Dear Mom and Dad,
This week was great! On Tuesday Hermanas Duarte and Johnson dropped me off in the mission office in Ramos Mejía where I met my new companion, Hermana Noelia Centurión. She is from the stake of Moreno and lives about 30 minutes from Hurlingham. She was baptized with her father and younger brother about 6 years ago. Her mother was the first to get baptized, but became inactive while Hna. Centurión was little and later remarried. Then one day the missionaries stopped to speak to her mother and step father and were invited back. Her family listened to the lessons and a few months later got baptized. Since then they have been completely active. She has one older brother who still isn´t interested in baptism, but she knows he´ll come around some day. Hermana Centurión says that if she likes being a mini missionary, she´ll probably send in her papers do to a full time mission. . .so I´m trying to make sure she likes it. :)
So far I love training. We are piloting a new program from Salt Lake that involves an extra hour of companionship study during the first 12 weeks of the mission to reinforce the basic principles of the Preach my Gospel Manual. I hope it helps my hijita get the hang of things, but I think it will do wonders for me. It´s already helping me remember and apply better techniques I learned in the MTC that I haven´t thought about lately. And teaching Hna. Centurión how to be a missionary is teaching me a lot too! Apparently in a week or two the mission will receive a shipment of mini DVD players so that we can watch clips from the Preach my Gospel training videos during our extra hour of study. Fancy!
Hna. Centurión did great this week and is learning fast, I think. She participates in teaching lessons to the investigators and is practicing her street contacting skills. We are becoming good friends too. We spend all day laughing at each other´s stories and the things that happen to us.
On Saturday our focus was trying to get people to come to sacrament meeting on Sunday. I came up with a plan that involved preparing a lesson on the sacrament to share with all the investigators and less active members and delivering cookies and notes to others. We worked really hard carrying out our plans and planned with our investigators Lucila and Enzo to stop by their house with banana bread on Sunday morning to pick them up for church.
Sunday morning we managed to make decent banana bread without a bread pan, attend a last minute 7:30am meeting in the mission office (involving an extra 45 minutes of travel time), attend half of Relief Club meeting and STILL arrive almost on time to pick up Lucila and Enzo for sacrament meeting. Then Lucila sent us a text right as we were arriving that she couldn´t come after all and Enzo didn´t wake up, even though we clapped several times and entered the gate without permission to knock on BOTH the doors of the house. To add an extra sting, none of the less active members and only one of the other investigators who we had hoped would come arrived. Such is the mission. We will make better plans and have 4 investigators in sacrament meeting this week si or sí , even if we have to _________ (insert extreme verb here involving great personal suffering) to do it.
The bright side is that Celeste was confirmed with the Holy Ghost without any problems. Well, ok, she came down with nausea during the meeting, had to go outside to throw up and was taken home early by Hna. y Hno. Freites, but all that happened AFTER her confirmation, so todo bien. (Don´t worry, she recovered quickly afterwards and was just fine by the time we stopped by that afternoon)
This week I am determined to study harder, work harder, talk to more people and do everything smarter so we can find new investigators, have more people in sacrament meeting, and prepare people for baptism. Fortunately, with Hna. Centurión, I´ll be laughing while I do it. And at the end of the week, my hablar will hopefully be slightly less gringo.
Sounds like Danny enjoyed his birthday party. See my message to him below. No packages have arrived yet, but maybe tomorrow. Tell the kids not to burn the house down while you two are in Hawaii. In the unlikely and unwelcome event of an untimely plane crash, I would happily (or should I say dutifully) accept the charge of my three youngest siblings as minions, provided President Benton allows them to stay on as temporary servants in the mission home until January. You´ve already planned to write that part into the will, right? Enjoy Hawaii! I want to see pictures of you rappelling inside volcanoes above boiling lava and covered in barnacles after your snorkeling marathon. Show those more boring, er, I mean relaxed members of the family how the Moscow Clarks go on vacation!
Love,
Ellis
Dear Dan,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! You are now TEN! 10! You will never again have only one digit in your age. Welcome to the double digits club! I heard your party was incredible. Hope your actual birthday is just as great. If you were Argentine, you would probably celebrate with an asado and eat lots of large chunks of meat. Then you would eat an enormous piece of very sugary cake covered in inch thick white frosting with dulce de leche in the middle. Oh, and Mom and Dad would rent you one of those inflatable castle things to jump on with your friends and they would play cumbia music (it sounds like this: ch chch ch chch ch chch) so loud the whole neighborhood would hear. Remind me how American boys celebrate their birthdays. What will you do?
Thanks for being a fantastic little brother. Write me more funny letters. My companions like them too.
Love,
Ellis
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
I'm Training!
Dear Mom and Dad,
I don't have much time to write, but here are the haps of the semana.
CELESTE GOT BAPTIZED! Lots more members came to the baptism this time and said lots of wonderful things about how happy they were for her. Lots of support! Celeste was very happy! And Hna. Schneider and I were really happy for her. We worked a miracle of the feeding of the 5000 with the refreshments afterwards. Just when I finished cutting what there was into VERY small pieces, Hno. Vargas walked into the kitchen with rolls and cake. Phew!
We went to visit the Familia Maidana with Hno. y Hna. Zanzi, who teach in the MTC in B.A. They are super cool and teach really well! Hno. Maidana has been inactive for over a year and his daughter Joana is 9 but hasn't been baptized yet because her mother wants her father to baptize her. So I dropped the cane, as we say here. Hno. and Hna. Zanzi were talking to him about the blessings he would recieve for reactivating himself and why it would be good for him and Hno. Maidana was saying he would come when he felt ready. But I kept thinking, this isn't about him. Then I told him, Take your time, hno, but while you are taking your time your daughter isn't getting baptized and your wife has to go to church alone with your three daughters. You are holding your family back. Your family is a team, and God called you to be the captain of this team, but you are not doing your part. Your family needs you. Anyway, it sounded better in Spanish. I got teary and my voice choked up as I spoke and I looked Hno. Maidana in the eyes. Everyone fell silent and Hno. Maidana didn't respond for a few seconds. When he did respond, he seemed humbler and thanked me for caring about his family. But then he started explaining again how he had to feel like it to go back to church. Aaargh! I hoped my words would sink in later, but he didn't come to church on Sunday. Maybe next week.
