Adventures!

(Sister Ellsworth)

This week flew by... I feel like I blinked and it's Monday again. This week was fun! We had a training meeting with the Sister Training Leaders, Zone Leaders, and Assistants on Tuesday. We practiced teaching and we got a lot of really good feedback that saved a lot of would-be disaster lessons during the week. We taught a single mom this week named Carol. She's from Brazil but lived in England for a few years where she had her first daughter after her boyfriend left her. She moved back here to Portugal to finish school and be closer to family. I love her little daughter to pieces... She's so dang cute. As we were talking to Carol about how the gospel of Jesus Christ blesses families and how the Plan of Salvation is a guide for our lives, we were all touched by a special spirit. We also explained how the Book of Mormon is a history of her ancestors in ancient America and that special spirit was even stronger. Leaving that lesson I felt so happy to feel the spirit so strongly that I wanted to just stay with Carol for the rest of the day!

On Thursday we had a grand adventure. The sisters from Lagos, which is the area closest to ours, called and said that one of the sisters was in the hospital with appendicitis. They had gone to the hospital without any spare clothes or toothbrushes so I did a division with Sister Ribeiro for a few hours to get back to Lagos and get extra things that they would need. Sister Herrera was so funny after she came out of the surgery! She's a funny girl in the first place but she came in singing the Boheimian  Raphosdy. She froze halfway through the song and said, in half Portuguese and half English, "Guys... I'm holy.." And then tried to do a contact with the doctor who was trying to explain to her a few rules. She had all of us laughing so hard.

It's been a good week. We're working hard and happy as ever!

Love you!

Sister Ellsworth

Transfers/Thoughts on Leadership

(Elder Cummings)

It has been another week that has gone by far too fast! As I leave Heritage tomorrow morning I leave it set up to baptize every week in May. I feel that I accomplished what I needed to. I am looking forward to my last and first area now, Pioneer Park West. I was trained there, I trained there, and now I am returning to end my mission there. The woman I wrote about last week, Nou with her three little kids, live in that area's boundaries. I am excited and feel exceedingly blessed to go and teach them again.

This transfer has also come with some other news: I have been released of all formal leadership responsibilities. Over the last year I have learned more than I knew there was to know about leadership in Christ's church. I would like to share one of those things with you all.

After nearly two years of contemplating leadership, and one year of serving in a leadership position, I see callings in a new light, at least a least a new light to me. Church callings are all extensions of our baptismal covenant to stand as a witness of Christ "at all times and in all things, and in all places that [we] may be in" (Mosiah 18:9). For almost a year now I have been asked to witness of Christ as a zone leader. It is now my commission to stand as a witness of Christ as a missionary without formal leadership responsibilities. This ties right back into the talk given by Elder Bednar in priesthood session: the call is what is important (I am a witness of Christ), where the assignment sends me is not something to harbor guilt over or to be concerned or anxious about. It makes sense! All callings are the same in the eyes of God because the call, to be a witness of Christ, is universal and given by covenant. The field of labor varies and "mattereth not"(D&C 80:3), which meaning is expanded by Elder Bednar, teaching that "because the work of preaching the gospel is the Lord’s work, He inspires, guides, and directs His authorized servants. As missionaries strive to be ever more worthy and capable instruments in His hands and do their best to fulfill faithfully their duties, then with His help they 'cannot go amiss'—wherever they serve. Perhaps one of the lessons the Savior is teaching us in this revelation is that an assignment to labor in a specific place is essential and important but secondary to a call to the work." ("Called to the Work" David A. Bednar). My understanding has been significantly expanded. I see a night and day contrast between where I am now and where I was a year ago in how I view leadership in Christ's church. I cannot adequately express how grateful I am for this growth. It has not come to me because of any worthiness of myself, but because God is a loving Father.

