Dear Mom and Dad,
Here´s a summary of my birthday:
I woke up and opened my package from you-- It was fantastic! I love the sweater and I´ve been basking in grape-nuts heaven all week and munching on the clif bars and sipping the hotchocolate-- yum! Then Hna. Centurión and I made my birthday cake to bring to district meeting: chocolate cake with peaches and dulce de leche in the middle, covered with chocolate whipped cream On top I wrote in Nesquick: 4 EVER, which is one of the mission themes this transfer-- achieve 200 baptisms in the mission for the fourth transfer in a row. When we put the candles in later, I used 22, but put them in the shape of 200. So, 200 4 EVER for the mission and happy 22 years old for me! In district meeting Elder Garcia started introducing his lesson, but turned it into a surprise introduction of my birthday! Everyone sang to me and all the missionaries in my district gave me an alfajor-- that´s a lot of alfajores. After the lesson, the other district in our zone (who meets in the other side of the stake center and is normally forbidden by new mission rules to associate with us) came over to sing to me again and watch me blow out the candles. Then we shared the cake. We finished it off in a flash, and my zone leaders licked the pan clean-- elders. :)
I had a great day and felt super confident, especially when contacting people in the street. I had a grin wider than the Mississippi and was asking questions like crazy. We visited Celeste and Elvira, who had bought chocolate cookies especially for my birthday, taught a great lesson to one of Celeste´s friends, and taught Evelyn and her mom.
At the end of the day we passed by the house of the Herrera family because Hna. Herrera had offered to give us dinner in tupperwares to take back to the pench. When we got there and Hna. Herrera opened the door, her two little kids, Micaela and Sebastián were waiting for me with a big birthday cake and birthday cards they made themselves. I was so touched. They sang to me and lit a candle on the cake for me to blow out and ordered me to make wishes. Best birthday ever!
I finished off my birthday eating Hna. Herrera´s mashed potatoes and milanesa in the pench and planning the next day like usual. I opened the letters you and Grandma sent me when I realized they were birthday cards. I loved the baby pictures of me on the cards. Genius!
Well, here is what happened this week/what´s going on with the investigators:
* Lucila and Enzo are proving very difficult to get a hold off and missed the last two Sundays of church, so they won´t be getting baptized this transfer. I´m not giving up on them though. I´m just going to be patient and give them the time they need. A 6 week transfer, after all, is a completely artificial constraint that often (unfortunately) has little to do with the rate of progress of a person towards accepting the gospel through baptism.
* We´ve been struggling with low lesson numbers all transfer and I´m not sure what to do about it. Low lesson numbers=fewer new investigators=lack of investigators progressing= fewer baptisms, so it´s a big deal. So far though I´ve avoided serious frustration or discouragement about it. I´m going to pray for help and keep working on it until it gets better.
* One of our investigators was praying to know if the church is true and unfortuitously opened her Bible exactly in Galations chapter 1--"why have you forgotten so quickly the gospel that was preached to you and accepted others who came preaching strange gospels?" or something like that. As a firm believer in revelation by letting your Bible fall open (works great if you´re looking for a spiritual pick me up, but isn´t a very responsible way of trying to verify eternal truths) she took that as an answer that she should stick with her current church. Depressing. But, we have an appointment with her tomorrow in which I will try to explain that the apostle Paul preached that sermon BEFORE the Great Apostasy.
* This week we met the mission standard of 140 contacts per week! We contacted 144 people! I´m very proud of us.
* EVELYN GOT BAPTIZED! The baptism of Evelyn was fantastic! Both sides of her family are inactive, but her uncle Marcos reactivated himself to be able to baptize her, and her aunt Iara has come to church two Sundays in a row! For her baptism, a bunch of her family from both sides came to sacrament meeting and attended the baptism! The stake president came and expressed his love to both sides of her family and told them how glad he was to see them. The ward welcomed them warmly, and now some of Evelyn´s family are thinking of coming to church more often, especially her mom! Evelyn is such a sweet, powerful example to her whole family and I know her baptism is going to work a miracle for them.
