I love everything!!!

Dear Family and Friends

Life is good in the California Roseville Mission.  Things have been crazy these past few weeks, but I look forward to the assumption that it will start to calm down now.  This past week has been a roller coaster, and I want to get off now, and enjoy the view!  Well I will tell you a bit about my week.  So shortly after emailing you guys last Monday, we went home, and Elder Van Leuven got trunky and packed up his bags, so that we could drive him to the mission office, and see him off.  I was sad to see him go, we had a lot of fun together, and got a lot done at the same time, so it was good.  That evening I hung out with my roomates/ zone leaders Elder Netane, and Elder Arnett.  Elder Arnett was transferred as well so Tuesday night we spent some time for him to pack up his bags, and get ready to go.  In the evening we went and made some visits and taught a few lessons as well.  Wednesday things got crazier.  In the morning, I had to be back in Antelope for some meetings starting at nine.  So when I got there all of the trainees were there, as well as a whole group of trainers.  So there was 18 Trainees, and 18 trainers at this meeting, it was a huge group.  We met with President and he pumped us up to train, and challenged us all to be super obedient, and work really hard.  Then we met back together again, and we were assigned our new companions.  I was the very first missionary called to the front.  Soon after me Elder Ashby from Pocatello Idaho was assigned to serve with me!  I was so excited because he just looked like a stud.  As we talked and got to know each other a bit, I liked him even more. 

For Elder Ashby's first week we had a lot of success.  We already had 2 baptism dates set, and by Sunday night we had an additional two more set.  It was awesome, Thursday afternoon, Elder Ashby committed our Investigator Ken Prince to baptism which was awesome, and things are just going great.  We have had a bunch of meetings we have attended. so we have not had as much time as I would like to tract and stuff, but the few times that we have he has been a natural at it, and really just friendly.  He is not super self-confident in sharing the Gospel, but who is when they first come out on their missions.  I look forward to being able to learn and grow here in Tempo Park with Elder Ashby.

Saturday was a very special day for me.  Dorothy McDonald whom I taught over in Antelope was baptized Saturday morning.  I don't know if I told you this, but Elder Grover and I found Dorothy while tracting!  She asked Elder Simons and me to both be in the font with her for her baptism, and we were happy to oblige.  It is always so sweet to be able to see such faith, especially because her family tried to stop her from joining the Church.  One of the speakers who is a great friend of Dorothy, promised her that if she made and kept these Baptism Covenants, that there would come a day when her Children, as well as her ancestors would call her blessed for it.  There was power and the confirming witness of the Spirit in those words, and I hope that it comes sooner rather than later.  The baptism also pumped up Elder Ashby, and when I sat back down after getting dressed, he leaned over and told me that we were going to have one soon.  Oh yes we are!  Also at the Baptism was a lady whom I am not sure of her name.  My last week in Antelope however while tracting with Elder Simons we knocked on her door as well.  Now she has a date to be baptized!  It really strengthened my testimony that tracting works, and we can find people doing it!  It was a sweet day, a tender mercy of the Lord.

Things are good life is good, this church is true, and this Gospel can't be beat!  Because the Lord is with us nobody can stand against us.

With all the love that I possess. 

Elder Ellsworth

Why is September slipping away like this?!

Dear Family

Transfers are in, in the California Roseville Mission. Drumroll please: Elder Nicholas Ellsworth will be a Trainer, as well as a District Leader for the upcoming Transfer.  Obviously I didn't do a good enough job the first time around as one, so they needed me to learn a few more lessons while giving it a second go.  Honestly though, I kind of suspected that I was going to be both of these since our current District Leader had been here a while and was getting ready to take off to a new area.  Also Elder Van Leuven and I get along pretty good but I will be sad to see him go.  However we have some plans to go and hike down to Havasupai next summer so that will be a blast!  

