I am so excited for Ben and his mission call to Brazil! Yes, that is where Brian served (he came back in December). Ben should add him on facebook so he can ask him questions. I know Brian will love to help. When Ben contacts Brian, can you ask him to tell Brian that I got the package he sent me, that it was amazing, and that I´m glad we are friends? Also, I need Brian´s address in AZ again because I accidentally threw away the package wrapping that had the return address. Thanks.
Here is what happened this week:
On Tuesday I was assigned to give a 5 minute talk on obedience during district meeting. I started out thinking of it as just another box to check off, but I really got into preparing it. I found all these great scriptures to share and realized a lot of things I´ve learned about obedience. As I was preparing the talk and giving it I felt the Spirit telling me that Heavenly Father is really proud of me for being obedient and I realized all the blessings I´m getting for obeying certain rules that are sometimes really hard to obey. It was a big boost to know that even though I´m not perfect, Heavenly Father knows I´m doing my best and is happy with me, and it helped me want to keep obeying because I´ve realized that it is always always worth it.
The rest of the week went pretty normally, but yesterday we had some great thing happen.
First of all, our investigator Elvira who we hadn´t been able to visit for a while, agreed to come to church with us. She came to sacrament meeting and really liked it. And her energetic grandchild miraculously stayed quiet so Elvira could listen to the meeting! Elvira says she wants to come again! She thinks she is busy this weekend but we are going to try anyway to help her come to general conference.
Our second great thing was teaching for the first time to Reina y Esmeralda. Reina was a reference from the tormenta blanca last week. She has three attendances (has been to church 3 times) and used to listen to the elders. Her nephew got baptized, but she never did, I think because she didn´t feel ready to give up smoking and coffee. Esmeralda is her 13 year old grand child that she is raising. Reina said she loved the lesson 1 folleto and that it feels true to her and she committed to pray about it. Esmeralda hasn´t read the folleto yet, but she liked what we shared and said she would pray too. Apparently she just naturally likes going to church, and she wants to come to mutual and go on Sunday to see what our church is like. I could really feel the Spirit while we were teaching them. They are just such good people and they are very sincere in their desire to know if it´s true.
Hermana Schneider and I have decided this week to worry less about our own performance and just focus on the investigators-- because we have a lot of good ones! So this week we are going to focus on Graciela and her family, Elvira, and Reina and Esmeralda and try to visit them every day so that they can progress and have fechas. I really realized last transfer how effective daily contact is, so I'm excited to try to apply it better in my area.
Every week Hna. Schneider and I are learning better how to work together and help each other. I've honestly been really stressed out about being a senior companion and how to balance leading the companionship with working as equal partners, but Hna. Schneider is helping me figure it out and slowly it is getting easier. I realized today that I've been stressed because I knew it was important to share the responsibility and let my companion help, but whenever Hna. Schneider took more responsibility I felt like I was being a bad senior companion and not doing enough. Ridiculous, right? So this week I'm going to worry less, let Hna. Schneider do as much as she can, do my best to do my part, and not feel guilty about it.
I hope you are all doing well. Keep keeping me updated. Thank you so much for your emails! I love you!
Love,
Ellis
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Things are Picking up in Hurlingham
This week was tough, but it ended with miracles. Hna. Schneider and I were struggling to teach other lessons this week. The people we planned to visit weren´t home or were busy or didn´t want to listen. I felt like we spent all our time walking or traveling between houses. And our amazing ward missionary Sebastian (a recent convert who gave up drinking and all sorts of hallucinatory drugs to be baptized) has been having a rough time (says he feels paranoid and antisocial) and will walk with us between appointments at night but won´t come in to teach, so lessons with members were hard to find too. I felt stressed out and frustrated and guilty for all the things I wasn´t doing perfectly.
Then on Friday the zone leaders called and offered to organize a tormenta blanca (when all the missionaries come to one area to proselyte for a few hours) in our area. I felt grateful that they wanted to help out. Our district leader called to and offered to help us learn to plan more effectively during the next district meeting. Their concern helped and I tried to cheer up. Things started getting better.
And then on Saturday we received a miracle. We went to visit Graciela, a woman who had contacted us in the street on Thursday and asked why we hadn´t come to visit! Apparently Hna. Hulen set an appointment with her but didn´t tell Hna. Schneider, so we missed it by accident. Graciela had already been to church twice without us realizing, including my first sunday when I thought we had no investigators in the chapel! She told us that she was angry with God for 3 years because her 5 month old grandchild died, but when she accepted it and forgave God she decided to look for a church. She didn´t feel filled in the other churches she visited, but when she found the Church and came to the meetings she felt good and decided she had found her place! She already knows she wants to be baptized! AND she is MARRIED to her husband AND she has 9 children! Her husband and a few of her kids are active in another church, but it just happens to be a church that believes in the same organization Christ established--12 apostles! So if we can just help them understand authority, they´ll love lesson one! AND Graciela wants her kids to get baptized too! I couldn´t believe it. I didn´t expect Heavenly Father to give me another family of the elect to teach so soon after Mario and Celeste. I don´t really feel like I deserve it, but I´m really grateful for the privilege to be able to teach Graciela and her family. I´m going to do my best to help every member of that family be baptized.
