Come one; come all!

She's home! And Nori will be speaking in church tomorrow (May 29th) at 8 a.m. The building is located on Southern and 48th Street. We invite all who would like to attend.

Coming Home!

Nori will be returning from her mission on Wednesday, May 25th. She will speak in church the following Sunday on May 29th at 8 a.m. (The building is located on Southern and 48th Street.) We invite all who would like to attend.

Dia de Bruja

Aqui andamos. Another week has gone and passed and we continue to see a ton of miracles! We are excited for this week and all our plans. We have an intercambio with the hermanas and I´m going to work with my old companion Hna. Martinez for a couple of days here in Villa Independencia. We are also preparing for the ¨Somos Locos por Locro¨ activity for the 25 de mayo. We are also preparing for a baptism this weekend and we hope all goes well with that. It´s going to be an amazing week just like this last one! And this is how it went down.

Friday the 13th - I think that I have bad luck. I have had it for the last two weeks and it all started when i lost my credit cards and phone in La Falda. And the bad luck has continued with that. I ran out of money and then hot water and then gas for the stove and then my shoes broke and all that good stuff. I told the Flia. Chacon that i had bad luck and they scolded me and told me that there was no such thing as bad luck. And then I responded that the next day was Friday the 13th aka el día de mala suerte here. It was quite comical. And I even saw a black cat and it rained and some other bad luck happened. But now that i think about it, it was a good day because we saw a lot of miracles. We ended the day with a Family Home Evening with a Menos Activo family. We ate Grido and Pizza and had a good time together. There were 15 of them and we taught about Testimonios and the Restoration. The Spirit was there and we had fun.

Flia Romero Bautismo - So we are getting all ready for another baptism of the Romero family. We are baptizing Carmen and two of her nieces - Carolina and Sandra. Hopefully everythign works out all right. Carmen has already planned her whole baptism. We told her that we would take care of everything. But she asked the member she wanted to baptize her, and then she invited the members to talk at her baptism, and even told us when we were going to do it without us saying anything. She told us that we were in charge of bringing the pan de banana and the empanadas. I´m alright with that. So we are excited for that and we´ll be preparing for that this week.

Talk in Church - I gave a talk in church yesterday and I think it went well. Hna. Waters gave a talk on Hope and then I talked on Change of Heart and then our mission leader gave a talk on forgiveness. The talks had nothing to do with each other but that´s how it is done here. They think it´s boring if everyone talks on the same subject. Anyways, it was a good sacrament meeting and we had plenty of recent converts and investigators in our gospel principles class. We had the Flia Romero in church and they brought two dogs. It was kind of a mess but it worked out fine. I think Hno. Chacon chased them off. It was also a blessing to see all my converts in church and the three families are preparing to go to the temple in September and then the other one is preparing for his mission in January. I love the miracles that happen! I love the mission and I´m grateful for the opportunity to be here in Villa Independencia in my mission.

Les Kiero,

Hna. Ellsworth

Yo amo la vida!

I love the mission and I love life! Ya, there are trials and challenges but you just have to learn from them and look past them and see all the blessings and miracles that are in our lives. And I know that i have a ton of blessings and miracles in my life. Here are just a couple that i have seen this last week!

Flia. Chacon – So we live in the house of the members called the Family Chacon. I just have to tell you that they are pretty much my family my Argentina. I just love this family! They help us with anything we need and they are just constantly serving us. Hno. Chacon makes signs for a living so he made this huge, huge, huge sign for the open house. And he made some other ones of the Proclamation to the World, and Eternal Families, and the Plan of Salvation. It´s a cool sight to see. Anyways, they are just a great family and a good example to me.

Capilla Abierta – We had the Open Church House and it was a ton of fun. We invited some of the other missionaries and they were in the streets with signs about the Open House. We had refreshment, movies for the Little kids, and we were giving a discussion about families. We compared the récipe of banana bread with the récipe for a happy family. We used the scripture in 2 Nefi 5 and it worked out really well. We had a lot of visuals and ended the presentation with a video from Mormon Messages. It was so cool! We didn´t have as many people as we wanted but we did doublé the church attendance on Sunday for our Branch Conference. And now we are getting ready for 25 de Mayo for an activity of Locro. The theme is ¨Somos Locos por Locro!¨ Everyone is really excited!

Intercambios with Johana y Cintia – After the Capilla Abierta, we had a Ward council with all the leaders and the Stake Presidency. They talked about reactivating members. We are a huge part of this new system they have called the 5 Families. We have to visit a Menos Activo family daily. But after the training meeting we all went out and searched for a member that hadn´t gone to church for a while. At first nobody volunteered to go (even though it was a Little late at night, we automatically were volunteered as missionaries.) But then I stared down Hna. Vega and she volunteered with her Relief Society counselor. And then I volunteered Johana (Young Women´s) y Cintia (Primary) because they were sitting right behind me. And then everybody else joined in. It was a cool sight to see. We did intercambios with Johana and Cintia because they didn´t know what to do. So I went with Yohana and Cintia went with Hna.Waters. We went and visited three hermanas that haven´t gone for months. And check it, all three went to the Branch Conference. You just have to love misión work especially when you see the results!

