Well, Wednesday it is!

Dear Family and Friends,

These past two weeks have been nuts!  I am loving every minute of it though.  Things are starting to rock and roll here in the mission! I really love serving here in Antelope, and I love the fact that we cover two separate wards.  It is a lot of work, and I am struggling to get to know the members, but it is really a blessing, and a new learning experience for me.  These past few weeks have been not as good as we were hoping, but things are looking up for this fresh new week.  There is a lot of work going on, and the Miracles have been pouring down.  When I got here I could see that we had a lot of Potential in these two wards, but now I think that we are starting to fulfill that in a small way.  We have had a lot to do this week, that is why I am emailing again on Wednesday.  I am going to take some time now, and describe a few of our Investigators right now, and how we are working with them.  This is probably the first time I have done this in a while so I apologize.  

In our family ward, we have a bunch going on.  We have a lot of Potential, and also I few solid people we are working with.  The ward here is hard to work with, because we aren't allowed into Ward Council, but we are being positive and trying to lift the ward wherever we can.  Here are a few of the people we are working with,

Mary, is a very nice lady.  She is in her 50's and she has had a hard life.  She if very quirky, and can be difficult to teach, but she really wants to change her life, and be a better person.  She has had a couple of Baptism Dates in the past, but she is still smoking, so they have been dropped.  We are still working with her, but won't set a date until she quits for good.  She is a great lady!

The Thackers, are a very nice Part Member family.  Sister Thacker is the only member in the family, her husband isn't who we are focusing on, but she has two daughter that we are going to start teaching tonight.  One is 19 who has had a baptism date before, we are hoping to set on with her and her 16 year old sister for June 9th tonight.  They are both really nice girls.  They also have a close family friend that is a member.  So the 19 year old will go into the Singles Ward, while the 16 year old will go to the family ward.  Pray for our lesson tonight at 7!

Stephanie is a wicked awesome lady as well!  She is in her late 30's, and has a nice husband, and two small children.  She has come from kinda a rough background, but is looking for some stability in her life.  Her best friend is a member over in the Citrus Heights Stake.  She is looking for a church to raise her kids in, and we are excited to help her in her search.  Just last night she had us over for dinner.  We had a lesson afterwards where we stressed the importance of the Book of Mormon.  How it is the proof of the Church.  We committed her to be baptized when she comes to know if it is true, she agreed!  So keep her and her studies in your prayers as well.  Also bonus points because she has a little sister that lives there as well who is like 19, so we invited her to some YSA activities!  

Now I will jump over into our YSA Ward.  Miracles are happening over here, and we are super stoked!  It had basically nothing when I got here, but things are looking way up now!  Here's why:

Marez is an 19 year old black kid who we are working with.  We had two lessons before with him, and nothing really happened with them.  He came into them with the attitude of "I am catholic and not joining your church".  But some miracle happened with him.  As we had our third lesson with him Yesterday at the Church, he told us that the feeling he gets at church tells him that he knows this Church is true!  We set a baptism date with him for the 12th of May!  We got a lot to teach him before that day, but it should be a lot of fun!

A.J. is also a young black kid.  He is around 18.  He was meeting with some missionaries in the North Highlands Ward, and he wanted to get involved with the YSA.  So he started coming to activities.  He has now come to Church twice in a row, and attended pretty much everything in between that time as well.  We taught him the Restoration just yesterday, and at the end we committed him to be baptized as well.  He will enter the waters of baptism on the 19th of May.  He has to quit smoking before then, but we know that as he relies on the Lord he will be able to overcome that.  

On top of these Investigators I told you about we have a whole lot more going on as well.  We are trying to get out and find through tracting daily, but sometimes we don't have the time!  We also are working with a couple of Less Active members in both of our wards, so overall that keeps us very busy.  I am way excited about this awesome work in which I am involved, and I am going to continue to work hard and look for miracles.  I feel so blessed here while I am serving God!  Well I g2g we got a lesson pretty soon!  

I love your gutz all very much.  Keep on praying for us out here we need it!

