125 Days!

So, I've been on a mission for 125 days today...

That's a thing

How fast it's already gone by astounds me the more I think about it, how much time has gone by.  I've been a missionary for over 4 months now, something I never even thought about.  It  all came about over a conversation about my calendar and the month.  But it seems amazing just how much I've done and in how little time it has all happened.  I feel not that long ago I was in the MTC still.  I have learned so much from so many, and I cherish even more here in Wrightwood.  I have a feeling this will be my last week here so I will be packing soon I suspect.

I finally got to see Brianna a teach her again recently.  We have seen her twice the recent past, once we ate pizza with an associate of Thierry's who is from the Nederlands.  And the second time we ate with the Leblancs, Maryann (the mom) was running late with the groceries so Thierry made us canned duck.  It was Very interesting and a bit salty, but tasted way better than it sounds.  Whenever I'm over there I always try something new.  Lamb, Escargot, Duck, and the next time he was teasing about a french delicacy called "Rat".  I turned a little pale before he explained it was a joke.

We have had a bit of rough patch when it comes to perfect obedience due to my sickness and inability to sleep. But ever since we decided to renew our efforts we have been blessed with so much to do.  We have been able to teach more lessons, we have more service opportunities, we actually have less contacts but the ones we do get seem so much more personal!  The Lord rewards exact obedience so much!!  We have been blessed so much for our efforts I know!  

Elder Ellsworth

El letter.....

Life is has been hard during the past little while.  With sickness and sleep deprivation, lost papers and exchanges.  But the world is looking to be one the UP side!  

I feel that we have been getting less contacts, but the ones we do get feel far more worthwhile, more solid contacts.  I met this lady who lives in Evanston, Wyoming, and whose sister has cancer in the area, we had an amazing conversation and got talking about the impending snow shoveling to be done.  We are invited to come do all the shoveling we want!!

We also helped the local Catholic Nuns put on a food bank and helped them out! The Catholics and The Mormons teamed up to save the world!!  We helped back to back days and put in hours with two different companions.  The first day was with Elder Pooley my comp, and the second was with Elder Kelly on exchanges.  It was funny when they all of a second didn't recognize one of us.

Spending time out here is certainly an eye opener to the possibilities for my life.  I have a more sure plan of what I want to do and how I want My Life to go.  I thank the Lord so much for both the challenges and the blessings he gives me.

Elder Ellsworth

Conference Weekend

WOW!! This conference has been so amazing!  So many amazing talks from the seventies and also the apostles!! Elder Hollands talk during the Saturdayymorning session was AMAZING, about the sermon on the mound!  It was so funny and shined a light on something I didn't know much about.

 "The final commandment in the chain is sure to do the job, 'be ye there perfect, even as your Father in Heaven' with that concluding imperative, we want to go back to bed and pull the covers over our head" 

I always enjoy Elder Hollands talks as he makes me laugh while also making me feel insufficient. :P 

Another talk that I feel so much had an impact, was Elder Anderson, he had an amazing talk on Conference Talks, a bit meta.  But the final message at the end where he read a few lines from the words that Elder Hales prepared.  I could feel the spirit and emotions coming from him as he remembered and honored a dear friend who had passed away not even 5 hours prior.  The love each of the apostles feels for the others is so amazing and to have the strength to give a conference talk even while mourning is simply so beautiful to me.

The last talk I want to point out for this email was Elder Richard J. Maynes of the seventy, he talked in the priesthood session.  The story of his fathers business and the refusal to accept bribery was so amazing to me.  I felt the spirit speak to me specifically when he said the words "Listen Rick, once you take a bribe, or compromise your integrity, it is very difficult to ever get it back. Don't ever do it.  Not even once."  This stood out to me so greatly and I was so impressed by the message of integrity that it represented.

A quick update on WW,  not much has changed recently and we are still just working with out RC,  we also started teaching the Allyssa and her son, Kaelin, the lessons again even though they are recent converts that don't remember much from the first time around.  Also here are some dope photos in the next email I'll send.

Elder Ellsworth

The long lost missing email......

Well this has been quite the interesting week.  I ate Escargo with Thierry, who is an amazing cook, but I'm not the biggest fan...  I think my family would so proud of me! There has yet to be something placed in front of me that I haven't ate, although there have been plenty of things I haven't taken seconds from. :)

The most awkward dinner I have ever ate happened this week as well.  We were eating tacos with some members.  Their dog is blind in both eyes and had an eye infection in one eye.  During the course of dinner, one the teens took off the cone of shame so the dog could drink.  Because the eye was irritating it tried scratching to resolve the pain and ended up ripping it's own eye open.  It started crying out in pain as it's fluids in the eye leaked out.  All of the children started crying and freaking out in different ways and the Dad told us to keep eating the tacos while the bleeding dog continued to howl in pain... my appetite had left the house when I saw what had happened, but I had to keep eating in silence has the family lost it.  

Elder Pooley also found out he isn't allergic to peanuts that night and his favorite candy is Reese's.  So it wasn't all bad!?

Being a missionary up here in the mountains is AWESOME even with the jacket weather.  The mornings are around here are freezing.  Most mornings are 30 degrees and don't get better til the sun wakes up!  So the thermostat is working and the windows are all closed.  Tracting nowadays are different because I'm no longer sweating from walking around, now we wear big jackets!  The work that we do has shifted a great deal to working with less actives, the Bishop gave us a great deal to do and we are struggling to get in contact with those people.  We do our best but fall short sometimes.  I hope to do better and do the work the Lord has assigned me!  

Elder Ellsworth 

PS... I tried to send this last week but a video corrupted it and didn't send, sorry...

