me that Gastón doesn´t answer her phone calls and that he is back together with his old girlfriend, who was against him going to church. He still hasn´t been confirmed. I feel heartbroken, in a missionary sense, because he was one of my best investigators ever. I keep praying for him that he will read the Book of Mormon and pray and that those things will bring him out of the rut he is in and back to church so he can be confirmed and be a real member.
One more experience: After finding out about Gastón, I was thinking about all my converts and about the recent converts here in general and how so many of mine and so many of them are inactive or have other problems. And I felt really sad that my mission hadn´t produced very many people who were really firm, active members in the church. Why is retention so hard? But I prayed about it and felt that each of the people I had taught was incredibly important to Heavenly Father and that he was really grateful to me for having helped them. In my heart I know my efforts haven´t been wasted, even though right now it seems like the results aren´t what I hoped for. Heavenly Father has not forgotten about my converts or ceased to love them or bless them because some of them are inactive or less active. I have to hope that with time all of them will return and experience the full blessings of the gospel.
Though, I just have to say that Olga looks like a ray of sunshine. I got a letter from her thanking me for teaching her the gospel, and Hna Navarro told me that in her prayers Olga always promises that she will be true to the church forever! I hope she can go to the temple next year! I can´t wait for you to meet her. Go Olga! One more thing-- Hna Navarro´s visa came! She is going to Venezuela this week I think. Which means President Carter´s prayers that she would stay went unanswered. Seriously. My hija is so fantastic that the mission president prayed that her visa would never come so she would stay in the mission. I will miss her, like I already do, but I´m happy for her that she gets to serve the people she was called to serve.
Ok, I´m really out of time. I love you and I miss you loads. Please pray for me and my converts and for Sister X! Thank you for your emails and prayers and support!
Love,
Ellis
P.S. Christmas package ideas: (really) small toys or candy that I can hand out to the kids of my investigators. Spending-money for souvenirs would be great. I don´t really need anything else, especially because I´m coming home one month later. But if you can send something for sister X and hot chocolate and energy bars, that would be great. And letters from all of you of course.
I really enjoyed your emails today. I liked the idea of being in the right place at the right time and it made me think of how important it is in the mission (and in life) to be punctual. I really, really, really have to work on that. I do feel good though about being in the mission at this time of my life, being in Ramos at this time in my mission, etc. I feel like I am in a position to create lots of positive changes in myself and in my area and help my companion in the last three months of my mission. I´m gearing up to train Sister X in just a few short days. Dad, thanks for your talk outline. It was actually really good. I liked the diagram. I feel like this transfer has taught me a lot about not letting the box in your diagram limit my choices. I´ve been doing pretty well about expanding the box or dealing constructively with the limits I face.
This transfer is ending a few days early, on Thursday, so I´m about 72 hours away from meeting my hijita, the long awaited "Sister X", as I think of her. I´ve been praying for her almost every night since I found out I was going to train. I hope I can do a really good job of helping her. President Carter definitely knew what he was doing when he put me and Hna Azcurra together this transfer though. She has taught me so much about being friendly and expressive to the investigators and about planning well and working productively. I was in a productiveness rut when I got here, but she helped me pull out of it. I´ve also learned a lot this transfer about being patient and not being moody or irritable. It´s been humbling to see how impatient and irritable and moody I really am, but I´ve really been able to improve this transfer. I arrived in Ramos in a very moody state and Hna Azcurra has a strong personality that sometimes rubbed me the wrong way, but I prayed a lot and tried to serve Hna Azcurra and pray for her and feel confident so I could pull out of my moodiness. It worked! Heavenly Father helped me heal some of my moodiness and I´m learning to keep the rest of it under control and be merciful instead of impatient. I really learned to love Hna Azcurra and we learned to work well together and be unified. I feel like all of this is preparing me to be an excellent trainer for Hna X.
Eek! I´m almost out of time as always. Big news of the week:
* We achieved all 5 of the key indicators our mission is focusing on! It was our goal to be able to achieve all five this week and we did it! We had 8 investigators in sacrament meeting and we have 5 investigators with baptism goal dates! I´m really excited for this month because all 5 investigators actually really want to get baptized. They have challenges, but I think that they can all make it! They are:
* Carlos, my homeless investigator. We are going to ask him this week where he sleeps and talk to the ward council to see how they can help. I´m going to teach him to read too. And help him quit smoking.
* Rubén, a really fantastic 17 year old kid who this week recieved an answer and told us he knows the church is true! We just have to convince his mom that he doesn´t need to get baptized in the Catholic church first. Err. . .
* Andrés (55ish) is the most prepared of my investigators. He is so humble and his heart is so ready to receive the gospel! He says he knows the church is true! He has to quit smoking though.
* Braian (14), the nephew of the young men´s president. Just when I thought he wasn´t really interested we had a really spiritual lesson with him and when I asked him if he wanted to follow Christ he said yes, so he can start a new life and move forward! He is going to get baptized in 2 weeks!
* Daniel (23), is our miracle of the week. We found him on Thursday and he listened to us explain briefly the Restoration. He said it was a sign that we had found him and told us he thinks the 2nd coming will happen in Argentina. I thought that was kind of weird, but we ran into him again later that week and he said he wanted us to pick him up for church-- excellent! When we went on Sunday to pick him up he had a Book of Mormon that a non member friend had given him and he had already read until Mosiah! He said this is the perfect church and that the Book of Mormon says all the things he already thought but hadn´t found in any other churches. He asked all by himself how he can get baptized! I´m really excited for him! I´m sure that when he learns more doctrine his wacky ideas (which I think are just because he is really intelligent but not very prudent) will fade away. And he miraculously already gave up drugs and drinking weeks before he met us. So the only thing he has to give up is smoking, which he says won´t be a problem now that he has his baptism to motivate him.
Anyway, I´m really excited about all 5 of my investigators. I think Gaston was the beginning of a new phase in my mission. Before, most of my progressing investigators were women. Now all my progressing investigators are men with smoking addictions (except for Rubén, who fortunately doesn´t smoke). Gaston update: Hna Navarro wrote to me and told me that Gastón doesn´t answer her phone calls and that he is back together with his old girlfriend, who was against him going to church. He still hasn´t been confirmed. I feel heartbroken, in a missionary sense, because he was one of my best investigators ever. I keep praying for him that he will read the Book of Mormon and pray and that those things will bring him out of the rut he is in and back to church so he can be confirmed and be a real member.
One more experience: After finding out about Gastón, I was thinking about all my converts and about the recent converts here in general and how so many of mine and so many of them are inactive or have other problems. And I felt really sad that my mission hadn´t produced very many people who were really firm, active members in the church. Why is retention so hard? But I prayed about it and felt that each of the people I had taught was incredibly important to Heavenly Father and that he was really grateful to me for having helped them. In my heart I know my efforts haven´t been wasted, even though right now it seems like the results aren´t what I hoped for. Heavenly Father has not forgotten about my converts or ceased to love them or bless them because some of them are inactive or less active. I have to hope that with time all of them will return and experience the full blessings of the gospel.
Though, I just have to say that Olga looks like a ray of sunshine. I got a letter from her thanking me for teaching her the gospel, and Hna Navarro told me that in her prayers Olga always promises that she will be true to the church forever! I hope she can go to the temple next year! I can´t wait for you to meet her. Go Olga! One more thing-- Hna Navarro´s visa came! She is going to Venezuela this week I think. Which means President Carter´s prayers that she would stay went unanswered. Seriously. My hija is so fantastic that the mission president prayed that her visa would never come so she would stay in the mission. I will miss her, like I already do, but I´m happy for her that she gets to serve the people she was called to serve.
Ok, I´m really out of time. I love you and I miss you loads. Please pray for me and my converts and for Sister X! Thank you for your emails and prayers and support!
Love,
Ellis
P.S. Christmas package ideas: (really) small toys or candy that I can hand out to the kids of my investigators. Spending-money for souvenirs would be great. I don´t really need anything else, especially because I´m coming home one month later. But if you can send something for sister X and hot chocolate and energy bars, that would be great. And letters from all of you of course.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
My First Baptism in Ramos
Dear Family,
Thanks for your emails! I was really excited to hear that Ben arrived in Brazil. It sounds like his mission is going to be fantastic. I pictured him showing pictures from the church pamphlets to that little Brazilian boy and I inwardly made that "awww" sound. My brother is a missionary! I{m excited to keep getting his letters. Ben, I'm going to try sending you the mission hat and some alfajores to Brazil. I hope they don't melt and that I have enough time next p-day or the p-day after that.
Oh, and I'm really excited to have you come pick me up. Maybe on that last Sunday we can go to church in Lujan. Some of my best Sundays were in Lujan. But I'll think more about that in a couple months.
News of the week:
* Cesar got baptized! He didn't smoke and he passed his interview with flying colors. His baptism was nice. Not very many members came besides his family, but an old investigator of other sisters, a homeless man named Carlos, came to the baptism. Maybe we can start teaching him again. On Sunday Cesar was confirmed. He is very happy to be a member. On Sunday night we took him tracting with us and he bore an amazing testimony in an on the street lesson that we taught. He said the gospel had changed his life 100 percent and he invited the girl to learn more and be baptized! His faith and enthusiasm really impress me.
* I'm getting to know the ward here better and I really like it. There are some really great members who are willing to help us. And on Sunday we got a new mission leader (the old one was called into the bishopric), Hno Cordero, who seems excited to work with us. I'm going to work really hard to win the ward's confidence. I feel a little intimidated because I have big shoes to fill-- Hna Azcurra had 8 baptisms two transfers ago, a record here. But I guess I just have to work hard and hope for the best.
* This week we started teaching a new investigator named Ruben, also an old investigator of other sisters, and the younger brother of an investigator who really wasn't progressing. He is 17 and this time around seems ready to accept the gospel. He kept his commitment to pray the first time we invited him to do it and he came to church on Sunday with his adorable little brother Nico (9 years old and reminds me a little bit of Dan). Now he has a baptism goal date for November 5. What a neat kid!
* We had a pretty good Sunday with 6 investigators who showed up. One of them was Carlos, the homeless man who came to Cesar's baptism. After church we set an appointment to teach him in the church. I hope he progresses and that we can help him out. Braian (14) came too. He is the nephew of a family in our ward and also has a baptismal goal date, though he still has some doubts. I think he will get baptized though.I was a little disappointed that David and Maira didn't come (the arguing couple, David is Cesar's younger brother). There is some sort of drama between them and the rest of the Monserrat family and they've stopped visiting the rest of the family, so they probably missed church to avoid seeing them. We are going to have to work with them on that.
Well, I'm out of time, but I hope you have an excellent week. I'm off to keep teaching and preaching, "a full," as we say here, in the monoblock with Hna Azcurra!
Love,
Hermana Clark
Thanks for your emails! I was really excited to hear that Ben arrived in Brazil. It sounds like his mission is going to be fantastic. I pictured him showing pictures from the church pamphlets to that little Brazilian boy and I inwardly made that "awww" sound. My brother is a missionary! I{m excited to keep getting his letters. Ben, I'm going to try sending you the mission hat and some alfajores to Brazil. I hope they don't melt and that I have enough time next p-day or the p-day after that.
Oh, and I'm really excited to have you come pick me up. Maybe on that last Sunday we can go to church in Lujan. Some of my best Sundays were in Lujan. But I'll think more about that in a couple months.
News of the week:
* Cesar got baptized! He didn't smoke and he passed his interview with flying colors. His baptism was nice. Not very many members came besides his family, but an old investigator of other sisters, a homeless man named Carlos, came to the baptism. Maybe we can start teaching him again. On Sunday Cesar was confirmed. He is very happy to be a member. On Sunday night we took him tracting with us and he bore an amazing testimony in an on the street lesson that we taught. He said the gospel had changed his life 100 percent and he invited the girl to learn more and be baptized! His faith and enthusiasm really impress me.
* I'm getting to know the ward here better and I really like it. There are some really great members who are willing to help us. And on Sunday we got a new mission leader (the old one was called into the bishopric), Hno Cordero, who seems excited to work with us. I'm going to work really hard to win the ward's confidence. I feel a little intimidated because I have big shoes to fill-- Hna Azcurra had 8 baptisms two transfers ago, a record here. But I guess I just have to work hard and hope for the best.
* This week we started teaching a new investigator named Ruben, also an old investigator of other sisters, and the younger brother of an investigator who really wasn't progressing. He is 17 and this time around seems ready to accept the gospel. He kept his commitment to pray the first time we invited him to do it and he came to church on Sunday with his adorable little brother Nico (9 years old and reminds me a little bit of Dan). Now he has a baptism goal date for November 5. What a neat kid!
* We had a pretty good Sunday with 6 investigators who showed up. One of them was Carlos, the homeless man who came to Cesar's baptism. After church we set an appointment to teach him in the church. I hope he progresses and that we can help him out. Braian (14) came too. He is the nephew of a family in our ward and also has a baptismal goal date, though he still has some doubts. I think he will get baptized though.I was a little disappointed that David and Maira didn't come (the arguing couple, David is Cesar's younger brother). There is some sort of drama between them and the rest of the Monserrat family and they've stopped visiting the rest of the family, so they probably missed church to avoid seeing them. We are going to have to work with them on that.
Well, I'm out of time, but I hope you have an excellent week. I'm off to keep teaching and preaching, "a full," as we say here, in the monoblock with Hna Azcurra!