* We had 4 investigators in sacrament meeting! Reina and Esmeralda, two of my favorite investigators who sort of stopped progressing this transfer, agreed to let us pick them up for church! We ate breakfast with them in their house (banana bread made by Hna. Centurión of course! but this time we used our new cake pan since our improvised glass plate turned into baking dish shattered the last time we used it when we took it straight from the oven and put it on our cold marble counter) and took a taxi to the church. They even stayed for the baptism! And counting Evelyn and her stepfather (future investigator, woho!), that made 4 investigators in the meeting, my record here in Hurlingham! I was super happy!
* Quote of the week:
* Evelyn as she opened a Book of Mormon that we wrapped to give to her: "Oh, let it be the Book of Mormon, please! . . .YES! I´ve got a Book of Mormon, I´ve got a Book of Mormon! (she sang this part accompanied by a little dance she made up while holding her book). This kid is INCREDIBLE.
Well, that´s all I´ve got time for. I love you! Have an excellent week!
Love,
Ellis
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Flag Day in Argentina, with no Internet Access
Dear Mom and Dad,
Yesterday was Flag Day in Argentina, so all the internet places were
closed. I'm sorry! I was really bummed I didn't have time to tell
you all about my birthday. It was so great! I loved your package and
all the missionaries and members were super nice to me and I had TWO
birthday cakes! And we are having a baptism this weekend, a little
miracle named Evelyn. I'll write more next week. Thank you so much for your
wonderful letters and emails and for making my birthday amazing!
Love,
Ellis
Yesterday was Flag Day in Argentina, so all the internet places were
closed. I'm sorry! I was really bummed I didn't have time to tell
you all about my birthday. It was so great! I loved your package and
all the missionaries and members were super nice to me and I had TWO
birthday cakes! And we are having a baptism this weekend, a little
miracle named Evelyn. I'll write more next week. Thank you so much for your
wonderful letters and emails and for making my birthday amazing!
Love,
Ellis
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Life More Abundantly -- Like a Stack of 100 Banana Pancakes
Dear Mom and Dad,
Since my realization last week, I´ve been having the happiest week of my life. There have been ups and downs still, but the ups are what seem to stick out, and often, despite being aware of my errors and faults, despite missed appointments and people who won´t listen, I feel glowingly, resplendently happy. I´m not sure how long this state of relative euphoria will last. I´m hoping it becomes a lifestyle change, but I realize I´ll probably nose dive several times before I really get the hang of being happy like this most of the time. And, fitting the extremely functional state I´m in, I´m completely (or mostly) content with that.
I loved getting emails from everyone today. I feel loved and happy. And I´m excited for my birthday tomorrow. I had thought briefly, a few weeks ago, when I was in a much more negative state, of not telling anyone it was my birthday and sort of wallowing in self induced suffering and solitude. What a stupid idea. I recovered and have confidently volunteered the information to almost all of my zone and several members. I realized telling them I´m having a birthday isn´t like asking them to do stuff for me, it´s like inviting them to celebrate with me, even if just by being aware and telling me "Happy Birthday!". I´m bringing cake to district meeting tomorrow, and I said yes when a cute little less active abuela invited me over for birthday facturas. And a sister in the ward is making us dinner that we can carry back to the pension at night. She didn´t know it was my birthday, but I told her "Thanks for offering to feed us, because it´s going to be my birthday!" She was extra happy to be able to serve us on my birthday, and I was happier too. So, in the end, expressing one´s own wants and needs is often more unselfish than concealing them. Interesting.
Best quotes of the week:
Me: Will you get baptized on July 2?
Evelin (9 years old): YES! (she threw her arms out wide and threw her head back as she said it, nervous but thrilled) BEST ACCEPTANCE OF A BAPTISMAL DATE I´VE EVER SEEN! I LOVE EVELIN!
