Luis got baptized!!! (This is Nate's mom) I got on Nate's Facebook and accepted some people that had requested to be Nate's "friend". One of them was Luis. He chatted with me for a few minutes. He said he loves Nate like a brother and was sad for him to be transferred, but that the gospel has changed his life.
Nate was sad to leave his African companion that he trained and loved.
"We, as missionaries, have the responsibility of being AT LEAST 100% OBEDIENT"
Hey guys! I've decided that no week ever on my mission will ever be anything but crazy...
But its always a good crazy! I´ll start out with something that's kind of funny :)
The title... heading... whatever, of the email refers to my district. When I got here I was told that my district would be me and 3 other missionaries... well, that info was wrong. In our zone we have 3 districts. The other two districts are 4 missionaries a piece. My district has... 10, including the zone leaders. So, I have more than half the zone in my district, thus the title District Zone Leader ;) It was interesting when I found out ha-ha!
Well, I had my first district meeting as a leader and that was cool :) I gave the doctrine part of the meeting about obedience. I shared with them something that our new mission president told me. He said, "We, as missionaries, have the responsibility of being AT LEAST 100% OBEDIENT". I loved that. He said lots of people think about rules and commandments like, "I´ll keep as many as I can..." but really, we have the responsibility to be 100% obedient. If we want to do more, we can but God has asked us to be not a little obedient, not keep just a few commandments, or even most of them, but to be AT LEAST 100% obedient. This is really something that I have seen make a huge difference in my mission. When I really am trying to keep ALL of the rules and do everything right, the blessings come and miracles happen. Giving anything less than 100% to God is not just you being a slacker, but its hurting your spirituality and your effectiveness in what you do and your ability to help others along the path that leads to eternal life. Why? Because God himself said,
"I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." (D&C 82:10) I know that this is true, that God has TONS of blessings in store for us IF we do what he asks of us!
But yeah, that was cool giving a training to more than half the zone.... :)
I also preformed my first baptism interview! In Lago Azul the missionaries have been teaching a 13 year old moça (young woman) named Jacilene. When we started the interview, she was super shy and wouldn't talk a whole lot and it was a little awkward... but then I realized that I had my cards in my bag! So I pulled them out and I asked if she liked magic. She said she did, so I preformed a simple magic trick and she started to open up a little bit :) Then I did a magic trick but I did it wrong (on purpose) then compared it to sin. We all have to obey the commandments and when we do, its like doing a magic trick right! We get the blessings that God promises us and we receive happiness and confidence in our lives. But not keeping the commandments is like a magic trick that went wrong. You don't get any blessings and you just feel ashamed about what you did wrong. But then I talked about how, because of Jesus Christ, we can repent and, through baptism, we can correct our mistakes and regain the blessings of happiness and confidence (I then corrected the trick and found her card for her :) This was super cool because after that, Jacilene opened up and talked a lot more and shared her sweet testimony about how she knows the church is true :) That was the best part of the interview and, when we met up with the missionaries from Lago Azul, I was proud to announce that she passed and would be able to be baptized the following day :) Super cool!
But yeah! I´m loving my new area! The church here is kind of small but we´re working really hard with the objective of turning the branch we have here into a ward! We have 4 baptisms marked for next week and they´re super super good :) One of them was the first contact that my companion ever did on the mission :) Crazy, right?! One of the others is her daughter! :D It's super cool because just talking to people doesn't usually lead to baptisms, but when we do our best to talk to everyone, we CAN find people that are ready to hear our message :) Just thought that was awesome :)
So! A little more about my comp! Elder Cavalcante, 20 years old, born in São Paulo but currently lives in Natal where its Christmas all year but they never have snow ;) Ha-ha (multilingual pun :) Anyways, he has about 5ish months out on the mission and he´s a workhorse :) I´m loving being his comp because of this!
He (and the other 2 missionaries in our apartment) likes to wrestle so sometimes we put out mattresses on the floor and have MMA fights there (no punching or kicking allowed ;) and other times they just happen spontaneously :) its cool.
Our area is an entire city and its huge!!! Its about 6 miles from one side to the other (and that's not including the farms...) and we have investigators all over the place!!! We have to take the bus every day and its a little annoying because I could be using that money to buy açaí instead... but, what can you do ;) I love it here! The people are super friendly and most people are willing to talk to us and hear what we have to say! The only bad thing about this area is that its super, super, super dry... and I´ve been sick the past 4ish days because of it. I´ve been working still, but its no fun being sick at all... :/ meh... but its all good :) I´ll get better soon (I hope ;).
But yeah! I love you all and hope you have a GREAT week!! :)
Love,
Elder Ellis
BTW, if you were wondering about the pun, "Natal" is "Christmas" in portuguese :)
But its always a good crazy! I´ll start out with something that's kind of funny :)
The title... heading... whatever, of the email refers to my district. When I got here I was told that my district would be me and 3 other missionaries... well, that info was wrong. In our zone we have 3 districts. The other two districts are 4 missionaries a piece. My district has... 10, including the zone leaders. So, I have more than half the zone in my district, thus the title District Zone Leader ;) It was interesting when I found out ha-ha!
Well, I had my first district meeting as a leader and that was cool :) I gave the doctrine part of the meeting about obedience. I shared with them something that our new mission president told me. He said, "We, as missionaries, have the responsibility of being AT LEAST 100% OBEDIENT". I loved that. He said lots of people think about rules and commandments like, "I´ll keep as many as I can..." but really, we have the responsibility to be 100% obedient. If we want to do more, we can but God has asked us to be not a little obedient, not keep just a few commandments, or even most of them, but to be AT LEAST 100% obedient. This is really something that I have seen make a huge difference in my mission. When I really am trying to keep ALL of the rules and do everything right, the blessings come and miracles happen. Giving anything less than 100% to God is not just you being a slacker, but its hurting your spirituality and your effectiveness in what you do and your ability to help others along the path that leads to eternal life. Why? Because God himself said,
"I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." (D&C 82:10) I know that this is true, that God has TONS of blessings in store for us IF we do what he asks of us!
But yeah, that was cool giving a training to more than half the zone.... :)
I also preformed my first baptism interview! In Lago Azul the missionaries have been teaching a 13 year old moça (young woman) named Jacilene. When we started the interview, she was super shy and wouldn't talk a whole lot and it was a little awkward... but then I realized that I had my cards in my bag! So I pulled them out and I asked if she liked magic. She said she did, so I preformed a simple magic trick and she started to open up a little bit :) Then I did a magic trick but I did it wrong (on purpose) then compared it to sin. We all have to obey the commandments and when we do, its like doing a magic trick right! We get the blessings that God promises us and we receive happiness and confidence in our lives. But not keeping the commandments is like a magic trick that went wrong. You don't get any blessings and you just feel ashamed about what you did wrong. But then I talked about how, because of Jesus Christ, we can repent and, through baptism, we can correct our mistakes and regain the blessings of happiness and confidence (I then corrected the trick and found her card for her :) This was super cool because after that, Jacilene opened up and talked a lot more and shared her sweet testimony about how she knows the church is true :) That was the best part of the interview and, when we met up with the missionaries from Lago Azul, I was proud to announce that she passed and would be able to be baptized the following day :) Super cool!
But yeah! I´m loving my new area! The church here is kind of small but we´re working really hard with the objective of turning the branch we have here into a ward! We have 4 baptisms marked for next week and they´re super super good :) One of them was the first contact that my companion ever did on the mission :) Crazy, right?! One of the others is her daughter! :D It's super cool because just talking to people doesn't usually lead to baptisms, but when we do our best to talk to everyone, we CAN find people that are ready to hear our message :) Just thought that was awesome :)
So! A little more about my comp! Elder Cavalcante, 20 years old, born in São Paulo but currently lives in Natal where its Christmas all year but they never have snow ;) Ha-ha (multilingual pun :) Anyways, he has about 5ish months out on the mission and he´s a workhorse :) I´m loving being his comp because of this!
He (and the other 2 missionaries in our apartment) likes to wrestle so sometimes we put out mattresses on the floor and have MMA fights there (no punching or kicking allowed ;) and other times they just happen spontaneously :) its cool.
Our area is an entire city and its huge!!! Its about 6 miles from one side to the other (and that's not including the farms...) and we have investigators all over the place!!! We have to take the bus every day and its a little annoying because I could be using that money to buy açaí instead... but, what can you do ;) I love it here! The people are super friendly and most people are willing to talk to us and hear what we have to say! The only bad thing about this area is that its super, super, super dry... and I´ve been sick the past 4ish days because of it. I´ve been working still, but its no fun being sick at all... :/ meh... but its all good :) I´ll get better soon (I hope ;).
But yeah! I love you all and hope you have a GREAT week!! :)
Love,
Elder Ellis
BTW, if you were wondering about the pun, "Natal" is "Christmas" in portuguese :)
NATE IS IN A NEW AREA!
&
I know that Jesus Christ
is our best example
in this life
4/7/2014 LETTER FROM NATHAN TO EVERYONE
So this week has been a bit hard just because I´ve been trying to learn our area, and it’s a huge area! But it’s super good! We have some really good people we´re teaching and I love it! :)
So some crazy things that happened this week...
So, it turns out, in P Norte (my area) we have the biggest favela in our entire mission! What is a favela you ask? Well, it’s basically a big bunch of unplanned, squished together houses with dirt roads and trash all over the place! It’s the kind of thing you´d see a lot of in Rio and São Paulo. They develop because people don’t have money to buy houses... so they go to these places, find an area that doesn’t have a house already, and they build one out of the junky bricks they have here and really cheap cement. It’s an area that’s really poor but it has a ton of really good people there!
So, usually, Americans can watch General Conference in English so they can get the most out of it as possible but this time, the internet in the chapel was super bad, so it was only in Portuguese... The good news? I understood almost all of it! :) I was super happy because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to understand, but it was all good :) I loved it and I saw a little theme that was really cool to me was that 3 speakers (including the prophet) asked something along the lines of, "Who is your hero?" That struck me as a cool question because I have thought about that a ton on my mission. I´ve come to the conclusion that I have a ton of heroes that I look up to in my life.
1. My Dad- He has taught me througout my life to work hard and, maybe more important still, to work efficiently.
2. My Mom- She has taught me to be compassionate on others and try to see everyone in a good light (something we have to do a lot as missionaries)
3. My Uncles Bryan and Matt- They have taught me to work hard as well and also to have fun in everything you do! Just because you´re working doesn’t mean it has to be boring.
4. My Best friends (Spencer, Slade, and Cam (also my brother))- They´ve taught me about the value of good companionship and how we can get through anything if we have a friend or two (or three :). Right now, because of this, I value the companionship of the Spirit sooo much in my life because with it, I have gotten through some really hard experiences on my mission.
5. My Auntie Laura and Grandpa Monson- They have taught me to teach with love and to really try to help everyone as best you can because they deserve it.
6. My Sister, Megan- She has taught me to love. Through her influence in my life, I have learned that love is one of the coolest things in our life because it can turn the most hardened enemy into an awesome friend :)
So, this week, I want y´all to think about who are some examples in your lives that you really appreciate and let them know the influence they´ve had in your life and really thank them for that.
I know that Jesus Christ is our best example in this life of what we need to do to be better. Please, this week when you´re thanking your heroes, don’t forget him :)
Love,
Elder Ellis
4/2014 LETTER TO NATHAN'S AUNTIE LAURA
Hey Auntie!
I´m doing super well, thanks! I just got here in my new area so I don’t know, but I´ve heard some amazing things about it so I´m hoping! :) I´m in P Sul in the southwest of Brasilia. I don’t know my new investigators yet but if you would pray for S., an investigator we had in Santa Maria, that´d be great! She´s having a really hard time stopping drinking coffee. :) The language I´m feeling pretty comfortable with right now. I´m not perfect and having 3 American comps in a row has definitely slowed my learning down a bit, but I´m happy with where I am with only 7 months on the mission. My new comp. seems like a stud! Everyone I´ve talked to about him says he works really hard and gets a lot done so I´m glad about that! And yeah, they sent me some pics that left me really jealous... until I remembered where I am and that I get to see and experience some pretty crazy stuff every day! :) Yeah I heard about Eliza! She´s leaving at a time that she´ll get back about 3-4 weeks after I will, so that´ll be a cool reunion! :)
Thanks soooo much for writing Auntie!
Love,
Elder Ellis
So this week has been a bit hard just because I´ve been trying to learn our area, and it’s a huge area! But it’s super good! We have some really good people we´re teaching and I love it! :)
So some crazy things that happened this week...
So, it turns out, in P Norte (my area) we have the biggest favela in our entire mission! What is a favela you ask? Well, it’s basically a big bunch of unplanned, squished together houses with dirt roads and trash all over the place! It’s the kind of thing you´d see a lot of in Rio and São Paulo. They develop because people don’t have money to buy houses... so they go to these places, find an area that doesn’t have a house already, and they build one out of the junky bricks they have here and really cheap cement. It’s an area that’s really poor but it has a ton of really good people there!
So, usually, Americans can watch General Conference in English so they can get the most out of it as possible but this time, the internet in the chapel was super bad, so it was only in Portuguese... The good news? I understood almost all of it! :) I was super happy because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to understand, but it was all good :) I loved it and I saw a little theme that was really cool to me was that 3 speakers (including the prophet) asked something along the lines of, "Who is your hero?" That struck me as a cool question because I have thought about that a ton on my mission. I´ve come to the conclusion that I have a ton of heroes that I look up to in my life.
1. My Dad- He has taught me througout my life to work hard and, maybe more important still, to work efficiently.
2. My Mom- She has taught me to be compassionate on others and try to see everyone in a good light (something we have to do a lot as missionaries)
3. My Uncles Bryan and Matt- They have taught me to work hard as well and also to have fun in everything you do! Just because you´re working doesn’t mean it has to be boring.
4. My Best friends (Spencer, Slade, and Cam (also my brother))- They´ve taught me about the value of good companionship and how we can get through anything if we have a friend or two (or three :). Right now, because of this, I value the companionship of the Spirit sooo much in my life because with it, I have gotten through some really hard experiences on my mission.
5. My Auntie Laura and Grandpa Monson- They have taught me to teach with love and to really try to help everyone as best you can because they deserve it.
6. My Sister, Megan- She has taught me to love. Through her influence in my life, I have learned that love is one of the coolest things in our life because it can turn the most hardened enemy into an awesome friend :)
So, this week, I want y´all to think about who are some examples in your lives that you really appreciate and let them know the influence they´ve had in your life and really thank them for that.
I know that Jesus Christ is our best example in this life of what we need to do to be better. Please, this week when you´re thanking your heroes, don’t forget him :)
Love,
Elder Ellis
4/2014 LETTER TO NATHAN'S AUNTIE LAURA
Hey Auntie!
I´m doing super well, thanks! I just got here in my new area so I don’t know, but I´ve heard some amazing things about it so I´m hoping! :) I´m in P Sul in the southwest of Brasilia. I don’t know my new investigators yet but if you would pray for S., an investigator we had in Santa Maria, that´d be great! She´s having a really hard time stopping drinking coffee. :) The language I´m feeling pretty comfortable with right now. I´m not perfect and having 3 American comps in a row has definitely slowed my learning down a bit, but I´m happy with where I am with only 7 months on the mission. My new comp. seems like a stud! Everyone I´ve talked to about him says he works really hard and gets a lot done so I´m glad about that! And yeah, they sent me some pics that left me really jealous... until I remembered where I am and that I get to see and experience some pretty crazy stuff every day! :) Yeah I heard about Eliza! She´s leaving at a time that she´ll get back about 3-4 weeks after I will, so that´ll be a cool reunion! :)
Thanks soooo much for writing Auntie!
Love,
Elder Ellis
"it was also a huge testimony builder for me about the power of the priesthood."
LETTER FROM MOM- CATHERINE ELLIS TO NATHAN ELLIS 3/31/2014
Here is a piece of Nathan's companion's letter home to his family.
"I think I had the craziest experience of my mission, and possibly my life this week. One morning at 7 am we got a call from our district leader, Elder Sena, saying that the 4 of us needed to leave right away to go to a member's house who lives pretty far away. The lady there called him saying that they had a big problem in the house and needed the help of the Priesthood as soon as possible. So we got dressed real quick and ran over (about 20 minutes away for a quick walk). On the way we all knew something foreboding was coming because it started raining cats and dogs and we got absolutely drenched...thunder, lightning, bullets of rain, etc. We arrived to the house and started to dry off. As soon as we got in there we could all feel that something was just not right in the house. We sat down and talked with N. (the member) and her husband. They said that none of them slept at all during the night and that their daughter, R. (30 ish years old) had been acting very strange for several days. We talked with R. for a little bit and gave her a blessing of comfort. She still seemed a little weird and then in an instant she flipped out and started going crazy. She started chanting and dancing back and forth, shouting "I am Satan" and things like that. She would stop every now and then and just stare at all of us in the eyes. She looked so angry. We tried to talk to her and calm her down but nothing worked. We all had such a bad feeling in the house. This continued for over 2 hours. We all knew that something was definitely possessing her and that we needed to do something. She was especially angry with her father. One time she charged at her father to try and intimidate him and stare him down. The 4 of us stood up to block her off. She then stared all of us down with the evilest eyes I've ever seen. When she came to my companion he said, "Do you know who we are? We are representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are holders of the Priesthood of God and we command you to leave and not come back!" Right then she burst into tears and curled up on the couch. It was one of the most powerful moments I have ever been a part of to stand next to other Priesthood holders like that and to exercise the authority we have been given. Immediately the house felt better and the gloominess went away. We rededicated the house with the family after that. Their daughter continued to act strange and is in the hospital right now, but the family feels 1000x better. A very powerful experience."
FROM CATHERINE TO NATHAN
Who was the missionary that said, "Do you know who we are?. . . ."
Love you!!
Mom
LETTER FROM NATHAN ELLIS TO CATHERINE ELLIS 4/7/2014
Thanks for the email :) Yes, I was there and I was the one who said that stuff. I just felt like I should say something and the words just... came out. I feel like it was the spirit putting the words in my mouth because I really had no idea what to say and I just said it. It was a super powerful experience and It turns out that R. (the daughter) has a mental problem and if she doesn’t take medicine every hour of every day, she goes crazy and it affects her nervous system in a way that she can’t feel fatigue. That’s why she went crazy after, but even with her acting that way after the experience, the house felt much, much better.
Love,
Elder Ellis
LETTER FROM CATHERINE ELLIS TO NATHAN ELLIS 4/7/2014
Wow! What an experience to have "cast out devils" ; ) That is what the Savior did.
I don't understand mental illness, but I know it is real. It hurts my heart to see people I know and love have to suffer with them in this life. I'm so thankful for modern day medicine that can assist them, but the next life will be wonderful when we can see them whole again.
I will miss getting Elder P. 's letters. It was neat getting your experiences through both of you. It seemed he was a great guy.
FROM NATE TO CATHERINE
And yeah, I´ve "cast out devils," but it’s definitely not something I want to do again... It was super strange and the absence of the Spirit was so strong, it was really scary. But it was also a huge testimony builder for me about the power of the priesthood.
FROM NATHAN TO HIS PARENTS : )
Sweet! Thanks! And I realized this week that I haven’t been super gratefully with my thank you’s for the packages I´ve been receiving... I really am super grateful! I have loved every single one soooo much! My companions like them too ;) I´m super blessed to have parents that love me like you guys do! That’s one thing that being in Brazil has helped me with, I´m grateful that I have to parents that are together and strong in the Church! That’s super rare here and it makes me so happy to think that I was born to one of those few families :) So thanks sooooo much for the love, support, letters and packages!!!
I love ya’ll soooo much!! :)
Elder Ellis
Here is a piece of Nathan's companion's letter home to his family.
"I think I had the craziest experience of my mission, and possibly my life this week. One morning at 7 am we got a call from our district leader, Elder Sena, saying that the 4 of us needed to leave right away to go to a member's house who lives pretty far away. The lady there called him saying that they had a big problem in the house and needed the help of the Priesthood as soon as possible. So we got dressed real quick and ran over (about 20 minutes away for a quick walk). On the way we all knew something foreboding was coming because it started raining cats and dogs and we got absolutely drenched...thunder, lightning, bullets of rain, etc. We arrived to the house and started to dry off. As soon as we got in there we could all feel that something was just not right in the house. We sat down and talked with N. (the member) and her husband. They said that none of them slept at all during the night and that their daughter, R. (30 ish years old) had been acting very strange for several days. We talked with R. for a little bit and gave her a blessing of comfort. She still seemed a little weird and then in an instant she flipped out and started going crazy. She started chanting and dancing back and forth, shouting "I am Satan" and things like that. She would stop every now and then and just stare at all of us in the eyes. She looked so angry. We tried to talk to her and calm her down but nothing worked. We all had such a bad feeling in the house. This continued for over 2 hours. We all knew that something was definitely possessing her and that we needed to do something. She was especially angry with her father. One time she charged at her father to try and intimidate him and stare him down. The 4 of us stood up to block her off. She then stared all of us down with the evilest eyes I've ever seen. When she came to my companion he said, "Do you know who we are? We are representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are holders of the Priesthood of God and we command you to leave and not come back!" Right then she burst into tears and curled up on the couch. It was one of the most powerful moments I have ever been a part of to stand next to other Priesthood holders like that and to exercise the authority we have been given. Immediately the house felt better and the gloominess went away. We rededicated the house with the family after that. Their daughter continued to act strange and is in the hospital right now, but the family feels 1000x better. A very powerful experience."
FROM CATHERINE TO NATHAN
Who was the missionary that said, "Do you know who we are?. . . ."
Love you!!
Mom
LETTER FROM NATHAN ELLIS TO CATHERINE ELLIS 4/7/2014
Thanks for the email :) Yes, I was there and I was the one who said that stuff. I just felt like I should say something and the words just... came out. I feel like it was the spirit putting the words in my mouth because I really had no idea what to say and I just said it. It was a super powerful experience and It turns out that R. (the daughter) has a mental problem and if she doesn’t take medicine every hour of every day, she goes crazy and it affects her nervous system in a way that she can’t feel fatigue. That’s why she went crazy after, but even with her acting that way after the experience, the house felt much, much better.
Love,
Elder Ellis
LETTER FROM CATHERINE ELLIS TO NATHAN ELLIS 4/7/2014
Wow! What an experience to have "cast out devils" ; ) That is what the Savior did.
I don't understand mental illness, but I know it is real. It hurts my heart to see people I know and love have to suffer with them in this life. I'm so thankful for modern day medicine that can assist them, but the next life will be wonderful when we can see them whole again.
I will miss getting Elder P. 's letters. It was neat getting your experiences through both of you. It seemed he was a great guy.
FROM NATE TO CATHERINE
And yeah, I´ve "cast out devils," but it’s definitely not something I want to do again... It was super strange and the absence of the Spirit was so strong, it was really scary. But it was also a huge testimony builder for me about the power of the priesthood.
FROM NATHAN TO HIS PARENTS : )
Sweet! Thanks! And I realized this week that I haven’t been super gratefully with my thank you’s for the packages I´ve been receiving... I really am super grateful! I have loved every single one soooo much! My companions like them too ;) I´m super blessed to have parents that love me like you guys do! That’s one thing that being in Brazil has helped me with, I´m grateful that I have to parents that are together and strong in the Church! That’s super rare here and it makes me so happy to think that I was born to one of those few families :) So thanks sooooo much for the love, support, letters and packages!!!
I love ya’ll soooo much!! :)
Elder Ellis
The Lord is blessing them in so many different ways that its kind of hard NOT to notice!
March 31/2014
What’s up guys!
This week was just about normal (except for a few things...).
I´ll tell you about two things briefly that happened (one this week and one last week)
1. Elder Preator got head butted by one of the members in our ward! She has a chemical imbalance in her brain that makes her go crazy (like, literally crazy) if she doesn’t take medicine every hour. She didn’t take it for like 4 hours and started to go a bit wacko and act weird. She then started to say a bunch of crazy stuff and then proceeded to head butt my comp... We helped her to take some of her meds so she calmed down a bit after that, but we heard the next day that she didn’t take any more after we left and she had to be held down by 6 full grown men and taken to the hospital because it got so bad! That really made me super grateful to live in the US where care for people with those kinds of problems in this life is soooooo good in comparison. (wow that was bad spelling... but these computers don’t have spell check in English so...)
2.
I ate something really weird last week, quite possibly the weirdest thing I´ve ever eaten... Cow stomach... the flavor was actually surprisingly good but the texture was like eating... stomach... yeah, there´s no really good way of describing it but yeah! Weird but cool!
So, I got transferred today! It kind of stinks because Elder Preator and I have been doing soooo well together! But I like my new comp and area. My new comp is Elder Anderson from Arizona and I´m in P Sul in Ceilândia (on the southwest side of Brasilia). He and my new district seem really cool (but I don’t see my language skills improving amazingly because they´re all Americans... ha-ha!)
So, we didn’t end up baptizing any of the solid four people we had marked for baptism on Saturday. They all fell through because of one reason or another but most of them will be ready for baptism this transfer! I´m sooo proud of them for making this decision to be baptized! It is a hard thing we´re asking people to do here. We´re asking people to change in big ways, to change how you think, to change how you love, to change how you eat/drink, to change how you live essentially. But, the results of these changes is always a better, happier life centered on Jesus Christ. That’s why I´m not disappointed with them, because I can already see the results from these changes in their lives and its amazing! The Lord is blessing them in so many different ways that its kind of hard NOT to notice! That’s why I love what I´m doing here and why I don’t miss home too much (notice I said "too much" and not "not at all"). I´m helping people to make changes that make a difference in our lives no matter who we are, no matter what we´ve done, no matter what is going on in our lives right now, no matter what period. I love it!
Love you all!
Elder Ellis
we got the açaì and ate it and we were about to pay when the lady started talking to us about the church and she said she wanted us to visit her husband! We said we would and she was super happy about us and bought us our Açaì!!!!
