The Miracle of the Mission

So another week has come and gone and I’m still searching for the miracles. And let me tell you, there are always miraculous things happening in La Calera, especially being with Hna. Mortensen. It is such a huge blessing to be talking to everybody and inviting them to come close unto Christ. But here are just a few different miracles that happened during the week.

The Miracle of Forgiveness – In the misión I am trying to learn how to love everyone, even when they might not necessarily love me. It’s an attribute that Christ had, but I don’t know how he was able to do it. How could he forgive the people that betrayed him? How could he love the people that crucified him? I sometimes get mad when people ignore me or lie to myself. I’m not going to lie; it’s kind of a struggle for me to love a todo. But this week I saw a Miracle that happened with one of the menos activos in the branch. They had been ignoring us and lying to us, so we stopped passing by. But I had the feeling to pass by and just play a game with them (that applied to the gospel). It was Amazing. We passed by the perfect day because the hermano had found a job that day. He was grateful for the blessing that he had received work and the whole family shared their testimonies with us. The Spirit was really strong and they promised to return to Christ. It’s amazing how forgiveness, and love, and the Spirit, and a game of Jenga can do miracles!

The Miracle of Obedience – So we got invited to a birthday party by the Flia. Rodriguez, members in the branch. I think we got invited just because they wanted me to make one of my special chocolate cakes, but I was still grateful to go. We planned to come for the last hour of the day because latino parties usually go for a while, and we always have a full schedule. So we arrived to drop off the cake and sing ¨happy birthday¨ and find out that they were cooking up an asado, which is possibly my favorite thing in this world. It seriously is delicious!!! But they told us to stay until 9:00 to eat with them aka the time that we should be in our apartment for the night. It was probably the biggest temptation that I have seen in my misión to be disobedient. I was trying to justify in my mind that we could eat the asado really quick and still be in our apartment before anyone knew. Just another proof that justification is a tool of Satan. But we knew the rules and knew what we had to do, so we told them thanks anyway and dropped off the cake and left to our apartment and arrived on time. While I was eating a banana, imagining that it was a delicious steak, our doorbell rang. Pres. Villagra (president of the branch) and Hno. Rodriguez (the president of the Elder´s quórum) dropped by the most delicious dinner I’ve had in my whole misión. Hno. Rodriguez left his own birthday party to give us a part of his asado. I was very grateful to see this delicious miracle of obedience.

The Miracle of Faith – So we were having a pretty hard morning full of rejections and excuses. We couldn’t find anybody. And then we just kind of stopped and said a prayer and listened to the Holy Ghost. We felt that we needed to knock this particular door, and then we started to talk to a man that had lived in the United States. So Hna. Mortensen could speak English, and he could understand. We soon found out that he was Atheist. He was actually my first real atheist that I have talked to in the misión. He started to fight with us about how God doesn’t exist, and i just thought to be myself, ¨Is this supposed to be an answer to our prayer?¨ We shared scriptures and tried to prove that God exists. But then I realized that the only thing you can do in that situation is share your testimony. So i shared my testimony about how I know God loves me and knows me and that really He exists. The whole conversation changed. He committed to pray and asked us when and where was the church. I don’t know if anything will come out it, but at least it was a miracle for me to share my testimony about the love of God.

I love searching for the miracles and being on the mission. I’m excited to see the miracles that will happen this week and for sure, I will share them with you next week. I hope you have a great week and don’t ever forget that I love you and more importantly, God loves you! El Reino de Dios o Nada!

Small and Simple Things

I possibly just had one of the most miraculous week in my entire misión. I loved, loved, loved the meetings that I had with Presidente Salas and the Assistants and all of the district leaders. It was definitely interesting to be one of the three hermanas in the meeting with about 30-40 elders. And it was also very intimidating to be a North American, because the Latinos were definitely in the majority. Just to paint a little picture, I was the only White girl in the room. Needless to say, I was a tad bit nervous! The thought came to my mind several times, that I should not be in the meeting. Pres. Salas pointed out to me that I was the youngest one there in the misión (which was probably evident with my S skills). But I absolutely loved all of the things we learned. We started the day with breakfast and started the meetings at 8:30 and ended the meeting at about 4:00 everyday (with only an hour break for lunch.) It was weird how much I missed working out in the field, but I learned so many important things and left the meeting edified and excited to apply everything that we had learned.

