¡Qué vergüenza!

So one thing that I´ve learned from the misión is that you just have to laugh at yourself. There are so many embarrassing moments that happen every day. And I used to get so embarrassed and my face would turn red and I would just go quiet. But now I have learned that I just have to laugh at it. With not knowing the language, the cultura, and everything, I make a lot of mistakes. But we make mistakes so we can learn and progress. It´s a beautiful process. So let me just share with you a couple of my most embarassing moments, just in the last week…

So it is officially cold in Villa Independencia. I hope you´re enjoying the warm weather while I´m freezing here! We broke out coats and sweaters and even our umbrellas. It has been pretty fun, let me tell you! And I even have a delightful story about the rain. We had one night that we were running late and we had to be back in the pensión at 9. So here were two Gringas running in the rain, so that we could get back on time. Well, I was wearing my clogs that still give me blisters and I was having a hard time walking that day. But I was just doing all I could to keep running. We were only a couple blocks from our pension and we only had a few more minutes to make it to the pension and then… I tripped. I didn´t trip over a rock or a dog or anything. Nope, I tripped over my own feet. And I didn´t just do a cute little trip and recover quickly. Nope, I completely fell on my face in a puddle. It couldn´t really get much more embarassing! I got scraped up pretty bad but I just jumped right up and started running again. I just wanted to pretend it didn´t happen. My poor companion thought I was crazy! I was covered in mud, bleeding, but we made it to the pension on time! But ya, let´s just say that I´m not a big fan of the rain anymore. Not so much…

Another fun momento this week… The music director didn´t go to Church yesterday so they didn´t have a director. They forgot to ask someone else to do it so they called me out of the audience right before the opening hymn. Now let me just explain something real quick… Leading the music before the misión was not a big deal. I actually loved leading the music. Basically all I had to do is spell my name in cursive or pick apples (I learned that one in YW! J) because hardly anyone paid attention to what I was doing. But there aren´t any pianos or any music to follow here. Not everyone knows the melody so they try to follow or they just sing their own melody. It is a lot of fun to listen to. So when they asked me to lead, I went up there but I had no idea what we were going to sing. I had no idea what the song was. I know all the hymns in english but Castellano is a different story. So I just got up there and took the biggest leap of faith. I just started singing any old melody. And everybody else was singing their own melody. It sounded pretty bad for about a few seconds and then I finally realized what song it was and we were good. After I sat down, my companion and I just had to laugh, silently of course because we were in church.

And I still have little embarassing moments with the language. I wish I could tell you that I´m already fluent in Castellano but I still have a long way to go. But I´m still working on it and praying for the gift of tongues. I know a lot of the stuff but I just make dumb mistakes. My favorite one of this week was when I told an investigator that the Holy Ghost has a body of flesh and eggs. (juevos= eggs, juesos= bones) It´s always fun to see what´s going to come out of my mouth. A lot of times I have no idea what I´m saying. I just try to say what the Lord wants me to say and teach with the Spirit. And if I just pray hard enough and put all my trust in the Lord, I can do it. I can teach the pure doctrine so that they feel the Spirit. I just love the misión and the embarassing moments that I have. And I can´t wait to have more. Just know that I love you and miss you. ¡El Reino de Dios o Nada!

Les amo,

Hna. Ellsworth

Letter from last month

March 22, 2010 (Sent but not rec’d until April 19, 2010 when it was resent))

So we’re just going to start by getting this delightful piece of information out of the way… I have a mullet. Yep, a real mini-female mullet. It’s nothing hard-core like Billy Ray Cyrus, but it’s definitely noticeable. Hna. Olsen, the misión president’s wife, saw my hair and preceded to tell me about the worst haircuts in the misión that she has ever seen. But she told me that mine wasn’t ¨that¨ bad. You’re probably asking why did you get a mullet? Well, that is a very good question. I decided long ago to not get my hair cut in the misión because there are a lot of mullets here. But we have a member here that cuts hair, and she kept asking me when I was going to come. I kept putting it off, but I think I offended her; so we went. I kept trying to tell her that I like my hair long and she took it that I wanted a mullet. So i lost about half of my hair but it’s still the same length. Ya, it’s pretty much amazing. Be jealous!