Hna. Schneider and I had a very good goodbye. She apologized to me and I apologized to her for not being better companions. I realized now that we were both just having a really difficult time personally, which made it hard to help each other. Considering that, I think we did really well together and learned a lot. I told her that, and we parted very good friends. I really am going to miss her.
Sunday night, Hno. Fausto invited us to an asado for his birthday and to say goodbye to Hna. Schneider. It was so good! Hno. Saravia was in charge of the grill and every 5 minutes kept offering us chunks of beef or sausage or chicken. When I tried to say I was full, Hna. Saravia told me I had to leave the dinner two kilos heavier. There was nothing I could do about it. After all that meat, Hno. Fausto put me in charge of putting the candles on the cake and lighting them. Three of them were sparklers and I put them in upside down! Hno. Fausto and the Familia Saravia, who were also there, had a pretty good laugh at me. Hna. Schneider laughed so hard she couldn't talk. Fortunately the sparklers still worked. The cake was delicious. I took pictures of the grill and the cake and everything. I'll try to send them next week. It was a great send off for Hna. Schneider and I think Hno. Fausto was really happy we were there for his birthday too. He said he will have another asado when I leave. Yikes!
Ok, so these points have been really out of order. Here is the part you are probably most excited to hear about. TRANSFERS! All my predictions were dead wrong, of course. Hna. Schneider left for Aldo Bonzi, and as for me. . .I'M TRAINING! I'm going to be a mom! haha I'm scared stiff. My new companion will arrive tomorrow. She is a mini missionary, ie she is a regular member serving for 6 weeks and will most likely have 0 experience, unless this is her second mini mission. So I have to be her MTC teacher and her trainer. AAAAAGGGHH! Fortunately, she will speak better castellano than I do, so at least I don't have to worry about that part. Everyone keeps telling me I can do it and that this assignment means that President has a lot of confidence in me. I guess it should be pretty fun. I'll get to work on my castellano with a native speaker and hopefully I can prepare my companion to serve a full time mission later. Until my hijita shows up tomorrow, I'm hanging out in Billinghurst with Hna. Johnson and HNA. DUARTE!!!, who just got transferred to Billinghurst and is now going to be in my zone! I'm way excited to be able to spend time with her again. Since my new companion is only going to be with me for one transfer, I'll most likely be staying in Hurlingham two transfers more to hand the area off to the next hermana. Or maybe this will be my last transfer and there will be a whitewash. Who knows.
Well, I am out of time. Thanks for your emails. I enjoyed the story about all the canoeing and the picture of Ben and Ryan. Front page! Wow. Dad, I'm still digesting your talk. I'll write my commentary next week. Have a fantastic week, all of you! I love you!
Love,
Ellis
I don't have much time to write, but here are the haps of the semana.
CELESTE GOT BAPTIZED! Lots more members came to the baptism this time and said lots of wonderful things about how happy they were for her. Lots of support! Celeste was very happy! And Hna. Schneider and I were really happy for her. We worked a miracle of the feeding of the 5000 with the refreshments afterwards. Just when I finished cutting what there was into VERY small pieces, Hno. Vargas walked into the kitchen with rolls and cake. Phew!
We went to visit the Familia Maidana with Hno. y Hna. Zanzi, who teach in the MTC in B.A. They are super cool and teach really well! Hno. Maidana has been inactive for over a year and his daughter Joana is 9 but hasn't been baptized yet because her mother wants her father to baptize her. So I dropped the cane, as we say here. Hno. and Hna. Zanzi were talking to him about the blessings he would recieve for reactivating himself and why it would be good for him and Hno. Maidana was saying he would come when he felt ready. But I kept thinking, this isn't about him. Then I told him, Take your time, hno, but while you are taking your time your daughter isn't getting baptized and your wife has to go to church alone with your three daughters. You are holding your family back. Your family is a team, and God called you to be the captain of this team, but you are not doing your part. Your family needs you. Anyway, it sounded better in Spanish. I got teary and my voice choked up as I spoke and I looked Hno. Maidana in the eyes. Everyone fell silent and Hno. Maidana didn't respond for a few seconds. When he did respond, he seemed humbler and thanked me for caring about his family. But then he started explaining again how he had to feel like it to go back to church. Aaargh! I hoped my words would sink in later, but he didn't come to church on Sunday. Maybe next week.
Hna. Schneider and I had a very good goodbye. She apologized to me and I apologized to her for not being better companions. I realized now that we were both just having a really difficult time personally, which made it hard to help each other. Considering that, I think we did really well together and learned a lot. I told her that, and we parted very good friends. I really am going to miss her.
Sunday night, Hno. Fausto invited us to an asado for his birthday and to say goodbye to Hna. Schneider. It was so good! Hno. Saravia was in charge of the grill and every 5 minutes kept offering us chunks of beef or sausage or chicken. When I tried to say I was full, Hna. Saravia told me I had to leave the dinner two kilos heavier. There was nothing I could do about it. After all that meat, Hno. Fausto put me in charge of putting the candles on the cake and lighting them. Three of them were sparklers and I put them in upside down! Hno. Fausto and the Familia Saravia, who were also there, had a pretty good laugh at me. Hna. Schneider laughed so hard she couldn't talk. Fortunately the sparklers still worked. The cake was delicious. I took pictures of the grill and the cake and everything. I'll try to send them next week. It was a great send off for Hna. Schneider and I think Hno. Fausto was really happy we were there for his birthday too. He said he will have another asado when I leave. Yikes!
