Thanksgiving, Rain, and Someone Thought I was Native

(Sister Ellsworth)

Howdy yall!

This week was one of those weeks where I have no idea what happened. It was Monday like yesterday... Anyway, on Monday we had a very chill Pday and we watching a few movies like Meet the Mormons, and went to an all you can eat sushi bar for lunch. On Tuesday we had the best conference of our zone ever! It was one of those meetings where every word was meant for you. They challenged us to reorganize our areas and we've spent a good chunk of our free time sorting through our area book to make it easier for the next sisters that come in. On Wednesday we had divisions in Mem Martins with the Sisters there and I learned so much! We did two divisions in one day and by the end of the day I collapsed on the floor in the hallway and fell asleep immediately.  My companion had to wake me up so I could take five step to get to bed. On Thursday we had a super long day where all of our appointments fell through until our last one in which we taught this family of 5 for the first time. Turns out they had the lessons from Sisters in Cape Verde and are interested in hearing more so keep in tune! On Friday we had the craziest day where we ran from appointment to appointment the whole day. We met Rafa, who is the best friend of a member and marked him for baptism just before Christmas. Rafa has been through a lot but he believes that it was just preparation for that appointment where we all cried and testified of the power of the atonement. Saturday and Sunday we ran around chasing investigators and contacting like crazy. It's definitely been a busy week. I blinked and it was over!

Our Thanksgiving was spent at a member's house with the rest of the missionaries in our district. I think I've forgotten what American food tastes like.... But the Portuguese food is amazing :) I think I'll keep it! They love their salad, fish, chicken, and soups! I do too!

It rained. A lot.

And someone thought I was native! Haha. They said "I've never seen a real Portuguese redhead!" That was probably the best moment of the week. I reached 5 months last week so I'm glad to be making some progress! I've still got a long way to go but hey, progress is progress. I wouldn't say i'm fluent yet but it's close. Hopefully I'll serve with a native Portuguese companion! I think that will help a lot!

Love all of you!

Sister Ellsworth

Thankful for the Holy Ghost

 (Elder Cummings)

Thanksgiving week came and went.  That is the direction everything seems to go.  On Thanksgiving we were told not to proselyte, which interrupted some of Elder Gray's and my plans.  We had busy, busy days Monday to Wednesday, Thanksgiving, then busy days Friday to Sunday.

On Thanksgiving itself we went golfing with Bishop Castleton and his sons.  Elder Gray is pretty good at golf, and this was my first time ever.  We played scramble, fortunately.  Preston, Bishop's oldest, told me that I swing like someone from a driving competition, and that except for actually hitting the ball, I had a pretty good stroke.  It was a fun time.  I enjoyed myself.  Following that we ate more than our fill at dinner, and by the time we got back to our apartment at 5:30 we had nothing to do.  I have not had that feeling for a year and a half.  What did we do?  We watched two of the five approved videos, "Emma Smith: My Story" and "On the Lord's Errand" about Thomas S. Monson's life.  In the second movie it talked about how frequently President Monson has experienced being led by the Spirit to a home for a reason unknown to him at the time, only to hear people say things like "how did you know it was the anniversary of our daughter's death?" or "how did you know it was my birthday?" as they answer the door.  God loves all of His children and keeps track of them.

Last night we had a regular "Thomas S. Monson."  We left our dinner appointment and both felt impressed to change our evening plans so that we could attend a baptismal service at one of the chapels in town.  We did exactly that, arriving before the service started, much to the surprise of the elders who had planned the service.  As part of the service, immediately following the baptism a missionary message was planned during the time that those who baptized and were baptized changed out of their wet clothes.  The missionaries who had been asked to do this presentation did not show up, and gave no advance notice.  Elder Gray and I got up and filled in for them.  We delivered a powerful testimony of the restoration of the gospel.  We both felt strongly guided by the Spirit in what we were doing.  After we closed our message, we took our seats and enjoyed the rest of the service.  It was clear to both of us that we were in the right place at the right time because we had been led there by God.  It was neat.  The rest of that night went smoothly.  We taught the gospel that is in our hearts until returning to the apartment at 9:30.

With love,

Elder Cummings

P.S. The Christmas video for the year has been released!  I've been watching it since Halloween, but it is public now!  It is on the homepage of www.mormon.org.  Watch that video.  It is powerful.

