Greenie Happenings, Resurrection of Investigators and Cake

(Sister Ellsworth)

Hey Yall!

Well this week was quite interesting... Training is really fun, exhausting, and lots of work. My comp is still learning the language so it makes teaching and talking in general hard for her but she's a trooper.

This week one of our investigators was resurrected. Like his family told us that he died. And then he tapped me on the shoulder in the park. You could have picked my jaw up off the ground and restarted my heart. He was one of my first investigators here in Povoa and after he went to church on that Sunday he had a stroke. we didn't know so we passed by for an appointment during the week but his wife was wailing that he had died.... But then we found him again this week happy and smiling. It was super weird and I'm still half convinced that he died. But you know you can't shake a dead man's hand...

We had a couple of really hot days this week and at 3 pm there was no shade so we visited some recent converts and they gave us cake. Cake is awesome.

As we were leaving their house this lady in a night gown hollered at us from across the road (it was like 4 in the afternoon). She was waving her arms around and hollering "Jesus girls, Jesus girls!!" So I smiled and went over to talk to her. This 40 ish yeah old woman was completely drunk. She was drenched head to toe in very strong perfume. She began yelling/slurring that she need us to pray for her friend who wouldn't open the door. I asked if her friend was sick and this lady turned around to this brick wall, knocks on it like it was a door, and hollers to her "friend" to come out. Trying not to laugh I suggested that we pray with her and then she can come back in a few hours to see if her friend came home. She agrees and then raises her hands above her head and starts hollering the Lord's Prayer at the heavens. But instead of saying "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost" she starts repeating "In the name of the Pope, the Son, and the other one." As she was praying her eyes were rolled back and she stumbles backwards and bumps into the brick wall and says to the wall, "Oh sorry, sir. Have a good day." I almost lost it. My companion wasn't understanding this crazy drunk lady but I had to stuff my hand in my mouth to keep from laughing. Then the lady thanks us and walks away for a couple of feet and stops, turns, comes back, and the whole situation repeats itself three times. It was probably the funniest thing that has ever happened here.

Then we taught English class which was a whole other adventure. We had a race in between the missionaries and the students to see who could list the most words in the other language. Some of the words that the Portuguese students wrote were so funny... including these new "recently discovered" animals: Beax (bear) Birde (bird) Snack (snake) Kankopoo (kangaroo) Rabbic (rabbit) Camil (camel) Chark (shark) Pavo (peacock) and other beauties. It was a really fun class. :)

Sunday afternoon in Povoa... 98 degrees and not a living soul on the road. Knock all the doors!!!

Love you!

Sister Ellsworth

Transfers! Flooded Church and God Loves You

(Sister Ellsworth)

Olá!!! This week was great! Sister Selman and I worked until we died. There were a few times this week that we had so many lessons planned that we had to teach two at the same time. Sister Selman would teach one at one end of a bench and I would teach one at the other end. It was fantastic!

So I'll be staying in Póvoa for another transfer but not with Sister Selman :( But I'm going to be a mom!! :D I'm going to finish training a sister named Sister Warren. I think she's from the USA but I'm not sure... It will be fun!

This week a prank war started in between one of our recent converts and the Sisters. It started when Telo (the recent convert)  put ketchup in my shoes while we were teaching his wife. I was wearing sandals and was so focused on Catia that I didn't even notice that he squirt this big ol wad of ketchup in my shoes. Then when I stood up the ketchup was cold and squished all over my toes! I about fell over because it was slippery! Then I tried to chase Telo down but he ran laughing like a 12 year old boy who is annoying his older sister. So I went to the bathroom while his whole family laughed and laughed. But Telo had turned off the water!!  Then I decided to get my revenge and I hid his backpack in the church a few days later.  he didn't find it for about 2 hours. Then, knowing that I had hidden it, he took a big bucket of water and tried to dump it over my head while we were teaching English Class in the church!

Then I managed to get a hold of his phone, wallet, and keys while he was hiding in the secretary's office and Sister Selman and I tried to run home so he would be stuck at the church alone. But he caught up to us and stole my name tag. We had a stubborn stand off where I wouldn't give him his phone and he wouldn't give me my nametag.

Let's just say its war now... Any of you that know me had better warn Telo! Haha

Also on Saturday we were using the buses quite a bit and every time we got on the bus it was the same bus driver. After the third time in a row he shouted "You guys are following me!! Well I just gotta give you a hug because we're family now!" And then he reached over and grabbed Sister Selman in the most awkward hug ever but she tried to protest and pull away which pulled the bus driver out of his chair and he fell on to the floor of the bus, still clinging to Sister Selman. I about died laughing and the nearly full bus laughed too. We helped him up and gave him a pass along card. He was cool! Making friends wherever we go! Haha

We found this sign this week... It is a road called "Turn from the Shower". It's funny. hehe.