Ok, so these points have been really out of order. Here is the part you are probably most excited to hear about. TRANSFERS! All my predictions were dead wrong, of course. Hna. Schneider left for Aldo Bonzi, and as for me. . .I'M TRAINING! I'm going to be a mom! haha I'm scared stiff. My new companion will arrive tomorrow. She is a mini missionary, ie she is a regular member serving for 6 weeks and will most likely have 0 experience, unless this is her second mini mission. So I have to be her MTC teacher and her trainer. AAAAAGGGHH! Fortunately, she will speak better castellano than I do, so at least I don't have to worry about that part. Everyone keeps telling me I can do it and that this assignment means that President has a lot of confidence in me. I guess it should be pretty fun. I'll get to work on my castellano with a native speaker and hopefully I can prepare my companion to serve a full time mission later. Until my hijita shows up tomorrow, I'm hanging out in Billinghurst with Hna. Johnson and HNA. DUARTE!!!, who just got transferred to Billinghurst and is now going to be in my zone! I'm way excited to be able to spend time with her again. Since my new companion is only going to be with me for one transfer, I'll most likely be staying in Hurlingham two transfers more to hand the area off to the next hermana. Or maybe this will be my last transfer and there will be a whitewash. Who knows.
Well, I am out of time. Thanks for your emails. I enjoyed the story about all the canoeing and the picture of Ben and Ryan. Front page! Wow. Dad, I'm still digesting your talk. I'll write my commentary next week. Have a fantastic week, all of you! I love you!
Love,
Ellis
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Ellis Has Some Introspection about Herself and Her Mission
Dear Mom and Dad,
Transfers are next Monday. My old companions would spend lots of time mapping out their predictions and gossiping over the phone to the other sisters. President Benton has cracked down on phone conversations between the sisters (which I didn´t really participate in anyway), so no gossip for me, but I did sink to the level of making transfer predictions for the first time. I think my new companion will be Hermana Danes, Hna. Schneider´s MTC companion, and I think Hna. Schneider is going to Las Heras. But the other sister´s predictions were often wildly wrong, so we´ll see.
The big thing this last week of the transfer will be organizing Celeste´s baptism. She is the daughter of Elvira, our last convert. She was going to be baptized this coming Saturday, but during sacrament meeting Bishop Lorenzon felt impressed to move the baptism to Sunday so that more members could come. He told that to the ward over the pulpit and said that baptism was an event that merited the support and attendance of the whole ward, not just of 3 or 4 members. He is right. Baptism is one of the most important decisions a person can make in their life, and when only a few people show up it is just sad. I hope lots of people come to Celeste´s baptism and I hope that you guys will attend the next convert baptism the ward has.
Saturday was my 10 month mark in the mission. It is almost scary how fast time flies here. I feel like I still have a lot left to accomplish. I had a moment of reminiscing on Saturday and had a sort of ephiphany. These last two transfers have not been easy, but they were important. I needed to be reminded that Heavenly Father and Jesus love me all the time-- when I´m being the very best missionary I can and when I feel like I´m struggling to keep up with the basics. They loved me before my mission when I knew much less, was less diligent and less confident. They loved me when I learned more about the gospel, became more diligent and dedicated, and gained more confidence. And they love me now, exactly where I am and how I am, even when where I am and how I am deeply distress me at times. Mom wrote to me in one of her letters, "I love you. I always have. I always will." Now I understand better that Heavenly Father and Jesus feel exactly the same way about me. I´m sure the next 8 months will be full of even more important lessons, some of which may be just as hard to learn as this one was. And as much as I learn and as hard as I try to improve, and as much as I really do improve, when I leave the mission I still won´t be a perfect missionary. I will still be able to make a list a mile long of all the things I don´t do quite right. But I will have learned and improved and grown in ways I couldn´t have imagined. And as distressingly (to me) imperfect as I will still be, Heavenly Father and Jesus will still love me perfectly, exactly like they always have. And always will.
Thanks, Mom, for your email last week. I printed it and read it every day. It really helped me, and it´s still helping. Thank you!
Dad, I agree with you about the merits of a gustonian vacation as Adam would say. I want to see photos of all the barnacles you pick up snorkeling. :) Even in the mission, when I´m going going going all the time (well, sort of), doing more on P day is often more "relaxing", or maybe rejuvenating, than doing less.
I hope you all have an excellent week. I love you!
Love, Ellis
P.S. I read Danny´s courage story today. I haven´t been so entertained for a long time. I could live the missionary life of no music or movies indefinitely if Danny sent me stories every week of my life. What other nine year old uses the phrase "god-forsaken" (as in, I got so mad that I hurried down the godforsaken mountain.)? And the part where he said the car looked like an angel-- fantastic. A+, Danny. Thanks!
Transfers are next Monday. My old companions would spend lots of time mapping out their predictions and gossiping over the phone to the other sisters. President Benton has cracked down on phone conversations between the sisters (which I didn´t really participate in anyway), so no gossip for me, but I did sink to the level of making transfer predictions for the first time. I think my new companion will be Hermana Danes, Hna. Schneider´s MTC companion, and I think Hna. Schneider is going to Las Heras. But the other sister´s predictions were often wildly wrong, so we´ll see.
The big thing this last week of the transfer will be organizing Celeste´s baptism. She is the daughter of Elvira, our last convert. She was going to be baptized this coming Saturday, but during sacrament meeting Bishop Lorenzon felt impressed to move the baptism to Sunday so that more members could come. He told that to the ward over the pulpit and said that baptism was an event that merited the support and attendance of the whole ward, not just of 3 or 4 members. He is right. Baptism is one of the most important decisions a person can make in their life, and when only a few people show up it is just sad. I hope lots of people come to Celeste´s baptism and I hope that you guys will attend the next convert baptism the ward has.
