Semana 5: Divisions, General Authorities, and Adventures

(Sister Ellsworth)

Hey everyone!!

We has a fun division with the Sisters from Olhão, Sister Gaidanov from Romania and Sister Baker, from Utah. I stayed with Sister Baker who has been on her mission for 5 weeks!  It was fun to remember how fun it was to be a greenie in a strange country. I also know Sister Gaidanov from the MTC! We were in the MTC together and we came to Portugal at the same time. It was awesome to see how much she has grown in the past 7 months.

We also had a conference with Ulysses S Soares, who is the President of the Seventy for our areas. He came to talk to us and tour the area. He talked about better organization and diligence in the work! We spent most of the day with him and the other missionaries in our zone.  We had pizza with him too!

On Saturday night we accidently locked our keys inside of our house.... And normally a member has spare keys but we accidently broke the original keys when they fell out the window of our 9 story apartment. (That is a long story..) So we were using our spares when they accidently got locked inside our house. So Sister Aiono has locked herself out a couple of times so she's learned how to open doors with our pass along cards. But after an hour of trying to open it, we decided to make some calls to our friends. We called a member who is a firefighter to ask for help. He brought this XRay sheet, folded it in half, and opened the door in 30 seconds. So. If you ever get locked out of your house... Just find an XRay!! Haha.

Also Jose was confirmed on Sunday! It's always so great to see when people accept such a great and special thing.

Thanks for all you support!

Sister Ellsworth

Sister Gaidanov, me, Sister Baker, and Sister Aiono

Heritage YSA - the first week

(Elder Cummings)

I am writing this from the Fresno North Stake center.  It has been nine months since I was om this zone.  The Hmong elders haven't changed much, but other than that there are all new faces.

Working in a YSA is a little different, but the fundamentals of missionary work are still the same.  We follow the Spirit to teach faith in Christ and repentance through him.  Teaching people who are my same age feels very natural.  That has made me happy.  Being a missionary this long hasn't made me weird.

Our teaching pool is progressing very well.  Elders Tongish, Sullivan, and I teach in unity very well.  All three of us love the scriptures, and we get into great discussions about living the gospel as we drive ALL OVER Fresno.  We drive in circles a little bit, but that is getting better.  We stay busy with appointments, that is for sure.

The Spirit has led us to more miracles.  One door we were impressed to knock was a waitress from Buffalo Wild Wings who Elder Tongish and Sullivan thought would be receptive to the gospel when they met her at the restaurant last week.  God directs His missionaries.  Another instance came after a prayer.  We looked at an apartment, and i felt impressed to tell the other two that there was an unmarried YSA-aged couple who lived there who would be receptive to the gospel.  There was.  We have a return appointment on Thursday when they are off work.

I want to make it clear, if I haven't already, that I know that Jesus Christ lives.  He has a resurrected body of flesh and bones.  He is our Savior and Redeemer.  I love Him, and I know that He loves all of God's children.

With love,

Elder Cummings

Week 4 in Portimão

(Sister Ellsworth)

Hey ya'll! This week has been an adventure for sure. We had some really good days and some really rough days. Our president came to visit our area and interview the missionaries in our district. I was really nervous but we had a really great talk and he had nothing but compliments and advice for us.  He warned us about a lot adversary this week because the Algarve will turn into a stake soo, they're building a temple in Lisbon, and Ulisses S Soares is going to be visiting the mission. I was kinda of like yeah yeah... but it the law of opposition is real.

We had some reall progress with some of our investigators this week. One, Flavio, finally accepted a baptism date after months and months of meeting with the sisters. We also finally got one of our investigators to agree to stop smoking and give us his tobacco.... but then we found out that he had a big old stash that we didn't know about. The little turd bucket.... Haha.

We went to Lisbon this week to take care of my residency!! Now I'm an official resident of Portugual! Does that mean that I still have to tell people I'm American? Haha!

We have also been challenged by mission president to read the whole Book of Mormon in less than three weeks. I decided to try to read it in Portuguese! It has been a lot easier to read in Portuguese than I thought! I've only had to look up a few words in English but I've been able to keep up, understand, and mark it thoroughly as well.  I think it's about time to understand most everything. It's only been 7 months! I have absolutely loved to read the Book of Mormon in Portuguese. Every day i feel like I have a special extra strength, a brighter smile, and a little more endurance for the hard things.