#LIGHTtheWORLD

(Anziano Wilkinson)
This week we celebrated a little thanksgiving, nothing too special, but still really tasty! We decided to make a lasagna this year instead of a turkey, partially because we didn't know what we'd do with all the leftovers if we had and partially because we had no idea where to find one! I guess Italy is just not a huge turkey fan!

Anyway, we had a meeting in the morning on Thursday and after that was over we asked our Italian friend about how to make the best lasagna. He told me his recipe and my companion and I went home and immediately got to work cooking it (it was already lunchtime by this point). The lasagna turned out wonderfully! It took a good while to prepare, but as soon as we pulled it out of the oven we knew it was going to be good. And it was! It wasn't a turkey, but hey, when in Rome, do as the Romans, right? We also made a banana cream pie for desert which turned out a lot better than we were expecting for our first made-from-scratch pie! Here are some pictures of our accomplishments:

Now we begin the race towards Christmas! Anziano Larsen and I have already got out tree up and everything. Someone before us left it in our apartment I guess, with decorations and all! So that was pretty awesome. Here's a picture, don't laugh, our decorations were scarce haha:

Speaking of preparing for Christmas, there is an amazing Christmas campaign that they have begun on Mormon.org designed specifically to help us prepare for the Christmas season! The campaign is called #LightTheWorld (I actually like the title in Italian better, which is #SiiUnaLuce, which means "Be a Light", but it's all the same idea!). The concept is this. Christmas is a holiday for remembering our Savior, Jesus Christ. Before all the gift giving and the partying, Christmas is a time to reflect on His gift to the world: the atonement, which allows us to become better people each and every day. So in honor of Him and all that He has done for us, it only makes sense to give back in some small way. And the best way to do that is through service!

The whole idea of the campaign is to inspire as many people as possible to follow the savior in his example of selfless service. And it's easy, too! They have created an advent calendar with new ideas for every day of December up till Christmas, ideas to inspire us to serve more people more often. And not only that, they've created a really nice video to go along with it! So I invite everyone to go visit Mormon.org, watch the short little video (you can't miss it, it'll be quite conspicuous haha), and then check out the advent calendar and commit to serving everyday for the first 25 days of December in 25 different ways! The website outlines dozens of ways in which we can reach out and Light the World, many of which you may have never thought of before, so go check it out! I know that as we commit to serving others for these first 25 days of December, that we will make a difference in the lives of at least 25 different people. That's a lot of people with brighter Christmases! Now imagine if we all helped 25 people! We can truly make the world a brighter place, one act of service at a time.

I hope you have a wonderful week! Good luck Lighting the World!

When you cant walk, crawl!

(Sister Ellsworth)

Hello everyone!

This week we had some more divisions, new investigators, and some baptisms in our District. It rained for most of the week and we basically had puddles in our shoes for most of the week, but it was actually really fun because you could jump in HUGE puddles and it didn't even matter because you were already soaked! Haha!

We got the chance to talk to our Mission president and his wife one on one and got to ask some questions and get advice from them. One quote I absolutely loved from Sister Tavares was when she said: "When you can't walk, crawl. Do absolutely everything you can to keep moving forward." We have been promised blessings from Heavenly Father but on a condition that we will do everything we can to do our part. I remember one of my investigators said that they will make the changes to live the gospel when God wants them to. I remember thinking that good grief... God already wants you to follow Christ. Just do the things! He just wasn't willing to work for those blessings that come from keeping the commandments! He just gave up that quickly.

I made a resolve to have the kind of diligence to just keep going even when I can't walk. It reminds me of the talk given in general conference a while ago that said "When you can't do what you've always done, only do what matters most." We've been practicing teaching the lessons in less than 2 minutes, which is quite difficult because it forces you to teach the bare minimum, the bones of the doctrines of the gospel. I really learned what is important through these practices!

Heavenly Father loves each one of us and he has given us a plan so that we may be able to return back to him with our families. We have the scriptures and modern day prophets to guide us and teach us how to grow our faith and repent. We can show our willingness to follow Christ by keeping the commandments and our covenants.

I challenge each of you to read the talk (I can't find it right now...) and to try to find something in your life that you used to be good at  but have been slacking on recently and work harder. We don't have a commandment that we can't follow! (1 Nephi 3:7)

Thank you for all your support this week! Have a happy thanksgiving! Love all of you lots!

