Marching along.....

Wow, it's hard for me to believe that March is already here. I have almost no idea of where February went. Things have been going well here. We are still trudging along a little bit. Things are still a little slow in the area, but this week we are focusing a lot on finding, and hopefully can jump start things and start off the new month strong.

This week we got pounded with snow. It started snowing on Thursday and it snowed straight through all of Friday as well. In total we got hit with about 26 inches of snow. On Friday we helped a few people shovel their walkways. We were not far from our house, and we saw a lady trying to shovel, just her and her two sons, who were about 10 and 8. We offered to help and she accepted. It was a lot of work, it took us about an hour and a half to complete it, afterward she tried to offer us money, we didn't accept it, but she did give us some wool socks, which was very kind of her.

The first picture attached here is not from this last snow storm, but from one a couple of weeks ago. Dad wanted a picutre of me in Missionary Clothes, so here it is. There is this sign on Boulevard East in West New York that I thought was pretty cool, I thought the slogan was hilarious "A good place to live and shop" I disagree, but oh well. Maybe a good place to shop, but other than that...

On Saturday Jacqueline and her family moved. They moved out of our area, but they are still in the ward. They live in Fairview. When we helped them move, it was ONLY myself and Elder Butler, Jacqueline and her husband. By the end of it I was so worn out. The second picture is me goofing around in the moving van. It was good, her husband wants to invite us over sometime, he wants to cook for us to say thank you.

Then the third picture is from the baptism we had a week ago. Gilberto Luna. They are a really awesome family. Sister Benal really wants to move to Utah. She has actually been looking for a place in Orem, she found one apartment around 400 N and 400 W. She really wants to move there, and if it all works out for them, that's great. She wants to go out there and take a look around the neigborhood (spelling?) and everything, but she said that she doesn't know anyone out there who could help her. I was thinking about offering to give her your email so she could get in touch with you mom, if that'd be alright with you. Just let me know what you think. They are a really awesome family.

On this last Wednesday we had interviews with the mission president. I was talking to him about college, departure, etc. I have set the date for my departure. I will be coming home on August 25th. That means I have less than 6 months left on my mission.

Thank you dad for taking care of that debt I had to the school. That could have ended up really bad. I guess it was from the testing center or something, and I had completely forgot about it. Hopefully now I'll be able to find out my registration date and everything.

I love you all and miss you so much. I hope that things go well for everyone. I will write to you next week.

Love,

Elder Isaac Ellsworth

Moving

Today has been absolutely crazy. We have been busy moving all day long. We started around 8:00 this morning, we are finally into the new apartment, but it is still a mess. We had all 4 other elders in our ward helping us, and two of the senior couples, it was a lot of work. We are finally out and doing email and shopping and stuff, just a little late.

This week has been really good. We had the baptism of Brother Luna on Saturday. It was really neat. There have been so many obstacles in the way of him getting baptized, and finally it came to pass. I will send pictures from the baptism and stuff next week, with the move, I completely forgot to bring my camera to email to send pictures. Yesterday he got confirmed, it was really amazing. He was so happy after his baptism, as was his wife. He asked me to baptism, it is the second time on my mission I've been in the water as well. The spirit was so strong at the baptismal service.

Also this week we set another baptismal date. Javier, one of our investigators from Ecuador is progressing really well. The way we found him was one day he just walked into church on Sunday. Apparently his girlfriend ion Ecuador is a member, and told him he should go. He is so prepared for the gospel. We have gone over to teach him 3 times, he said he feels really good at church and reading the Book of Mormon. We set him with a date for the 28th of March.

In other good news we finally got Manny to church. We've been working with Manny for a few months now. He is a less active young man from the Dominican Republic. We have been working for a while with him, trying to get him to come to church, and yesterday he finally came.

Things are going well in the area. Sorry that this weeks email is a little short, we have a lot to do still, and not a lot of time. I love you all so much.

Oh, by the way, the new address is:

501 56th street #4

West New York NJ

07093

I love you all, and miss you a lot. I hope things are going well for you.

Love,

Elder Isaac Ellsworth

Wow!

This week has been a week full of mixed emotions.

I'm not sure where to begin, so I will begin at the beginning, and break it down.

Tuesday:

Tuesday was kind of a rough day, we lost 3 of our investigators on Tuesday, Elder, our best investigator, dropped us, he asked us not to come by anymore, he said that he's been feeling a lot of pressure, not really from us, but from himself, he said. We also lost two other investigators, all they wanted to do when we went over was argue about the sabbath day and stuff ( they're Seventh Day Adventists ) and they refuse to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, so there was no point in going back. Tuesday was a day where it could have been very easy to come home feeling very depressed, but we were feeling pretty good about things, I knew that Elder was in the Lord's hands, that we had done our part, and hopefully at some future time his heart will be opened to accept the gospel.