Love,
Hermana Clark
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Sincerity May Be Fatal
Dear Family,
Arg! I accidentally deleted my whole email that I was in the middle of. So this is going to have to be super fast and lame:
People Updates:
I asked special permission to call Hna Navarro about an old investigator because I was freaked out. She told me that he didn´t get confirmed because he had some Word of Wisdom problems over the weekend. His ex-girlfriend started pestering him again, which must have freaked him out because he got pretty upset and depressed, hence his reaction. He was with her for 2 years, so I guess that´s a lot of baggage to get over. But Hna Navarro promised that she will keep trying to help him and that she is going to get him to talk to the bishop. I hope he can get confirmed soon!
Hna Navarro also told me that Shandy, an investigator I found in a street contact in Hurlingham, has a baptismal date with her daughter, Tamara! And Pamela was supposedly going to be baptized yesterday! So Hurlingham is looking good!
Here in Ramos, César didn´t smoke all week! If he can keep it up he will get baptized on Saturday! Woohoo! And Andrés came to church again and is praying to know if the message is true. He arrived all by himself again, on time, in a collared shirt! He is golden! His daughter, Marilina, mysteriously disappeared to her sister´s house over the weekend and didn´t go to church, but we are going to try again to teach her this week. David and Maira came to church again this week. We taught a lesson about being children of God to them this week to try to help David with his jealousy issues. I felt the Spirit really strongly as we taught David about his divine potential. He has made some big mistakes in his life, but that doesn´t change his divine worth and potential and the Atonement is there to help him change!
Funny story of the week: I am learning from Hna Azcurra how to see the positive in other people. After a lesson in which an investigator told us that sometimes she watches her boyfriend sleep and feels like suffocating him with a pillow, Hna Azcurra said about our investigator, "She is so wonderful! I love how sincere she is!" Can´t argue that. More sincerity might be fatal.
Well, I love you! Thanks so much for your emails and prayers. Dad, your itinerary idea sounds good. Let me know if you have any questions. I hope you all have a wonderful week! Forward me Ben´s email when he writes.
Love,
Ellis
Arg! I accidentally deleted my whole email that I was in the middle of. So this is going to have to be super fast and lame:
People Updates:
I asked special permission to call Hna Navarro about an old investigator because I was freaked out. She told me that he didn´t get confirmed because he had some Word of Wisdom problems over the weekend. His ex-girlfriend started pestering him again, which must have freaked him out because he got pretty upset and depressed, hence his reaction. He was with her for 2 years, so I guess that´s a lot of baggage to get over. But Hna Navarro promised that she will keep trying to help him and that she is going to get him to talk to the bishop. I hope he can get confirmed soon!
Hna Navarro also told me that Shandy, an investigator I found in a street contact in Hurlingham, has a baptismal date with her daughter, Tamara! And Pamela was supposedly going to be baptized yesterday! So Hurlingham is looking good!
Here in Ramos, César didn´t smoke all week! If he can keep it up he will get baptized on Saturday! Woohoo! And Andrés came to church again and is praying to know if the message is true. He arrived all by himself again, on time, in a collared shirt! He is golden! His daughter, Marilina, mysteriously disappeared to her sister´s house over the weekend and didn´t go to church, but we are going to try again to teach her this week. David and Maira came to church again this week. We taught a lesson about being children of God to them this week to try to help David with his jealousy issues. I felt the Spirit really strongly as we taught David about his divine potential. He has made some big mistakes in his life, but that doesn´t change his divine worth and potential and the Atonement is there to help him change!
Funny story of the week: I am learning from Hna Azcurra how to see the positive in other people. After a lesson in which an investigator told us that sometimes she watches her boyfriend sleep and feels like suffocating him with a pillow, Hna Azcurra said about our investigator, "She is so wonderful! I love how sincere she is!" Can´t argue that. More sincerity might be fatal.
Well, I love you! Thanks so much for your emails and prayers. Dad, your itinerary idea sounds good. Let me know if you have any questions. I hope you all have a wonderful week! Forward me Ben´s email when he writes.
Love,
Ellis
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
First let me Freak Out and then I'll tell the Good News
Dear Mom and Dad,
I just read the numbers from last week in Hurlingham and it said 0 confirmations! What happened to Gaston???!!!! Why didn't he get confirmed? Why didn't I fight with the bishop to let him get confirmed during his baptismal service instead of two weeks later after Conference? What was I thinking? AAAAAAAAAGH! I'm freaked out. I hope it was a mistake. Sometimes the office elders are sloppy when they enter the data. And yes, I know it's not my fault if he didn't get confirmed. Gaston is responsible for his own addictions. But, WHYYYYYY? I am really upset. And I{m sure Hna Navarro, who is even more sensitive than me, is miserable about it. AAAAAAAGH!
OK. Deep breaths. We are now focusing on the good news.
For example, this week was better than last week. I'm slowly but surely learning my way around Ramos Mejia and learning to love the area. I've actually only seen a small part of the whole area because the monoblocks and the casitas nuevas are so full of people willing to listen to us that we spend all day there. There is so much potential in this area!
Cesar is still trying to quit smoking, so we reset his baptismal date for the 22 of October. I really hope he makes it! Fortunately, I think his awesome recent convert family is giving him good support.
On Thursday we had interviews with President Carter. I sat down on the couch in his office and one of the first things he asked me is if I would like to end my mission by training again. I said yes and he said, good, because the Spirit has been telling me for the last couple of weeks that you should train again. He said my next companion is going to be a North American sister! Yikes! So I have to teach her Spanish AND teach her the ropes of the mission. I'm pretty excited about it. I'm glad I know how my mission is going to end: I will spend my last two transfers in Ramos, training a North American. I feel good about that. President says it's a great opportunity to leave my legacy in the mission.
President also told me that I shouldn't worry about trying to judge myself and my mission, I should just focus on what I've been able to learn and accomplish. He said I'm a good missionary who loves the people and cares about the work. It was really nice to hear that. I'm going to try to follow his advice and stop trying to grade my mission.
Aaaaand I asked President Carter if it was OK (by which I mean, not a Sin) to let you come pick me up at the end of my mission. His answer was sort of that it's officially discouraged but pretty much OK with the big 3 (i.e. First Presidency) for parents to pick up missionaries. And he assured me that it is OK to have fun (albeit low key mostly spiritual fun) before being released. And then he said that if his dad had served in BA, he would jump on the chance to visit Argentina with him. And he said that visiting their kids' mission has the potential to change parent's lives. And he said it was my choice. So I thought about it and it took about 3 minutes to realize I was needlessly freaking out and that I really want you guys to see the places where I served and meet the amazing people I met and baptized. And it would make my converts feel special if I visited them with you. So if the funds are there, START PRACTICING YOUR PORTEÑO SPANISH! So here's the deal: sometime in the next two weeks you need to call the church travel office and tell them you are coming to pick me up and what the plans are so that they can buy me a flight home with you. As for your flight to Argentina, I recommend that you arrive on Monday, which I think is the 30th of Jan. We can work out the details in a couple more months, but just so you know I mostly just want to visit everyone of my areas and converts with you and go some places that dad went. President says there is some cool stuff in the capital that I'll see during the end of the mission tour that I might want to show you guys, so we can fit in a little bit of tourist stuff too if you want. OK, that's it. Back to focused-on-the-mission mode.
Funny story from Sunday: We went to pick up Maira and David, a couple from the Monserrat family who we are trying to marry and baptize, to take them to church. We clapped at the gate and shouted (nicely) at their open window for them to come out and come to church. First, David appeared at the window looking very sleepy.
David: "No, hermanas, we aren't going."
Us: "Why not? Come on!"
David: "I want to go, but Maira doesn't want too. She's tired."
Us: "Maira!!!!" Maira appeared at the window.
Maira:"I do too want to go! I got up and got ready but David didn't want to go. I was going to leave him but he told me "if you aren't going with me you aren't going anywhere.""
David again: "That's not true. I wanted to go but Maira wanted to sleep in."
Us: "Well, obviously you both want to go to church, so get moving!"
They sure gave me a lot of laughs. In the end, they both got ready and came to church with us. Sometimes being a missionary feels more like being a mom with lots of overgrown children. I sure hope Maira (20) and David (27) can figure things out and get married and baptized.
Miracle of the week: On Friday it was raining buckets and very windy and all our appointments fell through. We started knocking doors and Marilina had compassion on us and let us in. We taught her and her dad and on Sunday they came to church all by themselves! After church we introduced them to about 5 million members so that they would feel fellowshipped and then we showed them the baptismal font and invited them to be baptized on the 29th of October. They said yes! WOOHOOO! Good times in the mission.
OK, I'm out of time as usual but please pray a lot for Gaston so he can work through whatever is going on and get confirmed. And if you can, please pray for Cesar so he can stop smoking. Thank you so much for all your wonderful emails and letters. If I don't respond with more commentary to what you said it isn't because I didn't pay attention, it's because I didn't have time to write everything. I enjoyed the thoughts you send me in your emails. I'm praying for Ben that his visa gets here soon and that he loves being a missionary in California. Say hi and I love you to Emma, Eliza, and Dan for me! And tell Dan thanks for the drawing of the mirror of reflections. I loved it and pinned it to my bulletin board. I love you!
Love,
Ellis
I just read the numbers from last week in Hurlingham and it said 0 confirmations! What happened to Gaston???!!!! Why didn't he get confirmed? Why didn't I fight with the bishop to let him get confirmed during his baptismal service instead of two weeks later after Conference? What was I thinking? AAAAAAAAAGH! I'm freaked out. I hope it was a mistake. Sometimes the office elders are sloppy when they enter the data. And yes, I know it's not my fault if he didn't get confirmed. Gaston is responsible for his own addictions. But, WHYYYYYY? I am really upset. And I{m sure Hna Navarro, who is even more sensitive than me, is miserable about it. AAAAAAAGH!
OK. Deep breaths. We are now focusing on the good news.
For example, this week was better than last week. I'm slowly but surely learning my way around Ramos Mejia and learning to love the area. I've actually only seen a small part of the whole area because the monoblocks and the casitas nuevas are so full of people willing to listen to us that we spend all day there. There is so much potential in this area!
Cesar is still trying to quit smoking, so we reset his baptismal date for the 22 of October. I really hope he makes it! Fortunately, I think his awesome recent convert family is giving him good support.
On Thursday we had interviews with President Carter. I sat down on the couch in his office and one of the first things he asked me is if I would like to end my mission by training again. I said yes and he said, good, because the Spirit has been telling me for the last couple of weeks that you should train again. He said my next companion is going to be a North American sister! Yikes! So I have to teach her Spanish AND teach her the ropes of the mission. I'm pretty excited about it. I'm glad I know how my mission is going to end: I will spend my last two transfers in Ramos, training a North American. I feel good about that. President says it's a great opportunity to leave my legacy in the mission.
President also told me that I shouldn't worry about trying to judge myself and my mission, I should just focus on what I've been able to learn and accomplish. He said I'm a good missionary who loves the people and cares about the work. It was really nice to hear that. I'm going to try to follow his advice and stop trying to grade my mission.
Aaaaand I asked President Carter if it was OK (by which I mean, not a Sin) to let you come pick me up at the end of my mission. His answer was sort of that it's officially discouraged but pretty much OK with the big 3 (i.e. First Presidency) for parents to pick up missionaries. And he assured me that it is OK to have fun (albeit low key mostly spiritual fun) before being released. And then he said that if his dad had served in BA, he would jump on the chance to visit Argentina with him. And he said that visiting their kids' mission has the potential to change parent's lives. And he said it was my choice. So I thought about it and it took about 3 minutes to realize I was needlessly freaking out and that I really want you guys to see the places where I served and meet the amazing people I met and baptized. And it would make my converts feel special if I visited them with you. So if the funds are there, START PRACTICING YOUR PORTEÑO SPANISH! So here's the deal: sometime in the next two weeks you need to call the church travel office and tell them you are coming to pick me up and what the plans are so that they can buy me a flight home with you. As for your flight to Argentina, I recommend that you arrive on Monday, which I think is the 30th of Jan. We can work out the details in a couple more months, but just so you know I mostly just want to visit everyone of my areas and converts with you and go some places that dad went. President says there is some cool stuff in the capital that I'll see during the end of the mission tour that I might want to show you guys, so we can fit in a little bit of tourist stuff too if you want. OK, that's it. Back to focused-on-the-mission mode.
Funny story from Sunday: We went to pick up Maira and David, a couple from the Monserrat family who we are trying to marry and baptize, to take them to church. We clapped at the gate and shouted (nicely) at their open window for them to come out and come to church. First, David appeared at the window looking very sleepy.
David: "No, hermanas, we aren't going."
Us: "Why not? Come on!"
David: "I want to go, but Maira doesn't want too. She's tired."
Us: "Maira!!!!" Maira appeared at the window.
Maira:"I do too want to go! I got up and got ready but David didn't want to go. I was going to leave him but he told me "if you aren't going with me you aren't going anywhere.""
David again: "That's not true. I wanted to go but Maira wanted to sleep in."
Us: "Well, obviously you both want to go to church, so get moving!"
They sure gave me a lot of laughs. In the end, they both got ready and came to church with us. Sometimes being a missionary feels more like being a mom with lots of overgrown children. I sure hope Maira (20) and David (27) can figure things out and get married and baptized.
Miracle of the week: On Friday it was raining buckets and very windy and all our appointments fell through. We started knocking doors and Marilina had compassion on us and let us in. We taught her and her dad and on Sunday they came to church all by themselves! After church we introduced them to about 5 million members so that they would feel fellowshipped and then we showed them the baptismal font and invited them to be baptized on the 29th of October. They said yes! WOOHOOO! Good times in the mission.