Moto Misioneras – After our visits we were way far from the pension and it was already after 9. So we got a ride from Cintia on her motorcycle. Now in case you don´t know, i have never been on a motorcycle because i have a big fear of them. I just don´t like them. But i got pushed on one with Cintia and Hna. Waters. I tried to use the excuse that we couldn´t as missionaries but i couldn´t find it in the Mission Manuel. It wa wierd to ride a moto in a skirt, But it was fun. I´ve somewhat overcome my fear of motorcycles. But with our luck, we had 7 different members see us as we were riding home. Que vergüenza.

Flia Romero – So we´re still working with this family to get them baptized. They need one more attendance to church and they´ll be good. They have the teachings and the desire but they just need to make it to church. They were going to go to church this Sunday but then the dad got sick. I don´t know if it was just an excuse or the work of Satan. Either way, Carmen was pretty upset that she can´t be baptized this Sunday. But she´s excited and committed to go to Sunday because she wants to be baptized before the Locro Activity. Her daughters and nieces want to be baptized too when they make it to church. We all gave them nicknames because i was trying to distract them one day from fighting. So Rocio is Sugar and Carolina is Honey and Sandra is Maza and Melena is Candy. Yep, it´s fun to hear them yelling out their nicknames when we walk up to their house. And check it, every single one of them can say my last name, kind of sort of.

Testimonio – Yo quiero testificarles que yo sé que esta iglesia es verdadera. Yo sé que el evangelio puede cambiar las vidas de las personas. Lo he visto mucho en mi misión y el evangelio ha cambiado mi vida mucho. Estoy agradecida por el Libro de Mormón y yo sé que tiene todas las respuestas que necesitamos. Hay que buscarlas y encontrarán. Yo sé que Pte. Monson es un profeta de Dios y estoy agradecida por su consejo que recibí de la Conferencia General. Yo sé que Dios me ama y me conoce. Yo lo sé todos los días cuando ore. Yo sé que Jesucristo vive y nunca lo voy a negar. La iglesia de Jesucristo es verdadera y puede bendecirnos en todas las cosas. Por eso, estoy en la misión para ver los cambios y bendiciones en las personas. Y digo estas cosas en el nombre de Jesucristo, amén.

¡El Reino de Dios o NADA!

Hna. Ellsworth

Yo veo con mi ojo

So i´ve decided that I hate computers. I actually had that decided a long time before. It all started my freshman year of college when my laptop with all my notes from the semester broke down a week before finals. And now my dislike of computers has only increased because we were put in charge of making an invitation for our church open house this Saturday. I´ll attach the invitation just so you know that you´re all invited. It wasn't too hard to make it but it was kind of a pain printing it out because we didn´t have a color printer or nice paper. Bueno, we finally ended up printing them black and white and giving them out. Oh well, the branch president wanted them in color but I just told him my motto - ¨Tacky as heck but we sure get the job done.¨ It was a little tricky to translate that one in castellano but he understood the message. All I know is that i'm still not a fan of computers and they're not a fan of me.

We are teaching a lot of families which means we are teaching a lot of little kids. Unfortunately these kids have never grown up with a lot of discipline. So they fight, curse, and give me a headache. But then I was inspired by Shannon Whipple and Dawn Thomas from my nursery days. (Shout out to Shannon!! Thanks for the letter!) Anyways, I just started to play games with them whenever they started to fight. Por ejemplo, we were all going to church yesterday and they started to fight. Their mothers were struggling to control them. So we started to play Follow the Leader. It sounds really simple and kind of lame but it totally worked. Every kid got a turn to be the leader. We ended up running down the street holding hands and skipping and walking like models. We looked silly but it was fun. It was my turn last and we ended up at church walking like children and princesses of God. The real challenge was in sacrament meeting. I could see Hno. Chacon, 1^st counselor in the bishopric meeting, laughing at me the whole time. But they all were very good. And then we ended up walking home playing ¨I Spy.¨ And it´s even catchy in Spanish. But I have decided that i´m never having kids. I just don´t have the patience for it.

And President Arnold, the seventy of the area, wanted me to tell you that he loves me. Ok, not just me but all the missionaries in the mission. And he says that we are the best missionaries in the world. I think he might've been exaggerating a bit but it made us sure feel good. He is proud of us because we´re baptizing like we've never baptized before. We are making records in the MAC (Mision Argentina Cordoba) and I´m excited to be a part of it. This month we have the goal to baptize 150 in Mayo. Apparently, that hasn't been done before. It is going to take a lot of work but i´m confident that we can make the goal with faith, diligence, and obedience. The motto for this week is ¨The pope called and this week is the holy week.¨ We are going to pay the price and sacrifice to see the miracles. As a mission, we are committed to be obedient and diligent like we've never done before. We've planned together, fasted together, prayed together, and now we are going to baptize together. We are going to be a Mission of Zion.

Just lovin´ life,

Hna. Ellsworth

Feliz Pascua y Feliz Semana Santa!

