Drugged and Dieted

Wow! This has been one week full of adventures! So we were exceedingly blessed Wednesday and a little bit tried. We were tried in that Spring started with a TON of rain! And we kind of forgot our umbrellas, so we got completely soaked!! But we were blessed in that we had four different people feed us in visits. We ate guiso, cake, eggs, dulce de leche, and about every different food group. But then sadly, that night Hna. Mortensen got allergies. And we don't know if it was for the change of climate or for the food. But she got hives all over her body. The next day we had Zone Conference and we talked to Hna. Salas who told us to go to the hospital in the capital of Cordoba. She pretty much told me my two biggest fears in the misión – hospitals and the capital. We had to first take a bus to a place that I never had heard of before (and that i could hardly pronounce). But we had lunch in the kitchen of the misión house with Pres. and Hna. Salas (i was a tad bit nervous of my lunch manners) and then we went off with a prayer. Our first challenge was that we couldn't just pay for the bus ride, we had to buy tokens. I didn't know what that was or where to get them, but we quickly figured it out. Then we had to figure out where to get off. And then we had to find this hospital that was about 10 blocks away from the stop. We might have gotten a little lost but we finally figured it out. And then we had to figure out how hospitals work. I think we got more lost in the hospital than in downtown Cordoba. But we finally got to the place where we had to be and they told us we had to pay. We didn't have any money, so we had to find a bank. And then we found a bank, it wouldn't accept my credit card because its from the United States. This is where I started losing my patience. We finally found a bank that accepted my card and we went back and waited forever to talk to a person. They then started saying all of these things and gave us about three different prescriptions and I have to admit that I didn't understand everything they were saying but we understood the big picture. So then we had to find the medications and Hna. Mortensen got a shot to stop the allergic reaction and she was all sleepy and not all there. So we had to go find our bus to get back to our area and pay the rest of the bill. Needless to say, it was possibly the most stressful experience of my life. But we got out of it all good. They told Hna. Mortensen that she had to follow a diet that consisted of pretty much nothing, just rice and chicken. But we talked to Hna. Salas and she gave us permission to eat normal but with caution. But ya, I'm hoping that I never have to do that again. And I'm glad that it wasn't anything too serious. But now we know that with prayer and the Lord's help, we can travel to Cordoba and figure out our way around a hospital. Anyways, that was our huge adventure for the week. I had a lot of other cool stuff to tell you but I ran out of time. Sorry, my bad! Hopefully, Hna. Mortensen wrote it in her email. Like the guy that was speaking the tongue of angels, or how we made banana bread for the members and they told us that they didn't like it so they gave it back, or how we had a splash in our area and my district leader yelled at me because I don't know how to give good directions in Spanish, or how we had the goal to have 60 in church and only had 59. Yep, this week has been stressful but a ton of fun as well. We're still working with the familia Olmedo and the familia Ramallo. Keep them in their prayers that they can go to General Conference this week. I'm so EXCITED!!! I love General Conference!! It's going to be amazing! I love you all! Pray hard!

Les kiero,

Hna. Ellsworth

I hate being sick!

So I got sick this weekend and I´m still feeling kind of horrible. So if i don´t sound very cheerful, it´s because I´m always grumpy when I´m sick. Para que sepa…

But this week was pretty much Amazing! We have seen the miracles that happen when you apply what you have learned from our leaders. We found two Amazing familias – la familia Olmedo y la familia Ramallo. And they are preparing to be baptized 16 of october. (Hopefully an early birthday present to Stacy!) It was quite the miracles that we found both of them and that they were prepared to hear our message. But unfortunately Satan was working on them and they both couldn´t go to church because of sickness in the family. But we´re going to continue working hard with them and I hope, in the strength of the Lord, that they can arrive to their baptismo dates. But we had a lot of fun inviting everyone to come unto Christ and be baptized. The Elders in our zone had a competition with us for Grido/ice cream. I´m not sure who won, but it doesn´t really matter to me, just as long as we are helping people.

We have also been very blessed in the sense of asados. We got two this week. I think I´ve only had two in my entire misión andi t just got doubled in a week. It made me very happy. But even more happiness is that we had four investigators in the church with 2 menos activos familias that we have been working with. We hope to keep going up. We are almost at our goal to get a church house in La Calera. It would be really great if we got one for the right reasons.

Anyways, I´m out of time and things to write. Now i´m off to sleep off my pday and hopefully feel better so that we teach the Flia Olmedo and la familia Ramallo tonight. I love the work and I love my Heavenly Father. Keep missionary work in your prayers always and give a reference to the missionaries this week.

La kiero,

Hna. ellsworth

Vale la Pena

So we got transfers last week and guess what?! I have another transfer with Hna. Mortensen in La Calera. I thought I might be transferred out because i reached my ¨expiration date¨ in La Calera. You are usually allowed six months in an area and then you get transferred. But I have some things unresolved here, and I know someone is waiting for me to be baptized. So now I just have to go find them. And the best part is that I can party with one of my best friends in Argentina for six more weeks. Life doesn´t get much better than this.