We also found this gem knocking doors.... "Propoganda religiosa aqui não" means "Here there is no religious proselytizing." It reminded me of those southern signs you'd find in the USA.

We also found another door sign that says "Jesus te ama" Which means Jesus loves you!! How sweet ^_^

​Also the church flooded. Oops. We helped mop up water for 2 or 3 hours. It basically turned into a disney song sing off. :) *insert Tangled song*

John 14:15

(Aldste Cummings)

Hello,

This week has been so much fun. We've been doing so much practice teaching. We've even been skype-calling members of the church in Sweden to practice our teaching with them. It's so fun.

I leave for Sweden a week from Monday. I can't be more excited. Tomorrow we get our flight plans that will tell us exactly when we leave and which flights will be taking to where. I cannot wait.

We had two more apostles speak to us this week: Elders Ballard and Anderson. Both of them gave inspiring talks on how to focus ourselves and become more committed missionaries and more effective instruments in the Lord's hand.

That leads me to my little message today. Elder Ballard specifically taught about obedience and what it means to be wholly committed to the Lord on the mission. The scripture I chose this week is pretty well known and oft-quoted:

"If ye love me, keep my commandments."

Jesus teaches pretty clearly here that if we are truly His disciples, we will follow His commandments. But I think there is a little bit more to it. Note that he does not say: "If you keep my commandments, you love me." He teaches in Isaiah 29:13 that we can be outwardly loyal to the Him without truly loving Him or being worthy of His saving grace. In other words, though the love of the Lord will always inspire obedience, obedience is not a sure sign of true commitment.

As I have been here on my mission even just these short four weeks, I have learned this lesson.

Reluctant obedience is disobedience.

Jesus the Christ, as always, is the perfect example. He willingly endured the pain and sin of the world and he willingly was raised on the cross to suffer and die because he loved us and he loved His Father. His pure love inspired Him and can inspire us as well.

Love,

Äldste Cummings

1 Corinthians 13:1

(Aldste Cummings)

Hej hej,

This week has been incredible. I feel like I say that every time but I sincerely mean it.

Some fun things from the week:

While we were playing soccer out on the exercise field, an old couple working at the MTC accidentally locked their keys in their car and a couple missionaries from the other Swedish district got a wire hanger and actually managed to reach in and unlock the car with the hanger. It was so cool. Maybe not a good image--a couple of LDS missionaries breaking into a car--but it was a service opportunity, I guess.

Also, this week after our Sunday devotional, the MTC presidency asked all the missionaries to watch Elder Bednar's "The Character of Christ" talk he gave in an MTC devotional a few years ago. For those of you who may not know, Elder Bednar is a important leader in our church and a member of our Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, we esteem him as we would any of Christ's original apostles. I would highly recommend you all look on lds.org for this particular talk, it was amazing. Anyway, after the video, we were surprised when Elder Bednar himself stepped into the auditorium and proceeded to do a massive question and answer session with everyone for the next hour. It was so uplifting and I got so much out of it.

I've also begun reading James E. Talmage's "Jesus the Christ." It has brought me so much closer to Him as I learn more about His life and His divine mission. I would also highly recommend that you read that book. There is a digital version on lds.org for free.

This week I studied a lot about Christ and specifically, His charity which is described in Moroni 7:47 as His "pure love." As Elder Bednar pointed out in his "The Character of Christ" address, this attribute of Christ with which he continually turned outward in love toward other's regardless of His own pain and affliction--which was very great--is perhaps His most defining characteristic.

This brings me to the scripture of the week. When I am in the service of God, none of my personal characteristics matter if I don't have charity. I've been trying to develop this attribute so I can better serve Him in love and kindness towards all and let me tell you, it's tough. But by trying, we can grow closer to Him and better appreciate Him and all that He is.

I think this is what is meant in Moroni 7:48 when Moroni teaches that those who have charity will "see [Christ] as he is" when He comes again. Clearly, everyone will literally see Christ, but not everyone will truly be able to understand or appreciate His love and His sacrifice. As a missionary in my district pointed out, the people who can best appreciate how difficult it is to run the world record mile time, are those who are trying to beat it. We could never "beat" Christ in His perfect expression of love and sacrifice, but as we try to come closer to His perfect example, we are more able to appreciate His true character.

We always speak of Christ as the great sympathizer (See Alma 7:11-13), but as we try to develop charity and become as He is, we are more able to sympathize with Him.

Sorry for the length, I just felt especially moved as I learned of Him this week.

I know that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ. I know He lives and I know He loves us and I know that through Him and only Him can we receive comfort, peace, and eternal salvation.

