Happy New Year!

(Sister Ellsworth)

Hello ya'll! And a happy New Year!

This week was slow but progressive and that's all we want! Haha any sort of progress is good! Amaral has been amazing these past two weeks. He's been bringing family to church activities and sends us messages every once in a while asking if we need help teaching or to say that he absolutely loves his new life as a member of the Church. He humbly received the priesthood on Sunday and is preparing to help with the baptism of his cousin, Jenny. It has been so rewarding to see him take this new life in a stride!

New years eve was so much fun! We met with a lot of members and the whole world was going crazy with Quisomba (African music) and banging pots and pans. We actually stayed out until 10pm since our president didn't request that we return home early so we saw all sorts of crazy things! I think the best part is we were walking home and something smelled kinda funny. Our whole area smells strange but it smelled like food and burning plastic. We rounded a corner and there was this big trash can that was on fire with firefighters trying to put it out. We sat and watched the barbecue for a bit before heading home.

Fabiana was finally marked for baptism! Should be towards the end of January! She's progressing so well. When I was 14 I didn't have a clue of what was going on with religion but she's definitely a special soul. She loves that activities and other youth in the ward. 

Love all of you!

Sister Ellsworth

Happy New Year!

(Anziano Wilkinson)

I survived my first week of driving in Italy!

After a several hour train ride from Ancona to Milan, I met my new companion, Anziano Engen. Within minutes of meeting him, he informed me that he had misplaced his driver's license in the first few months of his mission... Which meant that I would be doing all of the driving... So that was a bit of a shock! I was not expecting to be the one doing most of the driving, let alone ALL of it. I had hoped to sort of ease back into it, but I guess the Lord had other plans haha.

Luckily, as soon as I sat behind the wheel I felt a little more relaxed because I realized that I had not forgotten everything. Then, after a few shaky kilometers and a safe arrival at our apartment, I was back in the swing of things. It seems that driving a car is like riding a bike; you just don't forget! It helps that Italy drives on the right side of the road just like we do and that I've been here long enough to know what all the road signs say/mean. The biggest difference that I've noticed is that Italy uses A TON of roundabouts, which can be a little tricky at times. It'll take some practice, but I'll get used to the road infrastructure here eventually.

For New Year's Eve this year my companion and I made something called Arancini, which are basically balls of rice stuffed with mozzarella and then fried. They are so good and so simple! So yeah, I guess you could say that neither of us used New Year's Eve as an occasion to kick off any new year's diet regimes haha.

2017!

(Elder Cummings)

The new year is here!

All week we have been working at the New Years.  It has been a blast.  All four of us have been working till we drop.  It has been a tremendously successful week.

Saturday it rained, something we had not prepared for.  That ended up being a great teaching moment.  As I was thinking about how we could still work effectively despite the weather and the very limited crowd a thought, or really a quote, came to my mind.  "Prayer is a form of work and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings" (Bible Dictionary, Prayer).  That is how I started working.  I didn't bum an umbrella (right away).  I didn't spend the whole day standing in the rain (just part of it).  I prayed that people would come to us, and they did!  From across the fairgrounds people started coming directly to the booth, asking for scriptures and asking questions about the church and about Christ.  It was a clear answer to prayer and a miracle I will never forget.  God's hand is in this work.  The experience made me think of D&C 109:39.

And whatsoever city thy servants shall enter, and the people of that city receive their testimony, let thy peace and thy salvation be upon that city; that they may gather out of that city the righteous, that they may come forth to Zion, or to her stakes, the places of thine appointment, with songs of everlasting joy;

Cross referenced with Exodus 14:13-14 the promise that "[God's] salvation be upon that city" becomes more clear.  In this verse Moses is responding to the worried cries of the children of Israel as the Egyptians close in on them somewhere along the shore of the red sea.

And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.

The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.

God is willing to fight our battles if we are willing to believe in Him.  He did it for the Israelites and saved their lives.  He will do it for all of us in all of our battles.  He will fight for us when we obey Him.

I have seen the salvation of God in 2016.  I have confidence that 2017 will be more of the same.

Make 2017 your best year yet!

With love,

Elder Cummings

Feliz Natal!

(Sister Ellsworth)

Christmas in Portugal was beautiful! It was a lovely 50 degrees and sunny! (I bet all of you guys with snow are a little jealous, eh?) I took some pictures of the Christmas lights and other things that we found.

This week we had a division with the Sisters in Vasco de Gama which was a really pretty area. They had lots of lights and Christmas music playing in the roads! They have a lot of the same Christmas traditions here as well with lots of food and everyone is just a little bit happier and  more willing to hear about Christ.