Primary and Easter Eggs - So did you know that they don{t really have Easter traditions here. Ya, they go to church and remember the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is really the true meaning of Easter. But when i think of Easter, i think of that and bunnies and Easter egg hunts. But they don{t really do that here. Basically the only thing that they do is make these chocolate eggs by hand and decorate them with frosting and give them to people. I kind of love it! (I got three! ) But ya, we had a primary activity and they asked us to come. I usually don{t have a lot of patience for other people{s children but i figured that{s why we were invited. I need to develop my patience a little bit more. it was good because we are with the Flia. Romero and there are a ton of kids that went - 6 in total. Anyways, they put us in charge of the an activity. So i suggested that we decorate hard boiled eggs. they pretty much looked at me like i was crazy! apparently they don{t do that here. we couldn't even find color dye. So we basically just brought 3 dozen boiled eggs and markers and stickers. And you know what, the kids absolutely loved the activity! I just love weird Gringo traditions. We also told them that we were going to hide their eggs and then they would have to look for them. apparently, another crazy things us gringos do. But they loved it! Moral of the story, it was a ton of fun and we just became tight with all the primary kids.

Mutual and Curse Words - We also got invited to the young women{s mutual activity because we had more investigators and recent converts than actual members. So we went to support and it was a little bit crazy! Our recent converts had brought some friends and they didn't really know about mormon standards. They just went and started cursing up a storm. I personally had no idea at first because i don{t really know curse words in castellano, but i do now... anyways, we tried to convince them to stop but they started fighting with the other girls. It was kind of a crazy mess! So we started singing hymns because everyone likes it when we sing. So they calmed down and we took them home after we read the scripture out of Mosiah 4 :30 - [Watch your thoughts]. We're hoping they learned a lesson from it.

Service and Paint - We also got invited to the branch service project where we painted the elementary school right next to the church. It was pretty fun! I was in charge of the dark green paint and i painted a little bit of everything - the slide, teeter totter, swings, and all that good stuff. They even gave us these jerseys that said Mormons Helping Hands. We looked pretty legite! It reminded me of of my good old days of painting Irving. Good times, great oldies...

Noche de Hogar with Flia. Vega - So we had a family home evening with my favorite family Vega and we made banana bread and compared it with the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a ton of fun! We compared repentance to stirring the dough because it's hard work at times. Anyways, the hna. vega made a joke and passed it to her husband and her son because they haven;t gone to church for a while so he had a lot of repenting to do... we all had a good laugh but I was happy to find out that he learned his lesson. The whole family showed up to church yesterday! I love
Family Home Evening! i hope you are all doing it!

Noche de Hogar with Johana y Cintia - We also had a family home evening with them because they invited some nonmember friends. I absolutely love this family because they don{t appear as the normal mormon family. Before they knew the Gospel, they drank, smoked, swore, and all that stuff. And now they spend their nights reading the book of mormon and singing hymns. the best part about it is that they live with a couple of brothers and they are not members... yet. They have braids and tattoos and look pretty fierce. But when we come to have a FHE, they all sit down and participate. It was quite the sight. We also made no bake cookies and compared it to the gospel. It was fun and their friend even went to church on Sunday!

Yep, life is just too much fun in Villa Independencia! We have lunch every day with the members and I love them to death. Our investigators are pretty amazing too! I really couldn't be happier! I{m so grateful to sacrifice a year and a half to show my love and gratitude to my Heavenly Father and our Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ. I know he lives and I{m grateful for everything he has done for me. Thanks for everything! I love you!

les kiero,

Hna. Ellsworth

I am pretty much in love with Villa Independencia!

So I am so stoked to be back in my favorite area. There has been a ton of changes. There is a lot of work to do but I love seeing everyone again. But ya, these were pretty much my highlights from the week.

Flia Romero – Ok these are the main investigators that we are working with and they are pretty much crazy. I love them to death! There are about four or five families that live together and there are a ton of little kids that are just running around and wanting to be baptized. It is quite the adventure. The twelve-year-old girl got baptized the Saturday before i got here. So we are working on her parents now and the rest of the family. The first time I went, we tried to teach the prayer, read the scriptures, and attend church. There was a lot of running around and yelling, but when we started to sing, all the kids stopped, sat down, and sang along. It was quite the sight. We taught the grandpa named Castro and he has a smoking and drinking problem. He wants to quit but he struggles with it. She we took his cigarettes and told him that he today was the day to stop.

Flia Vega – I am pretty much in love with this family! They were the family I found a year ago and they are doing so good. They are a family of gold. We stopped by to see what we could to help the Hermana Vega because she is the new Relief Society President. And she put us to work. We helped her put together the Visiting Teachers assignments. We also helped her some activity ideas and signs and stuff. I was just so happy to see the progress in them. Her husband is in the Elder{s Quorum presidency but needs some help so we are going to have a Noche de Hogar with them this week. We are really focusing on helping the branch to strengthen the members to complete their callings and pay their tithing and such. I love being back in the branch of Villa Independencia.

Actividades - So this week we are going to try to help our investigators and recent converts to know the members more. So we have a relief society activity Wednesday, YW/YM activity Thursday, Primary activity Friday, and branch service project Saturday. I am way excited! We figure that we are going to bring and drop off investigators and brownies every time. There is a ton of work to be done and just not enough time to do it all. And I am way excited for the 25 of May activity of Locro. We did the same thing last year and that is how we found and baptized the Flia Vega, Sergio, and Yohana. So we are hoping and praying for more success this year.