Saturday was my 10 month mark in the mission. It is almost scary how fast time flies here. I feel like I still have a lot left to accomplish. I had a moment of reminiscing on Saturday and had a sort of ephiphany. These last two transfers have not been easy, but they were important. I needed to be reminded that Heavenly Father and Jesus love me all the time-- when I´m being the very best missionary I can and when I feel like I´m struggling to keep up with the basics. They loved me before my mission when I knew much less, was less diligent and less confident. They loved me when I learned more about the gospel, became more diligent and dedicated, and gained more confidence. And they love me now, exactly where I am and how I am, even when where I am and how I am deeply distress me at times. Mom wrote to me in one of her letters, "I love you. I always have. I always will." Now I understand better that Heavenly Father and Jesus feel exactly the same way about me. I´m sure the next 8 months will be full of even more important lessons, some of which may be just as hard to learn as this one was. And as much as I learn and as hard as I try to improve, and as much as I really do improve, when I leave the mission I still won´t be a perfect missionary. I will still be able to make a list a mile long of all the things I don´t do quite right. But I will have learned and improved and grown in ways I couldn´t have imagined. And as distressingly (to me) imperfect as I will still be, Heavenly Father and Jesus will still love me perfectly, exactly like they always have. And always will.
Thanks, Mom, for your email last week. I printed it and read it every day. It really helped me, and it´s still helping. Thank you!
Dad, I agree with you about the merits of a gustonian vacation as Adam would say. I want to see photos of all the barnacles you pick up snorkeling. :) Even in the mission, when I´m going going going all the time (well, sort of), doing more on P day is often more "relaxing", or maybe rejuvenating, than doing less.
I hope you all have an excellent week. I love you!
Love, Ellis
P.S. I read Danny´s courage story today. I haven´t been so entertained for a long time. I could live the missionary life of no music or movies indefinitely if Danny sent me stories every week of my life. What other nine year old uses the phrase "god-forsaken" (as in, I got so mad that I hurried down the godforsaken mountain.)? And the part where he said the car looked like an angel-- fantastic. A+, Danny. Thanks!
Friday, May 6, 2011
anotherweekinHurlinghamwithnospacebararrgh
DearFam
GavethegoodcomputertoHna.Schneider--thatwasamistake.
IfI´dknowtherewasnospacebar,Iwouldn´thavebeensocharitable....Afterall,I´mtheseniorcomp.Gottotakesomesortofadvantageofmyseniority.
SometimesMom´sweeklyemailsoundslikeaschoolpaperissueonhighachievingstudents.haha...Makesmeproudofmysiblingsandalltheirtalents(academicandotherwise.)
Don´tknowhowlongIcanputupwiththisnospacebardeal....Thismaybeashortemail.
Funnystoryoftheweek:
Kissing_on_the_mish:YesterdayandSaturday,HermanaSchneiderandIhadsometechnicaldifficultieswithgreetingmales.Thenormalgreeting/goodbyegestureheristokiss--reallytouchrightcheekbonesandkisstheair.Wearen´tallowed,asmissionariies,togreetpeopleoftheoppositesexwithakiss,butit´skindofinconvenientbecausewehavetoexplainittoallthemenwemeet....Usuallyifweextendourhandstheygettheidea,butsometimeswegetsurprisedandhavetofendoffkissesbyquicklysaying´¨sorry,wegreetmenwithahandshake¨.Aaandsometimeswedon´tmanagetogetthatphraseoutintimeandwegetkissedanyway.---LikeyesterdayandSaturday.OnSaturdaywegotkissedthreetimes!Westartedcounting--strikeone,striketwo...weweredeterminednottogetstruckout,butthenayoungmanwecontactedswoopedin--strikethree.Oops.Iwanttobeobedient,butsometimesIthinkitwouldbeeasierjusttogowithwhatthebiblesays--greeteveryonewithaholykiss....HermanaSchneiderandIwilltrynottogetstruckoutthisweek,haha....Dad,couldyougreetgirlswithkissesonyourmission?Thefunniestiswhenmembersofthebishopricforgetandareabouttokissusbyreflexwehavetoremindthembyextendingourhandsreallyquickly---theyendupreallyembarrassedandwejustlaughatthem.
Investigatorupdate:ReinaandEsmeraldastillhaven´tcometochurchfortheregularmeetings,butEsmeraldagoestomutualeveryweek.Shehadabaptismaldatebutitfellbecauseshedidn´tgoonSunday.--Celeste,Elvira´sdaughter,isamazingandloveslearningaboutthegospel,butshemissedchurchagainthisweekbecauseatthelastminuteshehadtobeinthehousesoLudmila´sdadcouldpickherupfortheweekend.AAARG.Iwassodissappointed.Butshestillreallywantstogetbaptized,whichisgood.
Ihavelostcountofhowmanyinvestigatorswehavehadtodrop(usuallybecausetheystopprogressingandsuddenlybecomeveryhardtofindintheirhouses)eventhoughwepassbytotryandvisitseveraltimesduringtheweek)andhowmanyfechashavefallenthrough.´Everyweekweplantobring4or5or6peopletochurchand1or2showup.....But,thechurchisstilltrue,theworkmustgoon,etc.Andthisweekwemanagedtoteach10lessonswithamember,whichisreallygoodforus,soI´mreallyhappyaboutthat.ANDElviragotbaptized--whenIthinkaboutthat,Ican´tgetdiscouraged.Wehavesomepromisingnewinvestigatorstoteachthisweek,soI´mfeelinghopeful.
GavethegoodcomputertoHna.Schneider--thatwasamistake.
IfI´dknowtherewasnospacebar,Iwouldn´thavebeensocharitable....Afterall,I´mtheseniorcomp.Gottotakesomesortofadvantageofmyseniority.
SometimesMom´sweeklyemailsoundslikeaschoolpaperissueonhighachievingstudents.haha...Makesmeproudofmysiblingsandalltheirtalents(academicandotherwise.)