MARCH 10, 2014
So this week was a little more than stressful... but it was super awesome at the same time!!!!!!!!! I´ll tell you why. This week was the week that everyone in our mission was supposed to get the "Standard of Excellence" (25 lessons (10 with a member), 7 new investigators, 2 people marked with a baptismal date and 4 non-members at church) which is super hard to get but Elder Preator and I usually get really close every week because we work really hard. Well, the mission leaders picked a super great (not) week to try to get everyone to get it because we had 2 days where basically the whole mission had to be back in their houses before a certain time because of the last two days of Carnival (our time was 6 pm which left us about 3 - 3 1/2 hours to work on those days). So we basically lost about a day’s worth of work to that which was fine for us, we just worked harder. Well, then disaster struck and one of the days it rained so hard that we couldn’t leave the house we were at for 4 HOURS!!!!! We got almost literally nothing done that day because we were stranded!!! The street and sidewalk outside were like a river and one raindrop was big enough to just about get your entire palm wet! It was crazy and that’s coming from someone who´s been through hurricanes in Houston! So, basically this week we had about 4 1/2-5 days to work! Só (only)! And by Saturday, we only had 10 lessons and two new investigators! We were a little desperate and so on Sat, we planned a really super filled day and prayed like we never have in our lives that we could have a super awesome day, then went out and did it. :)
13-15 MILES of walking later, we got 5 lessons with a member present, 4 without and 6 new investigators!!!!! It was by far the best day that either of us had on our missions and we slipped into bed that night after planning knowing that we only had to get 6 more lessons the next day (still a really hard day but a bit less). The thing that was on our minds the most though was getting people to church because it’s the one thing in the Standard of Excellence that we have almost no control over. In the past with me and Elder P, we´d never gotten 4 at church even though we had invited tons of people to come and they´d accepted but almost always we´ve had 3... So we woke up and prayed again for success and that our investigators would have the desire to go to church and then we went to grab a few of them that we told we´d pass by before to help them. 3 houses and 6 people, and about 4 miles of walking between 8:15 and 8:45and not a single one of them could go... We had invited 11 people, our strongest investigators, to come along with a few people we knew wouldn’t come, but after that we were down to about 5 people we´d invited... and we got to church and 1 of them was there... :/ oh man we were praying so hard that the others would show up! Then another came, then another!!! And then we found out that the two others, our last hopes, couldn’t come and we just felt defeated. The one week the mission really, really wanted us to try and we were going to come up short... But then a miracle happened! One of the members that we are really close with brought her son who isn’t a member AND another member brought his non-member wife!!!!! It was a miracle!!! We couldn’t believe it! We had 5 at church!!!! 5!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We were overjoyed and we got our lessons and met the standard for the first time Elder P and I have been companions! With only 5 days to work! :) Oh, you can bet we prayed as hard in gratefulness after the week was over as we had for the help :) It was an amazing week and I´m just super happy right now :)
Another thing that happened that was AMAZING this week has to do with probably my favorite thing about Brasil (other than the people of course). Açaì :) This is a berry that only grows in the amazon and we don’t have almost any in the US and it’s usually just sold online and its really expensive there and supposedly it´s a "magic energy berry"... ha-ha! Here, it’s just açaì, the greatest thing on earth ;) And I like to think we get more energy after eating it because it just really brightens up our days cause its sooooooo good :) They serve it here like ice cream. So Monday, Elder Preator and I really wanted some, so we went to our favorite place and it was closed because of Carnival!! It was like the end of the world for us!! We really wanted some and it was CLOSED!!! So, we went to another place ;) So we got the açaì and ate it and were about to pay when the lady started talking to us about the church and she said she wanted us to visit her husband! We said we would and she was super happy about us and bought us our Açaì!!!! That was really awesome of her and we were super happy, but it got better! We visited him and it turns out that he has met with other missionaries a TON, knows that our church is true and the Book of Mormon também, and LOVES church and just hasn’t gone in a while! A gold mine right here! His wife is a member but hasn’t been active almost at all and the only thing holding him back from being baptized right now is that they aren’t married... because of an ID card that she lost and now they can’t get married until she goes through this huge process to get another one... But they really want to try again and get the card and get married and baptized (on his part :)! That was a huge blessing in our lives this week to find... or be sent, to him :)
Yup, that’s about as much as I can think right now cause my brain is fried and I´m tired from playing soccer this morning... so basically, I´m really happy right now :) Have a great week and I´ll return next week with more amazing adventures of The Texan Elders! Until then, make sure to read the scriptures, pray, and go to church! :)
Love y´all!
Elder Ellis
Oh!!! I completely forgot!!!! As of Tuesday, I´ve been on the mission for 6 MONTHS!!!! Can you guys believe it?????? Its crazy!!! :)
So this week was a little more than stressful... but it was super awesome at the same time!!!!!!!!! I´ll tell you why. This week was the week that everyone in our mission was supposed to get the "Standard of Excellence" (25 lessons (10 with a member), 7 new investigators, 2 people marked with a baptismal date and 4 non-members at church) which is super hard to get but Elder Preator and I usually get really close every week because we work really hard. Well, the mission leaders picked a super great (not) week to try to get everyone to get it because we had 2 days where basically the whole mission had to be back in their houses before a certain time because of the last two days of Carnival (our time was 6 pm which left us about 3 - 3 1/2 hours to work on those days). So we basically lost about a day’s worth of work to that which was fine for us, we just worked harder. Well, then disaster struck and one of the days it rained so hard that we couldn’t leave the house we were at for 4 HOURS!!!!! We got almost literally nothing done that day because we were stranded!!! The street and sidewalk outside were like a river and one raindrop was big enough to just about get your entire palm wet! It was crazy and that’s coming from someone who´s been through hurricanes in Houston! So, basically this week we had about 4 1/2-5 days to work! Só (only)! And by Saturday, we only had 10 lessons and two new investigators! We were a little desperate and so on Sat, we planned a really super filled day and prayed like we never have in our lives that we could have a super awesome day, then went out and did it. :)
13-15 MILES of walking later, we got 5 lessons with a member present, 4 without and 6 new investigators!!!!! It was by far the best day that either of us had on our missions and we slipped into bed that night after planning knowing that we only had to get 6 more lessons the next day (still a really hard day but a bit less). The thing that was on our minds the most though was getting people to church because it’s the one thing in the Standard of Excellence that we have almost no control over. In the past with me and Elder P, we´d never gotten 4 at church even though we had invited tons of people to come and they´d accepted but almost always we´ve had 3... So we woke up and prayed again for success and that our investigators would have the desire to go to church and then we went to grab a few of them that we told we´d pass by before to help them. 3 houses and 6 people, and about 4 miles of walking between 8:15 and 8:45and not a single one of them could go... We had invited 11 people, our strongest investigators, to come along with a few people we knew wouldn’t come, but after that we were down to about 5 people we´d invited... and we got to church and 1 of them was there... :/ oh man we were praying so hard that the others would show up! Then another came, then another!!! And then we found out that the two others, our last hopes, couldn’t come and we just felt defeated. The one week the mission really, really wanted us to try and we were going to come up short... But then a miracle happened! One of the members that we are really close with brought her son who isn’t a member AND another member brought his non-member wife!!!!! It was a miracle!!! We couldn’t believe it! We had 5 at church!!!! 5!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We were overjoyed and we got our lessons and met the standard for the first time Elder P and I have been companions! With only 5 days to work! :) Oh, you can bet we prayed as hard in gratefulness after the week was over as we had for the help :) It was an amazing week and I´m just super happy right now :)
Another thing that happened that was AMAZING this week has to do with probably my favorite thing about Brasil (other than the people of course). Açaì :) This is a berry that only grows in the amazon and we don’t have almost any in the US and it’s usually just sold online and its really expensive there and supposedly it´s a "magic energy berry"... ha-ha! Here, it’s just açaì, the greatest thing on earth ;) And I like to think we get more energy after eating it because it just really brightens up our days cause its sooooooo good :) They serve it here like ice cream. So Monday, Elder Preator and I really wanted some, so we went to our favorite place and it was closed because of Carnival!! It was like the end of the world for us!! We really wanted some and it was CLOSED!!! So, we went to another place ;) So we got the açaì and ate it and were about to pay when the lady started talking to us about the church and she said she wanted us to visit her husband! We said we would and she was super happy about us and bought us our Açaì!!!! That was really awesome of her and we were super happy, but it got better! We visited him and it turns out that he has met with other missionaries a TON, knows that our church is true and the Book of Mormon também, and LOVES church and just hasn’t gone in a while! A gold mine right here! His wife is a member but hasn’t been active almost at all and the only thing holding him back from being baptized right now is that they aren’t married... because of an ID card that she lost and now they can’t get married until she goes through this huge process to get another one... But they really want to try again and get the card and get married and baptized (on his part :)! That was a huge blessing in our lives this week to find... or be sent, to him :)
Yup, that’s about as much as I can think right now cause my brain is fried and I´m tired from playing soccer this morning... so basically, I´m really happy right now :) Have a great week and I´ll return next week with more amazing adventures of The Texan Elders! Until then, make sure to read the scriptures, pray, and go to church! :)
Love y´all!
Elder Ellis
Oh!!! I completely forgot!!!! As of Tuesday, I´ve been on the mission for 6 MONTHS!!!! Can you guys believe it?????? Its crazy!!! :)
"Seeing this kind of change in people´s lives
and the happiness the gospel of
Jesus Christ brings to peoples lives
is definitely the best part about the mission :)"
PICTURES ABOVE:
1. Baptism of Natalia!
2. Beautiful skies after a rainstorm.
3. A chess game he and his companion made to pass some time since they have to be in by 6 p.m. during Carnival.
QUESTIONS FROM MOM TO NATE 3/3/2014
1. Have you adjusted to being with someone 24/7?
2. How are you eating? Do you have dinner appointments with members?
3. Do you have any pictures of your current apartment?
ANSWERS FROM NATE TO MOM 3/3/2014
1 yes, I was just thinking about that today actually :) Its easy when you have a good companion that you work well with.
2 We´re eating very well and we have Almoço appointments almost every day (lunch)
3 no, but I´ll take some :)
LETTER FROM NATHAN TO EVERYONE 3/3/2014
CARNIVAL IS HERE
Então, right now, carnaval is going on. What does that mean for missionaries trying to mind their own business? Well let me tell you. We have to be in at 6 pm, we have to take detours to avoid people that are drunk and high, and get to share short messages with people in the street that ask for us to "shhhhare da wordssss of God wiff ushh man." ha-ha! Oh, and we have to deal with the consequences if we don't take the proper precautions and avoid the drunks ha-ha... funny story of the week.
We were meeting up with the other Elders to go to lunch on Saturday (first day of Carnaval) and we were waiting for them. Well, we saw them walk onto the street we were sitting on and start to walk towards us when something happened. It looked like someone went up to them and wanted to know about the gospel and they were talking with him (this was the first day of my and Elder Preator´s first Carnaval and that sort of stuff happens about twice a week to us soooo..... that's what we thought happened) Well, they started walking with this guy towards where we were sitting and when they (and the guy) got there, we saw that the guy was drunk and using some sort of drugs... and when he saw Elder P and I, he started freaking out and said something about meeting 4 elders in the same day was like the craziest thing that had ever happened to him in his life! Well, Elder P and I thought this was a good thing...
but then he looked me square in the eyes, still smiling and said, and I quote, "What you Elders are doing here in Brazil is a truely ugly thing." This took me by complete surprise and I asked him why. He said that he had read the Book of Mormon and that it and the bible were obviously lies and that we were telling people to change their lives with no purpose! We were all dumbfounded and not to mention late for our lunch appointment so I told him that maybe some other time a little later we could talk to him a bit more (thinking in my mind that maybe that "later" would be a time when he was a little less drunk and a lot less high) but we had to go to a lunch appointment. Well, he said he would buy us lunch anywhere we wanted if we would just talk with him about our "hogwash" religion (directly translated). I was half tempted to accept and have him buy us Pizza Hut (which they have here... but its like $30 USD for one medium pizza so no missionaries can afford it) but we declined politely and told him to have a nice day and started walking toward our appointment which was really far away. Well, he started to follow us. He followed us for about 20 min almost all the way to our appointment yelling about how Joseph Smith was a complete lie and that our message didn't make any sense and that Jesus Christ was a lie made up by people that were full of lies that wanted to mislead everyone.... It was really bad... so we started praying for a way to get away from him before we got to our appointment. Well, when we were almost there, we saw a new member that needed help carrying some things to his house, so we volunteered and helped him, and asked him to let us in just to get away from that guy and he let us. :) Around all of the properties here they have big walls and doors like garage doors called a portão and when the member let us in, he just closed it in the other guy´s face and wouldn't let him in :) Then the drunk went away and we were about to leave and the new member who´s house we were in told us that if anyone messed with us like that again to call him up and he´d "take care of him" :) ha-ha!
But yeah, Carnaval has been crazy already but hey, its part of the "Brazil" package ;) This week has been really awesome spiritually também though! So we were at a supermarket a few weeks ago and a kid walked up to us and asked us if we could come to his house sometime and talk to him about America. We said sure and got his address from him and didn't think about it too much more until this week when we were praying for some solid, new investigators to teach. When we prayed, we remembered him and so the next day, we visited him. Well, turns out, he lives with his mom... and 9 other siblings (thats not even all of the kids... 3 are living in São Paulo)... and 7 or 6 of the kids living there are under the age of 8.... haha! But the mom and the 3 kids that are old enough to understand our messages and be baptized eventually are really interested in them and want to learn more about the church :) The mom has problems with just about the whole Word of Wisdom (she drinks coffee, black tea, smokes, and drinks álcool... I forgot how to spell that in english... haha) but I think she and her kids are going to be good investigators and maybe get baptized! :) in the distant future... haha!
Then we decided to just invite all of our investigators that have any potential that we can see to be baptized... so we did, and all with success! Some accepted and we set a date for a goal right then and there, some just accepted, and some didn't (which is still a win with us, and I´ll tell you why. When they don't accept baptism, we can find out the concerns right then and there and see where they need help, what we could explain better, and judge if we should focus on them or if we should find others to teach because they´re not willing to change their lives in the ways they need to to make sincere covenant with God (like baptism)). So, that was a really really good part of the week :) and to top it off, I got my first straight up "No" this week when I asked someone if they would like to be baptized. It actually felt really good because after tons of people telling us yes and then not really wanting to and us trying to determine if they really do want to, we were able to find out right away what her concerns were and it was easy to see she really didn't want to hear our message anymore but her daughter did, so we will focus now more on the daughter and less on the mother. :) That was good :)
So the best part about this week was the baptism that we had on Saturday :) It was the baptism of Nathália, the daughter of Edilene. She´s probably going to be one of the most solid baptisms of my entire mission! She´s like a friggin sponge with knowlege, has already read up to Mosiah in the Book of Mormon, and already knows more about the church and what we believe than some of the long time members here in our ward :) So the baptism was really super spiritual and the other Elders and I sang "I am a Child of God". It wasnt super great, or on tune... but it was cool :) Then I got to baptize Nathália and she almost started crying after... I´m still not sure if it was because the water was pretty cold for Brasil or because she was super happy and feeling the spirit... I´m pretty sure it was the second one ;) Then in Sacrement Meeting yesterday in church, she got up and bore her testimony about how she knows the church is true and how she got her answer. It was a super powerful and firm testimony and I was super happy for her :) Elder Preator and I talked about it and both decided that seeing this kind of change in people´s lives and the happiness the gospel of Jesus Christ brings to peoples lives is definitely the best part about the mission :)
Love you all and hope this letter finds you well!
Elder Ellis
1. Baptism of Natalia!
2. Beautiful skies after a rainstorm.
3. A chess game he and his companion made to pass some time since they have to be in by 6 p.m. during Carnival.
QUESTIONS FROM MOM TO NATE 3/3/2014
1. Have you adjusted to being with someone 24/7?
2. How are you eating? Do you have dinner appointments with members?
3. Do you have any pictures of your current apartment?
ANSWERS FROM NATE TO MOM 3/3/2014
1 yes, I was just thinking about that today actually :) Its easy when you have a good companion that you work well with.
2 We´re eating very well and we have Almoço appointments almost every day (lunch)
3 no, but I´ll take some :)
LETTER FROM NATHAN TO EVERYONE 3/3/2014
CARNIVAL IS HERE
Então, right now, carnaval is going on. What does that mean for missionaries trying to mind their own business? Well let me tell you. We have to be in at 6 pm, we have to take detours to avoid people that are drunk and high, and get to share short messages with people in the street that ask for us to "shhhhare da wordssss of God wiff ushh man." ha-ha! Oh, and we have to deal with the consequences if we don't take the proper precautions and avoid the drunks ha-ha... funny story of the week.
We were meeting up with the other Elders to go to lunch on Saturday (first day of Carnaval) and we were waiting for them. Well, we saw them walk onto the street we were sitting on and start to walk towards us when something happened. It looked like someone went up to them and wanted to know about the gospel and they were talking with him (this was the first day of my and Elder Preator´s first Carnaval and that sort of stuff happens about twice a week to us soooo..... that's what we thought happened) Well, they started walking with this guy towards where we were sitting and when they (and the guy) got there, we saw that the guy was drunk and using some sort of drugs... and when he saw Elder P and I, he started freaking out and said something about meeting 4 elders in the same day was like the craziest thing that had ever happened to him in his life! Well, Elder P and I thought this was a good thing...
but then he looked me square in the eyes, still smiling and said, and I quote, "What you Elders are doing here in Brazil is a truely ugly thing." This took me by complete surprise and I asked him why. He said that he had read the Book of Mormon and that it and the bible were obviously lies and that we were telling people to change their lives with no purpose! We were all dumbfounded and not to mention late for our lunch appointment so I told him that maybe some other time a little later we could talk to him a bit more (thinking in my mind that maybe that "later" would be a time when he was a little less drunk and a lot less high) but we had to go to a lunch appointment. Well, he said he would buy us lunch anywhere we wanted if we would just talk with him about our "hogwash" religion (directly translated). I was half tempted to accept and have him buy us Pizza Hut (which they have here... but its like $30 USD for one medium pizza so no missionaries can afford it) but we declined politely and told him to have a nice day and started walking toward our appointment which was really far away. Well, he started to follow us. He followed us for about 20 min almost all the way to our appointment yelling about how Joseph Smith was a complete lie and that our message didn't make any sense and that Jesus Christ was a lie made up by people that were full of lies that wanted to mislead everyone.... It was really bad... so we started praying for a way to get away from him before we got to our appointment. Well, when we were almost there, we saw a new member that needed help carrying some things to his house, so we volunteered and helped him, and asked him to let us in just to get away from that guy and he let us. :) Around all of the properties here they have big walls and doors like garage doors called a portão and when the member let us in, he just closed it in the other guy´s face and wouldn't let him in :) Then the drunk went away and we were about to leave and the new member who´s house we were in told us that if anyone messed with us like that again to call him up and he´d "take care of him" :) ha-ha!
But yeah, Carnaval has been crazy already but hey, its part of the "Brazil" package ;) This week has been really awesome spiritually também though! So we were at a supermarket a few weeks ago and a kid walked up to us and asked us if we could come to his house sometime and talk to him about America. We said sure and got his address from him and didn't think about it too much more until this week when we were praying for some solid, new investigators to teach. When we prayed, we remembered him and so the next day, we visited him. Well, turns out, he lives with his mom... and 9 other siblings (thats not even all of the kids... 3 are living in São Paulo)... and 7 or 6 of the kids living there are under the age of 8.... haha! But the mom and the 3 kids that are old enough to understand our messages and be baptized eventually are really interested in them and want to learn more about the church :) The mom has problems with just about the whole Word of Wisdom (she drinks coffee, black tea, smokes, and drinks álcool... I forgot how to spell that in english... haha) but I think she and her kids are going to be good investigators and maybe get baptized! :) in the distant future... haha!
Then we decided to just invite all of our investigators that have any potential that we can see to be baptized... so we did, and all with success! Some accepted and we set a date for a goal right then and there, some just accepted, and some didn't (which is still a win with us, and I´ll tell you why. When they don't accept baptism, we can find out the concerns right then and there and see where they need help, what we could explain better, and judge if we should focus on them or if we should find others to teach because they´re not willing to change their lives in the ways they need to to make sincere covenant with God (like baptism)). So, that was a really really good part of the week :) and to top it off, I got my first straight up "No" this week when I asked someone if they would like to be baptized. It actually felt really good because after tons of people telling us yes and then not really wanting to and us trying to determine if they really do want to, we were able to find out right away what her concerns were and it was easy to see she really didn't want to hear our message anymore but her daughter did, so we will focus now more on the daughter and less on the mother. :) That was good :)
So the best part about this week was the baptism that we had on Saturday :) It was the baptism of Nathália, the daughter of Edilene. She´s probably going to be one of the most solid baptisms of my entire mission! She´s like a friggin sponge with knowlege, has already read up to Mosiah in the Book of Mormon, and already knows more about the church and what we believe than some of the long time members here in our ward :) So the baptism was really super spiritual and the other Elders and I sang "I am a Child of God". It wasnt super great, or on tune... but it was cool :) Then I got to baptize Nathália and she almost started crying after... I´m still not sure if it was because the water was pretty cold for Brasil or because she was super happy and feeling the spirit... I´m pretty sure it was the second one ;) Then in Sacrement Meeting yesterday in church, she got up and bore her testimony about how she knows the church is true and how she got her answer. It was a super powerful and firm testimony and I was super happy for her :) Elder Preator and I talked about it and both decided that seeing this kind of change in people´s lives and the happiness the gospel of Jesus Christ brings to peoples lives is definitely the best part about the mission :)
Love you all and hope this letter finds you well!
Elder Ellis
I said that I knew that she had been forgiven . . . she started crying
and said that now she felt peace and felt like she had been forgiven!
Then she told us that she wanted to get baptized!
LETTER FROM NATHAN TO EVERYONE FEBRUARY 24, 2014
So just for the info, I got pretty sun burnt today... ha-ha! It’s pretty bad but I got it while playing soccer today with the zone :)
Anyways, this week, Elder Preator and I worked the hardest we´ve ever worked because we have a goal for 5 baptisms together before one of us gets transferred and we´re at 1 right now... and this week ended up being super-duper spiritual! People came out of the wood work, people we never thought would be interested in our church, and just wanted us to talk to them about it! And every single time it happened, the lesson was super spiritual and they wanted to learn even more!
So, something that happened this week that was super funny. So, last Saturday, we had Edilene´s baptism, right? And we invited one of our pesquisadors (Socorro) to come and she accepted. Well, about 30 min later at the baptism, she wasn’t there and we were a bit disappointed cause she told us she would love to come... but whatever, right? Another day in the life of a missionary.
So we went to her house a few days later and met her daughter and told her about it and she was like, "Oh, She told us she was going! How rude of her!" ha-ha, so we taught a lesson and left. Well, a few days ago, we went over again and right as she opened the portão, she said something like, "My daughter said I wasn’t at the baptism but I really was! I saw you guys there!" At this point, I was thinking, wow! Lie detector going crazy! But we ended up listening to what she had to say and found something a little strange, a bit ironic, and super, super funny :) So, we told her that we hadn’t seen her there and she said there were a lot of people there and she was sitting on the opposite side... in reality, there were only about 20 people there... so we asked her who was being baptized and straight away she responded that there were 3 people being baptized, one´s name was Jessica. At this point we were like, "ok, now she´s just making things up and making fun of us..." but then she said something that made us stop and say a big huge, "Huh??" She said that the pastor or bishop or whatever we call the head of the congregation was wearing a green sash or something like that... First, the Bishop couldn’t be there... he was way in Asa Sul... and we don’t wear anything like that for baptisms... My first thought was, "No.. ha-ha.. really?" ha-ha! Then I thought, "She´s not the greatest at remembering things, but really, something this big? Ha-ha-ha!" Then I asked her which church she went to and she said the Catholic church up the road by Xuxa Lorde´s... and Elder Preator and I busted out laughing sooo hard and she couldn’t figure out what it was till her daughter told her that we weren’t Catholic... we´re Mormon :) She had gone to a Catholic church up the road from our church (right in front of Xuxa Lorde´s) and they happened to have a baptism at exactly the same time and she went there instead of our baptism and she saw two men dressed in white shirts and ties sitting on the other side and thought they were us ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!! It was definitely one of the funniest things that’s happened to us here :)
Then we had some really awesome spiritual experiences too!
So you guys remember Edilene´s daughter, Nathalia? Well one day we were visiting their house and she was there. Usually she had some questions about what she had read in the Book of Mormon the previous day or something but today she said she wanted to talk about three things. Sin, Repentance, and Baptism :) We were super excited and she said lets first talk about sin, so we defined sin as simply as we could as doing something consciously that God has asked us not to do. She said that obviously some sins are worse than others and she didn’t know if she could be forgiven for some sins she´s had in her life. She said she´d sincerely tried to repent but didn’t know if it was acceptable to God. At this point I let out a little sigh of relief and I asked if she had killed someone or denied the Holy Ghost after having had a perfect knowledge of Christ and what he did for us and she said of course not! So I said that I knew that she had been forgiven and she started crying and said that now she felt peace and felt like she had been forgiven! Then she told us that she wanted to get baptized! So we set a date for this Saturday and she´s super excited and we´re super excited and the whole ward is super excited and it´s gonna be great! She´s already like someone who could already have been a member for like a year already! She´s super awesome :)
Well, I ran out of time a lot faster than I thought I would but I love you all! Have a great week!!
Love,
Elder Ellis
LETTER FROM NATE’S COMPANION ELDER PREATOR TO HIS FAMILY FEBRUARY 26, 2014
(Catherine: I am part of a "mom's yahoo group for missionaries in Brazil". I posted a comment on how the Lord blesses these missionaries with the gift of tongues when they have been visa waiters using Nathan's companion as an example. . .only being out a few weeks but picking up the language quickly. I didn't know but Elder Preator's mom was on the website and recognized the story, so we have been going back and forth the last few days. I sent her Nate's letter of what he said about the week and she sent me her son's letter of what happened. It was fun to compare their letters!)
