Time flies....

It is pretty crazy it feels like time just flies by!  It shows no signs of slowing down!!!  Well another good week this one was.  We taught 15 lessons again, as well as we picked up 1 new investigator.  Which meets our goals for the week for our zone.  We want to achieve 500 lessons this month as a zone and that is going to take 15 lessons a week from everyone.  But we aren't going to stop with that.  We set our goal high this next week going for 19 lessons and 2 New investigators!  We are starting to work a lot harder too.  We have made it a goal to waste less time which is the whole reason we have gone up thus far in numbers!  Well that is enough about numbers!  Well I started off this week on exchanges down in Redding.  Which despite everyones complaining I didn't mind the heat too bad.  I was really hot and sweaty most of the time but other than that I was usually in the car.  We had a couple of bummer days during which we had like 4 lessons cancel!  We only actually taught one because our dinner cancelled too!  I had a really good time with Elder Collier my Zone Leader, and he has inspired me to work harder!  I am also really excited because I am going to get into my low carb diet a lot more these next few weeks.  So that should be very exciting, I am going to lose some weight, and eat healthier. 

Because of my exchange this week I missed our lesson with Jason and Vonda.  They both agreed to start thinking more about baptism, they suggested the end of August, but then they realized they have to attend church.  So they started saying that he could not come to church until like November when his work schedule changes!!  So I don't really know what to do now.  Just keep loving and teaching them and now we need to wait.  In other news Will is not coming to Church!!!  He has missed the past two weeks, so I don't really know what to do about that.  We will ask him about it this week, but it is pretty frustrating when you are expecting a bunch of people to church and nobody shows up!  That is basically how Sunday was. 

In other news the Griffeth's from Cottonwood, well they are moving to Dunsmuir, which is subsequently on my area, so I get to teach them again!!  But the reason they are is Justin and Amber are separating.  I guess Justin was not being a nice guy, well actually he was abusing her.  I am really actually worried about them.  What those kids really need is a nice place to live, in a nice place like Orem Utah.  They need love and support, and I am worried that they are not going to find that up in Dunsmuir.  She is a single Mom with 4 kids under the age of 14.  So if you have any suggestions please let me know. 

Good news now for today is we are hoping to pick up 3 or 4 new Investigators tonight down in Dunsmuir.  There is a family that has Less Active parents, that lives there, and they invited us over for dinner tonight.  We are going to do some sort of Family Home Evening activity with them and hopefully pick the kids up as Investigators.  We allready picked up a girl named Samantha who is like 23 who is their cousin so we are excited to teach them.  Also crazy vietnam vet  came again last week while we were there and got mad at us again.  It is pretty epic. haha

I guess my struggle right now is trying to find joy in the mundane.  Trying to learn to love and have the Faith to go out and Tract.  Trying to get over my hold ups.  I have not been an apostate missionary but I would be okay with being called lazy in the past.  But now is my time to overcome that.  I just need to keep finding that motivation to get out there and go to work! 



By the way, I loved the letters from cousin camp. They were a lot of fun to read. Thanks!
Well I am peacing out!  Love your gutz!

Elder with the big head.

Quote of the Week

"A person cannot give a crust to the Lord without receiving a loaf in return."

Melvin J. Ballard.

Lovin Mt. Shasta

Well we had a pretty good week this past week, and I feel pretty good about it.  This past week we set a new record for Mount Shasta at least since I have been here.  We taught 15 lessons last week, so we are very excited about that.  Also we are looking forward to a great week ahead of us.  

 

We picked up a new Investigator named Thema this week.  She is a lady from Dunsmuir that was invited to one of our lessons with Juanita our Eternal Investigator.  She is very religious, and has been back and forth throughout her life.  She is actually very Golden.  She has stopped attending her local church recently because the minister was preaching stuff that she didn't like.  Pretty much all of her views are lined up with ours so we are very excited to be teaching her.  She asked us about babies being born sinners, she didn't think so, neither do we.  She doesn't like the Holy Trinity, she wondered how they could all be one when it refers to them each individually, well we believe the same.  All of her lifelong questions we were there, and we had the answers for her!  It was pretty awesome!  Juanita will be out of town this week, so we won't be meeting with either of them, but next week we will be having an awesome lesson. 

