2 Emergency Transfers and a Baptism later... We Survived

(Sister Ellsworth)

So this week was an ADVENTURE!!! On Monday we received a call that Sister Herrera would join our companionship and we made it a whole week together and it was awesome! We arranged Antonio's baptism! While we were waiting for the baptism to start Sister dos Santos taught me and Sister Herrera how to tie ties. We tied them all by ourselves!! Heehee

Look at Antonio... He's so happy!! Haha. I've never seen someone make such a huge change in such a short amount of time. After a lifetime of smoking and being involved with other less-good things. Antonio grabbed his last box of cigarettes and chucked them out the window, stopping stone cold. He grabbed the beer in his fridge and poured it down the toilet, laughing and smiling. When he was  baptized he sat there a moment, smiled and said "It's good."

This week we are also having another transfer! Heavenly Father thought I should spend my last 20 days on my mission in another area so I'll be transferred to Mem Martins tomorrow.

I'm just so grateful to be here. I don't pay attention to the days... (honestly I'm hoping that if i stop looking then the time will start going backwards). I love being a missionary. I love being a representative of Christ. It's the best thing you could ever do. Every sacrifice is worth it. Every tear, sore muscle,  sigh of disappointment, everything is worth coming to know my Savior.

And I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Sister Ellsworth

Sweet Hour of Prayer

(Sister Ellsworth)

This week was fun.

We were looking for one of our investigators in these shacks and we came across a woman who was clearing this lean-to that had fallen down. We offered to help, tied our hair back and started hauling broken wood and metal to the dumpster. The little neighborhood heard all the racket we were making and started smiling at the two girls in skirts ankle deep in mud and garbage that they started coming out and talking to us. With mud smeared faces and snagged skirt hems we started teaching this family of 20 or so people. IT WAS AWESOME!! We marked one for baptism and are coming back this week to teach more.

Then we went to pass by a reference that we had received, we knocked the door and the Guy named Antonio opened. Antonio looked like a drug dealer with a leather jacket, a Rottweiler, and a scowl from a life of who knows what. We smiled and offered to teach him about how he can have a better future. He accepted and listened to use with the Rottweiler at his feet. In the middle of the lesson he started to get a little worked up, yelling about how some guy was trying to kill him and that he had to hide. We tried to calm him down but there was something there besides his memories. Sister Dos Santos started to sing Sweet Hour of Prayer and I quickly joined in. after one or two lines Antonion stopped yelling and slowly sat down, looking at us, puzzled. We continued to sing until the end of the song (in Portuguese). The Holy Ghost came into the room so strongly and tears began to well up in Antonio´s eyes (and we don't even sing that well.) He just continued to listen.

1. Sweet hour of prayer! Sweet hour of prayer!

That calls me from a world of care

And bids me at my Father's throne

Make all my wants and wishes known.

In seasons of distress and grief,

My soul has often found relief

And oft escaped the tempter's snare

By thy return, sweet hour of prayer!

And oft escaped the tempter's snare

By thy return, sweet hour of prayer!

2. Sweet hour of prayer! Sweet hour of prayer!

Thy wings shall my petition bear

To him whose truth and faithfulness

Engage the waiting soul to bless.

And since he bids me seek his face,

Believe his word, and trust his grace,

I'll cast on him my ev'ry care

And wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer!

I'll cast on him my ev'ry care

And wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer!

We were able to finish the lesson and mark him for baptism. That lesson was a lesson that changed my whole mission. We saw how the Holy Ghost can calm an afflicted soul. His soul was hurt, had been betrayed many times, and was tarnished with sins and wrongdoings. But in that moment, he felt the love of God touch his heart. That touch changed him, humbled him, and know he knows that he's a son of God, an eternal being on a mortal journey, and that God has a plan for him. Hearing Antonio pray for the first time was the happiest moment in my life.

#beachbums

Until next week!

Sister Ellsworth

Mosiah 3:19

(Aldste Cummings)

Hej på er!

This week went by so quickly. We had so much to do with teaching lessons and going on splits and the like. Our area includes the whole county of Skaraborg so we often have to travel a lot to meet people. It's super fun though, and it's teaching me how to use public transportation which is a great thing to learn for the future.