1st Sunday Back - So my first Sunday back was pretty much Amazing! I loved to see all of the members again and see all the changes that has happened recently. The night before we got a call and we were told that we would be giving the talks in church the next time. So i pretty much had 30 minutes to speak with the branch. It went well. I talked on prayer and the Restoration. I am just trying to animate the members because they are kind of tired of the branch. During the gospel principles class, the entire bishopric called just us out of class to tell us that we would start doing activities in the branch. It was quite the shock for the both of us. I talked to some of the members about activities so they are planning on the Locro activity for 25 de mayo. And we are in charge of an activity for the 6 de mayo. And we have a Easter activity this week along with a service project on Saturday. And we also passed by for some inactives for the week and at least three of them came. I am hoping a little bit each week will help...

Well, Hna. Waters and I have a lot of work for us to do. We have plenty of activities, baptisms, and everything to look forward to. But like Dad says, There{s no rest for the wicked! Well thanks for all that you do and everyone should make a call or visit a friend that you haven{t seen in a while. You never know how much it might help them. It{s the small and simple things that bring about the miracles! Love you all!

Les kiero,

Hna. Ellsworth

I'M BACK!!!

Transfers Once Again – Well the big news of the week is that we received transfers and I´m back in Villa Independencia with Hna. Waters. I´m so stinkin´ stoked! I know that I shouldn´t have favorite areas but i definitely think that Villa Independencia is my personal fave! I was about 95% sure that i was staying in Rosedal with Hna. Pond so i was completely blown away when we got transfer calls, but after some thought (and crying), I´ve decided that I´m way excited to be back! I´m sad to leave Rosedal and Hna. Pond but i´m always excited for a new adventure. I´m so game to just get to work here and see the miracles and baptisms. It´s going to be a great transfer!

CENTRO – As for my week, i had an amazing one. So we had p-day Monday and we got to go to Centro. We can only go once every transfer and you can only go if you live in Cordoba Capital. So I went with Hna. Pond for her first time and it was a ton of fun! We ate some Burger King which is probably the first time in my entire life. In my normal life, I had fast food hamburger places like burger King and McDonalds, but here in Argentina, it´s a Little taste of America and I love it. We then went trunky shopping with the other missionaries and it was great! We talked to some cool black guys from Domincan Republic. They work in Centro and they want to go to church sometime. We also talked to some gypsies and invited them to church but i don´t think they are too interested. Vamos a ver! It was just a ton of fun and i pretty much love Centro!

Vacation in Parque Capital - We also went to Parque Capital and had a Splash. It was interesting to get to know another area. It was really nice but kind of hard because there are a lot of rich people that didn´t want to listen. It´s weird how that works. It´s usually the poorer and humbler people that want to listen. But we found a few people and made some 12 year-old friends who gave us crazy bands. Which by the way, i´m loving the crazy band fad!

Splash in Rosedal – The zone leaders and district leader came to our area to work there for a little bit. We had lunch with the Flia Cabrera and we just all walked in. We were six gringos and the Hna. Cabrera. It was way funny! We loved it! And then we went out to work. They found this older man that wants to be baptized but he had an accident and can´t walk now. It´s a little complicated but we´re going to work something out with the members so that he can get to church.

Diego – Diego finally left to his misión. We were going to baptize his sister before he left but the bishop didn´t think it was a good idea because he was afraid that she would stop going if her brother´s not there to take her. It was kind of a bummer but I trust in his judgment. We were there at his house before he left to the airport. It´s kind of sad that he´s leaving because he was pretty much the only member that gave us references but i´m excited for him to go and find the people waiting for him in Chile.

Baptism in Uritorco – We went to a Ward baptism of this new family that moved into our Ward, the family Garcia. It was so awesome! This family invited over a hundred people, half of them not being members. So we went with other missionaries, Pte. And Hna. Salas, Stake President Agazzani, and the Area Seventy and we supported the baptism. We got to chat with them and get to know all of them. And now all the missionaries are going to stop by and give everyone from the baptism a DVD and share a message with everyone. It sounded like a great idea! I´m way excited for it!

Well as you can see life is great here! Time is flying by so i can´t afford to lose one second of it! I feel like I´m kind of in one big deja vu but i´m excited to get to work and find those people that are waiting to have Jesus Christ more in their lives. I figure that if I stay focused, work diligently, be obedient, and have the faith; then we are going to see a ton of miracles this transfer. I love you all!

Les kiero,

Hna. Ellsworth

General Conference is like Christmas... but better!

I had a pretty amazing weekend! It was full of revelation and personal manifestations that God is watching out for me. One huge thing that I have learned and appreciated in the mission is the importance and blessing of General Conference. I have definitely regretted and repented of all the times I fell asleep in conference. General conference is such a huge blessing, and we can´t afford to lose one second of it! I felt like the entire Conference was talking straight to me. I loved the shout out to my mission of Cordoba Argentina. I was excited to hear the shout out to my family heritage of Colonia Juarez. And I was stoked to hear my favorite hymn referenced about three times. And I´m glad to report that all my questions that I brought to the Conference were addressed and answered. I have no doubt in my mind that God knows me and loves me. I think one of my favorite talks was the one about pain and the Atonement in the Saturday session. (bueno, i can´t remember the seventy´s name. oops!) But I really loved what he said about Jesus Christ and us suffering. Jesus Christ suffered for us so that he knows us. Maybe we need to suffer in this life to get to know our Savior better. He definitely said it ten times better but the message gets across. I’m grateful for the mission and being able to understand the Atonement better and apply it to my life. I know that the more understanding that we have of the Atonement, the more desire we have to share the gospel with others. There were a lot of amazing talks on the Atonement and how we can learn through our trials. Basically, general conference is the best, and I´m already starting a countdown for the next one in October. We also went to the setting apart for Diego for his mission. He is now Elder Alvarez, and he´ll be heading to the Chile MTC this Thursday and then to Chile Santiago Norte in a couple of weeks. I already told him to look out for Shan when he gets out. Yep, I told him to look for an hna. ellsworth más capa (awesome) que yo. We´re excited for him, and we know he´ll be a great missionary. Now we are going to start preparing for his mission another youth from our ward named Matias. He should be starting his papers soon. Preparing for the Mission is the best! Well, life is great!! We’re working hard and being obedient, and we’re hoping to see the fruits of our labors soon. I hope all is well, and thanks for the love and prayers! Les kiero, Hna. Ellsworth