Don´tknowhowlongIcanputupwiththisnospacebardeal....Thismaybeashortemail.
Funnystoryoftheweek:
Kissing_on_the_mish:YesterdayandSaturday,HermanaSchneiderandIhadsometechnicaldifficultieswithgreetingmales.Thenormalgreeting/goodbyegestureheristokiss--reallytouchrightcheekbonesandkisstheair.Wearen´tallowed,asmissionariies,togreetpeopleoftheoppositesexwithakiss,butit´skindofinconvenientbecausewehavetoexplainittoallthemenwemeet....Usuallyifweextendourhandstheygettheidea,butsometimeswegetsurprisedandhavetofendoffkissesbyquicklysaying´¨sorry,wegreetmenwithahandshake¨.Aaandsometimeswedon´tmanagetogetthatphraseoutintimeandwegetkissedanyway.---LikeyesterdayandSaturday.OnSaturdaywegotkissedthreetimes!Westartedcounting--strikeone,striketwo...weweredeterminednottogetstruckout,butthenayoungmanwecontactedswoopedin--strikethree.Oops.Iwanttobeobedient,butsometimesIthinkitwouldbeeasierjusttogowithwhatthebiblesays--greeteveryonewithaholykiss....HermanaSchneiderandIwilltrynottogetstruckoutthisweek,haha....Dad,couldyougreetgirlswithkissesonyourmission?Thefunniestiswhenmembersofthebishopricforgetandareabouttokissusbyreflexwehavetoremindthembyextendingourhandsreallyquickly---theyendupreallyembarrassedandwejustlaughatthem.
Investigatorupdate:ReinaandEsmeraldastillhaven´tcometochurchfortheregularmeetings,butEsmeraldagoestomutualeveryweek.Shehadabaptismaldatebutitfellbecauseshedidn´tgoonSunday.--Celeste,Elvira´sdaughter,isamazingandloveslearningaboutthegospel,butshemissedchurchagainthisweekbecauseatthelastminuteshehadtobeinthehousesoLudmila´sdadcouldpickherupfortheweekend.AAARG.Iwassodissappointed.Butshestillreallywantstogetbaptized,whichisgood.
Ihavelostcountofhowmanyinvestigatorswehavehadtodrop(usuallybecausetheystopprogressingandsuddenlybecomeveryhardtofindintheirhouses)eventhoughwepassbytotryandvisitseveraltimesduringtheweek)andhowmanyfechashavefallenthrough.´Everyweekweplantobring4or5or6peopletochurchand1or2showup.....But,thechurchisstilltrue,theworkmustgoon,etc.Andthisweekwemanagedtoteach10lessonswithamember,whichisreallygoodforus,soI´mreallyhappyaboutthat.ANDElviragotbaptized--whenIthinkaboutthat,Ican´tgetdiscouraged.Wehavesomepromisingnewinvestigatorstoteachthisweek,soI´mfeelinghopeful.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Grumpy Immigration Workers and Promising Investigators
Here is what happened this week.
* On Monday Hermana Schneider and I had to go to capital to do paperwork for her Argentine ID. We waited in the wrong line twice, had to deal with grumpy immigration workers, and the whole thing took about 4 hours, but we figured it out eventually. I learned from the experience that I am still relatively incapable of holding my own with grumpy, angry people (especially angry Argentines). When people speak angrily to me, I still often turn into a wet noodle and thank them several times instead of arguing back. Sigh. Stuff to work on.
* We are teaching a promising new investigator named María. She´s about 60 and lives alone in a small apartment. She was born Lutheran and later became a fairly devout Catholic, but she is very curious and seems open to the gospel. She agreed to pray about Joseph Smith. We´ll see what happens.
* Felipa is very hard to find and didn´t come to church on Sunday, so her fecha fell through. I´m not ready to give up yet though. We are going to visit her several times this week, if possible.
* I had a great day on my 9 month mark in the mission. Our district leader, Elder Garcia, and his companion, Elder Woodruff, who arrived on the same plane as me, came to visit our area. We went to visit Elvira with them and committed her 22 year old daughter, Celeste, to be baptized. Celeste missed church on Sunday because of the rain, but I´m confident she´ll come next week and get baptized this transfer.
* Elvira will be baptized this Saturday. The first baptism I will attend in Hurlingham! I´m really happy for her and I love seeing how much she loves the gospel.
* I have a cold and feel lousy today, but at least it is P-day so I can rest a little bit.
Well, that´s all I have time for. I hope everything continues to run smoothly at home. I´m praying for you. Thanks for always being supportive and understanding.
Love,
Ellis
* On Monday Hermana Schneider and I had to go to capital to do paperwork for her Argentine ID. We waited in the wrong line twice, had to deal with grumpy immigration workers, and the whole thing took about 4 hours, but we figured it out eventually. I learned from the experience that I am still relatively incapable of holding my own with grumpy, angry people (especially angry Argentines). When people speak angrily to me, I still often turn into a wet noodle and thank them several times instead of arguing back. Sigh. Stuff to work on.
* We are teaching a promising new investigator named María. She´s about 60 and lives alone in a small apartment. She was born Lutheran and later became a fairly devout Catholic, but she is very curious and seems open to the gospel. She agreed to pray about Joseph Smith. We´ll see what happens.
* Felipa is very hard to find and didn´t come to church on Sunday, so her fecha fell through. I´m not ready to give up yet though. We are going to visit her several times this week, if possible.
* I had a great day on my 9 month mark in the mission. Our district leader, Elder Garcia, and his companion, Elder Woodruff, who arrived on the same plane as me, came to visit our area. We went to visit Elvira with them and committed her 22 year old daughter, Celeste, to be baptized. Celeste missed church on Sunday because of the rain, but I´m confident she´ll come next week and get baptized this transfer.
* Elvira will be baptized this Saturday. The first baptism I will attend in Hurlingham! I´m really happy for her and I love seeing how much she loves the gospel.