Family and Friends-
We had an absolutely marvelous week. Can't really remember the last bad week I've had on the mission... I am so blessed to be so happy right now. The work is hard and long at times, but wow, it really satisfies the soul like nothing else can.
The highlight of the week was the confirmation of Edilene, the woman who was baptized 2 weeks ago. She was confirmed yesterday in church. Then last night we went over to her house to congratulate her on becoming the newest member of Christ's church in Santa Maria. As we were talking she told us a story of what happened to her after church. She went to a birthday party for a friend and there was lots of alcohol there. Just a few weeks ago she said she would have been downing more drinks than anyone else there. But yesterday was different. She said she had absolutely zero desire to even take a sip of beer. She even felt a little sick thinking about it. Even when her friends were urging her on and telling her to do it she stood firm. We were so proud of her. We talked to her about this wonderful new gift she has, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and how already it is helping her to withstand temptation. She thought that was so cool and then bore her testimony to us how much she knows this gospel is true.
Her daughter, Nathalia, is also going to be baptized soon! We had a very spiritual lesson with her this week. She said she wanted to talk about two things... repentance and baptism. She wanted to make sure she had fully repented of all of her previous sins. So we talked about it with her and told her we thought she was ready. She agreed and said she knows deep down in her heart that this is the true church of Jesus Christ. So... she is getting baptized this Saturday!!! We are so stoked for it. She has been reading the Book of Mormon every single day and that has been the real key for her conversion as she has felt the Spirit testify to her that this is true.
We had a couple of funny stories from this week. First off, we were visiting one night with one of our investigators, Socorro. A couple of weeks ago we had stopped by her house on our way to the chapel for Edilene's baptism to invite her. It was literally only 45 minutes before the baptism. She was super excited about it and promised us that she would show up. Well, the baptism came and went and we saw no sign of Socorro. We thought that it was pretty lame of her to say she would go literally only 45 minutes before and then not show up. But we went back to her house this week with love for her and to continue to teach her. The first thing she tells us is how much she enjoyed the baptism! We were like, "Huh?" She then ensured us that she went. She then started describing the white robe and green sash that our "Father" was wearing (??). We were very confused because we don't have "Fathers" at our church and no one wears green sashes at baptisms. Then she asked "It was the Catholic church in block 315, right?" We said no, it was the Mormon Church in block 315... right down the street from the Catholic church. Then she said "wait... you're not Catholic missionaries?" Hahahahahaha. We told her the full name of our church and then we all laughed for a good 5 minutes. She was so embarassed. I guess the first missionaries who went over there could have done a little better job introducing themselves, haha.
Another story that was a little funny happened at Wizard, the language course place. We stop in there a few times every week and are very close with lots of the employees there (Edilene works there) and especially the receptionist, Nice. Well, Nice invited us to a little "party" there this week. We told her we would go (because she said they'd have cake) but totally forgot about it. So Nice called us during the middle of it asking us where we were. We ran over as fast as we could after that. Well, we show up and learn it is a bridal shower for one of the employees who we had only met once... and we were the only guys there. Plus, we were the only ones eating anything. So here we are, two awkward-looking American missionaries sitting in the corner of the room chowing down on cake as we are surrounded by 10+ Brazilian women there for a bridal shower. It was really awkward. I think that it was the first and only bridal shower I will ever go to.
Well folks, that's it for this week. We are having a blast every day here in Santa Maria. I am feeling true joy right now as I try to dedicate my time to the Lord. I know how much our Heavenly Father loves each and every one of us. At times he lets us struggle a little bit so that we can learn and grow... always remember this. Bruce A. Carlson of the the 70 told us in Las Vegas that many times the Lord lets us walk in the dark for a short bit to see just how dedicated we are... to see if we are tough enough to endure hard things. I know that we are so blessed for the service we give and for the things we endure. Always remember the love Heavenly Father has for you and you can always find joy in this life.
Com Amor,
Elder P.
This is a part from his personal email to me. (FROM ELDER PREATOR TO HIS MOTHER)
Hey mother goose-
First off, that is really cool that you connected with Elder Ellis' mom! He showed me an email like 10 minutes ago that his mom sent him saying she ran into you online. They lived in Virginia for a little bit and know the Calderwood's too, haha! Elder Ellis is one of my favorite companions so far. He is really nice and fun to goof around with. We work very well together... most success for both of us on our missions right now.
------------------------------------------------------------
This is a description from a missionary in Brazil. Is this how you would describe where you are???
=============
“Brasil is a truly amazing place. I will tell you more about what it is like to live in Brasil. The homes here are small, but quite exotic. No homes have air conditioning, neither does the church in which our ward meets. The windows and doors of the homes are always open - it is almost as if you are living outside. The bathrooms are one small single room. The toilet, shower, and sink are all on the same level - in other wards there are no bath tubs such as in America. All homes have portãos, which are gates that in a way act as garage doors. Although the homes are small - they are still quite nice and well decorated. The homes are painted in many colors. The people are poor, but still dress very modern as if living in America. It is interesting seeing poor people dress so well, or rather their clothes do not look scroungy. They do not dress with modesty. The members are generally very intelligent. They are very happy.
The streets are wild and chaotic. In the United States, people would be calling the police around the clock for the chaos. The music here is unlike anything I have heard before. It seems all people all outside because homes are small. Every fifty yards someone is blasting music - they have funk - which is Brasilan rap. It is interesting in that it has no rythymn like the music of the US. It is an amazing experience.
The food here is generally really cheap and really good. They have many restaurants similar to Rodizio grill, for the cost of 5 - 7 US dollars you can eat at an all you can eat buffet. Most mornings we have fresh bread from the paderia - or bakery. The bread is very inexpensive and good. We eat the bread with meat and cheese. I often eat fruit with breakfast - sometimes in a smoothie or as juice.
When we need to get around we ride on the buses. The buses drive fast. These buses would never fly in America because they are dangerous. I am surprised I have not seen a person get hit by a bus. This past week I was nearly hit by a bus - it came with in a foot of me as my companion and me were walking along the road. My back was to it as it passed me. We are being safe.”
---------------
Is this how you would describe where you are???
LETTER FROM NATHAN TO MOM 2/24/2014
That sounds about right! :)
A little note about Funk: Its pronounsed "Funkee" (the ee´s are a really breathy sound) and I cant understand what it says but apparently its super super bad... it sounds pretty cool but it all has the same, "Choo cha cha choo cha cha" in the background haha!
Hey Y´all!!! February 17, 2014
So this week was awesome and full of some unusual stuff :) Lets begin, shall we?
So you guys remember Felipe, our investigator that knows English really well? Well, let me tell you something about Portuguese pronunciation. When we have a `ch´ we say it like an `sh´ sound. Keep that in mind. Well, we were at his house this week talking to him about stuff and somehow games you play on your phone came up in our conversation and he started tellin us how he cheats and stuff on them. Well here´s what he wanted to say. " I always cheat on games, I use cheats all the time. I just look up these cheats in my spare time then use the cheat in the game. I guess I´m just a friggin cheater..." Ha-ha! By this point, Elder Preator and I were just about dying from laughter and he couldn’t figure out why! ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! It was one of the funniest experiences I´ve had here on the mission :) He pronounced everything right... almost :) If you don’t get what happened, read the Portuguese pronunciation tip again ;)
Then, a little later in the week, we were just walking down a street and we came by a guy wearing a C.A.M jersey (a soccer team in Minas Geris (a state in Brazil)). Well, that team is one of my favorites here in Brazil so I stopped by to talk to him. Well, turns out, he was a little drunk and a little hard to understand but was really cool... haha! He said he was from Minas and he loved C.A.M. and that we could come visit him another time. We then turned to leave and he said, really sluridly (if that’s even a real word ;) "you guys want a sodaaa... :)" so we said yeah and he just walked into a bar and let us choose a soda :) I don’t know if he realized that he had to buy it... but yeah :) Free soda from drunk guys haha! Mission life :)
The next thing was just one of the awesomest things about the mission and makes every minute worth it :) We have a family we´re teaching who has a 4 year old son, Bruno. This kid is awesome :) His favorite music is Evangelical like church music ha-ha! The first time we met him he just started to talk to us and have fun and stuff and literally became one of my favorite people here in Brazil. He´s just super awesome and every time we see him in the street, he´ll spot us first and literally run a block from where he had been playing to give us hugs :) He´s only 4 but he´s already one of my greatest examples of Christ-like love I´ve seen in my life!
The final thing I want to share is that the mission has really helped me build my faith in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Through helping people to be more like him, which is basically what we´re here for, I learn and grow soooo much to be more like him myself. I feel more loving, kind, outgoing, willing to help, and happy than I have at almost any other point in my life. The mission is changing me and I love it! It’s weird that I´m already almost 1/4 done and will be returning in a year and 6 1/2 months... In this next few months I´m going to challenge you all to try to be more like Christ in your lives and live as he would live in your place. :)
Have a wonderful week ya’ll!
With tons of love,
Elder Ellis
So just for the info, I got pretty sun burnt today... ha-ha! It’s pretty bad but I got it while playing soccer today with the zone :)
Anyways, this week, Elder Preator and I worked the hardest we´ve ever worked because we have a goal for 5 baptisms together before one of us gets transferred and we´re at 1 right now... and this week ended up being super-duper spiritual! People came out of the wood work, people we never thought would be interested in our church, and just wanted us to talk to them about it! And every single time it happened, the lesson was super spiritual and they wanted to learn even more!
So, something that happened this week that was super funny. So, last Saturday, we had Edilene´s baptism, right? And we invited one of our pesquisadors (Socorro) to come and she accepted. Well, about 30 min later at the baptism, she wasn’t there and we were a bit disappointed cause she told us she would love to come... but whatever, right? Another day in the life of a missionary.
So we went to her house a few days later and met her daughter and told her about it and she was like, "Oh, She told us she was going! How rude of her!" ha-ha, so we taught a lesson and left. Well, a few days ago, we went over again and right as she opened the portão, she said something like, "My daughter said I wasn’t at the baptism but I really was! I saw you guys there!" At this point, I was thinking, wow! Lie detector going crazy! But we ended up listening to what she had to say and found something a little strange, a bit ironic, and super, super funny :) So, we told her that we hadn’t seen her there and she said there were a lot of people there and she was sitting on the opposite side... in reality, there were only about 20 people there... so we asked her who was being baptized and straight away she responded that there were 3 people being baptized, one´s name was Jessica. At this point we were like, "ok, now she´s just making things up and making fun of us..." but then she said something that made us stop and say a big huge, "Huh??" She said that the pastor or bishop or whatever we call the head of the congregation was wearing a green sash or something like that... First, the Bishop couldn’t be there... he was way in Asa Sul... and we don’t wear anything like that for baptisms... My first thought was, "No.. ha-ha.. really?" ha-ha! Then I thought, "She´s not the greatest at remembering things, but really, something this big? Ha-ha-ha!" Then I asked her which church she went to and she said the Catholic church up the road by Xuxa Lorde´s... and Elder Preator and I busted out laughing sooo hard and she couldn’t figure out what it was till her daughter told her that we weren’t Catholic... we´re Mormon :) She had gone to a Catholic church up the road from our church (right in front of Xuxa Lorde´s) and they happened to have a baptism at exactly the same time and she went there instead of our baptism and she saw two men dressed in white shirts and ties sitting on the other side and thought they were us ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!! It was definitely one of the funniest things that’s happened to us here :)
Then we had some really awesome spiritual experiences too!
So you guys remember Edilene´s daughter, Nathalia? Well one day we were visiting their house and she was there. Usually she had some questions about what she had read in the Book of Mormon the previous day or something but today she said she wanted to talk about three things. Sin, Repentance, and Baptism :) We were super excited and she said lets first talk about sin, so we defined sin as simply as we could as doing something consciously that God has asked us not to do. She said that obviously some sins are worse than others and she didn’t know if she could be forgiven for some sins she´s had in her life. She said she´d sincerely tried to repent but didn’t know if it was acceptable to God. At this point I let out a little sigh of relief and I asked if she had killed someone or denied the Holy Ghost after having had a perfect knowledge of Christ and what he did for us and she said of course not! So I said that I knew that she had been forgiven and she started crying and said that now she felt peace and felt like she had been forgiven! Then she told us that she wanted to get baptized! So we set a date for this Saturday and she´s super excited and we´re super excited and the whole ward is super excited and it´s gonna be great! She´s already like someone who could already have been a member for like a year already! She´s super awesome :)
Well, I ran out of time a lot faster than I thought I would but I love you all! Have a great week!!
Love,
Elder Ellis
LETTER FROM NATE’S COMPANION ELDER PREATOR TO HIS FAMILY FEBRUARY 26, 2014
(Catherine: I am part of a "mom's yahoo group for missionaries in Brazil". I posted a comment on how the Lord blesses these missionaries with the gift of tongues when they have been visa waiters using Nathan's companion as an example. . .only being out a few weeks but picking up the language quickly. I didn't know but Elder Preator's mom was on the website and recognized the story, so we have been going back and forth the last few days. I sent her Nate's letter of what he said about the week and she sent me her son's letter of what happened. It was fun to compare their letters!)
Family and Friends-
We had an absolutely marvelous week. Can't really remember the last bad week I've had on the mission... I am so blessed to be so happy right now. The work is hard and long at times, but wow, it really satisfies the soul like nothing else can.
The highlight of the week was the confirmation of Edilene, the woman who was baptized 2 weeks ago. She was confirmed yesterday in church. Then last night we went over to her house to congratulate her on becoming the newest member of Christ's church in Santa Maria. As we were talking she told us a story of what happened to her after church. She went to a birthday party for a friend and there was lots of alcohol there. Just a few weeks ago she said she would have been downing more drinks than anyone else there. But yesterday was different. She said she had absolutely zero desire to even take a sip of beer. She even felt a little sick thinking about it. Even when her friends were urging her on and telling her to do it she stood firm. We were so proud of her. We talked to her about this wonderful new gift she has, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and how already it is helping her to withstand temptation. She thought that was so cool and then bore her testimony to us how much she knows this gospel is true.
Her daughter, Nathalia, is also going to be baptized soon! We had a very spiritual lesson with her this week. She said she wanted to talk about two things... repentance and baptism. She wanted to make sure she had fully repented of all of her previous sins. So we talked about it with her and told her we thought she was ready. She agreed and said she knows deep down in her heart that this is the true church of Jesus Christ. So... she is getting baptized this Saturday!!! We are so stoked for it. She has been reading the Book of Mormon every single day and that has been the real key for her conversion as she has felt the Spirit testify to her that this is true.
We had a couple of funny stories from this week. First off, we were visiting one night with one of our investigators, Socorro. A couple of weeks ago we had stopped by her house on our way to the chapel for Edilene's baptism to invite her. It was literally only 45 minutes before the baptism. She was super excited about it and promised us that she would show up. Well, the baptism came and went and we saw no sign of Socorro. We thought that it was pretty lame of her to say she would go literally only 45 minutes before and then not show up. But we went back to her house this week with love for her and to continue to teach her. The first thing she tells us is how much she enjoyed the baptism! We were like, "Huh?" She then ensured us that she went. She then started describing the white robe and green sash that our "Father" was wearing (??). We were very confused because we don't have "Fathers" at our church and no one wears green sashes at baptisms. Then she asked "It was the Catholic church in block 315, right?" We said no, it was the Mormon Church in block 315... right down the street from the Catholic church. Then she said "wait... you're not Catholic missionaries?" Hahahahahaha. We told her the full name of our church and then we all laughed for a good 5 minutes. She was so embarassed. I guess the first missionaries who went over there could have done a little better job introducing themselves, haha.
Another story that was a little funny happened at Wizard, the language course place. We stop in there a few times every week and are very close with lots of the employees there (Edilene works there) and especially the receptionist, Nice. Well, Nice invited us to a little "party" there this week. We told her we would go (because she said they'd have cake) but totally forgot about it. So Nice called us during the middle of it asking us where we were. We ran over as fast as we could after that. Well, we show up and learn it is a bridal shower for one of the employees who we had only met once... and we were the only guys there. Plus, we were the only ones eating anything. So here we are, two awkward-looking American missionaries sitting in the corner of the room chowing down on cake as we are surrounded by 10+ Brazilian women there for a bridal shower. It was really awkward. I think that it was the first and only bridal shower I will ever go to.
Well folks, that's it for this week. We are having a blast every day here in Santa Maria. I am feeling true joy right now as I try to dedicate my time to the Lord. I know how much our Heavenly Father loves each and every one of us. At times he lets us struggle a little bit so that we can learn and grow... always remember this. Bruce A. Carlson of the the 70 told us in Las Vegas that many times the Lord lets us walk in the dark for a short bit to see just how dedicated we are... to see if we are tough enough to endure hard things. I know that we are so blessed for the service we give and for the things we endure. Always remember the love Heavenly Father has for you and you can always find joy in this life.
Com Amor,
Elder P.
This is a part from his personal email to me. (FROM ELDER PREATOR TO HIS MOTHER)
Hey mother goose-
First off, that is really cool that you connected with Elder Ellis' mom! He showed me an email like 10 minutes ago that his mom sent him saying she ran into you online. They lived in Virginia for a little bit and know the Calderwood's too, haha! Elder Ellis is one of my favorite companions so far. He is really nice and fun to goof around with. We work very well together... most success for both of us on our missions right now.
------------------------------------------------------------
This is a description from a missionary in Brazil. Is this how you would describe where you are???
=============
“Brasil is a truly amazing place. I will tell you more about what it is like to live in Brasil. The homes here are small, but quite exotic. No homes have air conditioning, neither does the church in which our ward meets. The windows and doors of the homes are always open - it is almost as if you are living outside. The bathrooms are one small single room. The toilet, shower, and sink are all on the same level - in other wards there are no bath tubs such as in America. All homes have portãos, which are gates that in a way act as garage doors. Although the homes are small - they are still quite nice and well decorated. The homes are painted in many colors. The people are poor, but still dress very modern as if living in America. It is interesting seeing poor people dress so well, or rather their clothes do not look scroungy. They do not dress with modesty. The members are generally very intelligent. They are very happy.
The streets are wild and chaotic. In the United States, people would be calling the police around the clock for the chaos. The music here is unlike anything I have heard before. It seems all people all outside because homes are small. Every fifty yards someone is blasting music - they have funk - which is Brasilan rap. It is interesting in that it has no rythymn like the music of the US. It is an amazing experience.
The food here is generally really cheap and really good. They have many restaurants similar to Rodizio grill, for the cost of 5 - 7 US dollars you can eat at an all you can eat buffet. Most mornings we have fresh bread from the paderia - or bakery. The bread is very inexpensive and good. We eat the bread with meat and cheese. I often eat fruit with breakfast - sometimes in a smoothie or as juice.
When we need to get around we ride on the buses. The buses drive fast. These buses would never fly in America because they are dangerous. I am surprised I have not seen a person get hit by a bus. This past week I was nearly hit by a bus - it came with in a foot of me as my companion and me were walking along the road. My back was to it as it passed me. We are being safe.”
---------------
Is this how you would describe where you are???
LETTER FROM NATHAN TO MOM 2/24/2014
That sounds about right! :)
A little note about Funk: Its pronounsed "Funkee" (the ee´s are a really breathy sound) and I cant understand what it says but apparently its super super bad... it sounds pretty cool but it all has the same, "Choo cha cha choo cha cha" in the background haha!
Hey Y´all!!! February 17, 2014
So this week was awesome and full of some unusual stuff :) Lets begin, shall we?
So you guys remember Felipe, our investigator that knows English really well? Well, let me tell you something about Portuguese pronunciation. When we have a `ch´ we say it like an `sh´ sound. Keep that in mind. Well, we were at his house this week talking to him about stuff and somehow games you play on your phone came up in our conversation and he started tellin us how he cheats and stuff on them. Well here´s what he wanted to say. " I always cheat on games, I use cheats all the time. I just look up these cheats in my spare time then use the cheat in the game. I guess I´m just a friggin cheater..." Ha-ha! By this point, Elder Preator and I were just about dying from laughter and he couldn’t figure out why! ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! It was one of the funniest experiences I´ve had here on the mission :) He pronounced everything right... almost :) If you don’t get what happened, read the Portuguese pronunciation tip again ;)
Then, a little later in the week, we were just walking down a street and we came by a guy wearing a C.A.M jersey (a soccer team in Minas Geris (a state in Brazil)). Well, that team is one of my favorites here in Brazil so I stopped by to talk to him. Well, turns out, he was a little drunk and a little hard to understand but was really cool... haha! He said he was from Minas and he loved C.A.M. and that we could come visit him another time. We then turned to leave and he said, really sluridly (if that’s even a real word ;) "you guys want a sodaaa... :)" so we said yeah and he just walked into a bar and let us choose a soda :) I don’t know if he realized that he had to buy it... but yeah :) Free soda from drunk guys haha! Mission life :)
The next thing was just one of the awesomest things about the mission and makes every minute worth it :) We have a family we´re teaching who has a 4 year old son, Bruno. This kid is awesome :) His favorite music is Evangelical like church music ha-ha! The first time we met him he just started to talk to us and have fun and stuff and literally became one of my favorite people here in Brazil. He´s just super awesome and every time we see him in the street, he´ll spot us first and literally run a block from where he had been playing to give us hugs :) He´s only 4 but he´s already one of my greatest examples of Christ-like love I´ve seen in my life!
The final thing I want to share is that the mission has really helped me build my faith in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Through helping people to be more like him, which is basically what we´re here for, I learn and grow soooo much to be more like him myself. I feel more loving, kind, outgoing, willing to help, and happy than I have at almost any other point in my life. The mission is changing me and I love it! It’s weird that I´m already almost 1/4 done and will be returning in a year and 6 1/2 months... In this next few months I´m going to challenge you all to try to be more like Christ in your lives and live as he would live in your place. :)
Have a wonderful week ya’ll!
With tons of love,
Elder Ellis
Things I Never Thought I´d Do On The Mission
What’s up y’all! February 10, 2014
So I thought I´d start my email by telling you about:
Things I Never Thought I´d Do On The Mission
1. When I got here, everyone told me we couldn´t play soccer... :( but we played today anyway... Tell ya about that later ;)
2. Empty a baptismal font with buckets and a giant squeege... and dump the water in a toilet... in the woman´s restroom... at 8:30 at night... to get ready for a baptism the next day... ha-ha! Weird, huh? It was a super good workout... who knew?
3. Get to know David Archuleta´s cousin really well and actually have a lot in common with him :)
Well, before y’all start thinking I´m a super fubeka, I´ll tell you what happened with the soccer. So, we haven´t been able to play soccer since I´ve been here because an Elder broke his leg playing... and what the thing was, was that when he comes back to the mission, we could play soccer again ... in 4 months... but what happened is that he fell again in his house and broke it again... so he´s just going to serve in his home mission... so we got a call today that we can play soccer EVERY P-DAY!!!!! :D We were at a Zone Activity when we found out and everyone was elated!!! It was awesome :) so I played soccer for the first time in more than 5 months today :)
So, this week was actually one of the hardest weeks I´ve had on the mission so far because of the contrast between success and kind of failure that really isn’t our fault but yeah. So what happened is we almost had a zero day... I don’t know what other missionaries call it, but I´ma call it that, we almost didn’t get any lessons, news, references, anything... and that was after trying super hard to get into almost all of our pesquisador’s houses and everything we could do. We were saved by a pesquisador that we have that’s super cool! He´s been a police officer here for about 25 years (here it’s a pretty sweet job because you get two pistols, a machine gun, bullet proof vests, the whole thing :) and you get paid big!) and he actually invited us to come back and meet his son´s new, American wife :) she doesn’t speak almost any Portuguese so this´ll be awesome :) So we just got one lesson that day... Then, at the end of the week we had two small miracles happen. :) They both happened with Edilene. Saturday, we had the interview for her baptism planned for 6:30 with a Zone Leader coming from Gama (the neighboring city) and everything to do the interview. Well, we got there at 6:30 and knocked on the door thing and... no one was there... and so Elder Reis said that we would wait till 7:30 to see if she´d show up... so we called like 10 times and she didn’t pick up, we called her work, we did everything and... nothing... so we waited... and waited... and at 7:20 I decided to call one more time... AND SHE PICKED UP!!!!! Her English class went really long in Gama and she said she was just getting off the bus just up the street!!!!! Then she had the interview and passed with flying colors! The second miracle was that she made it to the baptism on time ;) The baptism was probably one of the most spirit filled baptisms I´ve been to and it was awesome, cause she asked me if I could do it in English :)
Yeah... so we found out this week that Açai is really, really addicting... and expensive... but sssssssssssssooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good!!!! Awe man! I´m sooooo glad I don’t spend a lot on almost anything else cause a lot of my extra money is going into an `Açai´ fund ;)
(Acai is a type of palm tree cultivated for its fruit)
Anyway, I love you all! Have a great week!
Elder Ellis
So I thought I´d start my email by telling you about:
Things I Never Thought I´d Do On The Mission
1. When I got here, everyone told me we couldn´t play soccer... :( but we played today anyway... Tell ya about that later ;)
2. Empty a baptismal font with buckets and a giant squeege... and dump the water in a toilet... in the woman´s restroom... at 8:30 at night... to get ready for a baptism the next day... ha-ha! Weird, huh? It was a super good workout... who knew?
