Service and a Machete

Dear Everyone,

THANKS FOR THE CHEESECAKE MOM. I really liked the cheesecake, although it paled in comparison to Heidi's cheesecake. It was still delicious. And thanks for the letters Aunt Marge. I hope your foot is doing better. You certainly didn't look like you were enjoying yourself when I saw you last so I hope things are going better. I miss your dehydrated apples. I buy apples every week at the store but I always look at them longingly, wishing they were dehydrated.

Wow! This week has been a huge week of service. First, we helped a family move everything they have from one house to another. They were pretty much relocating since one of them was having a baby the next day. Then we went to a yard sale to get a bunch of things for this part-member family that just moved in, who doesn't have much of anything yet. We got them a lot of kitchen supplies, a bedside table and a kitchen table, which had a sheet of glass that we were really worried about breaking in the back of the truck. What made it even worse was the table was an inch too long for the bed of the truck, so we couldn't put the tailgate up! So we were worried about the glass breaking and everything falling out the back. We managed to get everything to their home safely but the kitchen table was too big for their kitchen so we called around and found someone who needed a table and was happy to take it. So everything worked out perfectly. Then the next day we got a call saying that an elderly couple was moving here from Oregon and we helped them unload their truck and move in. We also went and found an address to a place that sells firewood for a family, we helped a little girl put her crayon maker and Spider-Man clock-bank together. And my personal favorite is, we went to an elderly women's house to help her cut down some really tall weeds, that if left unattended would grow haphazardly and even more out of control. So we came to cut them down and dig up the roots, but we didn't have any tools. So this sweet old lady comes out with three machetes and gives them to us. We were like, "what the freak?".... So the three of us just start going postal with the machetes. Needless to say, we had way more fun there than we should've... I mean we got the job done effectively but we certainly enjoyed ourselves while we did so. You never really feel empowered as a man till you garden with machete. So it was pretty eventful week.

Yesterday I was talking to M******, (he's one of the youngsters I've been talking to who want to get baptized) but he wants to wait for his uncle to get into town so he can baptize him. But the uncle said he wasn't going to make it this month, so I asked M***** if he wanted to wait for his uncle or go ahead and do it sooner rather than later. He told me he didn't want to wait any longer, so I could have a baptism very soon guys! I'm so excited!

Other than a ton of service not much has happened. It's just a weird situation since I'm in a trio with Elder Morely and Elder Meiners and now we have two areas to cover so we can't get to everyone. But I assure you, the work is still hastening. And mom, I will get you pictures when I get my Facebook account -  it will be so much easier then.

Well, my love is extended forth to all. Sorry this letter is kinda boring but I essentially summarized my whole week right there so it can't be helped. I'll keep up the good work, just keep supplying me with prayers!!

Love, Elder Ellis

New Year Brings Big Changes

Greetings from Crescent City!

Okay, so this week has been... complicated... to say the least. But in a nut shell, I'm an orphan now. My trainer, Elder Whittingslow, went home.... sooo yeah... quite suddenly, actually. On Thursday around 3 pm we were in the middle of a lesson and we were talking about temple and family history work, when our phone went off. And of course we were grumbling about it since it interrupted a really good lesson. "Of course! Every time... who could it possibly be?!" Elder Whittingslow looked at the phone and it was our mission President! (which is always a bad sign if he calls you personally....) "What the funhouse!? It's President Alba!! Ummm... we have to take this...." So he answers and President Alba told him that he wanted to meet with Elder Whittingslow at 6:30, alone, and that he was already on his way up from Santa Rosa... which is a six hour drive... so we were freaking out the whole day. We kept thinking it had to be something about his family, or even worse... he was being made an AP!! NOOOOO!! At least that's what we kept joking about, but in all seriousness the mission president doesn't come up just to tell us we're doing a good job and to give us a hug, so we were a little freaked out. So they met for like an hour or so and when they finally came out I could tell Elder Whittingslow had been crying. President Alba said they were going to work on getting me a new companion. Elder Whittingslow packed his stuff up that night and they left Friday morning. We have a pretty good idea why he was sent home but all I'm going to say is what he told us, that he had some "legal complexities" he needed to take care of. I was just happy that his family was alright. But yeah, that was the biggest thing that happened here.