And this last week my companion lost her money, all of which was her food money for the month. So I split mine with her which means no more daily facturas or helado or galletas. I think I’m getting a lot grumpy because I miss my sugar. But I am eating healthy again with plenty of fruits and vegetables and such.

And after a month without my trainer, I finally got lost. We had to find a member’s house that I only went to once with Hna. Brown, my trainer. And it was about thirty minutes away in the Campana. And I kind of forgot where the house was, so we had to call our district leader to call Hna. Brown to tell us where to go. It was kind of embarrassing, but I was way stoked to talk to her again. And it turns out that I just took a wrong turn somewhere, so I wasn’t too far away from the house. But ya, it was great fun being lost for ten minutes.

The excitement of the week is that we had two Splashes in our district this week. A splash is where the whole district goes to one area and helps out those missionaries. So I went to Arguello this week, and the other elders came to La Calera. It was a lot of fun! It’s interesting to see the other areas in Cordoba, but I’m pretty convinced that La Calera is the best! But we found out that splashes are not allowed any more in the misión because we ran into the assistants to the misión president and they pretty much dropped the cane on us. They told President, but he was fine with it because he said we were going to find a family. And we did find a family! They are pretty amazing. But ya, I enjoyed it.

That’s pretty much all the excitement here! I’m just trying to work hard, be obedient, and have faith that we’ll find people to share the gospel with. But ya, I miss you and love you. The Church is true!

Les amo,

Hna. Ellsworth

Pictures!

Life is a party!

So this has been a CRAZY week! I´ve never been so busy in all my life, and what´s more is that I´ve never been happier. That´s always something to be doing which is kind of stressing but it´s also gratifying and rewarding. But ya, this week I had Zone Conference, interviews with Pres. Olsen, and I gave a talk in Church yesterday. Life is just a party and a half!

Zone Conference was on Wednesday and I absolutely loved it. I learn so much every time and I always have a lot more excitement after the Conference to apply all the things we´ve learned. I think my favorite part was when Pres. Olsen talked about the story of David and Goliath. We put ourselves in his shoes because each one of us has our own giants to overcome. How true is that!

También we had our interviews with Pres. Olsen the day after. We talked about the conference and a little more about how we can apply it to the misión work. . Olsen is the best! He ends the misión in about 2 more months. I´m really going to miss him and Hna. Olsen. But it should be exciting to have a new misión president.

So I gave a talk in Church yesterday which was one of the scariest things of my life. I don´t know why public speaking freaks me out but it´s 10 times scarier in Castellano, let me tell you! I had ten minutes to talk and I didn´t know how I could do it. I was so stinkin´ scared! But then I remember something my wise, loving mother said, ¨You can´t have faith with fear!¨ A truer statement, I´ve never heard. So I tried it out and put all my trust in God. And you want to know what happened, I talked for fifteen minutes. I got up there and I was actually enjoying myself. It was the wierdest thing ever! I was saying things that I hadn´t even planned and reading scriptures that I didn´t even write down. I could definitely feel the Spirit teaching through me. I am 100% convinced that God knows our fears and weaknesses, and if we just put ALL our trust in Him, He can make our weaknesses become strong. I love the misión, I love you, and I love the Lord.

Les amo,

Hna. Ellsworth

Bajar la Cana

I have seen my fair share of drama in the last week. Everything that could´ve gone wrong, went wrong. Satan was working hard on us. We couldn´t find people, a lot of our citas fell through, many persons rejected us, and Satan tried to disanimate us. But he couldn´t touch us because we had a Baptism!!! It was such a blessing to see the baptism of a chico that had been taught by five different hermanas. But because he recieved answers for General Conference, like we promised him, he was finally ready to be baptized! The Spirit was so strong and I was so blessed to have been there. But it was definitely interesting to see how hard Satan works to stop work of the Lord. And it´s even more interesting to see how the Lord always wins… always!