Transfer calls came yesterday! I will be staying in Skövde which I'm extremely excited about. I love this area and I'm glad I get to stay and help along the people I've met here come closer to Christ. Sadly, Elder Martineau is leaving. He was a great trainer, I learned a ton from him. However, he's going to Gubbängen to be a zone leader in the Stockholm zone. He's going to do a great job!

This week, I've been thinking a lot about learning and progression in this life. As missionaries, we teach people about the gospel and invite them to make the necessary changes in their life to accept it and receive it's blessings. It's a big commitment and a big change and it often takes a little time.

Something Elder Martineau says when teaching people about God's plan for us is: "Evangeliet är till inte så att vi kan ha ett bättre liv efter döden, utan att vi kan bli en bättre person imorgon." Translation: "The gospel isn't so that we can have a better life after death but rather that we can be a better person tomorrow." And that daily self-improvement continues forever throughout eternity.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us that we can change by making those little steps, we can "put off the natural man and become a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord"(Mosiah 3:19). Change is always a process and everyone always has things they can do to improve themselves. That's why we have the gospel. To teach us that through Jesus Christ and his atonement, we can make little changes in our life to be a better person tomorrow than we are today.

Love,

Äldste Cummings

Devotionals, Talks and Other Stuff

(Sister Ellsworth)

Alô ao todo mundo!!

Another week has come and gone. We had a blast with miracles! First off on Monday I brought my poor companion to the Mission Home and she died. Hehe. The next day I went with some other sisters to go get our new companions. I'm serving with Sister dos Santos now and she's awesome. She's from Porto so I'll finally be learning how to speak Portuguese!! Haha. She loves to laugh and have fun and has a super strong testimony.

On Wednesday we went to a Devotional with Elder Owen and Elder Durrant. It was awesome! We learned a lot and we were excited to try new contacting and teaching technics. During the week we starting contacting people using the new phrase they suggested which is: "Would you be willing to hear a brief message about ....." There was one day when we were walking towards the chapel and I looked to the side and I saw a woman sitting in the passenger seat of a parked car. She was older, about 50, and it looked like she was sleeping. I had the thought to go talk to her but thought, no she's sleeping. Then I was like.. What the heck am I doing?! Don't ignore spiritual promptings!! So I stopped in my tracks and ran back to tap on the glass. I told her that we were doing a project to help people have more hope. She gave a smile smile and declined. I could tell that something was up so I asked her what was going on and she gave me a surprised look. Then told us that she had been diagnosed with lung cancer. I gave her card of Christ and she offered to let us come by and talk to her for a bit. #MIRACLES

On Sunday my companion and I were emergency speakers lol. It happens more often than you think... But we talked about prayer and scriptures. I realized that I while I was speaking you could see exactly who was reading and praying. You could see it in their faces... It made me think a little bit about our personal preparation for the Second Coming. Recently and ever since Adam the prophets and apostles have asked us over and over to have daily scripture study and to always have a prayer in the heart.

Have a good week!

Sister Ellsworth

D&C 18:10

(Aldste Cummings)

Tjena!

This week has been pretty busy and things are only going to get busier. We had zone conference on Thursday and it was so great. President Youngberg is most definitely inspired. The big takeaways that Elder Martineau and I have started to apply in our own work is experimenting with new contacting approaches on the street and working with local church members individually on personal mission plans so they can start getting more involved. Elder Martineau and I have a vision for Skövde. The only sad thing is that one of us is probably transferring to another area next week.

Yesterday, we witnessed a miracle. About 10 weeks ago, Elder Martineau randomly visited a less active member we found on the phone. His name is Amir, he's about 25, from Iran, has been living in Sweden for 7 years, and was baptized about 3 years ago. He doesn't actually have "uppehölls tillstånd" which is actual permission from the state of Sweden to stay in the country so his boss sort of takes advantage of him by forcing him to work nearly 100 hour weeks in his pizza parlor. He can't quit because without a job (which is very difficult for an immigrant without tillstånd to get), he won't get any money, and will most certainly be denied tillstånd and sent back to Iran.