3. Get to know David Archuleta´s cousin really well and actually have a lot in common with him :)
Well, before y’all start thinking I´m a super fubeka, I´ll tell you what happened with the soccer. So, we haven´t been able to play soccer since I´ve been here because an Elder broke his leg playing... and what the thing was, was that when he comes back to the mission, we could play soccer again ... in 4 months... but what happened is that he fell again in his house and broke it again... so he´s just going to serve in his home mission... so we got a call today that we can play soccer EVERY P-DAY!!!!! :D We were at a Zone Activity when we found out and everyone was elated!!! It was awesome :) so I played soccer for the first time in more than 5 months today :)
So, this week was actually one of the hardest weeks I´ve had on the mission so far because of the contrast between success and kind of failure that really isn’t our fault but yeah. So what happened is we almost had a zero day... I don’t know what other missionaries call it, but I´ma call it that, we almost didn’t get any lessons, news, references, anything... and that was after trying super hard to get into almost all of our pesquisador’s houses and everything we could do. We were saved by a pesquisador that we have that’s super cool! He´s been a police officer here for about 25 years (here it’s a pretty sweet job because you get two pistols, a machine gun, bullet proof vests, the whole thing :) and you get paid big!) and he actually invited us to come back and meet his son´s new, American wife :) she doesn’t speak almost any Portuguese so this´ll be awesome :) So we just got one lesson that day... Then, at the end of the week we had two small miracles happen. :) They both happened with Edilene. Saturday, we had the interview for her baptism planned for 6:30 with a Zone Leader coming from Gama (the neighboring city) and everything to do the interview. Well, we got there at 6:30 and knocked on the door thing and... no one was there... and so Elder Reis said that we would wait till 7:30 to see if she´d show up... so we called like 10 times and she didn’t pick up, we called her work, we did everything and... nothing... so we waited... and waited... and at 7:20 I decided to call one more time... AND SHE PICKED UP!!!!! Her English class went really long in Gama and she said she was just getting off the bus just up the street!!!!! Then she had the interview and passed with flying colors! The second miracle was that she made it to the baptism on time ;) The baptism was probably one of the most spirit filled baptisms I´ve been to and it was awesome, cause she asked me if I could do it in English :)
Yeah... so we found out this week that Açai is really, really addicting... and expensive... but sssssssssssssooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good!!!! Awe man! I´m sooooo glad I don’t spend a lot on almost anything else cause a lot of my extra money is going into an `Açai´ fund ;)
(Acai is a type of palm tree cultivated for its fruit)
Anyway, I love you all! Have a great week!
Elder Ellis
Wherefore, by the words of three, God hath said, I will establish my word
Hey y´all!! February 3, 2014
So this week, I´m going to share with you how crazy awesome and busy it has been through some of our numbers :)
Previous weeks:
Other lessons taught (2/3 of a prayer, a gospel principle taught, an invite to do something (like read a bit in the Book of Mormon): 14
References received and taught: 4 and 3
New pesquisadors (received a lesson and accepted a specific return appointment): 5
This week:
Other lessons taught: 21
References received and taught: 8 and 16
New pesquisadors: 10
:)
It’s been an awesome week and I´m super excited for the upcoming weeks as well! This week we set 3 solid baptismal dates! One for the 16th and two for the 23rd :) that means, if everything goes well, we´ll have a baptism this week with Edilene, a baptism this next week with Natalia (her daughter), and two the next with Divina and Felipe! I´m sooooooo excited :) they´re all awesome people and I wanna tell y´all about them!
I told you about Edilene last week but yeah, she´s doing super well and we´re super happy about the progress she´s making! Her daughter, Natalia, is super awesome as well :) She has 21 years old and she´s super smart. The way college here works is that you go through high school and then take this super hard test and the people that do the best at these tests get college free at the best colleges in the nation that are run by the government. She took the test and got an almost perfect score when she finished high school and so she went to one of these colleges to study DNA and Genetics! She now works in a lab doing crazy stuff with genes and stuff like that! She´s also super interested in the gospel and loves reading the Book of Mormon and coming to church so we´re hoping that she feels that all of it is true by the 16th and gets baptized!
Now Divina! She´s Felipe´s mom and she´s just amazing! She amazes me every single lesson with her insights and spirit. She loves the church and the member that we´re doing a lot of service for right now (Irma Solande, the one in the wheelchair). She´s super excited to learn more about the church and is always asking great questions (which is pretty much every Missionary´s dream because if they never ask questions, you don’t know what they need unless you ask a super specific question). She´s awesome and she really wants to know for herself if our message is true :)
Felipe is probably one of my favorite investigators we have because he taught himself English and speaks fluently and even uses slang sometimes :) It’s awesome and he´s pretty interested about the gospel especially when we teach him in English :) He wants to know if it’s true too but doesn’t have a ton of time because he´s right about to take a test to see if he can get a government job (basically the best jobs here because you´re paid a ton for doing very little but it’s really hard to get them). But yeah, he´s really cool :)
This week I was reading in 2 Néfi (Nephi) 11 and I found a really cool verse (3) that says, "Wherefore, by the words ofbthree, God hath said, I will establish my word." I was thinking about that verse and missionary work and was wondering why we don’t just always get put into trios if that verse true... then I thought about how we (missionaries) are 2 witnesses of the divinity of this work and then, if we are worthy and teach in a way that the Spirit can testify to them as well, we have Him as a 3rd witness. Then I was reading in Preach My Gospel on page 90 and it talks about the power of the Holy Ghost as a testament of truthfulness. It was a great insight and I know now a part of why it’s so important for us to teach in a way that the Spirit can be there too :)
I´m super happy for this opportunity that I have to be a representative of Jesus Christ for this next year and 7 months and I thank God every day for it :) As missionaries, we´re always trying to better and try to help others be better as well, so, as a challenge for this week, try to do the same :) Always ask, "How can I follow the example of Jesus Christ better" and "How can I help others in their lives"
Love y´all MUITO!
Elder Ellis
So this week, I´m going to share with you how crazy awesome and busy it has been through some of our numbers :)
Previous weeks:
Other lessons taught (2/3 of a prayer, a gospel principle taught, an invite to do something (like read a bit in the Book of Mormon): 14
References received and taught: 4 and 3
New pesquisadors (received a lesson and accepted a specific return appointment): 5
This week:
Other lessons taught: 21
References received and taught: 8 and 16
New pesquisadors: 10
:)
It’s been an awesome week and I´m super excited for the upcoming weeks as well! This week we set 3 solid baptismal dates! One for the 16th and two for the 23rd :) that means, if everything goes well, we´ll have a baptism this week with Edilene, a baptism this next week with Natalia (her daughter), and two the next with Divina and Felipe! I´m sooooooo excited :) they´re all awesome people and I wanna tell y´all about them!
I told you about Edilene last week but yeah, she´s doing super well and we´re super happy about the progress she´s making! Her daughter, Natalia, is super awesome as well :) She has 21 years old and she´s super smart. The way college here works is that you go through high school and then take this super hard test and the people that do the best at these tests get college free at the best colleges in the nation that are run by the government. She took the test and got an almost perfect score when she finished high school and so she went to one of these colleges to study DNA and Genetics! She now works in a lab doing crazy stuff with genes and stuff like that! She´s also super interested in the gospel and loves reading the Book of Mormon and coming to church so we´re hoping that she feels that all of it is true by the 16th and gets baptized!
Now Divina! She´s Felipe´s mom and she´s just amazing! She amazes me every single lesson with her insights and spirit. She loves the church and the member that we´re doing a lot of service for right now (Irma Solande, the one in the wheelchair). She´s super excited to learn more about the church and is always asking great questions (which is pretty much every Missionary´s dream because if they never ask questions, you don’t know what they need unless you ask a super specific question). She´s awesome and she really wants to know for herself if our message is true :)
Felipe is probably one of my favorite investigators we have because he taught himself English and speaks fluently and even uses slang sometimes :) It’s awesome and he´s pretty interested about the gospel especially when we teach him in English :) He wants to know if it’s true too but doesn’t have a ton of time because he´s right about to take a test to see if he can get a government job (basically the best jobs here because you´re paid a ton for doing very little but it’s really hard to get them). But yeah, he´s really cool :)
This week I was reading in 2 Néfi (Nephi) 11 and I found a really cool verse (3) that says, "Wherefore, by the words ofbthree, God hath said, I will establish my word." I was thinking about that verse and missionary work and was wondering why we don’t just always get put into trios if that verse true... then I thought about how we (missionaries) are 2 witnesses of the divinity of this work and then, if we are worthy and teach in a way that the Spirit can testify to them as well, we have Him as a 3rd witness. Then I was reading in Preach My Gospel on page 90 and it talks about the power of the Holy Ghost as a testament of truthfulness. It was a great insight and I know now a part of why it’s so important for us to teach in a way that the Spirit can be there too :)
I´m super happy for this opportunity that I have to be a representative of Jesus Christ for this next year and 7 months and I thank God every day for it :) As missionaries, we´re always trying to better and try to help others be better as well, so, as a challenge for this week, try to do the same :) Always ask, "How can I follow the example of Jesus Christ better" and "How can I help others in their lives"
Love y´all MUITO!
Elder Ellis
So, this week was actually a bit... a lot more crazy than usual.
January 27, 2014
Here´s what went on:
1. I beat a blind guy at chess...He´s actually really, really good so don’t feel too bad for him. He´s gone to competitions and stuff all over Brazil and won like 4 -2nd place in almost all of them. And, before me, he´d never been beaten by an Elder sooo.... I felt awesome :) and kinda bad cause he´s blind.... but still awesome!!! I guess you could say that a few of the moves I did left him ´in the dark` about what I was going to do next... hahahahahahahaha!!!! Jk that was bad, sorry... :)
2. We have three baptisms (maybe 4) marked for the 9th of February (I´ll tell you about that a little letter)
3. This is the biggest surprise of all. Elder Dickson was emergency transferred this morning... It wasn’t because of something he did but yeah... it was really weird. Now I have a new comp. Elder Preator. He´s from Dallas, TX (so we got the Texas boys together ready to do some work :) He´s been out on the mission for 7 months (so with my 4 we almost have a year between us :). And he´s been in Brazil for 3.... weeks.... :) so between us that’s like 5 months... more or less. This is gonna be kinda weird because my Portuguese is better than his (he served 6 months in Los Vegas) and I´m going to have to teach him... haha! Life has some crazy twists, huh? :)
Anyway, so we had some amazing stuff happen this week:)
First, we´ve had an awesome week numbers wise :) we got Padrão de Excelência (or level of excellence for those of you that don’t speak Portuguese) this past week which is kinda hard (25 lessons, 15 with a member), 3 dates for baptisms, 4 people in church, and 7 new investigators) but we got it because we worked hard and efficiently and with the Spirit and doing that really helps people for real!
We weren’t able to baptize Edilene yesterday because, even though she passed the interview, she didn’t feel ready so she remarked with us for the 9th and we´re going to do everything we can to help her be prepared for it :) We also started talking to her daughter about the gospel and she´s really super interested (so maybe it´ll be 4 baptisms that day :). Then, our investigators Divina and Filipe (mother and son) came to church and felt the Spirit super strongly and we committed them to baptism right then and there. It’s going to be hard because we can only teach them on Saturdays because she works and he´s in a really rigorous schooling program about the government but again, we´re praying really hard for the three (four actually) of them that they keep the commitments we´re leaving and for them to feel the Spirit about what we´re teaching is true! Please, if you can do the same and pray for them that would definitely help a ton!
Well, I´m super excited to begin another phase of my mission with a new companion and teach (like always) the gospel that I know to be true and that has helped me in so many aspects of my life. My goal is to help others feel this same help in their lives and to help them realize that this IS the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love this church so much!
I´m out of time but I´m so happy you all are doing well! Thanks so much for the emails, they really make my week!
Love y’all!!
Elder Ellis
1/20/2014
Hey Guys!!
So guess what this week has been like!! Who said it? Back there in the back, yes you! CRAZY!!! A few things that happened:
1. We had an investigator literally testify to another that she knows that the church is true and that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God! Her name is Edilene and she works in Wizard, a college here for learning languages (especially English) because she lived in the US for 11 years. One day we went there to see how she was doing and got talking with one of her coworkers about stuff and, naturally, religion got brought up! (Funny how that happens when you have a nametag that has JESUS CRISTO in big capital letters right on your shirt wherever you go ;) Anyways, we started talking to her about some of the stuff we believe (like the Book of Mormon and such) and Edilene came into the room and started telling her that everything was true, that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that she knows with a surety(I really have no clue how to spell that) that this church is the VERDADEIRO (true) church of Jesus Christ on the earth today! How flippin cool is that?! THEN, we gave her (the co-worker) a BOM to read and she said she would read it EVERY DAY!!!! It was an awesome experience :) It made me feel like we are really making a difference in people´s lives!
2. Experience 2 has to do with Edilene também! She is really changing things in her life to get ready for her baptism (this Sunday)! She gave up smoking AND drinking!!! She´s just super awesome and I´m super happy about it!
3. Today we had an interview with Prez Gaertner (our mission Prez), in our apartment! So we had to clean it a few days ago and I learned something. We´ve just been cleaning a bit each day and just after we use stuff and we spend a lot less time cleaning!! Its sooooo much easier! Why didn’t anyone tell me about this earlier??? (JK Mom, I know you´ve been telling me this my whole life, I just didn’t get it until now... haha!)
4. This one is really about the interview with Prez haha! He told me that has a lot of confidence in me and put me with Elder Dickson for a reason. He said that sometimes Elders can get lazy right before returning home. I told him that we´re really working hard and I´m trying to inspire him to follow all the rules and work hard until the end! I really am and we, as a companionship are accomplishing milagres! It’s fantastic!
5. ... well, other things happened this week but I´m just sooooo happy about Edilene right now I can’t think of them!! Ha-ha!
Can’t wait to talk to y’all again next week! You guys are awesome! Don’t forget to write!!!!! I look forward to reading all the emails EVERY SINGLE WEEK ;) haha!
Love Y’all!!
Elder Ellis
Pics of stuff and service we´ve been doing (we tore up the concrete in the garage in the pic)
Hey Guys!!
So guess what this week has been like!! Who said it? Back there in the back, yes you! CRAZY!!! A few things that happened:
1. We had an investigator literally testify to another that she knows that the church is true and that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God! Her name is Edilene and she works in Wizard, a college here for learning languages (especially English) because she lived in the US for 11 years. One day we went there to see how she was doing and got talking with one of her coworkers about stuff and, naturally, religion got brought up! (Funny how that happens when you have a nametag that has JESUS CRISTO in big capital letters right on your shirt wherever you go ;) Anyways, we started talking to her about some of the stuff we believe (like the Book of Mormon and such) and Edilene came into the room and started telling her that everything was true, that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that she knows with a surety(I really have no clue how to spell that) that this church is the VERDADEIRO (true) church of Jesus Christ on the earth today! How flippin cool is that?! THEN, we gave her (the co-worker) a BOM to read and she said she would read it EVERY DAY!!!! It was an awesome experience :) It made me feel like we are really making a difference in people´s lives!
2. Experience 2 has to do with Edilene também! She is really changing things in her life to get ready for her baptism (this Sunday)! She gave up smoking AND drinking!!! She´s just super awesome and I´m super happy about it!
3. Today we had an interview with Prez Gaertner (our mission Prez), in our apartment! So we had to clean it a few days ago and I learned something. We´ve just been cleaning a bit each day and just after we use stuff and we spend a lot less time cleaning!! Its sooooo much easier! Why didn’t anyone tell me about this earlier??? (JK Mom, I know you´ve been telling me this my whole life, I just didn’t get it until now... haha!)
4. This one is really about the interview with Prez haha! He told me that has a lot of confidence in me and put me with Elder Dickson for a reason. He said that sometimes Elders can get lazy right before returning home. I told him that we´re really working hard and I´m trying to inspire him to follow all the rules and work hard until the end! I really am and we, as a companionship are accomplishing milagres! It’s fantastic!
5. ... well, other things happened this week but I´m just sooooo happy about Edilene right now I can’t think of them!! Ha-ha!
Can’t wait to talk to y’all again next week! You guys are awesome! Don’t forget to write!!!!! I look forward to reading all the emails EVERY SINGLE WEEK ;) haha!
Love Y’all!!
Elder Ellis
Pics of stuff and service we´ve been doing (we tore up the concrete in the garage in the pic)
"It was one of the coolest experiences I´ve had on the mission . . . "
January 6, 2014
Y’all, this has been a simply crazy week and I don’t have very much time to write so first I´ll write the highlights :)
1. Both Elder Troll and I have been transferred.
2. Both Elder Troll and I were super triste (sad) leaving Unaí and saying goodbye to everyone that we´ve known for the past 3ish months was terrible...
3. Elder Troll is now the Secretary of Finances and has his wish... exercise machines in his house ;)
4. I am now in an area called Santa Maria with Elder Dicksen
5. I will kill Elder Dicksen (because its his last transfer before going home and that’s how we do it here in the mission :) When you arrive here, you are `born` your trainer is your `dad´ and the last companion you have ´kills` you ha-ha!)
That’s all super cool and all but by far the best part of the week is as following:
So y’all remember the investigator I told you about that came to church and told us that she wanted to get baptized??? Well, she has a learning disability so we had to teach everything super simply and slowly, but each time we taught her, the Spirit was super strong and even though she didn’t remember most of what we taught, she had a testimony of everything and changed a ton of stuff in her life! It was super cool to watch her faith in Jesus grow a ton in the few weeks we were able to teach her. So we taught her everything and the day came for her baptismal interview and we waited at the chapel for about a half an hour after the time we set with her. We thought she forgot or didn’t want to get baptized anymore, but right as we were about to leave, she showed up crying quietly. When we asked her about it she said she had just had a big fight with her sister (who she lives with) and that she was super sad. We then asked her if she wanted to do the interview a different day, but she said no, that she wanted to do it even after all that. I was super amazed because it showed, more than most people show, her faith because when we have true faith, we act on it no matter what. Then Elder Troll interviewed her (with permission from President Gaertner because of some circumstances that didn’t let President Gelson (our branch president) do the interview like normal. During the interview, I couldn’t be there because it can only be the investigator and the interviewer, but outside the chapel, I felt the Spirit super, super strong telling me that she has a testimony and amazing faith and that she was ready for baptism :) It was one of the coolest experiences I´ve had on the mission after the actual baptism itself which we held the next day :) One of the most spiritual members in the branch told us after that the baptism, second to his own, was the most he felt the Spirit ever at a baptism.
I really hope you guys have a great week with the guidance of the Lord in your lives :)
Love,
Elder Ellis
Y’all, this has been a simply crazy week and I don’t have very much time to write so first I´ll write the highlights :)
1. Both Elder Troll and I have been transferred.
2. Both Elder Troll and I were super triste (sad) leaving Unaí and saying goodbye to everyone that we´ve known for the past 3ish months was terrible...
3. Elder Troll is now the Secretary of Finances and has his wish... exercise machines in his house ;)
4. I am now in an area called Santa Maria with Elder Dicksen
5. I will kill Elder Dicksen (because its his last transfer before going home and that’s how we do it here in the mission :) When you arrive here, you are `born` your trainer is your `dad´ and the last companion you have ´kills` you ha-ha!)
That’s all super cool and all but by far the best part of the week is as following:
So y’all remember the investigator I told you about that came to church and told us that she wanted to get baptized??? Well, she has a learning disability so we had to teach everything super simply and slowly, but each time we taught her, the Spirit was super strong and even though she didn’t remember most of what we taught, she had a testimony of everything and changed a ton of stuff in her life! It was super cool to watch her faith in Jesus grow a ton in the few weeks we were able to teach her. So we taught her everything and the day came for her baptismal interview and we waited at the chapel for about a half an hour after the time we set with her. We thought she forgot or didn’t want to get baptized anymore, but right as we were about to leave, she showed up crying quietly. When we asked her about it she said she had just had a big fight with her sister (who she lives with) and that she was super sad. We then asked her if she wanted to do the interview a different day, but she said no, that she wanted to do it even after all that. I was super amazed because it showed, more than most people show, her faith because when we have true faith, we act on it no matter what. Then Elder Troll interviewed her (with permission from President Gaertner because of some circumstances that didn’t let President Gelson (our branch president) do the interview like normal. During the interview, I couldn’t be there because it can only be the investigator and the interviewer, but outside the chapel, I felt the Spirit super, super strong telling me that she has a testimony and amazing faith and that she was ready for baptism :) It was one of the coolest experiences I´ve had on the mission after the actual baptism itself which we held the next day :) One of the most spiritual members in the branch told us after that the baptism, second to his own, was the most he felt the Spirit ever at a baptism.
I really hope you guys have a great week with the guidance of the Lord in your lives :)
Love,
Elder Ellis
12/30/2013
Merry Christmas Y’all!
I couldn’t write last week because the internet was really slow but I´m here now so Tudo Bem :)
This past week was awesome! Talking to the fam was the highlight but here were some other things that were AWESOME!!
1. I ate a ton of different types of chocolate, all from Cacao Show, the best chocolate in Brazil! Hugo received a box of it from his boss for Christmas and it was awesome! The thing has 350g of chocolate total and costs $51!! It was amazing though and has chocolates with different amounts of coco. It had white, 25%, 34%, 44%, 55%, 63%, 70% and 85%!!!! the last one is a TON of coco in a 5g chocolate ha-ha! It was really good though :)
2. We are finishing up teaching a Senhora (LADY) with a baptismal date this Saturday :)
3. We ate at Giraffa´s again with Hugo and had AMAZING hamburgers :)
4. We found out that over the past 3 weeks, we´ve spent 8 DAYS in Brasilia (not good for teaching investigators here in Unaí... :( )
5. We did service until my hands bled (literally ha-ha!). We helped build a house by pounding the ground for the floor with an iron pole with a huge chunk of concrete at the bottom (it’s really heavy so if you don’t have really hard calluses on your hands, you can say hello to blisters galore ;) Let me just say I´m grateful for machines that we have in the US that does that for us ha-ha!
6. We ate an interesting chicken dish in which almost all of the insides of the chicken (muscles, bones and organs minus the stomach, intestines and everything below that) are boiled and served in a big mush pile ;) That’s one of the dishes where you just have to think about something else while you eat ha-ha!
7. We had a split with the Zone Leaders (who just wanted to come to Unaí ha-ha!) and for lunch, we made churrosco (their version of BBQ but it’s really just grilling meat over coals ha-ha!) at the church. Well, Elder Fagundes (a native of Brasil and one of the ZL´s) picked a prime spot to put the coals on the concrete and we were cooking just fine. Well, the first batch of meat was done so we switched it out with some more and began to eat while the 2nd batch cooked. Well, turns out we put the super-hot coals over a bubble of air or water in the concrete and when air or water gets hot, it expands and breaks concrete... with the sound of a firework and enough force to make meat fly... ha-ha! It was a bit of a shock when it happened and the other ZL (Elder Reese, best friends with Elder Chapman from our ward) almost fell out of his chair ha-ha!
8. This Christmas season has been super special because I´ve been able to sing in almost every lesson and I´ve learned how truly the Spirit can touch someone’s heart through music in a way that words can’t. It’s been especially helpful because my Portuguese is good but sometimes I still can’t communicate what I want to and it’s frustrating, but with hymns, I don’t have to say everything, the Spirit does the talking :) It’s been a great past 2 weeks with this:)
Anyway, It’s time to go, but I want to leave yáll with my testimony that I know that Jesus Christ was born for us and that through Him we can be clean from our sins. I know that with patience, obedience and repentance that someday we can become like Him and live with Him and our Father forever! This is the amazing message that for the next two years I am blessed to share with the people of Brasil and I´m so grateful for it!
I love you all! Happy New Year também!
Elder Ellis
12/30/2013
Mom,
It was awesome seeing you guys too! It was kind of funny because here in Unaí, we´re really isolated and the nearest missionary in our mission is 3 hours away by bus! We were really trying to be obedient and stay within the time limit of 40 min w/ an extra 10 for figuring stuff out (so 50 min total). It would have been really easy to fubekar (to be a lazy missionary) and talk for longer but we resisted the temptation. The funny part was that the day after Christmas we had to go to Brasilia for a training and we found out that NO ONE, not even our zone leaders stayed in the limit! The zone leaders talked for 1 1/2 hours and 2 hours and a trainer/district leader in our zone talked for more than 3 3/4 hours! (he´s from Argentina though so that’s part of the problem ;) Ha-ha! JK) Oh well :)
The accent is really hard to pick up here! I think it’s because with accents in English, I have a base to compare it to but in Portuguese, I confuse accent with voice and stuff like that so it’s hard, but I´ll get there :)
Love you mom!!!!
WHAT THEY DO IN A TYPICAL DAY. . .
6:30 get up and work out and eat and get ready for the day
8:00 personal study
9:00 companionship study
10 training for the first 12 weeks
11 language study
12 lunch
2 go out and teach and do visits and contact
9-9:30 get back and plan for the next day
10:30 lights out
12/17/2013
Oi gentes!
esse semana fica muito bom (Hi people! This week is very good. . . ), but we didn’t really have the opportunity to do very much in Unaí porque we were in Brasilia for 4 days! And we´re here AGAIN for 4 days!! It’s cool though :) last week we got to visit some of Elder Troll´s old investigators in Sector "O" which was really cool because they were super excited to see him :)
Anyways, we had a great experience when we got back to Unaí. We taught one of our investigators about the Restauration with 2 members present. I thought it went really well and so did Elder T but on the way back to the apartment, we were talking with one of the members (who actually served his mission here in Brasilia (he´s from São Paulo) and moved here in Unaí because he liked it so much!) and he said it was an OK lesson then pulled out a huge list of what we NEEDED to do better. Now, most people would be super mad at this because, you know, "I´m the missionary! I know what needs to be done and how to do it! Bleh, bleh, bleh," but I was sssssuuuuuppppppeeeerrrr happy :) wanna know why? Because I know I need to do better! I´m new to this, I had 6 weeks to prepare in the CTM and we didn’t learn a whole lot about how to teach, it was mostly about the language and when they taught about how to teach, it was in Portuguese and I had no clue what they were talking about! Ha-ha! So I was muito grato for the help!! I love getting feedback from others because until I get some, I think I´m doing my job just fine :)
Anyway, today we had a zone activity with 2 other zones and it was AWESOME! We had churrosco, watched Despicable Me 2 (for Natal we were allowed to watch it :), and played PING PONG!!!!! That was the best part because at first, I was playing suuuuupper rusty and missing the ball and todo! mas, after a bit, Elder Troll started winning everything and no one could beat him! Then I turned on the fire and beat him twice and won 4 games in a row and two others besides (one was a skunk (7-0)). It was awesome! And tomorrow we have our mission conference and I´m singing joy to the world for the `tallant show!!!! Quasi no one here knows I can sing so I´m going to start just ok and work my way up from there! Let’s see how it goes!
