This was an awesome week!! PS I left this out of last weeks email.  WE ARE GETTING SMARTPHONES.  Crazy!  

We had our temple trip today!! That was awesome!  We had our appointment set by the mission for the 8:30 am session.  Which for us is a terrible time to schedule a session an hour away for missionaries that can't drive themselves.  We knew about the trip 3 weeks in advance and even then, we didn't have someone to drive us til Saturday, and he actually forgot all about til we knocked his door!  It was a crazy scenario that almost kept us away from the House of the Lord!!

We had a fairly slow week besides that anyways.  All of our investigators have dropped us except 1, so we have 1 person to teach reliably... and she doesn't want to come to church... or read the Book of Mormon.  In any case we are still working with her and will get a better update this next week hopefully!

Anyways, gotta get going but just wanted to update y'all on my Book of Mormon reading.  I'm currently towards the end of 3rd Nephi.  The part when Christ came and changed game in the Americas.  In my reading this time around, I'm reading about 16 pages a day and I skip the Chapter headings entirely.  For some reason, it reads more like a story book rather than scripture.  Not in a bad way, but I absorb so much more detail reading it like this! Once I'm done with this one I'm gonna do another slow read.

Elder Ellsworth

April 16th


woops!! sorry about last week! I forgot to hit the send button and didn't end up sending anything. This is last weeks email

We had a good week and did a ton of productive work. We doubled down on our tracting efforts and met a less active because of it. It was a tracting Miracle that we found her! We were just out tracting and a door swung open before us and from inside we heard "Elders come on in!". We were just a little apprehensive, a door opened before us and that meant either a member, or a bible basher. Thankfully it was a member! She is not active and hadn't let the ward know she was there and wants to come back to church. We invited her and gave her a blessing before we left. All in all it was a good experience for both of us.  Her name is sis Brown and her son is Danny!  They are both awesome people and are going to come back to Church since we found them!  

Above is last weeks email.  Below is this weeks email.  (Again sorry)

We had a crazy week!!  A lot of weird stuff happened to us.  We had a whole lesson with an atheist, where the entire time he continued to belittle us.  It went on for about 2 hours with us hardly saying anything.  We ended it with giving him a Book of Mormon and our phone number.  Also we had a very interesting conversation with a lady who claimed clairvoyance and being able to speak with spirits.  Interesting, and we were just a little relieved when we found out she was out of our area, because neither of us know much about that.  We also had a lesson with our newest investigator, Lynette, and it was a review of the first lesson.  It went well, and she is awesome!! She actually works at the family history center 3 days a week.  She knows more about genealogy than either of us combined.  Totally out of our depth again!

All in all it was an awesome week!!

Elder Ellsworth

April Fool's

Yesterday was Easter Sunday.

Happy Easter!!

Also we had general conference

Elder Ellsworth

D+C 64:33

That last email was my Late April Fools, my LAF!!

Bad pun that doesn't make sense written.

Anyways, Easter Sunday was yesterday and there were some major changes announced.  Most important.  Layton, Utah Temple!!  No but seriously, there are some big things happening in the Church.  These things are all being brought about during this last conference to hasten the work like never before.  It is amazing to be a missionary during this time especially!  To hear all the rest of the announcements, go to LDS.org and it'll be on the front page.

Anyways, as for me, I'm staying in Apple Valley for 6 months.  It is awesome here and I love it!! No sarcasm.  The Shack is awesome and I love it.  I dislike it at times, but it's all good!  As for the ward, I love it here!  Everything is awesome!!  We spent yesterday with the Osborne family and had a Blast watching general conference.  Life is good in Sunny California.

Elder Ellsworth

Alma 36:3

An email to his dad:

Hey Dad!  Sorry about not writing you in a while.  I try and write every tuesday/wednesday of each week.  The last few letters I wrote were all to my siblings.  I didn't think about the fact that you were expecting letters from me still as I wrote to my siblings.  I just didn't connect the dots in that, while I was writing my brothers and sisters, I wasn't writing home to my parents.  I will write one tonight and have it in tomorrow's mail.  And probably also another one in Wednesdays mail.

Also, the changes to Elders quorum and the whole ministering thing are huge changes.  I thought about it a little, the 2 of us will be in the same quorum together (unless callings take us out).  And the changes made ultimately boil down, at least I think, to the fact that not every family is being visited.  Combining the Elders and High Priests and changing the fact that Relief society visits families instead of just sisters.  This new change is for the unification of the church and each of its members.  The first presidency announcement a few months ago, when President Nelson made the invitation, to all those who have fallen of the covenant path, to please come back.  Everything that they have done is to bring back the fold of God.  

Another of the biggest new announcements that shocked me especially, was when President Nelson something like this, "The Greatest Works of the Father will happen between now and the Second Coming"  I don't know if those were the exact words, this is a huge promise of the Prophet.