OK, I'm out of time as usual but please pray a lot for Gaston so he can work through whatever is going on and get confirmed. And if you can, please pray for Cesar so he can stop smoking. Thank you so much for all your wonderful emails and letters. If I don't respond with more commentary to what you said it isn't because I didn't pay attention, it's because I didn't have time to write everything. I enjoyed the thoughts you send me in your emails. I'm praying for Ben that his visa gets here soon and that he loves being a missionary in California. Say hi and I love you to Emma, Eliza, and Dan for me! And tell Dan thanks for the drawing of the mirror of reflections. I loved it and pinned it to my bulletin board. I love you!
Love,
Ellis
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
First Week in Ramos Mejia
Dear Mom, Dad, Eliza, Emma, Dan, and Ben (please forward this to Elder Clark),
Thanks for the emails you sent this week and last week (I finally read them all). Reading your emails is one of the highlights of my week. Last night I read a letter Mom sent with photos of her hiking adventures and letters from Ben. Mom, you look thinner in that photo! And your hiking adventure sounds way fun! Ben, I hope you will enjoy your (hopefully) last week at the MTC. The MTC is a great place to be, but also a great place to leave! I will pray this week that your visa comes on time so you can serve those great people in Brazil who are waiting for you. I´m often surprised by how busy the rest of you are with work, callings, school and extra activities. Do you feel as busy as your letters tell? I´m glad that you are having fun, learning, and achieving so many things.
Here are the highlights/the news of my week:
* Being in a new area is HARD. I was pretty teary on Monday and Tuesday. I kept thinking about my converts in Hurlingham, especially Gastón. I visited him every day for over a month and spent a significant amount of mental time worrying if he was happy, if he was reading the BoM, if he was smoking, etc. Suddenly having a new list of first priorities was, well, disorienting. I find myself still thinking of lessons to teach to him or to Olga or Pamela or to Elvira and Celeste. I still worry about how to reactivate Evelyn´s family. Other hard things: in Hurlingham I knew where EVERYTHING was and where I was in every moment (once a guy in the street said he lived near the train station in a house with leopard print curtains and I knew EXACTLY which house he was talking about and where it was), but here I feel super disoriented and have to follow Hna Azcurra around blindly. And, yup, it´s hard to go from being a trainer and directing lots of things to having to be directed because I´m still getting to know the investigators and the area. A lesson in humility. And of course I miss Hna Navarro. But slowly things have been getting better and I feel like I´m going to be able to leave my old area behind and give full attention to my new calling in Ramos Mejía.
* Here is the good stuff: a ward mission leader who took time out of his day to make us invitations to general conference---the other WMLs I´ve had weren´t as involved in their callings. And the Monserrat family, Hna Azcurra´s HUGE miracle family of super recent converts who love us to death and give us referrals every day! There are about 16 of them, some of which haven´t been baptized. One of them is César, a 42 year old single dad who is trying to quit smoking so he can get baptized. My experience with Gastón is really helping me to help him! Good thing number three: Hna Azcurra is fearless and very goal oriented and good at managing time, so that is helping me a lot. Good thing number four: teaching in "los monoblock" and "las casitas nuevas", the housing projects in our area. The rest of the area is really well off, but in the housing projects we have a lot of really receptive investigators. More details next week.
* Other stuff: our pension is one the 3rd floor of a 14 story apartment building in front of the train tracks. This is definitely my most urban area.
* General Conference was pretty great. I listened to all four sessions in Spanish, which was cool. My favorite talks were Elder Uchtdorf´s talk adn the talk about teaching with the Spirit. I almost teared up in teh talk about the elder who wore his dad´s mission coat to the same Japanese mission his father served in. It reminded my of how Dad and I both served in Buenos Aires. I thought about how Dad was listening to that talk at exactly the same time I was and probably thinking of me like I was thinking of him. I love you Dad! We planned to have about 10 investigators in the conference, but none of them showed up. :( That was disappointing, but at least lots of the new converts in the Monserrat family came. They are a really neat family!
* A BIG highlight of the conference was that Sebastián, Gastón, and Celeste came! (we share a stake center) They were really happy to see me. Gastón seems to be doing ok. I sure hope he stays strong with not smoking so he can get confirmed next Sunday. Hna Azcurra and I walked in a couple minutes late to the Sunday morning session and when I looked around to see who from Hurlingham was there, I saw Gastón and Celeste cuddling as they watched the first talk! I THINK TWO OF MY FAVORITE CONVERTS ARE GOING TO START DATING! FUTURE ETERNAL FAMILY! It makes me really happy. Elvira missed conference because she had to go to the capital, I´m not sure why. :( I was hoping to see Olga, but Hna Navarro (who I was THRILLED to see and who was thrilled to see me!) told me she got sick! I felt really bad because Olga didn´t want to get baptized because she thought she would get sick again and has no one to take care of her because she lives alone. So like any missionary would I promised her that God wouldn´t let her get sick for being baptized. Then I promised the water would be warm, and it wasn´t! (next time I´ll have to fill the font personally). Olga swears that the water didn´t make her sick, but I still feel guilty. I hope she gets better soon.
Well, I´m out of time. I love each one of you and pray for you often. Have a fantastic week!
Love,
Ellis
P.S. I´ll give you a final answer about the picking me up thing next week. Mi cabeza sigue dando vueltas.
Thanks for the emails you sent this week and last week (I finally read them all). Reading your emails is one of the highlights of my week. Last night I read a letter Mom sent with photos of her hiking adventures and letters from Ben. Mom, you look thinner in that photo! And your hiking adventure sounds way fun! Ben, I hope you will enjoy your (hopefully) last week at the MTC. The MTC is a great place to be, but also a great place to leave! I will pray this week that your visa comes on time so you can serve those great people in Brazil who are waiting for you. I´m often surprised by how busy the rest of you are with work, callings, school and extra activities. Do you feel as busy as your letters tell? I´m glad that you are having fun, learning, and achieving so many things.
Here are the highlights/the news of my week:
* Being in a new area is HARD. I was pretty teary on Monday and Tuesday. I kept thinking about my converts in Hurlingham, especially Gastón. I visited him every day for over a month and spent a significant amount of mental time worrying if he was happy, if he was reading the BoM, if he was smoking, etc. Suddenly having a new list of first priorities was, well, disorienting. I find myself still thinking of lessons to teach to him or to Olga or Pamela or to Elvira and Celeste. I still worry about how to reactivate Evelyn´s family. Other hard things: in Hurlingham I knew where EVERYTHING was and where I was in every moment (once a guy in the street said he lived near the train station in a house with leopard print curtains and I knew EXACTLY which house he was talking about and where it was), but here I feel super disoriented and have to follow Hna Azcurra around blindly. And, yup, it´s hard to go from being a trainer and directing lots of things to having to be directed because I´m still getting to know the investigators and the area. A lesson in humility. And of course I miss Hna Navarro. But slowly things have been getting better and I feel like I´m going to be able to leave my old area behind and give full attention to my new calling in Ramos Mejía.
* Here is the good stuff: a ward mission leader who took time out of his day to make us invitations to general conference---the other WMLs I´ve had weren´t as involved in their callings. And the Monserrat family, Hna Azcurra´s HUGE miracle family of super recent converts who love us to death and give us referrals every day! There are about 16 of them, some of which haven´t been baptized. One of them is César, a 42 year old single dad who is trying to quit smoking so he can get baptized. My experience with Gastón is really helping me to help him! Good thing number three: Hna Azcurra is fearless and very goal oriented and good at managing time, so that is helping me a lot. Good thing number four: teaching in "los monoblock" and "las casitas nuevas", the housing projects in our area. The rest of the area is really well off, but in the housing projects we have a lot of really receptive investigators. More details next week.
* Other stuff: our pension is one the 3rd floor of a 14 story apartment building in front of the train tracks. This is definitely my most urban area.
* General Conference was pretty great. I listened to all four sessions in Spanish, which was cool. My favorite talks were Elder Uchtdorf´s talk adn the talk about teaching with the Spirit. I almost teared up in teh talk about the elder who wore his dad´s mission coat to the same Japanese mission his father served in. It reminded my of how Dad and I both served in Buenos Aires. I thought about how Dad was listening to that talk at exactly the same time I was and probably thinking of me like I was thinking of him. I love you Dad! We planned to have about 10 investigators in the conference, but none of them showed up. :( That was disappointing, but at least lots of the new converts in the Monserrat family came. They are a really neat family!
* A BIG highlight of the conference was that Sebastián, Gastón, and Celeste came! (we share a stake center) They were really happy to see me. Gastón seems to be doing ok. I sure hope he stays strong with not smoking so he can get confirmed next Sunday. Hna Azcurra and I walked in a couple minutes late to the Sunday morning session and when I looked around to see who from Hurlingham was there, I saw Gastón and Celeste cuddling as they watched the first talk! I THINK TWO OF MY FAVORITE CONVERTS ARE GOING TO START DATING! FUTURE ETERNAL FAMILY! It makes me really happy. Elvira missed conference because she had to go to the capital, I´m not sure why. :( I was hoping to see Olga, but Hna Navarro (who I was THRILLED to see and who was thrilled to see me!) told me she got sick! I felt really bad because Olga didn´t want to get baptized because she thought she would get sick again and has no one to take care of her because she lives alone. So like any missionary would I promised her that God wouldn´t let her get sick for being baptized. Then I promised the water would be warm, and it wasn´t! (next time I´ll have to fill the font personally). Olga swears that the water didn´t make her sick, but I still feel guilty. I hope she gets better soon.
Well, I´m out of time. I love each one of you and pray for you often. Have a fantastic week!
Love,
Ellis
P.S. I´ll give you a final answer about the picking me up thing next week. Mi cabeza sigue dando vueltas.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Best Weekend of My Mission!
Dear Family,
This week was amazing! Or rather, this weekend, because all the important things happened on Saturday and Sunday.
On Saturday Hna Navarro and I got to see Mariana, our investigator from last transfer who really lived in the Villa Tesei ward, get baptized! Elder Hernandez and Elder Kimball (who reminds me a lot of Benjamin) started teaching Mariana and her sisters Dahiana and Ramona. After a lot of work, Mariana received permission from her mother to be baptized! Her mom, Miriam, is still lukewarm because her boyfriend (who she lives with) doesn't like the church very much, but she gave Mariana permission. A saintly sister in the ward who has a daughter close to Mariana's age lives two blocks away and takes Mariana and her sisters to church. So we got to go to Villa Tesei to see Mariana get baptized! She was so cute in her baptismal dress. She seemed pretty happy to be baptized, and the ward members there really love her a lot. The elders promised us they will keep teaching Dahiana and Ramona and have plans to baptized them next transfer. And they are still teaching my other investigators Marta and Graciela! So in the end, losing half my investigators to the elders was the best thing that could have happened! Those two were the ones with the special combination of personalities and Spirit and talents to help Mariana get baptized and help the other investigators progress!
Yesterday, Sunday, was one of the most beautiful days of my mission. My investigators Olga and Gaston were baptized. Olga was baptized before the meetings started because she wanted a small service with few people attending. It was the most spiritual baptismal service I've ever attended in the mission. Hna Navarro and I gave the talks. We spoke directly to her and her eyes were moist as we reminded her of the covenant she was about to make and of the blessings of the Holy Ghost. The water in the font was cold (we had promised it wouldn't be but the first counselor pressed the wrong button on the water heater! Olga wanted to kill us, but she was a trooper.), but Olga was so happy to have been baptized. When she received the Holy Ghost during sacrament meeting, she was smiling and had a look of peace on her face. I couldn't stop grinning the whole time. I was so happy for her. It took her a long time to be baptized, but she was such a prepared investigator. She really understands the importance of baptism and despite her fears, she chose to be baptized because she wants to follow Jesus Christ.
After the meetings Gaston was baptized. He had finally removed his eyebrow piercing even though he had to use pliers to take it out, haha) and it was so wonderful to see him dressed in white. His road to baptism was not easy, but you could see in his face that he had transformed into a different person. Gaston gave up smoking (among other substances), overcame trials, and learned to have faith-- he came unto Christ in the fullest sense of the expression. I've imagined seeing Gaston be baptized by his brother Sebastian since I began teaching Gaston over a month and a half ago. I felt immense gratitude that the moment had finally arrived, and awe at the sacredness of what I was witnessing. Sebastian baptized Gaston and then they embraced. It was the most beautiful moment of my mission. At the end of the service, Seba shared his testimony. He said he was so happy that Gaston was baptized and that they are the first two members in their family. Then he looked at his mom, Marta, who was sitting in the front row, and said that he feels that with time she will be baptized too! Marta's eyes were wet and she was half smiling. It was a spiritually intense moment.
Yesterday was the last day of the transfer and I've been transferred to Ramos Mejia, just a half hour bus ride away from Hurlingham, where the mission office is. Of my three areas, Hurlingham was the hardest to leave. I really learned to love the members of Hurlingham and my investigators and my companion Hna Navarro. I have never loved my investigators so much as I learned to love Olga, Gaston and Pamela (who received permission from her parents to get baptized in October, even though they wouldn't let her be baptized this weekend!). And I've never loved my companion as much as I loved Hna Navarro! We became such good friends and she helped me so much. We really learned from each other and supported each other in all the difficult times, and she helped me learn to love the investigators as much as I did. Saying goodbye to Pamela and to my converts Elvira, Celeste, Evelyn, Olga and Gaston was very difficult. On Sunday night we went to Gaston's house so I could say goodbye to him and to Sebastian. Celeste, my convert from May, was there too (I really think she and Gaston have a thing going! They've become super good friends and Gaston loves Ludmila, Celeste's 3 year old daughter. Future eternal family!). We just sat and talked and I never wanted to leave. I asked the three of them to write in my notebook. They each thanked me so sincerely for helping them find the gospel (or in Sebastian's case, helping his brother to find it and for being his friend) that I was in awe. Celeste, Gaston and Seba are so wonderful and have so much potential. Those three are going places (and Seba is hopefully going on a mission!!!). Gaston says someday he wants to come visit me in the U.S someday!