Love,

Äldste Cummings

Book of Mormon Miracles!

(Sister Ellsworth)

This week was full of miracles!

We were so busy this week... Every day we had appointments every hour and sometimes even two or three backup appointments.

This week we found a young man named Tiago who had this beautiful husky and we decided to contact him so that we could pet the dog... Our contact ended up turning into an hour long discussion about the Apostasy and the Book of Mormon. Apparently he had seen the Elders and Sisters all the time, for years even but no one had ever stopped to talk to him. He asked for a Book of Mormon but we had given our extra away. We told him to just wait in that spot so we could run back to our house and grab another one. We ran back to find him, marking scriptures in the book as we were half walking half running. We gave him the Book and invited him to read and pray about it. A few days later we had a follow up appointment and had another deep discussion, him being intrigued the whole time. My companion and I gave each other that "You know what I'm thinking right??" look and invited him to be baptized. He smiled and said that when he received his answer that he would be baptized on the beach.

Then on Sunday he came to church and sat through all three hours!! The Elders quorum wouldn't let us sit with him during the third hour so all during Relief Society I was having an anxiety attack about what was being taught but after church ended we found him again in the middle of the Elders quorum talking to the Bishop asking questions with a Principles of the Gospel book in his hand. It was awesome!!

Then we got to visit with a recent convert named Sony... He's absolutely hilarious XD He was talking to us about how he was having a hard time getting his citizenship here and one night he was on the train and the train conductor stopped him and asked him for his ID. (they do that every once in a while with foreigners. We carry our ID cards with us always). Sony didn't have his ID, just his train ticket and the Book of Mormon in his backpack. He told the train conductor that he didn't have his ID and showed him the nearly empty backpack. The train conductor pulled out the Book of Mormon and started to read it a bit. Then he gave the book back and in Sony's words "The Book of Mormon saved my life!"

Last week I talked a bit about a family... Well they are like the coolest people ever. The dad is named Ricardo and he's married to Jaci and they have three adorable little kids, Madelaine, Ricardo, and little Laura (in the picture). It was Laura's birthday and Sunday so we stopped by and gave her this little stuffed lamb.

I think I'm getting to the point in my mission where the end looms like a rainy cloud. I feel like Heavenly Father has known exactly what people I needed in order to be able to better myself. I feel my mission can be summed up in one phrase: "You're gonna suffer but you're gonna be happy about it." I'm honestly 100% truly truly happy here. It's hard... I'm always exhausted... But I'm so happy to be here serving these wonderful people.

Com muito amor,

Sister Ellsworth

Pictures!

(Aldste Cummings)

Alma 29:6

(Aldste Cummings)

Hey all,

This week has been so great. I've been working just as hard as last week--if not harder--but it's beginning to feel normal and fun. There's a saying around here that the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days. Boy is that true.

 I'm getting so much out of this experience and it's only been two weeks. I can't imagine how much I will have grown by the end of these two years.

I'm learning so much. If I'm not in class or if I'm not working out, then I'm studying. I've been reading the Book of Mormon pretty intensely every day and I always get something new out of it. It's incredible and I love it so much.

All the time and energy that I would have spent reading a math textbook or doing math problems or something at home, I've redirected to studying Swedish. I spend hours reading grammar books or memorizing vocabulary. Ask me about the 4 different conjugation classes of Swedish verbs (5 if you split up the second class into two subclasses and 6 if you move irregular verbs out of the 4th class and into their own class), the 5 noun declension class, subject inversion with a preceding dependent clause, how the supine differs from the part participle and why, archaic plural conjugations of verbs, you name it. I've even begun to memorize the spelling, definitions, and conjugation patterns of the verbs in my "201 Swedish Verbs" book (I've got the first 160 memorized, I'll probably have the rest of them down by the end of the week).

I was reflecting on all that and was feeling awfully proud of myself when I did my scripture study one night and read the verse in the subject bar (it's from the Book of Mormon so those of you who aren't Mormon can find it by just typing "Alma 29" into google and clicking on the first hit from lds.org). The context is that the prophet Alma is expressing his desire to preach the gospel with the power of an angel (see verse 1) but chastises himself and comes to the conclusion in verse 6 that God has asked him to serve in his current capacity with his mortal abilities and that he should desire no more than to fulfill that calling.

That really hit me. I have been called as a missionary to serve the Lord and to preach His gospel. My goal is not to become fluent in Swedish. I did not come out here on a mission so I could come back speaking Swedish. I have been called to bring others unto Christ and as I try to fulfill that purpose, the language and other abilities will come. I am an official representative of Jesus Christ, I goal must be to become as He is and invite others to do so as well.

Love,

Äldste Cummings