And on top of all that, the Elders in Villa Tesei (another area in our zone) called us and told us they had set a baptismal date with someone who lives in our area-- another miracle! And some of our newer investigators started progressing and we found some old investigators who have a lot of potential. I have a lot of work to do here in Hurlingham!
Today I feel just happy and grateful and not so stressed and upset like I was this past week. I´m going to work hard to stay that way so I can more effectively help Hna. Scheider and our investigators. I hope you are all well and happy and achieving all your goals. I love you and I´m praying for you.
Love,
Ellis
P.P.S. I forgot to tell you last week, but two weeks ago I got your amazing Valentines package. I loved it! My favorite part was the valentines with your photos. I taped them and all the hearts and little paper people to my bed (which I now secretly to myself refer to as "the bed of love" and laugh). The Clif bars were a blessing and the fudge was delicious! Thank you so so much!
Then on Friday the zone leaders called and offered to organize a tormenta blanca (when all the missionaries come to one area to proselyte for a few hours) in our area. I felt grateful that they wanted to help out. Our district leader called to and offered to help us learn to plan more effectively during the next district meeting. Their concern helped and I tried to cheer up. Things started getting better.
And then on Saturday we received a miracle. We went to visit Graciela, a woman who had contacted us in the street on Thursday and asked why we hadn´t come to visit! Apparently Hna. Hulen set an appointment with her but didn´t tell Hna. Schneider, so we missed it by accident. Graciela had already been to church twice without us realizing, including my first sunday when I thought we had no investigators in the chapel! She told us that she was angry with God for 3 years because her 5 month old grandchild died, but when she accepted it and forgave God she decided to look for a church. She didn´t feel filled in the other churches she visited, but when she found the Church and came to the meetings she felt good and decided she had found her place! She already knows she wants to be baptized! AND she is MARRIED to her husband AND she has 9 children! Her husband and a few of her kids are active in another church, but it just happens to be a church that believes in the same organization Christ established--12 apostles! So if we can just help them understand authority, they´ll love lesson one! AND Graciela wants her kids to get baptized too! I couldn´t believe it. I didn´t expect Heavenly Father to give me another family of the elect to teach so soon after Mario and Celeste. I don´t really feel like I deserve it, but I´m really grateful for the privilege to be able to teach Graciela and her family. I´m going to do my best to help every member of that family be baptized.
And on top of all that, the Elders in Villa Tesei (another area in our zone) called us and told us they had set a baptismal date with someone who lives in our area-- another miracle! And some of our newer investigators started progressing and we found some old investigators who have a lot of potential. I have a lot of work to do here in Hurlingham!
Today I feel just happy and grateful and not so stressed and upset like I was this past week. I´m going to work hard to stay that way so I can more effectively help Hna. Scheider and our investigators. I hope you are all well and happy and achieving all your goals. I love you and I´m praying for you.
Love,
Ellis
P.P.S. I forgot to tell you last week, but two weeks ago I got your amazing Valentines package. I loved it! My favorite part was the valentines with your photos. I taped them and all the hearts and little paper people to my bed (which I now secretly to myself refer to as "the bed of love" and laugh). The Clif bars were a blessing and the fudge was delicious! Thank you so so much!
Friday, March 18, 2011
Brief Message from Hurlingham
Dear Mom and Dad,
I´m sorry this is going to be an even shorter email than last time. It´s because we´ve run out of time on the computers and I spent some time writing to Liza and Emma.
I´m doing fine here in Hurlingham. I´m a little discouraged because all our baptism dates fell through and we´ve had only one investigator in sacrament meeting two weeks in a row. But the good news is that we have loads of people in the ward who are willing to teach with us and we´re getting lots of references from them too. We also have a lot of good appointments planned for this week. So hopefully by next monday the work will be going better. Hurlingham is definitely more cheto than Luján, but there are still plenty of impoverished people that we are teaching. I think I´m becoming desensitized, the poverty doesn´t shock me anymore.