Afterwards I said goodbye to Elvira and shared one last scripture with her. She told me how much she loves being a member of the church and how much peace she feels now. She says she wants to be baptized in the temple for her dead mother! She has such a strong testimony!
I'm so grateful Heavenly Father let me meet and baptized my converts in Hurlingham. Through them, he will bless generations in both directions. Celeste and Gaston will have kids someday (not necessarily together, but you never know :) ) and those children will be born in the gospel. And Celeste told me that she wants Ludmila to get baptized when she turns 8! And Elvira and Olga will be baptized for their deceased family members who are waiting for the blessings of the gospel. Olga lost her entire family one by one, including her husband who died in a car accident two years after they were married, over 40 years ago. The gospel has given her the way to be able to see her husband and her family again after this life!
Today when Hna Navarro and I came to the mission office to go to the transfer meeting, we both cried. I didn't want to switch companions or leave my converts and Pamela. I feel like I left my heart in my old area, but I'm excited to come to love the people here in Ramos Mejia like I learned to love the people in Hurlingham. I know the Lord has people prepared here who need me to bring them the gospel, together with Hna Azcurra, my new Argentine companion from Mar del Plata. (3 Argentine companions in a row = kick butt Spanish at the end of my mission! And I love the Argentine sisters!)
I love you all: Mom, Dad, Eliza, Ben, Emma and Dan! Elder Clark, keeping working to learn to share that gospel! You are a truly great missionary! And the rest of you, invite those friends to church! Sharing the gospel is so important, because nothing we can do to help someone is as life saving for them as giving them the gospel. I love you! Thanks for everything!
Love,
Ellis
P.S. I hope you didn't tell me anything important, because I didn't have time to read your emails.
This week was amazing! Or rather, this weekend, because all the important things happened on Saturday and Sunday.
On Saturday Hna Navarro and I got to see Mariana, our investigator from last transfer who really lived in the Villa Tesei ward, get baptized! Elder Hernandez and Elder Kimball (who reminds me a lot of Benjamin) started teaching Mariana and her sisters Dahiana and Ramona. After a lot of work, Mariana received permission from her mother to be baptized! Her mom, Miriam, is still lukewarm because her boyfriend (who she lives with) doesn't like the church very much, but she gave Mariana permission. A saintly sister in the ward who has a daughter close to Mariana's age lives two blocks away and takes Mariana and her sisters to church. So we got to go to Villa Tesei to see Mariana get baptized! She was so cute in her baptismal dress. She seemed pretty happy to be baptized, and the ward members there really love her a lot. The elders promised us they will keep teaching Dahiana and Ramona and have plans to baptized them next transfer. And they are still teaching my other investigators Marta and Graciela! So in the end, losing half my investigators to the elders was the best thing that could have happened! Those two were the ones with the special combination of personalities and Spirit and talents to help Mariana get baptized and help the other investigators progress!
Yesterday, Sunday, was one of the most beautiful days of my mission. My investigators Olga and Gaston were baptized. Olga was baptized before the meetings started because she wanted a small service with few people attending. It was the most spiritual baptismal service I've ever attended in the mission. Hna Navarro and I gave the talks. We spoke directly to her and her eyes were moist as we reminded her of the covenant she was about to make and of the blessings of the Holy Ghost. The water in the font was cold (we had promised it wouldn't be but the first counselor pressed the wrong button on the water heater! Olga wanted to kill us, but she was a trooper.), but Olga was so happy to have been baptized. When she received the Holy Ghost during sacrament meeting, she was smiling and had a look of peace on her face. I couldn't stop grinning the whole time. I was so happy for her. It took her a long time to be baptized, but she was such a prepared investigator. She really understands the importance of baptism and despite her fears, she chose to be baptized because she wants to follow Jesus Christ.
After the meetings Gaston was baptized. He had finally removed his eyebrow piercing even though he had to use pliers to take it out, haha) and it was so wonderful to see him dressed in white. His road to baptism was not easy, but you could see in his face that he had transformed into a different person. Gaston gave up smoking (among other substances), overcame trials, and learned to have faith-- he came unto Christ in the fullest sense of the expression. I've imagined seeing Gaston be baptized by his brother Sebastian since I began teaching Gaston over a month and a half ago. I felt immense gratitude that the moment had finally arrived, and awe at the sacredness of what I was witnessing. Sebastian baptized Gaston and then they embraced. It was the most beautiful moment of my mission. At the end of the service, Seba shared his testimony. He said he was so happy that Gaston was baptized and that they are the first two members in their family. Then he looked at his mom, Marta, who was sitting in the front row, and said that he feels that with time she will be baptized too! Marta's eyes were wet and she was half smiling. It was a spiritually intense moment.
Yesterday was the last day of the transfer and I've been transferred to Ramos Mejia, just a half hour bus ride away from Hurlingham, where the mission office is. Of my three areas, Hurlingham was the hardest to leave. I really learned to love the members of Hurlingham and my investigators and my companion Hna Navarro. I have never loved my investigators so much as I learned to love Olga, Gaston and Pamela (who received permission from her parents to get baptized in October, even though they wouldn't let her be baptized this weekend!). And I've never loved my companion as much as I loved Hna Navarro! We became such good friends and she helped me so much. We really learned from each other and supported each other in all the difficult times, and she helped me learn to love the investigators as much as I did. Saying goodbye to Pamela and to my converts Elvira, Celeste, Evelyn, Olga and Gaston was very difficult. On Sunday night we went to Gaston's house so I could say goodbye to him and to Sebastian. Celeste, my convert from May, was there too (I really think she and Gaston have a thing going! They've become super good friends and Gaston loves Ludmila, Celeste's 3 year old daughter. Future eternal family!). We just sat and talked and I never wanted to leave. I asked the three of them to write in my notebook. They each thanked me so sincerely for helping them find the gospel (or in Sebastian's case, helping his brother to find it and for being his friend) that I was in awe. Celeste, Gaston and Seba are so wonderful and have so much potential. Those three are going places (and Seba is hopefully going on a mission!!!). Gaston says someday he wants to come visit me in the U.S someday!
Afterwards I said goodbye to Elvira and shared one last scripture with her. She told me how much she loves being a member of the church and how much peace she feels now. She says she wants to be baptized in the temple for her dead mother! She has such a strong testimony!
I'm so grateful Heavenly Father let me meet and baptized my converts in Hurlingham. Through them, he will bless generations in both directions. Celeste and Gaston will have kids someday (not necessarily together, but you never know :) ) and those children will be born in the gospel. And Celeste told me that she wants Ludmila to get baptized when she turns 8! And Elvira and Olga will be baptized for their deceased family members who are waiting for the blessings of the gospel. Olga lost her entire family one by one, including her husband who died in a car accident two years after they were married, over 40 years ago. The gospel has given her the way to be able to see her husband and her family again after this life!
Today when Hna Navarro and I came to the mission office to go to the transfer meeting, we both cried. I didn't want to switch companions or leave my converts and Pamela. I feel like I left my heart in my old area, but I'm excited to come to love the people here in Ramos Mejia like I learned to love the people in Hurlingham. I know the Lord has people prepared here who need me to bring them the gospel, together with Hna Azcurra, my new Argentine companion from Mar del Plata. (3 Argentine companions in a row = kick butt Spanish at the end of my mission! And I love the Argentine sisters!)
I love you all: Mom, Dad, Eliza, Ben, Emma and Dan! Elder Clark, keeping working to learn to share that gospel! You are a truly great missionary! And the rest of you, invite those friends to church! Sharing the gospel is so important, because nothing we can do to help someone is as life saving for them as giving them the gospel. I love you! Thanks for everything!
Love,
Ellis
P.S. I hope you didn't tell me anything important, because I didn't have time to read your emails.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Headlines of the Week
GREETINGS TO ALL MY FRIENDS IN MOSCOW AND AT BYU/ IN UTAH! I DON´T WRITE MUCH BUT I THINK OF YOU OFTEN AND HOPE YOU ARE HAPPY AND SUCCESSFUL! THANKS TO THOSE WHO HAVE WRITTEN ME LATELY!
Dear Mom and Dad,
Thanks for your emails! Three letters from Mom, two from Grandma, and the package arrived last week. I opened the package last night and laughed a lot over the "specially packaged" pantyhose. Thanks for the laugh and for the energy bars and pens and sticky notes! I really like the stationary too.
This has been a very full week. Here are the headlines:
Gastón Sires to be baptized 9-25! One week without smoking!
The miracle of the week is that Gastón didn´t smoke even once! On Monday his exgirlfriend sent him lots of nasty text messages and he was really upset, but despite that trial he didn´t give in to smoking! He stayed strong the whole week, even when it was hard. So he´s on track to get baptized this Sunday. Gastón is so wonderful and is developing so much faith. I´m so blessed to be able to teach him!
Pamela prayed and feels more sure about her baptism, although her parents´ permission continues to be a challenge that gives her occasional doubts. Her mom says yes, but her dad says no. But on Wednesday we are going to talk more with her mom, who promised to talk to Pamela´s dad. We are praying every day that Pamela will be able to get permission and feel sure about getting baptized.
Olga is struggling with fear and faith. On Tuesday when we arrived she said she wanted to wait to be baptized until her vacation in JANUARY in order to have time for one week of spiritual purification in preparation for baptism--- completely unnecessary for someone as practically sinless as Olga. But we helped her resolve her doubts and she said she would get baptized the next Saturday- 9-24. But then on Saturday she was worried again because she thinks the cold water will make her sick--I had to pray for patience. If she makes excuses it is because she is understandably nervous about making such a big change in her life. But we talked to her (I explained the water is warm, not cold) and she felt the Spirit and was more sure about baptism this weekend. She agreed to have her baptismal interview on Tuesday, which will hopefully help her feel more ready. I love her so much and I know she needs to get baptized.
One year anniversary of Hna Clark´s arrival in Argentina-- most of the public is still unaware.
Not much more to say about that. I´m trying not to count down the months, just focus on loving the people and working as hard as I can.
Psychological wounds from Elder Aidukaitis´ guilt inducing mission tour this September have dropped 25% since his last visit in June 2010.
On the one year anniversary of my arrival in Argentina, Elder Aidukaitis (from Brazil, part of the area presidency) came to speak to the mission. He told us: "I am very happy with your work. But I am not satisfied." He has really high expectations for us and wrote down all our statistics on a white board to show us how almost none of us are meeting the goals we set because we don´t know how to plan--- MAJOR GUILT TRIP!!! (apparently when he came last year he was even tougher and made the elders cry) He taught us that during weekly planning we should plan every hour of every day of the week-- yikes! I used to just plan lessons for my investigators. I tried to think positively about it though-- if he has high expectations it is because he sees a lot of potential in us.
On Sunday we tried to plan the way Elder Aidukaitis taught us. I had a lot of doubts about it being a good way to plan, but I made an effort to have faith and be obedient and we tried it. It was hard, and we only planned all the hours until Wednesday, but I felt good about it. I think the advantage of planning that way is that during nightly planning we can plan more specifically for the lessons we need to teach to our investigators. And when we set appointments in the street, we already know exactly where we´re going to be during the week, so it´s more efficient. I´m going to keep trying this way of planning until I master it.
For the second week in a row we contacted 150 people. It didn´t really help us find new investigators, but that probably means I need to look for other methods of finding too or change how I contact people. So far the blessing for contacting is more confidence and more of the Spirit, which is pretty great. I´m sure more blessings will come as I strive to be consistent and diligent with contacting.
This week I just want to help Gastón, Pamela and Olga get baptized on Sunday, but I know we need to find new investigators ASAP or we won´t have anyone left for next month, so I´m going to do my best to find new people too. I think we can work with Gastón´s family and invite them to the baptism.
Sister missionary bitten by dog!
Yup. I finally got bit. On Friday we found a potential new investigator named Efraín and as we were leaving after setting a return appointment, I heard a loud growl and felt a sharp pain in my calf. A black and white blur streaked back behind Efraín´s house. I was kind of freaked out, but after examining the bite we concluded it wasn´t very serious. Efraín very nicely brought me soap and water to wash the bite, and assured us that the dog (belonged to his neighbor) had all it´s vaccines. Then we went to go teach Pamela and even though I said I was fine, she insisted on cleaning the bite with iodine and bandaging it. After we taught her I go to show off my wound to Gastón and his recent convert brother, Seba, which was kind of fun. Anyway, I´m recovering just fine and the only time I foam at the mouth is when I brush my teeth, so I guess I don´t have rabies. We went back to our appointment with Efraín and he wasn´t home, though we managed to teach his neighbor, Fortunata. I saw the dog again-- black with white chest and feet. It seems to recognize me and growled at me from behind the fence---aaaagh! I don´t know why it chose to bite ME of all people. I keep thinking of poor Hermana Abbot, who is mission legend for having been bit 7 times during her mission! I hope that this was a one time thing for me. Fun times in the mission.
Well, I´m super out of time. Got to go! I love you and I miss you. I hope you and the family have a great week! I´m praying for you.