So what else is new?  These past few weeks I have been having a lot of trouble with my stuff.  For example, my tire for my bicycle—I had yet another flat, and when I peeled it off of the rim for the last time, I stripped it clean, away from the bead, so It wasn't even fixable, so I spent 60 bucks at the bike shop to go and get it replaced.  Saturday night as we were riding home all of the sudden my bike seat snapped off of the post, and when I went to explore why I almost died.  The bolt that held it onto the post had snapped in half.  So I rode home standing up the whole way.  And then also on Saturday I discovered a hole in the side of my second pair of shoes, this time not in the sole of them, but a rip down the side of the leather right next to the sole.  So that was fun.  So my seat post I am going to have to replace, I fixed it for now, but I will need a real fix soon, but it is going to cost me like 40 bucks at least.  I want to buy a good one if I end up replacing it!  Finally as I was playing Pday basketball an unnamed Elder (whom I have been serving with for the past two weeks) punched me in the face on accident and it chipped my tooth!  This week has been awesome!!!  Don’t worry—I am in good spirits and I will call and check up on my tooth. 

Thanks for getting me the new shoes; I am going to need them with the rainy season coming up.  I look forward to the challenges that lie ahead of me, and I hope to be a great trainer for my new companion.  He is going to be a stud I bet.

Love ya,
Elder Ellsworth

Labor Day!

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

Amazing week, I love this work!!!

Dear Family and Friends,

After a few weeks with not a ton to say, I have a whole bunch to talk about today.  It feels really good!  Well I will do this in a non-chronological order, so I can tell different stories that transcend multiple days—possibly even the entire week.  I think that it will go a lot smoother this way.  If you don't really like it let me know, so that in the future I don't do it anymore.  So with the beforehand explanation here we go!  I will also divide stories out into different paragraphs if that is okay with y'all.

First things first (and also probably the most important): Melody Jacobs.  We had an awesome and amazing week with her.  We had a lesson on Monday evening where we reviewed the baptism interview questions and answered any questions that she had about the ordinance itself or anything else.  It went well, and so did the baptism interview.  She is so ready to change, and accept this gospel that it is such a good example for me.  I think that changes are very hard for her because she is a single mother of two kids, one of whom has autism.  His name is Christopher.  Neither of them has really participated with the lesson up to this point however.  So anyways on Saturday I had the great privilege of baptizing Melody.  She is such a choice daughter of God.

We had me and Elder Larburg another Elder in the zone in the font because Melody has a bad back, and we wanted to make sure it all went smooth.  After the ordinance we invited Melody to stand and bear here testimony to us.  Holy cow did that invite the Spirit.  She is truly converted unto the Lord and his Gospel!  On Sunday she was confirmed by our Ward Mission Leader Brother Wright.  It was awesome.  Later on her son Christian who is 11 turned to his mother and said he wanted to be in Heaven with her, and he expressed a desire to be baptized.  So we will look into that.  It was an awesome experience.

The second story I wanted to talk about was awesome as well.  It is about Elder Craig Cardon from the Seventy coming to the California Roseville Mission.  A few days before the conference, President Weston gives me a call, and says that he had been doing some "research" and had discovered that my father served in the Rome Italy Mission.  He asked if Elder Cardon was my father’s mission President.  I told him that as a matter of fact he was.  He asked if I would be okay with him pointing me out, and of course I was fine with that.  For this conference, each of us missionaries were asked to prepare a talk for this meeting, to be three minutes long about what we have come to know about the workings of the Spirit on our mission.  As I took the time to prepare mine, I had an impression that I was going to be able to share my talk, because of a particular experience that I had.  The following day at the conference we started off by each having the chance to shake Elder and Sister Cardon’s hands.  We each had the chance to introduce ourselves, tell them where we were from, and how long we have been on our missions.

As I did I told them that Anziano Luke Ellsworth was my father.  Both of their faces lit up as I did so.  He had to think for a second but he remembered you from all of those years ago.  It was awesome!  Later on Elder Cardon was speaking when he announced that he was going to choose four speakers to come up and share their talks.  He pointed out in the crowd two Elder and two Sisters.  I was not chosen.  I was a little bit sad, but as we listened I said a prayer in my heart that I would be given the chance to share my talk, and experience.  As Elder Cardon stood back up, he asked if there was anyone in the audience that would like to share their talk that didn't get the chance to.  I raised my hand and was then invited to the pulpit to share my talk.