Sooo, I have a sheet of paper with me always to write down what happens during the week but... I lost it so I don’t remember anything else... Ha-ha! Just know that I love you all, I love this church, and I love being on a mission serving the Lord! There´s no place ON EARTH OR OTHERWISE I´d rather be that here in Brasilia teaching people about Christ and his gospel :) I know that this church is true and that testimony that I have of it´s truthfulness grows every day! Thank you all SOOOOOOOOOO much for your emails também! I look forward to them every week! Thanks also for the many birthday emails I received! I was super happy to get them!
Love you all!
Elder Ellis
Pic
Me and Papa Zeze (with Elder Troll´s plaqueta :)
12/9/2013
This week has been super awesome :) First, P-day :), Last p-day Elder Troll and I woke up at 6:30 like always and ran 3 miles, like every other day of the week, then returned to the apartment for studying. After studying, we emailed and returned to the apartment. It was at this point in the day, about 1pm, that Elder Troll decided he had a lot of energy... so we ran another 4 miles, returned to the apartment, and worked out for another hour and a half until he decided that he was tired and went to take a nap. Needless to say, I did the same :) and that was our p-day ha-ha!
So this is a really cool recipe that I learned before the mission that I modified to be missionary friendly :) It’s really, really good and I advise that EVERYONE try it :)
BRAZILIAN LIMEAID
Ingrediants:
395g Leite Condensado (sweetened condensed milk for those of you that don’t speak Portuguese )
2 Packets of TANG Limão (lime)
1-2 Limes (more precisely the juice inside them)
1.5 Leters of cold water
Step 1: Extract juice of limes.
Step 2: Blend ingrediants in a liquidificador (blender :)
Step 3: Enjoy and try not to drink it all in one sitting :)
Makes 2 Leters
WARNING: is extremely addicting. Can lead to excessive drinking habits and excessive spending on sweetened condensed milk.
So we have a district now. I don’t know what it is with me and super small districts (in the CTM my district went from 4 (two sisters, me and my companion) to 6 (we got 2 elders from Provo) to 5 (My companion left for the field and the two elders from Provo were my companions)) but, our district is Me, Elder Troll, and two sisters (Sister Kerr and Sister Jackson). The bad news? They are in Brasilia, 3 hours away... so we have a hard time having district meetings ha-ha! The good news? We went to Brasilia this week and I met them and we had a DM. We are also going to Brasilia this week AND next week for zone and mission stuff ha-ha! It’s really hard on the work because the trip is 2 days out of our week so we don’t have a ton of time per week but its good :) We´re working super hard and it’s paying off!
BTW, the dad of two of our less active members has a super cool name :) João Batisto or, in English, John the baptist :)
So Saturday Gabriel got baptized!!!!!!! It was an amazing experience because not only was it my first baptism on the mission and my first area, it was also the first that I got to do AND it was my birthday, first on the mission :) It was, by far, the best birthday ever!! I got to sing for it too! :) It was a really cool experience because when I first got here, he was a fubeka or a really big slacker who didn’t care about religion or anything and now he is a member of the church and is keeping the commandments and the whole sha-bang! It was a HUGE transformation! I never thought in a million years that he would get baptized because of the way he was, but that’s the power that this message has. If people will have faith and even just try to live it, even just a little, it will change their lives for the better. I know this is the true church of Christ and that through the Gospel of Jesus Christ and through living his teachings and His commandments, that we can be saved in the kingdom of God. Two days ago I had the privilege of helping one of the sons of our loving Heavenly Father take the first step toward that great and eternal blessing and it really reinforced my testimony of this work, the work of salvation.
That experience really made the week super awesome and I thought that it couldn’t get any better... BUT IT DID!!! One of the pesquisadors we´ve been working really hard with and teaching in a member´s home came to church this past Sunday :) we were super glad but it got better!!!!! She felt the spirit really strongly, came and told us that she knew this church is true and that she wanted to get baptized this next Sunday!!!!! I´m super happy!!!
Well, I don’t have any more time but I´ll be sure to write next week with more adventures! Have fun this week, trust and have faith in God, pray, read the scriptures, all that jazz!
Love you all!
Elder Ellis
12/2/2013
So Elder Troll was organizing his pictures and transferring them to a flash drive and some lady turned off his computer!!!! Fui terrible!!! It corrupted the data and he coudn’t get ANY of the pictures off the SD card! He couldn’t even see them! And those were ALL the pictures he had taken from a month before the mission till now! Luckely, we took the card to an informatica (a computer place) and they were able to recall most of the data (for only USD$5!!!) for enough time to copy them to the flash drive. then they erased themselves again from the SD card. It was super sketchy!
So funny story. In Portuguese, there are two words for our English word `spirit´. Espirito and Alma. Well, some guy came up to us while we were eating lunch at a restaurant with a member and started saying that we were wrong about God and Jesus and stuff like that. We just sat there calmly and let him teach us that Jesus is not the Christ (I felt so sad for him... :( ) and that we are wrong about us (humans aqui on the earth). This was the funny part. He told us that we have three parts. Um corpo (body), um espirito (spirit), and uma alma (also a spirit...). I started giggling (I couldn’t help myself :) and when he asked why, I told him that in English, alma and espirito mean the same thing and that he was telling us that we have two spirits inside of us :) He then told me that English is a corrupt, evil, and altogether wrong language and proceeded to ´teach` us. We saw that we couldn’t get anywhere with this guy through reason so we just bore our testimonies about Jesus Christ and left. He´s literally the first person here in Unaí that I´ve met that doesn’t like us ha-ha!
So I was thinking to myself, hmm, I´m in Missão Brazil, Brasilia, in the middle of nowhere, with no trees. I´m never gonna see parrots, monkeys, snakes, nada! Well, I was right about the snakes... BUT WE HAVE PARROTS AND MONKEYS HERE!!! We went to the Rio Preto again last p-day and saw a troop (10-15) monkeys!!! It was pretty dang awesome! I learned also that monkeys are really, really, really, really, really hard to catch :) Haha! We also saw a HUGE wasp!!! Seriously, the bum of this thing was bigger than my thumb!! It was enormous!
So Gabriel didn’t get baptized this Sunday... because we felt he wasn’t ready... so we set his date for baptism for this Saturday... WHICH IS MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!! I´m sooooo excited!! And I might even get to baptize him!!!!! I´m soooooo happy!!! and we had a really good lesson about baptism, the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end the other day! I´m so happy that he´s ready to be baptized now! :)
Well, I don’t have any more time but I love you all!
Elder Ellis
ANSWER TO MY (HIS MOM’S) QUESTION ABOUT THE LANGUAGE. Portuguese is coming along, I can speak pretty well and I can understand generally what people are saying when I try really hard ha-ha! Its tiring :)
Hey Dad! 12/3/2013
My week was great! I get to stay here in Unaí for one more transfer with Elder Troll and I´m sooo happy about it! We have investigators progressing, members starting to help a bit, and the spirit with us stronger than ever! I will be here until January 6th. It’s awesome that you guys got to see Jessie, Auntie Laura and Uncle Dave :) I love those guys!
On P-days, Elder Troll and I, for our companionship study, study doctrinal topics. So today (P-DAY!!!) Elder Troll and I studied about Kolob! It was really cool and I really thought Abraham 3:2-18 was really cool!
Thanks for the scripture and love you soooooo much!
Elder Ellis
Merry Christmas Y’all!
I couldn’t write last week because the internet was really slow but I´m here now so Tudo Bem :)
This past week was awesome! Talking to the fam was the highlight but here were some other things that were AWESOME!!
1. I ate a ton of different types of chocolate, all from Cacao Show, the best chocolate in Brazil! Hugo received a box of it from his boss for Christmas and it was awesome! The thing has 350g of chocolate total and costs $51!! It was amazing though and has chocolates with different amounts of coco. It had white, 25%, 34%, 44%, 55%, 63%, 70% and 85%!!!! the last one is a TON of coco in a 5g chocolate ha-ha! It was really good though :)
2. We are finishing up teaching a Senhora (LADY) with a baptismal date this Saturday :)
3. We ate at Giraffa´s again with Hugo and had AMAZING hamburgers :)
4. We found out that over the past 3 weeks, we´ve spent 8 DAYS in Brasilia (not good for teaching investigators here in Unaí... :( )
5. We did service until my hands bled (literally ha-ha!). We helped build a house by pounding the ground for the floor with an iron pole with a huge chunk of concrete at the bottom (it’s really heavy so if you don’t have really hard calluses on your hands, you can say hello to blisters galore ;) Let me just say I´m grateful for machines that we have in the US that does that for us ha-ha!
6. We ate an interesting chicken dish in which almost all of the insides of the chicken (muscles, bones and organs minus the stomach, intestines and everything below that) are boiled and served in a big mush pile ;) That’s one of the dishes where you just have to think about something else while you eat ha-ha!
7. We had a split with the Zone Leaders (who just wanted to come to Unaí ha-ha!) and for lunch, we made churrosco (their version of BBQ but it’s really just grilling meat over coals ha-ha!) at the church. Well, Elder Fagundes (a native of Brasil and one of the ZL´s) picked a prime spot to put the coals on the concrete and we were cooking just fine. Well, the first batch of meat was done so we switched it out with some more and began to eat while the 2nd batch cooked. Well, turns out we put the super-hot coals over a bubble of air or water in the concrete and when air or water gets hot, it expands and breaks concrete... with the sound of a firework and enough force to make meat fly... ha-ha! It was a bit of a shock when it happened and the other ZL (Elder Reese, best friends with Elder Chapman from our ward) almost fell out of his chair ha-ha!
8. This Christmas season has been super special because I´ve been able to sing in almost every lesson and I´ve learned how truly the Spirit can touch someone’s heart through music in a way that words can’t. It’s been especially helpful because my Portuguese is good but sometimes I still can’t communicate what I want to and it’s frustrating, but with hymns, I don’t have to say everything, the Spirit does the talking :) It’s been a great past 2 weeks with this:)
Anyway, It’s time to go, but I want to leave yáll with my testimony that I know that Jesus Christ was born for us and that through Him we can be clean from our sins. I know that with patience, obedience and repentance that someday we can become like Him and live with Him and our Father forever! This is the amazing message that for the next two years I am blessed to share with the people of Brasil and I´m so grateful for it!
I love you all! Happy New Year também!
Elder Ellis
12/30/2013
Mom,
It was awesome seeing you guys too! It was kind of funny because here in Unaí, we´re really isolated and the nearest missionary in our mission is 3 hours away by bus! We were really trying to be obedient and stay within the time limit of 40 min w/ an extra 10 for figuring stuff out (so 50 min total). It would have been really easy to fubekar (to be a lazy missionary) and talk for longer but we resisted the temptation. The funny part was that the day after Christmas we had to go to Brasilia for a training and we found out that NO ONE, not even our zone leaders stayed in the limit! The zone leaders talked for 1 1/2 hours and 2 hours and a trainer/district leader in our zone talked for more than 3 3/4 hours! (he´s from Argentina though so that’s part of the problem ;) Ha-ha! JK) Oh well :)
The accent is really hard to pick up here! I think it’s because with accents in English, I have a base to compare it to but in Portuguese, I confuse accent with voice and stuff like that so it’s hard, but I´ll get there :)
Love you mom!!!!
WHAT THEY DO IN A TYPICAL DAY. . .
6:30 get up and work out and eat and get ready for the day
8:00 personal study
9:00 companionship study
10 training for the first 12 weeks
11 language study
12 lunch
2 go out and teach and do visits and contact
9-9:30 get back and plan for the next day
10:30 lights out
12/17/2013
Oi gentes!
esse semana fica muito bom (Hi people! This week is very good. . . ), but we didn’t really have the opportunity to do very much in Unaí porque we were in Brasilia for 4 days! And we´re here AGAIN for 4 days!! It’s cool though :) last week we got to visit some of Elder Troll´s old investigators in Sector "O" which was really cool because they were super excited to see him :)
Anyways, we had a great experience when we got back to Unaí. We taught one of our investigators about the Restauration with 2 members present. I thought it went really well and so did Elder T but on the way back to the apartment, we were talking with one of the members (who actually served his mission here in Brasilia (he´s from São Paulo) and moved here in Unaí because he liked it so much!) and he said it was an OK lesson then pulled out a huge list of what we NEEDED to do better. Now, most people would be super mad at this because, you know, "I´m the missionary! I know what needs to be done and how to do it! Bleh, bleh, bleh," but I was sssssuuuuuppppppeeeerrrr happy :) wanna know why? Because I know I need to do better! I´m new to this, I had 6 weeks to prepare in the CTM and we didn’t learn a whole lot about how to teach, it was mostly about the language and when they taught about how to teach, it was in Portuguese and I had no clue what they were talking about! Ha-ha! So I was muito grato for the help!! I love getting feedback from others because until I get some, I think I´m doing my job just fine :)
Anyway, today we had a zone activity with 2 other zones and it was AWESOME! We had churrosco, watched Despicable Me 2 (for Natal we were allowed to watch it :), and played PING PONG!!!!! That was the best part because at first, I was playing suuuuupper rusty and missing the ball and todo! mas, after a bit, Elder Troll started winning everything and no one could beat him! Then I turned on the fire and beat him twice and won 4 games in a row and two others besides (one was a skunk (7-0)). It was awesome! And tomorrow we have our mission conference and I´m singing joy to the world for the `tallant show!!!! Quasi no one here knows I can sing so I´m going to start just ok and work my way up from there! Let’s see how it goes!
Sooo, I have a sheet of paper with me always to write down what happens during the week but... I lost it so I don’t remember anything else... Ha-ha! Just know that I love you all, I love this church, and I love being on a mission serving the Lord! There´s no place ON EARTH OR OTHERWISE I´d rather be that here in Brasilia teaching people about Christ and his gospel :) I know that this church is true and that testimony that I have of it´s truthfulness grows every day! Thank you all SOOOOOOOOOO much for your emails também! I look forward to them every week! Thanks also for the many birthday emails I received! I was super happy to get them!
Love you all!
Elder Ellis
Pic
Me and Papa Zeze (with Elder Troll´s plaqueta :)
12/9/2013
This week has been super awesome :) First, P-day :), Last p-day Elder Troll and I woke up at 6:30 like always and ran 3 miles, like every other day of the week, then returned to the apartment for studying. After studying, we emailed and returned to the apartment. It was at this point in the day, about 1pm, that Elder Troll decided he had a lot of energy... so we ran another 4 miles, returned to the apartment, and worked out for another hour and a half until he decided that he was tired and went to take a nap. Needless to say, I did the same :) and that was our p-day ha-ha!
So this is a really cool recipe that I learned before the mission that I modified to be missionary friendly :) It’s really, really good and I advise that EVERYONE try it :)
BRAZILIAN LIMEAID
Ingrediants:
395g Leite Condensado (sweetened condensed milk for those of you that don’t speak Portuguese )
2 Packets of TANG Limão (lime)
1-2 Limes (more precisely the juice inside them)
1.5 Leters of cold water
Step 1: Extract juice of limes.
Step 2: Blend ingrediants in a liquidificador (blender :)
Step 3: Enjoy and try not to drink it all in one sitting :)
Makes 2 Leters
WARNING: is extremely addicting. Can lead to excessive drinking habits and excessive spending on sweetened condensed milk.
So we have a district now. I don’t know what it is with me and super small districts (in the CTM my district went from 4 (two sisters, me and my companion) to 6 (we got 2 elders from Provo) to 5 (My companion left for the field and the two elders from Provo were my companions)) but, our district is Me, Elder Troll, and two sisters (Sister Kerr and Sister Jackson). The bad news? They are in Brasilia, 3 hours away... so we have a hard time having district meetings ha-ha! The good news? We went to Brasilia this week and I met them and we had a DM. We are also going to Brasilia this week AND next week for zone and mission stuff ha-ha! It’s really hard on the work because the trip is 2 days out of our week so we don’t have a ton of time per week but its good :) We´re working super hard and it’s paying off!
BTW, the dad of two of our less active members has a super cool name :) João Batisto or, in English, John the baptist :)
So Saturday Gabriel got baptized!!!!!!! It was an amazing experience because not only was it my first baptism on the mission and my first area, it was also the first that I got to do AND it was my birthday, first on the mission :) It was, by far, the best birthday ever!! I got to sing for it too! :) It was a really cool experience because when I first got here, he was a fubeka or a really big slacker who didn’t care about religion or anything and now he is a member of the church and is keeping the commandments and the whole sha-bang! It was a HUGE transformation! I never thought in a million years that he would get baptized because of the way he was, but that’s the power that this message has. If people will have faith and even just try to live it, even just a little, it will change their lives for the better. I know this is the true church of Christ and that through the Gospel of Jesus Christ and through living his teachings and His commandments, that we can be saved in the kingdom of God. Two days ago I had the privilege of helping one of the sons of our loving Heavenly Father take the first step toward that great and eternal blessing and it really reinforced my testimony of this work, the work of salvation.
That experience really made the week super awesome and I thought that it couldn’t get any better... BUT IT DID!!! One of the pesquisadors we´ve been working really hard with and teaching in a member´s home came to church this past Sunday :) we were super glad but it got better!!!!! She felt the spirit really strongly, came and told us that she knew this church is true and that she wanted to get baptized this next Sunday!!!!! I´m super happy!!!
Well, I don’t have any more time but I´ll be sure to write next week with more adventures! Have fun this week, trust and have faith in God, pray, read the scriptures, all that jazz!
Love you all!
Elder Ellis
12/2/2013
So Elder Troll was organizing his pictures and transferring them to a flash drive and some lady turned off his computer!!!! Fui terrible!!! It corrupted the data and he coudn’t get ANY of the pictures off the SD card! He couldn’t even see them! And those were ALL the pictures he had taken from a month before the mission till now! Luckely, we took the card to an informatica (a computer place) and they were able to recall most of the data (for only USD$5!!!) for enough time to copy them to the flash drive. then they erased themselves again from the SD card. It was super sketchy!
So funny story. In Portuguese, there are two words for our English word `spirit´. Espirito and Alma. Well, some guy came up to us while we were eating lunch at a restaurant with a member and started saying that we were wrong about God and Jesus and stuff like that. We just sat there calmly and let him teach us that Jesus is not the Christ (I felt so sad for him... :( ) and that we are wrong about us (humans aqui on the earth). This was the funny part. He told us that we have three parts. Um corpo (body), um espirito (spirit), and uma alma (also a spirit...). I started giggling (I couldn’t help myself :) and when he asked why, I told him that in English, alma and espirito mean the same thing and that he was telling us that we have two spirits inside of us :) He then told me that English is a corrupt, evil, and altogether wrong language and proceeded to ´teach` us. We saw that we couldn’t get anywhere with this guy through reason so we just bore our testimonies about Jesus Christ and left. He´s literally the first person here in Unaí that I´ve met that doesn’t like us ha-ha!
So I was thinking to myself, hmm, I´m in Missão Brazil, Brasilia, in the middle of nowhere, with no trees. I´m never gonna see parrots, monkeys, snakes, nada! Well, I was right about the snakes... BUT WE HAVE PARROTS AND MONKEYS HERE!!! We went to the Rio Preto again last p-day and saw a troop (10-15) monkeys!!! It was pretty dang awesome! I learned also that monkeys are really, really, really, really, really hard to catch :) Haha! We also saw a HUGE wasp!!! Seriously, the bum of this thing was bigger than my thumb!! It was enormous!
So Gabriel didn’t get baptized this Sunday... because we felt he wasn’t ready... so we set his date for baptism for this Saturday... WHICH IS MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!! I´m sooooo excited!! And I might even get to baptize him!!!!! I´m soooooo happy!!! and we had a really good lesson about baptism, the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end the other day! I´m so happy that he´s ready to be baptized now! :)
Well, I don’t have any more time but I love you all!
Elder Ellis
ANSWER TO MY (HIS MOM’S) QUESTION ABOUT THE LANGUAGE. Portuguese is coming along, I can speak pretty well and I can understand generally what people are saying when I try really hard ha-ha! Its tiring :)
Hey Dad! 12/3/2013
My week was great! I get to stay here in Unaí for one more transfer with Elder Troll and I´m sooo happy about it! We have investigators progressing, members starting to help a bit, and the spirit with us stronger than ever! I will be here until January 6th. It’s awesome that you guys got to see Jessie, Auntie Laura and Uncle Dave :) I love those guys!
On P-days, Elder Troll and I, for our companionship study, study doctrinal topics. So today (P-DAY!!!) Elder Troll and I studied about Kolob! It was really cool and I really thought Abraham 3:2-18 was really cool!
Thanks for the scripture and love you soooooo much!
Elder Ellis
Hey! Soooo sorry about last week! I wrote a ton of emails to different people and the main one as well but the internet was being a bit funny and wouldn’t send ANY of them! Then it deleted them... sooooo here´s for this week!
Portuguese lesson of the week:
Falo: I speak. Used for saying, "I speak to people about soccer.” (Eu falo a pessoas sobre futebol)" or as a salutation, "Falo! (I speak!)"
Weird, huh. Ha-ha!
We had a ramo (branch) dance 2 Fridays ago! It was great because almost the entire ramo (branch) showed up and a bunch of them brought their non-member friends! AND we had 2 pesquisadors (investigators) show up as well!!! It was tons of fun and I got to listen to American music!! (most of it was really old ha-ha!)
On that same day we got the chance to do some good old fashioned moving :) It was great because I surprised the people a lot :) I don’t look very strong at all in comparison to Elder Troll (who is 220 lbs. by the way) so they started giving me all the easy, light stuff to move and I was getting a bit frustrated. Then they had a pretty heavy washer that we were unloading and one of the guys told me to wait for another person to carry it into the house. NOPE!! Much to the surprise of everyone there, except Elder Troll, I carried it by myself from the truck on the street, through the maze of houses and what not, to the house without breaking a sweat. Everyone was like..........ok, he can actually help ;) Then, Elder Troll went to the member´s car and lifted it so the wheel wasn’t touching the ground. Everyone was all, WOW! I then decided that I could do it too. So I did. ;) and I had Elder Troll film it as proof! It was great, you should have seen the faces of the people there :) Priceless, like :0.
Sooooo here in Unaí, mango is ssssuuuuuppppper cheap!! I love it! The price in the store is about 3 lbs. of mango for $1!!!!!! It’s CRAZY!!! Needless to say we eat mango all the time :)
I tried a new flavor of Chupe-Chupe this week... sweet corn flavor... it was really strange and tasted, well, like sweet corn. Apparently a lot of people here love it... I´d rather have a different flavor... ha-ha!
So funny story, the word in Portuguese for `to forget´ is esquecer... and I´m having a really hard time remembering it! Ha-ha!
So this week, Elder Troll and I were walking down the street and I miss stepped and twisted my ankle really badly, my foot, for a second, was looking like an L. It was about as bad as when I twisted my ankle in Michigan... so I waited for the pain to come, and waited, and waited, but it never came! I was sooooo relieved! I know with a sure knowledge that the Lord really does protect his servants in a very big way :)
So early this week, we were visiting Papa Zeze and he was feeling really good! So good, in fact, that he decided to sing for us! Now picture, a 90 year old, decrepit, bed-ridden, skinny shadow of a man sitting up in bed (which takes him a ton of effort) and singing (without teeth) for two, pretty astonished missionaries! It was great! And, all things considering, it wasn’t too bad :) He then asked us if, later, we could sing for him. Elder Troll then said I would and we left ;) So, true to Elder Troll´s promise, later in the week, right before we left, I sang “How Great Thou Art” for him. The Spirit was there and really touched me and Irma Lucia (his caretaker who is a less-active member because she has to be with him 24 hours a day and can’t leave for church) and made her cry. It was fantastic and Papa Zeze thanked me like 5 times :)
So I gave Hugo (a really great member of our ramo) some American candy and he was super, super, super happy! It was awesome because he posted pictures of it on Facebook, talked to his friends about it and a whole bunch of stuff like that ha-ha! Now everyone here wants American candy! If you have time, please send some more! I´m running out... ha-ha!
So I´m super stoked! Here in Missão Brazil Brasilia, we don’t do almost any tracting and talking to random people on the street. We try to rely on the members to give us referrals, but this week, we needed new investigators so we started handing out some Natal related pass along cards :) and I gave one out to a guy by myself, talked to the guy, and understood (I think ha-ha!) what questions he had and answered them! All in Portuguese!! It was pretty much awesome : )
So we have a baptism planned for SATURDAY!!!! I´m sooooo stoked!! It’s for a kid named Gabriel. His mom and younger brother are less active but we´ve been able to reactivate his younger brother (a real stud, super mature and quite strong in the gospel now) and have been able to teach Gabriel and have him help! They´ve been coming to church together for the past 3 weeks and yesterday even brought a friend!! I´m so happy for them and can’t wait to tell y’all how it goes!!