It is hard to imagine where I would be without Christ. He has done more for us than we are even capable of realizing. One Bible story that I love is the story of the woman with an issue of blood. It was shared often at the last general conference, and since then I have pondered on it regularly. I find it worth noting that even after being completely healed through faith on Christ, the woman, when pressed to confess her act of faith, did so "fearing and trembling" (Mark 5:33). The woman felt as if she had in some way taken advantage of Christ, or taken a gift for which she was unworthy. That fear is unneeded. When we are purified and healed by the Savior, we need not fear or tremble. He loves us. He wants to heal us. He wants to forgive us of our sins and raise us to overcome all about us that is wicked, worldly, or simply falls short of absolute perfection. His desire is to heal us of our plagues.

I know my Savior, and I know that he lives. I knows you. He has carried your sorrows and he will carry you.

I love being a missionary.

-Elder Cummings

Resegone, Bergamo, Volleyball, and Commandments!

(Anziano Wilkinson)
Last week we had an unfortunate turn of events with our P-day activities. We decided to take a hike up in Lecco with some other anziani and so we started out early so as to have enough time to come back and finish doing the other things we needed to do to prepare ourselves for the week. We had a great time hiking to the top of Resegone peak and we even celebrated our arrival with a typical Italian Easter cake called a colomba haha. For some reason, however, the group decided to take different way down. I was against this idea but I was out numbered so I had no choice haha. Anyway, long story short, we got lost on the way down and ended up making our four hour hike an eight hour one, in the which we hiked 17 miles and took 37000 steps... on a mountain... we were all pretty tired in the end haha. So needless to say, the rest of our day was shot and we only managed to get home by the end of the day. We definitely won't be doing that again any time soon! Haha

This week we played volleyball with some other missionaries around the Milano area and it a bunch of fun! Luckily the field was indoors and the sand was heated, because it was really cold and rainy! We had a blast, but after so many hours of running around in the sand my legs started remembering our misfortunes on Resegone and we had to call it quits haha.

Then on this past Tuesday we had another crazy thing happen that ended up taking up a bunch of our time! So that day, April 25, is Italy's Independence Day, so obviously it was a national holiday. Apparently the Anziani of Bergamo didn't get the memo and ended up stranded in a small city in the mountains about two hours away from their home with no bus to take them there. So naturally, we, having a car, got a call from our president asking us to do a rescue mission for these poor stranded anziani haha. It was a long drive, but it was fun and the mountains were gorgeous! Bergamo and it's surrounding areas are easily some of my favorites in our mission! The mountains are super green and steep and every once in a while you drive though charming little towns that look like they could be part of a storybook. Let's just say that this little detour was more than worth it for my companion anziano Farneman and I haha.

Aside from these adventures, we had a fantastic lesson with one of our investigators, Viviana! We talked about obedience and commandments and more particularly about how they don't restrict us, but rather, free us! God is our loving Heavenly Father, and because of this, He gives us commandments so that we can know what things make us happy and what things make us unhappy. It's always our choice to obey the commandments, but every time we do we are guaranteed blessings! As our Heavenly Father has declared in the scriptures, "I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." He never varies from His promises! When we obey, He blesses! Always! But when we disobey, we forfeit blessings and become slaves to the consequences of sin, which consequences range from legal trouble, to addictions, to haunting memories and feelings of guilt. Obedience to true principles frees of from these things and that's why God commands us to obey them! This principle clicked for Viviana and the spirit testified powerfully of the truth of it. She's now anxiously anticipating learning more about what those commandments are so that she can live them more fully! She has a great desire to do what's right and she's one of the most sincere learners I've ever taught!

I hope you have a great week and remember to obey the commandments!

-Anziano Jake Wilkinson

Easter!

(Sister Ellsworth)

Hello yall! And happy Easter!

