Dear Family,
It was great to talk to you yesterday. I sure love you and miss you! I was really surprised by how hard it was to hang up. But, hey, we´ll see each other soon.
Here is the story of Aylen, told with more details than I explained yesterday:
Yesterday we brought a new investigator to church. We found her last Thursday. A very important lesson with member had fallen through and we had no appointments to teach. But I decided to have faith that Heavenly Father could guide us to someone prepared. So I tried to have a good attitude and we went to visit an investigator who has been difficult to find lately. When we knocked, her niece, who we hadn´t met before, answered the door and let us in. Her name is Aylen and she used to take the lessons from Elder Moore in Palomar. We started teaching and set a baptismal date with her for the 14 of January! Yesterday she came to church and really loved sacrament meeting. She says she wants to bring her cousin and her boyfriend with her next week! Aylen is a miracle. This experience reminded me of the importance of having faith and a positive attitude. Heavenly Father isn´t going to bless me with a miracle investigator every time I choose to have faith despite challenges, but I know he will help me to achieve better results in all my efforts if I exercise my faith and think positively.
One of the things I want to do this week is to use the mission goal of 15 lessons with a member present per week to help our investigators. Last week we only taught 7 lessons with a member. We had more lessons planned, but lately all the members have been standing us up. But I think maybe if we talk to them more about the individual investigators and explain to them what each investigator needs from them personally, they will follow through on their commitment to come teach with us. If they can love the investigators like we do, they will ask us to let them come teach! So this week I will plan better so both the members and investigators can have spiritual experiences in the lessons.
I was thinking today about how important it is that everyone knows that God loves them and that other people love them. Love is the most effective motivator. Love for us motivated Christ to endure inexpressable suffering to save us, love for Christ motivated the original apostles to keep preaching at risk of martyrdom, that same love motivated the pioneers to cross the plains through rain and snow. People who feel loved by others and by God despite their errors are willing to keep trying to change in the face of debilitating addictions. And if these people feel enough love, they achieve those changes and come unto Christ. Love always wins. Despite challenges and suffering and temptations and great wickedness, in the end Heavenly Father and Christ´s love will save everyone who learns to truly love Them back. Love covers our imperfections. If we strive to love God and others, we will naturally be motivated to perfect our imperfections and Heavenly Father and Christ´s love will forgive and heal our imperfections, even the ones we don´t have time to overcome in this life. That is why love is the first and great commandment. True love will motivate you to keep all the commandments, and love is the motor of the grace that will save you after all that you can do.
I want each of you to know how much God loves you. Every day he watches you and is thrilled to have children as fantastic as you are. He loves you for your faithfulness in the preexistence, for your honest efforts in this life, and for your divine, eternal potential in the next life. He is proud of every advance you make, however small. He is patient with your imperfections. His love for you is constant, regardless of your success or your mistakes. He thinks the world of you. He could spend more time telling good things about you than any one else you know.
And I want you to know how much I love each of you. My love can´t possibly compare to Heavenly Father´s, but it has grown a lot during my mission. I think I have the best family ever! I tell other people stories about you. I tell other missionaries and investigators how wonderful I think you are. I have special memories of each one of you, and I am excited to make more memories with you when I come home! I am thrilled every time I get an email or a letter from one of you, even when I don´t have time to respond. My family wouldn´t be complete or as cool if any one of you was missing. I think you are fantastic! Mom, Dad, Eliza, Ben, Emma, and Dan, I love you!
Love,
Hermana Clark
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Friday, December 16, 2011
The Highlight of the Week was Sunday
Dear Family,
The highlight of this week was Sunday, so I will tell about it first. Hna Pullan and I woke up at 6:30 as usual and hurried to get ready and out the door by 7:45 so we could pick up Javier and Marilín, our Paraguayan shoemaker investigators (they are from Paraguay and make Argentine shoes, in case you were confused about my adjective placement). We left at 7:52, but after a short walk across the tracks and through deserted streets, we still managed to arrive early (that doesn´t happen very often.) We knocked on the door of J and M´s one room orange brick and cement apartment/shoe workshop. After a long wait, a very sleepy, pajama clad Javier answered the door. He told us Marilín had to stay home because Jorgito, their 1 1/2 year old son (the only baby I´ve every seen with a visible mustache, but incredibly cute), had a fever. . . but he said he would come. So we waited outside while Javier quickly showered and got dressed (I wish I could get ready that fast!) Miraculously we didn´t miss the bus and we arrived at the chapel just in time to see a sister with long curly hair step out of a remis (taxi) with four little girls. Then she turned around and I realized she was Ramona, our investigator! She came to church BY HERSELF, IN A SKIRT, HER FIRST TIME! I have had a few especially elect investigators arrive by themselves the first time (Mario and Celeste and Olga), but none of them showed up in Sunday clothes. And her daughters Cintia (10) and Milagros (5) and her granddaughter (6ish, can´t remember her name), were in skirts too! They looked like members already! I was so proud! There is an emotional high you can only get from seeing your investigators go to church for the first time. I felt so happy as I entered the church building with Javier, Ramona, and the girls. Convienently the bishop was standing there in the entrance. I had an enormous smile on my face as I introduced him to Ramona and Javier. The meetings went perfectly. Cintia, Milagros, and their niece immediately went to their primary class without clinging to Ramona. And even though the Relief Society lesson was on the final judgement, Ramona seemed to like it and feel befriended by the other sisters. She also said she liked the Gospel Doctrine class--topic:Family History and Temple Work-- and didn´t seem too overwhelmed by the rather inadequate explanations (I thought) of doctrine completely foreign to her. Javier went to a different class with the young single adults (I hope he explained he isn´t single), but seemed to like it. He said he wants to come next week!
