Baptism and Transfers

With next week being Labor Day, the email may or may not happen. It will most likely be on Tuesday because the libraries will all be closed on Monday. Hopefully we will be allowed to take an hour on Tuesday to come and do email.
This last Saturday we received the transfer fax. Elder Sopeña is training, but I am not leaving... we will be here in a threesome. It will be very hard. Threesomes are always difficult, it is a small apartment, and getting 5 of us through the shower on time will be tough to accomplish. It will prbably be really good, but I am honestly not excited at all for being in a threesome. It will be tough, being in a companionship, being with the same person for the whole time, is not easy, I think being in a threesome will be even more frustrating.
Other than that things are going well. We had an amazing baptism on Sunday, the spirit was really strong. This is a picture from the baptism. She was in tears, she was really happy to be baptized. Next week will be the confirmation.
This week has been pretty good, it's been a little rough, though. We didn't get as much done this week as we could of. On Tuesday and Wednesday Elder Sopeña and I got sick with food poisoning, and we stayed at home basically all day Wednesday. By Thursday we both were feeling better. The week was good, but we lost a lot of time between being sick, weekly planning, and cleaning the house. We have 3 baptismal dates right now for the next transfer, its going to be good, but I'm really not excited for being in a threesome. But, I guess it's what the Lord wants, but is will most definitely be a trial for me.
I love you guys a lot. I miss you all, but I'm glad to be here on a mission. It is the most difficult but most rewarding thing that I could every do.

Love you,
Elder Isaac Ellsworth

Isaac with Isabel

This is Isaac with Isabel Castro. She is the investigator that Isaac mentions in this week's letter. He has been teaching her for quite some time. She went on a long vacation to Cuba during the time that she was being taught. Her baptism is set for this coming Sunday.

bautismo! (that's baptism in spanish)

This week Isabel Castro will be baptized. She came to church on Sunday and is very excited for her baptism. She has completely quit coffee, and is ready, we will have the baptismal interview on Friday and then the baptism next Sunday! I am very excited. One of the pictures I am sending is of her and me, I will make sure to send a picture from the baptism next week.
Things are going amazing here. Right now we have 5 investigators with baptismal dates. One of them is for this next Sunday. This week will probably be one of the longest weeks of my mission. This is the first time that I have been here for the baptism of an investigator I've taught. Genaro was my first baptism, but I really didn't teach him a lot before his baptism. Isabel: Elder Ward and I taught her before she went on vacation, and Elder Sopeña and I have been teaching her since she got back. Also, she has asked me to perform the ordinance! It's always better if a member performs the baptism, but she really doesn't know any of the brethren in the ward, I am so excited!!!
We also have baptismal dates scheduled for the 6th of September, but we are probably going to set her for a different date, the 13th of September, the 27th of September, and the 4th of October! Next transfer is going to be amazing. Elder Sopeña and I are doing so well here, I hope that we'll stay together next transfer.
I'm really excited to hear that everything is going well with the move. It's probably really chaotic right now. Yesterday we helped teach one of our members how to dedicate his home, and when he blessed and dedicated his home the Spirit was strong, It's weird/cool to think that Dad will be doing that soon for our new house. I still can't get over the fact that you are moving, well, by this time you have moved... weird.
I love the mission, things are going amazing here in Union City. I love this area. The members here are SUPER supportive of missionary work. We are accomplishing a lot. It's very true that when the members are behind the work it is so much better. 3 of our current baptismal dates were member referrals!
I'm glad to hear that everything went well with moving Nick off to college. I hope that everything goes well for him. I haven't heard from him yet, but hopefully I'll hear from him next week. I'm sure that he'll to great off at college.
This whole week has been just unbelievable (spelling?). Neither of us expected the miracles we would see this week. We set 2 new dates this week. We had a goal at the start of this month to set 1 new baptismal date per week in August, so far we've done it, this week setting 2, and this next week we need to set one. Things are going stellar! This week we set Leidy and Gabriel with baptismal dates! Leidy is the niece of one of our members, she is also super excited for her baptism.
Hopefully we don't get transferred. The next transfer conference is on the 2nd of September, so that means that next week I'll have the news whether I am leaving or not. Hopefully not, hopefully Elder Sopeña and I will be together one more.
I love you guys a lot and miss you tons. I'll send some pics today, Elder Sopeña is using my USB drive right now, but once he's done I'll send another email with some pictures. I love you and keep up the good work back home. Em and Ian, good luck in school this year. Mom, that is awesome that you are starting your thesis! it will be awesome! Nick, good luck at SUU. And Dad, good luck with work!
Love,
Elder Isaac Ellsworth.