* I have a cold and feel lousy today, but at least it is P-day so I can rest a little bit.
Well, that´s all I have time for. I hope everything continues to run smoothly at home. I´m praying for you. Thanks for always being supportive and understanding.
Love,
Ellis
Thursday, April 14, 2011
What Ellis Thinks Ben Should Know About a Mission
Dear Ben,
Here is my advice/what I´ve learned so far on the mission. I hope it helps you or at least is interesting. It´s going to be kind of stream of consciousness, but here goes.
* We can understand better what God is like by looking at the good qualities in other people. Because we are his children, the good qualities we have are the same ones he has. God just has the perfect versions of all those qualities. For example: I´ve realized more how kind and forgiving God is because I know people who are kind and forgiving to me. Everyone you will ever meet on your mission is a child of God and in at least some small way, like God.
* God often shows his love for us through other people. So when you get nice letters from home or receive service from members or investigators, thank them but thank Heavenly Father too, and remember that he is showing the enormous love he has for you through them.
* Sometimes people do the wrong thing (or something that initially seems wrong or not right) because they are good. For example, delay getting baptized because they have a desire to learn more or do it sincerely. Some faults are just strengths we don´t know how to control yet, and all faults are evidence of a person´s deeper needs.
* Sometimes you will be having a hard day and not do quite as much as you are supposed to and your companion will cover your slack. When it happens, don´t be too hard on yourself, just be grateful that your companion is there to help you. That´s part of why we work in companionships-- so we can cover for each other´s weaknesses and be stronger together.
* Try to trust your companion and not dominate the teaching conversation during lessons. As much as you can, don´t let your companion talk for the whole lesson either (this is tricky when you are new). The lesson really is better when you take turns talking and switch off often, even if one of you can´t speak well. I am still working on this one and I have a long way to go.
* The first time I read part of Preach my Gospel, during my freshman year in college, I was not impressed. I remember thinking that the first principles of the first lesson were not really relevant. But my ideas have changed before and during the mission-- Preach my Gospel is a very very inspired manual that will help you be the missionary you want to be. Reading it (especially chapter 3) will help you prepare for your mission.
* To prepare for your mission: read PMG, study your scriptures, think about how the gospel would seem to an investigator, and go on splits with the elders.
* Obedience to the mission rules is always worth it, but you might not always realize why until after you´ve been obedient. Just be obedient and you will be happier and more blessed.
* Don´t confuse being obedient with following everything your district or zone leader says. Sometimes they might get carried away, especially when it comes to trying to get more baptisms. Be willing to follow their advice, but think carefully about it first. If you have a doubt about what they are telling you, just ask the mission president.
* Try to think about yourself as little as possible, but don´t be too discouraged by how hard this actually is (still struggling with this one too).
* Push yourself but don´t be too hard on yourself.
* Always think positively. (still working on this one too)
Well, that´s it for now. I hope you have a fabulous week. I´m so excited for you to go to Brazil!
Love,
Ellis
Here is my advice/what I´ve learned so far on the mission. I hope it helps you or at least is interesting. It´s going to be kind of stream of consciousness, but here goes.
* We can understand better what God is like by looking at the good qualities in other people. Because we are his children, the good qualities we have are the same ones he has. God just has the perfect versions of all those qualities. For example: I´ve realized more how kind and forgiving God is because I know people who are kind and forgiving to me. Everyone you will ever meet on your mission is a child of God and in at least some small way, like God.
* God often shows his love for us through other people. So when you get nice letters from home or receive service from members or investigators, thank them but thank Heavenly Father too, and remember that he is showing the enormous love he has for you through them.
* Sometimes people do the wrong thing (or something that initially seems wrong or not right) because they are good. For example, delay getting baptized because they have a desire to learn more or do it sincerely. Some faults are just strengths we don´t know how to control yet, and all faults are evidence of a person´s deeper needs.
* Sometimes you will be having a hard day and not do quite as much as you are supposed to and your companion will cover your slack. When it happens, don´t be too hard on yourself, just be grateful that your companion is there to help you. That´s part of why we work in companionships-- so we can cover for each other´s weaknesses and be stronger together.
* Try to trust your companion and not dominate the teaching conversation during lessons. As much as you can, don´t let your companion talk for the whole lesson either (this is tricky when you are new). The lesson really is better when you take turns talking and switch off often, even if one of you can´t speak well. I am still working on this one and I have a long way to go.
* The first time I read part of Preach my Gospel, during my freshman year in college, I was not impressed. I remember thinking that the first principles of the first lesson were not really relevant. But my ideas have changed before and during the mission-- Preach my Gospel is a very very inspired manual that will help you be the missionary you want to be. Reading it (especially chapter 3) will help you prepare for your mission.
* To prepare for your mission: read PMG, study your scriptures, think about how the gospel would seem to an investigator, and go on splits with the elders.
* Obedience to the mission rules is always worth it, but you might not always realize why until after you´ve been obedient. Just be obedient and you will be happier and more blessed.
* Don´t confuse being obedient with following everything your district or zone leader says. Sometimes they might get carried away, especially when it comes to trying to get more baptisms. Be willing to follow their advice, but think carefully about it first. If you have a doubt about what they are telling you, just ask the mission president.
* Try to think about yourself as little as possible, but don´t be too discouraged by how hard this actually is (still struggling with this one too).
* Push yourself but don´t be too hard on yourself.
* Always think positively. (still working on this one too)
Well, that´s it for now. I hope you have a fabulous week. I´m so excited for you to go to Brazil!