We actually taught a lot this week, sharing the message of the First Presidency about the Birth of Christ. We met with Fabiana, who is the 14 year old granddaughter of my recent convert, Alda, and she is progressing towards baptism next month! She´s such a fast learner! She loves to study and hang out with us at activities. She´s a little quiet at first but once she gets to know you she warms up and loves to talk and ask questions. We´re also teaching the cousin of Amaral, who was baptized last week and she is sooooo nice. She went to Amaral´s baptism and really liked it. We taught her how to make chocolate chip cookies as well!

We had our Mission Christmas Dinner this week! It was crazy to see the other 10 missionaries who arrived with me 6 months ago. They are all speaking Portuguese so well! There was a talent show and a huuuuge lunch with a ton of food. All 150 missionaries were there and it was great to get to know more missionaries. I´m still in  my same area so I haven´t left a lot to get to know other missionaries, especially Elders. We do a lot of divisions with other Sisters. Yay for Friends!! Haha.

Christmas Eve we hung out at Amaral´s house in the morning at taught his 3 cousins and his aunt. We had a Christmas lunch with them, taught them English, and learned Creole. Maria, Amaral´s aunt, taught us how to make shrimp pastries, which were so fabulously good. Afterwards she gave us more food than we could carry and we were forced to stop by the Elders´ apartments and leave half of it with them. (They didn´t complain, either.. haha) we had Christmas Eve Dinner with our Relief Society President, Madelena and her mom. They made awesome food and we watched a movie with them afterwards.

Christmas day we had a crowded sacrament meeting, the Elders had a baptism, we had lunch with Irma Bea and Irmao Nascimento. and we talked to our families! Yay! Best Christmas ever!!

Christmas in downtown Montijo!

Christmas lights in Vasco de Gama!

Christmas tree of our recent convert, Amaral. Can you see the "best Christmas present" Amaral received? It´s in the middle of the tree.... :D He´s so awesome!! 

Santa Claus found our apartment. Everything in our study room was wrapped with wrapping paper XD

Christmas Eve dinner! Bacalhou com natas, salada, bolo dos Reis, and Guardaná!

FELIZ NATAL FROM BARREIRO!!!

Com muito amor,

Sister Ellsworth​

Nyob zoo xyoo tshiab!

(Elder Cummings)

Happy New Years!  That is what I have been saying all day long.  It is that time of year again.  The International Hmong New Years has made its way to Fresno.  Today I talked with members of the Hmong population who came from as far away as Laos to participate in the harvest festival celebration.

The approach we are taking this year is different.  We revamped the booth to make it more inviting, and people are loving it.  When people come off of the main field and into the booth, a much larger plurality are accepting missionary visits.  We also switched up the way we are distributing materials from a "come take everything, it is free" to a "tell us what you want, we will come by after the new years and give it to you."  The effect is definitely positive.  Across the board those who are signing up this year have more "real intent" as the scriptures put it.  We Hmong elders have been pondering and praying for a year as to how we can go for more.  The actual fruit of the revelation we received months ago is beginning to be seen.  We are pleased, and we know that the Lord is too.

Today was day one.  Six more to go.

In the zone right now we have a missionary who is unsure if he will be continuing his mission due to an ongoing battle with depression.  While reflecting on the situation this missionary was in, I gained some insight summarized very well in Psalms 90:12:

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

As this thought built up within me I came to a greater awareness of the brevity of my missionary service.  I applied wisdom and became more bold in my contacts, and the blessings of heaven were seen in our area.

I know that I have grown as I have served as a missionary.  I hadn't realized just how much until yesterday, Skyping home to my family (one of the two times a year I can do so).  I am excited to see what growth is yet to come.  I am certain that I will be taught at a more rapid pace as the days go by.

2016 has been a great year. 

Nyob zoo xyoo tshiab!

Elder Cummings

Moving to Milano

(Anziano Wilkinson)

So I got a call on Friday last week telling me that I'm getting transferred to a new city! My new area is called Muggiò, which is a part of Milan. It's right next to Monza, which is where they race the famous formula one race cars, so that's pretty exciting! Hopefully I can plan a visit to the race track to watch a competition or something, we will see... Anyway, I will arrive in my new area Thursday afternoon, where I'll meet my new companion, Anziano Engen!

The transfer call brought more than just a new area and companion, however. I got called to be a zone leader. So missions are made up of missionary companionships stationed in various cities. Companionships are grouped into districts and districts are grouped into zones. So with my new calling I will help lead about twenty missionaries in the East Milan zone. Hopefully I didn't make that too confusing. Basically, it just means I have more stuff to do and people to look after. Hopefully I can manage to not mess that up haha.