And the work goes on................

This week has been amazing. On Saturday we had our "Noche de Talentos" activity, it was amazingly successful. The members had a lot of fun, and we had a couple of our investigators come. At church this week we still had only one investigator at church, we still are struggling getting our investigators to come to church. I'm still really sad about the Cruz family, they are just completely not progressing right now, they are a wonderful family, but they simply wont come to church. Yesterday we set a new baptismal date. Alex is the son of a less active member, and he has been coming to church for about 2 months. He told us that he wants to turn his life around, that he wants to do better. Yesterday we were finally able to go over to his house and teach him a lesson, and we set him with a baptismal date for the 27th of September. I think that this is the first time on my mission that I have set a baptismal date on the first appointment, I've set a date on the second appt. before but never on the first.

Here in Union City things continue to go great, our investigator that has a date for the 30th of August got back on Saturday from Cuba, and we have an appointment to go back over Tomorrow, hopefully everything is still great for her to get baptized, when she left she was really excited for her baptism.

I'm glad that everything is going well back home, I can't believe school is starting already. This summer has just flown by. I'm also glad to know everything went well with the move. I will call the office today and give them the new information. I got an email from Emily today, she said that she is nervous about going to Timpanogos. I think that High school will be a good experience for her. I still can't believe how old she is getting!

Things are still going well here in New Jersey, I haven't got the package yet, but hopefully I will get it today. I had a really good Birthday, my companion and my roommates made me a cake and sang "Happy Birthday" to me. My trainer, Elder Barker, and Elder Kemp called, they are working in the same ward, and they sang "Happy Birthday" to me as well. We had a great appointment with Gabriel as well. I am really excited for Gabriel, we are trying to help him to live the word of wisdom, it's not easy, he usually drinks on Saturdays. However, this last Saturday he came to the talent show, and he didn't drink at all this week! When we went by yesterday and talked to him he said "If I have something to do I have no reason to drink." or something to that effect. Next Saturday we have something planned as well so that he won't drink. This week we hope to be able to set him with a baptismal date, right now they have a date to get married, but we need to set him with a date to be baptized, hopefully the day after.

I love you guys so much and miss you. I hope that you have a wonderful week. Em and Ian, good luck going back to school, and Nick, good luck at SUU. That is a great school, I remember when I went to that dinner/tour thing when I was looking at colleges. You'll do great.

Love,
Elder Isaac Ellsworth

Happy Birthday to me....

Wow, I can't believe that my birthday is so close. Today is my 11 month mark. A year ago today I was getting home from scout camp. It's pretty crazy how much time has flown. This week has been pretty good. This month we are doing something similar to the "30 days to perfection" thing we did as a mission in December, but without the weekly fasts, that was really hard. We are going to see a lot of success this transfer. This week was also really tough. We had a baptism that was supposed to happen next Sunday, but he didn't come to church yesterday, so he cannot get baptized now, he needs to come at least twice to church. We are going to try and set him with another date this week. However, yesterday was filled with some joy as well. Sundays are always filled with so many mixed emotions, joy for those who came, and sadness for those who didn't. One of our investigators, Gabriel, came yesterday, and him and his Girlfriend, Yawdy, who is a member, are planning to get married in September. They talked to the Bishop and things are going really well. Gabriel wants to get baptized, but before he can they need to get married, and he needs to quit drinking and smoking. Yawdy's father is Genaro, our recent convert, Genaro is really excited for them.

I am really excited as week this week because Isabel Castro gets back this week. She left in mid-July to go to vacation in Cuba, but before she left we set her with a baptismal date for the 30th of August, and she was really excited to get baptized. She gets home on Friday and Saturday we are supposed to call her and go over again. I am very excited.