Tears were in my eyes, and I was so grateful that God had indeed answered my prayer immediately.  Later on while he spoke he mentioned that he had once received counsel from an apostle to always listen to the Spirit while presiding in meetings, even when it does not make any sense.  He didn't point it out, but I will.  I believe that when Elder Cardon invited me to speak, he heard the Spirit prompt him to do so.  He is an amazing man.  As he spoke it was incredible to think that this same man had once presided over my dad's mission, and that just as I sat and listened to his counsel, so had my Father at an earlier time.  Both of us were uplifted and edified by the same servant of God.  I know that he is called of God to do what he does.  I loved the chance I had to meet him.  After the conference I was the only missionary permitted to get a picture with him.  I am grateful for that wonderful day.

Now for my final story.  There is a less active man in our ward that has a desire to come back to church.  At the age of 17 he left the church and has now been away for 18 years.  As we went over on Saturday evening to start the lessons with him, his 9 year old daughter sat in with us.

We taught them the doctrines of the Restoration, mostly to the daughter, Grace.  She was so open and receptive, and honestly smart for such a young girl.  As we spoke about the Book of Mormon, we gave her a copy and challenged her to read it for just 5 minutes a day.  She said she was going to do 10!  When we invited her to follow Jesus Christ and be baptized she readily accepted.  We asked her to set a day for that to be her goal, and she spouted off that October 20th was her birthday and she wanted to be baptized on that day.  Turns out that is a Saturday!  I am so excited to teach this sweet girl and help her towards baptism!

Life is good. I am so grateful for the blessings that I have been given this week!  I know this Gospel is true, and I love my mission!

With Love,

Elder Ellsworth

Holy Cow is August simply flying by!

Dear Friends and Family

Well, things are going very well.  Well not as good as they could be but things are settling down hopefully for good.  Since I moved into my new apartment I can't seem to get well.  It has been pretty rough on me, I have had diarrhea on and off since I got here.  It is driving me mad not to mention it is not very good to help with missionary work when I kept having it hit the toilet.  But now I am feeling a whole lot better.  Still not all the way, but for the most part very good.  It has been pretty interesting few weeks since I got here to Tempo Park.  We still don't have a ton going on, but this past week we set up to start teaching a couple of new returning less active people, and families.  And of them there are three or so unbaptized children, that we are hoping to start teaching and bringing towards baptism.  This ward that I serve in is one of the best that I have yet to be in.  Our Ward Mission Leader and the Bishop are both super supportive, and always willing to offer help and ideas on how to better this work, and to help our investigators.  This ward is ready to explode with missionary work we just have to push things over the edge, so that they start to pick up and go well. 

We are still meeting with Melody Jacobs regularly.  And as a matter of fact tonight in our lesson we are going to finish getting everything set up for her baptism on Saturday at 10.  So I will let you know how that goes.  Melody also has a pair of kids.  But one has no interest who is 15, and the other is a little bit disabled.  He has some learning disabilities.  But Melody hopes that he being able to see her be baptized will inspire him and down the road that he can get baptized as well.  Either way it will be awesome to see. 

Things are about the same with Elder Allred.  We still get along great, but he is still not too motivated.  And because I don't even feel that well, I don't have the motivation to push him like I should be.  I am going to be better about that this week however.  I can also hardly believe that transfers are coming up in like three weeks.  This one is already half way over.  It is crazy how fast this time seems to fly.  I am grateful to be here to see and experience this work!

I don't have much to say this week but I want y'all to know how much I love you!

Elder Ellsworth

What's up in August? Too flippin' hot!