Wednesday:

As Wednesday starts off we are full of hope, and ready to go work, and it snows really hard. We receive a text message from the mission instructing us not to go out but to stay in and detox, plan, etc. only to leave if it was necessary. We cleaned the house and everything, and in the evening had three amazing appointments, even setting Gilberto Luna with a baptismal date! He is getting baptized this Saturday, I am really excited

Thursday:

Thursday we had zone conference, and we were supposed to have a visiting general authority, but he didn't come but zone conferences were still amazing.

Saturday:

On Saturday I had an exchange with the zone leaders and we talked with Brother Luna to plan everything for his baptism. He wants me to baptize him, and for that I am excited. Today is his interview, and on Saturday will be the baptism, I'll send some pictures next week.

Things have been going well here. I can't believe how fast time has gone. Apparently neither can anybody else. I got an email from Em today that said "Your half way now, cool" And I thought, wow, I'm actually about 3/4ths. I still cannot believe how fast it's gone.

Next interviews I have a few things to talk about with president. One of which involves when I am going home. For several reasons, I have decided that I am going to come home for Fall semester. I've thought a lot about it, and I've prayed, and I feel that is what I need to do. I've been thinking about it, and the date I came up with is August 25th, which'll be only 5 days before school starts. I'll need to take care of everything from here, or through you guys, but I feel like I need to be back at school soon, I don't want to come back from my mission and be idle for a semester, with nothing to do, I know that in that situation Satan would definitely try and tempt me, so I need to get back. Let me know what you think.

I'm approaching more and more a very important crossroads in my life. There was a talk last conference in priesthood session about fathers and sons, and the speaker ( I believe it was Elder Perry ) gave advice that we ask and value the opinion of our parents on important matters, such as education, career, etc. I need your help. I was thinking about coming home right before school, and just trying to hit the ground running, but do you think I should take another week, and try and get on my feet, by coming home around the 17th of August.

I'm not going to let this distract me, right now I'm a missionary, and the work of the Lord is my primary focus, but I do need to figure this stuff out.

Well, I gotta get going soon, I love you all so much. I hope that things continue to go well for you! Let me know what you think, and I will write you next week. Next week email will be the usual on Monday.

Love,

Elder Isaac Grant Ellsworth

Amazing Week... law of compensation

In zone conferences a few months ago, President Bahr talked about how to handle hard times, using as a background for his talk "Come what may, and Love it" by Elder Wirthlin. As part of that talk he reminded us of a few ways to endure through hard times. Learn to Laugh, keep eternal perspective, etc. One thing that he said that stuck with me was to "remember the laws of compensation". When we have a hard time, and prove faithful the Lord blesses us in return. The last two weeks were very difficult, but this week was absolutely amazing. We still didn't meet the mission standards, but we saw so much improvement from last week.

We found 5 new investigators this last week. It was amazing, more than we've found the rest of the transfer combined.

Last Sunday at church there was a man that just walked in. His girlfriend in Ecuador told him to check out the church, so he did. The ward mission leader, Brother Cuc, was one of the first people to greet him, and was there as a friend and a guide the whole meetings. He found out his address, and it was in our area. His name is Javier. On Thursday we went by and visited him, he is super prepared. He loved the church this last week, and he had some good questions. We taught him the first lesson, and he loved it. We asked him that when he feels that God has answered his prayers, would he be baptized, and his answer was "of course" He said he'd read the Book of Mormon and he'd pray to know if it was true. I know he'll be baptized soon. He really wants to know the truth.

In other news, Brother Luna finally was able to come to church. He is the husband of Sister Bernal, the primary president. We've been visiting and teaching him for a while, but because of the work he has at the taxi's he has been unable to come to church, and because he can't go to church and renew his covenants we don't want to baptize him, yesterday at stake conference Sister Bernal talked to President Bahr, in March Brother Luna will be quitting the taxi's but he wants to get baptized now, and President Bahr said that it he can come to church at least 2 weeks in a row, and until he quits the taxi's try to get off and at least come to partake of the sacrament, he could get baptized. They were both very excited. We are going to set him with a baptismal date soon.

Elder is still doing well, he came to stake conference yesterday, and liked it a bunch. I don't know exactly what he needs, he is such a dilemma. When he tries to quit smoking, or at least when he doesn't smoke, he gets really upsetably, and hurts others, but he also knows that when he does smoke, he is hurting, and slowly killing himself. He feels so trapped. We have been trying to help him quit, teaching him about the power of prayer, but he is having a very difficult time with it.