A Get-to-Know My Investigators

Hey peeps hey!

I don´t know if I have anything too interesting to share with you all this week. I´ve almost been in this area for about 6 months and I feel like I know just about everything. But obviously not everybody because there are still a ton of children of God that are waiting for the truth. So we are working with a ton of great people that I´m hoping will progress and go to church and be baptized. We find a lot of people that read and pray but then they always have a ton of excuses when Sunday arrives. But I have faith in all of these people that they will get baptized in April.

Ana Luz - She´s a nine-year-old girl that was going to be baptized yesterday but her dad didn´t want her to get baptized. She doesn´t need his permission because her parents are separated and her mom has custody of her. But the problem was that she went to go visit him for the holiday weekend, and he didn´t bring her back until after church and the planned baptism. It was pretty much a bummer. But Diego is going to baptize her before he leaves, so I’m not going to get upset about it. We had a Noche de Hogar with their family and the Flia Cabrera, pretty much my two favorite familias in the ward. We talked about the recipe of a happy family in 2 nefi 5. And then we ate some sandwiches and talked Gaston (the inactive brother of Diego) to go to Seminary. We are way excited for them. And then we were a tad late so we linked arms and started to run down the street to their house. It was definitely crazy but a ton of fun!

Carla y Tina - They are a cute mom and daughter. They love the Book of Mormon and learning about the Restoration, but they are struggling to understand why they need to be baptized again because they were baptized in the Catholic Church. It´s a very good question that a lot of people have here. We explain about the Priesthood and the restored gospel on the earth. But really the key is to pray and ask God. They really liked Church, so I hope that they can recognize their answer and accept the invitation to be baptized in April.

Gladys, Eliana, Raisa, Ivón - (who´s first name is Nori!!) - Yep, they are a way cute family of all girls. The youngest daughter is called Ivon but her first name is actually Nori. Is that the coolest thing or what?! And also the daughter of Vicente is named Nora but they call her Nori. I was pretty excited when I heard it. But we are working with them, and they are loving everything; but they need to get to church. They live pretty far away, and there are always health problems. But they are excited to go to General Conference. Me too!!!

Diego y Paula - They are such a cute little family that needs to get baptized! Paula´s family is all members and has always liked the church and reads the Book of Mormon. But her husband has never had too much interest. But he has had a complete change in his life. He has quit smoking, drinking, and wants to focus on having more unity and love in his family. So we are working with them; they just need to get married. They have a lot of trials with work and health and even an evil spirit. But we´re going to help them get there.

Eli - She has a testimony and church attendance and everything, but she is just afraid of the baptism. She had a baptism about a month ago, and she wants to try again; but she´s struggling to keep her commitments. She is going through a hard time in her life right now. She broke up with her husband of 5 years, quit her job, and is starting her life over. She also has some health problems. We try to help her and explain to her that Satan is working on her hard because he does not want her to be baptized or happy. But I hope she can understand and make the right choice. Anyways, there are some more; but I ran out of time. I absolutely love all of these people. They really are children of God, and they all deserve to know the gospel of Jesus Christ so that they can live it and receive the blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Church is true, and I’m grateful to have that knowledge in my life. I love the handful of people that still remember me and everybody else.

Les kiero,
Hna. Ellsworth

oh snap!

This week has been fun and exciting like always. I´m excited to be with Hna. Pond in Barrio Rosedal. We have a good district and a great zone and we´re excited to see all the miracles that are happening in the Mission Argentina Cordoba. Go MAC!!

Entrevista con Ana Luz – So we had the bautismal interview for Ana Luz yesterday. I can´t remember if I have talked too much about her. She is a nine-year-old girl that we have worked with for a long time. She is the little sister of Diego that wants to get baptized but her mom wouldn´t let her. But we have been working with her, praying, fasting, and the miracle happened that she´s getting baptized this next week. We´re pretty excited about it! So our district leader came for the interview (Elder Flaherty that lives about 5 minutes from our house. Trippy, eh?) And while he was doing the interview, we were outside eating pomegranite and spitting out the seeds. It was way fun! And we were speaking about three different languages. We were speaking (Diego and his brother), English (Hna. Pond and E. Rust – a new gringo), and ASL!!! Yep that´s right! Shout out to Kris!!! Woot! Woot! The girlfriend of the brother of Diego is definitely deaf. So I just tried to talk to her in Spanish ASL. Diego taught me a couple of words and then I just made up the rest. It was awesome! We talked about her day and her shoes and i´m not sure about the other thing, but we had a good laugh. We also taught her about the gospel and baptism. It was way cool! Pretty much, it was the best Sunday that we had in the mission. I loved it!