Other news: On Friday night, the assistants called us and dropped another bombshell: they want us to go back to the villa! Apparently Bishop Paz has been really concerned about the progressing investigators we left in the villa because the assistants haven´t had much time lately to work in their area (President Carter keeps them really busy. They couldn´t even come to church this Sunday because they had to go to a stake conference somewhere else). So the assistants decided it would be best for the investigators if the area division was erased and we came back to the villa to go back to teaching our old investigators! They´ll keep teaching the investigators they have found, but we get to keep teaching Andrés´ family and our other investigators we gave them. At first I was frustrated that the assistants were changing the plan again and freaked out because I didn´t know how we were going to be able to divide our time between areas. And there was the fact that I had put a lot of mental energy into not being resentful of handing all my investigators over to other missionaries and being sent to a part of the area with no investigators. I had really gotten used to it because the mission is just like that; we hear all the time that we have to accept the transfer changes and just work where we are called. I´m used to liking what I´m given, not being given what I wanted. So I was freaked out until I realized they were actually giving me what I wanted and that it was okay to get what I wanted. I realized that I would be THRILLED to go back to the villa and be able to visit my converts and keep teaching my old investigators.
Well, I´m out of time, but thanks to everyone for your emails. Ben, I'm glad you aren´t so sick any more. One thing we try here to get investigators to come to church is offer to make them pancakes or brownies and go to their house to eat breakfast with them before going to church together. Maybe you can make your investigators some sweet avocado smoothies to lure them to sacrament meeting. Anyway, I don´t know if that would work in Brazil, but sometimes it works here. Or you can get members to accompany you to the lessons and make the member invite the investigator to church-- that was what we did with Javier this week. Getting investigators to church is hard, but keep trying! You can do it!
Phone call thoughts: I think I can maybe call during the times you mentioned. A family invited us over for lunch on Sunday, so I´m not sure exactly what time I would call. I´ll confirm plans next week. A conference call would be pretty cool. Could I do that with a calling card from a bishop´s office phone?
I love you and I am so proud of all of you for all the cool things you are doing. Mom, HAPPY BIRTHDAY on Sunday! Dad, I liked your sacrament talk. Dan, your interview made me smile! Eliza and Emma, as usual you are amazing me with your general smartness and talented-ness and funny quoting abilities. I love you all!
Love,
Ellis
The highlight of this week was Sunday, so I will tell about it first. Hna Pullan and I woke up at 6:30 as usual and hurried to get ready and out the door by 7:45 so we could pick up Javier and Marilín, our Paraguayan shoemaker investigators (they are from Paraguay and make Argentine shoes, in case you were confused about my adjective placement). We left at 7:52, but after a short walk across the tracks and through deserted streets, we still managed to arrive early (that doesn´t happen very often.) We knocked on the door of J and M´s one room orange brick and cement apartment/shoe workshop. After a long wait, a very sleepy, pajama clad Javier answered the door. He told us Marilín had to stay home because Jorgito, their 1 1/2 year old son (the only baby I´ve every seen with a visible mustache, but incredibly cute), had a fever. . . but he said he would come. So we waited outside while Javier quickly showered and got dressed (I wish I could get ready that fast!) Miraculously we didn´t miss the bus and we arrived at the chapel just in time to see a sister with long curly hair step out of a remis (taxi) with four little girls. Then she turned around and I realized she was Ramona, our investigator! She came to church BY HERSELF, IN A SKIRT, HER FIRST TIME! I have had a few especially elect investigators arrive by themselves the first time (Mario and Celeste and Olga), but none of them showed up in Sunday clothes. And her daughters Cintia (10) and Milagros (5) and her granddaughter (6ish, can´t remember her name), were in skirts too! They looked like members already! I was so proud! There is an emotional high you can only get from seeing your investigators go to church for the first time. I felt so happy as I entered the church building with Javier, Ramona, and the girls. Convienently the bishop was standing there in the entrance. I had an enormous smile on my face as I introduced him to Ramona and Javier. The meetings went perfectly. Cintia, Milagros, and their niece immediately went to their primary class without clinging to Ramona. And even though the Relief Society lesson was on the final judgement, Ramona seemed to like it and feel befriended by the other sisters. She also said she liked the Gospel Doctrine class--topic:Family History and Temple Work-- and didn´t seem too overwhelmed by the rather inadequate explanations (I thought) of doctrine completely foreign to her. Javier went to a different class with the young single adults (I hope he explained he isn´t single), but seemed to like it. He said he wants to come next week!