Oh, speaking of Stake conference, I need to tell you about yesterday. It was absolutely crazy.
The stake asked the mission to put together a missionary choir for the conference, and we would then have to sing at both the English and the Spanish sessions of conference. The conference was amazing, Elder Spencer Jones of the second quorum of the Seventy came, and spoke in both sessions. He speaks really good Spanish, by the way. The first session was at Caldwell at 10 am. we were supposed to be there at 9:15 for choir practice. The session was until 12, and then we stuck around for about half an hour visiting with people from old areas, etc. After that we drove the 30 minute drive to Union City and had the Spanish session at 2:00. By that point I was starving, we had no time to try and eat something in between the sessions. The Spanish session was also very good. Afterwards I got to visit and see a lot of people that I love and care for very much. Brother Romero from New City, The Loso family from Englewood, All the people from Union City, Norbert, Isabel Castro, Genaro, Yawdy Gabriel, Bishop Martinez, Brian, everyone! However, the downside came about that we didn't get home until almost 5:00 so the day was pretty much shot. But it was good, we received some good instruction from Elder Jones, from President Drussell ( the stake president ) Interesting fact, I have been in this stake (Caldwell) basically my entire mission with the exception of the one transfer I was in Clinton. Everyone I know is on this end of the mission.

Well, I gotta get going. I'm glad to hear that everyone is doing well. I hope you had a fun time in "San Jorge", it sounds like you did. Oh, by the way, just so you know, next Monday the library will be closed for Presidents Day, so the email will be on Tuesday. I don't fully understand why P-day is on Monday, it's good and all, but it means that it's always on all the stupid Holidays that they close libraries for.

Love you,

Elder Isaac Ellsworth

New Week

Dear Family,
I am glad to see a new week. This past week has been a little rough.

Last Monday right after email we went to give a blessing to Brother Lemus, one of the members, they live in our area, but for some reason they were going to Union City ward. Brother Lemus was in really bad shape, and his wife was in hysterics, he was completely unresponsive, we gave him a blessing, and we gave sister Lemus a blessing as well, afterwards she felt a lot better, but brother Lemus passed away on Tuesday, that hit me hard. Last Thursday (2 weeks ago) we went over, and he seemed fine. His liver and his kidneys failed.

The funeral was on Saturday, on Friday we went to his viewing...

Yesterday around 8:30, we were trying to stop by a less active who lives in a 28 story building, she lives on the 9th floor. We went up and knocked on our door, and a voice, which sounds a lot like hers said "Who?" first in Spanish and then in English, I replied ""The missionaries" and she yelled "She's not home!" and then immediately the fire alarm started to go off. So we figure the buildings on fire or something, so we immediately start down the stairs to get out of there, and when we get outside we hear the fire trucks coming, so we stuck around for a sec to see what was going on, also, we ran into a different less active we've been trying to get a hold of, and set up an appointment amidst all the commotion. It was pretty crazy.

Other news Elder is doing really well, this past week we taught him the word of wisdom, he already understands about alcohol (spelling?), but in all these years he has been unable to quit smoking, and he has tried many times, but has been unsuccessful, but we promised him that through prayer he can overcome his addiction.

Also, Yeni dropped us this week. She apparently has been studying with the Russelites (Also known as the Jehovah's Witnesses) and doesn't want to "mix".

I hope all is well at home.

I love you all so much, and I hope you have a great week

Love,

Elder Isaac Ellsworth

I love rainy days!

Most the other missionaries, including my companion think that it's a little strange, but I absolutely love the rain. Today it's about 60 degrees, but will drop to about 38 later in the day, and it is raining heavily and with a "brisk breeze" says the weather report. I've been having a blast, walking to and from Laundry this morning was great, we put our clean and dry laundry in black garbage bags so we could keep it dry. When it's (relatively) warm I love the rain a lot, but when it's cold and miserable, I could do without.

This week has been a good week. We had kind of a rough week. Elder Ward was sick on Wednesday when we went on exchanges, and then I got sick for two days, but we still went out and worked as much as we could, so we didn't get a whole lot af lessons in this week, but the ones we did get were really well.

We visited with Elder twice this week. On Friday we took Marvin out with us, Marvin is a really cool member from Honduras, he has long black hair and listens to heavy metal, he got baptized during the summer. He was really able to connect with Elder, and bore a really powerful testimony that touched Elder. Elder said that he would get baptized, but he still has a lot of prejudice, especially because he's had bad experiences in the past at other churches, but he came to church on Sunday, and during Sunday school and Priesthood class he made some really good comments, he even said the closing prayer in the Gospel Principles class! I am really excited. Unfortunately the other cool investigator I mentioned last week, Carlos appears to have dropped off the world, we can't get a hold of him, and he is avoiding us, but it's alright, I know he felt the Spirit during our meetings, and hopefully he comes around at some point.

Alright, also here are a few pictures, I promised Nick last week I would send a few pictures so you could see what West New York, NJ looks like.