 

Another cool expirience was that family I told you about last week that approached us at church and invited us to come over.  So they live in Dunsmuir as well, so on Friday we drove down to go and introduce ourselves.  They live in this, for lack of a better word, Ghetto trailer park.  We walked over to their trailer, and the husband waved us to come over.  He said his wife was down in Sacramento, and asked us if we could come back another day.  So we rescheduled and were walking away when this family, who were also outside the trailer waved us to come and to talk to them as well.  So we went and shared a little bit about the Book of Mormon with them.  It was a very interesting lesson... to say the least, constant interruptions from an  Irish man who was fixing his truck screaming and swearing about something, the people we were talking too drinking and smoking, and this odd neighbor came over, and was yelling at us because we were mormon, and in essence swore profusely about his oppinion of our church!  Now is sounds pretty bad, but it was actually very entertaining!  We had a very good laugh about the whole thing later, and we are hoping to pick them up as Investigators this week.  So I will let you know more when I know some more! 

 

Well our meeting with Jason went well this week, Vonda is in Oregon for the week, and so we just went over to answer a couple of his questions about prayer, and read some of the Book of Mormon with him, we ended up having an awesome discussion.  We shared a conference talk about prayer by Russell M. Nelson, which was awesome.  And he sayed he is praying more, even they have prayed as a family of couple of times.  Their Daughter Kiya loves to pray, and things are going good.  He let us in a little bit more I would say, he told us more about his beliefs, and why they feel the way they do, and a lot of those expiriences that have led them to believe in Reincarnation are so close to the Gospel.  I can see how it relates to his beliefs, but it fits right in with ours!!  For example when Kiya was like 3 months old, they had such a strong connection with them, they could understand what she wanted, and they just felt that she was too smart to be 3 months old!  Well she lived with them in the Pre-earth life!!  Kiya also told Vonda that she missed them up in Heaven!!!  Jason also with tears in his eyes thanked us so much for being there for him.  He thanked us for inviting God into his life.  He said that God was always there but before he just wasn't recognizing it.  It was awesome! 

 

Well that is about all I wanted to say for today, I want to tell you all that I love your Gutz!!!

 

Elder Ellsworth

 

Quote of the Week!

 

There is not one great and grand thing we can do to arm ourselves Spiritually.  True Spiritual power lies in numerous smaller acts woven together in a fabric of Spiritual fortification.

 

Elder Ballard

July 25th

Oh boy, I have had an up and down week!  It was one of those weeks were at times I could hardly hold in my excitement, and others could hardly hold in my anger, well frustration is a bettter word I guess.  

 

I was  pretty excited to have six more weeks up in Mount Shasta, and also excited to serve with Elder Clifford, but this week was a tough one!  Things are exciting up in Mount Shasta with Will (15) getting baptized on the 30, so we still had a bunch of stuff that we needed to cover with him this week, so the good news is we met with him like 3 times this week, and he is ready to go.  His Baptism Interveiw is on Tuesday and all that we are going to cover is talk about President Monson a bit.  His mom, sister, aunt, and cousins are all semi active member, trying to get active, and his dad is a non member, and they all live together in the same house up in Weed.  I had a bit of a releif this week because we finally have his baptism suit.  We didn't have one in the right size.  So that was a bit stressful trying to get it, but finally the AP's gave it to our Ward Mission Leader down in Sacramento so it should have arrived early this morning in Mount Shasta! 

 

Also we had an amazing lesson this week with the Gardener's.  It was totally guided by the spirit, Sister Gardener answered one of Brother Gardener's Questions, and they practically committed themselves to have nightly family prayers.  Plus Bro. Gardener told us that he is becoming a believer, and he is now in 2Nephi 2!  That was one of my favorite lessons with them ever!  So they are doing good.  Now all that we need is for Bro. Gardener's boss to let him have Sundays off of work, and they would totally come every week!  