The meetings consisted of several different clips of a missionary training movie, and then missionary commentary, and then practices. My favorite part was watching the movie because I was always so nervous to go up in front of a bunch of latinos with my gringa accent. But I´ve learned the importance of humility and the power of the testimony. I figure with those two things, God will take over and help us say what we need to say. I wish I Could explain to you how strong the Spirit was in these meetings. I had so many different ¨Awww!¨ moments. An ¨Awww!¨ moment was every time something just kind of clicked in my head. The Gospel of Jesus Christ just all fits together like a puzzle. I love how I can spend so much time studying about the scriptures, the Gospel and Jesus Christ, but I can still learn something new everyday and still have these ¨Awww¨ moments! I absolutely love it!! But the best part of this week was when we Could go back to our areas and apply the things we´ve learned and then see the miracles!!!

Por ejemplo, we found a new investigador this week named Gabriela. We taught her about the Book of Mormon. We actually did a couple of practices and learned how we present th eBook of Mormon better. So we tried to apply it and the Spirit was so strong!! When we told her about 3 Nephi 11, when Jesus Christ came to the Americas, she was so excited. You could just see the hunger in her eyes to learn more. And because the Spirit was so strong, she already knew it was trae. She Could feel it because the Holy Ghost gives the witness of truth in all things.

And then we taught our investigador named Mariela. She´s 16 years old with a baby, but she absolutely loves the church. She loves going to church, and reading the Book of Mormon, and learning about everything. But we were a little hestitant to teach about the mandamientos because she doesn´t necessarily like rules. And often people feel that mandamientos are rules. But we applied what we learned in the meeting and followed the Spirit and she accepted all of it. She´s following the Word of Wisdom and has already seen the blessings in her life.

And the last thing that happened was when we went to one of my favorite familias that are part member and part investigador. The members hadn´t gone to church for about 3 months and the investigador hadn´t gone for 5 months. I was afraid that they would never return. But we taught about Alma 37:6-7 and how the Lord blesses us with great things when we do the small and simple things like going to church. We completely relied on the Spirit and the words just came out of our mouths. It really felt like we were instruments in the hands of God. And the Miracle was that they went to church the next day. The whole family was sitting in the back row!! I love the promise in Alma 37:6-7. It´s my absolute favorite scripture in the misión. And I can testify with all of my heart that this promise is true. I love doing the small and simple things everyday like passing by people, and committing them to read the scriptures, or pray, and then seeing the big miracles that happen in their lives. I love the Gospel and I love my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I know that Heavenly Father loves me and knows me and wants all of us to be happy. And we can be happy because Jesus Christ suffered everything for us. We can find happiness and peace through Him. And I know that through the small and simple things (like going to church, reading the scriptures, praying everyday) we can see the miracles in our lives as well. I love this Church and love all of you. ¡Cuidense!

Les amo,

Hna. Ellsworth

Deja vu and Twilight Zone

So this has been a very interesting week. I feel like I´m in a dejavú and the twilight zone. It´s wierd that I´m in Argentina with one of my best friends. And it´s even wierder that she´s starting her misión just like I did about six months ago. All of the members are comparing us. ¨She´s talking more than you did when you came.¨ Or ¨She talks better Spanish that you did when you got here.¨ Yep, Hna. Mortensen is pretty much amazing and we are definitely seeing miracles here in La Calera. God works in mysterious ways. You just never know what´s going to happen so we have to just put our trust in Him and come what may and love it!

It was pretty hard because I was so sick all week but I couldn´t waste any time to get better. So i think I gulped down a whole bag or cough drops but now i´m feeling better. It´s just interesting to be training. It takes a lot of patience. I´m just trying to do my best and trying to be patience with myself. I have to remind myself that i´m not perfect and that i can´t do everything. But thankfully, we´re seeing a lot of miracles and we hope to see a baptism in August.

This week, I´ll be stuck in meetings all week because they have a training meeting for the leaders. And that usually means jsut for the district leaders, but this is the first time that they are going to invite trainers including sister missionaries. WOOHOO!! I´m invited and I get to learn all the secrets of being a great missionary. I get to spend four days with training with President and the Assistants. So i´m excited to learn a ton and then apply it to the area.

Everything is pretty much amazing and I´m loving the work. Thanks for your love and your prayers!

les amo,

Hna. Ellsworth

Commentary by las hnas.

Commentary by Hna. Mortensen y Hna. Ellsworth

So we´re still pretty much in shock that we´re companions in Argentina. It´s like a dream come true. We often feel like we´re sinning because we´re having so much fun working together. Who would´ve thought you can be companions in the misión with one of your best friends? But ya, we figured that because we know a lot of the same people, we could just write an email together. Instead of people having to read two different emails, they can save their time and hear our commentary about the same experience. We´re going to see how it works out. It should be fun!