Por ejemplo, we had a few appointments before the baptismo so we were running a little late. We had to catch a bus to get to the Church but there was no way we would arrive on time. We didn´t know how we were to make it there on time and then a taxi pulled up right next to us. The timing was Amazing! And what was even cooler is that I never see taxis in the neighborhood we were in. The Lord was definitely looking out for us.

So there´s a term here called dropping the cane. I didn´t really understand cane dropping until this last transfer but basically, it´s when a Latino tells you what you´re doing wrong and that you need to fix it. They have a hand action that goes along with it. Every once in a while I would see one of the members dropping the cane on us but mostly it was always toward my companion because they understand more. But this last week, I recieved my very first cane dropping. I realize this doesn´t sound like an exciting thing, but I was so dang stoked to finally relieve my very own cane dropping. It happened when we were preparing the baptismo. We were a little bit stressed because muchas personas were late and we were trying to set up chairs and a televisión and do everything. And then a member (one that loves to drop the cane) told me, ¨!Tenga paciencia!¨ (Have patience!) and then continued to drop the cane on me with the hand action. I loved it! I look forward to having the cane dropped on me in the future.

I wish I could tell you ALL the cool things I saw this week but never is there enough time. I´m excited for this week because we have Zone Conference and interviews with the Mission President. Today we have some fun plans with some members and I hope to have enough time to take a siesta. But as my dad always says, ¨No rest for the wicked!¨ Carry on!

Les amo,

Hna. Ellsworth

Photos

Miracles are Everywhere

I´m not quite sure where to start. This last week was one of the best weeks in the misson. I am absolutely in love with Villa Independencia! My companion is great, the investigators are amazing, the members are awesome, and I just love being a part of it. But I think the highlight of this last week was General Conference. We had the opportunity to travel to the Stake Center in Villa Belgrano. But i´m just going to list my highlights…

1. The travel time was an hour in collectivo. It sounds feo, right? It was a great opportunity for me to get to know the members and investigators better. And the Miracle was that I had a conversation on my own for almost an hour... in Castellano. If that´s not a Miracle, i don´t know what is.
2. I had peanut butter and banana sándwich from Estados Unidos. It was like heaven in sándwich form. I can´t tell you how much I miss American food. I love Argentina food, but the taste of peanut butter was a Miracle in my mouth.
3. I saw all the members and some of the investigators from my old area. I didn´t really have a lot of time to say goodbye, but i had my chance at the conference. It was a Miracle because i didn´t think anyone would miss me, but they were so nice and excited to see me. I know it´s not important but it made me feel de diez.
4. I saw my companion from the Mtc, Hna. Dickey. She´s an angel! She was with me when I was talking toa ll the members of my old area and we were just talking away in our Gringo Spanish. It was a Miracle to see the change of just three months. And we defintely could hold our own. I pray that we can be companions again in the field.
5. I got to watch it in English. This was just a blessing and a miracle to me. I´m doing a lot better with my Spanish but there is no way I would´ve understood everything and been edified by the words of the prophet.
6. One of our investigators came to the Conference with a lot of questions and a lot of dudas. But after the conference, he recieved all of his answers and felt the Spirit so strong. He now is ready to be baptized. I love to see the hand of God in all things and see the miracles that happen.
7. I also came to the Conference with my own questions and asked the Lord if he would have a part of the Conference that was specifically talking to me. I had bastante faith that it would be okay if it did or did not happen. But by the Miracle of God, I recieved my own special witness and felt the Holy Ghost so strong. I was crying so hard and then Pres. Monson read the scripture about crying. And we all know that I´m not a cryer, (but i´m afraid i´ve become a softy on the misión). But I was grateful for Conference and the things that I´ve learned and the things that I can apply in the misión work and in my future familia. And I was exceedingly grateful for the miracles that I´ve seen in the last week and Turing Conference. It strengthened my testimony that when we are obediente, work hard, and have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we can see Miracles. I know that this Church is true and that Pres. Monson is a prophet of God. I´m grateful for this knowledge and for the opportunity to share it with everyone. I know that He lives. And i´m especially grateful for the opportunity to celebrate Easter by sharing that message and also hearing the words of a prophet.. Thanks for your prayers and don´t forget to look for the Miracles!

Les amo,

Hna. Ellsworth