Other news: On Friday night, the assistants called us and dropped another bombshell: they want us to go back to the villa! Apparently Bishop Paz has been really concerned about the progressing investigators we left in the villa because the assistants haven´t had much time lately to work in their area (President Carter keeps them really busy. They couldn´t even come to church this Sunday because they had to go to a stake conference somewhere else). So the assistants decided it would be best for the investigators if the area division was erased and we came back to the villa to go back to teaching our old investigators! They´ll keep teaching the investigators they have found, but we get to keep teaching Andrés´ family and our other investigators we gave them. At first I was frustrated that the assistants were changing the plan again and freaked out because I didn´t know how we were going to be able to divide our time between areas. And there was the fact that I had put a lot of mental energy into not being resentful of handing all my investigators over to other missionaries and being sent to a part of the area with no investigators. I had really gotten used to it because the mission is just like that; we hear all the time that we have to accept the transfer changes and just work where we are called. I´m used to liking what I´m given, not being given what I wanted. So I was freaked out until I realized they were actually giving me what I wanted and that it was okay to get what I wanted. I realized that I would be THRILLED to go back to the villa and be able to visit my converts and keep teaching my old investigators.
Well, I´m out of time, but thanks to everyone for your emails. Ben, I'm glad you aren´t so sick any more. One thing we try here to get investigators to come to church is offer to make them pancakes or brownies and go to their house to eat breakfast with them before going to church together. Maybe you can make your investigators some sweet avocado smoothies to lure them to sacrament meeting. Anyway, I don´t know if that would work in Brazil, but sometimes it works here. Or you can get members to accompany you to the lessons and make the member invite the investigator to church-- that was what we did with Javier this week. Getting investigators to church is hard, but keep trying! You can do it!
Phone call thoughts: I think I can maybe call during the times you mentioned. A family invited us over for lunch on Sunday, so I´m not sure exactly what time I would call. I´ll confirm plans next week. A conference call would be pretty cool. Could I do that with a calling card from a bishop´s office phone?
I love you and I am so proud of all of you for all the cool things you are doing. Mom, HAPPY BIRTHDAY on Sunday! Dad, I liked your sacrament talk. Dan, your interview made me smile! Eliza and Emma, as usual you are amazing me with your general smartness and talented-ness and funny quoting abilities. I love you all!
Love,
Ellis
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
A nice insight
Dear Mom, Dad, Eliza, Ben, Emma, and Dan,
Thanks for all your emails this week. Well, Dan, you didn´t email, but thanks for your burnt letter that I got in the mail last week. I wish I had time to respond to all of you personally, but Sister Pullan and I lost track of time this P-day so we started internet late and have very little time.
I was really excited to hear that Dad is going to be the first counselor in the ward. I am sure he will be great. The new ward sounds nice. I am glad the Fifes, Carmans and Nielsens are still in the ward. It would have been weird without them. Though it will be weird not to have Mark Wray as our home teacher! And it´s weird that the Smiths, Penningtons, Mosmans, etc., won´t be in our ward anymore (if I understood the boundaries right). But I´m sure now you guys (and eventually me) will make lots of interesting new friendships and have lots of interesting, positive experiences being in a smaller ward.
So this morning I had kind of a positive maturity developing life experience. We had a meeting in the mission office for the new missionaries and trainers. I was sitting there having a moment of feeling overwhelmed and under-confident and worried about the last two months of my mission and thinking that I really wanted to have an interview with President Carter to just express all that and ask for advice, when I realized that I was really just wanting someone in authority to affirm that I was doing a good job as a missionary in spite of my weaknesses. And I realized that the real problem is having to look for affirmation from someone in authority instead of taking responsibility for my performance and recognizing on my own what I´m doing well and what I need to improve. And I thought about how much more important it is to figure out if God is pleased with me and my efforts than if the mission president is pleased with me (though I really value President Carter´s approval.) So I decided to stop freaking out and take initiative and responsibility for my own life and my own mission. I don´t need someone in authority to give me the magic vote of approval--- I can decide with the Spirit (and with patience with and kindness for myself) how I´m doing and what I can work on. Not that it is wrong to seek advice from leaders, in moderation, but today was just one of those times I needed to figure things out on my own.
Yikes! Why does introspection have to become so lengthy? Other brief news of the week:
* we found Carmen (45 or 50-ish), who met missionaries 13 years ago but then lost contact and lost her Book of Mormon. She was excited to hear more of the message after so long and to receive another copy of the Book of Mormon. She is a little hesitant about going to church (she wants to know more first), but I think she can progress and get baptized. She has a lot of questions about life after death too!
* we found Ramona, the mother of an old contact of other sisters who we had barely started to teach. She is married, has 7 kids, and really wanted to come to church! She invited herself and repeated several times that she felt she had to go to church even though she didn´t know why. She said she feels good when we teach her. We were disappointed because on Sunday she ended up getting stuck with two grandchildren who weren´t picked up on time by their parents and was afraid to take the two of them plus two of her own kids to church and didn´t end up coming. (run on sentence. oh well.) But hopefully she will come next week.
* Sister Pullan and I are becoming really good friends and learning lots together. I´m going to try even harder this week to be a good trainer and help her start her mission off well!
I got your Christmas packages today. I already opened the envelope, and I´m glad I did because I loved the history of Dad´s mission. I showed it to all the missionaries who were there in the office for the meeting and they thought it was really cool. Thanks, Dad!
I hope you all have a wonderful week! I´m sorry I didn´t have time to write everyone personally! I love you!
Love,
Hermana Clark
Thanks for all your emails this week. Well, Dan, you didn´t email, but thanks for your burnt letter that I got in the mail last week. I wish I had time to respond to all of you personally, but Sister Pullan and I lost track of time this P-day so we started internet late and have very little time.