The Truck Gives Perspective & Baptisms for the living and the Dead

(Elder Cummings)

This week was a landmark week.  After months of consistent effort I have finally hit double-digits for lessons taught with members present.  Before my mission I did not appreciate the value of members in missionary work.  I saw it as a way to prepare for a mission, not as a way to powerfully and effectively teach the gospel of Jesus Christ.  As full-time missionaries we do our best to teach with Christlike love, but it is the lay members of the church who come and teach with us that most effectively bring in a spirit of charity.  My vision of how the work of salvation progresses has been greatly enlarged by my mission experience.

We have a new truck...again.  This one is a better looking color, drives smoother, is newer, etc.  I have been with Elder Gray for three full weeks.  In that time we were driving a 2017 Chevy Malibu, then a 2016 Nissan Rouge, a 2014 Nissan Frontier, and now a 2015 Frontier.  This is not normal.  A long list of unforeseen events, none of them car crashes, had us changing cars every 5-6 days.  About six months ago I went from the smallest and most basic apartment in the mission to the largest with the most "luxury" features.  Within three weeks I went from holding no leadership position to overseeing all missionary efforts in 12 wards and branches, and the missionaries who served there.  Because of my leadership responsibilities I receive more money for food monthly (we are on the road a lot more, so this ends up getting spent up at McDonalds).  In summary I rapidly was given, as the world might define it, more money, more power, and more cool toys.  From almost none to almost having no room to get more.  I was reflecting on this as we drove up from Fresno on Wednesday.  All of these changes have not done anything to make me happier.  Happiness does not come from having more.  I am grateful for what really matters.  I am grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Bertha and Jessica were baptized this last Saturday!  It was a wonderful service!  Their friend who was going to baptize them was sick, so Elder Gray and I threw on our white pants, changed our ties, and performed the ordinances.  On Sunday they received the gift of the Holy Ghost.  They were beyond joy.  Armando, one of Bertha's sons, came to support them.  He hasn't drank coffee in two weeks, fueled by faith that God has commanded us not to partake of it in the Word of Wisdom.

The same morning of their baptism we were in the Fresno temple performing baptisms for the dead with some of the Hmong recent converts.  Saving ordinances for the living and the dead in the same day!  This trip was the first time that I heard Hmong names receiving their ordinances.  That was neat.  The Hmong have no written records earlier that the middle of last century.  Knowing your ancestry is not common.

It has been a great week.

With love,

Elder Cummings

Photos!

(Anziano Wilkinson)

Sorry, I don't have much time today, but I have these photos of the coast the we visited today near Ancona. It was beautiful! I hope you all have a great thanksgiving!

Giant Mangos, Divisions, & Lapa!

(Sister Ellsworth)

It always seems like PDAY comes around way too fast and I have no idea what happened during the week. There's always so much to do and not enough time during the day to do it all. It was a good week. We found some new investigators who are really cool (I know I always say that but it's true. They are all fixe "feesh" which is Portuguese for cool). We've been working really closely with our members and other missionaries in the area and the work here is progressing quickly.  It's really exciting to see and help these people! WOOT! Haha.

We had divisions this week, next week, and the week after. My companion is the Sister training leader which is basically the leader for the sisters in our area. It's been so fun to get to know more Sisters and learn new ways to teach. We taught a variety of people this week as well from a 13 year old boy to a 19 year old mom to a 85 year old grandma and her grandkids. It's been truly humbling to see some of the sad situations some of these people are in yet they are still smiling and eager to learn. I think one of the most exciting things we did on our divisions was we found this guy who we knew was a drug dealer or something but he was always really nice to the missionaries since he was raised by a God fearing woman. He told us he wanted to change and that he didn't want to be sad or angry with God anymore. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and how faith is a choice. He asked us how he could change and we told him that faith is a choice. It's a hard choice and sometimes it's difficult to know if you are acting on faith but one way to know if you are acting on faith is if you feel good. If you feel the warm whisperings of the Holy Ghost in your heart. He thought about it for a while and then asked if he was allowed to come to church and to pray and clearly we said yes. No one is unworthy to pray! It was a great experience.

We also went to Lapa this week which is the touristy area of Lisbon. It's old  winding cobblestone streets and cathedrals for miles and miles. We just wandered around and talked about life. If any of you guys want to visit Portugal... visit Lapa!!

Lapa

Also Lapa. At the very end of this street is the Rio Teijo and across the river is Barreiro!

Portuguese people are very short. I'm 5 foot 5 and I smacked my forehead on this door.

This is how the decorate old abandoned buildings.

They have mangoes here that are bigger than your face. This is only half of the mango.

Ate Logo! Amo vocês!

Sister Ellsworth