With Love, Elder Ellsworth

Crazy, Busy Week

Dear Family and Friends,

 

Well, if you were not aware, today is Wednesday, I usually email on Mondays but because this week has been crazy busy I have not had the chance!  Life is really super busy these days, but things are going well here in Antelope.  This transfer is going by at an insane rate, which is a little bit scary, it is allready I good portion into week 4 which is pretty nuts, time just does not seem to slow down!  We had a great week last week though.  I went on a couple of exchanges over the past week, which stank because both times that I did, I learned a lot more about some problems in the zone!  On Wednesday I went with Elder Comstock in his area, he is a stud!  He took the lessons and got baptized on June 12 2010!  Right after that he started working and saving up money to come out here on his mission.  I feel pretty bad for him though.  Both of his first two companions have been the District Leader, and neither has been a very good missionary or Trainer.  So he hasn't had much of a chance.  He informed me about a lot of stuff him and his companion aren't doing, and a few stupid things that they did do, so that night we were on the phone with President, and the next day on Thursday we had to bring them both in and talk with them, and find out their side of the story.  They were both very different stories, which was annoying, I am glad that it was sorted out by President Weston though!  We also went on exchanges with another set of missionaries, Elder Honeycutt, and Elder Frei.  They are both not doing so well.  Their area is on fire, and they are actually working very hard, but they don't get along at all!  This week they were out and got separated on their bikes, and they were apart for close to an hour!  So there is a lot of drama their, they both are awesome kids, but both are very immature, and bull headed.  What a headache!  So I was on exchanges with Elder Honeycutt, who I love a lot.  He came out just 6 weeks before I did, and he was actually in my zone for the first 3 transfers in my mission.  So it has been long time no see for us recently.  We had a lot of fun, and it was my first day of my entire mission riding a bike!  My butt was way sore afterwards!  We biked like 15 miles throughout the day just doing our missionary work.  It was a lot of fun.  Saturday we had our Stake Correlation Meeting.  As Zone Leaders we have to meet with the Stake Presidency once a month and discuss the missionary work in the zone.  I was way nervous for this meeting, but it went well.  President Weston, and President Alston were both there (President Alston is in the mission Presidency).  It was a lot of fun, and they speak pretty openly in that meeting.  So there are some concerns with Ward Mission Leaders, and Bishops, and they were just talking about the problems.  I was very suprised!  On Mondays the Library here in Antelope is closed, so we weren't able to get on except to send in numbers for our zone, and Tuesday was way busy.  There is a missionary in our mission named Elder Barney.  He is from our mission, and he has some Physical handicaps.  He can't walk on his own, and he speaks slow.  Because of it he can't serve a normal mission, so he comes out with us in this mission.  Tuesday to Friday each week he goes out with different Elder who are in car areas, and spends the day with them.  He needs support as he walks, from a walker or from us, and he is a lot of fun.  So all day Tuesday he spent with us, on top of that we had our Zone's Interviews with President Weston.  So we usually have two District Meetings, one on Tuesday and one on Wednesday, but because of Interviews both were on Tuesday.  They are an hour and a half each, so it took a good part of our day.  I love meeting with President though, he is such a great man.  He always inspires me to be the very best that I can.  I am grateful to be able to serve with him!  He also dealt with our zone drama!  yay!  So things are going good.  I am loving this time here in Cali.  Also about our Investigators, we don't have anybody real close to baptism, Mary is scheduled for May 5th but we will probably push it back.  We picked up a New Gator this week named Stephanie Bledsoe, she is an awesome lady, who has been through a lot recently.  I think she had a recent divorce, she has a couple of young kids, and she wanted to meet with us, so we are excited to teach her!  Things are going well, next week I will tell you more about my two wards, but I want a break from typing now!  I love you all, and hope for the best for ya!

 

Love Elder Ellsworth

 

P.S.  you could get me the Reflections of Christ CD for my birthday or the sequel to it Another Testament, other than that I am good.

Chinese Food

Dear Friends and Family,

Well, I have had a busy week, so I hopefully will be able to talk to you for a while! My life is going very out of control!!! But I will fill you in on my activities!! Since I am now a "Zone Leader", we have the privilege of going to two different District Meetings each week. Both Districts in the zone so from now on, every Monday and Tuesday that is what we get to do. We have two really great District Leaders. One is a lot more enthusiastic than the other, but they are both very good missionaries. So you asked why I didn't tell you that I was a zone leader now. And I guess that I didn't because I really didn't want to advertise it. I don't know, I figured you would find out eventually, but I don't like, or want to brag on myself. But I am excited about it. It makes us stinking busy, and we have a bunch of reports, and extra meetings that take up our days, but I am grateful for this calling, I hope to be able to magnify it. So enough about boring stuff, I will tell you about my week now.

