The foot........

Dear Family,

When Sister Bahr called me with the insurance information, I figured that that would be one of the fist questions in the email, So here is the story of what happened to my foot.

We were coming out of an appointment, and the lady had given us her keys so we could lock the deadbolt behind us, afterwards we were to toss the keys up onto her balcony, but she is really old, and had recently had surgery on her foot, so I was trying to hand the keys to her. I climbed up on top of the iron fence to hand her the keys, and when I handed them to her the pointy part of the fence punctured my shoe and into my foot. There was a man who lived next door who took us to the hospital, and they checked it out for me, and then gave me some Medication and sent me on my way.

I've attached a couple of pictures, they are of my shoe and my sock I took these pictures when I went to the hospital on Tuesday. I've been doing alright, it looks like it's mostly healed. And I thought I would make it through unscathed.

Other than that I've been doing well. On Thursday I spoke with president Bahr. It was actually kind of funny, he started off asking me how my foot was doing, then after a few minutes he said "Well, that's not why I'm calling". What he really wanted to ask me was about my departure date. He had heard about the confusion about which date it was and he wanted to set with me the date for sure. It was a hard decision, but I decided to come home one week earlier for a couple of reasons, 1) I have been feeling a little nervous about only having 1 week to prepare for school and stuff, so the extra time to adjust will be nice. 2) I would be the only one flying home on the 23rd, but there are 3 other missionaries flying home on the 16th. I had been thinking about it for a while, so when president Bahr called me he said that there had been an error in the office and my date was moved to the 16th, but he said if I wanted I could keep it there or move it to the 23rd. We talked about it for a while and I decided to keep it on the 16th. It's crazy to think that I'm going home in 7 weeks.

Elder Larsen and I are doing well. My accident this week slowed us down a little bit, but we still had a good week. We've been working a lot with the recent converts, we have quite a few in our area. We still have baptismal dates with Joseph and Samuel, but we need to work with them and make sure they go through.

I'm glad everything is going well. I know Em's probably disappointed but excited that she gets to keep Peanut. I hope that Nick gets his mission call this week. I know that wherever he goes, it is where the Lord needs him. For the record, I was a little disappointed myself when I read I was going to New Jersey, but I have loved it so much!!! The mission is a wonderful thing!!!!

I love you all and miss you so much. Thank you for the help you have given me as I have been out here. I hope you all have a good week.

Love

Elder Isaac Ellsworth

Mission Combination....

It was really good to talk to you yesterday. I'm sorry that Em wasn't there, but I hope she had a good time at Disneyland nonetheless.

This morning we received the transfer fax. Neither Elder Larsen or I are leaving, as a matter of fact, the only one leaving in our Zone is Elder McBroom. However, it will be shortlived. On the 7th of July we are having a mission conference again and mini transfers, because the mission is combining with the Cherry Hill mission. So basically madness is coming up. We recently found out that the Zone 3 Zone leaders area is now no longer a Zone leader area, and that Possibly Zones 1 2 and 3 will be combined into 2 Zones. Elder Larsen will more than likely be leaving in a few weeks, but for now we are staying together.

Things are going well, nothing too new recently. Of course, we just spoke yesterday, so not much has happened since then other than transfer news. I'm doing well, I was really glad to speak to you all. I can't express in words how happy and excited I am that Nick is going on his mission soon. I'll be excitedly awaiting news of his mission call.

I'm trying to remember if there was anything I was going to mention in the call but forgot... I did mention the garments, thank you for taking care of that for me.

Um... what else, I think that was everything... I hope everyone has a good summer, Summer here has been so hot, and very humid. It's really quite nasty weather.

Well, I hope everything is going well. I haven't received your email yet, but I'm going to wrap up this email for now and I will write again in a few minutes, I want to send a few pictures.

Love

Elder Isaac Ellsworth

Okay, I just got your email. I loved talking to everyone, and I hope that everyone is doing well. I hope Nick has a good time at camp. I hope he gets his mission call sooner rather than later.

I also missed talking to Em, I hope she has a lot of fun, though. I'm glad Mom and Em had such a great time at Girls camp. Sounds like it was great.

I'm so excited for Grandma and Grampa. That is really exciting they're going on another mission. We have quite a few senior couples in our mission and they all love it so much.

Have fun in Canada next month. Sounds like the summer is going to be a bit crazy. I know it'll be awesome, though.

Ok. Here are some pics like I promised.

The first one is a hilarious little "Park" in our area. The name is Brett Triangle, as written on the sign in the background. We thought it was a little Ironic, escpeically since the sign in the foreground calls it a park, and says no Alchoholic beverages, and there is a beer bottle on the ground near my companion.

