Hello Family and Friends,
Well this week was crazy. On Tuesday morning I was
assigned to serve with a new companion for the next couple of weeks named Elder
Van Leuven. He is a great missionary. We served around each other many
months ago up when I was serving in Mount Shasta he was in the Redding 2nd
Ward. For six months we knew each other, and then I left and we have only
seen each other a few times since. Elder Van Leuven was a zone leader
until this last transfer when he dropped for the remainder of his mission.
It is going to be fun to serve with him, but it will be short lived
because he goes home on the 11th of this month! That is when transfers
are, so I will be once again getting a new companion. This time I have
been informed that I will be training a new missionary. So for my final
two transfers I will be here with him hopefully. Holy cow time has been
going fast though. It really just seems like yesterday is when I left
Redding Zone on to new adventures, and now we have been reunited for now.
In other news the work is going really well. We have a
couple of investigators that we have set baptism dates with and several more
that are getting close. The soonest baptism that I will be participating
in is the baptism of Dorothy. I taught her back in Antelope and she is
getting baptized on the 15th. She has requested that both Elder Simons
and I be in the font with her, which will be awesome. I look forward to
that one. Two weeks later on the 29th we have a man named Randy being
baptized. This week was our first lesson with him and he is really ready
to accept the gospel. He has already read the entire Book of Mormon and
believes that it is the word of God. He was being taught by our zone leaders
and now we will be able to see him baptized soon. Also we still have a
baptism date with the 9-year old girl named Grace. She wasn't at church because her Dad was
sick, so we will catch up with them next Saturday. Also coming up very
soon is the baptism of Derek. He is also 9 years old and his parents
really want him baptized as soon as possible. We are going to work with
them, and see what our options are. They had this Thursday in mind but I’m
thinking a little bit different than that, possibly the 15th or 22nd. So
I really am hoping that with all of this success coming up my new missionary companion
can get really excited about missionary work. This will be much different
than the area that I started in because when I first arrived in the mission as
a new missionary, Cottonwood was dead! I look forward to the challenges
and opportunities that lie ahead in this work!
Well I also wanted to tell you about a sweet lesson that we
had yesterday afternoon. We have an investigator named Sean. He has
been meeting with the Elders here for about 5 months. He is willing to
meet with us, but his wife has never been very supportive and has never sat in a
lesson with either. But she is okay with him doing so. So last
Sunday in our lesson, at the end we offered Monica (Sean's wife) a copy of the
Book of Mormon and she accepted it. This week as we were sitting down to
teach the lesson on the Restoration; Sean called Monica into the room right
before we started talking about the Church that Christ set up upon the Earth.
She didn't look enthused but she came in and sat down and listened.
The Spirit was very strong, especially when we spoke about the First
Vision. I loved that lesson. Near the end I told them how grateful I
was to be in their home, and testified that I had felt the Spirit and its
peaceful presence while we were talking. I asked if they had felt it too
and they both said they did. I explained how the Spirit testified of
Truth, and that is the same way in which God is going to answer their prayers
about the Book of Mormon. It was awesome. At the end we asked that
if they came to know that these things were true, would they follow the example
of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding his authority, and Sean told
us yes he would. And Monica also nodded her head. It was an amazing
lesson, and next Sunday when we meet we will try and set a baptism date with
them!
Something that happened on Sunday that absolutely inspired
me was when our recent convert Melody, got up in church and bore her testimony
of all the great things that she is going through right now. She spoke
about how she is happier now than she has been in a long time. She also
read a scripture from the Book of Mormon that really spoke to her when she read
it. It was in the Book of Mormon in the Book of Mosiah. It is
Mosiah 4:20 and she said that as she was reading it the Spirit spoke to her and
she was touched by it. It was awesome to hear her bear her testimony.
It pumped me up to be a good missionary. It was a very rewarding experience.
Life is good while serving the Lord. I love this work,
and am excited to be here and that the work is progressing so well. I
look forward to the following weeks, and months!
I love you all very much,
Elder Ellsworth
No comments:
Post a Comment