 

We are meeting with a couple of other people, but those are the ones that are progressing.  I am still struggling to get out and find new people but this week will be a good one, I just know it!  Well I really have nothing else to say so... good bye

 

Elder Ellsworth

 

Quote of the Week:

 

Life is hard, it is even harder when your stupid

 

John Wayne

Captain Moroni

We met Nick's mission President last week (at his homecoming). It was so neat to met him and talk to him.  He described Nick as a "Captain Moroni", which we thought was so cool cause Captain Moroni is Nick's scripture hero. Then Nick sends us this pic, which was taken before we met President Pendelton.

Transfer...

Well this week leading up to transfers, I was once again caught in the thought, that I really don't have a preference.  I could see myself being here for another Transfer, and if I were to leave that would not be that big of a deal.  

Well it turns out that President Weston is not transfer happy.  I will be staying in Mount Shasta for six more weeks serving with good old Elder Clifford!  I am really excited for these next six weeks, but I have some high expectations for us.  I have some goals that I want to acheive personally, and as a companionship.  I am going to make a greater effort to be the best I can be! 

I had a long two day exchange this week with Elder Squires down in Shasta Lake, and he really did impress me.  He has been out for a couple months more than m

I have been much more obedient this week, but the better I am, the better I want to be!  I figure that that is a good thing.  Well I will tell you guys a few of my goals that I have.  First off is I want to finish the D+C by the end of July, I am on section 77 now, so I am on pace to complete it.  Personally I have a huge goal for myself.  I have this system of keeping track of my obedience, I have little sticker stars, there are 5 different colors, I get one in my planner day for each of the tasks I complete.  They are getting up at 6:30, working out in the morning, effective studies, 6 pages of the standard works daily preferebly not in my morning studies, and the last one is writing in my journal.  So this transfer, my goal is too get every star every day for 42 straight days! It is pretty cheesy if I do say so myself, which I do!  But it is an easy way to keep track of how I am doing. 

And my goal with Elder Clifford is to do a finding activity daily this transfer.  This transfer is going to be a good one I can feel it. Well I have pretty much run out of things to say.  I love you guys a whole lot, and will twalk to you guys next week!

Elder Ellsworth

Thought of the Week:

 No, in matter of discipleship the Church is not a fastfood outlet; we can't always have it "our way".  Some day every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ and that Salvation can only come His way.

The picture was taken this morning. There was 15 feet of snow blocking the road!

Two in a row!

Well when I said that last week was probably the most notable to date.  Well this one is right up there with it.  This week has truely been a good one.  I guess that it starts last tuesday.  I was finally after 7 months going on my first exchange in my own area.  I have not really avoided it, but it always just seems to get cancelled when I have one scheduled.  

 

Well rewind!  This week we had a Zone Conference on Thursday, because of that we did not go down to Redding, District Meeting was cancelled.  So we stayed up in Mount Shasta all day on Tuesday.  We had a couple of really good appointments, including one with Juanita, we recommited her to really
Read the Book of Mormon.  We also had a meeting FINALLY with the Gardener's.  They are awesome, but we got out of touch with them for a few weeks there!  So also with them, we mostly just went and talked about the Book of Mormon, and bore our testimonies of it's truth.  We also talked about how it is the proof, it is the evidence.  

 

We then went and drove down halfway to Redding to exchange with the Shasta Lake Elders.  Elder Clark came up with me back to Mount Shasta.  On the drive back up we were going 68 on the freeway, when out of the Darkness a Brown Bear darts across the road!  At first we both thought it was a dog, but it was way to big to be a dog.  It was so quick that I did not even have time to slow down, luckily bears run fast, and he got across the lane before we got too him! 

 

With Elder Clark we had a killer lesson with Will, who is still on track to get baptized on July 29th.  I think, so things are going good.  