So Monday, Tuesday and, Wednesday all were good days, and nothing special happened. But Wednesday night we ate dinner with a couple of nice sisters in the ward. They bought for us take out Chinese food, and it was a wonderful meal that evening. We had a lesson after dinner, and then we went to work on reports for a meeting on Friday. We were at our Ward Mission Leaders house and my stomach started hurting unbearably. So I asked Elder Grover if we could go home early. Around about 9:30 after sitting by a toilet for a while I decided I was not going to throw up, so I went out to the car to get my water bottle before be. As I leaned down into the car, there it sat, the take out Chinese leftovers... there odor was overpowering... and up it came... My dinner that is. So I had the worst night of my mission this week. I didn't sleep at all, and I threw up 4 times during the night. Had diarrhea, cold sweats, hot flashes, and felt like I was going to pass out every time I stood up. I was pretty miserable. Thursday was going to be a great day with lots of lessons, but we had to cancel everything because I was very sick. We spent the day at home. Anther set of Elder came over, and gave me a blessing, but my stomach was cramping.

On Friday we had my very first Zone Leader Council, which is a big meeting once a month. So I got up Friday morning and felt pretty good, and decided to go. It was a great meeting, and very spiritual, but I still have complaints about it. People always try to get President Weston's attention. I hate it. They take away from the meeting by trying to pull the spotlight there direction. Oh well I guess. I personally learned a lot, and have many goals to improve myself. It is tough, because every time I eliminate a weakness, I find like 6 more! I won't ever be the missionary I want to be. I just don't have the time. I hope to find joy in the journey, and endure to the end bettering myself daily.

Saturday was my first AP exchange. They go on one with each set of Zone Leaders per transfer. I was way nervous, because I was showing him my area, which I don't even know, but it was a lot of fun. Elder Rockwood is a great guy, and an amazing missionary. We worked hard and had a lot of fun.

Finally I will try to answer your questions about my Birthday. The answer is nothing. No, I never bought the blender I want, because I will just have to pay more to send it home, or leave it here when I go, so please don't get me one! Same with everything else. Anything you send will just have to be done something with in a few months... so whatever you do get me please make it small. Besides when I get home I will need some new clothes anyways! You can get my a birthday present then!

I love y'all, hope things are treating you well.

Elder Nicholas Ellsworth

Hello from Antelope Zone!

Dear Family and Friends,

Well things are a whole lot different here in Antelope. For the first time on my whole mission their are sidewalks everywhere! It is pretty strange for me because I have served in a world of slim to none amounts of sidewalks! It is pretty sweet, our area is actually really tiny as well, which is also wierd. I wish that I was on a bike because it is so small, but we are in a car a Chevy Malibu to be exact. Which is at the bottom of the totem pole! They are definitley the worst cars in the mission. Their turning radius stinketh, but luckily I am not driving right now so it is all good. Also for the first time in a while I am the Junior Companion. It is pretty nice to have a little bit of the responsibility off of my shoulders. I am very grateful for Elder Grover as well. He has really helped me out since I have been here. He has been out for 21 months, so I will be killing him off probably. He is from Mississippi (miss-sip) just for clarification. He is really wise, and hardworking. For the first time in a while I have an amazing companion. We both have strong desires to work hard and to be obedient. Which is a good thing because we are covering two wards down here in Antelope. We cover the Citrus Heights 4th ward which is our family ward, and we cover the Antelope Singles ward. We have a decent amount of work but it will be excited to bring these areas some miracles. We have a lot of work to do. We want to be good examples, so we are going to try really hard to meet the Mission Standards. Which last week we were not very close at all to getting there. But this week we have a lot of Potential, and we should be able to meet our goals. It is also going to be a lot of work trying to coordinate with both of the wards, and Ward Councils. But it is a challenge that we are excited to take on! I really Love Elder Grover, which by the way is my second childhood character (Clifford, and Grover). He is a way good guy. Quite and not outspoken, but he really teaches with the Spirit. I am way excited too because we have been tracting like every day this week in our home ward. That is a whole bunch of fun! We haven't found much success. We have however given away a handful of Copies of the Book of Mormon. It is a lot of work, but it is way fun.

Life is treating me well here in Antelope. Also conference was amazing, very insightful and I learned so much. I also set a ton of goals, because I fall short in so many ways, of who I am supposed to become. But I am really striving to be the very best I can for the rest of my mission. I hopefully going to continue to improve and finish better than I started off. Also quick note before I finish up. Our new house is huge. They rented it because they needed a place that was big for all of the missionaries going home, and also for the new ones that are coming out to stay over night. So the new place has like 17 mattresses in it. Which is really really distracting for me because they are fun to jump on... but this week I will repent and play no more! Well I love y'all, and hope to hear from you next week. Keep getting food storage it is necesary!

With Love

Elder Nicholas Ellsworth

Mom's note: What Nick didn't tell us is that he is now a Zone Leader. Luke called the mission office to get his address and the Senior Elder who answered the phone let it slip.