Well, he found the time to come to church two weeks ago and absolutely loved it. He told us that he had decided to start coming back to church regularly. Within that week, he received tillstånd from the government! Now he can quit his job, go to school and get a degree and start a real profession. Yesterday at church, he was ordained to the priesthood and I could not have been happier. It was so amazing to see how much God loves His children. Seeing Amir there, seeing how happy he was, how much faith he had, and his desire to come closer to God made me feel just a tiny bit of what I imagine God feels when He watches us take steps to come back to Him.

It was such a beautiful experience. God really loves each and every one of us regardless of who we are or what we have done. His greatest joy is seeing His children returning to His arms and becoming purified in Christ.

Love,

Äldste Cummings

John 7:17

(Aldste Cummings)

Hey all!

This week was pretty interesting. We did a lot of work meeting folks and finding some more on the streets of Skövde. A few highlights that I can think of include:

1. I was on splits with Elder Helm from Borås. He accidentally called someone in our contacts who told us she wasn't interested a few weeks ago. She didn't pick up the phone but she did send a text saying that if we ever contacted her again she would call the police. That was kinda funny.

2. Elder Martineau and I made a deal that if he ate a teaspoon of wasabi then I would eat the rest of our jar of low-quality bread and butter pickles by the end of the day (there was about a pound of pickles left). So he ate the wasabi and had a terrible experience with it. So then I had to eat the rest of the pickles which was a different kind of pain. The wasabi was a quick intense pain. The pickles were a long, mentally and emotionally draining process. I was literally dreading putting more pickles in my mouth by the end of it. A lose-lose really.

3. It was Elder Martineau's birthday on Saturday! He turned 20. So we made banana bread and lit some candles and then got sushi later in the day.

The scripture I chose this week is something that we've been emphasizing lately with our investigators and something that I have seen in my own life. The Savior teaches us a very logical concept: We learn truth by first acting in faith and experiencing how it effects us in our lives. Or to put it more crudely: You can't knock it 'till you've tried it.

I've had countless conversations with people who try to convince me that the Book of Mormon isn't true. I listen to what they have to say and then ask them if they've read it. And the answer always is that they haven't. The truly sad part, however, is when they refuse to read it. How can you possibly know if something is true or false if you haven't taken the time to learn about it or apply it in your life?

The gospel may seem a little backwards to people who expect to know if something is true before they act on it. But like Alma teaches in Alma 32, that requires no faith. The Lord requires us to have faith in Him and take the first few steps, then we can know by our own experience that the doctrine is true.

Love,

Äldste Cummings

Transfers, Baptism, and Holy moly its cold!

(Sister Ellsworth)

This week was good! We got a call from Miguel and he passed his baptismal interview and was baptized Sunday after church! He's a great guy. The way we found him was a miracle! We were having a few weeks where a lot of our investigators weren't progressing and a lot of appointments were falling through. Our faithful District Leader promised us that we found find someone that was prepared for baptism. The next day we lost even more appointments but then we got a call from a random number saying he was at the airport on the way home from Angola and wanted to talk to us. He got to Costa da Caparica and sat down with his suitcases to talk to us. We marked him for baptism and he was baptized two weeks later! It was an awesome experience.

​Miguel and a random member lol

Tanya!!! She's a recent convert and we're training her to be the next sister missionary! haha!

​Rodrigo!! He's one of our super good friends. He's from Brasil!

As for my last transfer I'm going to stay here in Costa da Caparica! I'll be serving with Sister dos Santos. It's gonna be good!!

As I was listening to the testimonies during Sacrament meeting this week one of the members talked about how this week she felt frustrated about not receiving answers to her prayers and that she felt sick of always having faith. Then she shared an experience about how the Holy Ghost comforted her and reminded her that these experiences are what will help her grow. I smiled and remembered all the times I felt too tired. I think in my journal I wrote that I was exhausted more times than I can count but it's so worth it. I look back on the last 17 months and it's the best thing I've ever done. I learned so much, met so many awesome people, and really come to know who I am and who I can become. I love being a missionary!! Haha

Love,

Sister Ellsworth