Marriage proposal to me by a drunk (old) man (Fabio) we met in the street:
"Tengo una sorpresa para vos. Me voy a casar en tu iglesia." i.e. "I have a surprise for you. I´m going to get married in your church." Wink. (it didn´t immediately dawn on me he was drunk, because he hit my weak spot by starting the conversation saying "I want to get baptized in your church!") We had already set a return appointment, which we quickly changed to an appointment of no return. No thanks, che.
Me: "Don´t you think coming to church will help you?"
Less active young man: "Let´s talk another day, sister, because right now I´m flying."
Yup. High as a kite. But the sister missionaries will return to reactivate him when the hang over wears off.
Sunday morning was probably one of the happiest moments of my life. Evelin miraculously woke up on time and was ready and waiting in her cute little Sunday outfit at 7:45. She didn´t complain about walking a mile to pick up our other investigators. Lucila and Enzo were ready and waiting too! Norma (other investigator) didn´t show, and Lucila and Enzo´s mom, Monica, had to stay to visit with relatives, but I was just too thrilled to mind too much. We walked together with Evelin, Lucila, Enzo, and Celeste and Elvira (my converts from last transfer) to the bus stop and miraculously arrived at the chapel on time to take the ward sponsored bus to stake conference in Ramos Mejía. I was looking around the bus at all the members and my converts and my investigators and I was just thrilled out of my socks to be with them and going to conference to listen to an apostle. I know all this enthusiastic happiness doesn´t make that much sense, but I´d already been having one of the best, most positive weeks of my life and having three investigators on the bus to conference was like a cascade of real maple syrup running down a stack one hundred banana pancakes high. Evelin, Lucila, and Enzo all have dates to be baptized this transfer. They are fantastic! They will sure keep me busy the next couple weeks though.
One last thing. I´ve been watching how my zone leader, Elder Gutierrez, teaches, and he uses loads of questions. Then our study plan from the first presidency said that I had to teach Hna. Centurion how to ask inspired questions during a lesson. So we did a practice together of teaching just by asking questions. And that same day I started asking loads of questions to the investigators: about their lives, what they thought about God, whatever came to my mind that had to do with what we were trying to teach. And the investigators felt the love and started opening up and letting us see what their needs were. Enzo told us he had always wanted to know what happens after death and where we came from--- questions I had no idea he had, because I, well, hadn´t asked him. So we promised to answer his questions and when we got to the house the next day, he gave the opening prayer without complaining and prayed for help to go to church EVERY WEEK! We taught a super detailed Plan of Salvation lesson that we had planned just for him and his family and he liked it. He and his sister Lucila accepted the same baptismal date and made it to church! I don´t attribute all of that just to asking him questions, but I think it helped. It is my new mission obsession (asking questions.) And I´ve realized asking lots of questions not only helps the investigators feel like we are interested in them, it helps me BE more interested in them. It is fantastic.
Oh, and today Hna. Centurión and I took a day trip to San Justo with Hermanas Azcurra and Reales and went shopping. I bought a pair of boots so I would be prepared for the cold weather. They were super cheap-- about 50 US dollars, and they are very attractive! My opinion of Argentine fashion is improving daily. Then we went out to lunch-- milanesa suprema a la napolitana con fritas (see if Dad can decipher that for you) and fanta orange soda. Best P´day ever!
I love you and the whole family! I´m so happy that you all seem to be doing well and that you are writing to me. Your Hawaii vacation sounded paradisaical. Start saving those pennies so we can go when Ben gets back from the mission. I´m willing to leave behind any future spouse I may have acquired by that time to make the trip cheaper. ;)
Love,
Ellis
Since my realization last week, I´ve been having the happiest week of my life. There have been ups and downs still, but the ups are what seem to stick out, and often, despite being aware of my errors and faults, despite missed appointments and people who won´t listen, I feel glowingly, resplendently happy. I´m not sure how long this state of relative euphoria will last. I´m hoping it becomes a lifestyle change, but I realize I´ll probably nose dive several times before I really get the hang of being happy like this most of the time. And, fitting the extremely functional state I´m in, I´m completely (or mostly) content with that.