We had a pretty cool New Years though. We bought a whole bunch of bubbly and we had lots of noise makers and cool 2014 glasses and stayed up to a whopping 10 pm! Whooooa! Yeah, well we didn't want to stay up really late so we did the count down two hours early and just partied for like 15 minutes. So all our neighbors think we're insane. Well I hope you all had a good New Years, and have some sweet resolutions. A really cool Mormon message we've been showing lately is called, "New Years. Look Not Behind Thee." (http://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages#new-years-look-not-behind-thee.) It's really a good message and I encourage all to watch it! And if you've already seen it, then I don't kerr! Watch it again!! Cause I've seen it at least 15 times now.

Well I haven't gotten your package yet, but I'm still waiting! Looking forward to it! But I did finally buy a pillow last week and I was surprised at how much more fun sleep is when there is neck support present. So I encourage everyone to sleep with a pillow! You won't regret it.

I'm managing to take care of myself. Unfortunately, two of my suit pants have slight tears at the seams. This being said, it's a good thing I plan on marrying a woman who is much smarter than me cause sewing really sucks. I can't figure it out... at all.... I'm hopeless, I know. But I'm being well fed, and getting lots of dinners (by the way, Uncle Nate, do you happen to remember a Khou Lo from Crescent City? cause she seems to remember you.) Oh! And look up a "Stonewave", it's one of those "as seen on TV" things but it works sooo well! So I'm cooking all sorts of delightful things with that!

Well, Mom, I am going to need father's address, since I cannot remember it for the life of me. But I know I need to write him. I prayed for an hour straight, sometimes we do something called a "power hour," and I received more than a little of my own personal revelation of what I need to do.

Well, I love you all and I pray for you often and I expect them in return!!!

Love,  Elder Ellis

Photos

Holidays and Alien Abductions

Greetings Family and various associates!

So I had a pretty good Christmas, but unfortunately the go-to gift for a missionary is cookies and lots of candy... which is awesome at first, but after a while you just open a gift hoping for a fruit basket.... (oh and Tammie, thanks for the Tupperware of cookies, I got it when I was still excited about cookies so don't worry. Soooo should I send the tupperware back? I'm not really sure what the protocol is at this point.) It was weird being away from home for both Thanksgiving and Christmas but it wasn't too bad. I've adapted to Crescent City pretty well (yeah, with the beach it wasn't all that hard.)

Well the work is progressing here in California (and it's going to speed up a lot more when Elder Moore gets here! I'm sooo excited! I managed to make a fool of myself when I read about it because I was celebrating like an idiot). We have 3 baptisms coming up - we don't have a date for any of them but we're working on that. They all want to get baptized so the hard part is out of they way.

There are some really colorful people up here... I've had more than a couple people come up to us and start a conversation with us that seemed normal at first. That's how they lure us in. Then they start talking about being abducted by aliens, and because of this, they plan on mind controlling all the world leaders to wage war on the mantis men..... We just sit there and nod... and think about how we can lead this conversation to the Restoration, which isn't easy at all. In addition to the colorful people there are a lot of really great people up here too.

Well I hope everything is going well for everyone. I can't believe it's already been a month. Next week I'm going to have to lead out, so I'm going to be in charge of everything. That will be.... probably disastrous... so we'll see what happens. I'm doing very well up here and the work is hastening! There's a lot of wheat up here and I'm going to find them! Sorry for how short this letter is but there's just no time to email here! Well, I love you all!

Love, Elder Ellis

Baptisms and a Pit Bull

Hey family!

Thanks for the gift mom! It's so cool. I'm the envy of all oil vial carriers everywhere. I also got your s'more care package as well, so that's something Elder Whittleslow and I can bust open on Christmas! On Christmas we're going to see what Santa brought us, have a meeting with DAN, then we're just going to look for service opportunities. Afterwards we have a couple of dinner appointments. It's going to be an interesting day, that's for sure.