I was really excited to hear that Dad is going to be the first counselor in the ward. I am sure he will be great. The new ward sounds nice. I am glad the Fifes, Carmans and Nielsens are still in the ward. It would have been weird without them. Though it will be weird not to have Mark Wray as our home teacher! And it´s weird that the Smiths, Penningtons, Mosmans, etc., won´t be in our ward anymore (if I understood the boundaries right). But I´m sure now you guys (and eventually me) will make lots of interesting new friendships and have lots of interesting, positive experiences being in a smaller ward.
So this morning I had kind of a positive maturity developing life experience. We had a meeting in the mission office for the new missionaries and trainers. I was sitting there having a moment of feeling overwhelmed and under-confident and worried about the last two months of my mission and thinking that I really wanted to have an interview with President Carter to just express all that and ask for advice, when I realized that I was really just wanting someone in authority to affirm that I was doing a good job as a missionary in spite of my weaknesses. And I realized that the real problem is having to look for affirmation from someone in authority instead of taking responsibility for my performance and recognizing on my own what I´m doing well and what I need to improve. And I thought about how much more important it is to figure out if God is pleased with me and my efforts than if the mission president is pleased with me (though I really value President Carter´s approval.) So I decided to stop freaking out and take initiative and responsibility for my own life and my own mission. I don´t need someone in authority to give me the magic vote of approval--- I can decide with the Spirit (and with patience with and kindness for myself) how I´m doing and what I can work on. Not that it is wrong to seek advice from leaders, in moderation, but today was just one of those times I needed to figure things out on my own.
Yikes! Why does introspection have to become so lengthy? Other brief news of the week:
* we found Carmen (45 or 50-ish), who met missionaries 13 years ago but then lost contact and lost her Book of Mormon. She was excited to hear more of the message after so long and to receive another copy of the Book of Mormon. She is a little hesitant about going to church (she wants to know more first), but I think she can progress and get baptized. She has a lot of questions about life after death too!
* we found Ramona, the mother of an old contact of other sisters who we had barely started to teach. She is married, has 7 kids, and really wanted to come to church! She invited herself and repeated several times that she felt she had to go to church even though she didn´t know why. She said she feels good when we teach her. We were disappointed because on Sunday she ended up getting stuck with two grandchildren who weren´t picked up on time by their parents and was afraid to take the two of them plus two of her own kids to church and didn´t end up coming. (run on sentence. oh well.) But hopefully she will come next week.
* Sister Pullan and I are becoming really good friends and learning lots together. I´m going to try even harder this week to be a good trainer and help her start her mission off well!
I got your Christmas packages today. I already opened the envelope, and I´m glad I did because I loved the history of Dad´s mission. I showed it to all the missionaries who were there in the office for the meeting and they thought it was really cool. Thanks, Dad!
I hope you all have a wonderful week! I´m sorry I didn´t have time to write everyone personally! I love you!
Love,
Hermana Clark
Monday, November 28, 2011
I Kept My Eyes Open During the Confirmation...
Dear Mom and Dad,
Last night I opened the mail I got last week: a couple letters from Grandma Campbell and a letter from Mom with lots of letters inside. One of the letters in Mom´s envelope was from Dan. I especially liked Dan´s letter. He burned the edges to make it look more adventurous or something. Dan´s letters are fantastic. They always make me smile. I have the "mirror of reflection for when you are down" that he drew me pinned to my half of the bulletin board next to my desk. I still want to read his story about the tomatoes.
This week was really great. Here is the brief version of the notable but not that exciting stuff:
* We went to the capital to do paperwork for Hna Pullan´s visa on Friday. Then we went out for pizza with some of the other elders who went.
* Our zone leaders came to our weekly planning session and helped us plan. We learned a lot.
* Elder Godfrey came on divisions with us (accompanied by two pre-missionaries from the ward so it wouldn´t be scandalous) to meet all our investigators in the villa. It was hard to part with them, but I think it will be for the best.
Now for the best part: ANDRÉS WAS BAPTIZED AND CONFIRMED! About ten of his daughters and grandkids came to his baptism, which made it really special. They filled up the whole front row of the chapel! Andrés stood up to give his testimony in his baptism and started crying really hard. He cries really easily. I think he was really happy to be baptized. Afterwards we invited Andrés´s family to eat refreshments: fancy crustless sandwiches ordered by the ward mission leader. I think they felt pretty welcome. Andrés told us his daughters are really proud of him for giving up smoking. I am too! Not even one relapse! He is amazing! I hope he can keep it up after his baptism. I think he will.
Andrés´s confirmation was really neat too. He told me beforehand that he was even more excited to be confirmed than to be baptized. In the mission I´ve learned to appreciate the moment of the confirmation more than I did before. There is something powerful about seeing men holding the power of God encircle someone and bestow a heavenly gift as essential as the constant guidance of the Holy Ghost. I kept my eyes open for a little bit during Andrés´ confirmation, and watched his face. He seemed to look younger than usual, and at peace. Now two of his grandkids and one of his daughters have baptismal goal dates! One of his daughters who missed the baptism and her son and another grandkid came to see the confirmation. I suggested to the assistants that we should show them the baptismal font and invite them to be baptized. So they did it, and Deborah, Axel, and Ariel accepted! That was pretty neat. The assistants will be teaching them because Andrés and his family live in the villa that is no longer part of our area, but I´m still really happy about it.
Well, I´m out of time as always, so this is it for the week. Thanks for keeping your letters mostly free of comments and ideas about my post mission life. It´s been a little bit harder to focus lately because I´m constantly reminded (by other missionaries or by myself) that I don´t have very much time left. I´m trying not to count the days or anything lame like that, because I want the last two months to be the best months. Especially because I want to give Hna Pullan a great start on her mission.