Hopefully all three of these will send, so the first picture is of our apartment. We live on the second floor of this house. You can see a picture of Jesus (though very bleached by years of sunlight) up in the second floor window.

The second picture is of me on a street not far from our house. You can see a long line of cars on either side. It's like pulling teeth trying to find parking around here. ( That's why I'm glad I'm walking, we don't have a car )

The third picture is of a large building. There are many apartment buildings such as this in our area. There are a couple that are even bigger, but these are the reasons why I have climbed more stairs in this area then in any other area in my mission ( most of these buildings are at least 50 years old, and have no elevators )

So, there you go, I'll (maybe) send another email with a few more pictures a little later, If I try and send more than 3, the email will be returned to me, without me knowing you will not get it. Yes, I know that my English was horrible in that last sentence.

I'm glad to hear that everything is going well. I hope that Nick is safe and does well in Haiti. I know that it'll be a good experience for him, but I am really worried for him as well. I know that the Lord will protect him, but, I am still a little worried every time I hear more news about Haiti.

I love you all a ton, and I miss you. I hope things continue to go well. Just keep on keepin' on!

Love,

Elder Isaac Ellsworth

P.S. If I have time after writing the Pres. letter, I'll send some more pic's a little later.

January 19th

I always hate it when for whatever reason the libraries are closed on Monday (usually holidays) and we have to email on Tuesday, mostly because we have to end P-day early and take time out of a regular day to email. However, complaining never solves anything, and here we are on the fine Tuesday morning writing the weekly email.

Today we had district meeting, the second one I've had to give. it went well I think. I was again pretty nervous, but I think it definitely went better than last weeks. Last week I hadn't prepared enough material, this week I prepared too much, and couldn't finish it all. After that we went as a district to lunch at Kikiriki, a delicious Peruvian restaurant.

Right before coming to do email we had an awesome lesson with Elder, one of our investigators. The first time we met him he mentioned that he used to wonder what his name meant. He had met missionaries in the past, and when they met him and asked him his name, they didn't believe him, and thought he wasn't being serious or was lying to them. I would've thought that it would be an unusual name, but I've known 2 Elders now, and met one guy named Elder on the street.

Elder is super prepared. today was the third or fourth time we've met with him. He told us today that one reason he let us in in the first place was because he has seen ad's for the church on TV, and they are just nice uplifting messages about family. He commented that most other churches he's seen ad's on TV and all they are is propaganda,he says, and he doesn't like that. Today we started talking about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, he really understands it well. He already has a deep understanding of what is repentance. He works a lot with AA, and helps others to overcome alcoholism. He said he was an alcoholic many years ago, and through the program helped him to overcome his addiction and change his life, and now he helps others. I told him that that is repentance. Repentance is all about change, changing ourselves, and improving daily to become better. He also really understands the importance of baptism, but he said he wants to be sure, that it is something important, and that he would be baptized, but it needs to be from the heart. it was an amazing lesson, he is so prepared.

Things are going really well here in WNY. My companion and I are working hard, and we are starting to see miracles. Elder, we feel is really close to a baptismal date, as well as one of our other investigators, Carlos. we are hoping to soon be able to set them and get them progressing towards baptism.

Jeyckof is also doing well. Yesterday Elder McBroom called and talked to him, and I think it was good for him, he got a little down when Elder McBroom left. Hopefully soon he'll be receiving the Aaronic priesthood.

Another random thing, yesterday as we were on the way to an appointment I ran into Yawdy and Gabriel. They both were making comments about how skinny I was getting. Yawdy said "Are they not feeding you?" They are doing really well. Gabriel apparently blessed the sacrament this last Sunday at church! I am really excited for them. I am also excited in June I will be able to go with Genaro to the temple.

I'm glad to hear that everyone is doing well. I enjoyed the emails that you sent me yesterday. Emily and her colored emails are always very interesting and I was glad to hear that things are going well.

I hope that Nick does well in Haiti. I know that it'll be tough with the earthquake, but I know that he'll be fine. God will protect him. The earthquake has definitely had it's impacts here. A lot of people have had the news on the last few days, and I have been hearing a lot about the earthquake. If nothing else good has come out of it, at least one good thing has. The earthquake has helped to cure the hatred that a lot of Dominicans have for Haitians. Hate might be a strong word, but a lot of Dominicans do not like Haitians at all, but it seems that that wall quickly is coming down. Hopefully this helps to open doors as well. I know that before the Haitian government did not allow American missionaries to go to Haiti, the only missionaries there are Haitians and Dominicans, basically, but perhaps this will open doors for the church to help bless even more the Haitian people. I certainly hope and pray that Nick will be safe when he goes to Haiti.

Well, I hope that things continue to go well at home, I gotta get going. I love you guys so much, and I will talk to you next week! Next week will be again on Monday of course.

Love,

Elder Isaac Ellsworth