Love,
Ellis
Monday, April 4, 2011
General Conference was Greater Than Snot
Dear Mom and Dad,
* last week we ate lunch with an adorable elderly couple, Hna. and Hno. Fiorito. Hno. Fiorito recently went blind because of his diabetes, but now that he can´t read he has discovered (atraves de su hija) the mp3 files of old conference talks and loves listening to them. Hna. Fiorito has about as much meat on her as a bird and is full of energy. While we enjoyed their very healthy and delicious food (fish tart and stuffed squash)hey told us lots of great stories about how they found the church, how the met, etc. My favorite part of lunch was when Hno. Fiorito asked me if I was related to J. Reuben Clark. I said yes and he said, "he was a great leader, very intelligent. We still talk about him." Then when Hna. Fiorito came back in from the kitchen, Hno. Fiorito wasted no time in telling her I was related to JRC and she was equally impressed. I felt very proud of my ancestor!
* We are still teaching Reina and Esmeralda. They are doing great! Esmeralda came to mutual on Wednesday and wants to come again! Both of them came to general conference on Saturday and seemed to like it. We are going to try to set a baptismal date with them this week! I don´t remember if I told you or not that they live in a villa (vee-sha, not vil-uh) next to the train tracks. A villa is a bunch of very poor houses built all stuck together. Their is usually a long, narrow passageway in between all the doors of the houses, making the villa sort of maze-like. Reina´s house is actually at the entrance to the villa, sort of tacked on to the side, so we don´t have to walk down any passageways to get in. Her house is very rustic in the real sense of the term, but very clean, cheerful, and cozy. It has a blue door and flowers in front. I love going to teach them because there is so much love in their house! Reina really cares about her granddaughter and wants her to have a good life, which I think is why she is so open to the message. She wasn´t ready to get baptized with the elders years ago, when it was just about her own life and salvation, but now that she is thinking about Esmeralda´s future, she is listening for both of them.
* something funny: Sending laundry to the laundrymat is supposedly rather expensive here and I haven´t made the effort to figure out a number to call or exactly how much it would be, so for now we wash our clothes by hand. This saves us quite a lot of money (or so I imagine, not having actually checked), but brings some challenges. I put my garments in a bucket with detergent to soak and then, as an afterthought, threw in my socks, several of which were black (not from being dirty, but because they came that way). Bad idea. When I rinsed my garments and hung them up to dry I found that several pairs had dark colored stains that looked just like. . .tie-dye. Yup. Tie-dyed my garments. If I´m not careful, I´ll probably end up doing something even more apostate, like wearing them inside out.
* Our investigator, Elvira, who came to church for the first time last week, set her own baptismal date! She just started talking about baptism all by herself during our lesson on Thursday (well, I admit we had brought it up before, but not that particular day). I suggested a date, but she said she would be out of town that weekend. So she took out her calendar and picked her own baptismal date! She is getting baptized on April 23! I really love Elvira! She is a really sweet, 60 something grandma who watches her 4 year old granddaughter all day. She was raised Catholic and was taught to pray to Jesus, but she always felt like that was forgetting Heavenly Father. So when we taught her that she should pray to Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ, she loved it! Now she prays to Heavenly Father and it makes so much sense to her and makes her happy. She also loves reading the Book of Mormon and how clearly it explains things. She felt almost right away that it was true just because it made so much sense to her.
* On Thursday we had interviews with President Benton. I was kind of worried because our zone leaders were pressuring us to find someone to baptize in a zone wide baptismal service on general conference sunday and we didn´t have anyone yet. They told us during district meeting not to give up and told us stories about missionaries who got permission to baptize people who had only been to church once. This bothered me because off course I really wanted to baptize someone, but I didn´t want to baptized anyone who wasn´t ready. I thought about the examples in the scriptures where people just hear a prophet speak and get baptized right then and there, but that didn´t really resolve my doubts. So I asked President Benton about it in my interview. He said that a lot of the time, being ready for baptism doesn´t take as long as we think it will, but that there are also many times when we baptize people who aren´t ready. He told me to give people the time they need and not to worry about baptizing anyone that weekend. That advice felt good and I was so relieved! We didn´t baptized anyone on Sunday, but I felt content thinking about the baptisms we´ll have next transfer with people who are really prepared to do it.
* Finally, General Conference was FANTASTIC! I loved it. We had to go to the stake center in Ramos Mejía to watch it. I listened to the morning sessions in Spanish with our investigators and the afternoon sessions in English. On Saturday Elvira, Reina, and Esmeralda came and on Sunday an old investigator that we had dropped miraculously accepted our invitation to come to the baptism that morning and the conference. His name is Mario and he is indigenous, I´m not sure what tribe. He has some really interesting indigenous beliefs, but we stopped teaching him because it seemed like he liked talking about what he thought more than really thinking about our message. But he really liked the baptism and the conference and now he wants to read more in the Book of Mormon and learn more about the church. I really like him and I´m excited to give him another chance.
* Emphases from conference that I noticed: marriage is a partnership of equals (this was repeated by 3 different people I think) and caring for the poor and needy. My favorite talks were Elder Bednar´s about gradual revelation from the Spirit and Elder Scott´s where he talked about his deceased wife-- it was so touching! One of the things I learned that stands out for me was what Elder Samuelson (BYU president) said: "Being too hard on yourself is just as bad as being overly casual about the gospel." Darn. I guess I´ll have to work on that.
Well, time is almost up. I keep meaning to send photos but I guess that will have to wait another week. I meant to send Ben a list of ideas to prepare for the mission too (President Benton´s idea from my interview), but I guess that will also have to wait.
I enclose for your pleasure the following delightful email Katie sent me (she is allowed to email me, but I can´t email back-- frustrating!).
I just have to tell you before I forget that today, a Catholic nun told me that I was going to be a really good missionary. this, of course, thrilled the snot out of me and like validated my whole life.
I love you. And if I were a nun, I would tell you the same thing -- you are a great missionary, sister clark!
love, sister watkins
That is so Katie. It made me smile.
Well, I hope you are all well and that you have a great week. Keep writing!