This week was great. It was a really special experience to study the stories of Jesus Christ each day of the week as the stories were happening. I really loved to study about the resurrection on Sunday morning. I was sitting at home before Church reading and imagining how it would be to be Mary Magdalene and to watch my Savior suffer such cruelty and to watch Him die on the cross. I tried to imagine the heartbreak that he felt as she left Christ in the tomb, completely distraught and questioning my faith if I would ever see him again. I tried to imagine going to the tomb on that Sunday morning and finding the message that Christ was not there. I think in the moment when Mary asked if "gardener" had taken Christ's body away would have been one of the most confusing moments for me... But then to imagine the  joy in finding Christ, alive, free of pain, and full of love!

It was awesome!

I really felt my Savior's love for me and for each one of his children here. It was a great blessing!

We had an awesome moment in a lesson this week too. All of our plans had fallen through so we tried the good old prayer and then randomly choose a road on the map. We walked to the road we chose trying to talk to every single person but everyone was busy buying things for Easter and ironically didn't have time to hear a message about Christ. So we prayed again and chose one side of the road to start knocking apartments. In Portugal most of the apartments have doorbells and speakers outside the apartment so it makes knocking doors pretty fast and all the apartments are close together so I was knocking one apartment and my companion knocked the other side. We knocked about 150 apartments and got to the last apartment building on the road. 6th floor. Nothing. 5th floor, and angry Portuguese lady making food. 4th floor, elderly man who didn't understand us. 3rd floor nothing. 2nd floor nothing. and the 1st floor. Nothing. Feeling a bit down, I sighed and started to walk away when a cute little black woman from capo verde poked her head out the window and said she didn't want what we were selling. I explained to her that we weren't selling anything, in fact we were giving things away for free and we asked if we could give her a book that had the words of God in it. I showed her the Book of Mormon and she gave us a look and disappeared into the house. We started to walk away, thinking that we would never see her again, but then the door buzzer sounded and the door opened. I exchanged a look with Sister Carr and we entered. This woman, Maria, let us into her house and we taught her about the Resurrection in the bible. Then we explain that the Book of Mormon had another witness of the resurrection of Christ and explain the Restoration story. She started to cry.... Come to find out she had been praying to find someone who could help her understand the Bible because she wanted to have more faith but she couldn't understand the bible very well. It was a great and tender moment helping her read and understand the bible for the first time. I already love that woman so much!

There are a couple of pretty funny traditions that they have here in Portugal for Easter. One is that there is a cake called a Folar de Pascoa, which is a normal cake but it has one to four hard boiled eggs baked into it. When I first saw it i had the thought that maybe they forgot to mix the egg in and just left it on top instead!! Haha I asked how the tradition started and some people said that in the early Easter egg hunts someone hid eggs in the cake dough. I also heard that it was a symbol of prosperity, new life, and fertility. Normally the kids get to eat the eggs or they paint them too.

Folar de Pascoa 

Sister Carr and I also found this pizza place that sells pizzas that are bigger than a tire! I think it took a whole week to eat that thing! Yay for Maxipizza!

Well have a great week! Love all of you!

Sister Ellsworth

God Guides the Work

(Elder Cummings)

"For thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out." (Ezekiel 34:11).

That verse is one of my absolute favorites! It is a part of a prophecy about the restoration of Israel to the covenants of the gospel.  Liz is a wonderful example of a very literal fulfillment of this scriptural prophecy. Liz came to church again and cannot wait to be baptized this Saturday.

She is such a miracle find, search and sought out by Christ himself.

I got some more news from two of the Hmong elders this week that warms my heart. Nou Muoa, an investigator who I taught often and wrote about a year ago, has been recontacted and is preparing to be baptized along with her two oldest kids Goshen and Andrew. Nou's situation was tragic. She was in an abusive marriage and was manipulated by fear for her life and for her children's lives to stay. Around October last year the situation became to bad for her to stay and she took it to the courts, got a legal divorce, and won custody of the children. She and they moved out. That was the last I had heard. In January her old neighbors, John and Mai, and two of their children were baptized. Since then they have prayed and searched for Nou and her kids. This week they found her address and gave it as a referral to the Hmong elders.