We have another investigator, Evânio, who we´ve been working with a lot these past few weeks. He´s a great guy, comes to church quase (almost) every week, and has had all of the lessons a few different times. This week I got the impression to teach him about baptism again, so I studied a bunch in PMG about it and looked up scriptures and the whole shebang to prep for this lesson. When we got there we talked a bunch about baptism and while we were talking, I got the impression to ask him whether or not he wanted to know if this is the true Church of Jesus Christ. He said he did and so I had us do a pray now. For those of you who don’t know what a pray now is, it’s where we all kneel down and each person then prays and asks specifically the question that the investigator has. So right then and there we all kneeled down, Elder Troll offered a prayer, then me, then Evânio. The next step is super important. No one speaks until the investigator speaks because the spirit is ALWAYS super strong and we don’t want to disrupt it. We sat there, in silence, for 25 minutes while Evânio worked out what he was feeling. During that time, the Spirit testified of a few things very strongly. One, that this IS the true church of Christ. Second, that God really does answer our prayers. Third, and this one doubly, that God loves each and every one of us immeasurably. I was thinking about this and feeling the Spirit really strongly about it, then, one of Evânio´s daughters went over and hugged him. As we sat there, and he hugged her back, I started to cry because I felt, I think, a small amount of that love that God has for each of us, for them. After he then broke the silence, we quietly bore our testimonies of the truthfulness of this Church and left, without even asking what the answer was. We have a follow-up lesson tomorrow in which we will talk about it and hopefully set a date for him to get baptized!
I love this Church and I love you all! Have a great and safe week!
Elder Ellis
Portuguese lesson of the week:
Falo: I speak. Used for saying, "I speak to people about soccer.” (Eu falo a pessoas sobre futebol)" or as a salutation, "Falo! (I speak!)"
Weird, huh. Ha-ha!
We had a ramo (branch) dance 2 Fridays ago! It was great because almost the entire ramo (branch) showed up and a bunch of them brought their non-member friends! AND we had 2 pesquisadors (investigators) show up as well!!! It was tons of fun and I got to listen to American music!! (most of it was really old ha-ha!)
On that same day we got the chance to do some good old fashioned moving :) It was great because I surprised the people a lot :) I don’t look very strong at all in comparison to Elder Troll (who is 220 lbs. by the way) so they started giving me all the easy, light stuff to move and I was getting a bit frustrated. Then they had a pretty heavy washer that we were unloading and one of the guys told me to wait for another person to carry it into the house. NOPE!! Much to the surprise of everyone there, except Elder Troll, I carried it by myself from the truck on the street, through the maze of houses and what not, to the house without breaking a sweat. Everyone was like..........ok, he can actually help ;) Then, Elder Troll went to the member´s car and lifted it so the wheel wasn’t touching the ground. Everyone was all, WOW! I then decided that I could do it too. So I did. ;) and I had Elder Troll film it as proof! It was great, you should have seen the faces of the people there :) Priceless, like :0.
Sooooo here in Unaí, mango is ssssuuuuuppppper cheap!! I love it! The price in the store is about 3 lbs. of mango for $1!!!!!! It’s CRAZY!!! Needless to say we eat mango all the time :)
I tried a new flavor of Chupe-Chupe this week... sweet corn flavor... it was really strange and tasted, well, like sweet corn. Apparently a lot of people here love it... I´d rather have a different flavor... ha-ha!
So funny story, the word in Portuguese for `to forget´ is esquecer... and I´m having a really hard time remembering it! Ha-ha!
So this week, Elder Troll and I were walking down the street and I miss stepped and twisted my ankle really badly, my foot, for a second, was looking like an L. It was about as bad as when I twisted my ankle in Michigan... so I waited for the pain to come, and waited, and waited, but it never came! I was sooooo relieved! I know with a sure knowledge that the Lord really does protect his servants in a very big way :)
So early this week, we were visiting Papa Zeze and he was feeling really good! So good, in fact, that he decided to sing for us! Now picture, a 90 year old, decrepit, bed-ridden, skinny shadow of a man sitting up in bed (which takes him a ton of effort) and singing (without teeth) for two, pretty astonished missionaries! It was great! And, all things considering, it wasn’t too bad :) He then asked us if, later, we could sing for him. Elder Troll then said I would and we left ;) So, true to Elder Troll´s promise, later in the week, right before we left, I sang “How Great Thou Art” for him. The Spirit was there and really touched me and Irma Lucia (his caretaker who is a less-active member because she has to be with him 24 hours a day and can’t leave for church) and made her cry. It was fantastic and Papa Zeze thanked me like 5 times :)
So I gave Hugo (a really great member of our ramo) some American candy and he was super, super, super happy! It was awesome because he posted pictures of it on Facebook, talked to his friends about it and a whole bunch of stuff like that ha-ha! Now everyone here wants American candy! If you have time, please send some more! I´m running out... ha-ha!
So I´m super stoked! Here in Missão Brazil Brasilia, we don’t do almost any tracting and talking to random people on the street. We try to rely on the members to give us referrals, but this week, we needed new investigators so we started handing out some Natal related pass along cards :) and I gave one out to a guy by myself, talked to the guy, and understood (I think ha-ha!) what questions he had and answered them! All in Portuguese!! It was pretty much awesome : )
So we have a baptism planned for SATURDAY!!!! I´m sooooo stoked!! It’s for a kid named Gabriel. His mom and younger brother are less active but we´ve been able to reactivate his younger brother (a real stud, super mature and quite strong in the gospel now) and have been able to teach Gabriel and have him help! They´ve been coming to church together for the past 3 weeks and yesterday even brought a friend!! I´m so happy for them and can’t wait to tell y’all how it goes!!
We have another investigator, Evânio, who we´ve been working with a lot these past few weeks. He´s a great guy, comes to church quase (almost) every week, and has had all of the lessons a few different times. This week I got the impression to teach him about baptism again, so I studied a bunch in PMG about it and looked up scriptures and the whole shebang to prep for this lesson. When we got there we talked a bunch about baptism and while we were talking, I got the impression to ask him whether or not he wanted to know if this is the true Church of Jesus Christ. He said he did and so I had us do a pray now. For those of you who don’t know what a pray now is, it’s where we all kneel down and each person then prays and asks specifically the question that the investigator has. So right then and there we all kneeled down, Elder Troll offered a prayer, then me, then Evânio. The next step is super important. No one speaks until the investigator speaks because the spirit is ALWAYS super strong and we don’t want to disrupt it. We sat there, in silence, for 25 minutes while Evânio worked out what he was feeling. During that time, the Spirit testified of a few things very strongly. One, that this IS the true church of Christ. Second, that God really does answer our prayers. Third, and this one doubly, that God loves each and every one of us immeasurably. I was thinking about this and feeling the Spirit really strongly about it, then, one of Evânio´s daughters went over and hugged him. As we sat there, and he hugged her back, I started to cry because I felt, I think, a small amount of that love that God has for each of us, for them. After he then broke the silence, we quietly bore our testimonies of the truthfulness of this Church and left, without even asking what the answer was. We have a follow-up lesson tomorrow in which we will talk about it and hopefully set a date for him to get baptized!
I love this Church and I love you all! Have a great and safe week!
Elder Ellis
(A PIECE OF AN E-MAIL TO HIS MOM) We teach about 6 people per day. We could do more, but we have to walk everywhere and it takes up a lot of our time :/ but yeah, I can contribute a little, but I can't understand very much. Most people tell me that I speak very very well, better than most missionaries that come here for their first area, but understanding is really hard... oh well :) it´ll come with time!
(A PIECE OF AN E-MAIL SENT TO HIS BROTHER CAMERON) Today marks 2 MONTHS!!! Can you believe it??? I can't! By the way, consider reading Jesus the Christ with Dad! Seriously, out of every single book I've ever read in my life (excluding the scriptures of course) it is by far the best!!! I heard people say that about this book before my mission and I wish I had listened because its so good!
HEY!
This week has been supercrazy!! I get back to the apartment every night completely exhausted and ready for bed (but first we have to plan and shower and write in our journals and clean a bit and... ha-ha lots of stuff :)! The mission has definitely taught me how to keep going even when I’m BEAT! Ha-ha!
Anyway, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! They don’t celebrate it here in Brazil so I had to treat myself to some candy from my package!! It was a great Halloween! We went to a member´s house for almoço (lunch) and played chess with the "man" of the house ;) he´s 13 but really smart and always beats Elder Troll and I at chess!! But when we played on Halloween... I WON!!!!! No one could believe it!! (Mostly because I never (and I mean NEVER) win against anyone! Ha-ha!) It was fantastic! Then we had service at a non-member´s house! They have a courtyard where they have a BIG mango tree and some chickens! Our job was to clean the courtyard. Well, most of the mango trees here are right in the middle of producing mangos but this one was at the end, so there were mangos all over the ground and not just new ones... we had the opportunity to pick them ALL up (by hand, no gloves) and put them in a big, squishy, gooey, sticky mess in the corner to be burned :) then add the chickens :) Ha-ha! And one of the kids in the family is CRAZY about cowboys and went loco when he found out I´m from Texas! He got out all his cowboy stuff (quite the arsenal) which included a cowboy hat, a legit leather whip and lasso, a big belt buckle, and a big knife :) so I taught him how to throw the knife and do a trick or two with it! He was Ecstatic! It was great!
Anyway, a super funny thing having to do with food happened this week... ha-ha! So, Elder Troll likes eggs, and this particular morning, he wanted hard boiled eggs. Então (so), he got two eggs and put them in water in a pot and put the pot on the stove, intending to come back in an hour and take them out and eat them. Well, we got studying and an hour went by. Then two, then three... on the third and about a half hour (or at about 11:30) we have language study. Well, we were studying diligently when we heard a BAM! We both looked up at each other, shrugged, and went back to studying. About 15 seconds later we heard another BAM! We both then looked up, got up, and ran to the kitchen where we found egg shell and hardboiled egg all over the floor and walls! Ha-ha!! While we had been studying, the water had all evaporated, leaving two hard boiled eggs essentially in a super-hot pan ha-ha!
So last p-day we went to the river that runs, in part, through Unaí! It’s the Rio (pronounced HEEO) Preto and it’s probably the closest I’m going to get to "rainforest" as I’m going to get on my mission Ha-ha! Twas fantastic!
Every day I work out at our apartment... but we don’t have weights. Então, I do stuff like pushups, pull-ups (we have a bar) and sit-ups. Well, we have another pull-up bar in our apartment that doesn’t stay in the doorframe, so I use it for something else :) I get my bag and fill it with the heaviest books I can find (the scriptures), put it on the bar, and do curls and a few other exercises with it :) In a quite literal sense, I’m gaining "scripture power" Ha-ha!!!
So here in Unaí, and ONLY here in Unaí, we have an ice cream brand called Moranginho´s. Though the actual ice cream is inferior (as all foreign ice cream is ;) to USA ice cream, the other popsicles and what not are AMAZING!!! So much so that when I get rich (and probably old ;) I´ve decided to buy the company and share it with the world!! Ha-ha! But seriously, its sooooooo good! I wish y’all could taste this!
The members here are super nice! I love them to death! And they give us stuff all the time! Mostly food (which we need because we are pobre (poor) ha-ha!) We were at a member´s house for almoço and they gave me a pair of jeans, which had been worn (sorry for the terrible spelling by the way) only once by the boy of the family, that had cost them R$135 (about USD$73ish). She had me try them on and when they fit me, she just gave them to me! I am going to write her a really nice note thanking her for them (though it might take a while to wright it in Portuguese... ;)
(This is in part to give you an understanding about how small our branch here in Unaí is.) Yesterday at church, we had 45 people show up! This is a huge number for our little rama (pernounced HA-MA). It was great! And to make it even better, we had 3 investigators show up!!! It was amazing!!! :)
Early this week, we went to a member´s house for lunch. As we were walking there, Elder Troll asked me if I would share a spiritual thought. Immediately the scripture 1 Nephi 3:7 popped into my head and I thought, "that would be an easy one to share," so I said I would. When it was time for me to share my spiritual thought, I read the scripture which says "I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded. For I know that the Lord giveth no commandment unto the children of men save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the things which he hath commanded them." then shared (in still very broken Portuguese) how in my life sometimes keeping this commandment or that was sometimes difficult or seemed impossible to keep, but when I tried my best to do so, I was able to every time. By the end of me sharing this, the Mother of the family was in tears and told us that that was exactly what she needed to hear at that point in her life. This was amazing to me because I realized that what I thought was a simple thought that had popped into my head as an easy spiritual thought to share, was actually a spiritual prompting sent by the Spirit to help this Irma with what she needed help with at that time. I know that the Lord looks after his children here on the earth because he loves each and every one of us.
I love you all and can’t wait to email you guys next week!!
Elder Ellis
(A PIECE OF AN E-MAIL SENT TO HIS BROTHER CAMERON) Today marks 2 MONTHS!!! Can you believe it??? I can't! By the way, consider reading Jesus the Christ with Dad! Seriously, out of every single book I've ever read in my life (excluding the scriptures of course) it is by far the best!!! I heard people say that about this book before my mission and I wish I had listened because its so good!
HEY!
This week has been supercrazy!! I get back to the apartment every night completely exhausted and ready for bed (but first we have to plan and shower and write in our journals and clean a bit and... ha-ha lots of stuff :)! The mission has definitely taught me how to keep going even when I’m BEAT! Ha-ha!
Anyway, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! They don’t celebrate it here in Brazil so I had to treat myself to some candy from my package!! It was a great Halloween! We went to a member´s house for almoço (lunch) and played chess with the "man" of the house ;) he´s 13 but really smart and always beats Elder Troll and I at chess!! But when we played on Halloween... I WON!!!!! No one could believe it!! (Mostly because I never (and I mean NEVER) win against anyone! Ha-ha!) It was fantastic! Then we had service at a non-member´s house! They have a courtyard where they have a BIG mango tree and some chickens! Our job was to clean the courtyard. Well, most of the mango trees here are right in the middle of producing mangos but this one was at the end, so there were mangos all over the ground and not just new ones... we had the opportunity to pick them ALL up (by hand, no gloves) and put them in a big, squishy, gooey, sticky mess in the corner to be burned :) then add the chickens :) Ha-ha! And one of the kids in the family is CRAZY about cowboys and went loco when he found out I´m from Texas! He got out all his cowboy stuff (quite the arsenal) which included a cowboy hat, a legit leather whip and lasso, a big belt buckle, and a big knife :) so I taught him how to throw the knife and do a trick or two with it! He was Ecstatic! It was great!
Anyway, a super funny thing having to do with food happened this week... ha-ha! So, Elder Troll likes eggs, and this particular morning, he wanted hard boiled eggs. Então (so), he got two eggs and put them in water in a pot and put the pot on the stove, intending to come back in an hour and take them out and eat them. Well, we got studying and an hour went by. Then two, then three... on the third and about a half hour (or at about 11:30) we have language study. Well, we were studying diligently when we heard a BAM! We both looked up at each other, shrugged, and went back to studying. About 15 seconds later we heard another BAM! We both then looked up, got up, and ran to the kitchen where we found egg shell and hardboiled egg all over the floor and walls! Ha-ha!! While we had been studying, the water had all evaporated, leaving two hard boiled eggs essentially in a super-hot pan ha-ha!
So last p-day we went to the river that runs, in part, through Unaí! It’s the Rio (pronounced HEEO) Preto and it’s probably the closest I’m going to get to "rainforest" as I’m going to get on my mission Ha-ha! Twas fantastic!
Every day I work out at our apartment... but we don’t have weights. Então, I do stuff like pushups, pull-ups (we have a bar) and sit-ups. Well, we have another pull-up bar in our apartment that doesn’t stay in the doorframe, so I use it for something else :) I get my bag and fill it with the heaviest books I can find (the scriptures), put it on the bar, and do curls and a few other exercises with it :) In a quite literal sense, I’m gaining "scripture power" Ha-ha!!!
So here in Unaí, and ONLY here in Unaí, we have an ice cream brand called Moranginho´s. Though the actual ice cream is inferior (as all foreign ice cream is ;) to USA ice cream, the other popsicles and what not are AMAZING!!! So much so that when I get rich (and probably old ;) I´ve decided to buy the company and share it with the world!! Ha-ha! But seriously, its sooooooo good! I wish y’all could taste this!
The members here are super nice! I love them to death! And they give us stuff all the time! Mostly food (which we need because we are pobre (poor) ha-ha!) We were at a member´s house for almoço and they gave me a pair of jeans, which had been worn (sorry for the terrible spelling by the way) only once by the boy of the family, that had cost them R$135 (about USD$73ish). She had me try them on and when they fit me, she just gave them to me! I am going to write her a really nice note thanking her for them (though it might take a while to wright it in Portuguese... ;)
(This is in part to give you an understanding about how small our branch here in Unaí is.) Yesterday at church, we had 45 people show up! This is a huge number for our little rama (pernounced HA-MA). It was great! And to make it even better, we had 3 investigators show up!!! It was amazing!!! :)
Early this week, we went to a member´s house for lunch. As we were walking there, Elder Troll asked me if I would share a spiritual thought. Immediately the scripture 1 Nephi 3:7 popped into my head and I thought, "that would be an easy one to share," so I said I would. When it was time for me to share my spiritual thought, I read the scripture which says "I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded. For I know that the Lord giveth no commandment unto the children of men save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the things which he hath commanded them." then shared (in still very broken Portuguese) how in my life sometimes keeping this commandment or that was sometimes difficult or seemed impossible to keep, but when I tried my best to do so, I was able to every time. By the end of me sharing this, the Mother of the family was in tears and told us that that was exactly what she needed to hear at that point in her life. This was amazing to me because I realized that what I thought was a simple thought that had popped into my head as an easy spiritual thought to share, was actually a spiritual prompting sent by the Spirit to help this Irma with what she needed help with at that time. I know that the Lord looks after his children here on the earth because he loves each and every one of us.
I love you all and can’t wait to email you guys next week!!
Elder Ellis
Hey Ya’ll!! October
28,2013
This week has been super awesome! I really do appreciate all the emails sent to me! They´re one of the highlights of my week!
Church yesterday was really cool! Why? Because Elder Troll and I basically ran most of it :) We blessed the sacrament, taught gospel principles class, and gave talks in sacrament meeting! It was CRAZY! We found out about the talks the day before, we found out about blessing a few minutes before, and we found out about gospel principles class the class before ha-ha! Needless to say we didn’t have a ton of time to prep, but it all went really well!
Soooo Portuguese is super fun to speak and I love it! But 3 things make it super hard!
1. Learning words but forgetting them when I need them! (Super Frustrating)
2. Names here are super different so I have a really hard time putting names with faces and just plain remembering the names!
3. People here speak so fast and with so many different words that I can’t understand them! Plus verbs sound completely different depending on the conjugation! So even if I know the verb, half the time I don’t recognize it!
It’s been a rough road but I´m slowly and surely learning! I can see the hand of the Lord in the progress I´m making and I´m super humbled by the amount I still have to learn!
Well, I can tell you I´m definitely not going hungry!! Most of the time when we go to anyone´s house, they offer us water and food! Here´s some of the cool stuff I´ve eaten and had to drink!
Terere- herbal tea made with Sprite! Really strange tasting but a lot of people here love it!
Ice cream- here, it’s a bit different ha-ha! It’s much less creamy, flavorful, and sweet so the toppings are essential! One weird topping that most people (myself included) is sweetened condensed milk! It’s weird at first but good!
Milk!- I love it! It’s much different here as they only sell it in boxes (see pic) and they´re only 1 liter apiece (1/4 of a gallon, I drink at least one a day) and they treat it differently so that it doesn’t have to be refrigerated and can last, unopened, for a year. This makes it taste a little like evaporated milk, but I´m getting used to it!
Pastel- I don’t know exactly what it is but it’s amazing! Fried something or other with ham and cheese inside! heaven :)
Suger Cain Juice- can’t describe it but its sweet and tastes really, really, really good :)
Jabuchicaba (i really have no clue how its spelled)- like a cherry, but you don’t eat the outside or the pit... and it tastes nothing like a cherry... but it’s really good!
Manga (mango :)- here in Unaí there are mango trees everywhere!!! And they´re RIPE!!! We eat them almost every day and I LOVE it!
Most of the food here is suuuppperrrr good! But my favorite meal here had to be at this restaurant called Giraffe´s. I got a burger, fries and a soda :) Most burgers here are super different than burgers in the US, but this one was AMAZING!!! And the fries were exceptional! Then, we went and got strawberry milkshakes!!! The meal was perfection (except for the fact that the milk shake didn’t have real strawberries in it... but it tasted super, super good!)
I don’t have a ton more time, but I want to share with y’all that I know that Jesus Christ atoned for our sins and that through the atonement, we can repent from anything if only we humble ourselves enough to get on our knees and pray for forgiveness. I know that our Heavenly Father loves us and seeks to bless us every day. I know that without His help, none of us would be anywhere near where we are today! We are so blessed every day and I know that I have felt an overwhelming sense of peace and love when I take the time to pray and thank God for the blessings he has given us! I would like to leave these things with y’all in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Love you all!
Elder Ellis
This week has been super awesome! I really do appreciate all the emails sent to me! They´re one of the highlights of my week!
Church yesterday was really cool! Why? Because Elder Troll and I basically ran most of it :) We blessed the sacrament, taught gospel principles class, and gave talks in sacrament meeting! It was CRAZY! We found out about the talks the day before, we found out about blessing a few minutes before, and we found out about gospel principles class the class before ha-ha! Needless to say we didn’t have a ton of time to prep, but it all went really well!
Soooo Portuguese is super fun to speak and I love it! But 3 things make it super hard!
1. Learning words but forgetting them when I need them! (Super Frustrating)
2. Names here are super different so I have a really hard time putting names with faces and just plain remembering the names!
3. People here speak so fast and with so many different words that I can’t understand them! Plus verbs sound completely different depending on the conjugation! So even if I know the verb, half the time I don’t recognize it!
It’s been a rough road but I´m slowly and surely learning! I can see the hand of the Lord in the progress I´m making and I´m super humbled by the amount I still have to learn!
Well, I can tell you I´m definitely not going hungry!! Most of the time when we go to anyone´s house, they offer us water and food! Here´s some of the cool stuff I´ve eaten and had to drink!
Terere- herbal tea made with Sprite! Really strange tasting but a lot of people here love it!
Ice cream- here, it’s a bit different ha-ha! It’s much less creamy, flavorful, and sweet so the toppings are essential! One weird topping that most people (myself included) is sweetened condensed milk! It’s weird at first but good!
Milk!- I love it! It’s much different here as they only sell it in boxes (see pic) and they´re only 1 liter apiece (1/4 of a gallon, I drink at least one a day) and they treat it differently so that it doesn’t have to be refrigerated and can last, unopened, for a year. This makes it taste a little like evaporated milk, but I´m getting used to it!
Pastel- I don’t know exactly what it is but it’s amazing! Fried something or other with ham and cheese inside! heaven :)
Suger Cain Juice- can’t describe it but its sweet and tastes really, really, really good :)
Jabuchicaba (i really have no clue how its spelled)- like a cherry, but you don’t eat the outside or the pit... and it tastes nothing like a cherry... but it’s really good!
Manga (mango :)- here in Unaí there are mango trees everywhere!!! And they´re RIPE!!! We eat them almost every day and I LOVE it!
Most of the food here is suuuppperrrr good! But my favorite meal here had to be at this restaurant called Giraffe´s. I got a burger, fries and a soda :) Most burgers here are super different than burgers in the US, but this one was AMAZING!!! And the fries were exceptional! Then, we went and got strawberry milkshakes!!! The meal was perfection (except for the fact that the milk shake didn’t have real strawberries in it... but it tasted super, super good!)
I don’t have a ton more time, but I want to share with y’all that I know that Jesus Christ atoned for our sins and that through the atonement, we can repent from anything if only we humble ourselves enough to get on our knees and pray for forgiveness. I know that our Heavenly Father loves us and seeks to bless us every day. I know that without His help, none of us would be anywhere near where we are today! We are so blessed every day and I know that I have felt an overwhelming sense of peace and love when I take the time to pray and thank God for the blessings he has given us! I would like to leave these things with y’all in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Love you all!
Elder Ellis
the Australian sister . . . .
said I made water come out of her eyes ha-ha!
Hey guys!!!! 10/22/2013
My life this past week has literally been CRAZY packed with so much stuff, I haven’t had time to breath!!!
Here’s the basic lowdown!
Sooo, starting with my last p-day at the CTM!
Because it was the last p-day we had together, our district went to a churrascaria, basically a Brazilian steak house where they bring the meat until you can’t eat any more :). It was sooooooooo good! Think Tucanos, but for approximately USD$11! It was fantastic! We ate Pumba (wild pig :), Ox, coração de frango (chicken hearts... tasted good, but had a weird texture... haha!), and filet minion (how it’s spelled in English... I forget... ha-ha!) among other things! it was fantastic!!!
Last week traditions!!!!!
We have two main ones that are worth noting :)
1. We have a giant Book of Mormon in Portuguese that all of the English speaking missionaries that are leaving receive! We then mark our favorite scripture in it and write our testimonies beside them! It was awesome going back through it and reading the many testimonies written by missionaries past!
2. THE GUADANA CHALLANGE! This is probably the craziest thing I’ve done so far on my mission! Each week, the leaving American (or English speakers as the case may be) Elders obtain a 3L, yes 3 Liters, bottle of Guadana and, being carefully documented and timed, chug it as fast as possible and try to beat the record. Well, the record was set week before us by the 6 leaving elders (including my giant of a companion, Elder K.) who drank it in 3 min and 21 seconds... we had 3 people, all of whom weighed less than 170 lbs. and are less than 5´9... We beat that record by a whole minute and 26 seconds! Our time was the best in CTM history (for the length of time the tradition has been going on... which is an unknown amount of time, which is at least 6 weeks) with a time of 1:55!!! It was crazy and I was hurting afterword... but none of us threw up (which is a feat unto itself considering one of the 6 the previous week did and he had to drink a half of what each of us had to drink... ha-ha!) It was great!
Later that week we had a mock baptism with our investigator, Carla! It was a great experience and I was the one chosen to give a prayer and `preform the baptism` which consisted of leading our investigator out of the door... and then back in ha-ha! It was a super cool experience!