Tower of Cups - We had an activity for the Relief Society this week and we went early to help them set up. Anyways, funny story happened. We were putting out the glass cups because they ate dinner. Well my comp started to stack a tower of glass cups. It was pretty fun until it all fell. It looked like something that would happen in a movie. Anyways, it was just us in the room so we tried to clean it up before the other hermanas saw. It was way funny and we cleaned it up beautifully. We told the hermanas afterwards and it was all chill. But they wouldn´t let us carry anything else that was breakable. Y bueno… The activity was way fun, they ate dinner and had a movie and stuff. It was cool!

Intercambio – We also did an intercambio with the hermanas this week. I went to Alto Alberdi to work with Hna. Martinez and she got sick. It was the lamest intercambio that I have ever done. I tried to track down two minis but it didn´t work out. I got left without a phone, keys, lunch, nothing. But it was all good because Hna. Pond continued working with Hna. Lopez in Rosedal and they put two fechas bautismales and had a ton of success. I´ve decided that I´m a huge fan of intercambios when we can work because you really can work and learn from other missionaries. I´m kind of jealous of the elders in that way because they can work with a lot of different people.

Nuevo Lider Misional – We saw a lot of changes in the ward this last week and we have a new mission leader. We´re excited for him because it´s always good to see change. I don´t know him yet because he just moved into the ward but his brother-in-law is the one that makes the harry potter wands. And his wife went to the mission at Temple Square so we can chat in English. I´m stoked for that! And we´re excited that he can start out with the baptism and we´re preparing for more! We´re just loving the miracles that we are seeing in Barrio Rosedal.

Well, our companionship has become the activity´s committee of the zone so we have a ton of elders waiting on us so they can go play soccer and monopoly. It should be fun! I´m really excited for this week because we are going to start working more with the members. They are a ton more members to get to know in the new neighborhood. So we are going to have lunch over there and get to know them better. I´m really excited for the work that we are doing and the miracles that we are seeing! I love you all!

les kiero,

Hna. ellsworth

Changes

This week has been crazy, full of changes happy and sad. But ya, i love change. It´s always exciting and it helps us to progress! So check it…

Cambios en el barrio – So they are changing the Ward limits this week and we went to a special conference in the stake. They are changing the limits of Parque Capital, La Madrid, Alto Alberdi, 20 de Junio, AND Rosedal! It´s pretty crazy stuff. We´re losing 25 members and getting 25 new members. It´s pretty crazy because we lost a ton of our leaders, but we´re excited to see the changes that will happen this next week. We also got a few investigators that have baptism dates. They are this cute family with the Mom and two kids. Her youngest daughter Anita, who is 10, has already gone for a long time. Now her mom and 18 year old brother are starting to go too. We´re excited to get to know them better and help them prepare for their baptism.

Convenio – So we decided to make this covenant with God this week. We read a talk by this Mission president that talked about miracles in the misión when we make a covenant with God. It´s pretty intense stuff but we wanted to make a deal. We promised all of our faith, obedience, and diligence to get four baptisms in this month of March. We made a specific promise that we would teach a certain number of lessons every day and bring a new person to church every week, if we could save jsut 4 people. We talked to our misión president about it and he´s excited for you. We got special permission to do everything possible to get our goals. We have seen such a ton of miracles! One day we put a goal to have lesson with member, but our appointment failed us. So we didn´t have a member nor appointment. We didn´t know what to do, and then we found our member friend Diego in the street, who gave us a reference to pass by in that very momento. I love trusting in the will of the Lord and seeing the miracles! We´re way excited for this convenant and seeing what happens.

Last Zone Conference – Last Friday i had my very last Zone Conference. And yes, i did cry. I was doing good but then they put up a list of all of the missionaries that were going home this transfer and the next one. Anyways, one of the elders put it down wrong and it said that i was going home this transfer. Yep, my eyes just automatically watered up. I regained composure and went up to Pte. Salas and asked him why he wanted me to go home early. Jaja. He didn´t even notice that it was written down wrong, but he went and changed it. But ya, we have a tradition in the misión that the fieles (faithful) have to give their testimony in their last zone conference. So I gave mine with about 10 other missionaries. It was a bittersweet momento. But we had a great zone conference where we talked a lot about new things that we can do to find success. Apparently our misión has grown in the faith. We went from the 12th (out of 14) baptizing misión in our area and now we are at 3rd. It was really awesome to see the change and the growth that we have done in just this year. And we are going to keep going and increasing in our faith. I love Zone Conferences!!

Yep, the misión is great! Don´t ever doubt it! I love the work we are doing and the change i´m seeing in others and myself! I love it and I love all of you! Help the missionaries this week!

Love ya,

Hna. Ellsworth

Hermana Hermione

So we got transfers this weekend and I'm staying in Rosedal. I'll be here for Vicente's baptism. Woohoo! Hna. McDonald went off to blank an area in La Falda and i'm going to miss her. But I know that she is going to be an amazing missionary. But ya, I got my new companion, Hna. Pond. She is pretty amazing, I already love her! She's from Phoenix Arizona and has about 4 months in the mission. She is a ton of fun and has a ton of excitement and faith, so i'm excited to see the miracles that will happen this transfer.