You asked about my companion. She is almost finished with her degree in Health teaching at UVU, where she played on the soccer team. She has 8 brothers and sisters and is from American Fork, Utah. She is an active learner, so she likes to do her personal study on the floor while stretching. We are learning to accomadate our different learnign and preparation styles to prepare lessons and teach well together. My goal this week is to speak more Spanish with her. When I´m stressed it´s just easier to communicate in the language my companion speaks, in this case English. But I know that won´t help her learn, so I´m going to try to speak Spanish all the time, no matter what.
I love you loads and miss you a lot. Thanks for your emails. They were really encouraging and exactly what I needed this week.
Love,Ellis
I´m sorry this is going to be an even shorter email than last time. It´s because we´ve run out of time on the computers and I spent some time writing to Liza and Emma.
I´m doing fine here in Hurlingham. I´m a little discouraged because all our baptism dates fell through and we´ve had only one investigator in sacrament meeting two weeks in a row. But the good news is that we have loads of people in the ward who are willing to teach with us and we´re getting lots of references from them too. We also have a lot of good appointments planned for this week. So hopefully by next monday the work will be going better. Hurlingham is definitely more cheto than Luján, but there are still plenty of impoverished people that we are teaching. I think I´m becoming desensitized, the poverty doesn´t shock me anymore.
You asked about my companion. She is almost finished with her degree in Health teaching at UVU, where she played on the soccer team. She has 8 brothers and sisters and is from American Fork, Utah. She is an active learner, so she likes to do her personal study on the floor while stretching. We are learning to accomadate our different learnign and preparation styles to prepare lessons and teach well together. My goal this week is to speak more Spanish with her. When I´m stressed it´s just easier to communicate in the language my companion speaks, in this case English. But I know that won´t help her learn, so I´m going to try to speak Spanish all the time, no matter what.
I love you loads and miss you a lot. Thanks for your emails. They were really encouraging and exactly what I needed this week.
Love,Ellis
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Making it Happen in Hurlingham
I´m sorry I couln´t email yesterday. It was Carnaval, so all the internet places were closed. At least the grocery store was open! I can´t send a long email today because I am semi illegally borrowing a computer in the mission office. I´ll just answer your questions really quick:
Elder Alvial got his package the week that I was in Luján-- it was slightly awkward because I hadn´t planned on being there when he got it, but he was really happy.
This is technically my second time being senior companion, because the first time was the last week of last transfer that I spent with Hna. Vindas. This is totally different though. Hna. Schneider is still learning to speak Spanish so I need to do a lot more of the work than I´ve ever had to before. Part of me enjoys the responsibility, but it´s also tempting to take too much control in our companionship, which won´t help either of us. It´s also, I´m not going to hide it, extremely stressful. Before when I felt inadequate I could just coast and trudge along behind my companion, but now that´s not really an option. I hate feeling like I´m coasting anyway. I´m trying hard to help myself feel capable so I can keep functioning. Sunday and Monday were rough, but the first part of the week actually went really well and I felt really confident and capable. I know if I just keep working this week is going to be a good week and I will be able to feel happy, help my companion, and accomplish a lot.
This really is a great area. The ward is small, but nice, and there are lots of part-member families that we can work with. We have some promising investigators too. Hurlingham is a very small city, so I haven´t felt overwhelmed by that like I thought I would. There are two trains that we use every day to travel within the area. The city is much cleaner than Luján was and there are fewer dogs in the street, which is nice. Hermana Schneider really is a great companion. Her Spanish is getting better every day and she works hard.
Elder Alvial got his package the week that I was in Luján-- it was slightly awkward because I hadn´t planned on being there when he got it, but he was really happy.
This is technically my second time being senior companion, because the first time was the last week of last transfer that I spent with Hna. Vindas. This is totally different though. Hna. Schneider is still learning to speak Spanish so I need to do a lot more of the work than I´ve ever had to before. Part of me enjoys the responsibility, but it´s also tempting to take too much control in our companionship, which won´t help either of us. It´s also, I´m not going to hide it, extremely stressful. Before when I felt inadequate I could just coast and trudge along behind my companion, but now that´s not really an option. I hate feeling like I´m coasting anyway. I´m trying hard to help myself feel capable so I can keep functioning. Sunday and Monday were rough, but the first part of the week actually went really well and I felt really confident and capable. I know if I just keep working this week is going to be a good week and I will be able to feel happy, help my companion, and accomplish a lot.
This really is a great area. The ward is small, but nice, and there are lots of part-member families that we can work with. We have some promising investigators too. Hurlingham is a very small city, so I haven´t felt overwhelmed by that like I thought I would. There are two trains that we use every day to travel within the area. The city is much cleaner than Luján was and there are fewer dogs in the street, which is nice. Hermana Schneider really is a great companion. Her Spanish is getting better every day and she works hard.
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