Stalker Kids So Hna Ellsworth somehow knows these pack of kids and had a little fun with them and then they kept following us and wouldn´t go away. I think we also had three dogs. They stole our purses and gave us references in exchange for tictacs. Ya, that´s pretty much it. We were just knocking doors and doing contacts and then these group of kids asked us to come to their houses and teach them. And then they took us to all their neighbors houses too. I love recieving references, even from six-year-old kids!

Date with the Virgen Mary This was a friendly old guy who I don´t know and didn´t understand a lot because he was speaking spanish it was kind of hard. When we were trying to shake his hand but he kissed us on the cheeks instead. Yep, I forgot to teach her on how to avoid the man kiss (it´s against the misión rules to kiss the guys on the cheeks.) But we were doing contacts and met this 75-year-old man named Ignacio. He was very nice but believes a lot in worshipping the Virgen Mary and the Saints. So we explained to him about how we only worship God and we invited him to Church. He then tried to learn our names and couldn´t say it, so he called us Maria (like the Virgen Mary) and invited us to eat pizza with him in the park. We´re not quite sure if it´s a date or a lesson. Vamos a ver…

Money from a Drunk Guy Didn´t understand a lot. Seemed angery like he was trying to argue with us whether God loved him or not. Kinda kept following us when we were trying to go and tried to give us money for some reason. So we were doing contacts and this guy that smelled strongly of liquor stored to argue with us about God. We told him that God loves him and invited him to church and then tried to leave but he wanted to give us Money first. I´m still not sure why. Needless to say, we didn´t accept the Money. But it made for an interesting story.

Baptism Date with Mariela: Great girl kind of can have mini converstations with her here and there. In church she was trying to ask me if I liked fish and I didn´t know if she was talking about fish or if she was talking about sin. I enjoyed helping to teach her The Plan of Salvation. Mariela is pretty much amazing!!! She has such an excitement for hearing about the gospel and she went to church yesterday and loved it! She´s excited for her baptism that should happen next week. So try to keep Mariela in your prayers so that reaches her goal! She still has a seed that I gave her when comparing it with faith. And that she has to grow her faith with prayer, reading the scriptures, and going to church. Every time we go over, she talks about how she´s growing her seed of faith everyday! She is so amazing!

Miracle with Mariana I really didn´t pick up anything from this. It became hard to concentrate after a while. Mariana is a lady that hasn´t gone to church for about a year. We´ve been passing by for a while but I was starting to lose faith that she would ever go to church. But we passed by with Hna. Mortensen and she gave the spiritual thought and everything. And then she came to church!!! What a miracle!!! It just shows that Hna. Mortensen is amazing and teaches with the Spirit!

We are working hard and having fun! It just goes to show that the Lord works in mysterious ways. I love seeing all the miracles that happen every week with Hna. Mortensen. El Reino de Dios o Nada!

Les queremos,

Hna. Ellsworth y

Hna. Mortensen

FIESTA!

I´m not really sure where to start to tell you about my week. So we´ll just start from the very beginning because that´s the very best place to start. So we´ll begin with Monday!

Monday – so we went to the misión house because hna. Widmer had a a going away lunch with Pres. and Hna Salas. She went thinking that she had another week and didn´t pack or bring any of her stuff. But when she got there, things changad and they told her that she would be leaving the next day. I wasn´t ready to say goodbye! I thought i had another week with her!! So that was kind of sad and stressful. But i´m sure there was a reason that she had to go home this week. But ya, it was way fun to go the misión house to say goodbye to all of the hermanas that were leaving, especially Hna. Nobles. She showed me all of the photos of the baptisms of the people we were teaching when i was in Villa Independencia. That pretty much made my day!!! And it was good to give her one last hug for a while. And then during the lunch, I was left without a companion so i had to chill with the elders and play soccer. It was pretty wierd. I am definitely grateful to always have a companion. But i got some one on one time with the asistents and get their opinions on the hermanas. Let´s just say I had an interesting afternoon. And then i rolled my ankle playing soccer with the elders and it still kind of hurts. I also had the opportunity to talk with Pres. Salas to see if I can work hard with Carinne. I´m definitely not worried about that. We both come from good familias and we know how to work. He says that i´m still pretty young in the misión but that he has faith and trust in me. Now i need the faith and trust in me too…