The Santa Rosa Mission devotional was really cool. We all brought a gift to put in a pile and everyone came over and took one. My gift was the ugly vest I was wearing in the picture that I'm fairly sure I sent you.... but I later found the Elder who got my gift and he was wearing it and seemed to enjoy it. I got a pen, but ti doubles as an ipad pen too, so that actually came in handy.

This last week has been insane - we had 3 baptisms on Saturday, and one on Sunday. Three of them were children of record, but one was a women that Elder Whittleslow and I have been seeing. Her name is Jenette Flores and she is such a honey badger. She is just awesome! It was so cool seeing her make these changes in her life and have this desire to follow Christ's example. Funny story: on Friday we went to see her and have a quick lesson with her before her baptism. We were talking about the gift of the Holy Ghost and the different ways it can help her. So as we are sitting there, listening to the member that was present talk about times how the spirit prompted him to be in certain places or to do certain things, and as he is talking Jenette's pit bull (mom, it's awesome up here! There are pit bulls everywhere!! I've seen like 8 of them, and I just revert to an 8-year-old every time I see one. It's awesome) who had been fed multiple pretzels at this point comes over and puts his head in my companion's lap and vomits all over his legs and back pack. Then I looked over at Jenette and told her that was an example of what happens when you don't heed the promptings of the Holy Ghost. It was so funny. But after that, we couldn't get back to focus on the lesson. I tried to keep it going, but she had to leave the room with Elder Whittingslow to get him cleaned off, so I just turned to her inactive husband, A****, and started teaching him. At first he didn't even like missionaries and wouldn't let them in, but after seeing the change in his wife and how much happier she has been he's warmed up to us. Well yesterday we got a text from Jenette saying that A**** said he wanted to come back to church! Us coming over so frequently and sharing lessons have softened his heart and he wants to get back to church. It's so awesome!

We're always busy, and it's pretty exhausting. We have so many people we visit. I've really liked all of the people I have met.....some of them are just a little... interesting, to say the least. Oh, I've actually met Brother R**** and had a conversation about it already. He's a pretty cool guy.

I will call you around 11:00 am to get your Skype address and then I'll Skype you. Sorry, but 11:00 is kinda the time we scheduled for it. I'm really looking forward to seeing you all, even though I talked to you, mom, just a couple of weeks ago. I'll have a lot to tell you on Christmas.

Love you all! The church is true.

Love, Elder Ellis

Missionary Life at the Beach

Hi everyone!

Yep, I'm at the beach! It's really strange waking up to the sound of a fog horn and seals barking. So it turns out I'm really out of shape. We go jogging every morning to the pier and by the time I get to the end of it, I've already died a little bit inside. But then we get back to our room and we lift weights, which I'm a little better at. My companion, Elder Whittingslow, and roommates are pretty awesome. And Sister Seely told me you talked to her, Mom, so I already know that you're a creepy cyber stalker... I've known for a while now...

Crescent City is awesome! For the most part, people are really friendly and are pretty open to listening to our message. There are a lot of meth heads, smokers and whatnot, so the Word of Wisdom is a pretty popular lesson to teach. Yeah, but it's great here! The first day I was here we taught three lessons. In the first one, we talked to a man named Brother Douglas and we discussed the plan of salvation. He had some really good questions about the spirit world and temple work. He and his 11-year-old daughter want to get baptized, but he just had shoulder surgery so he's putting it off for a while. (We're going to talk to the both of them again tonight.) Then after we left Brother Douglas, we contacted someone by the shore. He wanted to know which was more important, works or grace. We said both, and he said it sounded like the true gospel to him. It was awesome! That night we had a lesson with a guy named Emilio. We talked to him about faith and I invited him to be baptized. He said no, like he's done so many times already, but it was still awesome. It was so much easier than I thought it would be.

I'm in a bike area, so I had to buy a bike here, but I found one that was dirt cheap. It was like $60 and it was pretty much brand new. It was used once so they knocked 35% off. The blessing are pouring in already! It's been a month since I've driven a car and I feel like when I finally get behind the wheel of one, I'll just sit there clueless, wondering how I make it move. But the weather is so nice here I don't even mind being on a bike.