This week I've been studying 3 Nephi which has a lot of really great scriptures and doctrine.

 24 Therefore, whoso heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, who built his house upon a rock—

 25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock.

 26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not shall be likened unto a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand—

 27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell, and great was the fall of it.

I've been thinking a lot about a foundations and how the help us when things get hard. This little scripture talks about building a foundation in the words of Christ.

 We went to Lisbon and Sister Aiono fell asleep. We worked really hard this week! (Don't worry I have her permission to share this photo)

Put your shoulder to the wheel!! Haha!

Love you guys!

Com Amor,

Sister Ellsworth

Called Another Way

(Elder Cummings)

Last week I wrote about how I had been paired with Elder Sim, one of the new Hmong missionaries, but this week the Lord has "called [me] another way'" (Alma 22:4).  I leave tomorrow morning for the Fresno North stake to serve in the YSA ward there.  I said goodbye to Elder Sim on Friday and stayed with the zone leaders (Elder Gray and Elder Rogers) for the weekend.  It was a good way to leave Merced.  I got to say goodbye to all the members, investigators, and recent converts who I have taught and loved over the last many months.

At church on Sunday, Saint, one of the recent converts, an 11 year old baptized about a month ago, came up to me and told me that he repented this week. His sin? He hadn't been reading the scriptures every day. He prayed for forgiveness, spent two hours reading in the Book of Mormon, and then was excited to come to church to partake of the sacrament. Wow. The Spirit has been his instructor. His brother, Stephen, is equally spiritual. They are great young men. They both want to serve missions!

Last night I felt impressed to go contact a referral. We went and discovered that there was no such address. We opened our mouths. The very first person I talked to started to weep as I taught the doctrine of eternal families. She asked that we teach her and her husband and expressed a desire to have her four children (ages 2-10) sealed to them. It was beautiful. The Spirit had been preparing my mind since sacrament meeting in the McKee ward ten hours earlier to bear that heartfelt testimony.

In my prayer last night I kept having the feeling that my work in Merced had been accepted.  Returning to the McKee ward for one Sunday was another tender mercy. There are great priesthood men in that ward who have taught me volumes by their examples. That congregation has a place in my heart.

I am so happy right now!! I love the Lord. I have been trying to finish my first reading of "Jesus the Christ" over the past few days. This week I read about his passion. It was good.  It was impressed upon me that He did not fully comprehend what his messianic mission would be when he volunteered. Reflecting on that has helped me peacefully move through the last few days of transition.

I could write much, much more. It has been an incredible week, one of the best of my life.  I will miss Elder Sim.  I know that the Lord "called [him] another way" too.

Have a wonderful week!

Elder Cummings

"Search diligently, pray always, and be believing, and all things shall work together for your good..." (D&C 90:24).

Baptism, Random Dog, and I freaking love my comp!

(Sister Ellsworth)

Hey everyone!

This week I felt like we were running all week long! We have two investigators that are trying to stop smoking and one who was baptized on Sunday! I think we taught more taught more than 30 lessons this week and our average is like 12.

Our good friend Jose was baptized! This guy has one heck of a story. He's fought in world wars, hitchhiked across the world, and has done just about everything you can imagine. One of my favorite things he said was "I've lived a long life but I've never had peace. When I'm with you guys (the missionaries) i feel the peace that I've never felt." He was so excited to be baptized that when Brother Gabriel tried to immerse him, Jose threw himself down so hard it splashed all the members who were watching and Brother Gabriel lost his grip on Jose. Jose came up coughing a bit but he said "Well I guess I had to be baptized on the inside too!" He's a funny guy!

We also have a dog. But it's not ours technically... There's this little black dog that follows us around to all of our lessons ad waits outside for us to come out. We found him on the road and I thought he was lost so we tried to find his owner with the address on his collar but turns out the owner just lets him run around outside all day and he comes back at night. We named him Animo, which means excited because the little bugger is so darn happy all the time! He's so cute.

