What a week!

Dear Family,

      Well to be perfectly honest this week has been one of ups and downs for me!  I have had lots of both to be honest there has not been much time in the middle!

 

       I guess that I will start with my first District Meeting in Redding.  My District Leader up here is named Elder Jackson.  He is very very short, I love him a lot, and he takes his responsibility very seriously, tell you the truth, I have never had so much homework to do before our meeting tomorrow morning. So last Tuesday our district meeting was the most enjoyable that I have been too.  We started off with all bearing our testimonies of the Book of Mormon, and it was a very spiritual meeting.

 

  During the bulk of the week, Elder Brown and I had it a little rough!  I was doing things that bothered him, and he got a little chippy with me.  It was a good thing, because we talked about it, and learned from the experience.  I need to stop being a bossy know it all!

 

  We had a lesson with our awesome investigators the Gardener's on Wednesday, they are super great, but they said they were coming to church yesterday and they were a no show, well it was snowing so I will cut them a break this week.  They are pretty close already.  Both have family members in the church so they just need a little bit of a push! 

 

      Well I am skipping now until Saturday, well Friday night.  We drove down to Redding on Friday evening, and spent the night in Shasta Lake.  The Elder's stayed up, and kept me up until Midnight, and I was pretty upset since I had to drive to Gridley on Saturday, oh well I as supposed to forgive so I will.  So Saturday morning we got up at 4:30, for those of you who are not good at math that is 4.5 hours of sleep, and we drove to the Gridley Stake Center!  This was way worth it though.  We had a full mission Conference!  

 

     Every Elder, all 200+ missionaries were there at the same time!  I got to see Elders Thompson, Sommer, McAllister and  Call!  All the Buds!  And we met for a reason too, Elder D Todd Christopherson was there, President Donald L. Halstrom from the Presidency of the Seventy, Bishop McMullin from the Presiding Bishopbric, Elder Waddell from the Seventy, and Elder Trythall our area Seventy were all in attendance! 

 

     The meeting started with every Missionary shaking all of their hands!  it took like 30 minutes.  It was followed by them each in turn speaking to us.  Before Elder Christopherson spoke he invited President and Sister Pendleton to stand up and bear their Testimonies!  Their final testimony as my mission President and wife!  Oh how they love us!  With all of their hearts, I teared up just listening to them!  They love each other and they love the Lord with all that they are!  We then had the privilege of listening to an Apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ speak to us!  He is a powerful man!  If I had any doubt that the Quorum of the Twelve, and the First Presidency were called of God, it was swallowed up by this experience! His word caused my Heart to Burn!  The Sprirt was so strong in that room!  For most of his talk to us he did a question and answer segment and that was incredible!  He know the scriptures so well!  Oh it was one of the coolest expiriences of my Mission! 

 

     We then turned around and had a 160 mile drive back to banishment in Mount Shasta!  Sunday was rough we attended church, and dinner and spent the rest of the day at home... Elder Brown is still feeling pretty lousy!  

 

     So all day I read from the book of Mormon, and I read they entire book of Mosiah!  It was a cool expirience for me!  Right now I am marking all of the Deity, so when it refers to God or Christ in blue, and the Words of Christ and the Father in Yellow so it is really cool to see!  And it ends with right now talking to you guys it was a good week, a few rough spots but my Testimonty and Faith have grown this week! 

     You wanted to hear a little more about the Gardnener's have two kids, they are in their late 20's early 30's.  Kiya is 3 , and Roman is like 8 months old.  Sister Gardener's mom was Baptized when Sister Gardner was in her teens, and rebellious.  so then she did not want anything to do with it.  Brother Gardener's Dad joined like 5 years ago, and his Dad baptized Bro G's two young step brothers.  They are great. 

 

     Our next Mission President will be President...I can see his picture but what is his name...Weston.  He is younger than You two! haha  He is bringing 3 or 4 young kids out with him! Well, I am sad to see the Pendleton's go, I have grown to love them so much, but it will be cool to meet the Weston's.  President Pendleton says that it is not in the man!  So it will be cool to see Pres. Weston work!

 

     Man it has really made my day to hear from  you guys, I do feel disconnected from the zone but it is a good place to be at especially for the summer.  I am so grateful to be a missionary I love having the opportunity to bear my testimony everyday, I love that I just get to devote my time to learning the gospel, It is so great to serve English speaking in California! 

 

I love your guy's guts! Thanks for all you do! Please send more letters!

 

Elder Ellsworth

 

Mother's Day Phone Call

Hi everyone, since yesterday was Mother's Day we didn't really get much of a letter today. I guess Elder Ellsworth figured we talked about everything yesterday. I thought I would include a run-down of our phone call and what we learned.

We had a great phone call, we talked to Nick for about 80 minutes! He had an opportunity to talk to each of his siblings individually! It was so wonderful to hear from him. He sounds great!

Nick loves his new area. He says Mount Shasta is absolutely beautiful! The mountain is right near him, lots of trees and lakes too. His areas includes 5 small towns including the towns of Lake Shastina and Weed. All five towns make up the ward in Mt. Shasta.  So you can imagine that the missionaries are doing a lot of driving these days.  In fact his mileage allowance is 1800 miles a month. He is already worried about mileage this month because last week they drove 400 miles.

He is in the Redding District, so whenever they have district meetings (every Tuesday) they have to drive an hour south to Redding. They usually go on Monday and participate in the P.D. activity and then they stay overnight for the meetings.