Life in WW

The Mountains got COLD!! this week.  It got so cold so quick that I have been a little sick ever since.  It hit out of nowhere and even with all my blankets I'm still cold.  What the heck, this is supposed to be SoCal.  Somewhere it doesn't get cold in the middle of September.

Anyways, so Wrightwood has become an interesting place recently. The temperature dropped suddenly with no warning and I started living like it's winter.  The world is different right now, with no investigators and cold nights, it feels like a different area.  My experience here in California as a missionary has been very slow this week.  Not a single door opened to us as we tracted, and all the people we street contacted have outright rejected our message.  It is very discouraging to be here at the moment, but I will stand tall even with all the down times.  The high moments are settling and now we just have the grunt work ahead of us.  I went on a few different exchanges the past two weeks and was able to experience some hilarious moments with Elder Richins and Elder Sutherland.  Elder Sutherland is one of the Phelan members and we had a blast the other day.  We had no food ready to eat so we made all our own.  He made Pepper Jack Chicken BBQ sauce wraps.  And I made tortilla chips by frying corn tortillas.  No oils burns were had, or at least serious ones (sorry mom)  And exchanges with Elder Richins were crazy because we went tracting out in the desert and met a lady who belonged to "The Church of What's Happenin Now".  She told us that "whatever makes us happiness, is what needs doin".  She was for sure a missionary story.  

Missionary work is changing me for the better!  My favorite book right now is Jesus the Christ.  Every chapter blows my mind!  Learning more is what life is all about right? anyways thats' all for now

Elder Ellsworth

Finally, a real email!

I LIVE!!

So life has been crazy the last while of my life as a missionary.  A great many things have happened and more continues to happen.  Last week a ton of things happened and I lost track of it all so I skipped out on the email last week, sorry.  Brianna had her baptism date set for August 26th and learned like 3 lessons in 2 weeks.  Trevor also had an epiphany about Joseph Smith and his actuality as a Prophet of the Lord so he is also ready for baptism.  Teaching the two investigators has truly blessed my life and has been the best possible teaching experience for me seeing the full conversion from beginning to baptism.  The opportunities that are presented before me each day are challenging at times but are all blessings in different masks.  

Every night we eat at a members home, we eat only a few repeats every month so don't worry I'm well fed.  We taught a few lessons these past few weeks since my last big email mostly to Brianna, but we did teach Trevor twice.  Every lesson is a new experience as I learn more and more about the spirit.  Brianna got baptized by Elder Law and confirmed by me last Sunday, both were awesome events to witness and be apart of.  Also Elder Law went home as his mission was over and I got a new comp!  Elder Pooley is my foster Father and is excited to train me.  He is also the DL so there are some extra responsibilities added with that but that's alright. 

 Wrightwood is an awesome area to serve in but is filled with challenges.  Everyone here kinda knows who we are and what we're doing, so they have their rejections already pre-planned.  Work is hard and long but oh so worth it.  Whenever we help someone progress it all becomes real.  Being a missionary is a way different experience from anything else I have ever done.  For one thing, doing nothing isn't an option now.  I have the Spirit to guide me whenever I am lost and am constantly finding things to do for other people.  I hope to keep up what I am doing for others as long as I live.

Elder Ellsworth

LIfe in Wrightwood

Dear anyone who is reading this.  

Wrightwood is the first area of my mission up in the mountains above the high desert.  It is a long drive anywhere and so we get a lot of miles everyday on the car.  I absolutely love it up here.  Even though no one in this town has air conditioning and every street is either uphill or downhill, I love every day of being here.  I suffer emotionally sometimes, it's a hard area to be a missionary in.  In a high mountain town with a population of just 5,000 residents, many of which are just vacation home, it is hard to find investigators and make contacts with others.  Every door here has been knocked so every person knows who we are and don't ask questions.  In the 2 weeks I've been here only one door that opened got past, "We'd like to share a message about Jesus Christ".  My companion, Elder Law, has been up here for the last 5 months of his mission and has only had 1 investigator get past the first discussion.  We have actually doubled our number of investigators since I've been here. From 1, to 2, and the second was a referral.  The members are the absolute key up here, and we spend most our time visiting and serving them.  There are 37 single sisters in this ward which makes it especially hard to meet them for very long as we can't even enter their homes without another member present.  I have had some amazing experiences up here already even with all the trials presented before me.

 I gave my first priesthood blessing this week which was quite the experience for me.  I felt so nervous before hand, I felt maybe I wouldn't be able to feel the spirit fully and maybe I would choke on the words.  I had all these doubts before but realized as soon as I started that it was all in the mental.  I let go of Ian, I let go of Elder Ellsworth, and let the spirit do what needed to be done.  I don't remember much of the things I said but afterwords the family, the Brady's whom I mentioned before, noticed a similarity to another blessing received before I had arrived on my mission.  The previous Elder had mentioned Mike Brady's, the recipient of the blessing, ancestors and how much they cared for and watched over him.  I also said something along those lines without foreknowledge.  I absolutely love the Brady family, every time I go over there I learn so much about myself and the spirit.  Also sister Brady makes some Bomb cinnamon rolls! Love those so much but if I keep eating them I'll gain weight they are so good.  

I have learned so much from so many up here in the mountains.  I have learned humility and charity.  Grandma Anderson is my hero.  She is the wife of the ward mission leader and such an amazing person.  The first day I met her she told me that she was my grandma now because I couldn't see my grandma anymore for 2 years.  She has had one trial after another, enough for anyone to lose their faith.  Yet she has retained her love for the savior and takes care of so many selflessly.  Even though she has so many kids and takes care of her sisters kids, she still acts as my Gma because she loves her savior enough to love someone she just met as her own.  I love her so much and want to serve her as much as possible.  

My faith has grown this past week more than I thought possible.  I hope to keep growing in my faith and my knowledge everyday I have. 

Elder Ellsworth