Love,
Ellis
Dear Mom and Dad,
Thanks for your emails! Three letters from Mom, two from Grandma, and the package arrived last week. I opened the package last night and laughed a lot over the "specially packaged" pantyhose. Thanks for the laugh and for the energy bars and pens and sticky notes! I really like the stationary too.
This has been a very full week. Here are the headlines:
Gastón Sires to be baptized 9-25! One week without smoking!
The miracle of the week is that Gastón didn´t smoke even once! On Monday his exgirlfriend sent him lots of nasty text messages and he was really upset, but despite that trial he didn´t give in to smoking! He stayed strong the whole week, even when it was hard. So he´s on track to get baptized this Sunday. Gastón is so wonderful and is developing so much faith. I´m so blessed to be able to teach him!
Pamela prayed and feels more sure about her baptism, although her parents´ permission continues to be a challenge that gives her occasional doubts. Her mom says yes, but her dad says no. But on Wednesday we are going to talk more with her mom, who promised to talk to Pamela´s dad. We are praying every day that Pamela will be able to get permission and feel sure about getting baptized.
Olga is struggling with fear and faith. On Tuesday when we arrived she said she wanted to wait to be baptized until her vacation in JANUARY in order to have time for one week of spiritual purification in preparation for baptism--- completely unnecessary for someone as practically sinless as Olga. But we helped her resolve her doubts and she said she would get baptized the next Saturday- 9-24. But then on Saturday she was worried again because she thinks the cold water will make her sick--I had to pray for patience. If she makes excuses it is because she is understandably nervous about making such a big change in her life. But we talked to her (I explained the water is warm, not cold) and she felt the Spirit and was more sure about baptism this weekend. She agreed to have her baptismal interview on Tuesday, which will hopefully help her feel more ready. I love her so much and I know she needs to get baptized.
One year anniversary of Hna Clark´s arrival in Argentina-- most of the public is still unaware.
Not much more to say about that. I´m trying not to count down the months, just focus on loving the people and working as hard as I can.
Psychological wounds from Elder Aidukaitis´ guilt inducing mission tour this September have dropped 25% since his last visit in June 2010.
On the one year anniversary of my arrival in Argentina, Elder Aidukaitis (from Brazil, part of the area presidency) came to speak to the mission. He told us: "I am very happy with your work. But I am not satisfied." He has really high expectations for us and wrote down all our statistics on a white board to show us how almost none of us are meeting the goals we set because we don´t know how to plan--- MAJOR GUILT TRIP!!! (apparently when he came last year he was even tougher and made the elders cry) He taught us that during weekly planning we should plan every hour of every day of the week-- yikes! I used to just plan lessons for my investigators. I tried to think positively about it though-- if he has high expectations it is because he sees a lot of potential in us.
On Sunday we tried to plan the way Elder Aidukaitis taught us. I had a lot of doubts about it being a good way to plan, but I made an effort to have faith and be obedient and we tried it. It was hard, and we only planned all the hours until Wednesday, but I felt good about it. I think the advantage of planning that way is that during nightly planning we can plan more specifically for the lessons we need to teach to our investigators. And when we set appointments in the street, we already know exactly where we´re going to be during the week, so it´s more efficient. I´m going to keep trying this way of planning until I master it.
For the second week in a row we contacted 150 people. It didn´t really help us find new investigators, but that probably means I need to look for other methods of finding too or change how I contact people. So far the blessing for contacting is more confidence and more of the Spirit, which is pretty great. I´m sure more blessings will come as I strive to be consistent and diligent with contacting.
This week I just want to help Gastón, Pamela and Olga get baptized on Sunday, but I know we need to find new investigators ASAP or we won´t have anyone left for next month, so I´m going to do my best to find new people too. I think we can work with Gastón´s family and invite them to the baptism.
Sister missionary bitten by dog!
Yup. I finally got bit. On Friday we found a potential new investigator named Efraín and as we were leaving after setting a return appointment, I heard a loud growl and felt a sharp pain in my calf. A black and white blur streaked back behind Efraín´s house. I was kind of freaked out, but after examining the bite we concluded it wasn´t very serious. Efraín very nicely brought me soap and water to wash the bite, and assured us that the dog (belonged to his neighbor) had all it´s vaccines. Then we went to go teach Pamela and even though I said I was fine, she insisted on cleaning the bite with iodine and bandaging it. After we taught her I go to show off my wound to Gastón and his recent convert brother, Seba, which was kind of fun. Anyway, I´m recovering just fine and the only time I foam at the mouth is when I brush my teeth, so I guess I don´t have rabies. We went back to our appointment with Efraín and he wasn´t home, though we managed to teach his neighbor, Fortunata. I saw the dog again-- black with white chest and feet. It seems to recognize me and growled at me from behind the fence---aaaagh! I don´t know why it chose to bite ME of all people. I keep thinking of poor Hermana Abbot, who is mission legend for having been bit 7 times during her mission! I hope that this was a one time thing for me. Fun times in the mission.
Well, I´m super out of time. Got to go! I love you and I miss you. I hope you and the family have a great week! I´m praying for you.
Love,
Ellis
Monday, September 12, 2011
Making 150 Contacts in a Week
Dear Mom, Dad, Eliza, Emma, Dan and Elder Clark:
Thanks for your emails! It sounds like you had an action packed week with lots of trips and hiking. You guys don{t ever stop. I{d love to hear more about what Ben is up to. Could you maybe summarize what{s up with him and email it to me every week?
Here is what I've been up to:
Highlights/funny stuff of the week:
* Monday: we play soccer with the elders for 2 hours, then spend three days recovering from scrapes, bruises, and stiff muscles. It was worth it. We also went to a pizza libre (all you can eat pizza place) with the elders. They had an eating contest and Elder Hernandez won by eating 10 and a half slices. Typical. For the record, Hna Navarro and weren't competing, but the elders insisted on counting our slices anyway. We ate 3 each. I tried pizza cochina: pizza topped with cheese, french fries, and fried eggs. More fattening impossible, but it was tasty.
* Wednesday: In the same hour, a bird pooped on Hna Navarro and we met the world{s smelliest dog. It was one of those enormous gray sheep dogs that looks like a mop-- its hair was matted in dreadlocks and it was followed by a tidal wave of stink. The smell was indescribable. The dog followed us down a narrow passage way where an investigator lives, sniffing and panting the whole way-- eeeuhhh! (shiver of disgust) Fortunately, when I chanted "malo, malo, malo!" (bad, bad, bad!) it left without touching us. Eeeeeuh!
* Wednesday or Thursday: we prepared a lesson about the priesthood to teach to Gaston. And we had one of those WOW moments, when you realized how cool something is that you haven{t really thought that much about for a while. I try to explain to people everyday about the priesthood and why proper authority is important, but when we studied that principle for Gaston. . .WOW. The priesthood is so awesome! Gaston liked the lesson. I think he is excited to receive the priesthood after his baptism.
* Wednesday: We went to visit Evelyn, my absolutely perfect in every way convert. I was worried because she{s missed a lot of Sundays, but when she said the opening prayer she said "Please help me be able to go to church every Sunday, because I know it{s important and I want to go to church." Precious. We read a scripture with her about prayer and she said she prays every night with her little brother and reads the Book of Mormon every day too. Then she painted my nails with sparkly nail polish. I love Evelyn!
* Gaston went Monday to Wednesday without smoking, but smoked 2 cigarettes on Thursday-- that seems to be a rough day for him. Then he didn't smoke again until Sunday, when he smoked 2 again. Only four in the whole week! That{s really good! We reset his baptismal date one more time, and now he is going to get baptized on September 25. I know that this time he can do it!
* Other news: Olga is having some doubts, (baptism is a big change to make so late in life and she is already baptized in the Orthodox Catholic church) but she talked to the bishop on Sunday and I think he helped her a lot. We are planning a lesson just to answer her questions and doubts. Pamela's parents keep telling her the family is Catholic and that she should wait or that for now she can{t get baptized, which is giving her doubts. But she knows that she wants to and that it will bless her life. Her testimony is small, but growing. This week we have plans to speak to her parents and explain to them the blessings of baptism for Pamela. I feel like Pamela, Olga, and Gaston are teaching me a new level of love for my investigators. I think of them all the time, every day, and I worry about them and pray for them and plan for them. I really really want them to be able to receive the blessings of baptism.
* The highlight of the week was Sunday. We arrived late and discouraged at the chapel, because we went to pick up investigators that didn't end up coming. But then we saw that Olga and Gaston had arrived by themselves early! Then we saw Hermana Maidana, who came to church with her unbaptized 10 year old daughter, Joana, after 2 months of not going. I was really happy to see her. But the happiest moment was when I saw that Daniel and Graciela Rosales had arrived at church. They have been inactive for my whole time in Hurlingham. They want to go to church, but they are really poor and have large debts that they are struggling to pay off by selling tupperware in a fair on Saturdays and Sundays. I{ve visited them a lot and cried more than once testifying to them to help them have faith to go to church again. They finally came! And they came with two of their grown daughters who are also inactive. When I saw Daniel and Graciela my eyes almost overflowed. Daniel told me " I will go and do what the Lord commands because he always provides a way to do what he asks. Today he provided a way."
* But things just kept getting better. After the meetings Sebastian, a little boy in the primary, was baptized by his dad. Olga and Gaston stayed after the meetings and watched the baptism! The spirit was really strong and Sebastian and his family were glowing with the happiness that only the Gospel brings. Gaston told us later that he imagined himself someday having a son and baptizing him! (I have the best investigator ever!) I'm sure Olga felt the Spirit too. It was great!
* The perfect ending to a great Sunday was when we finished our 150 contacts for the first time. President Carter has been putting a big emphasis on doing all our contacts every week, and we finally did it. Sometimes it's hard for me to want to speak to people in the street, but it helps me to be happy and it leads to really neat experiences. For instance,in the train I decided I had to speak to a young man with headphones. He turned out to be an inactive 22 year old from a nearby ward. His name was Dario. He told us he never went on his mission and asked us if the time goes by fast. He knows he should go, but 2 years sounds like forever to him. We assured him the mission flies by and that the blessings are amazing. I could tell we left him thinking. I really hope he goes on his mission!
I hope each of you has an amazing week filled with triumphs and good laughs. I love you!
Love,
Ellis
P.S. I know my emails have been getting kind of preachy/sentimental/serious, heavy on ambiguous expressions of enthusiasm and phrases like "the spirit was really strong" and short on visual details. Unfortunate side effect of the mission. I'll try to write with more details next week. I{m sure I'll return to normal when I get home.
Thanks for your emails! It sounds like you had an action packed week with lots of trips and hiking. You guys don{t ever stop. I{d love to hear more about what Ben is up to. Could you maybe summarize what{s up with him and email it to me every week?
Here is what I've been up to:
Highlights/funny stuff of the week:
* Monday: we play soccer with the elders for 2 hours, then spend three days recovering from scrapes, bruises, and stiff muscles. It was worth it. We also went to a pizza libre (all you can eat pizza place) with the elders. They had an eating contest and Elder Hernandez won by eating 10 and a half slices. Typical. For the record, Hna Navarro and weren't competing, but the elders insisted on counting our slices anyway. We ate 3 each. I tried pizza cochina: pizza topped with cheese, french fries, and fried eggs. More fattening impossible, but it was tasty.
* Wednesday: In the same hour, a bird pooped on Hna Navarro and we met the world{s smelliest dog. It was one of those enormous gray sheep dogs that looks like a mop-- its hair was matted in dreadlocks and it was followed by a tidal wave of stink. The smell was indescribable. The dog followed us down a narrow passage way where an investigator lives, sniffing and panting the whole way-- eeeuhhh! (shiver of disgust) Fortunately, when I chanted "malo, malo, malo!" (bad, bad, bad!) it left without touching us. Eeeeeuh!
* Wednesday or Thursday: we prepared a lesson about the priesthood to teach to Gaston. And we had one of those WOW moments, when you realized how cool something is that you haven{t really thought that much about for a while. I try to explain to people everyday about the priesthood and why proper authority is important, but when we studied that principle for Gaston. . .WOW. The priesthood is so awesome! Gaston liked the lesson. I think he is excited to receive the priesthood after his baptism.
* Wednesday: We went to visit Evelyn, my absolutely perfect in every way convert. I was worried because she{s missed a lot of Sundays, but when she said the opening prayer she said "Please help me be able to go to church every Sunday, because I know it{s important and I want to go to church." Precious. We read a scripture with her about prayer and she said she prays every night with her little brother and reads the Book of Mormon every day too. Then she painted my nails with sparkly nail polish. I love Evelyn!
* Gaston went Monday to Wednesday without smoking, but smoked 2 cigarettes on Thursday-- that seems to be a rough day for him. Then he didn't smoke again until Sunday, when he smoked 2 again. Only four in the whole week! That{s really good! We reset his baptismal date one more time, and now he is going to get baptized on September 25. I know that this time he can do it!
* Other news: Olga is having some doubts, (baptism is a big change to make so late in life and she is already baptized in the Orthodox Catholic church) but she talked to the bishop on Sunday and I think he helped her a lot. We are planning a lesson just to answer her questions and doubts. Pamela's parents keep telling her the family is Catholic and that she should wait or that for now she can{t get baptized, which is giving her doubts. But she knows that she wants to and that it will bless her life. Her testimony is small, but growing. This week we have plans to speak to her parents and explain to them the blessings of baptism for Pamela. I feel like Pamela, Olga, and Gaston are teaching me a new level of love for my investigators. I think of them all the time, every day, and I worry about them and pray for them and plan for them. I really really want them to be able to receive the blessings of baptism.