I loved getting emails from everyone today. I feel loved and happy. And I´m excited for my birthday tomorrow. I had thought briefly, a few weeks ago, when I was in a much more negative state, of not telling anyone it was my birthday and sort of wallowing in self induced suffering and solitude. What a stupid idea. I recovered and have confidently volunteered the information to almost all of my zone and several members. I realized telling them I´m having a birthday isn´t like asking them to do stuff for me, it´s like inviting them to celebrate with me, even if just by being aware and telling me "Happy Birthday!". I´m bringing cake to district meeting tomorrow, and I said yes when a cute little less active abuela invited me over for birthday facturas. And a sister in the ward is making us dinner that we can carry back to the pension at night. She didn´t know it was my birthday, but I told her "Thanks for offering to feed us, because it´s going to be my birthday!" She was extra happy to be able to serve us on my birthday, and I was happier too. So, in the end, expressing one´s own wants and needs is often more unselfish than concealing them. Interesting.
Best quotes of the week:
Me: Will you get baptized on July 2?
Evelin (9 years old): YES! (she threw her arms out wide and threw her head back as she said it, nervous but thrilled) BEST ACCEPTANCE OF A BAPTISMAL DATE I´VE EVER SEEN! I LOVE EVELIN!
Marriage proposal to me by a drunk (old) man (Fabio) we met in the street:
"Tengo una sorpresa para vos. Me voy a casar en tu iglesia." i.e. "I have a surprise for you. I´m going to get married in your church." Wink. (it didn´t immediately dawn on me he was drunk, because he hit my weak spot by starting the conversation saying "I want to get baptized in your church!") We had already set a return appointment, which we quickly changed to an appointment of no return. No thanks, che.
Me: "Don´t you think coming to church will help you?"
Less active young man: "Let´s talk another day, sister, because right now I´m flying."
Yup. High as a kite. But the sister missionaries will return to reactivate him when the hang over wears off.
Sunday morning was probably one of the happiest moments of my life. Evelin miraculously woke up on time and was ready and waiting in her cute little Sunday outfit at 7:45. She didn´t complain about walking a mile to pick up our other investigators. Lucila and Enzo were ready and waiting too! Norma (other investigator) didn´t show, and Lucila and Enzo´s mom, Monica, had to stay to visit with relatives, but I was just too thrilled to mind too much. We walked together with Evelin, Lucila, Enzo, and Celeste and Elvira (my converts from last transfer) to the bus stop and miraculously arrived at the chapel on time to take the ward sponsored bus to stake conference in Ramos Mejía. I was looking around the bus at all the members and my converts and my investigators and I was just thrilled out of my socks to be with them and going to conference to listen to an apostle. I know all this enthusiastic happiness doesn´t make that much sense, but I´d already been having one of the best, most positive weeks of my life and having three investigators on the bus to conference was like a cascade of real maple syrup running down a stack one hundred banana pancakes high. Evelin, Lucila, and Enzo all have dates to be baptized this transfer. They are fantastic! They will sure keep me busy the next couple weeks though.
One last thing. I´ve been watching how my zone leader, Elder Gutierrez, teaches, and he uses loads of questions. Then our study plan from the first presidency said that I had to teach Hna. Centurion how to ask inspired questions during a lesson. So we did a practice together of teaching just by asking questions. And that same day I started asking loads of questions to the investigators: about their lives, what they thought about God, whatever came to my mind that had to do with what we were trying to teach. And the investigators felt the love and started opening up and letting us see what their needs were. Enzo told us he had always wanted to know what happens after death and where we came from--- questions I had no idea he had, because I, well, hadn´t asked him. So we promised to answer his questions and when we got to the house the next day, he gave the opening prayer without complaining and prayed for help to go to church EVERY WEEK! We taught a super detailed Plan of Salvation lesson that we had planned just for him and his family and he liked it. He and his sister Lucila accepted the same baptismal date and made it to church! I don´t attribute all of that just to asking him questions, but I think it helped. It is my new mission obsession (asking questions.) And I´ve realized asking lots of questions not only helps the investigators feel like we are interested in them, it helps me BE more interested in them. It is fantastic.