Oops. One little post mission detail. I`m pretty sure I wrote on some BYU form that I would be coming back for Winter semester (January to April). I´m allowed to come back as late as Fall semester of 2012, but I think I need to tell BYU that I won´t really be back until Spring or Fall. Mom, can you look into that and see what, if anything, needs to be done? Ugh. I really don´t want to think about that because I really have no idea what to do with those empty months before I can go back to school. I try to cheerfully imagine (thought not too often or while I´m tracting) spending lots of great family time together, but the truth is that everyone will be in school or at work. I, obviously, will need to work too, and figure out the rest of my life/school/career plans. . . that´s enough. When I get back in January I´ll figure it out. Until then I´m trying not to think about any of that. Please keep helping me out with that by not writing more than ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY about coming home.
Well, have a great week. I love you!
Love,
Ellis
Last night I opened the mail I got last week: a couple letters from Grandma Campbell and a letter from Mom with lots of letters inside. One of the letters in Mom´s envelope was from Dan. I especially liked Dan´s letter. He burned the edges to make it look more adventurous or something. Dan´s letters are fantastic. They always make me smile. I have the "mirror of reflection for when you are down" that he drew me pinned to my half of the bulletin board next to my desk. I still want to read his story about the tomatoes.
This week was really great. Here is the brief version of the notable but not that exciting stuff:
* We went to the capital to do paperwork for Hna Pullan´s visa on Friday. Then we went out for pizza with some of the other elders who went.
* Our zone leaders came to our weekly planning session and helped us plan. We learned a lot.
* Elder Godfrey came on divisions with us (accompanied by two pre-missionaries from the ward so it wouldn´t be scandalous) to meet all our investigators in the villa. It was hard to part with them, but I think it will be for the best.
Now for the best part: ANDRÉS WAS BAPTIZED AND CONFIRMED! About ten of his daughters and grandkids came to his baptism, which made it really special. They filled up the whole front row of the chapel! Andrés stood up to give his testimony in his baptism and started crying really hard. He cries really easily. I think he was really happy to be baptized. Afterwards we invited Andrés´s family to eat refreshments: fancy crustless sandwiches ordered by the ward mission leader. I think they felt pretty welcome. Andrés told us his daughters are really proud of him for giving up smoking. I am too! Not even one relapse! He is amazing! I hope he can keep it up after his baptism. I think he will.
Andrés´s confirmation was really neat too. He told me beforehand that he was even more excited to be confirmed than to be baptized. In the mission I´ve learned to appreciate the moment of the confirmation more than I did before. There is something powerful about seeing men holding the power of God encircle someone and bestow a heavenly gift as essential as the constant guidance of the Holy Ghost. I kept my eyes open for a little bit during Andrés´ confirmation, and watched his face. He seemed to look younger than usual, and at peace. Now two of his grandkids and one of his daughters have baptismal goal dates! One of his daughters who missed the baptism and her son and another grandkid came to see the confirmation. I suggested to the assistants that we should show them the baptismal font and invite them to be baptized. So they did it, and Deborah, Axel, and Ariel accepted! That was pretty neat. The assistants will be teaching them because Andrés and his family live in the villa that is no longer part of our area, but I´m still really happy about it.
Well, I´m out of time as always, so this is it for the week. Thanks for keeping your letters mostly free of comments and ideas about my post mission life. It´s been a little bit harder to focus lately because I´m constantly reminded (by other missionaries or by myself) that I don´t have very much time left. I´m trying not to count the days or anything lame like that, because I want the last two months to be the best months. Especially because I want to give Hna Pullan a great start on her mission.
Oops. One little post mission detail. I`m pretty sure I wrote on some BYU form that I would be coming back for Winter semester (January to April). I´m allowed to come back as late as Fall semester of 2012, but I think I need to tell BYU that I won´t really be back until Spring or Fall. Mom, can you look into that and see what, if anything, needs to be done? Ugh. I really don´t want to think about that because I really have no idea what to do with those empty months before I can go back to school. I try to cheerfully imagine (thought not too often or while I´m tracting) spending lots of great family time together, but the truth is that everyone will be in school or at work. I, obviously, will need to work too, and figure out the rest of my life/school/career plans. . . that´s enough. When I get back in January I´ll figure it out. Until then I´m trying not to think about any of that. Please keep helping me out with that by not writing more than ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY about coming home.
Well, have a great week. I love you!
Love,
Ellis
Monday, November 21, 2011
Last Week's Letter that I Accidently Sent to the Mission
Dear Family,
What a week! I really enjoyed working with Hna Reales for a week. Even though we only spent a week together, I learned a lot from her about how to plan more effectively.
My new companion arrived on Saturday. Her name is Hermana Hannah Pullan and she is from Payson, Utah. She was an art major at BYU. So far we have a lot in common and get along really well. She speaks almost no Spanish, but we are going to work on that.
After the meeting this morning, I decided to teach Hna Pullan how to do contacts. I tried to focus entirely on helping her be confident and helping her understand how to contact people. Sometimes she didn´t know what to say and some people didn´t listen, but she kept trying! I was impressed by how hard she tried and how much she wanted to share the gospel. I felt the Spirit that Hna Pullan brought with her from the MTC, and it helped me be excited about the rest of my mission and about helping her learn. I´m so excited for the opportunity to train and to learn from Hna Pullan! I really need her spirit to help me stay focused for the last 2 transfers of my mission. I think if I just focus, like I did this morning, on helping Hna Pullan be the best missionary she can be, I won´t have time to worry about anything else and I will be happy and excited about the mission.