The second picture is from a barbeque that one of the Bayonne Elders Recent Converts had. Dolores and Jospeh came, Dolores doesn't like pictures very much, so the pic was a little funny.

Well, that's all the news for now, Hope you have a great week,. It was great to talk to you, and I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Isaac Ellsworth

Dia de los Padres + fotos

I'm also really excited to talk to everyone on Father's Day. I think it's really ironic how that worked out. I hope everything goes well with Nick's papers. I'm also really excited to hear that he is getting his Patriarchal blessing. It has really been a big blessing for me in my life!

This week has been good. We've been working hard to try and find new investigators, that is our biggest struggle right now. We've also been working with Joseph, and he is doing well. He is currently set for the 11th of July, but we are trying to move him back to the end of this month.

Brian got confirmed yesterday. This week we had to go over and explain that his step-dad could not perform the confirmation, and so Elder Larsen did it. It went really well. They are a great family.

The first Picture is from Brian's baptism. Myself, Elder Larsen Brian, and his parents. Brian was excited to get baptized, and the service went really well.

The second Picture is of Juan Hiraldo and Margie, his daughter. Margie went back to the DR this week, she flew home on Saturday. She was such a big help as we taught Juan about the gospel, she has been a huge help. He has been progressing really well. He's been getting a lot of support from the ward. The hardet part is that he is partly deaf, so he can't hear well in class, etc.

This last week went well. On saturday we went to Bayonne to a barbeque that Elder Wray and Elder Rosas' recent convert was doing. Dolores and Joseph were there. Also there were a lot of the youth from our ward. It was good to see that Joseph has been making good friends with the youth.

This week we found this really cool guy named Deryl. He is from Peru. We were ringing the buzzers of a building to try and get in to talk to people. He let us in and we talked in his hallway for about 10 to 15 minutes, He is really interested, we are going back today.

Thank you so much for helping me out with everything. Also, I don't know if I mentioned it, but I am out of medication. Please send me some more. This'll be the last refill I'll need.

I can't believe how fast time has been flying. I can't quite wrap my head around the fact that I am going home in about 10 weeks. My companion, other missionaries and even members keep teasing me about that.

Transfers are coming up next Tuesday. However, things'll get interesting because the Cherry Hill mission is combining with us on the 1st of July. So there will be transfers this next week, and then tranfers on the first of July.

This week we have all mission conference on Thursday. It'll be really cool. This week'll be crazy, though. We have the temple trip potentially on Wednesday, the conference on Thursday, and then Weekly planning and deep clean on Friday. It'll be intense.

I love you all so much, I can't wait to talk to you in a week.

Love,

Elder Isaac Ellsworth

Priesthood....

I'm glad to hear that every one is doing well. I know that summers are sometimes the most hectic time of the year. I hope everyone has a great time this summer.

As for summer, here it's been ridiculously hot recently. We come home at the end of the day so incredibly sweaty. It's been fun, though.

I'm glad to hear that Nick will be seeing the stake president Tomorrow, I hope that the papers get submitted, I'm excited to talk to everyone, hopefully he has his call by then...

Everything is goin well for me here. On sunday we had a baptism. Brian Arias, the 9 year-old we've been working with, got baptized. His step-father, brother Correa, received the Aaronic priesthood Yesterday during the third hour, Elder Larsen gave it to him. Then after church he baptized is step-son. It was really good for that family, he really needed to get the priesthood. Our next goal is to help them prepare to go to the temple and get sealed as a family.

Also on Sunday Juan Hiraldo got the Aaronic priesthood. It was really good. I have really gained an appreciation for the priesthood as I've been on my mission, and Sunday made me reflect on that a little more. It is the power to bless lives, and to bring salvation to God's children. I am so glad that I grew up in a home where there was the priesthood, and where I had a father who was a righteous priesthood holder, I know it was a great blessing for all of us, and I am grateful.

In other news, we should be having a baptism next week, but it's starting to look a little doubtful. Joseph was really excited last week, and he said he had gotten an answer, and on Tuesday he was also still excited. However, on Friday when we went over doubt had crept in. We simply encouraged him to pray about it, and if he still didn't feel ready on Tuesday when we came over we'd move his date. I trust, though that he'll get an answer.

Um, in other news, we are doing well. However, we do need to find some more new investigators, we've been baptizing all our good investigators. We have another guy set with a date, but he is going to go to the english ward, so we need to pass him off to the other Elders.

Well, I hope everyone is doing well, I've been doing great, and I love missionary work. I'm so grateful for all the prayers and support. I love you all so much.

Love,

Elder Isaac Ellsworth