They had two baptisms this week and they had to leave their mission for the baptisms.  There is no font in Mt. Shasta so they have to go to Yreka, which is part of the Eugene Oregon mission.  Nick is hoping that they get to go to Yreka frequently!

Nick's most exciting news was that his old companion, Elder McAllister, called this past week to tell him that the Griffith family has committed to baptism. They will be baptized on June 4th. He is pretty excited, they worked with the Griffith's quite a bit. The dad is already a member (although inactive before the missionaries found them), the mom and three kids will all be baptized.  Nick and Elder Brown will be allowed to travel to Cottonwood for the baptism. He is really excited about that!

Nick really loves his new companion. Once again however, he got a new companion who is sick.  Poor Elder Brown has been sick for a couple of weeks and Nick ended up getting it as well.  They are both feeling better and are determined to work hard to build up their teaching pool.  I guess the previous missionaries didn't leave them with very many contacts, so they will be working hard to find new investigators.


Well, that is about all the news that I can think of! It was so fun to talk to Nick and we look forward to hearing from him again next week. He sends his love and appreciation for everyone that has written him. He loves you all.

Liz

Mount Shasta!

Well I am sure that you guys have many questions about Mount Shasta, I will do my best to answer them all.  Well Tuesday I drove up to Redding and met Elder Brown, and got my frist glimpse at the truck, which by the way is beautiful! 

 

Anyways we had zone meeting the next day in Redding, so we spent the night at another Elder's apartment.  It was fine, but I was so nervous to get transferred, meeting Elder Brown as usual when meeting someone you could spend the next six months of your life with was awkward.  But we got through it just fine.  

 

My new zone is a whole bunch of Elders that I have never met before, heard of a few of them, but for the most part don't know a soul!  So shortly after zone meeting we were off to Mount Shasta!  Which was hindered by the fact that Elder Brown has a very poor sense of Direction, and I had no idea where we were going.  After asking for directions at a gas station, we headed straight up I-5 into the Mountains.  The drive that we had was about an hour, and it is super beautiful, right by Shasta Lake, over some very cool bridges, and up to the base of the Mountain.  We headed straight to an appointment where we taught one of our 2 Total lessons this week!  

 

 

It has been a little rough up there, since arriving I have discovered a few important things 1. I had better be careful because before Elder Brown the last 4 missionaries who served here were pretty apostate.  2.  Elder Brown is almost as lost as I am in our area.  3.  I don't blame him our area covers 5 little towns, and the areas in between,  including,  Mt Shasta, Lake Shastina, Dunsmuire, Weed, and McCloud.  Elder Brown has only been here for six weeks more than I have so I'll give him a bit of a brake.

 

 

Once again I have had a pretty sick companion for most of the week, so I have been our little apartment for a long time, so I have gotten to know Elder Brown very well.  I know that he has struggled with a couple of previous companions, he was indeed home schooled, he is from Maine,  He is a very nice little guy,  I like him a lot but we are very different, and we are very much away from the rest of the mission.  I am going to need patience and love, but we will get along great.

 

 

Another great story is that I had a very... odd reception to the ward.  In C-wood pretty much all of the young women ignored the missionaries, here not so.  I think all of the young women at some point either stalked me in the halls, talked about us behind our backs, or came up and introduced themself with a very bogus name (ex. Olga).  So it was an interesting reception to say the least.  The Ward building up here is super cool!  When the went to build it they built it to support the snow that Mount Shasta gets.  By Some mistake they designed it for a ton of snow, but the town only gets like 8-10 feet each winter, all at once.  There is still piles of it on the side of the road, and a little bit in the shady areas.  What Else... I drive a lot, and I really love the Truck, it is a 2011 Chevy Colorado, super nice, and has 8k miles on it.  Good DEAL!

 

 

Mother's Day call will be next Sunday at two or three o clock my time, just to keep you guessing.  Um  I don't know what else to talk about.  I would really love a GPS...  hint...  Still no mail from Blake Kyle or Andrew.  This last week I hit my 5 month mark can you believe it, that is super CRAZY.  Well I love you guys a lot, and look forward to talking to you next week on the phone.  I can't Skype, I think I told you that I could, but President Pendleton changed his mind so oh well. 

 

Love Your Gutz

Elder Ellsworth

Snail Mail Letter

The following letter arrive U.S. post, the library in Mt. Shasta is closed Monday and Tuesday, so we don't expect email until Wednesday!

                                                                                                                                             April 28, 2011

Dear Family,

Well I just wanted to write you and tell you that I am still alive. As you know I am now serving in Mount Shasta, this is the farthest north in the Roseville Mission! I sure serve in a bunch of small towns up here, Weed, Mount Shasta, Lake Shastina, Dunsmuir and McCloud.  This is going to be a crazy area! Plus I am driving. Elder Brown doesn't have a driver's license so I go that job. I am driving a 2011 Chevy Colorado. It is so nice, I love it!It is bigger than I am used to, but I will get used to it!

To get up here you drive an hour north of Redding on I-5.  It leads right through Dunsmir, Mt. Shast and Weed.  I will get used to driving eventually, but for now I always feel lost.  I don't know where anything is.  Shasta lake and Mount Shasta are both beautiful, and I look forward to spending time in this beautiful area.

The church building here was dedicated by Howard. W. Hunter and is built to withstand up to 20 ft of snow!!

The work here is pretty slow, but Elder Brown and I are going to work really hard anyway and find people to teach!  Elder Brown has a cold today so we are trying to get him healthy.

I love all your gutz a bunch!

Love Elder Ellsworth