It's December, and it hasn't even got any lower that 40 degrees. It feels a little chilly, but not nearly like it did last winter up in Rockland. I don't even know if we'll have a white Christmas here. The only part that really makes it cold is the wind chill.
As far as transfers go, there is really not much change. We have a new district leader and zone leader, but Elder McBroom and I are still together. We'll be together until probably January 6th, then he'll likely leave the area, but we never know.
This week has been good. Thanksgiving was good, we had a couple of appointments, but the rest of the day was kind of bummer, it's all good, though, we still taught 25 lessons this week, 6 member presents, and found 3 new investigators.
We hopefully will be having a baptism. Jacqueline (this whole time I've been spelling it wrong) is praying about whether to be baptized the 13th or the 20th. We are going by tommorrow, and will hopefully be able to set her with a solid date. We have seen her progress a lot. She has been taught on and off for quite a while, we just need to get her in the water! Her son Jeyckof we have set with a tenative date for the 3rd, meaning he gave us his usual answer of "I try."
Yesterday we had the Christmas fireside in Morristown. We have been practicing for a couple weeks getting ready, it was really quite amazing. The spirit was really strong. We'll be having another one in Union City on the 13th of December. I'm excited, we are trying really hard to invite all of our investigators and make sure that they come. The spirit was really strong last night at the fireside in Morristown.
It was a little down-heartening when we went last night, though. I was there, and the only time I've been on that half of the mission was when I was in Clinton, and I was only there for 6 weeks. No one recognized me. I said hi to a few people, and one of the members from there looked at me funny and said "did you serve in Clinton?" I said yes and she said "oh, okay," and walked away. I remember when I left Clinton I gave my testimony on Fast Sunday, and made a comment that went along the lines of "I'm almost afraid that I didn't have time to accomplish anything in this ward, I'm afraid that no one will even remember my name." and well, I was right.
It's okay, though, In a lot of my other areas I've done a lot of good. Elder Alldredge, our new district leader, just got transferred here from Rockland, and said that they are still talking about me there. I know also that a lot of people in Union City were sad that I left, and almost upset that I didn't have the chance to say goodbye. a lot of people were really excited to see me at the wedding.
Well, I gotta go, I'm about out of time. Love you!
Elder Isaac Ellsworth
We were called to serve as senior missionaries in the Italy Rome Mission, assigned as YSA specialists to the Puglia Stake in Bari, Italy. Our service is from January 2023 to July 2024.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Turkey Day
Man, I had just written the email, then it all got deleted, so I'm sorry if this one is a little shorter.
Thanksgiving is looking good so far, we have a dinner set up with our new investigator, Marina and her Husband, Ronald. We have talked to them a couple times, and yesterday we finally got in the door. We taught her, well, I taught her in Spanish while Elder McBroom was busy talking to her husband. We have an appointment to Thursday to go and eat Thanksgiving dinner.
As far as transfers go, this Wednesday is transfers, and so far, we don't know if either of us is getting transferred, when we know, I don't know. hopefully tonight so that there will be time to pack.
Also, bad news, I lost our cell phone today, which means that if I can't find it It will cost me $50, and that will have to come out of my personal funds, and that is not so cool. I'll let you know next week.
Okay, picture time, I have a lot of pictures to send, so this is probably just email #1.
These first three are from the mission hike we took a few weeks ago. The first one is of Elder Boyer and I. (P.S. I took these pictures from another Elders camera, and I forgot my flash drive, so I need to send them all to you and to my email so I can rescue them next week) There are 12 pictures in total.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Choir + Glasses + Missionary Work
So, again the letter is a little later than usual. However, I guess it was kind of a good thing, since it gave you time to get the letter written. I hope that everything is going well with school/work. by the way, mom, what is your thesis about? You and Dad have both mentioned it quite a few times, I was just wondering about it. I hope you do well with it, even though it is a little stressful, I know it will be worth it.
Well, things are going well here in New Jersey. The reason why the letter is later this week is because of two reasons:
1) we had choir practice, which put us back a little bit. I had been practicing for the last week or two, but now I don't know if I'll be accompanying at all at the fireside, but, whatever happens it'll be good. The other reason is today I had another eye appointment. When I went in last week to pick up my glasses, they were not the right prescription, so I went in again to get it checked out again, and this time we got it right. I don't know what my old prescription is, but my new one for my glasses is -4.75 in the left eye and -5.50 in the right. I also got the thinner lenses, so that cost me an additional $32. Next week I'll pick them up, and this whole ordeal will be behind me, and I'll have my new glasses.