I know it's going to be an interesting transfer because they are changing the limits of our ward/area. They are cutting the limits right behind us and we're losing a ton of members to the other ward. We are losing the primary president, young women's president, young men's president, 1^st counselor in the bishopric, mission leader, and some more key calling. But we should be getting a lot of new members too. It's going to be pretty crazy! I'm excited to see what happens. But what ever does happen, I know that it is the will of God. And i'm excited to have a new area to work in. It's going to be great!

So random side note, I bought one of the coolest things ever this last week – a real legit Hermione Granger wand. Ya, you read it right. So there is this member in my ward that makes the harry potter wands. he makes any and every character – Harry, Hermione, Voldemort, Dumbledore, etc., etc… so i bought the legit Hermione wand for Rachel. and hna. mcdonald got the Harry Potter wand. We may have had a wizard duel in the pension. Don't judge us! But ya, i made a deal with the member that if i could find more customers for him that I should get a percentage. We ended up on deciding that he would give me a free wand box. so I have already sold about 10 among the missionaries and I have just started. I am pretty stoked about it! I might even buy one for myself. ya, my mtc dream is coming to life. I always thought that the mtc was like Hogwarts and that we were all training to be wizards aka missionaries. But instead of having a magic wand, we have the Book of Mormon. I just love applying the Gospel to everything.

We{re getting ready for Vicente's baptism this week. He went out of town for a few days to go sell his house and I missed him a ton. I'm always worried when I can't have daily contact with our progressing investigators because I know Satan works day and night with them. But we are going to pass tonight with Hna. Pond and Diego, so it'll be awesome! He's kind of a shy, old man and some of the members are kind of scared of him. I had no idea!! He's always shy at first but after the visit, he just opens up. I have seen a huge change in him and I'm so excited for his baptism. We just have to work with the members more so that he has some fellowshipping.

Life is great and I absolutely love the mission. And I absolutely love the people. I've decided that charity and love is the key to the mission and the key to life. If we just learn to have charity for every one of our brothers and sisters, we will definitely change and then we can help them change through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I love the mission and the opportunity to serve my Heavenly Father. This Church is true! I LOVE YOU ALL!

Les kiero,

Hna. Ellsworth

If you want the monkeys to dance, Talk to Tarzan...

So we had a random Zone Conference this last week. We got together with our zone and another zone to hear about some of the changes of the mission and things like that. Nothing too exciting happened. But it was nice tender mercy for me. It’s always good to hear from Pte. Salas and see all of the other missionaries. They talked a lot about growing our faith and our goal to double our baptisms. We got 100 baptisms last month and we’re going to do it again and again until we triple the baptisms. The faith of the mission is growing and I’m excited to be a part of it. We almost didn’t make it to the Zone Conference because we didn’t know about it. We lost our cell phone and we didn’t have any communication with our leaders for about a week. So our zone leaders had to call our bishop. So our bishop and the first counselor showed up at our pension at 10 pm on Friday night. We were already in our pajamas and everything. At first we were scared because we couldn’t think of anybody that would come to our pension at 10 at night. But then when we found out it was bishop, we were just embarrassed. It’s all good though. We had a good laugh about it afterwards.

So I’m happy to report that we have a companionship of Zion. At first we decided that we were Lucy and Ethel. But then we kept on fighting about who got to be Lucy. So then we decided that are definitely the Gilmore Girls. Just think about it, it’s perfect! I’m definitely Lorelei because I’m the mom and then Hna. McDonald is my hijita Rory. Anyways, we were pretty happy that we figured it out and it was just cool because it’s both of our favorite shows. We’re kind of sad to think that it has to come to an end because transfers are this next week. But we definitely had a great three months together.

We are excited for our investigators and how they are progresando. We have an investigator named Clara that is trying to quit smoking. She is really struggling but she started out with 3 packs a day and is down to 1 pack. We’re trying to help her quit that last one with little candies that have scriptures on them. I hope it works. We are also excited for Vicente who loves everything that he can learn. He can’t read but he listens to 2 CD´s of the Book of Mormon everyday. And he absolutely loved the Restoration movie and asked if he could keep it. I love seeing the change in people when they come unto Christ. We are seeing a lot of miracles in Rosedal and it’ll be interesting to see what changes are coming our way this next week. But whatever happens, I know that it is the will of the Lord and I’m just grateful to be here on the mission. I love you all and cuidense.

Les kiero,
Hna. Ellsworth

Blessings and Trials

So I am just going to say that my week was full of challenges and trials. But I was perfectly at peace and happy with that because we were going to have a baptism. I am pretty used to that. There is always a ton of huge trials before a huge blessing like a baptism. Anyways, it did not turn out as I had imagined but at least I know that Heavenly Father still loves me. So here is how it went down. We were all ready for the baptism Sunday. The baptismal font of was full and the program was planned and everything was ready to go. Everything except the person that was going to be baptized. She never showed up to church. We were really worried because everything was good and ready the day before. So we called and called but we could not find her. We even passed by during church to see what happened but she was not there. Anyways, we were pretty bummed about it but we are always just try to remember to put in our trust in the Lord and His will.

Anyways, we had called our district leader to tell him not to come to the baptism because it wasn{t going to happen. He was in Sacrament meeting so we just left a message. But when he got it, he came straight over. It was kind of weird but it was a good feeling to see our mission leader and district leader looking for us in the streets on Sunday. The elders and our mission leader and bishop were all good to us and motivated us. They know that we put a lot of hard work into this and they have faith that she will be baptized another week. I think they were all expecting us to cry because we are girls but we are pretty tough!