Oh, and today Hna. Centurión and I took a day trip to San Justo with Hermanas Azcurra and Reales and went shopping. I bought a pair of boots so I would be prepared for the cold weather. They were super cheap-- about 50 US dollars, and they are very attractive! My opinion of Argentine fashion is improving daily. Then we went out to lunch-- milanesa suprema a la napolitana con fritas (see if Dad can decipher that for you) and fanta orange soda. Best P´day ever!
I love you and the whole family! I´m so happy that you all seem to be doing well and that you are writing to me. Your Hawaii vacation sounded paradisaical. Start saving those pennies so we can go when Ben gets back from the mission. I´m willing to leave behind any future spouse I may have acquired by that time to make the trip cheaper. ;)
Love,
Ellis
Ellis Has An Epiphany About Joy
Dear Mom and Dad,
This week:
* We spent a lot of time walking between appointments and very little time teaching. More than half of our lessons were taught on doorsteps or standing at the gate-- people didn´t have time to let us in or weren´t interested enough or were scared of us or something. AAAARGH!
* We managed the usual two investigators in sacrament meeting. As sometimes happens, one of them was a visitor from a different area-- not actually one of our investigators. Sigh.
* On the bright side: Hna. Centurión and I are still laughing and enjoying each other. She is a really great companion. Celeste and Elvira told me my Spanish sounds better now-- my companion´s castellano must be rubbing off on me. She is teaching me lots of new words and I take advantage by asking her lots of questions.
* I worked up my courage and told the bishop during ward council meeting that I wanted to help the ward members participate more in missionary work, including fellowshipping inactive members and that I was prepared to teach a ward activity with my companion. He decided to let us teach a combined Relief Society/Elders Quorum class in three weeks. I´m nervous, but excited. I think it will really help the ward if ALL the members are participating more.
* I was rereading an article in the Liahona this week and had an important realization. I read "True joy comes from obeying and believing in Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father." I realized that if I remember how fantastic a gift the Atonement is and do my best to keep the commandments, I can be happy no matter what happens. I don´t have to depend outside indicators of success or approval for my happiness-- I can be happy right now. And it´s been working. I still have lots of moments of being frustrated, but I´m learning to be happy despite the struggles. And I know if I keep being positive and trying to improve, we will be able to teach more lessons and bring more people to church.
Love, Ellis
This week:
* We spent a lot of time walking between appointments and very little time teaching. More than half of our lessons were taught on doorsteps or standing at the gate-- people didn´t have time to let us in or weren´t interested enough or were scared of us or something. AAAARGH!
* We managed the usual two investigators in sacrament meeting. As sometimes happens, one of them was a visitor from a different area-- not actually one of our investigators. Sigh.
* On the bright side: Hna. Centurión and I are still laughing and enjoying each other. She is a really great companion. Celeste and Elvira told me my Spanish sounds better now-- my companion´s castellano must be rubbing off on me. She is teaching me lots of new words and I take advantage by asking her lots of questions.
* I worked up my courage and told the bishop during ward council meeting that I wanted to help the ward members participate more in missionary work, including fellowshipping inactive members and that I was prepared to teach a ward activity with my companion. He decided to let us teach a combined Relief Society/Elders Quorum class in three weeks. I´m nervous, but excited. I think it will really help the ward if ALL the members are participating more.
* I was rereading an article in the Liahona this week and had an important realization. I read "True joy comes from obeying and believing in Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father." I realized that if I remember how fantastic a gift the Atonement is and do my best to keep the commandments, I can be happy no matter what happens. I don´t have to depend outside indicators of success or approval for my happiness-- I can be happy right now. And it´s been working. I still have lots of moments of being frustrated, but I´m learning to be happy despite the struggles. And I know if I keep being positive and trying to improve, we will be able to teach more lessons and bring more people to church.
Love, Ellis
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Mini Week
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
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
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!
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