Love,
Ellis
* last week we ate lunch with an adorable elderly couple, Hna. and Hno. Fiorito. Hno. Fiorito recently went blind because of his diabetes, but now that he can´t read he has discovered (atraves de su hija) the mp3 files of old conference talks and loves listening to them. Hna. Fiorito has about as much meat on her as a bird and is full of energy. While we enjoyed their very healthy and delicious food (fish tart and stuffed squash)hey told us lots of great stories about how they found the church, how the met, etc. My favorite part of lunch was when Hno. Fiorito asked me if I was related to J. Reuben Clark. I said yes and he said, "he was a great leader, very intelligent. We still talk about him." Then when Hna. Fiorito came back in from the kitchen, Hno. Fiorito wasted no time in telling her I was related to JRC and she was equally impressed. I felt very proud of my ancestor!
* We are still teaching Reina and Esmeralda. They are doing great! Esmeralda came to mutual on Wednesday and wants to come again! Both of them came to general conference on Saturday and seemed to like it. We are going to try to set a baptismal date with them this week! I don´t remember if I told you or not that they live in a villa (vee-sha, not vil-uh) next to the train tracks. A villa is a bunch of very poor houses built all stuck together. Their is usually a long, narrow passageway in between all the doors of the houses, making the villa sort of maze-like. Reina´s house is actually at the entrance to the villa, sort of tacked on to the side, so we don´t have to walk down any passageways to get in. Her house is very rustic in the real sense of the term, but very clean, cheerful, and cozy. It has a blue door and flowers in front. I love going to teach them because there is so much love in their house! Reina really cares about her granddaughter and wants her to have a good life, which I think is why she is so open to the message. She wasn´t ready to get baptized with the elders years ago, when it was just about her own life and salvation, but now that she is thinking about Esmeralda´s future, she is listening for both of them.
* something funny: Sending laundry to the laundrymat is supposedly rather expensive here and I haven´t made the effort to figure out a number to call or exactly how much it would be, so for now we wash our clothes by hand. This saves us quite a lot of money (or so I imagine, not having actually checked), but brings some challenges. I put my garments in a bucket with detergent to soak and then, as an afterthought, threw in my socks, several of which were black (not from being dirty, but because they came that way). Bad idea. When I rinsed my garments and hung them up to dry I found that several pairs had dark colored stains that looked just like. . .tie-dye. Yup. Tie-dyed my garments. If I´m not careful, I´ll probably end up doing something even more apostate, like wearing them inside out.
* Our investigator, Elvira, who came to church for the first time last week, set her own baptismal date! She just started talking about baptism all by herself during our lesson on Thursday (well, I admit we had brought it up before, but not that particular day). I suggested a date, but she said she would be out of town that weekend. So she took out her calendar and picked her own baptismal date! She is getting baptized on April 23! I really love Elvira! She is a really sweet, 60 something grandma who watches her 4 year old granddaughter all day. She was raised Catholic and was taught to pray to Jesus, but she always felt like that was forgetting Heavenly Father. So when we taught her that she should pray to Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ, she loved it! Now she prays to Heavenly Father and it makes so much sense to her and makes her happy. She also loves reading the Book of Mormon and how clearly it explains things. She felt almost right away that it was true just because it made so much sense to her.
* On Thursday we had interviews with President Benton. I was kind of worried because our zone leaders were pressuring us to find someone to baptize in a zone wide baptismal service on general conference sunday and we didn´t have anyone yet. They told us during district meeting not to give up and told us stories about missionaries who got permission to baptize people who had only been to church once. This bothered me because off course I really wanted to baptize someone, but I didn´t want to baptized anyone who wasn´t ready. I thought about the examples in the scriptures where people just hear a prophet speak and get baptized right then and there, but that didn´t really resolve my doubts. So I asked President Benton about it in my interview. He said that a lot of the time, being ready for baptism doesn´t take as long as we think it will, but that there are also many times when we baptize people who aren´t ready. He told me to give people the time they need and not to worry about baptizing anyone that weekend. That advice felt good and I was so relieved! We didn´t baptized anyone on Sunday, but I felt content thinking about the baptisms we´ll have next transfer with people who are really prepared to do it.
* Finally, General Conference was FANTASTIC! I loved it. We had to go to the stake center in Ramos Mejía to watch it. I listened to the morning sessions in Spanish with our investigators and the afternoon sessions in English. On Saturday Elvira, Reina, and Esmeralda came and on Sunday an old investigator that we had dropped miraculously accepted our invitation to come to the baptism that morning and the conference. His name is Mario and he is indigenous, I´m not sure what tribe. He has some really interesting indigenous beliefs, but we stopped teaching him because it seemed like he liked talking about what he thought more than really thinking about our message. But he really liked the baptism and the conference and now he wants to read more in the Book of Mormon and learn more about the church. I really like him and I´m excited to give him another chance.
* Emphases from conference that I noticed: marriage is a partnership of equals (this was repeated by 3 different people I think) and caring for the poor and needy. My favorite talks were Elder Bednar´s about gradual revelation from the Spirit and Elder Scott´s where he talked about his deceased wife-- it was so touching! One of the things I learned that stands out for me was what Elder Samuelson (BYU president) said: "Being too hard on yourself is just as bad as being overly casual about the gospel." Darn. I guess I´ll have to work on that.
Well, time is almost up. I keep meaning to send photos but I guess that will have to wait another week. I meant to send Ben a list of ideas to prepare for the mission too (President Benton´s idea from my interview), but I guess that will also have to wait.
I enclose for your pleasure the following delightful email Katie sent me (she is allowed to email me, but I can´t email back-- frustrating!).
I just have to tell you before I forget that today, a Catholic nun told me that I was going to be a really good missionary. this, of course, thrilled the snot out of me and like validated my whole life.
I love you. And if I were a nun, I would tell you the same thing -- you are a great missionary, sister clark!
love, sister watkins
That is so Katie. It made me smile.
Well, I hope you are all well and that you have a great week. Keep writing!
Love,
Ellis
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