Last week I was able to find and teach Daniel and Rubén, who disappeared the week before. And we started teaching Daniel´s mother too! Daniel told me he finished reading the book of Mormon and that now he wants to read Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price! He says he really wants to get baptized too. He is one of the strangest investigators I have ever had. I was explaining the Word of Wisdom to him this week and I told him his body is the temple of his Spirit. He told me "Oh, that makes sense, because the spirit has the same form as the body." What? How did he learn that? I asked and he said "Inspiration." Apparently the reason he knows the Book of Mormon is true is because it says a lot of things that God already revealed to him. It´s kind of weird. I think it has to be a good thing, as long as he doesn´t think he is destined to be the next prophet.. . .
Unfortunately, neither Rubén nor Daniel nor Daniel´s mother came to church on Sunday, so this week I have to figure out how to help them with that commitment.
The biggest focus of my week was helping my investigator, Brian, get a testimony of the Restoration. I wanted him to be baptized because he had a testimony, not just because his aunt and uncle wanted him too. So we taught him about the first vision again. I decided to tell it to him like a story to help him imagine what it would be like to be Joseph Smith. The next day we asked him if he had received an answer to his prayer and he said yes! He said he felt happier and more excited to work-- he decided that was his answer. I asked him if he believed the church was true and he said yes! On Saturday he was baptized! It was really special to be able to help him gain his testimony.
My investigator Andrés is doing really well! He met every goal we set for the number of cigarettes he was allowed to smoke this week. He smoked the last one on Saturday and on Sunday told me he will never smoke again in his life! Now his daughter, Julia, has baptismal date too. I´m pretty excited about it.
Well, I am out of tiempo. Thank you for your emails and have a wonderful week!
Love,
Ellis
What a week! I really enjoyed working with Hna Reales for a week. Even though we only spent a week together, I learned a lot from her about how to plan more effectively.
My new companion arrived on Saturday. Her name is Hermana Hannah Pullan and she is from Payson, Utah. She was an art major at BYU. So far we have a lot in common and get along really well. She speaks almost no Spanish, but we are going to work on that.
After the meeting this morning, I decided to teach Hna Pullan how to do contacts. I tried to focus entirely on helping her be confident and helping her understand how to contact people. Sometimes she didn´t know what to say and some people didn´t listen, but she kept trying! I was impressed by how hard she tried and how much she wanted to share the gospel. I felt the Spirit that Hna Pullan brought with her from the MTC, and it helped me be excited about the rest of my mission and about helping her learn. I´m so excited for the opportunity to train and to learn from Hna Pullan! I really need her spirit to help me stay focused for the last 2 transfers of my mission. I think if I just focus, like I did this morning, on helping Hna Pullan be the best missionary she can be, I won´t have time to worry about anything else and I will be happy and excited about the mission.
Last week I was able to find and teach Daniel and Rubén, who disappeared the week before. And we started teaching Daniel´s mother too! Daniel told me he finished reading the book of Mormon and that now he wants to read Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price! He says he really wants to get baptized too. He is one of the strangest investigators I have ever had. I was explaining the Word of Wisdom to him this week and I told him his body is the temple of his Spirit. He told me "Oh, that makes sense, because the spirit has the same form as the body." What? How did he learn that? I asked and he said "Inspiration." Apparently the reason he knows the Book of Mormon is true is because it says a lot of things that God already revealed to him. It´s kind of weird. I think it has to be a good thing, as long as he doesn´t think he is destined to be the next prophet.. . .
Unfortunately, neither Rubén nor Daniel nor Daniel´s mother came to church on Sunday, so this week I have to figure out how to help them with that commitment.
The biggest focus of my week was helping my investigator, Brian, get a testimony of the Restoration. I wanted him to be baptized because he had a testimony, not just because his aunt and uncle wanted him too. So we taught him about the first vision again. I decided to tell it to him like a story to help him imagine what it would be like to be Joseph Smith. The next day we asked him if he had received an answer to his prayer and he said yes! He said he felt happier and more excited to work-- he decided that was his answer. I asked him if he believed the church was true and he said yes! On Saturday he was baptized! It was really special to be able to help him gain his testimony.
My investigator Andrés is doing really well! He met every goal we set for the number of cigarettes he was allowed to smoke this week. He smoked the last one on Saturday and on Sunday told me he will never smoke again in his life! Now his daughter, Julia, has baptismal date too. I´m pretty excited about it.
Well, I am out of tiempo. Thank you for your emails and have a wonderful week!
Love,
Ellis
Food for Thought: Does Eternal Life Have a Cherry or Peach Flavor?
Dear Family,
I was excited to hear that Ruby was born! I loved the picture of her and Josh. He and Brenda must be so happy. I can´t wait to meet Ruby. I´m also slightly dismayed with you to hear about the ward boundary change, but I am sure it will be for the best in the long run. Do you think the Nielsens and the Carmans will still be in the ward with us?