So this week, we had a misión conference because the area president, Pte. Arnold came to make some new changes. And we are going to see a lot of new changes in the misión and I´m way excited! They changed the Schedule of our p-day, and planning meeting, and district meeting. And they gave us a lot of good counsel on how to teach our investigators better. It was a very spiritual and powerful meeting. We are already applying some of the things that we learned and we are seeing the miracles! We were excited to see two familias in the church yesterday that are part members and investigators. Both of these familias are menos activo and haven´t gone to church for a long time. But we passed by them Saturday and taught the things that we learned in the misión conference and it worked! They came to church and felt the Spirit. It was so cool to see the difference in their lives. They were so much happier! Yep, the gospel blesses lives. There´s no doubt it!

I´m so happy to have another transfer here. I feel like the members are a part of my family. There´s one member named Hno. Rodriguez that is a mix between my Uncle Lowell and Hno. Hatch but he´s latino. It´s crazy but way funny. He is always making fun of me. He tells me that I need to learn how to cook or I´ll never get married. You gotta love that latino honesty! But he told me that he would make me an asado for my birthday, which is months away! I´m very excited! I´m teaching his wife how to play the piano andi t is hard work. I have found out that i´m horrible at playing the piano and teaching it! But now I have a new calling in the branch – playing the piano for sacrament meeting. Since I reactived the chorister, I don´t have to lead the music. But now i get to play. So maybe you can keep me in your prayers to give me the gift of music talent. I think Rachel robbed all my piano skills in the family! But ya, I love the members in La Calera!!

And we are working with some interesting people. We ha done day that I would probably just describe as hippies, evangelists, and Catholics. We got yelled at, cursed out, or condemned to outer Darkness by three different religions in just one morning. It´s hard work to be a missionary sometimes, but it´s definitely worth it. Vale la pena, is how they say it here. I´ve recently learned that everything that is worth something, it is also hard in that you have to work for it. It reminds me of the quote in our family room that says, ¨I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it.¨ For the first time in my life, that quote just clicked. The misión, and life in general, is hard. But it definitely is worth it! I love the gospel and I love you all. Siga adelante!

Les kiero,

Hna. ellsworth

Satan is a jerk!

So something that I’ve discovered in the misión is that Satan can be a real jerk! I guess i already knew that before, but I’ve had a few more experiences in the misión to realize that he is real and that he is working hard for us to be miserable like himself. But another testimony that I have gained in the misión is that God will always win! No matter what curveball Satan throws at us, God is always there with his perfect love ready to help us up and give us the blessings. So this week I have been working hard to develop the Christlike attributes. Faith, Love, Patience, Knowledge, Diligence, Obedience, and all of those divine qualities that help us come unto Christ and become like him. So i tried to focus on one for a couple of days. And whichever one I was focusing on, I saw more challenges and dificultéis trying to live it. Por ejemplo…

Diligence – So the day I decided to study diligence, I was completely committed to being diligent. But then, I didn’t get any sleep the night before. And it was an especially hot day, which always makes me a little lazy. So we spent the day running to different appointments, and it got to the end of the day and I didn’t want to go anymore. I was tempted to spend the last hour in the house of a member and just call it good. But Hna. Mortensen and i knew that we needed to ¨endure to the end¨ and we decided to knock just a few more houses. And then we saw the Miracle! We found an Amazing investigator that we honestly interesting to learn about the Christ’s true church. We taught him a little bit and then set another appointment when we could teach his whole family!

Patience – The day I decided to live the principle of patience, we lost our light. We didn’t have electricity in the apartment for about four days. This always happened when the cold came back. So we would return to the apartment in the dark without a heater and have to try to plan for the next day. And then our oven broke and all of our food went bad in the fridge and the hot water was cutting out, and I was pretty much close to yelling curse words. I never lose my patience!! But this one day, everything bad was happening and I think Satan was just right there laughing at me and trying to figure out what more he could do to make me mad and lose my patience. But thanks to the calming influence of Hna. Mortensen and more importantly, the calming influence of God, I started to hum ¨Love at Home¨ and I was able to regain my patience.

Hope – When I studied the Christlike attribute of hope, Satan sent me one of my biggest trials that I’ve experienced. We have been working for a long time with a teenager named Mariela that has a baby. She was preparing for her baptismo and everything. She was reading the Book of Mormon everyday, and going to church every week. But then her parents didn’t want her to be baptized. She wanted to be baptized but needed the permission of her parents. We still continued to teach with all of them but this last week they told us that they didn’t want us to pass by anymore. It pretty much broke my heart. I just don’t understand what happened. But I just went to my Heavenly Father in prayer and asked for the strength and the hope and the comfort to go forth. And it came.

I know that Heavenly Father loves us and will always comfort us. Satan is real and is trying to ruin our lives. But we just have to put our trust in our Heavenly Father and rely on Him always. That’s when we find the joy and peace that we need in our lives. I love the misión and even more, I love the Gospel in my life. The Church is true. I love you and miss you and remember to Pray Hard!

Les quiero,
Hna. Ellsworth