So I'm learning some awesome missionary vocab. Honey Badger: someone who is just awesome beyond words. B-Dog: Beautiful daughter of god. Celestial parking: pull through parking space. And when DAN (daily afternoon nap) comes by to visit, it's a pretty exciting thing. He hasn't come by since I've been here, but I'm hoping he'll show up.

Well, I'm doing very well. I'm out of time, so this email is going to have to be shorter than normal but I'll do better next week. Tell everyone I didn't email this week I'm sorry and I'll get them next week! I was experiencing some technical difficulties and lost most of my email time, but I'll leave you all with this:

I have more pictures that I'll send eventually... but I figured this one took priority. How does everyone like our thrift shop vests!?!? (My companion is the one in front....being a cat....)

Well, I love you all! Again, I'll post more pictures and try to write everyone I missed next week.

Cordially and with highest regards,

Elder Ellis

Thanksgiving in the MTC

Hey Mom!!! 

Where to start…. so much has happened. Well first of all, Elder Christensen and I are the new  leaders - that's why we are staying a week longer than normal. We are going to meet the new arrivals today, show them the ropes, make them feel welcomed and whatnot. The last package you sent me, with all the food, I’m going to take that to their rooms tonight as a "welcome to the neighborhood" gift basket thing.

It’s really cool, we are pretty much the grey-haired veterans now. Oh and yes, that KSL news report about the MTC was us and I was definitely a part of that. It was amazing! We were making bagged casseroles for children in Utah. Apparently one in five children here miss a meal and go hungry. Our goal was to make 350,000 bags of food... and we made 350,280 bags. It was so amazing! That was probably the first Thanksgiving I got the warm fuzzies in my tummy that weren’t a result from too much gravy. I think they went around and filmed the first group and I was in the second one. But when you watch it, just imagine me holding the bag under the funnel, because that's what I did most of the time. It’s harder than it looks! We were working at lighting speeds. My table alone made over 900 bags! We were only 280 over our goal, so if one table was slacking off then we wouldn't have made it. It’s cool to think about that - everyone worked so hard. Oh, and Elder Russell M. Nelson gave a devotional that day too! As soon as he walked in, everyone got spiritually slapped. You could feel the Spirit fill the room instantly. It’s to be expected from an apostle though. Oh, and last night Elder M. Russell Ballard was supposed to talk, but since it was snowing really hard he couldn't make it so Elder Bruce C. Hafen came instead. He gave a really good talk. 

Well, we have a lot of classes…. just hours and hours of classes – it’s brutal. Elder Christensen and I role play a lot and practice talking to each other for when we have investigators. We're getting pretty good at it. We do the same thing with our teachers. We set appointments with them and teach the persona they take on. Last night was awesome. (I feel the Spirit just thinking of it.) We talked to a TRC investigator yesterday (someone who volunteers to come to the MTC and be taught - they could be a member who is acting, a recent convert, or an actual nonmember). We were supposed to do one last week, but he was a no-show, so this was more or less the first person we taught that wasn’t one of us or our teachers. Anyways, last night we had a woman named Belinda, who has ZERO knowledge about Christianity, doesn't even know who Jesus Christ is or what the Bible is. We talked to her for an hour and, long story short (I’ll supply details later, but I’m being rushed now), we got her to commit to reading the Book of Mormon and to pray too, which is apparently a big deal around here since she is a really hard investigator. I hear only one other companionship had success with her and committed her to do something and the TRC people (I don’t know their official title) were astounded that we got her to do that. But it was easy for the most part! You just have to get to know her! It was really awesome, even though she is probably an actor, but it was still so exciting, Moments like those make all the failures worth it.

Things are really great! I get lonely sometimes, but I always power through. Give my love to the family for me. Tell Gianni to put his tooth under a pillow and tell Stephen to hang in there. I still can’t send pictures so I’ll send them when I’m in the field. Just one more week!

Well, I’m being rushed so we can go do laundry. Love you all!

Love, Elder Ellis