* The highlight of the week was Sunday. We arrived late and discouraged at the chapel, because we went to pick up investigators that didn't end up coming. But then we saw that Olga and Gaston had arrived by themselves early! Then we saw Hermana Maidana, who came to church with her unbaptized 10 year old daughter, Joana, after 2 months of not going. I was really happy to see her. But the happiest moment was when I saw that Daniel and Graciela Rosales had arrived at church. They have been inactive for my whole time in Hurlingham. They want to go to church, but they are really poor and have large debts that they are struggling to pay off by selling tupperware in a fair on Saturdays and Sundays. I{ve visited them a lot and cried more than once testifying to them to help them have faith to go to church again. They finally came! And they came with two of their grown daughters who are also inactive. When I saw Daniel and Graciela my eyes almost overflowed. Daniel told me " I will go and do what the Lord commands because he always provides a way to do what he asks. Today he provided a way."
* But things just kept getting better. After the meetings Sebastian, a little boy in the primary, was baptized by his dad. Olga and Gaston stayed after the meetings and watched the baptism! The spirit was really strong and Sebastian and his family were glowing with the happiness that only the Gospel brings. Gaston told us later that he imagined himself someday having a son and baptizing him! (I have the best investigator ever!) I'm sure Olga felt the Spirit too. It was great!
* The perfect ending to a great Sunday was when we finished our 150 contacts for the first time. President Carter has been putting a big emphasis on doing all our contacts every week, and we finally did it. Sometimes it's hard for me to want to speak to people in the street, but it helps me to be happy and it leads to really neat experiences. For instance,in the train I decided I had to speak to a young man with headphones. He turned out to be an inactive 22 year old from a nearby ward. His name was Dario. He told us he never went on his mission and asked us if the time goes by fast. He knows he should go, but 2 years sounds like forever to him. We assured him the mission flies by and that the blessings are amazing. I could tell we left him thinking. I really hope he goes on his mission!
I hope each of you has an amazing week filled with triumphs and good laughs. I love you!
Love,
Ellis
P.S. I know my emails have been getting kind of preachy/sentimental/serious, heavy on ambiguous expressions of enthusiasm and phrases like "the spirit was really strong" and short on visual details. Unfortunate side effect of the mission. I'll try to write with more details next week. I{m sure I'll return to normal when I get home.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Gaston, Olga, and Pamela are going to get baptized!
Dear Mom and Dad,
Thanks for all your emails. You sure sent a lot this week! Grandma Clark sent me one too, which was fun. It sounds like the reunion was fun, though low key. I´m surprised you gustonians, as Uncle Adam would say, didn´t play sand volleyball until you developed calluses on your inner arms or something equally extreme. You have to remember your mantra: I am a well oiled machine, made to go for the gusto. . .
We were really blessed this week because we were able to help two more investigators set baptismal dates: Pamela and Olga. Pamela is 16 and has a really rough family situation. On top of everything, Pamela´s boyfriend just broke up with her. So she´s really unhappy. But we explained to her that after baptism the gift of the Holy Ghost will be able to help her feel safe and know what to do and she accepted the baptismal date. We pray for her a lot and we are going to do everything we can to help her get baptized.
We were also able to set a date with Olga, who we´ve been teaching since last transfer. Before she was afraid of changing and told us she didn´t want us to pressure her, but she spent this week reading the Gospel Principles manual someone in the ward gave her and felt the Spirit really strongly. When we went to visit her she started asking questions about the baptismal service and we set a date with no problems. She knocked us flat. We were really surprised, because we expected a lot more work to get her to accept baptism.
We are still working at full speed with Gaston. He went three days without smoking (we were SO HAPPY the first night that he told us he hadn´t smoked all day. We almost burst into happy tears.), then relapsed on Thursday (low point of the week, especially because that was the same day Pamela told us about all her family problems. Gaston felt terrible about smoking again and we almost cried.) but we are trying again this week and we reset his baptismal date for the 18th. Teaching Gaston has really taught me a lot about helping addicts. We have to recommit him and verify his commitments every day, and call him two or three times a day. We have to keep reminding ourselves that he´s addicted, so he needs constant support and reminders to keep the commitments he makes. If we don´t stay on top of him, the addiction becomes stronger than his desire to keep the commitment. And that´s not because he doesn´t want to change-- he really does-- it´s just that he is, well, addicted. It´s also really important to manage his stress level and happiness, because if he gets nervous and worried he starts smoking again. We basically have to keep him in mind all day long-- it´s a lot of work, but it´s really really rewarding. Yesterday we had a really neat lesson with him. When we arrived, we could tell he was happier than we´ve ever seen him. He told us he had been reading the Book of Mormon extra that day (he is a super investigator who reads every day and prays at least three times a day). He read about 15 pages in one go, and we could tell he had felt the Spirit. We shared with him how the gospel can bless his future family, and he is really excited to be able to be a father someday and teach his children the gospel. I feel so lucky to be able to teach him. It´s been amazing to see his change of heart. I can´t wait to see him get baptized! We are going to be very busy the next two weeks-- if Gaston smokes even once we will probably have to postpone his baptism again. Please pray for him!
I feel really happy to be a missionary here in Hurlingham. It´s been the most difficult of my three areas, but the area that will most cost me to leave. I´ve learned so much here, and I´ve come to love more deeply the ward and my converts and investigators. I don´t know how much time I have left here, but I want to use that time the best I can to be able to leave this area better than I found it.
Thanks for all that you to help me out. I love you and hope you all have excellent, successful weeks and that you keep learning lots! I love you all!
Love,Ellis
Thanks for all your emails. You sure sent a lot this week! Grandma Clark sent me one too, which was fun. It sounds like the reunion was fun, though low key. I´m surprised you gustonians, as Uncle Adam would say, didn´t play sand volleyball until you developed calluses on your inner arms or something equally extreme. You have to remember your mantra: I am a well oiled machine, made to go for the gusto. . .
We were really blessed this week because we were able to help two more investigators set baptismal dates: Pamela and Olga. Pamela is 16 and has a really rough family situation. On top of everything, Pamela´s boyfriend just broke up with her. So she´s really unhappy. But we explained to her that after baptism the gift of the Holy Ghost will be able to help her feel safe and know what to do and she accepted the baptismal date. We pray for her a lot and we are going to do everything we can to help her get baptized.
We were also able to set a date with Olga, who we´ve been teaching since last transfer. Before she was afraid of changing and told us she didn´t want us to pressure her, but she spent this week reading the Gospel Principles manual someone in the ward gave her and felt the Spirit really strongly. When we went to visit her she started asking questions about the baptismal service and we set a date with no problems. She knocked us flat. We were really surprised, because we expected a lot more work to get her to accept baptism.
We are still working at full speed with Gaston. He went three days without smoking (we were SO HAPPY the first night that he told us he hadn´t smoked all day. We almost burst into happy tears.), then relapsed on Thursday (low point of the week, especially because that was the same day Pamela told us about all her family problems. Gaston felt terrible about smoking again and we almost cried.) but we are trying again this week and we reset his baptismal date for the 18th. Teaching Gaston has really taught me a lot about helping addicts. We have to recommit him and verify his commitments every day, and call him two or three times a day. We have to keep reminding ourselves that he´s addicted, so he needs constant support and reminders to keep the commitments he makes. If we don´t stay on top of him, the addiction becomes stronger than his desire to keep the commitment. And that´s not because he doesn´t want to change-- he really does-- it´s just that he is, well, addicted. It´s also really important to manage his stress level and happiness, because if he gets nervous and worried he starts smoking again. We basically have to keep him in mind all day long-- it´s a lot of work, but it´s really really rewarding. Yesterday we had a really neat lesson with him. When we arrived, we could tell he was happier than we´ve ever seen him. He told us he had been reading the Book of Mormon extra that day (he is a super investigator who reads every day and prays at least three times a day). He read about 15 pages in one go, and we could tell he had felt the Spirit. We shared with him how the gospel can bless his future family, and he is really excited to be able to be a father someday and teach his children the gospel. I feel so lucky to be able to teach him. It´s been amazing to see his change of heart. I can´t wait to see him get baptized! We are going to be very busy the next two weeks-- if Gaston smokes even once we will probably have to postpone his baptism again. Please pray for him!
I feel really happy to be a missionary here in Hurlingham. It´s been the most difficult of my three areas, but the area that will most cost me to leave. I´ve learned so much here, and I´ve come to love more deeply the ward and my converts and investigators. I don´t know how much time I have left here, but I want to use that time the best I can to be able to leave this area better than I found it.
Thanks for all that you to help me out. I love you and hope you all have excellent, successful weeks and that you keep learning lots! I love you all!
Love,Ellis
Keeping the Faith in Hurlingham
Dear Family,
Sounds like you had a really fun week and didn´t spend any time inside the house. I loved the story about Danny pushing the raft back to the beach. Dan: Way to go, strong one! You are awesome!
This week I really saw the results of my commitment to be obedient-- Hna Navarro and I were able to work a lot more efficiently and teach many more lessons. And we found lots of new investigators-- including a very nice family of four. But the funny thing is, during the week I felt like I broke my promise to be obedient about 100 times and kept making a lot of the same mistakes. But I definitely improved-- especially in being diligent about contacting. I guess the lesson of this week is that a small change in be (I was more willing to be obedient) makes a big difference in do (we accomplished a lot more). This week I will keep working to change my heart and be 100% committed to 100% obedience 100% of the time, so I can keep seeing the results (more people helped) in my area.
Hermana Navarro has been a real blessing this week. Her new enthusiasm for contacting and teaching charlas cortas (short on-the-street lessons where we teach one or two principles and pray at the end) really helped me be enthusiastic and diligent too. And when I had moments of negativity, she helped me not be discouraged. I´m so lucky to be her companion. We had companionship inventory this morning (we ran out of time yesterday) and we shared personal and companionship goals. We realized we are a lot alike in that it´s hard for us to see what we are doing well sometimes. We set a goal to pray for more confidence and faith, and to pray every day to be able to meet our goal of 4 baptisms in September. That is a lot of baptisms, especially for Hurlingham, but we are going to give it a shot.
In other news, Gaston is still progressing and came to church on Sunday. He still reads the Book of Mormon every day and told us he is praying 3 TIMES A DAY!!! He is so fantastic! He still has a lot of challenges, but he seems much happier and laughs more than when we first started teaching him. Gaston´s biggest challenge right now is giving up smoking. We are praying for him and doing everything we can to help him quit. As of today, we are going to try calling during all the times of day when Seba (his brother) told us that Gaston usually smokes. We just hope he has the willpower and the faith to do quit, so he can get baptized soon.
Other highlights:
* Teaching 24 lessons and finding 16 new investigators! On Thursday, we taught 8 lessons and found 9 new investigators, including 12 year old twins Braian and Priscila and their mom, Carina. They are the really nice family I mentioned earlier. I really hope they progress!
* Zone conference with President Carter. He talked about new changes in the mission: The old Standard of Excellence (the goals for lessons taught, investigators in sacrament meeting, etc. per week) is now called the Standard of Expectations (does that name put on more or less pressure?). Now we count our numbers every month instead of every transfer, which is supposed to help us be more efficient and stop asking for last minute exceptions to rules so we can baptized investigators who don´t have enough church attendances. And there are no longer unofficial "rules" about when a person gets transfered-- I´m not the only one spending more than 6 months in my area, and several sisters are back with companions they´ve already served with. Interesting. I think the changes will be good for the mission. It´s kind of exciting to have a new mission president!
Well, I´m out of time, but have a fantastic week! I love you all!
Love,
Ellis
Sounds like you had a really fun week and didn´t spend any time inside the house. I loved the story about Danny pushing the raft back to the beach. Dan: Way to go, strong one! You are awesome!
This week I really saw the results of my commitment to be obedient-- Hna Navarro and I were able to work a lot more efficiently and teach many more lessons. And we found lots of new investigators-- including a very nice family of four. But the funny thing is, during the week I felt like I broke my promise to be obedient about 100 times and kept making a lot of the same mistakes. But I definitely improved-- especially in being diligent about contacting. I guess the lesson of this week is that a small change in be (I was more willing to be obedient) makes a big difference in do (we accomplished a lot more). This week I will keep working to change my heart and be 100% committed to 100% obedience 100% of the time, so I can keep seeing the results (more people helped) in my area.
Hermana Navarro has been a real blessing this week. Her new enthusiasm for contacting and teaching charlas cortas (short on-the-street lessons where we teach one or two principles and pray at the end) really helped me be enthusiastic and diligent too. And when I had moments of negativity, she helped me not be discouraged. I´m so lucky to be her companion. We had companionship inventory this morning (we ran out of time yesterday) and we shared personal and companionship goals. We realized we are a lot alike in that it´s hard for us to see what we are doing well sometimes. We set a goal to pray for more confidence and faith, and to pray every day to be able to meet our goal of 4 baptisms in September. That is a lot of baptisms, especially for Hurlingham, but we are going to give it a shot.
In other news, Gaston is still progressing and came to church on Sunday. He still reads the Book of Mormon every day and told us he is praying 3 TIMES A DAY!!! He is so fantastic! He still has a lot of challenges, but he seems much happier and laughs more than when we first started teaching him. Gaston´s biggest challenge right now is giving up smoking. We are praying for him and doing everything we can to help him quit. As of today, we are going to try calling during all the times of day when Seba (his brother) told us that Gaston usually smokes. We just hope he has the willpower and the faith to do quit, so he can get baptized soon.