Sister Pullan and I had a pretty great first week together. We´ve found out we have a lot in common: a love of hiking and cooking, really liking the Lord of the Rings movies, etc. I think I will have to share a Sister Pullan quote weekly, she is really funny. This week´s quote: "I wish the dogs here were intelligent so we could teach them the gospel. I would tell them, 'Don´t freak out! It´s okay! You´re going to be fine!'"
Speaking of quotes, I just got the letter mom sent with Elder Morse´s email about the top 10 reasons senior missionaries shouldn´t go trick or treating. I couldn´t stop laughing.
Highlights/News of the Week:
* I don´t know if I mentioned that this transfer our area was divided in two and the assistants to the president now share the area with us. They conveniently drew the area boundaries so that they have the Carlos Gardel Villa (aka government housing project) where ALL our investigators live. Elder Godfrey, one of the assistants, who is usually really sweet and spiritual, is not able to conceal a demonic gleam in his eyes whenever he mentions it. At any moment I expect him to break into a villainous cackle and squeal "La villa es mia!" while greedily rubbing his hands together. Well, to be fair, the villa is in the half of the area closest to the mission office where they spend most of their time, so it just makes more sense for them to have it, but it´s kind of a bummer for us. However, Elder Baudon (the other assistant, from Cordoba) and Elder Godfrey decided we could keep teaching our investigators in the villa until they got baptized. So for the last couple weeks we have been running back and forth between our half of the area and the villa. But the assistants told us to stop looking for new investigators in the villa, which made it really difficult to reach our goals for new investigators and lessons because we had to spend most of our time in the villa with the progressing investigators and didn´t have time to work in our half of the area. I got fed up with the situation and accidentally complained to my district leader, who held some sort of over-the-phone council with the zone leaders and the assistants, who decided for us that we have to give all our investigators to the assistants, except for Andrés, who is getting baptized this Saturday (WOOHOO!). Anyway, I´m relieved because now I can focus on finding new investigators in our half of the area, but sad because I won´t be able to keep visiting my convert César or his awesome family (the Monserrats) or teach Andrés the lessons of retention after his baptism. I can only imagine Elder Godfrey´s grin.
* Andrés becomes more amazing every day we visit him. Every time I ask him how the quitting-smoking process is going, he says, as if he doesn´t know why I bother to ask something so obvious over and over again, "I never smoked again!" He says he has cravings but that he can hold them off by eating caramels. A favorite moment with Andrés this week:
* Teaching about the importance of scripture study using the story of the iron rod in Lehi´s dream: Andrés has begun reading the Book of Mormon from 1 Nephi 1 and is determined to read the whole book. We brought him the extra large one with enormous print (he has vision problems) and he loves it! After we taught him about the iron rod and the tree of life, we had a conversation that went something like this (forgive my meager translation):
Andrés: Can I ask something?
Me: Of course
Andrés: What kind of tree is the tree of life?
Me: (laughing) Well, it´s symbolic, but I think. . .probably a peach tree, because I like peaches.
Andrés: Could be. Or maybe a cherry tree. Yes, I think it is a cherry tree.
Me: (still laughing) Why not? A cherry tree.
Andrés: (seriously) Listen to me, sisters. I have to heed what you say, so you have to heed me too. We are going to become closer to God and we are going to find out what that fruit is. We will be there with God and we will see that tree. (reflecting) I have to read this whole book, to find out what the fruit is!
It was a funny, tender, beautiful moment. I am impressed by the strength of Andrés´ budding testimony. I have every confidence that he will arrive at that tree and taste its fruit. I´m joyfully anticipating his baptism on Saturday.
Well, I´m out of time to write. Thank you as always for your many emails, letters, and prayers. I´ll try again to send pictures next week. I love each of you! Have a successful, interesting week!
Love,
Ellis
P.S. César update: CÉSAR STOPPED DRINKING! And he went to church on Sunday! He is still smoking, but I haven´t bothered him about it because I figure he has to tackle one vice at a time. I am really hopeful that he can keep working through his problems, hopefully with the help of a church psychologist. His mother, Arminda, prays for him every day. I think that is really helping him.
I was excited to hear that Ruby was born! I loved the picture of her and Josh. He and Brenda must be so happy. I can´t wait to meet Ruby. I´m also slightly dismayed with you to hear about the ward boundary change, but I am sure it will be for the best in the long run. Do you think the Nielsens and the Carmans will still be in the ward with us?
Sister Pullan and I had a pretty great first week together. We´ve found out we have a lot in common: a love of hiking and cooking, really liking the Lord of the Rings movies, etc. I think I will have to share a Sister Pullan quote weekly, she is really funny. This week´s quote: "I wish the dogs here were intelligent so we could teach them the gospel. I would tell them, 'Don´t freak out! It´s okay! You´re going to be fine!'"
Speaking of quotes, I just got the letter mom sent with Elder Morse´s email about the top 10 reasons senior missionaries shouldn´t go trick or treating. I couldn´t stop laughing.