This last week was really good. On Saturday I got to go to the wedding of Yawdy and Gabriel, it was really good. I think that is the first time that I have ever been to a wedding in my life. Gabriel was then baptized yesterday. It was really good to partake of that. In a year when they go to the temple, I want to go with them, but that won't be until after my mission ends, but I really want to come back and see that. I'll make sure to send pictures next week from the wedding.
As for my area, things are also going really well here. We should be having a baptism fairly soon. We have an investigator, Jacklyn, set for the 21st of November. We are also hoping that her son, Jeyckof, who has been investigating for over a year, will also decide to follow the example of his mom and be baptized the same day. When that happens I will most definitely have some Pic's!
My companion and I are doing well. This week we have a lot of things planned, it will be pretty bomb. Tommorrow we already have 4 appointments set pretty much back to back. Things are really picking up well in the area. I am really glad to be working with such a a great companion. Elder McBroom is a really hard working missionary. He has a lot of good ideas about how to do missionary work. He has a lot of faith, and even though he is really young in the mission, his spanish is pretty good.
I am really excited to hear that Tyler is going on a mission. Definitely give him my email address: I don't know what the rules are everywhere, but I know that in our mission we are allowed to email direct family members, and friends that are on missions. I've been keeping in contact with Jimmy Newland via email.
I hope that everything goes well for you, I love and miss you so much, don't miss me too much...
Love,
Elder Isaac Ellsworth
Well, things are going well here in New Jersey. The reason why the letter is later this week is because of two reasons:
1) we had choir practice, which put us back a little bit. I had been practicing for the last week or two, but now I don't know if I'll be accompanying at all at the fireside, but, whatever happens it'll be good. The other reason is today I had another eye appointment. When I went in last week to pick up my glasses, they were not the right prescription, so I went in again to get it checked out again, and this time we got it right. I don't know what my old prescription is, but my new one for my glasses is -4.75 in the left eye and -5.50 in the right. I also got the thinner lenses, so that cost me an additional $32. Next week I'll pick them up, and this whole ordeal will be behind me, and I'll have my new glasses.
This last week was really good. On Saturday I got to go to the wedding of Yawdy and Gabriel, it was really good. I think that is the first time that I have ever been to a wedding in my life. Gabriel was then baptized yesterday. It was really good to partake of that. In a year when they go to the temple, I want to go with them, but that won't be until after my mission ends, but I really want to come back and see that. I'll make sure to send pictures next week from the wedding.
As for my area, things are also going really well here. We should be having a baptism fairly soon. We have an investigator, Jacklyn, set for the 21st of November. We are also hoping that her son, Jeyckof, who has been investigating for over a year, will also decide to follow the example of his mom and be baptized the same day. When that happens I will most definitely have some Pic's!
My companion and I are doing well. This week we have a lot of things planned, it will be pretty bomb. Tommorrow we already have 4 appointments set pretty much back to back. Things are really picking up well in the area. I am really glad to be working with such a a great companion. Elder McBroom is a really hard working missionary. He has a lot of good ideas about how to do missionary work. He has a lot of faith, and even though he is really young in the mission, his spanish is pretty good.
I am really excited to hear that Tyler is going on a mission. Definitely give him my email address: I don't know what the rules are everywhere, but I know that in our mission we are allowed to email direct family members, and friends that are on missions. I've been keeping in contact with Jimmy Newland via email.
I hope that everything goes well for you, I love and miss you so much, don't miss me too much...
Love,
Elder Isaac Ellsworth
Monday, November 2, 2009
Late.....Hike.......
Sorry that the email is so late this week. We had a mission wide hike today in Boonton New Jersey, and we just barely got back from that.
I'm really sorry to hear about Ian. Is he doing better? That sound really painful. I really hope that he is feeling better by now. Fortunately, I've never broken a bone, but it sounds painful. I'm also excited that Ian will get the priesthood in a couple weeks. I know his Birthday is on the 14th right?
by the way, this is slightly embarrassing... but I am not entirely sure on the dates of importance in November. I think that Ian's is on the 14th, Mom's is on the 17th, and Emily's is on the 27th, but I'm not entirely sure. I remember about a month ago when I tried to get new glasses, and to look up Mom's insurance they asked me for her date of birth, and I was stumped. please correct me if I am wrong on those dates.
In other news, things are going well here in the new area. We currently have one baptismal date. Her name is Jacklyn, she is from Colombia. She has a date to be baptized on the 21st of this month, she is pretty prepared, but we do need to reteach her basically all the lessons. I think that she really understands the importance of baptism, and wants to be baptized, but right now she doesn't really have a testimony yet of if the Book of Mormon is true and if Jose Smith (as we say it in Spanish) was really a prophet, but she has a desire to know, and that is the first step.