Holy cow, I hate the heat.  And this past week has been the hottest of the summer, with a forecast of upwards of 107 for the upcoming week, being on a bike is not too fun, when it gets tough to breathe because it is so hot!  But other than that things are going really good.  This is really turning out to be a odd transfer, I am not too thrilled about the situation that is going on right now.  I went from an area that is doing very good, to a dead area once again.  My companion is a very good guy, but is lacking in the motivation category.  It is a chore to get him out the door into the heat.  I can hardly blame him though.  It has been a couple of miserable days last week.  Even standing in the shade I sweat something fierce.  Also another reason for his lack of motivation is that we really don't have a whole lot going on, so throughout the day we leave the house to go and knock doors, or to visit less active members.  A third and final reason is that because of some things that happened last transfer Elder Allred might be emergency transferred, which is another reason I am not thrilled with this area yet.  There was some laziness and apostasy going on in this area.  And because of that I get to clean it up.  I am not happy about that.  On Wednesday this week President Weston came to our apartment and asked me some questions, and looked through some papers.  While there he told me that the reason I was dropped from leadership and sent here was so that next transfer I can train.  I am excited about that, but even that is a tossup.  I could get someone really awesome or some greenies can be a pain!  I don't know I am just kind of down this week, and not much hope for the rest of the transfer.  I am simply going to do my best even though I am not in control of everything else.  Also I have been having bike trouble this week.  When I loaned out my bike in Antelope I get it back with a ruined inner tube.  So I went and bought a new one this week.  While trying to put that stupid incredibly hard to put back together tire back together I put a hole in my new inner tube.  I took that out and patched it, then took the tire to a bike shop and had them put it together, then while riding it today my patch gave out and leaked again, so I took it back and bought a brand new inner tube and had them put it in so I didn't wreck it or blow up and destroy something.  It was a very wise 16 dollar purchase.

On the bright side, our sole awesome investigator Melody is doing amazing.  She is such a star she came to church on Sunday again, and had many questions.  We did our best to answer, as we taught the Word of Wisdom she was so accepting and willing to change her coffee drinking habits.  She knows that these things are true, and she won't let anything stand in her way of being baptized on the 25th of August.

 She is doing great.  Well that is all for the bright side.

I am being a little sarcastic, I really am not that annoyed, but things really are kind of tough right now.  I am grateful to be here serving God, but I wish it was not so hard right now.  Don't worry I will figure things out.  Finally this week I had my third mini missionary of the summer.  His name was Micah Gandola from the Lincoln Spanish Branch.  He is a good kid, and the hardest worker I have gotten yet.  He had the worst three days of the whole summer of heat with us.  But what a trooper.  Well that is all that I have to say at this time.

I love you all

Elder Nick Ellsworth

Sorry about last week

Dear Family and Friends

I want to start off by apologizing for not emailing you at all last week.  Things were pretty crazy with transfers.  I had intentions of Tuesday morning going to the library to send something off to you, but when we got there the wait for the computers was around an hour long, and we didn't have that much time to spend waiting.  So I had already told my companion that I had emailed, so then I just didn't bother going email at all.  So I am sorry, and that's why I wrote you that letter this week instead.  Like I said last week was pretty great, especially being able to go to two baptisms, and participate in those wonderful ordinances.  I love my time serving in Antelope, and I am sad to see it go, but I am excited to serve here in Tempo Park now.  My last area was probably the most frustrating I have yet served in, so I hope that I can finish off very strong here in this ward.  It should be an adventure. 

My new companions name is Elder Allred.  He is from Saratoga Springs Utah, and he is a very young missionary.  And matter of fact he was trained in the same area that I was.  Cottonwood, as well as one of the Zone Leaders that I live with was trained in the Cottonwood ward, so it is pretty cool to see that.  It has been kind of a rough week for me though.  As I have gotten familiar with this area and people that are in it, I don't think that Elder Allred and his previous companion worked all that hard.  I think that for the most part they just hung out with members, recent converts, and less-actives.  There has not been a whole lot of finding going on recently, so it was awesome that we were able to pick up 3 new ‘gators this week.  We also are teaching a very awesome lady named Melody.  She is scheduled to be baptized on the 25th of August, she comes to church every week, and she even got up on Sunday and bore her testimony of this Church!  It was awesome; I look forward to being able to teach her more.  She is a great lady.

It is a little weird no longer being in mission leadership.  Like on Sunday night I no longer have to take numbers, or do any of that extra garbage or deal with any of the crap that I used to.  It is such a relief to just have to focus on being obedient, and on working hard.  But at the same time, it is a little disappointing.  I for sure was not expecting it.  Another reason it has been tough here is because Elder Allred and I have both been sick.  Elder Allred was throwing up earlier this week, and we both have some nasty diarrhea right now, it kind sucks but oh well.  Things are good though.  I am excited to finish out my mission strong; I look forward to being the best that I can while enduring to the end.  This Gospel is true, and I am grateful for how much it has blessed my life. 

With Love,
Elder Nick Ellsworth