This last week has been a pretty rough week. More than anything the biggest problem remains that I am not sleeping at night. I have been so exhausted, I'm still hanging in there, but the going has been a little rough because of the insomnia.
This week has also been a little rough, and more than a little discouraging, we spent 13 and a half hours this week looking for people, most of it knocking doors and stopping by less actives on the ward list and former investigators, but we found no new people to teach. We even began with a fast last Sunday and asked the Lord to bless us that we could find 6 new investigators this last week, and we found none. Which makes me wonder, what is it that we are doing wrong to not allow Heavenly Father to answer that prayer. One thing is that we have not been opening our mouths and contacting everyone as we should be.
Saturday and Sunday, however, gave me a lot of new hope for the area. I've been feeling a little depressed lately, partly because things are going really rough in the area, but mostly because I am so tired all the time. By Saturday I had just about lost all hope, That evening, however, we had a missionary fireside aimed at helping encourage the youth to serve missions. Brother Mathusek from the stake high council, who had recently returned from being a mission president in Atlanta, Georgia, was there as one of the principle speakers. During his talk he also mentioned the environment of the spirit and the miracles that Missionaries live in and see, and it was inspiring.
During the rest of the meeting I sat next to him and Translated to Engligh for him (he doesn't speak Spanish) and in the middle he stopped me and whispered into my ear. "Sometimes in Missionary work you have to go throught the grime, and the sludge, before you can really appreciate the wonderful experiences you can have. Once you make it throught those, the Lord can bless you, and when you look on those times in the future, they will still be joyful." or something along those lines, and that really stuck out to me. Yesterday Brother Mathusek also came to our ward and gave a lesson in third hour encouraging all the members to do missionary work, and it was an amazing lesson. I came out of there really inspired.
When I got home that day I said a prayer. I asked for forgiveness in not opening my mouth, and I promised him, I told the Lord that I was going to go out that day and talk to 10 people about the book of Mormon. and I asked Him to put someone in our path that would be prepared to hear the gospel. The 7th person I talked to was very interested and we have an appointment to go by on Friday. It was a miracle. Several others accepted pass-along cards and said that they'd call the number. I know that the Lord is in this work.
Um, in other news, I finally got the holds removed from BYU. Last week I wrote them an email asking them what else I lacked, but they wrote me back telling me they removed the holds. I now have my registration priority date, April 2, to register for Fall semester. Again, thank you dad for taking care of that for me. Now things are smoothed out, and I can register. I can't believe ( still ) that it is already time to start thinking about college. Although it is not my number one priority, missionary work is.
Also, In 2 days I hit my 18 month mark. I am so old.
Ok. Here are three pictures.
The first one is of my companion Elder Butler. There is also a story behind this picture. The lady in the background is Sister Bernal. We stopped by the laundromat to set up an appointment, and while there she made a joke about Elder Butlers last name, and so we gave him a white towel and had him pose like a butler, it was pretty funny, as you can see sister Bernal was laughing pretty hard.
The second picture is of our new apartment on Moving day. It was a little rough, it took us about a week to get fully moved in, but the apartment is looking great right now.
The third picture is me. I have this really thick tie, and I wanted to see how thick I could make the knot, and as you can see, the knot is really thick. But the tie is really short. Elder Butler said it looks like how Tongans tie their ties. It made me laugh. I have one more picture I want to send, but I will have to write another email to do it.
I love you all and miss you so much. I hope you are doing well, and I can't wait hear from you again next week.
Love,
Elder Isaac Ellsworth
This week has also been a little rough, and more than a little discouraging, we spent 13 and a half hours this week looking for people, most of it knocking doors and stopping by less actives on the ward list and former investigators, but we found no new people to teach. We even began with a fast last Sunday and asked the Lord to bless us that we could find 6 new investigators this last week, and we found none. Which makes me wonder, what is it that we are doing wrong to not allow Heavenly Father to answer that prayer. One thing is that we have not been opening our mouths and contacting everyone as we should be.
Saturday and Sunday, however, gave me a lot of new hope for the area. I've been feeling a little depressed lately, partly because things are going really rough in the area, but mostly because I am so tired all the time. By Saturday I had just about lost all hope, That evening, however, we had a missionary fireside aimed at helping encourage the youth to serve missions. Brother Mathusek from the stake high council, who had recently returned from being a mission president in Atlanta, Georgia, was there as one of the principle speakers. During his talk he also mentioned the environment of the spirit and the miracles that Missionaries live in and see, and it was inspiring.
During the rest of the meeting I sat next to him and Translated to Engligh for him (he doesn't speak Spanish) and in the middle he stopped me and whispered into my ear. "Sometimes in Missionary work you have to go throught the grime, and the sludge, before you can really appreciate the wonderful experiences you can have. Once you make it throught those, the Lord can bless you, and when you look on those times in the future, they will still be joyful." or something along those lines, and that really stuck out to me. Yesterday Brother Mathusek also came to our ward and gave a lesson in third hour encouraging all the members to do missionary work, and it was an amazing lesson. I came out of there really inspired.
When I got home that day I said a prayer. I asked for forgiveness in not opening my mouth, and I promised him, I told the Lord that I was going to go out that day and talk to 10 people about the book of Mormon. and I asked Him to put someone in our path that would be prepared to hear the gospel. The 7th person I talked to was very interested and we have an appointment to go by on Friday. It was a miracle. Several others accepted pass-along cards and said that they'd call the number. I know that the Lord is in this work.
Um, in other news, I finally got the holds removed from BYU. Last week I wrote them an email asking them what else I lacked, but they wrote me back telling me they removed the holds. I now have my registration priority date, April 2, to register for Fall semester. Again, thank you dad for taking care of that for me. Now things are smoothed out, and I can register. I can't believe ( still ) that it is already time to start thinking about college. Although it is not my number one priority, missionary work is.
Also, In 2 days I hit my 18 month mark. I am so old.
Ok. Here are three pictures.
The first one is of my companion Elder Butler. There is also a story behind this picture. The lady in the background is Sister Bernal. We stopped by the laundromat to set up an appointment, and while there she made a joke about Elder Butlers last name, and so we gave him a white towel and had him pose like a butler, it was pretty funny, as you can see sister Bernal was laughing pretty hard.
The second picture is of our new apartment on Moving day. It was a little rough, it took us about a week to get fully moved in, but the apartment is looking great right now.
The third picture is me. I have this really thick tie, and I wanted to see how thick I could make the knot, and as you can see, the knot is really thick. But the tie is really short. Elder Butler said it looks like how Tongans tie their ties. It made me laugh. I have one more picture I want to send, but I will have to write another email to do it.
I love you all and miss you so much. I hope you are doing well, and I can't wait hear from you again next week.
Love,
Elder Isaac Ellsworth
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