We have a pretty good teaching pool, well, a lot of people, at least. People are dropping off like flies, but we do have a couple of really bomb investigators.
Oh, also, another random Sidetrack, Today we went on a hike out in the woods here in Jersey, almost everyone in the whole mission was there. President Bahr shared some good testimony with us. The area was really pretty, and I only twisted my ankle once! It was really difficult to hike because the ground was covered in leaves, so it made it difficult to see the trail and that rocks and roots that could trip you up. Really cool, though it did kill about 80% of our P-day.
This evening we also have an appointment with another really cool investigator. She has definitely felt the spirit, and I think that she knows that the Book of Mormon is true, but she wont come to church. We are bringing a couple of members with us as well, so, it'll be good.
I love you guys and miss you a lot. I hope Ian gets to feeling better soon, and I hope that everything goes well for you. I'm sorry that the email is a little short, we are a little short on time. Love,
Elder Isaac Ellsworth
I'm really sorry to hear about Ian. Is he doing better? That sound really painful. I really hope that he is feeling better by now. Fortunately, I've never broken a bone, but it sounds painful. I'm also excited that Ian will get the priesthood in a couple weeks. I know his Birthday is on the 14th right?
by the way, this is slightly embarrassing... but I am not entirely sure on the dates of importance in November. I think that Ian's is on the 14th, Mom's is on the 17th, and Emily's is on the 27th, but I'm not entirely sure. I remember about a month ago when I tried to get new glasses, and to look up Mom's insurance they asked me for her date of birth, and I was stumped. please correct me if I am wrong on those dates.
In other news, things are going well here in the new area. We currently have one baptismal date. Her name is Jacklyn, she is from Colombia. She has a date to be baptized on the 21st of this month, she is pretty prepared, but we do need to reteach her basically all the lessons. I think that she really understands the importance of baptism, and wants to be baptized, but right now she doesn't really have a testimony yet of if the Book of Mormon is true and if Jose Smith (as we say it in Spanish) was really a prophet, but she has a desire to know, and that is the first step.
We have a pretty good teaching pool, well, a lot of people, at least. People are dropping off like flies, but we do have a couple of really bomb investigators.
Oh, also, another random Sidetrack, Today we went on a hike out in the woods here in Jersey, almost everyone in the whole mission was there. President Bahr shared some good testimony with us. The area was really pretty, and I only twisted my ankle once! It was really difficult to hike because the ground was covered in leaves, so it made it difficult to see the trail and that rocks and roots that could trip you up. Really cool, though it did kill about 80% of our P-day.
This evening we also have an appointment with another really cool investigator. She has definitely felt the spirit, and I think that she knows that the Book of Mormon is true, but she wont come to church. We are bringing a couple of members with us as well, so, it'll be good.
I love you guys and miss you a lot. I hope Ian gets to feeling better soon, and I hope that everything goes well for you. I'm sorry that the email is a little short, we are a little short on time. Love,
Elder Isaac Ellsworth
Monday, October 26, 2009
Noche de las Brujas
This week is Halloween, which means two things, 1 October is almost over, finally. I must admit, Halloween is my least favorite holiday, I'm tired of walking around seeing fake decapitated heads and other stupid decorations. Also, On both Halloween day and on Mischeif Night, 30th, we need to be in before dark, so not much is going to be accomplshed.
One thing I am excited for though, is that this year the mission will be doing another Christmas fireside. We'll be having Choir practices on the Zone Conferences we have this week, and on every other P-day until the firesides.
In response to the email ?'s. Thank you for the pills, I usually take them on and off, so hopefully they'll last me a while. Also, as far as music goes, just some type of Hymn arrangements, as long as they are not too difficult, I don't have tons of time to practice. Also, if there is a good arrangement of "Joseph Smith's first prayer" like the one I played for Grandma and Grandpa's farewell would be good, and maybe a Christmas hymn, so I can play around Christmas time. Thank you!
This week has been pretty good, We are starting to get things rolling well here. This week we set one of our investigators with a baptismal date. Jacklyn is from Colombia, her daughter, Nicole, is a member, last Sunday Nicole came up to us at church and said "Yeah, I think my mom is ready for baptism" So we went over there on Thursday and had a really good lesson. We set her with a date to get baptized on November 21st. I am super excited. She has been taught by the missionaries for a while, and she is super ready. She comes to church whenever she can, but she has to work almost every other Sunday. Next time we go by we are going to encourage her to ask her boss for Sundays off. It'll be bomb.