Highlights/News of the Week:
* I don´t know if I mentioned that this transfer our area was divided in two and the assistants to the president now share the area with us. They conveniently drew the area boundaries so that they have the Carlos Gardel Villa (aka government housing project) where ALL our investigators live. Elder Godfrey, one of the assistants, who is usually really sweet and spiritual, is not able to conceal a demonic gleam in his eyes whenever he mentions it. At any moment I expect him to break into a villainous cackle and squeal "La villa es mia!" while greedily rubbing his hands together. Well, to be fair, the villa is in the half of the area closest to the mission office where they spend most of their time, so it just makes more sense for them to have it, but it´s kind of a bummer for us. However, Elder Baudon (the other assistant, from Cordoba) and Elder Godfrey decided we could keep teaching our investigators in the villa until they got baptized. So for the last couple weeks we have been running back and forth between our half of the area and the villa. But the assistants told us to stop looking for new investigators in the villa, which made it really difficult to reach our goals for new investigators and lessons because we had to spend most of our time in the villa with the progressing investigators and didn´t have time to work in our half of the area. I got fed up with the situation and accidentally complained to my district leader, who held some sort of over-the-phone council with the zone leaders and the assistants, who decided for us that we have to give all our investigators to the assistants, except for Andrés, who is getting baptized this Saturday (WOOHOO!). Anyway, I´m relieved because now I can focus on finding new investigators in our half of the area, but sad because I won´t be able to keep visiting my convert César or his awesome family (the Monserrats) or teach Andrés the lessons of retention after his baptism. I can only imagine Elder Godfrey´s grin.
* Andrés becomes more amazing every day we visit him. Every time I ask him how the quitting-smoking process is going, he says, as if he doesn´t know why I bother to ask something so obvious over and over again, "I never smoked again!" He says he has cravings but that he can hold them off by eating caramels. A favorite moment with Andrés this week:
* Teaching about the importance of scripture study using the story of the iron rod in Lehi´s dream: Andrés has begun reading the Book of Mormon from 1 Nephi 1 and is determined to read the whole book. We brought him the extra large one with enormous print (he has vision problems) and he loves it! After we taught him about the iron rod and the tree of life, we had a conversation that went something like this (forgive my meager translation):
Andrés: Can I ask something?
Me: Of course
Andrés: What kind of tree is the tree of life?
Me: (laughing) Well, it´s symbolic, but I think. . .probably a peach tree, because I like peaches.
Andrés: Could be. Or maybe a cherry tree. Yes, I think it is a cherry tree.
Me: (still laughing) Why not? A cherry tree.
Andrés: (seriously) Listen to me, sisters. I have to heed what you say, so you have to heed me too. We are going to become closer to God and we are going to find out what that fruit is. We will be there with God and we will see that tree. (reflecting) I have to read this whole book, to find out what the fruit is!
It was a funny, tender, beautiful moment. I am impressed by the strength of Andrés´ budding testimony. I have every confidence that he will arrive at that tree and taste its fruit. I´m joyfully anticipating his baptism on Saturday.
Well, I´m out of time to write. Thank you as always for your many emails, letters, and prayers. I´ll try again to send pictures next week. I love each of you! Have a successful, interesting week!
Love,
Ellis
P.S. César update: CÉSAR STOPPED DRINKING! And he went to church on Sunday! He is still smoking, but I haven´t bothered him about it because I figure he has to tackle one vice at a time. I am really hopeful that he can keep working through his problems, hopefully with the help of a church psychologist. His mother, Arminda, prays for him every day. I think that is really helping him.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Sister X is Actually Sister Pullan
Dear Dad,
The bus salesman are still hard at it here in Argentina. They do exactly what you described. I guess some things haven´t changed in the last 25 years. They sell stuff in the trains too. My announcement in the bus was thrilling, but not terribly effective in proselyting terms. I handed out the new mini pass a long cards about eternal families, but no one wanted an appointment. I want to try again this week though, if Sister X is up to it.
I´ll share more in the family email, but Sister X is actually Sister Hannah Pullan from Payson, Utah. She is the second oldest in a family of five kids-- three girls and two boys just like us. She studied art at BYU before her mission. She described her artwork as glorified paper snowflakes--- apparently she draws pictures and then cuts out the shapes. I wish she had a picture to show me. I haven´t yet asked her if we have any mutual acquaintances from BYU. She speaks very little Spanish, but she has that fresh out of the MTC spirit of wanting to work hard and share the gospel. We practiced contacting this morning-- she impressed me because she kept trying despite several rejections and struggling to speak. I noticed though that she seems to soften people´s hearts. When people realize she doesn´t speak Spanish well, they listen harder and are more polite. It´s kind of cool. I think we will work well together.
[Ellis said she would write more in another family letter, but we didn't get one!?]
Love,
Ellis
The bus salesman are still hard at it here in Argentina. They do exactly what you described. I guess some things haven´t changed in the last 25 years. They sell stuff in the trains too. My announcement in the bus was thrilling, but not terribly effective in proselyting terms. I handed out the new mini pass a long cards about eternal families, but no one wanted an appointment. I want to try again this week though, if Sister X is up to it.
I´ll share more in the family email, but Sister X is actually Sister Hannah Pullan from Payson, Utah. She is the second oldest in a family of five kids-- three girls and two boys just like us. She studied art at BYU before her mission. She described her artwork as glorified paper snowflakes--- apparently she draws pictures and then cuts out the shapes. I wish she had a picture to show me. I haven´t yet asked her if we have any mutual acquaintances from BYU. She speaks very little Spanish, but she has that fresh out of the MTC spirit of wanting to work hard and share the gospel. We practiced contacting this morning-- she impressed me because she kept trying despite several rejections and struggling to speak. I noticed though that she seems to soften people´s hearts. When people realize she doesn´t speak Spanish well, they listen harder and are more polite. It´s kind of cool. I think we will work well together.
[Ellis said she would write more in another family letter, but we didn't get one!?]
Love,
Ellis
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