Monday, February 10, 2014

The First Vision and a Kiss


Hey everyone!

Wow, this last week has been ridiculously eventful. Well ,first of all, we picked up two new investigators and they are pretty solid. The first one we met was a women named N****, and although there was 3 noisy kids and 7 dogs, the spirit was strong. She was happy we came by, we taught her about the restoration and she started crying and said we were a god send. We invited her to be baptized but said she probably wouldn't, (don't worry, it'll happen) but she said she would read the Book of Mormon and said she would come to church with her multitude of grandchildren. Unfortunately, she was unable to make it this last Sunday, but we'll make sure she gets to church next week. The other investigator was a women named T*****. My comp, Elder Haynie, went on exchanges with our district leader, Elder Corn and they found her. Long story short, they went to a less active's house and she was there. She was really interested in what we're allowed to do and what we can't, so they taught her about the word of wisdom and she said it made a lot of sense. In fact ,she told us she was already trying to quit all that stuff anyways, so it was perfect!

Wednesday was incredibly slow but it was an important lesson for me. I was on exchanges with Elder Vang, and after lunchtime, before we could go out and get anything done, he started feeling sick and didn't feel well enough to leave the apartment. So he wanted to nap for a couple of hours and then see if he felt well enough to go work. I was all for it - a chance to take a break was a stellar idea. So we slept a couple of hours and I woke up feeling pretty bad. And at the end of the day we hadn't taught any lessons. Normally when I get home I'm exhausted, but I have that sense of accomplishment that gets me up in the morning the next day. I didn't have that sense that night. I believe that was Heavenly Father telling me that I need to stay busy. To sum it up, a tired missionary is a happy missionary.

Well on Thursday not a lot happened since we were weekly planning. That normally happens on Friday but we had zone conference that day so we weekly planned early. So basically on Thursday we sat in a chair all day and tediously planned out our upcoming week. But that night we went on splits with the bishop's second counselor and the elders quorum president, President Sanders. I went with him to a part member family, the D******'. Well Brother D***** and his daughter M****** are some of our investigators. In fact, Brother D****** was my very first lesson I taught when I got here. Well both of them want to get baptized but unfortunately Brother D***** had shoulder surgery that he's recovering from, which will take several months, and M****** is incredibly busy. Well something we've been working on with him is to accept help from the ward. They don't have enough money to pay all the medical bills they have and the physical therapy he's taking. By the end of the month they will be in trouble. So we have been pestering them to take financial support from the ward, but he's kinda prideful, (that's the marine in him) and would like to take care of himself. So Pres Sanders just threw down on him and was brutally straightforward with him. We want to help him before he falls flat on his face. But that's what he needed to hear, and I think he might take us up on the offer. We haven't been able to see him in a long time but we're planning on getting a lesson with M***** soon. Fingers crossed!

On Friday went to zone conference down in McKinnleyville. It's always refreshing to see other missionaries, especially since we're banished up here in Crescent City. Well we got there and President and Sister Alba were there with the AP's and they just started teaching us, like they've done with all the other zones. Well we started role playing about the First Vision, and was teaching with my comp and it got to the point where we recited Joseph Smith's own words. So my comp looks at me to do it and I was like, "Alright, bring it on." (After being called on to teach the first lesson and not knowing the First Vision, I felt like I should probably know it!) So I recited it, we finished the role play and all was well... Till afterwards, when President Alba started walking around complementing companionships that did well and he walked up behind me and said, "... And this young man knows the First Vision now!" He put both his hands on my face from behind me, shook my head to and fro and then kissed my forehead... And I just sat there amongst the laughter, with an indifferent yet defeated look on my face, wondering how it came to that...

Well Sunday had to be the most eventful day of the week. We had soo many people come to church. Our baptismal date, M***** came, and our recent convert,  J***** also brought her best friend A*****, who we've been trying to teach (that one was the most amazing church attendees I've seen since A****** has never set foot in a church before! It was so awesome!).  A***** has had a REALLY tough life... So seeing her come to church was phenomenal. We also had a young man that just randomly came in. He's like in 8th grade and he just walked in, completely unexpected and uninvited, which was sooo sick! He said he was going to come back next week too. D**** and T***** W***** also attended.... Now the thing about them is D**** hasn't been to church since the mid 70's and she wants to come back to church.... But she's a little.... unhinged. She has some mental instability issues, and some combative tendencies. Now her husband, on the other hand, is the opposite. He's an investigator and wants to get baptized with his wife. So we've been working with them to get them to church. Well D***** had an emotional breakdown at church and we had to go all Dr. Phil and calm her down. It was just a crazy day. We also had a member move into the ward the other day and we helped him move into his apartment. Then we helped him move out of that one, and into a better one. So since we helped him out, just like he promised, he got us a referral! Welcome to the ward, Eddie!

Well, I'm soo excited to hear things are going so well at home. Things are going really well here. Just pray that this next week is going to be as good, if not better, than last week! Well, that was my week.

Remember: the church is true, the book is blue.

Love, Elder Ellis

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