I'm excited things are going well with the new house. Oh, I have a question. How much approx. are you going to be asking for rent per month on the old house? There is a member here that is thinking about moving to Utah, and wants to get an idea of how much a house would be to rent there.

I'm really excited for Nick, he leaves in a week right? He is going to have an amazing experience going off to college. I'm excited for him, I'm sure he'll do great. Nick, you need to write me while you're there, I can't rely on mom and dad anymore to tell me how you are doing! I hope that everything is going well with Em and Ian too, it sounds like it. It's crazy that Emily is going to high school next month. Everybody is growing up on me. I'm almost 20, Em's going to high school, Nick's 18 (scary!) and Ian is growing up too!

I feel like I'm missing out on everything back, home, but I wouldn't trade being in New Jersey for the world.
I remember a couple of weeks back you mentioned that you were going to take a trip to Italy. When is that again? I remember that Mom has been asking to go for a long time, years! I was thinking about that the other day, I don't think that my future wife will ever beg me to take her to Jersey...

Elder Sopeña and I are doing well together, we have been working hard and are sure to see a lot of success, hopefully we'll be together longer that one transfer. I was thinking about this last transfer, about how much I"ve moved around. Every area and with every companion, Ive learned something. I guess I just had a lot to learn, so I've been with a lot of companions in a lot of places.
I love you guys a lot, and miss you tons, See you in 13 months!

Love you, Elder Isaac Ellsworth

Almost 20.... How did that happen?

Next week's email will be 3 days before my birthday. I cannot beleive how fast time is going. I'm glad that everything is going well with the preparations for the new move. The new house looks pretty cool, Dad sent me a few pictures. I'm sure the old house is looking good too. Actually, I think a lot of the holes in the doors were me... I'm not sure though, I know I punched at least 5 or 6 holes in the course of the years we lived in that house.
I'm still trying to get used to the fact that you are moving. I guess for me it's a little different trying to get used to it because I'm not immediately present getting the house ready and touring the house and such, I'm just here about 2,500 miles away hearing about it, but in about 13 1/2 months when I get home the reality will be immediately present. Even then I won't live there very long, at most for one semester... Still, it's weird that I'll be coming home to a different ward and stake. It's a long ways away, but even then it will be strange.
My companion and I are doing really well. We are seeing a lot of success in this area. Now that the area is smaller we are able to focus more. We have been spending time trying to find the investigators that were lost with the combining of the areas at the beginning of last transfer. With the areas combined it was difficult for Elder Ward and I to focus on finding them, especially when we lived on 13th street.

The new apartment is pretty cool, a lot smaller than living in a 2 story house. I'm also going to miss the free washer and dryer. Our landlady is really cool too. We have a good relationship with her, we do need to be quite in the mornings, we accidentally wake her up sometimes. There are now 6 missionaries in the ward again. This ward and the West New York ward are the only wards in the mission that have 6 missionaries. There used to be a pair of sisters in West New York, but now there are 6 Elders. Most other wards have at most 4, many have only 1 pair of missionaries. We have been working really hard, but we need to focus more on getting members to come out with us. This week we didn't do so well with that, We are still trying to get things rolling here with the new area. We found 6 new investigators though this week, and that will help us get our teaching pool up.

Today we area going to have a family home evening with one of our investigator families. We are going to do a joint FHE with them and one of our member families, we are going to teach them how to do it so that they can strengthen their family. This family is amazing, Martin and Fani Cruz. They are so prepared. They have a date set for the 16th of August, but they haven't come to church yet. Martin is really excited for his date, though, and we are working hard to get them ready. They have an amazing family, they have 3 kids, and he is an amazing father.

I am so excited also for Tyler, He is going to have an amazing time in New Zealand. By the time I get home Nick will be on a mission, and by the time he gets home maybe Ryan? From this point on there will be a lot of missionaries going out. Could you guys get Tyler's email address so that I can email him. I haven't heard from him yet, but I am so excited for him! Maybe Nick will go to Uruguay or something, then we'll have missionaries close to all 3 of Grandpa's missions, or he'll go to Italy, close to Dad's. That's still a ways away, but interesting to think about.

Well, I love you all and hope and pray for the best. I miss you tons, keep up the good work, the house looks awesome!

Love, Elder Isaac Ellsworth