Other highlights:
* Teaching 24 lessons and finding 16 new investigators! On Thursday, we taught 8 lessons and found 9 new investigators, including 12 year old twins Braian and Priscila and their mom, Carina. They are the really nice family I mentioned earlier. I really hope they progress!
* Zone conference with President Carter. He talked about new changes in the mission: The old Standard of Excellence (the goals for lessons taught, investigators in sacrament meeting, etc. per week) is now called the Standard of Expectations (does that name put on more or less pressure?). Now we count our numbers every month instead of every transfer, which is supposed to help us be more efficient and stop asking for last minute exceptions to rules so we can baptized investigators who don´t have enough church attendances. And there are no longer unofficial "rules" about when a person gets transfered-- I´m not the only one spending more than 6 months in my area, and several sisters are back with companions they´ve already served with. Interesting. I think the changes will be good for the mission. It´s kind of exciting to have a new mission president!
Well, I´m out of time, but have a fantastic week! I love you all!
Love,
Ellis
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Tough Times in Hurlingham
Dear Family,
I´m sorry this letter is arriving late. Because yesterday was a holiday (Día de San Martín I think), all the internet places were closed yesterday and we couldn´t send email.
There are some great things and some tough things happening in Hurlingham. A lot of our investigators have stopped progressing or aren´t progressing very much, and we are having trouble using our time efficiently and therefore aren´t teaching very many lessons or finding many new investigators. I feel sad and frustrated about our investigators because I don´t know how to help them understand how important baptism is. And I´m disappointed with myself for not using my time wisely, because I know it´s one of the most precious resources that Heavenly Father gives us to do missionary work. On Saturday night I was frustrated because I make the same mistakes over and over again-- going to bed late, arriving late to the pension, not speaking to enough people in the street. I realized all of those things would be easier to do if I was more committed to be obedient. So I said a prayer and promised Heavenly Father that from now on complete obedience will be my highest priority. I´m still not perfect, obviously, but feeling more committed to complete obedience over any other priority is helping me to change the things I wanted to fix. It really is easier and less stressful to try to be 100% obedient than to try to be 90% obedient. On Sunday morning I remembered my promise and spoke to 3 people in the train! I NEVER speak to people in the train. I´m hoping that this week if I strive to keep my promise to Heavenly Father that we´ll be able to find new investigators and teach more lessons.
The ray of sunshine here in Hurlingham is our investigator Gastón. He hasn´t used drugs or drank for 2 weeks, and he is working really hard to stop smoking. He has really changed his heart and everyday he reads the Book of Mormon, prays, and tries to do service for his family. He is a miracle and I can´t wait for him to get baptized. It´s really a privilege to be part of his conversion. Every day we try to follow the Spirit to know what to teach him, and we use as many scriptures as we can. Heavenly Father is really helping us to help Gastón.
Thank you for all that you do for me to help me serve a mission-- for helping to pay for it (ok, for paying for basically all of it) and for emailing and writing letters to me every week. Thanks for praying for me, because I know you do. Knowing you love me and are praying for my success helps me to want to work harder and not give up in the rough times. I love you and I pray for all of you that you will have the Spirit, not be stressed, be healthy, that you will feel loved, and that you will be able to achieve your goals.
I love you Mom, Dad, Eliza, Elder Clark, Emma, and Danny!
Love,
Hermana Clark
I´m sorry this letter is arriving late. Because yesterday was a holiday (Día de San Martín I think), all the internet places were closed yesterday and we couldn´t send email.
There are some great things and some tough things happening in Hurlingham. A lot of our investigators have stopped progressing or aren´t progressing very much, and we are having trouble using our time efficiently and therefore aren´t teaching very many lessons or finding many new investigators. I feel sad and frustrated about our investigators because I don´t know how to help them understand how important baptism is. And I´m disappointed with myself for not using my time wisely, because I know it´s one of the most precious resources that Heavenly Father gives us to do missionary work. On Saturday night I was frustrated because I make the same mistakes over and over again-- going to bed late, arriving late to the pension, not speaking to enough people in the street. I realized all of those things would be easier to do if I was more committed to be obedient. So I said a prayer and promised Heavenly Father that from now on complete obedience will be my highest priority. I´m still not perfect, obviously, but feeling more committed to complete obedience over any other priority is helping me to change the things I wanted to fix. It really is easier and less stressful to try to be 100% obedient than to try to be 90% obedient. On Sunday morning I remembered my promise and spoke to 3 people in the train! I NEVER speak to people in the train. I´m hoping that this week if I strive to keep my promise to Heavenly Father that we´ll be able to find new investigators and teach more lessons.
The ray of sunshine here in Hurlingham is our investigator Gastón. He hasn´t used drugs or drank for 2 weeks, and he is working really hard to stop smoking. He has really changed his heart and everyday he reads the Book of Mormon, prays, and tries to do service for his family. He is a miracle and I can´t wait for him to get baptized. It´s really a privilege to be part of his conversion. Every day we try to follow the Spirit to know what to teach him, and we use as many scriptures as we can. Heavenly Father is really helping us to help Gastón.
Thank you for all that you do for me to help me serve a mission-- for helping to pay for it (ok, for paying for basically all of it) and for emailing and writing letters to me every week. Thanks for praying for me, because I know you do. Knowing you love me and are praying for my success helps me to want to work harder and not give up in the rough times. I love you and I pray for all of you that you will have the Spirit, not be stressed, be healthy, that you will feel loved, and that you will be able to achieve your goals.
I love you Mom, Dad, Eliza, Elder Clark, Emma, and Danny!
Love,
Hermana Clark
Friday, August 19, 2011
A Dramatic Week
Dear Family,
Last week was a very dramatic week in Hurlingham.
Exhibit one: Investigators with baptismal dates per day and their dates of baptism:
Mon: 1 (Mariana, 14/8)
Tu: 3 (Mariana 14/8, Pamela and Teresa 28/8)
Wed: 7 (Mariana and Dahiana and Ramona 14/8, Pamela and Teresa 28/8, Graciela 28/8, Gaston 4/9)
Thurs: 4 (Pamela and Teresa 28/8, Graciela 28/8, Gaston 4/9)
Fri: 4 (Pamela and Teresa 28/8, Graciela 28/8, Gaston 4/9)
Sat: 4 (Pamela and Teresa 28/8, Graciela 28/8, Gaston 4/9)
Sun: 2 (Pamela 28/8, Gaston 4/9)
Exhibit two: Visits of elders to our area to have baptismal interviews with Mariana, Dahiana, and Ramona
Tu: Elder Quackenbush (zone leader) and Elder Cerda (my district leader)
Wed: Elder Gutierrez (zone leader) and Elder Steele (district leader of the other district)
Thurs: Elder Gutierrez and Elder Quackenbush
Exhibit three: pesos in coins spent taking the bus
almost 60 pesos
Exhibit four: pesos spent on taxis
about 111 pesos
Exhibit five: minutes left on our cell phone that have to last us until the 23 of the month, minutes we need to confirm lunches (so the Relief Society doesn't chop our heads off) and appointments with investigators and communicate with the bishop
0, yes, zero
Anecdote A: Our ward mission leader was released (i.e. stolen by the Young Men{s presidency) and the Bishop hasn't replaced him yet.
Here are some of the details:
Ramona and Dahiana decided on Wednesday that they wanted to be baptized with Mariana, but by Thursday they had spoken to their uncle and their father, who were both very against their baptism, and only Mariana wanted to be baptized still, and even she was unsure. We talked to Miriam, their mom, who was also freaked out about the family opposition and said she wasn't going to be able to take her daughters to two different churches every Sunday. Then she told us her daughters told her that we were obligating them to be baptized-- something they had never said to our faces. That really hurt because we were trying really hard to help them and had spent substantial time talking about the importance of receiving their own testimonies. We went back the next day with a really inspired lesson plan to help Miriam and her daughters recognize the Spirit, but Miriam got up before the lesson was over and said she had to leave to pick up Mariana from school-- we felt like she was relieved to leave and didn't really want to feel the Spirit. So Mariana didn't get baptized, and she and her family didn't make it to church either. It was discouraging.
But, Hermana Navarro and I are still really happy and excited because we get to have one more transfer together. We prayed a lot that I wouldn't be transferred (even though I've spent 6 months here), because we have some really neat investigators and we work really well together. I know we are going to see more miracles together this transfer and see baptisms too!
We are also happy and excited for our two investigators with baptismal dates: Gaston and Pamela. Pamela (16 years old) keeps having dreams about listening to us teach or going to church and has cautiously decided that those dreams were her answer that the church is true. She loves coming to church and mutual and receiving the lessons. She even invited a friend to mutual her second time going and tried to explain the Book of Mormon to an evangelical friend who believed only in the Bible! She is fantastic! Her sister Teresa (18) had a baptism date too, but it fell through because she didn't come to church. We will keep working with her though. This week we want to try to teach Pamela{s mother and little brother too, and maybe even her dad!
Gaston is the brother of a recent convert in the ward, Seba Sires. He came to church for the second time yesterday. When we went to teach him for the first time on Wednesday with the help of Seba, he told us he feels upset and depressed and wants to change his life. We told him baptism was the way to do that and he accepted a baptismal date! Gaston is really already converted-- he has already had a complete change of heart, he just has to do the grunt work of repenting. He has a lot of, actually all of the Word of Wisdom problems, but he has already started trying to quit, and in every lesson he impresses us with his desire to read the Book of Mormon, do more service for others, and repent.
Despite the disappointment of Mariana's baptism falling through, Sunday was an excellent day! I reached perfection in the banana bread I made for the investigators, and we found out that I GET ONE MORE TRANSFER IN HURLINGHAM!!! We went to Morris (the next train station, the poorer half of our area) to pick up Pamela and on the way stopped by to wake up Gaston and his brother Seba. We expected them to come to the door in PJs, but they were already almost ready! We awarded them slices of banana bread as a reward. We were still early, so we went to look for Celeste and Elvira (my converts!) and it was a good thing too, because their alarm hadn't gone off! We let them eat banana bread anyway. They were thrilled to see us and Elvira shouted to Celeste "Wake up, Cele, the hermanas came to take us to church!" I guess they miss the personal attention they got when they were investigators. They brought Ludmila, Celeste{s darling toddler with them too. We went to get Pamela and then went to church with her and Elvira, Celeste, and Ludmila in the bus. I was so happy to be there with my converts and my investigators! And when we got to church, Evelyn (most recent convert) was there too! Evelyn's family hadn't been bringing her and Celeste was missing church because of work (she got up the guts to quit this week) and Elvira had missed a couple of weeks because of family visits and losing her roof to a freak storm (forgot to write about that) so it was the first time that all three of my converts were in church together! I was so happy! And seeing Gaston sit with Celeste and hold Ludmila, who was sleeping, was very touching.
Well, I'm super out of time as usual. A couple requests: please send me Ben's emails, because I have no idea how his first week went! And, the next time you send me a package, can you send pantyhose? The regular kind, not the make you look skinny kind or the super dark colored ones. I started wearing them again because it is cold, but now they all have holes. And yes, pantyhose exist here too, but the sensual photos of women's legs that are always on the packaging in the US are downright pornographic here in Argentina and my inner-feminist wouldn't let me buy any. Ok, now I'm really out of time.
I hope you are not heartbreakingly lonely with just the five of you rattling around in the house. Thank you for your support and emails.
Love,
Ellis
Last week was a very dramatic week in Hurlingham.
Exhibit one: Investigators with baptismal dates per day and their dates of baptism:
Mon: 1 (Mariana, 14/8)
Tu: 3 (Mariana 14/8, Pamela and Teresa 28/8)
Wed: 7 (Mariana and Dahiana and Ramona 14/8, Pamela and Teresa 28/8, Graciela 28/8, Gaston 4/9)
Thurs: 4 (Pamela and Teresa 28/8, Graciela 28/8, Gaston 4/9)
Fri: 4 (Pamela and Teresa 28/8, Graciela 28/8, Gaston 4/9)
Sat: 4 (Pamela and Teresa 28/8, Graciela 28/8, Gaston 4/9)
Sun: 2 (Pamela 28/8, Gaston 4/9)
Exhibit two: Visits of elders to our area to have baptismal interviews with Mariana, Dahiana, and Ramona
Tu: Elder Quackenbush (zone leader) and Elder Cerda (my district leader)
Wed: Elder Gutierrez (zone leader) and Elder Steele (district leader of the other district)
Thurs: Elder Gutierrez and Elder Quackenbush
Exhibit three: pesos in coins spent taking the bus
almost 60 pesos
Exhibit four: pesos spent on taxis
about 111 pesos
Exhibit five: minutes left on our cell phone that have to last us until the 23 of the month, minutes we need to confirm lunches (so the Relief Society doesn't chop our heads off) and appointments with investigators and communicate with the bishop
0, yes, zero
Anecdote A: Our ward mission leader was released (i.e. stolen by the Young Men{s presidency) and the Bishop hasn't replaced him yet.
Here are some of the details:
Ramona and Dahiana decided on Wednesday that they wanted to be baptized with Mariana, but by Thursday they had spoken to their uncle and their father, who were both very against their baptism, and only Mariana wanted to be baptized still, and even she was unsure. We talked to Miriam, their mom, who was also freaked out about the family opposition and said she wasn't going to be able to take her daughters to two different churches every Sunday. Then she told us her daughters told her that we were obligating them to be baptized-- something they had never said to our faces. That really hurt because we were trying really hard to help them and had spent substantial time talking about the importance of receiving their own testimonies. We went back the next day with a really inspired lesson plan to help Miriam and her daughters recognize the Spirit, but Miriam got up before the lesson was over and said she had to leave to pick up Mariana from school-- we felt like she was relieved to leave and didn't really want to feel the Spirit. So Mariana didn't get baptized, and she and her family didn't make it to church either. It was discouraging.