 

We then took our long drive down to Redding on Wednesday night for Zone Conference.  This was going to be the first time that I would ever meet the Weston Family.  Man, I can't even tell you how impressed I am!  The whole family was there at Zone Conference.  They each bore their Testimony, then the kids got up and did a musical number for us.  So they have twin 15 year old daughters, a 13 year old son, and a 9 year old daughter!  I am so impressed by the whole family, their willingness to do this.  Something that probably was not an easy thing to do!  But they discussed as a family, and each of them commited to come out here and serve!  Then as President and Sister Weston spoke, I was so inspired, they made me want to be better, to work harder, to be the best I can!  One quote that stuck out to me was Sister Weston talking about President she said, he is obedient Everyday, every page, every way!  That makes me want to be as good as he is!  

 

Then I will skip forward to today.  The whole zone came up today and together we hiked Black Butte.  It was a vent for the big volcano Mount Shasta, and we had a lot of fun!  Then the Ingraham's provided a barbaque for us!  It was a lot of fun, and I think the whole zone enjoyed it!  Well that is just about everything.  I love you guys a whole bunch and am grateful for you support. 

 

With Love

 

Elder Ellsworth

 

Quote of the week:

 

 "Line upon line and precept upon precept, gradually and almost imperceptibly, our motives, our thought, our word, and our deeds become alligned with the will of God"

 

Elder David A. Bednar

Happy 5th of July!

Well this is probably the most notable week of my mission thus far.  I had a couple of cool experiences that I wanted to share with you guys.  First off was this week we got our new mission President!  On Thursday President Weston arrived out here in California with his young family to the place that they will live for the next three years.  Three hours later President Pendleton went to the airport and flew back to Utah, which he described as now being jobless, homeless, and living on church welfare! I have really enjoyed getting to know him and have learned so much under his leadership for these past few months.  I have not met President Weston yet, but this Thursday we our having our zone conference, which will be great, followed by interviews so hopefully I will get to know him just a little bit. 

After that my week went pretty unfazed until on Friday morning I got a call from Elders McCollough and Ericson from Cottonwood.  They informed me that the Griffeth family, whom I taught for four months in Cottonwood, were getting baptized... the next day, at two in the afternoon.  Needless to say I was a little bit annoyed that I wasn't told this until the day before it was going to happen.  So Saturday morning Elder Clifford and I drove down to Cottonwood.  I first saw the Griffeth's while the whole family was sitting in the Foyer of the Anderson Stake Center, and they recognized me immediately!  The boys came up, and wanted a high five, and it was super awesome to see this great family.  Justin, the husband, is a less active member, and his wife Amber, and her four kids were taking the lessons.  The Oldest three, Sean, Seth, and Michael, all got baptized, while Zach, who is only 5 watched jealously—he wanted to get in the water too!  It is really hard to describe what I felt as they were each in turn baptized.  I have hope for this family; I know that they are taking the first step to Eternal Life.  I was so happy!  I can't even describe it.  I love that family and those four boys were awesome.  I am so happy that my Father in Heaven gave me the opportunity to learn and grow with them.  I am grateful that I was able to know this family, grateful that his Holy Spirit came and touched their lives, and grateful that they are willing to enter into this covenant with God.  It was incredible how they have changed from the first day that we ever met them.  Six months ago, Elder Thompson and I went to their house where previous missionaries had lost contact with them after an awesome first lesson.  We gave those kids each their own copy of the Book of Mormon.  Now they are so different.  Amber couldn't keep a smile off of her face!  What a blessing this Gospel is.  It brings joy to all!

Well that was my week.  The 4th of July in Mount Shasta is...odd.  The hippies are real, and they are interesting bunch.  Yesterday was a full p-day, so we got to just hang out at all of the stuff pretty much all day.  We even watched fireworks last night.  Our AP's said that if a member drove us that we could watch them, and we did not got home last night until 10:33, so today I am flat out pooped!  Well enough of my rambling.  I love you guys a whole giga-ton! 

Elder Ellsworth