Tuesday – So Hna. Widmer left and I didn´t have a companion so i had to ask the members to help me out. I had three different companions during the day and I had to bargain for their time. (ex: i´ll teach you english, if you help me out with an appointment.) But it went very well. We taught one family about the importance of prayer, reading the scriptures, and going to church. She´s very excited for her baptism that should happen this month. We´re very excited. And then i went to the misión house to pick up my mini-missionary for a week. She´s from Cordoba capital. She got there a little late, so i had an tour to chill with Pres. Salas and the assistants. I felt a little uncomfortable. They were watching a new training movie that had just been given to all of the missions. It was the first time that were watching it and they were talking notes and preparing to use it to train all of the missionaries. The Spirit was so incredibly strong. I felt incredibly small in a room of spiritual giants. I was just in awe listening to the Pres. Salas and the assistants, and then they all turned to me and asked me what i though. I was so scared! But i just testified and shared my thoughts and i don´t think i said anything of false doctrine. But it was definitely an experience I won´t forget.

Wednesday and Thursday – i had my mini-missionary Hna Patricia from the capital. She was a little shy and timid at first but now she is not scared to talk to anybody. She was ready to talk to anybody in the street and give out Books of Mormon to everybody. We invited somebody to be baptized and we committed a lot of people to go to church and we invited everybody to come unto Christ. I only had 2 ½ days with Hna. Patricia but I already love her. I wanted to do a trio for the transfer. She helped me so much with my spanish and I learned so much from her. We had a ton of fun eating ice cream, brownies, cake, cookies, and everything that Hna. Widmer left behind from her goodbye party. And we saw a lot of miracles!

Friday – HNA. MORTENSEN ARRIVED!!! We went to the misión house (again!) and waited for the newbies to come. We had to wait a while so i had time to talk to the other trainer that is serving in my old area, Villa Independencia. So i got to the see some more pictures of the baptism and ask about everybody. It was nice to hear about all of my old investigators. And then Hna. Mortensen arrived with her companion and another elder. I was so stinkin nervous. We had to wait to know who our companion is after a little training meeting. And then they came in and announced that Hna. Mortensen is my companion. The first thing she said was, PARTY. It was pretty funny. But i figure we can work hard, be obedient, invite everyone to come unto Christ, and still have a party. I am way excited. Saturday - We spent the whole day passing by people and talking to everyone. I think we had talking to over a hundred people and i definitely lost my voice. I woke up Sunday with my voice completely gone. It is kind of stressful but really funny if you think about it.

But ya, Hna. Mortensen is AMAZING. She has no fear. She is ready to talk to anybody and everybody and share the gospel. She is such a great example to me and i am excited to see all of the miracles that are goign to happen this transfer together. But ya, this week was full of interesting twists and a ton of miracles. You just never know what is going to happen next. I still do not have a voice but i have faith that every thing will turn out fine. Life is great and i have never been so happy.

Love ya,
Hna. Ellsworth

Transfers!!

We received transfers this week and...drumroll please...I'm going to train!!! Yep, I'm kind of freaking out right now. But do you want to hear the best part. It´s pretty much 99% sure that I´m going to train Hna. Mortensen!!!! I am so stinkin´ stoked! But I'm also a bit scared. I´m kind of in shock and denial. I don´t know how i´m going to go from junior companion to trainer. I feel like I just arrived in Argentina yesterday! It´s going to be really weird to train in the same place that I was trained. When i told all of the members, they reminded me of when I arrived and how i didn´t understand or talk para nada. But they reassured me that now I can talk ¨bastante bien.¨ This transfer is going to be very interesting. I´m just excited to be companions with Hna. Mortensen!!!

This week was a ton of fun. It should have been the last week of the misión for Hna .Widmer. I say it should have been because she might have another week. Hna. Mortensen has a few problems with her visa, so i need a companion for a week and she wants to stay longer. We´re not sure if she´s going to stay, but vamos a ver. But we spent the whole week saying goodbye to everyone and inviting everyone to come unto Christ. She had the goal to invite everyone to be baptized and we had 10 of our investigators that said Yes! We´re excited to baptize in August! And we also had two asados this week and a going away party for her. And she showed up to church in her tie skirt. (She asked for a tie from each Elder that she knew in the misión and made a skirt.) It looked way cool. But ya, It´ll be weird if she has another week and just shows up after she said goodbye to everyone. It should be interesting…

Alright, sorry but my mind is in about 20 different places right now. I can´t really focus, so until next week… I love you all and you´re all in my prayers! The Church is true and is the place where you can find the peace and happiness that we need in our lives.

Les kiero,

Hna. Ellsworth