Elder Ellsworth

Last Week's Email Was Terrible - March 26

Sorry for a lack luster email last week.  With a couple of sick Elder's we had to run them to medicine and a quick email.  The last few weeks we've needed to drive them around and have not nearly enough miles to drive ourselves to every appointment, so we've been walking quite a bit.  We have had a few really funny stories of just crazy desert people.  It's amazing the people we meet on the mission.  So many of these people have stories that are so interesting where they have all been.  It's amazing to think that they are all children of God, and that he loves each of them!

Elder Craig and I are doing well and are staying together another transfer in the SHACK!! woot.

I'm in a love-hate relationship with the Shack.  It's good though, an awesome experience.  

With my studies lately.  I finished the Book of Mormon last transfer and I am reading it again a little faster this time.  I'm reading at 12 pages a day and are already in Mosiah again.  I'm seriously enjoying it a ton this time as well.  There was a few scriptures that stood out to me on Sunday.

Elder Ellsworth

Mosiah 15: 14-17

Down with the sickness - March 19

This past week was a very cold week.  We have been assigned to drive some other Elder's around in the SVL ward.  They have also been super sick recently.  And because we have limited miles and added extra responsibility.  We needed to walk all week to ensure that we don't go over on miles.  And this last week was frigged!!  California is supposed to be hot right?!

Anyways, transfers are coming up this weekend.  So if my emails are super late next week, don't freak.  Anyways,

We are taking the sick Elder's around this week so I don't get any time today to email so I gotta go.

Sorry for a short email.

Elder Ellsworth

Moroni 7:45-47

March 12

I finished the Book of Mormon this past week!! It took a while for me to get through the whole thing. I got distracted on Jesus the Christ and finished that instead. Once that was out of the way, I flew right through. With finishing the Book of Mormon, I have decided to read it faster this time. I'm reading 12 pages a day and will finish in a transfer. Once finished with this read through, I plan to read again at 6 pages a day, 2 transfers to read it. I'm feasting on the words of Christ!

Zone conference was really good for Elder Craig and I. We were reinvigorated in our efforts and motivation. We are both doing awesome in our morning schedule We are both waking up at 6:00 and getting in a full hour of awesome studies and an hour of workout. I haven't had so much energy in a long time throughout the entire day. 

Stake conference was good this past Sunday.  It was a good opportunity to learn from the experiences of others. President Ebmeyer (the Stake President) gave a very good talk on forgiveness that I thought useful. I'm trying to apply his words to my service.

Elder Ellsworth

Moroni 7:45-47

March 5

Sorry about maybe the cryptic description of my injury. It is a recurring injury on my lower back muscles that I pulled while lifting with Elder Craig. It didn't slow down our missionary work at all. It only prevented me from Zone activity and I took a brake from driving a few days. I'm all better now, just a bit of pain on Monday.

Elder Craig and I had a good week despite a slow P day. On Friday, we were asked by someone in the Granite Hills ward for a blessing. With a little bit of miscommunication, we were able to see the member and perform a priesthood blessing. It was a good experience for me as I hadn't performed a blessing in a while and had some practice. It was a good day that we were able to help some people in their lives.

I'm close to finishing the Book of Mormon. It's the first time to read it all the way through. I've read most of it in non-sequential order. But not from 1 Nephi 1 to Moroni 10. I'm only a few chapters away at this point and will finish it before next Monday. I'm excited to start again. Hopefully a little quicker this time. 

Elder Ellsworth 

Ether 12, note that the word "Faith" is used 34 times

February 26 - Temple Trip

Hello everyone!!!  Sorry for the late email.  Yesterday was President's day and the Library was closed.  But today it isn't!  SO... here I am now, emailing.  This last week was awesome!! I got to spend some time on Saturday going to the temple for sis Erftenbeck's endowment, which was awesome!  The Brady family took Elder Dietrich and I down there and even bought us Cafe Rio!!  LEGENDS!

This past week we did a little rearranging with the Shack.  We didn't feel we had enough space, so Elder Craig and I moved the desks around to fit more.  Since we've done this it feels so much more spacious with what we have.  And we did a lot of cleaning in our area book to be able to find those who were lost in our own records.  We have an appointment set for tomorrow just from looking through old stuff!  Our ward here is doing well.  The Ranchos ward is a fantastic ward that cares for it's members, which makes our job a lot easier.

We don't have too much time to email today, so I want to leave with a cool experience this last week.  The night before the temple trip, there was a change of plans which completely derailed our plans.  With some help from the Lord, we were able to find rides to and from.  Our zone leaders drove us to Phelan, the Brady's drove us to the Redlands temple, and some Elder's from Hesperia drove us back.  Every step of the way we were uncertain if we were gonna make it but never doubted that the Lord would provide a way for his servants.  

Elder Ellsworth

2 Nephi 7:10-11