Dear Family and Friends,
Well things are going really well! I am so grateful to be here,
and for this service that I have been able to do. I want to have more,
but I get scared every time I think about how long I have been out, and
just how short it really seems! I don't want this to be over! So I
will make every second count while I am still here! I love this work, I
love serving the Lord, and how good I feel as I do so. I love trying
to be better and to improve. I love it when I make progress, and
something makes it through my thick skull, and I am disappointed when I
make stupid mistakes, and bad choices. I am ready and willing to
improve. I am also very grateful for new challenges and oppurtunities.
I was just kidding with the heading of this email, because I love Elder
Simons. I think he is going to be one of my very favorite companions.
He is just like me. We both love sports, we love to work hard, and we
love to be obedient. I am so excited for this time that I get to serve
with him, I hope that it lasts for a while!
This first week we have hit
the ground running, and we had an absolute killer week. We didn't get
to the Mission Standard for member present lessons, but everything else
was very good. I am excited to work hard and find a lot of success in
these next few week with him. Elder Simons is from Draper Utah, and he
has been out for 13 months now, so I am 4 transfers older than he is,
and excited to be with him. In other good news, we got a truck this
week. I mangaed to talk the mission car coordinator into giving us a
truck , so today we traded in our Malibu and got a silver Silverado,
just like the past two I have driven. I am excited, it should be a
whole lot of fun.
The work is progressing well in both of our wards, things aren't
as good as they could or should be, but I hope to be able to improve
that. I have been pretty frustrated with the work this week though.
Just for the fact that I don't feel like we have the ward support behind
us in either of the wards that we serve in. There is a lot of good
people, but they are just not that helpful, or willing to do things, or
fellowship. It is pretty tough to get members to teach lessons with us,
and other things are frustrating me as well, but I know that the Lord
will bless me for patience. We were asked to speak this past week in
our Family Ward, so I have been speaking in church a lot recently, but
that is a good thing. I spoke about missionary work, and how members
can be involved, who knows, maybe it inspired somebody to change.
I want to tell you about a couple of good experiences I had this
week. One we were walking through and apartment complex to go and see a former investigator, and all of the sudden this girl drove by in
her car. She looked like she wanted to say something to us, but she
just kept driving. We kept walking, and suddenly she stopped backed up
and called us over to her car. She asked us what the "good word" was
and we were excited to tell her. Hopefully this week we will be able to
starte teaching Precious regularly. Second we went to contact this former investigator named Hugh. We stopped across the street, and
walked over to Hugh's door. A dog was barking inside the fence, so we
didn't want to go in. But Hugh came out and talked with us. Not the
Hugh we were looking for, but his father. He was so nice, we gave him a
Book of Mormon, and testified of it's truthfulness. He told us if there
were any church that he would join it would be ours. He also said that
there was a void in his life that he doesn't know how to fill.
Something is missing! I know that Hugh is searching for this Gospel.
We meet with him again this upcoming week. I am excited. Also in a
lesson with Marez, we have reset a baptism date with him. We hope that
he can be baptized on July 14th.
Well I am tired, and need to go. We have more mountains to climb before this day is through.
With Love
Elder Ellsworth