On the plus side though, this new calling comes with the privilege of driving! So finally after almost a year and half I will get to drive again! Yesss! There are only about fifteen cars owned by the mission (since gas is expensive and Italian driving is a bit chaotic...) of which most are driven by the senior missionary couples. So basically I'm really fortunate to get to use one! I'm pretty excited, if you haven't been able to tell by now. Let's just hope I can manage to not mess that up either! Haha

This week we had a bunch of meal appointments with members of the church, first of all because they're really amazing and super generous and second of all because this week happened to be the week upon which Christmas, my birthday, and the news of my departure fell. So this created the perfect storm, per se, to make Anziano Larsen and I very happy missionaries! On Tuesday some members took us out to eat at a restaurant owned by a family friend. The food was great and I was very satisfied with it, but the cool part was what happened after. After the meal, the cook/owner named Glen came out to greet us and we got the chance to talk to him. That's when I found out that he had just lost a son in a car accident a few weeks before.

Glen explained to us how he missed his son and became slightly emotional as he recalled fond memories of him. I had the amazing privilege of bearing testimony to him of our Heavenly Father's plan of salvation and the blessing that it is to have a Savior to help us overcome all trials trials and limitations. I shared with him the truth that he could see his son again. This visibly touched Glen and lifted his heavy heart. He agreed to meet with the missionaries again to learn more about the Plan of Salvation and how he could see his son once more. It was a powerful experience in which I could feel the Spirit guiding my words in order that they could reach Glen's heart, rather than his ears.

I'm excited to hear what happens next! It's too bad that I won't be here in Ancona to see it, but that's just how it goes I guess!

I hope you had a great Christmas and that the new year brings you an increase in hope and happiness! Talk you to soon!

-Anziano Jake Wilkinson

Happy Birthday Avery! Its a White Christmas

(Sister Ellsworth)

Ola! Bom Dia!!

This week was awesome because through many, many, many miracles, Amaral was baptized!! WhooHooo! Sunday was probably the craziest day on my mission. We had 4 investigators at church and Sister Oliver and I were in charge of the music (as we usually are every week), so we were running all around the church making sure that they had members to sit with and they were in the right classes, etc. Of the four investigators, we had two investigators who had been real pains about church in the past but they loved it and the other two are new references from members that are also taking lessons. Amaral just about gave us a heart attack by having a family emergency Sunday morning but managed to come for the last 10 minutes so that he could still be baptized later on Sunday.

The baptism was so great! The missionaries sang A Capela for the Portuguese rendition of How Great Thou Art, which is the song that Sister Oliver and I were singing when Amaral stopped us and asked us to teach him about religion. We also had the best cookies and cinnamon rolls ever!!

Also....We had a rough beginning of the week. On our Pday we went to Lapa with our zone leaders and Elder Rosenkilde and Sister Oliver left Elder Crawford and I on the metro. There were so many people on the metro that we didn't realize until 3 stops and a half an hour later. Whoops!! Haha luckily Sister Oliver had our phone and Elder Crawford had their phone and we were able to meet up again. It reminded me of the one time when my dad left my at the train station in downtown Washington DC when I was 14. (I'm still a little bitter about that traumatic experience, Dad... haha)

One thing I thought about a lot this week was having love for others. Our president of our mission sent out an email about how to better love the people in this country. The Portuguese have a reputation for being stubborn, rude, very dramatic, and impatient. But they are also some of the most hardworking and generous people I know, once they get to know you ;) He sent out a challenge for us to talk to every person and think about every person as if we had been raised in the same culture and had the same level of experience with religion. It was a great way to practice looking at each person as a child of God and to see them how Christ sees them.

Dum da dum! Scripture time:

 11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

 12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.

Christ chose to complete the Atonement so that each one of us, individually, could have at least one person who knows exactly how we feel. I like the scripture above, Alma 7:11-12, because it tells us what Christ did and also why he did it. He suffered for more than just our sins... in fact this scripture mentions pain and affliction before sin.  He knows how we feel and he suffered so that he would be able to succor his people or, in other words, to know how to help his people.

I hope you guys will take a moment to think and a look at the person closest to you and imagine all of the struggles they have, the sacrifice they chose to be here, or perhaps the invisible pain in their heart and try to show a little more Christ like love for them. It is Christmas!!

Selfie with Amaral fail.... He wasn't paying attention :/

Me, Sister Oliver, Amaral, and Luis!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AVERY!!!!

​Love all of you tuns!

Tchau!

Sister Ellsworth