I'm also really excited because I got permission to be able to go to the Wedding of Yawdy and Gabriel on the 7th. Gabriel is really excited for his baptism, which will be the day after. I have seen those two come a long way since we started teaching them. They have progressed a lot. That is one of the biggest reasons I was so sad to leave Union City, but at least I'll be able to go and see that, even though I am not still currently teaching them.
Life here in New Jersey is going grand. As far as new clothes go, I my need to buy one or two more long sleeved white shirts, also, I want to buy some long underwear-type stuff. I'm not sure if I need to get a new winter coat. My old one will probably still work, but it is a little worn out. As far as hats and gloves and scarf and stuff, I'm still good.
I love you guys a lot, and miss you tons. Hope you have a good Halloween, just don't get too sugared up okay Em and Ian?
Love,
Elder Isaac Ellsworth
One thing I am excited for though, is that this year the mission will be doing another Christmas fireside. We'll be having Choir practices on the Zone Conferences we have this week, and on every other P-day until the firesides.
In response to the email ?'s. Thank you for the pills, I usually take them on and off, so hopefully they'll last me a while. Also, as far as music goes, just some type of Hymn arrangements, as long as they are not too difficult, I don't have tons of time to practice. Also, if there is a good arrangement of "Joseph Smith's first prayer" like the one I played for Grandma and Grandpa's farewell would be good, and maybe a Christmas hymn, so I can play around Christmas time. Thank you!
This week has been pretty good, We are starting to get things rolling well here. This week we set one of our investigators with a baptismal date. Jacklyn is from Colombia, her daughter, Nicole, is a member, last Sunday Nicole came up to us at church and said "Yeah, I think my mom is ready for baptism" So we went over there on Thursday and had a really good lesson. We set her with a date to get baptized on November 21st. I am super excited. She has been taught by the missionaries for a while, and she is super ready. She comes to church whenever she can, but she has to work almost every other Sunday. Next time we go by we are going to encourage her to ask her boss for Sundays off. It'll be bomb.
I'm also really excited because I got permission to be able to go to the Wedding of Yawdy and Gabriel on the 7th. Gabriel is really excited for his baptism, which will be the day after. I have seen those two come a long way since we started teaching them. They have progressed a lot. That is one of the biggest reasons I was so sad to leave Union City, but at least I'll be able to go and see that, even though I am not still currently teaching them.
Life here in New Jersey is going grand. As far as new clothes go, I my need to buy one or two more long sleeved white shirts, also, I want to buy some long underwear-type stuff. I'm not sure if I need to get a new winter coat. My old one will probably still work, but it is a little worn out. As far as hats and gloves and scarf and stuff, I'm still good.
I love you guys a lot, and miss you tons. Hope you have a good Halloween, just don't get too sugared up okay Em and Ian?
Love,
Elder Isaac Ellsworth
Monday, October 19, 2009
Week of Oct. 19th
Well, this week has been pretty good. I don't know if I have a problem with myldsmail, or not, I know of at least one missionary that there was a problem and he could not receive emails from his parents on the service, so he got permission to use a different email service. If you have sent me an email this week, I didn't get it, so maybe there is a problem.
This week week has been good, we had a little bit of a tough time with numbers this week. We had a lot of appointments juke this week, but other that that things went well. Elder McBroom and I are getting along pretty well. He is a really hard working missionary, wants to do what is right.
Today when we go to Walmart I will set up an appointment to go to the eye-doctor, I don't think we have time today, but I'll set it so that we have time the next monday so I can go. Also, there is a national shortage on the H1N1 vaccine, and there will not be another opportunity to get vaccinated out here, so I haven't had the vaccine, I'll just need to be careful, and take a lot of vitmin C. I'm not too concerned, I'll probably go and pick up some Airborne or something like that.
I hope everything is going well at home, I'm happy out here in the field, sorry this email isn't really long, not a whole lot of excitement happened this week, but we are getting the area progressing. We have a lot of investigators, and we just need to start getting them to come to church and to get baptismal dates.
Alrighty, I've attached two pictures.
The first is of Brother Romero and I. Brother Romero is a member from my first area. I saw him again at stake conferences and we took this picture.
Second is of P-day a few weeks ago. There is a soccer field that has a great view of the city.
I hope that everything is going well, I love you guys and miss you a lot. I hope to hear from you next week.
Love,
Elder Isaac Ellsworth
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
In other news......
Okay, sooooo much has changed since the last email, and this will shock you, well, maybe not.
In no particular order the items of business are as follows:
1) I did not yet go to get the glasses, I didn't get the chance the last week, but I will go in on this next Monday. hopefully it won't be too expensive.