We got to help one of our less active members who is anciently old go to the bank this week too. She's like 99 so it took 3 hours  to walk to the end of the street to the bank and back. I'm not exaggerating.... 3 hours. But that is OK because she bought us pizza afterwards! Haha!

It's been really warm here! It's been about 60 degrees and sunny. I've heard about all the snow in Utah and I don't even miss it XD

Love all of you!

Boa semana!

Com Amor,

Sister Ellsworth

First Week with Elder Sim

(Elder Cummings)

I am with my NEW companion now, Elder Sim from Utah by way of Korea!  We have been together now for four days and he is yet to hear my say even one sentence to him in English.  It has been a lot of fun to speak only Hmong.  I had no idea I knew so many words!

We are working hard to be led by the Spirit. The Hmong families are so scattered in Merced and Atwater that our approach to finding through our own effects is to pray about a part of town, and once we arrive there to pray about where to go and follow the Spirit. We find Hmong houses every time. One night we followed this approach as we walked through an apartment complex and knocked four doors, all four Hmong. The Spirit guides this work. I hope this will be instructive to Elder Sim. It has certainly been instructive to me. We spiritually discern where we need to go to find our stewardship, and then trust that we will know what to say and do when we are led to them. Elder Sim has great faith. The Spirit has guided us to a Korean family, the only one I have ever met on my mission, just minutes after Elder Sim joked about coming to Merced to find all the Koreans. As soon as the man at the door identified that his first language was Korean, the Spirit rushed in and Elder Sim went off. It was a neat miracle. We see miracles in finding daily.

I am very happy to be here in Merced, California.  We opened up a new Hmong apartment, and it is already starting to feel like home.  It is much smaller than the one I just came from, but that is alright with me.  It is much easier to keep clean.

At fast and testimony meeting yesterday Saint and Stephen got up with me to bear their testimonies!  Both of them were nervous, but as soon as they started to state the simple truths they knew to be true they showed no trace of fear.  It was a neat thing to see.

We will press forward this week!  More miracles are on their way!

Elder Cummings

Transfer Calls!

(Anziano Wilkinson)

These past few weeks have really flown by. Already we're doing transfers and it feels like I just got to Muggiò! I'm going to stay here for the next month or so, but my companion is going away to, of all places, Verona! I spent six months there and I can attest to how amazing the city is. Needless to say, Anziano Engen is very excited for his transfer call. My new companion's name is Anziano Farneman. He gets here on Thursday, so I'll be sure to tell you more about him next week!

These past few weeks with Anziano Engen have been really great and I'm excited to keep things going with my new companion. There are some really amazing people in this area and there's never a lack of excitement. Right now we are working with a man named Paul who is extremely faithful and has recently decided to make the commitment to be baptized. We are working with him to help him prepare to reach the goal and I continue to be amazed at his faith and desires to learn. He truly has a desire to follow the example of Jesus Christ. He's been coming to church every week and every week in Sunday school the teacher struggles to finish a lesson because Paul asks so many good questions haha. He's learning fast though!

On another note, we had an adventure of sorts while we were on a companion exchange with the missionaries in Lecco. Their proselyting area is massive and travel from one end to the other is very impractical at times, but since we have a car, we decided to help them out. They had some visits that they needed to make in a town called Sondrio that sits along the border of Switzerland, over 80 kilometers away from Lecco by car. The entire ride was a breathtaking trip among beautifully snow capped mountains and unbelievable panoramas. Even if all of the appointments we had set up had fallen through that day, the whole trip would have been worth it just for the beauty of it! And luckily our lessons didn't fall through! There was one man, who's name is Patrizio, that I got to meet who is very spiritual, as was clear by the way his home was decorated. There were Buddhist and Christian symbols hanging from every wall and sitting on every shelf inside his house. I guess he's both Buddhist and Christian, which is an interesting since I didn't know that was possible, but hey, no judging! He also just happened to be an artisan wood worker as was evidenced by the abundance of handmade wooden furniture and knickknacks with man had. Definitely an interesting man!

Like I said, there's a bunch of exciting stuff going on right now, but I'll spare you the reading and just post some photos at the bottom! Anyway, I hope you have a great week! Remember the Savior often! Even if you're a devout Buddhist, cause I guess that's fine?

-Anziano Jake Wilkinson

Lago di Lecco