Then, directly after, there was another `baptism` with the pesquisador of the district with only sisters in it! We were able to attend that and it was really cool because it was for my favorite teacher here, Irmao Barros! Because they don’t have any elders in their district, they needed someone to be the `Ward Mission President` and preform the baptism. Irmao Barros chose me, out of the 15ish elders there, to do it! We`re pretty much homies ;) it was a super cool experience!
So I sang my song on Sunday and it went really well... except for that I left two pages of my music on my chair!!! They were the last two pages so I sang the first part then I didn’t have the words!!! Inside I was freaking out but I just walked over to the piano and read it from the piano music. It was super stressful but everyone said I did an amazing job and several people told me they cried through it all! Sister Cameron, the Australian sister who´s a week behind us, said I made water come out of her eyes ha-ha! It was a great experience! I talked with President Deign about the missing pages afterword and he said that I handled it the most professionally out of any missionary he´s seen sing and forget some of the music! And he said it’s happened a lot ha-ha!
Tuesday I arrived here in Brasilia! It’s super awesome here! I love it! My trainer and new companion´s name is Elder T. :) he´s from Chile and has been out 9 months! He´s about as tall as I am, but really built so he looks a lot bigger than me ha-ha! He´s super cool and a hard worker!
So our area is about 3 hours away from Brasilia by bus and we had a Zone Conference a few days after I got here so we stayed with some other missionaries there until that happened! It was super cool because I got to know other missionaries here!
Our area (Unaí) only has me and Elder T. ha-ha! But the Zone Conference was amazing! Most of it was only in Portuguese so I didn’t understand most of it... but the visiting 70 was from the US and only spoke English so I understood him and his wife clearly! (Their talks had to be translated into Portuguese for the Brazileros ha-ha!) It was super spiritual and we sang our mission´s hymn which is super awesome! There´s not an English translation but you can find it on LDS.org! It’s `Ide por Todo o Mundo`!
I want to learn to play it on the piano! :)
****NOTE FROM NATE’S MOM. If you want to hear the song CLICK HERE. Below Nate’s letter I have posted the words to this hymn that I translated using Google Translate so they aren’t exact, but it’s pretty neat)
Then we left for Unaí on the way here, our bus was stopped for a military exercise! It was kinda cool because they brought on a drug dog and were filming the entire thing! I was basically a huge part in it (I sat on the aisle seat and watched ;)
Since I’ve been here in Unaí, I’ve had a few really cool spiritual experiences! One happened during our estudo pessoal (personal study) one morning. I was reading in 2nd Nephi where Lehi is giving advice before he dies and he used the phrase `shake off the chains with which ye are bound´ several times. I thought it was interesting that he used the words `shake off´ like the chains were loose (the chains being sin). The more I thought about it the more I realized that, no, the chains are not loose but very tight. I then thought, how then we can simply shake them off. The answer came simply as a thought about grace. In the Bible dictionary, it defines grace as strength given through Christ´s atonement to those that live righteously and try their hardest to keep his commandments and serve him!
Shaking off the chains of sin is never easy but it is 100% possible with the help of the atonement!
Well, I’m out of time again (even though here we get an hour and a half) but I’ll write again next Monday!
love you all!!
Elder Ellis
BTW, my address is:
Elder Nathanial Ellis
Djalma Torres 240 Bairro Centro,
Minas Gerais, Brasil
for those of you that wanna send me stuff ;) ha-ha!)
PS below are some of the many pics I have taken over the past 7 weeks and haven’t been able to send! Enjoy!
Jesus said : Go ye into all the world
And preach the eternal gift
Of salvation with fruitful love
Gives the good and gracious God ;
Made on the cross of sacrifice and pain
Proclaim the gift of the Redeemer .
Oh ! conquistai Lost Souls , seek
The sinner error immersed in so deep !
Come on, brothers , take
This light to the whole world !
Come , brethren , count
That this gift is true !
Come , brethren , preach
Lamb in Mui entrusted
That the cross has made our redemption!
All united in this great attempt
Proclaim salvation !
Undeterred , always showing courage
Yes , fulfill the mission
The Savior , Jesus Christ , has given us !
It is also in your post .
King tells us : " I will be with you always . "
Come on, brothers , Christ gives us sustenance !
Come on, brothers , take
This light to the whole world !
Come , brethren , count
That this gift is true !
Come , Brethren , preach
Lamb in Mui entrusted
That the cross has made our redemption!
Firm , we bring a holy message
The gospel of Jesus !
This divine message that enchants
And it leads the sinner ;
Full of glorious blessings of God
Who knows his chosen ,
Full of love comes from heaven in pledge
God's mercy and gives us hope !
Come on, brothers , take
This light to the whole world !
Come , brethren , count
That this gift is true !
Come , brethren , preach
Lamb in Mui entrusted
That the cross has made our redemption!
10/18/2013 Hey! I´m just emailing to tell you that I made it to Brasilia safely! I spent a few days in the actual city of Brasilia itself but now I´m in my first area! It is the city of Umai Minas Gerais! Because sexta-feira (or Friday) isn't my p-day anymore (it's Monday) I can only send this, but I will send a better one then! Love you! Tell the rest of the family I love them too!
Elder Nathanial Ellis
Elder Nathanial Ellis
Catherine,
Here is a photo of Elder Ellis and his companions with their brownie sundaes!
Thank you for your order!
Have a great day!
Crystal,
MissionTies
(MISSIONTIES is a company that caters to American missionaries at the Brazil MTC. They cater to things they miss from home such as brownie sundaes, cinnamon rolls, pizza parties etc. - they also send a picture of them. . yeah. . .since he can't send home pictures until after he leaves the CTM)
Here is a photo of Elder Ellis and his companions with their brownie sundaes!
Thank you for your order!
Have a great day!
Crystal,
MissionTies
(MISSIONTIES is a company that caters to American missionaries at the Brazil MTC. They cater to things they miss from home such as brownie sundaes, cinnamon rolls, pizza parties etc. - they also send a picture of them. . yeah. . .since he can't send home pictures until after he leaves the CTM)
. . . I got it! This is particularly amazing considering Wednesday I COULDN'T even sing!
Hey guys!!! 10-11-2013
This past week here at the CTM has been crazy (as usual), rewarding, and also a little sad (I'll tell you guys all about it).
Well, starting with last Friday...
Sister Shepherd's mom ended up getting us a 'pizza party' from Pizza Hut through Missionties!!! I was sooooo excited and ate 2 pieces (+ someone's unwanted best part aka the crust!) and we had Guadana with it (still can’t get over how good that stuff is!). That was pretty much awesome! Then later that night we were playing volleyball for actividade fisica and someone twisted their ankle really badly. Elder Knechtel and I helped w/ the blessing (Elder K. gave it) and I ended up remembering some basic first aid that helped with it till Elder Adams (the elder in the infermery) got there! It was pretty crazy!
Earlier that day, we went to Mr. Cheney’s to see if Elder Knechtel had any letters because it was his last p-day, and he did, but it wasn’t a very good one... His parents had told him the week before about a flash flood they had that wrecked their town (his family and their house were fine and they’re housing some currently homeless people at the current moment). Well, this letter was a little bit about that but it had pictures of places he knew really well that had been completely destroyed by the flood. It was really hard on him and so we went and he talked to Prez. Daine about it. After, Elder Knechtel shared with me a scripture that Prez Daine shared with him to comfort him. It’s D&C 100:1 and its now one of my favorites! (I don’t have my scriptures on me sooo... sry!)
D&C 100: 1 Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you, my friends Sidney and Joseph, your families are well; they are in mine hands, and I will do with them as seemeth me good; for in me there is all power.
General Conference was amazing!!! I particularly loved Elder Holland's talk because the end reminded me of my old friend in Virginia, Fausto. I loved it! Then before the last session, the Mo Tab performance was awesome! I loved this one song in particular but I only remember that it was an American folk song... oh well, it was really good!
This past week, my favorite instructor, Irmao Barros (double r's are pronounced like an 'h') got married!!! We were so happy for him cause he's super cool! He used to live in the hood and was a really good break dancer! The only bad part about his marriage is that he was gone for like 5 days! Oh well, now we can’t have him all to ourselves... ha-ha!
So yesterday I auditioned to sing, “A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief” for our Sunday night devotional... and I got it! This is particularly amazing considering Wednesday I couldn’t even sing! About 30 min. into the last session of GC, I got really sick (I stayed and watched the whole session though) and wasn’t feeling good at all. That was bad because the sick that I got was a virus that had been going around the CTM and wasn’t going away for about 2 weeks! I was really scared I wouldn’t be able to sing because I'd been practicing for about a week... so I got a blessing from Elder Knechtel and the other elders in my district and I prayed really hard for the next few days to get better and, in almost record time, I got better yesterday! I know that the Lord does answer our prayers and that the Priesthood that we hold is truly the power of God given to men for the blessing of others!
This week was a little sad both because of getting sick and because Elder Knechtel left on Tuesday... he was an amazing comp. to have and we had a lot of fun together. But I have two new companions that are really cool elders! Elder White (from Dallas) and Elder Maw (from North Carolina) (his name sounds just like the Portuguese word for bad... so we call him Elder 'bom' or 'good' ha-ha).
My Portuguese is coming along really well! It’s weird because I'm starting to erase English words in my mind and replace them with Portuguese ones... ha-ha-ha! I love translating phrases in English directly into Portuguese because they sound great, but make no sense in Portuguese ha-ha! For example, the basketball term, 'get buckets' translates to 'conseguir baldies' (a d+i or e makes a g(ish) noise). That one's a lot of fun to say ha-hah!
So the head of security here is a big Russian guy with the last name of Surov! He's really funny once you get to know him and he talks Portuguese in a Russian accent!!! Super legit! And get this, in Portuguese, his job title is 'vigilante leader'!!! It’s great!
So there's an Australian sister here and I was talking to her in my Australian accent and she told me that if she Hadn’t had known beforehand that I was American, she would have thought I was from Australia!!! bam!
I just have to say I'm glad for my comforter... ha-ha!
So.... today, 3 days before I leave the CTM, I have to move bedrooms up a floor because they're making all the bedrooms on my floor 'sister's rooms'... I'm not too happy about that and neither are my companions... oh well!
I don’t have a ton of time left but I still have more to write about!!! Just don’t forget to remind me next week to tell you guys about the 'leaving traditions' we have here at the CTM!!!
MOM
I leave Tuesday morning.
Being the District Leader is a little stressful because of the paperwork... ha-ha but it’s cool! I love it!
Love you mom!
DAD
Thanks so much for the letter!!! It’s awesome that we as a family did so well in the SOS competition!
Love you!
CAM
I'm glad we're doing so well this year after past years of... disappointment... ha-ha! jk! My advice, go to as many of the football games as you can! I miss them already! Go wildcats! Ha-ha! Love ya dude!
MEG
I'm soooo glad you're doing so good in xc this year!!! You're definitely an Ellis! Keep up the good work! I love you!
Ha-ha! Cho cho for now!
Love,
Elder Ellis
. . . . IT SHOWED ME THAT WHEN YOU LOVE EVERYONE, PEOPLE NOTICE AND RESPECT YOU FOR IT.
Hey!! 10/4/2013
Things have been crazy this past week (like always!), but super fun!
The letter you guys sent on the 22nd of September, I got on the first. The letter you sent on the 2nd through Missionaryties got here on the 3rd.
I discovered this amazing Brazilian candy this past week!!! It’s called Bis and it’s kind of sort of like a Kit Kat but, in my opinion, better!!! It’s white chocolate and these wafer things and I just can’t get enough... ha-ha.
The other day, I was looking out my dorm window onto the street and some other missionaries and I watched a guy just like pass out and fall onto the sidewalk! We thought he was dead because he didn’t move for like 10 minutes, but he ended up being ok. Someone helped him up and he staggered away... I’m pretty sure he was drunk... ha-ha-ha!
I’m kind of sad... the two districts I got to know really well while I have been here (besides mine) left this Tuesday... they had some great missionaries (including the British one)... I’m going to miss them a ton.
Sooooo... my companion, Elder Knechtel, got called to be our new zone leader this past Sunday! It was super cool (even though he's leaving on Tuesday) and that made me the new district leader! It’s been a bit of work (mostly of the paper variety) but it’s been rewarding!!
So, I did get my scripture cover!!! And it looks awesome! I got pictures of it (and I’m taking pictures all the time during p-day because we can’t take pictures at any other time)! One of the pictures is of Jesus sitting on a hill and it’s really good! I love it so much. I can’t stop drawing it everywhere! (I’m pretty good at it now...)
This week, Sister Wainwright got a super bad migraine and so Elder Knechtel and I gave her the blessing (I anointed). It was a beautiful blessing of healing and of comfort. I know that the Lord really does bless us through priesthood blessings (and other ways of course) because he loves us immensely!
One of the companionships that left this past week was Elders W. and Elder P. . Elder P. was straight out of high school (like me) and a little bit of a spaz. He would get on a lot of people's nerves, but Elder K and I just decided to love him and treat him well. Well, his companion Elder W. (6'4 skinny red head looked a lot like Jim Kerry. . . love that elder to death) was super thankful for that and came and told us the last night. It showed to me that when you love everyone, people notice and respect you for it.
Last night, Elder K. and the other 5 elders had to do a CTM tradition of drinking 3.3 liters of Guarana (an amazing Brazilian soda) as fast as possible. The previous record was 6 min by the 5 elders last week. They destroyed that record in 3 min 21 seconds! Next week it’s my turn... we have 3 elders leaving including me... that means 1.1 liters for each... and a minute on the bottle each...
Well, that’s all I have time for!!! Love you all so much!!!
Elder Ellis
Hey!! 10/4/2013
Things have been crazy this past week (like always!), but super fun!
The letter you guys sent on the 22nd of September, I got on the first. The letter you sent on the 2nd through Missionaryties got here on the 3rd.
I discovered this amazing Brazilian candy this past week!!! It’s called Bis and it’s kind of sort of like a Kit Kat but, in my opinion, better!!! It’s white chocolate and these wafer things and I just can’t get enough... ha-ha.
The other day, I was looking out my dorm window onto the street and some other missionaries and I watched a guy just like pass out and fall onto the sidewalk! We thought he was dead because he didn’t move for like 10 minutes, but he ended up being ok. Someone helped him up and he staggered away... I’m pretty sure he was drunk... ha-ha-ha!
I’m kind of sad... the two districts I got to know really well while I have been here (besides mine) left this Tuesday... they had some great missionaries (including the British one)... I’m going to miss them a ton.
Sooooo... my companion, Elder Knechtel, got called to be our new zone leader this past Sunday! It was super cool (even though he's leaving on Tuesday) and that made me the new district leader! It’s been a bit of work (mostly of the paper variety) but it’s been rewarding!!
So, I did get my scripture cover!!! And it looks awesome! I got pictures of it (and I’m taking pictures all the time during p-day because we can’t take pictures at any other time)! One of the pictures is of Jesus sitting on a hill and it’s really good! I love it so much. I can’t stop drawing it everywhere! (I’m pretty good at it now...)
This week, Sister Wainwright got a super bad migraine and so Elder Knechtel and I gave her the blessing (I anointed). It was a beautiful blessing of healing and of comfort. I know that the Lord really does bless us through priesthood blessings (and other ways of course) because he loves us immensely!
One of the companionships that left this past week was Elders W. and Elder P. . Elder P. was straight out of high school (like me) and a little bit of a spaz. He would get on a lot of people's nerves, but Elder K and I just decided to love him and treat him well. Well, his companion Elder W. (6'4 skinny red head looked a lot like Jim Kerry. . . love that elder to death) was super thankful for that and came and told us the last night. It showed to me that when you love everyone, people notice and respect you for it.
Last night, Elder K. and the other 5 elders had to do a CTM tradition of drinking 3.3 liters of Guarana (an amazing Brazilian soda) as fast as possible. The previous record was 6 min by the 5 elders last week. They destroyed that record in 3 min 21 seconds! Next week it’s my turn... we have 3 elders leaving including me... that means 1.1 liters for each... and a minute on the bottle each...
Well, that’s all I have time for!!! Love you all so much!!!
Elder Ellis
9-30-2013 THE MTC PRESIDENT SENT THIS PICTURE AND THE FOLLOWING LETTER!
Dear Family,
We are pleased to be able to send you a picture of your missionary´s recent visit to the São Paulo temple. This is always a special moment, entering the temple with other missionaries engaged in the Lord´s work. We know they will treasure this remembrance.
It is a great honor to serve with each of these fine young people and to watch their growth as they learn more about their sacred calling of a missionary. We have a great love and respect for each one of them.
Thank you for your support for them. They love to receive emails and letters from you, and feel of your love. We know that your family will feel the blessings of their service.
Sincerely,
President and Sister Degn
Dear Family,
We are pleased to be able to send you a picture of your missionary´s recent visit to the São Paulo temple. This is always a special moment, entering the temple with other missionaries engaged in the Lord´s work. We know they will treasure this remembrance.
It is a great honor to serve with each of these fine young people and to watch their growth as they learn more about their sacred calling of a missionary. We have a great love and respect for each one of them.
Thank you for your support for them. They love to receive emails and letters from you, and feel of your love. We know that your family will feel the blessings of their service.
Sincerely,
President and Sister Degn
This week a virus went around that made everyone sick. . . .
Hey! 9-27-2013
This week has been super eventful!
I'll start at the last p-day! Elder Knechtel got a package through missionary ties that had 8 gigantic cinnamon rolls in it and we had two!! They were sooooo good! Then I bought some soccer jerseys (for less than $12 a piece) and that was super cool!
Then that night we had a TRC (a lesson with a member/investigator on a p-day) and we taught about prayer. We had Irmao Barros (one of the coolest teachers here) for it and he shared with us that before his mission, he lived in the hood and was a break dancer! He showed us some of the stuff he could do! Then he told us that during his mission, his mom died but through praying he was able to feel peace about it. It was super spiritual!
At the temple last p-day I bought a small Portuguese hymn book and a Portuguese simplified hymn book to practice on the piano with (I get time every day for about 45 min during estudio adicional)! I’m still not very good, but with time I’ll get better! haha!
This week a virus went around that made everyone sick so I was able to give 2 blessings and help with another! The first one I gave was to Elder Knechtel (who had an ear infection). The second one I gave was to Sister Shepherd (one of the sisters in my district). In the blessing I felt prompted to tell her that through her faith, she would be better the next day. I hesitated because it looked like she had the same virus that everyone was getting (which took 2-3 days to get over) but said it in the blessing anyway. That night I prayed soooooo hard that the blessing would help her and, the next day, she was fine! It was a super big boost to my testimony about the power of the priesthood!
I also participated in a blessing for an Australian sister in the CTM (Sister Cameron). Her district is only 3 people with her and her 2 companions, so a while back Elder K and I went and told them that if they ever needed something like a priesthood blessing, they could come to us. Well, she got the virus and ended up coming to us for a blessing and, like Sister Shepherd, was healed. I know that this Church is true and that the power of the priesthood that we hold is indeed the power of God.
This past Sunday Elder Knechtel and I had the opportunity to pass the sacrament! It was great and the Spirit was there in abundance! This week (a few days ago) we were having a second lesson with one of our investigators and she told us that her 3 year old daughter had died about a year ago without being baptized and her pastor told her that her daughter was going to inferno... soooo I thought to myself, I know a perfect scripture for this! I only had my Portuguese scriptures with me but I thought I knew where it was! Well, I got the chapter right, Moroni 8, but I missed the verses I wanted to read by like two verses. I should have read Moroni 8: 11-12 but I read, unknowingly, Moroni 8: 13-15... so instead of telling her, her child was with God because she was clean, I told her that her pastor was going to inferno... and didn't find out about it till the next day when I read that chapter in my English set! ha-ha! Needless to say, in the next lesson we went back and explained it a little better ha-ha!
So our devotional on Tuesday was amazing! It was a DVD of a devotional that Elder Holland gave at the Provo MTC a week ago and it was pretty much awesome! The entire first part was about how we better not dare to come home not converted and knowing that this gospel is true because younger kids are looking up to us. The second part was about Preach My Gospel and how we can use it more effectively and what we need to do, as a whole, more effectively. It basically lit a fire under me and made me want to be an even better missionary (not that that’s possible... ha-ha jk)! It was great! This Wednesday we handed out Book of Mormons on the Avenida (like Wall Street in the US). It was a really cool experience! As a district we handed out 6 and Elder K and I talked to this guy for about 45 min about the church! It was a great experience to see how much Portuguese I've learned in only 3 weeks!
The other day we got two new elders in our district! They came from Provo! There’s an Elder White (from Dallas) and Elder Maw (from North Carolina). They’re really cool people and a great addition to our district!
ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS!
MOM
We only have 45 min a week to read and write e-mails.
I've only gotten 1 letter.
Everyone in my district has signed up for missionary ties and has 7 letters a piece already.
Role playing really helps a ton!
We really are here to learn the language so most of what we do is based around that, not learning the doctrines as much, but scripture mastery is awesome to know out here! It’s a lifesaver in a ton of lessons where you need a scripture fast! Make sure they know it!
I did buy a cookie and a drink from Mr. Cheney’s.
Yes, for the bookstore, no for the quad.
Yes I can see the pictures.
Love you all and can’t wait for next week!!
Elder Ellis
Hey! 9-27-2013
This week has been super eventful!
I'll start at the last p-day! Elder Knechtel got a package through missionary ties that had 8 gigantic cinnamon rolls in it and we had two!! They were sooooo good! Then I bought some soccer jerseys (for less than $12 a piece) and that was super cool!
Then that night we had a TRC (a lesson with a member/investigator on a p-day) and we taught about prayer. We had Irmao Barros (one of the coolest teachers here) for it and he shared with us that before his mission, he lived in the hood and was a break dancer! He showed us some of the stuff he could do! Then he told us that during his mission, his mom died but through praying he was able to feel peace about it. It was super spiritual!
At the temple last p-day I bought a small Portuguese hymn book and a Portuguese simplified hymn book to practice on the piano with (I get time every day for about 45 min during estudio adicional)! I’m still not very good, but with time I’ll get better! haha!
This week a virus went around that made everyone sick so I was able to give 2 blessings and help with another! The first one I gave was to Elder Knechtel (who had an ear infection). The second one I gave was to Sister Shepherd (one of the sisters in my district). In the blessing I felt prompted to tell her that through her faith, she would be better the next day. I hesitated because it looked like she had the same virus that everyone was getting (which took 2-3 days to get over) but said it in the blessing anyway. That night I prayed soooooo hard that the blessing would help her and, the next day, she was fine! It was a super big boost to my testimony about the power of the priesthood!
I also participated in a blessing for an Australian sister in the CTM (Sister Cameron). Her district is only 3 people with her and her 2 companions, so a while back Elder K and I went and told them that if they ever needed something like a priesthood blessing, they could come to us. Well, she got the virus and ended up coming to us for a blessing and, like Sister Shepherd, was healed. I know that this Church is true and that the power of the priesthood that we hold is indeed the power of God.
This past Sunday Elder Knechtel and I had the opportunity to pass the sacrament! It was great and the Spirit was there in abundance! This week (a few days ago) we were having a second lesson with one of our investigators and she told us that her 3 year old daughter had died about a year ago without being baptized and her pastor told her that her daughter was going to inferno... soooo I thought to myself, I know a perfect scripture for this! I only had my Portuguese scriptures with me but I thought I knew where it was! Well, I got the chapter right, Moroni 8, but I missed the verses I wanted to read by like two verses. I should have read Moroni 8: 11-12 but I read, unknowingly, Moroni 8: 13-15... so instead of telling her, her child was with God because she was clean, I told her that her pastor was going to inferno... and didn't find out about it till the next day when I read that chapter in my English set! ha-ha! Needless to say, in the next lesson we went back and explained it a little better ha-ha!
So our devotional on Tuesday was amazing! It was a DVD of a devotional that Elder Holland gave at the Provo MTC a week ago and it was pretty much awesome! The entire first part was about how we better not dare to come home not converted and knowing that this gospel is true because younger kids are looking up to us. The second part was about Preach My Gospel and how we can use it more effectively and what we need to do, as a whole, more effectively. It basically lit a fire under me and made me want to be an even better missionary (not that that’s possible... ha-ha jk)! It was great! This Wednesday we handed out Book of Mormons on the Avenida (like Wall Street in the US). It was a really cool experience! As a district we handed out 6 and Elder K and I talked to this guy for about 45 min about the church! It was a great experience to see how much Portuguese I've learned in only 3 weeks!
The other day we got two new elders in our district! They came from Provo! There’s an Elder White (from Dallas) and Elder Maw (from North Carolina). They’re really cool people and a great addition to our district!
ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS!
MOM
We only have 45 min a week to read and write e-mails.
I've only gotten 1 letter.
Everyone in my district has signed up for missionary ties and has 7 letters a piece already.
Role playing really helps a ton!
We really are here to learn the language so most of what we do is based around that, not learning the doctrines as much, but scripture mastery is awesome to know out here! It’s a lifesaver in a ton of lessons where you need a scripture fast! Make sure they know it!
I did buy a cookie and a drink from Mr. Cheney’s.
Yes, for the bookstore, no for the quad.
Yes I can see the pictures.
Love you all and can’t wait for next week!!
Elder Ellis
the lord is helping me immensely to learn the LANGUAGE!
Friday, Setember 20th, 2013
(**ALL OF THE NOTES IN CAPITAL ARE CLARIFICATIONS BY ME, NATE’S MOM )
Hey!!!
I have sooo much to tell you about!!! but first, I’ll answer a few questions.
Mom
1. I have no clue where the Jeep keys are, sorry!
2. The scripture I want is the one you sent me in Mosiah! (TO PUT ON THE MISSIONARY PLAQUE AT CHURCH)
Mosiah 28: 3 "Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble."