2) I will go in this Friday to get the H1N1 vaccine, actually on last Friday my companion went in to get it, it is about $30 dollars here, and I need to pay in cash, so I will also need to pull out the money. They do it on Friday, so I will go in and get that taken care of, I have been sick over this last weekend, and I don't want to get sick with the swine flu, so I'll take care of that.
Okay, on to the Shocking news:
I am actually not in Union City now... On Tuesday I was E.T'd, which, being interpreted, is Emergency Transfer. I am now in West New York, 49-60 area, so actually only one area up from my last area. My new companion is Elder McBroom, he is from Northern California. He has been in this area for almost two transfers, he is really new to the mission, so I am senior companion. Shockingly enough, we have not gotten the transfer fax or leadership calls yet, so we have now idea what is going to happen with the transfers on Friday. If ElderMcBroom got transferred, that would be hard for me, I will have only been here for a week and a half, and then half to take over the area on my own, well, with a new comp, of course, but it'll stil be tough.
So, next Monday I'll definitely have the news about transfers. The mission president gets home tonight, he had a conference in Utah, and we will get the transfer fax tonight. I'm a little nervous, but I'll be fine.
I will (hopefully) be able to pick up the pictures today, the Zone Leaders have a van, I'll ask them if right after email if we can run to the Walgreens over on Park and 33rd.
Umm, in other news, I still haven't gotten the picture of Pepe's baptism from the other Elders. Hopefully we are going to have a baptism in this area soon, we don't currently; have anyone with a baptismal date, but we have a goal to set someone with a date this week. It'll be bomb.
I'm doing well here in this new area. Its pretty similar to Union City. The ward seems pretty cool, things'll be great.
Well, I got to go soon, Here is a random picture for this week, I drew this with a dry erase marker on my desk a few weeks back, I thought it was pretty cool, so I took a picture of it, and a rediscovered it while searching on my flash drive, enjoy
I love you all and miss you a lot. I hope that things are going and continue to go well here. I hope everything went well with grandpa and his surgery. I hope you had a good Canadian Thanksgiving, I'm so jealous, because out here Columbus day is a school holiday, but it never was when I was growing up, oh well.
Love you all,
Elder Isaac Grant Ellsworth
In no particular order the items of business are as follows:
1) I did not yet go to get the glasses, I didn't get the chance the last week, but I will go in on this next Monday. hopefully it won't be too expensive.
2) I will go in this Friday to get the H1N1 vaccine, actually on last Friday my companion went in to get it, it is about $30 dollars here, and I need to pay in cash, so I will also need to pull out the money. They do it on Friday, so I will go in and get that taken care of, I have been sick over this last weekend, and I don't want to get sick with the swine flu, so I'll take care of that.
Okay, on to the Shocking news:
I am actually not in Union City now... On Tuesday I was E.T'd, which, being interpreted, is Emergency Transfer. I am now in West New York, 49-60 area, so actually only one area up from my last area. My new companion is Elder McBroom, he is from Northern California. He has been in this area for almost two transfers, he is really new to the mission, so I am senior companion. Shockingly enough, we have not gotten the transfer fax or leadership calls yet, so we have now idea what is going to happen with the transfers on Friday. If ElderMcBroom got transferred, that would be hard for me, I will have only been here for a week and a half, and then half to take over the area on my own, well, with a new comp, of course, but it'll stil be tough.
So, next Monday I'll definitely have the news about transfers. The mission president gets home tonight, he had a conference in Utah, and we will get the transfer fax tonight. I'm a little nervous, but I'll be fine.
I will (hopefully) be able to pick up the pictures today, the Zone Leaders have a van, I'll ask them if right after email if we can run to the Walgreens over on Park and 33rd.
Umm, in other news, I still haven't gotten the picture of Pepe's baptism from the other Elders. Hopefully we are going to have a baptism in this area soon, we don't currently; have anyone with a baptismal date, but we have a goal to set someone with a date this week. It'll be bomb.
I'm doing well here in this new area. Its pretty similar to Union City. The ward seems pretty cool, things'll be great.
Well, I got to go soon, Here is a random picture for this week, I drew this with a dry erase marker on my desk a few weeks back, I thought it was pretty cool, so I took a picture of it, and a rediscovered it while searching on my flash drive, enjoy
I love you all and miss you a lot. I hope that things are going and continue to go well here. I hope everything went well with grandpa and his surgery. I hope you had a good Canadian Thanksgiving, I'm so jealous, because out here Columbus day is a school holiday, but it never was when I was growing up, oh well.
Love you all,
Elder Isaac Grant Ellsworth
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