But, Hermana Navarro and I are still really happy and excited because we get to have one more transfer together. We prayed a lot that I wouldn't be transferred (even though I've spent 6 months here), because we have some really neat investigators and we work really well together. I know we are going to see more miracles together this transfer and see baptisms too!
We are also happy and excited for our two investigators with baptismal dates: Gaston and Pamela. Pamela (16 years old) keeps having dreams about listening to us teach or going to church and has cautiously decided that those dreams were her answer that the church is true. She loves coming to church and mutual and receiving the lessons. She even invited a friend to mutual her second time going and tried to explain the Book of Mormon to an evangelical friend who believed only in the Bible! She is fantastic! Her sister Teresa (18) had a baptism date too, but it fell through because she didn't come to church. We will keep working with her though. This week we want to try to teach Pamela{s mother and little brother too, and maybe even her dad!
Gaston is the brother of a recent convert in the ward, Seba Sires. He came to church for the second time yesterday. When we went to teach him for the first time on Wednesday with the help of Seba, he told us he feels upset and depressed and wants to change his life. We told him baptism was the way to do that and he accepted a baptismal date! Gaston is really already converted-- he has already had a complete change of heart, he just has to do the grunt work of repenting. He has a lot of, actually all of the Word of Wisdom problems, but he has already started trying to quit, and in every lesson he impresses us with his desire to read the Book of Mormon, do more service for others, and repent.
Despite the disappointment of Mariana's baptism falling through, Sunday was an excellent day! I reached perfection in the banana bread I made for the investigators, and we found out that I GET ONE MORE TRANSFER IN HURLINGHAM!!! We went to Morris (the next train station, the poorer half of our area) to pick up Pamela and on the way stopped by to wake up Gaston and his brother Seba. We expected them to come to the door in PJs, but they were already almost ready! We awarded them slices of banana bread as a reward. We were still early, so we went to look for Celeste and Elvira (my converts!) and it was a good thing too, because their alarm hadn't gone off! We let them eat banana bread anyway. They were thrilled to see us and Elvira shouted to Celeste "Wake up, Cele, the hermanas came to take us to church!" I guess they miss the personal attention they got when they were investigators. They brought Ludmila, Celeste{s darling toddler with them too. We went to get Pamela and then went to church with her and Elvira, Celeste, and Ludmila in the bus. I was so happy to be there with my converts and my investigators! And when we got to church, Evelyn (most recent convert) was there too! Evelyn's family hadn't been bringing her and Celeste was missing church because of work (she got up the guts to quit this week) and Elvira had missed a couple of weeks because of family visits and losing her roof to a freak storm (forgot to write about that) so it was the first time that all three of my converts were in church together! I was so happy! And seeing Gaston sit with Celeste and hold Ludmila, who was sleeping, was very touching.
Well, I'm super out of time as usual. A couple requests: please send me Ben's emails, because I have no idea how his first week went! And, the next time you send me a package, can you send pantyhose? The regular kind, not the make you look skinny kind or the super dark colored ones. I started wearing them again because it is cold, but now they all have holes. And yes, pantyhose exist here too, but the sensual photos of women's legs that are always on the packaging in the US are downright pornographic here in Argentina and my inner-feminist wouldn't let me buy any. Ok, now I'm really out of time.
I hope you are not heartbreakingly lonely with just the five of you rattling around in the house. Thank you for your support and emails.
Love,
Ellis
Monday, August 8, 2011
A Week of Blessings
Dear Family,
I think often of you, especially of Ben, and I hope you are all well and adjusting easily to the big changes that are coming when Ben leaves. Here is what I did last week:
Monday: made tacos in the apartment with Hna Navarro-- despite the absence of jalapeño juice, they were yummy. Then we had a great Family Home Evening with the Herreras, an active family in our ward (the ones who made me birthday cake), about missionary work. Best quote of the week is awarded to Micaela (six years old.) Me: What are some of the things Jesus did to help people? Micaela: He helped poor people who couldn´t take baths be clean again. (see the healing the leper scene in Finding Faith in Christ when the little leprous grandpa gets healed and says"I´m clean!")
Tuesday: had divisions with Hna Salazar, who has just one more transfer left-- we found some new investigators and she gave me some good advice: "Don´t be sad about what you aren´t doing well. Be happy for all the things you are doing well."
Wednesday: Left the keys in the gate, traveled all the way to Merlo to reunite with Hna Navarro (it was really good to see my companion again!) and didn´t realize I didn´t have the keys until we arrived at the gate again. We searched the ground and the trash (eww) before concluding that I had indeed left the keys in the gate. Fortunately, our neighbor had found them and we were able to get them back and enter the apartment-- phew! How could I be so scatterbrained?
Thursday: We went to pick up a lunch the Hna Hornos made for us to eat in the apartment. As I thought about our plans to visit the Tejedas, a dirt-poor family in our ward, I thought "Maybe they need our lunch." At first I thought I was nuts, but just in case I called Hna Tejeda and asked how she was doing. She said lousy, so I asked what she needed. She said her husband needed work and the family needed food. So I told her we were coming right away. Hna Navarro said she had also felt that we should give the Tejedas our lunch. Wow! I assumed they had food, just not very much, and that our lunch would be more of a comfort gift than a real help. But when we arrived and gave them our lunch, Hna Tejeda said they had absolutely no food, not even enough for dinner that night. As soon as we left we called the RS president, who was able to bring them more food that night. This was a really cool experience, because Heavenly Father knew that the Tejeda family needed our lunch, even though I didn´t, and he let us be instruments to work a miracle for them. Moral of the story: always listen to the Spirit!
We also contacted a reference from the Saravia family and found Teresa and Pamela, who really liked lesson one and agreed to pray! Pamela came to mutual that same night and loved it!
Friday: We taught SIX LESSONS IN ONE DAY! A record for our companionship, and very welcome because we have had embarrassingly low numbers all transfer long. Also, we taught the Law of Chastity to Marta, and she accepted the principle and seemed open to the idea of talking to her boyfriend of ten years about marriage.
Saturday: We taught SEVEN LESSONS, including a really good lesson to Marta and her daughter Julieta about obedience. Julieta said she wants to come to church too! We also taught Miriam and her daughters Dahiana, Mariana, and Ramona. Dahiana and Mariana accepted baptismal dates last week, but Dahiana has doubts now because the three of them are preparing to take communion in the Catholic church. We told them it was their decision and that they should pray about it, but tried to explain that they won´t be able to have the same blessings in the Catholic church. Mariana said she is sure she wants to get baptized, but Dahiana and Ramona still weren´t sure after the lesson. We really hope they decide to get baptized with their sister.
We also taught Olga, who has been progressing pretty slowly because she is too busy to have a lesson more than once a week. I challenged her to be baptized, but she says she doesn´t know enough yet and she will tell us when she is ready and doesn´t want the pressure of a baptismal date. She still wants to listen to us and come to church, which made me feel good, but I was upset that I´ve taught her for a full month but haeen´t been able to help her understand that a testimony isn´t about knowledge of facts, it´s about getting an answer from the Spirit. I felt like my teaching had sort of failed. But as we returned to the apartment, at exactly 9:28, I saw a man with a mohawk and his young son waiting for the bus. We walked past, but I felt like we should go back to talk to them, even though we were supposed to be inside at 9:30. We returned to talk to the man, whose name was Cristian. He said he´d already met elders and had a book of Mormon. He said he has a lot of respect and gratitude for missionaries and what we do, because we don´t discriminate. He said that most people would not have turned back to talk to him and he thanked us for helping him to feel included. He told us to never get discouraged because what we are doing makes a difference. I felt like Heavenly Father was sending me a message through Cristian-- not to be discouraged about my teaching and to know that I really am helping people. Cristian doesn´t live in our area, but we wrote down his address so we can send the elders to him again.
Sunday: We lost some of our little sheep on the way to the pasture, but Ramona, Mariana, Olga, and Pamela came to church and really loved it. And Seba Sires´ (recent convert) non member brother came to church and agreed to let us visit him. So we had 5 investigators again! And Pamela is already thinking seriously about baptism! Life is good in Hurlingham!
This week the big struggle will be helping Mariana (11) get ready to be baptized and trying to help her mom support her by taking her to church every sunday and trying to help her sisters get baptized too. We will be busy, but very happy.
I love you all and hope you are as busy and happy as I am!
I think often of you, especially of Ben, and I hope you are all well and adjusting easily to the big changes that are coming when Ben leaves. Here is what I did last week:
Monday: made tacos in the apartment with Hna Navarro-- despite the absence of jalapeño juice, they were yummy. Then we had a great Family Home Evening with the Herreras, an active family in our ward (the ones who made me birthday cake), about missionary work. Best quote of the week is awarded to Micaela (six years old.) Me: What are some of the things Jesus did to help people? Micaela: He helped poor people who couldn´t take baths be clean again. (see the healing the leper scene in Finding Faith in Christ when the little leprous grandpa gets healed and says"I´m clean!")
Tuesday: had divisions with Hna Salazar, who has just one more transfer left-- we found some new investigators and she gave me some good advice: "Don´t be sad about what you aren´t doing well. Be happy for all the things you are doing well."
Wednesday: Left the keys in the gate, traveled all the way to Merlo to reunite with Hna Navarro (it was really good to see my companion again!) and didn´t realize I didn´t have the keys until we arrived at the gate again. We searched the ground and the trash (eww) before concluding that I had indeed left the keys in the gate. Fortunately, our neighbor had found them and we were able to get them back and enter the apartment-- phew! How could I be so scatterbrained?
Thursday: We went to pick up a lunch the Hna Hornos made for us to eat in the apartment. As I thought about our plans to visit the Tejedas, a dirt-poor family in our ward, I thought "Maybe they need our lunch." At first I thought I was nuts, but just in case I called Hna Tejeda and asked how she was doing. She said lousy, so I asked what she needed. She said her husband needed work and the family needed food. So I told her we were coming right away. Hna Navarro said she had also felt that we should give the Tejedas our lunch. Wow! I assumed they had food, just not very much, and that our lunch would be more of a comfort gift than a real help. But when we arrived and gave them our lunch, Hna Tejeda said they had absolutely no food, not even enough for dinner that night. As soon as we left we called the RS president, who was able to bring them more food that night. This was a really cool experience, because Heavenly Father knew that the Tejeda family needed our lunch, even though I didn´t, and he let us be instruments to work a miracle for them. Moral of the story: always listen to the Spirit!
We also contacted a reference from the Saravia family and found Teresa and Pamela, who really liked lesson one and agreed to pray! Pamela came to mutual that same night and loved it!
Friday: We taught SIX LESSONS IN ONE DAY! A record for our companionship, and very welcome because we have had embarrassingly low numbers all transfer long. Also, we taught the Law of Chastity to Marta, and she accepted the principle and seemed open to the idea of talking to her boyfriend of ten years about marriage.
Saturday: We taught SEVEN LESSONS, including a really good lesson to Marta and her daughter Julieta about obedience. Julieta said she wants to come to church too! We also taught Miriam and her daughters Dahiana, Mariana, and Ramona. Dahiana and Mariana accepted baptismal dates last week, but Dahiana has doubts now because the three of them are preparing to take communion in the Catholic church. We told them it was their decision and that they should pray about it, but tried to explain that they won´t be able to have the same blessings in the Catholic church. Mariana said she is sure she wants to get baptized, but Dahiana and Ramona still weren´t sure after the lesson. We really hope they decide to get baptized with their sister.
We also taught Olga, who has been progressing pretty slowly because she is too busy to have a lesson more than once a week. I challenged her to be baptized, but she says she doesn´t know enough yet and she will tell us when she is ready and doesn´t want the pressure of a baptismal date. She still wants to listen to us and come to church, which made me feel good, but I was upset that I´ve taught her for a full month but haeen´t been able to help her understand that a testimony isn´t about knowledge of facts, it´s about getting an answer from the Spirit. I felt like my teaching had sort of failed. But as we returned to the apartment, at exactly 9:28, I saw a man with a mohawk and his young son waiting for the bus. We walked past, but I felt like we should go back to talk to them, even though we were supposed to be inside at 9:30. We returned to talk to the man, whose name was Cristian. He said he´d already met elders and had a book of Mormon. He said he has a lot of respect and gratitude for missionaries and what we do, because we don´t discriminate. He said that most people would not have turned back to talk to him and he thanked us for helping him to feel included. He told us to never get discouraged because what we are doing makes a difference. I felt like Heavenly Father was sending me a message through Cristian-- not to be discouraged about my teaching and to know that I really am helping people. Cristian doesn´t live in our area, but we wrote down his address so we can send the elders to him again.
Sunday: We lost some of our little sheep on the way to the pasture, but Ramona, Mariana, Olga, and Pamela came to church and really loved it. And Seba Sires´ (recent convert) non member brother came to church and agreed to let us visit him. So we had 5 investigators again! And Pamela is already thinking seriously about baptism! Life is good in Hurlingham!
This week the big struggle will be helping Mariana (11) get ready to be baptized and trying to help her mom support her by taking her to church every sunday and trying to help her sisters get baptized too. We will be busy, but very happy.
I love you all and hope you are as busy and happy as I am!
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