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.
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