3. We do have a CTM choir but everyone is in it so... ha-ha! It’s fun!
My Typical Day
6:30 Wake up and get ready
7:00 Personal study
8:00 Desjejum (breakfast)
8:30 Instruction Time
11:30 Additional study
12:15 Almoço (lunch)
1:00 TALL (I’ll explain later)
1:30 Instruction time
4:30 Language study
5:00 Jantar (dinner)
5:45 Prep for Actividade Fisica (PHYSICAL ACTIVITY)
615 Actividade Fisica
7:00 Prep for rest of night
7:30 Additional study
9:00 Lanche (snack)
9:15 Planning
10:00 In room
10:30 Lights out
I got the letter two days ago. Sign up for the mission ties thing!!! Letters get here in like a day! One of the sisters in my district has gotten like 4 letters already!
Don’t send packages to the CTM, they don’t get here in time and they can’t forward them to the missions. Thanks for the pics!!
Cam
Congrats on all of the fish! That’s awesome dude!
I heard you’re starting to drive my baby? Take care of it! ha-ha
My comp, Elder Knechtel, played baseball (1st base and pitcher) and football (tight end)
Thanks for the BYU score update!
Meg
Congrats on your race!!! That’s awesome!
Congrats on Beehive Prez!
Thanks sooo much for the notes and what not, Miss Maggy!
Antie Laura
The weather is awesome! Sometimes it’s pretty hot and other times we need a jacket, it varies from day to day! Yesterday it was raining really hard and cold, but today it’s sunny and nice!
We don’t get to go outside except for 3 hours on p-day
Ok! Some things I want you guys to know about!
My first "investigator" is "getting baptized today"!!! We’ll have a new one tomorrow, but it was such a great experience to find how the Spirit works and how to help bring it into a lesson that we're teaching!
I have total 6 weeks (HE HAS BEEN IN FOR 2 ½ WEEKS, BUT WILL BE IN THE CTM FOR 6 WEEKS TOTAL) in the CTM and I’m already understanding and having basic conversations with the Brazileros!! It’s super exciting and nice knowing that the Lord is helping me immensely to learn the language!
I can’t send pictures while I’m in the CTM, but I’ll send them all when I leave!
There is another Elder Ellis here! He’s really cool and one of the Elders we hang around at meals and what not!
TALL is a computer program made by BYU for learning languages and its really helpful!
I love the Brazileros!!! My first week I met some that were really funny! They left that week, but we became pretty close even though it was hard to communicate with them ha-ha! One of the jokes we shared was nao 'flesh' which is how they say "no flex" (code for no flirting) ha-ha! Any time one of them would even look in the direction of a sister missionary we would say that and enjoy a great laugh!
We got new roommates this week, both Brazileros! Neither of them had gone through the temple yet until yesterday! They were super excited and happy!
I’ve only met two other missionaries who are going to Brasilia, but they seem pretty cool! They’re both Hispanic so they're here the same amount of time as me!
We have some district goals that I want to share! We have an English jejum (fast) – (FROM SPEAKING ENBLISH) every desjejum (breakfast) and almoço (lunch) and it’s really hard, but worth it! We mostly just don’t talk, but... sometimes we sit with Brazileros and talk to them! haha! Another is to, as a companionship; pick a Christ like attribute to work on that week! We picked patience the first week and knowledge the second!
I bought the simplified Portuguese hymn book today!! I’ve been practicing the piano a little since I’ve been here as well!
I’m making that cup analogy that Brother Moss showed us!!! It’s taking a while getting the materials, but its slowly coming together!!!
Rhuvanah... I mean, Sister Sowers arrived this week! It was super exciting knowing one of the new missionaries!! (NATE’S MOM: “RHUVANAH HAS BEEN A FRIEND OF NATE’S FOR THE LAST FEW YEARS. SHE LIVES IN OUR STAKE AND IS A WONDERFUL GIRL)
I bought a leather engraved scripture case for my quad!!! It takes two weeks for the guy to make them, but next week I can pick it up!!! On the front I got a picture of the Savior coming out of the tomb, on the back a picture of the Savior sitting on a hill, and my mission on the spine!!! It was only about 35 US dollars! It’s awesome!
There are motorcycles everywhere and they drive like crazy people!! ha-ha! They never pay attention to lane lines and honk their little horns constantly so people know they're there ha-ha! It’s super dangerous, but fun to watch!
I just want to leave my testimony that I know that the Savior lives and that he loves each and every one of us immensely! He suffered the ultimate price for our sins, but through that sacrifice, we can repent and walk in his footsteps as he leads us to the throne of God!
Until next time!
Tudo bem! (Everything is well)
Elder Ellis
(**ALL OF THE NOTES IN CAPITAL ARE CLARIFICATIONS BY ME, NATE’S MOM )
Hey!!!
I have sooo much to tell you about!!! but first, I’ll answer a few questions.
Mom
1. I have no clue where the Jeep keys are, sorry!
2. The scripture I want is the one you sent me in Mosiah! (TO PUT ON THE MISSIONARY PLAQUE AT CHURCH)
Mosiah 28: 3 "Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble."
3. We do have a CTM choir but everyone is in it so... ha-ha! It’s fun!
My Typical Day
6:30 Wake up and get ready
7:00 Personal study
8:00 Desjejum (breakfast)
8:30 Instruction Time
11:30 Additional study
12:15 Almoço (lunch)
1:00 TALL (I’ll explain later)
1:30 Instruction time
4:30 Language study
5:00 Jantar (dinner)
5:45 Prep for Actividade Fisica (PHYSICAL ACTIVITY)
615 Actividade Fisica
7:00 Prep for rest of night
7:30 Additional study
9:00 Lanche (snack)
9:15 Planning
10:00 In room
10:30 Lights out
I got the letter two days ago. Sign up for the mission ties thing!!! Letters get here in like a day! One of the sisters in my district has gotten like 4 letters already!
Don’t send packages to the CTM, they don’t get here in time and they can’t forward them to the missions. Thanks for the pics!!
Cam
Congrats on all of the fish! That’s awesome dude!
I heard you’re starting to drive my baby? Take care of it! ha-ha
My comp, Elder Knechtel, played baseball (1st base and pitcher) and football (tight end)
Thanks for the BYU score update!
Meg
Congrats on your race!!! That’s awesome!
Congrats on Beehive Prez!
Thanks sooo much for the notes and what not, Miss Maggy!
Antie Laura
The weather is awesome! Sometimes it’s pretty hot and other times we need a jacket, it varies from day to day! Yesterday it was raining really hard and cold, but today it’s sunny and nice!
We don’t get to go outside except for 3 hours on p-day
Ok! Some things I want you guys to know about!
My first "investigator" is "getting baptized today"!!! We’ll have a new one tomorrow, but it was such a great experience to find how the Spirit works and how to help bring it into a lesson that we're teaching!
I have total 6 weeks (HE HAS BEEN IN FOR 2 ½ WEEKS, BUT WILL BE IN THE CTM FOR 6 WEEKS TOTAL) in the CTM and I’m already understanding and having basic conversations with the Brazileros!! It’s super exciting and nice knowing that the Lord is helping me immensely to learn the language!
I can’t send pictures while I’m in the CTM, but I’ll send them all when I leave!
There is another Elder Ellis here! He’s really cool and one of the Elders we hang around at meals and what not!
TALL is a computer program made by BYU for learning languages and its really helpful!
I love the Brazileros!!! My first week I met some that were really funny! They left that week, but we became pretty close even though it was hard to communicate with them ha-ha! One of the jokes we shared was nao 'flesh' which is how they say "no flex" (code for no flirting) ha-ha! Any time one of them would even look in the direction of a sister missionary we would say that and enjoy a great laugh!
We got new roommates this week, both Brazileros! Neither of them had gone through the temple yet until yesterday! They were super excited and happy!
I’ve only met two other missionaries who are going to Brasilia, but they seem pretty cool! They’re both Hispanic so they're here the same amount of time as me!
We have some district goals that I want to share! We have an English jejum (fast) – (FROM SPEAKING ENBLISH) every desjejum (breakfast) and almoço (lunch) and it’s really hard, but worth it! We mostly just don’t talk, but... sometimes we sit with Brazileros and talk to them! haha! Another is to, as a companionship; pick a Christ like attribute to work on that week! We picked patience the first week and knowledge the second!
I bought the simplified Portuguese hymn book today!! I’ve been practicing the piano a little since I’ve been here as well!
I’m making that cup analogy that Brother Moss showed us!!! It’s taking a while getting the materials, but its slowly coming together!!!
Rhuvanah... I mean, Sister Sowers arrived this week! It was super exciting knowing one of the new missionaries!! (NATE’S MOM: “RHUVANAH HAS BEEN A FRIEND OF NATE’S FOR THE LAST FEW YEARS. SHE LIVES IN OUR STAKE AND IS A WONDERFUL GIRL)
I bought a leather engraved scripture case for my quad!!! It takes two weeks for the guy to make them, but next week I can pick it up!!! On the front I got a picture of the Savior coming out of the tomb, on the back a picture of the Savior sitting on a hill, and my mission on the spine!!! It was only about 35 US dollars! It’s awesome!
There are motorcycles everywhere and they drive like crazy people!! ha-ha! They never pay attention to lane lines and honk their little horns constantly so people know they're there ha-ha! It’s super dangerous, but fun to watch!
I just want to leave my testimony that I know that the Savior lives and that he loves each and every one of us immensely! He suffered the ultimate price for our sins, but through that sacrifice, we can repent and walk in his footsteps as he leads us to the throne of God!
Until next time!
Tudo bem! (Everything is well)
Elder Ellis
The CTM is Super Awesome!! Friday, September 13th, 2013
Hey!
The CTM is super awesome! The first few days were kinda crazy, but I made it through it in one piece! There's sooo much to talk about I'm kinda going crazy right now! I'll start with a list of people I’ve met while I’ve been here!
Elder Knechtel- my new companion! He's super awesome, really spiritual, and really obedient. He's also probably the biggest person in the CTM right now (6'6 220 lbs) we've had some awesome experiences together already and I'll write about them later in the letter. He has been here for a week already, but technically that week was his 2nd week because no one came with him so they stuck him with a 2nd week district.
Elder Wagley- yes, Wagley! He's Bishop Wagley's nephew and he's super cool! He said to ask you guys to say “hi” to 'Uncle Ryan' for him.
Sister Redmond- she is a sister who was in my companion's old district. She knows the Finnegan’s really well.
Elders Janicky J, Gerber, and Owen- the Three Amigos. Super funny and are in the district that my companion left. Elder Janicky J is British and just got made our zone leader (in his 3rd week here), Elder Gerber was my companion's old companion, and Elder Owen is just... Elder Owen. He's got an awesome sense of humor that’s really dry and I love it.
Sisters Wanewrite and Shepherd- the two sister missionaries in my district, arrived with me on the plane from Georgia.
Those are the main ones I want you guys to be aware of right now! They are all super cool and really push me to try to be a great missionary! I've had a few crazy experiences down here already, some spiritual and some just awesome.
The temple- we went to the temple today and it was beautiful!!! It’s amazing that its inside the city, with a car dealership and a Wal-Mart right across the street but as soon as you step in, it feels like a completely different place! We had an English session because all of us were from America (with a few Brazilian non-missionaries) and we saw the old video because the new one hadn’t been brought here yet. There's this amazing stain glass pic of Jesus arriving in America that’s just so amazing and detailed! I wish I could send you a picture! Anyways, it was all amazing!
The food- everything they serve us here could come from like a 4 star restaurant it’s so good! The deserts can be a little weird sometimes but it all tastes good! Let me tell you about some of the best stuff I’ve been served.
Beans and rice- an everyday occurrence, lunch and dinner. I could live off this stuff! The beans are cooked in like a broth-ish not really sort of stuff that just makes the entire dish taste like heaven!
Chocolate and banana..... pizza- this stuff is quite possibly my favorite thing here. It sounds super strange and looks even stranger, but it tastes like chocolate, bananas, and love. We have pizza night every Wednesday and I ate probably 4 slices this past one...
Every meal they serve some kind of super good meat and I love it!
Brazilian Independence Day- September 7th. The only day at the CTM that they serve ice cream and I was here for it! It was weird how they served it though... they brought out big like foot and a half cubes and everyone just scooped chunks off into their bowls haha! Not as good as American ice cream, but it was pretty good and probably some of the only ice cream I’ll get in a while.
Teaching our pescisador (investigator)- our investigator's name is Daione. Her real name is Irma (sister) Monique. We've taught her 5 times already and its going super well! We committed her to baptism in the first lesson and we've taught her 3 of the 5 lessons already! The first lesson was really good even though I didn’t contribute a whole lot because we have to teach her in Portuguese, I was able to share a short simple testimony about how I know that when we pray, the Holy Ghost will tell us in our hearts that God is there and he is listening. The Spirit was there really strongly and it was pretty much awesome!
So my Portuguese is coming along really well! I still have a hard time understanding people and what they are saying because I hear one word, try to translate it, and then listen for more but 4 or 5 more words have gone by by that time and I’ve lost what they're trying to say. But its ok, I can pretty much say what I want to say... in Portuglish (Portuguese and English) and I can pray and bear my testimony in Portuguese. It’s amazing to me to look back and see how much I’ve learned in the past week and its way easy for me to see the Lord's hand in my life, helping me to learn.
Well, I don’t have any more time left so I'll bear my testimony really quickly for you guys.
I know that God loves us and I know that he sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer for us each individually. I had a really cool experience this week that built my testimony about this soooo much. We were talking about weaknesses just in our district and I said something that I hadn’t really thought about ever before but the Spirit told me, in my heart, that it is true. I said that we all have weaknesses and Satan knows exactly what they are because he knew us in the preexistence. He tries to exploit them in any way he can, but we have to overcome them, even though it’s hard. That’s what made Jesus and his Atonement so amazing. He had weaknesses, just like the rest of us and Satan knew them and tried to exploit them. When Jesus was in the wilderness, Satan tempted him multiple times with using his power for his own gain, but he overcame those temptations, hard as they were for him and remained perfect. Because he remained perfect and overcame his own weaknesses, he was able to suffer for our sins so that we in turn can overcome ours.
Have a great week, I look forward to your emails next week!
Elder Ellis
Hey!
The CTM is super awesome! The first few days were kinda crazy, but I made it through it in one piece! There's sooo much to talk about I'm kinda going crazy right now! I'll start with a list of people I’ve met while I’ve been here!
Elder Knechtel- my new companion! He's super awesome, really spiritual, and really obedient. He's also probably the biggest person in the CTM right now (6'6 220 lbs) we've had some awesome experiences together already and I'll write about them later in the letter. He has been here for a week already, but technically that week was his 2nd week because no one came with him so they stuck him with a 2nd week district.
Elder Wagley- yes, Wagley! He's Bishop Wagley's nephew and he's super cool! He said to ask you guys to say “hi” to 'Uncle Ryan' for him.
Sister Redmond- she is a sister who was in my companion's old district. She knows the Finnegan’s really well.
Elders Janicky J, Gerber, and Owen- the Three Amigos. Super funny and are in the district that my companion left. Elder Janicky J is British and just got made our zone leader (in his 3rd week here), Elder Gerber was my companion's old companion, and Elder Owen is just... Elder Owen. He's got an awesome sense of humor that’s really dry and I love it.
Sisters Wanewrite and Shepherd- the two sister missionaries in my district, arrived with me on the plane from Georgia.
Those are the main ones I want you guys to be aware of right now! They are all super cool and really push me to try to be a great missionary! I've had a few crazy experiences down here already, some spiritual and some just awesome.
The temple- we went to the temple today and it was beautiful!!! It’s amazing that its inside the city, with a car dealership and a Wal-Mart right across the street but as soon as you step in, it feels like a completely different place! We had an English session because all of us were from America (with a few Brazilian non-missionaries) and we saw the old video because the new one hadn’t been brought here yet. There's this amazing stain glass pic of Jesus arriving in America that’s just so amazing and detailed! I wish I could send you a picture! Anyways, it was all amazing!
The food- everything they serve us here could come from like a 4 star restaurant it’s so good! The deserts can be a little weird sometimes but it all tastes good! Let me tell you about some of the best stuff I’ve been served.
Beans and rice- an everyday occurrence, lunch and dinner. I could live off this stuff! The beans are cooked in like a broth-ish not really sort of stuff that just makes the entire dish taste like heaven!
Chocolate and banana..... pizza- this stuff is quite possibly my favorite thing here. It sounds super strange and looks even stranger, but it tastes like chocolate, bananas, and love. We have pizza night every Wednesday and I ate probably 4 slices this past one...
Every meal they serve some kind of super good meat and I love it!
Brazilian Independence Day- September 7th. The only day at the CTM that they serve ice cream and I was here for it! It was weird how they served it though... they brought out big like foot and a half cubes and everyone just scooped chunks off into their bowls haha! Not as good as American ice cream, but it was pretty good and probably some of the only ice cream I’ll get in a while.
Teaching our pescisador (investigator)- our investigator's name is Daione. Her real name is Irma (sister) Monique. We've taught her 5 times already and its going super well! We committed her to baptism in the first lesson and we've taught her 3 of the 5 lessons already! The first lesson was really good even though I didn’t contribute a whole lot because we have to teach her in Portuguese, I was able to share a short simple testimony about how I know that when we pray, the Holy Ghost will tell us in our hearts that God is there and he is listening. The Spirit was there really strongly and it was pretty much awesome!
So my Portuguese is coming along really well! I still have a hard time understanding people and what they are saying because I hear one word, try to translate it, and then listen for more but 4 or 5 more words have gone by by that time and I’ve lost what they're trying to say. But its ok, I can pretty much say what I want to say... in Portuglish (Portuguese and English) and I can pray and bear my testimony in Portuguese. It’s amazing to me to look back and see how much I’ve learned in the past week and its way easy for me to see the Lord's hand in my life, helping me to learn.
Well, I don’t have any more time left so I'll bear my testimony really quickly for you guys.
I know that God loves us and I know that he sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer for us each individually. I had a really cool experience this week that built my testimony about this soooo much. We were talking about weaknesses just in our district and I said something that I hadn’t really thought about ever before but the Spirit told me, in my heart, that it is true. I said that we all have weaknesses and Satan knows exactly what they are because he knew us in the preexistence. He tries to exploit them in any way he can, but we have to overcome them, even though it’s hard. That’s what made Jesus and his Atonement so amazing. He had weaknesses, just like the rest of us and Satan knew them and tried to exploit them. When Jesus was in the wilderness, Satan tempted him multiple times with using his power for his own gain, but he overcame those temptations, hard as they were for him and remained perfect. Because he remained perfect and overcame his own weaknesses, he was able to suffer for our sins so that we in turn can overcome ours.
Have a great week, I look forward to your emails next week!
Elder Ellis
NATE'S FIRST LETTER!!! Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Hey!
I got to the CTM fine and have had very little time to breath! But its fun and I'm super excited to be here! My district consists of me and 3 sisters I flew in with but one of them is going to a different district tomorow. I didnt have a companion today because he has already been here a week but I'll be with him tomorow! The food here is AMAZING!!! For dinner it was pizza night... Brazil style! I had this pizza that had nothing but bananas and chocolate sause on it and it was suprisingly good! All of the deserts are like pudding or flan but they taste soooo good! Well, I only have a few more minutes left so I'll tell you a little about what happened! We got to the Sao Paulo airport fine and a man who didnt speak any english was there to meet us, check our pasports, load us into an odd looking Fiat, and send us off to the CTM. The traffic was just like in Costa Rica (ask Dad about it) but we made it there fine. There we had our pasports and such checked again and were given time to unpack. Then we had lunch (sooooooooo goood!) and then went to language class and learned to bear our testimony's in portuguese among other things! Then we had dinner and did some roleplaying and now we're here!
We only had 10 min to write so I've got to go but I love you guys so much! Hope you're doing well! Have fun in school Cam and Miss Maggie! Dont cry too much Mom (insert winky face right here cause the keyboard is a little weird haha)!
Love you guys soooooo much! Take care!!
Elder Ellis
Hey!
I got to the CTM fine and have had very little time to breath! But its fun and I'm super excited to be here! My district consists of me and 3 sisters I flew in with but one of them is going to a different district tomorow. I didnt have a companion today because he has already been here a week but I'll be with him tomorow! The food here is AMAZING!!! For dinner it was pizza night... Brazil style! I had this pizza that had nothing but bananas and chocolate sause on it and it was suprisingly good! All of the deserts are like pudding or flan but they taste soooo good! Well, I only have a few more minutes left so I'll tell you a little about what happened! We got to the Sao Paulo airport fine and a man who didnt speak any english was there to meet us, check our pasports, load us into an odd looking Fiat, and send us off to the CTM. The traffic was just like in Costa Rica (ask Dad about it) but we made it there fine. There we had our pasports and such checked again and were given time to unpack. Then we had lunch (sooooooooo goood!) and then went to language class and learned to bear our testimony's in portuguese among other things! Then we had dinner and did some roleplaying and now we're here!
We only had 10 min to write so I've got to go but I love you guys so much! Hope you're doing well! Have fun in school Cam and Miss Maggie! Dont cry too much Mom (insert winky face right here cause the keyboard is a little weird haha)!
Love you guys soooooo much! Take care!!
Elder Ellis
He made it!!! yeah!!!
Dear Parents,
We are happy to send the good news that your missionary has arrived safely at the Brazil MTC. What a great joy and privilege it is to greet each missionary as they come through the front door of the MTC for the first time. We promise to take good care of your missionary.
They now have companions and are settled into their rooms. They are assigned to a district with capable and caring instructors for language and lesson study. The branch presidents and their wives, will soon give them a second greeting. These couples are rewarded in their callings through the love they always develop as they embrace and watch over the missionaries.
The MTC has a full time live-in physician to care for their health needs. He is assisted by his able wife. We are also happy to report that the Cafeteria food is abundant and very good.
Your missionary will be able to e-mail home on Preparation Day after a morning at the Temple. This will be either Wednesday or Friday, depending on individual assignments.
Your very important young person is about to make an eternal difference in the lives of others. We hope you will be encouraged and comforted by this quote by President Lorenzo Snow: “ There is no mortal man that is as interested in the success of an elder when he is preaching the Gospel as is the Lord who sent him to preach to the people who are the Lord's children".
Please accept our love,
President Ralph Degn and Sister Mary Ann Degn
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION . . .
DO NOT SEND PACKAGES to the Brazil Missionary Training Center. All packages must be sent directly to the mission where your missionary will be serving not the MTC. If you have already mailed a package to the Brazil MTC and it arrives after your missionary has left for the field, please understand that the package can not be forwarded to his or her mission and will be returned to you.
WE STRONGLY ENCOURAGE SENDING HAND WRITTEN LETTERS. Please write your missionary´s first and last name. Your missionary will provide you with his district and box number. Also, please DO NOT SEND ANYTHING BY FEDEX, DHL, UPS, or other private carriers. The cost to get this type of correspondence is exorbitant.
We are happy to send the good news that your missionary has arrived safely at the Brazil MTC. What a great joy and privilege it is to greet each missionary as they come through the front door of the MTC for the first time. We promise to take good care of your missionary.
They now have companions and are settled into their rooms. They are assigned to a district with capable and caring instructors for language and lesson study. The branch presidents and their wives, will soon give them a second greeting. These couples are rewarded in their callings through the love they always develop as they embrace and watch over the missionaries.
The MTC has a full time live-in physician to care for their health needs. He is assisted by his able wife. We are also happy to report that the Cafeteria food is abundant and very good.
Your missionary will be able to e-mail home on Preparation Day after a morning at the Temple. This will be either Wednesday or Friday, depending on individual assignments.
Your very important young person is about to make an eternal difference in the lives of others. We hope you will be encouraged and comforted by this quote by President Lorenzo Snow: “ There is no mortal man that is as interested in the success of an elder when he is preaching the Gospel as is the Lord who sent him to preach to the people who are the Lord's children".
Please accept our love,
President Ralph Degn and Sister Mary Ann Degn
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION . . .
DO NOT SEND PACKAGES to the Brazil Missionary Training Center. All packages must be sent directly to the mission where your missionary will be serving not the MTC. If you have already mailed a package to the Brazil MTC and it arrives after your missionary has left for the field, please understand that the package can not be forwarded to his or her mission and will be returned to you.
WE STRONGLY ENCOURAGE SENDING HAND WRITTEN LETTERS. Please write your missionary´s first and last name. Your missionary will provide you with his district and box number. Also, please DO NOT SEND ANYTHING BY FEDEX, DHL, UPS, or other private carriers. The cost to get this type of correspondence is exorbitant.
Tuesday, September 3rd, 2013
Yesterday we had a wonderful time as a family. We went to the beach all day for one last hurrah! We did some shark fishing with some friends. One of their lines caught a shark that they let Nate reel it in.
Yesterday we had a wonderful time as a family. We went to the beach all day for one last hurrah! We did some shark fishing with some friends. One of their lines caught a shark that they let Nate reel it in.
After a fun day we came home and got cleaned up to go out to Mia Bella's for dinner. Nathan enjoyed chicken alfredo, his favorite, and his first experience with creme brulee!
We had some time before he would be set apart so we drove past the temple
for a quick picture.
His appointment to see the stake president was at 8:45 p.m. President Lauck had just come in from out of town, but spent wonderful time with us sharing wise counsel for
Nathan as he leaves.
He was then set apart and left as a missionary! It was such a sweet experience that is hard to describe with words!
This morning I asked Nate to come to seminary with me. He shared a beautiful and thoughtful testimony on his experiences these past few months attending the temple, giving blessings and being set apart as a missionary.
This is a picture taken right after we did baptisms at the temple this summer. Nathan got to baptize all of us (his mother first!) since Grandma Sheryl had names she had given us. What a choice experience to have all of our children in the temple together!
Today as he did his final packing and realized his scriptures were at church! Luckily Doug has the keys to the building. He found them right outside of the bishops office!
And he's off!
Elder Ellis will fly to Atlanta and through the night (9 1/2 hour flight) to Brazil.
It was wonderful to go with him to the airport
and to see his excitement to get to Brazil.
We will sure miss him, but we are proud of his
faithfulness and desire to serve the Lord!