Nou and her children were recontacted! They came to church on Sunday! They loved it! The kids have a date for the 30th of this month, with their mom's support. She doesn't feel that she is ready to be baptized yet though. Her reason is the best one there can be: she wants more time to repent. I had the privilege to join Elder Ellestad, one of the elders who is teaching them, on an exchange this last week. It was great to see them all again. Nou told me about dreams she had had of the temple. In talking about some of her relatives that have recently become Christians, Nou laughed and said "but they haven't prayed to know which church is true." Nou knows that "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord’s kingdom once again established on the earth, preparatory to the Second Coming of the Messiah" (Introduction to the Book of Mormon).

Nou and her children are a miracle find, searched and sought out by Christ himself.

I know that He guides this work. It is His work. He lives!

"For thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out." (Ezekiel 34:11).

With love,

Elder Cummings

Transfers and Old Lady Tea Parties

Hey hey hey!

This week we had a lot of cool little stories and little miracles. I think those days are the best days ever!

First off transfers!! I'll be giving Portimao another go with another companion! I know Sister Carr from the MTC and I've done a few divisions with her. It's going to be great!! I think our mission President knew that I was having too much fun with Sister Foster. She's going to be going back to Barriero again!! Except she's going to be whitewashing a new area there.

This week was so fun. We met a guy named Mohammed as he was sitting on the steps of a catholic church by himself. We bounced over to him, sat down and had a nice conversation about Christ and he said okay... Here's 10 euro, go to the Italian ice cream shop and buy some ice cream and bring it back here. Yay for friends!!

We also did a division with one of my favorite people ever, Sonia. She stayed with us all day long and helped us work and teach. We had an awesome talk with her about serving a mission and she told us that she wants to serve a mission. The next day we were following up with a contact we had made on the road and this older lady answers the door and introduces herself as Jesus. My companion and I were like... okaaaay you might be a crazyhead. Then she laughs at our unsettled looks and says "I'm Maria de Jesus" and invites us in. We're like okie dokie. As she guides us to her living room we find 2 other elderly women between the ages of 75-95. They sit us down right in the middle of them and start to talk about how us youngins are on the path to Jesus and this 95 year old lady pats me on the knee and motions that she has a secret for me. I lean is and she starts singing this slightly creepy song about Christ in my ear while smiling a half toothless grin. But we taught them about the need for prophets and apostles and marked a return appointment. YES! Aguinha na boa.

My awesome companion!! Vou ter saudades!

I got this amazing picture of our recently baptized convert, Jose. He was telling us his whole life story about how he had ran away from home and ended up in the army in a different country before sneaking away to Israel and how  he rode on the back of a camel into Syria. He told us about how his life had been filled with every sort of drug you can imagine and how he had stroked out as a homeless man and had to teach himself how to walk and talk again. Then he bore the sweetest testimony about how the only peace and harmony he has found in his life was through he Heavenly Father. What a great experience it has been to know him!

I love all of yall and I know Heavenly Father loves you too!

Peace, love, and harmony!!

Sister Ellsworth

Liz Soto

I know and have known for a long time that God is a God of miracles.  Liz Soto is the greatest miracle of my mission.

Liz met with missionaries about seven months ago and didn't feel that it was worth pursuing.  She stopped meeting with them.

A week ago she requested a copy of the Book of Mormon from mormon.org so she could reconnect with missionaries and be baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  She is so committed to repenting and being baptized.  Wow.  God is a God of miracles.  She is coming to family home evening tonight with some of the other YSAs in the ward.

I am so happy to be blessed in the service of God!  He has "commenc[ed] his work among all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, to bring about the restoration of his people upon the earth" (2 Nephi 30:8).  The work will continue until all is fulfilled.  All people everywhere will have the opportunity hear and accept the restored gospel.  God loves us so much!

Have a great week!

Elder Cummings