Anyways, after church we were still pretty bummed for Eli. But we had a meeting with Elder Arnold, the 70 of the area. He had come to speak to the new members and investigators. And the missionaries were invited with their investigators. So we went with our investigator Vicente and he loved it. Elder Arnold has a very special spirit. But the great tender mercy for me was that I saw a member that impacted my mission the most and I got to chat with him for a while. And the cooler thing was that I got to talk to one of my converts. She had come from Villa Independencia and she was telling me about her beginning trials of being a member. She has been tried a lot but she keeps pushing forward because she said she had buenas maestras. It was good feeling. She is 2^nd counselor in the RS and doing her visiting teaching and everything. I was so excited for her. So ya, I know that there are trials and not everything works out like we want it to. But I also know that Heavenly Father loves me and if we are doing our best we will always be blessed. I love the mission and I love all of you!

Les kiero,

Hna. Ellsworth

Que se yo...

I don´t have much to say and I thought about not writing a email but my mom says that i have to. So here you go…

Ayuno de la Obra Misional – So we passed by all the members of Rosedal that go to church and it took all week to do. We passed by to remind them about the Ward Fast about misión work. And we got everybody to write down 5 people that they love and don´t know about the gospel. And then they fasted for at least one of them and for all of our investigators and such. It was way cool! We received a few references in Church and we´re excited to see more miracles! And it was fun to see all the members giving us juice to drink. It´s way hot these days and i always like to give everyone the opportunity to receive the blessings. (there´s a way cool scripture in John about it but i can´t remember specifically…) it was fun to see how many glasses of juice I can drink in a day. The count is about 15… without using the bathroom. It was the smartest game but it was definitely interesting.

Surprise Lesson in Church – I showed up to church yesterday and had to give a surprise Lesson in Gospel Principle´s class. I always get a tad nervous when i have to get up in front of a bunch of people and teach a lesson in a foreign language without preparation. But i think it went well. I wanted to watch a movie called Together Forever (pretty much my favorite misión movie EVER!! I love the last song, thanks to Al. If you haven´t seen it, you should!) But the primary was using the dvd player so I gave the lesson about the three most important prayers (Christ´s Prayer in the garden of Getsemani, Joseph Smith´s prayer in the Sacred Grove, and our personal prayer). I hope it was able to answer a few questions of our investigators. I can´t wait until I can give my first lesson where i can actually prepare it beforehand. One day…

Well, I have actually ran out of time and things to say. But I´m grateful for all the miracles that are going to happen. I love you all and until next week…

Les kiero,

Hna. Ellsworth

Fun stuff!

So we had a pretty good week! We had a lot of interesting experiences and saw some interesting stuff. But i´ll try to find the funnest things that happened this week. Like the great advice of my older brother - ¨¨ïf you´re not having fun, you´re not doing it right!

Obedience Committee - I am proud to announce that Hna. McDonald and I are the Obedience Committee in the Zone Oeste. Pretty much that just means that we can call anybody in the zone and drop cane on obediente. It is a pretty sweet calling and i pretty much love it! We got one elder to take off his bracelet, another elder to get home on time, and another elder to wake up on time. We´re just dropping cane all over the place. I even got mentioned in three of the elders' interviews with President. It´s kind of a fun calling because i just quote mine and grandpa´s favorite scripture – D&C 82:10 – ¨I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say. But when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.¨ I love this scripture and it is so true. If you want to receive the blessings of the Lord, just be obediente!

Splash in Uritorco – We´re going to start doing splashes every week in the zone. And we started in Uritorco. We all did intercambios and i got to spend the day with Hna. Martinez. It was pretty fun! And we got to go to McDonald´s for lunch and I had to order for about 10 people. It was crazy but it was worth it because we had mcdonald´s and donuts for lunch – a little taste of heaven aka america!

Splash in Rosedal – we also had a splash in our area and it was a ton of fun too. We made the goal to do one more than the other splash and we got to it! I´m pretty competitive and i fell like we can always do at least one better. And we also put nicknames for each one of the companionships. Por ejemplo – the area 9 de Julio had the nickname Jamba Jugo. They were all things of the States with a Spanish Accent. It was pretty nerdy but a ton of fun! It´s the little things that keeps me going.

Entrevista con Pte.- And we had interviews with President and it went very well. He gave me some new ideas to do in my barrio. Like he always says, we need to do things that we have never done before if we want to see new results. So ya, we are pretty excited! And he told me that he wants to start doing splits with the hermanas in other areas because they are a lot more new hermanas than old ones. So i might be going to another area this week or the next to help out another hermana/area. I´m pretty stoked! It sounds pretty fun!

Vicente and Church – We found this awesome new investigador this week named Vicente. He´s 73 years old and he´s Evangelist and way funny! We couldn´t really teach him because he lives alone and we didn´t have a member with us so we invited him to church. And he even came but never entered into church because he was too embarrassed to go inside because he saw someone go in with a suit jacket. He was wearing his church best, but it wasn´t anything close to a suit. It was way sad! But we talked about it and explained a little bit more and told him that we would go together next week.

Talk in Church – So we showed up to church yesterday discovering that our names were on the programs. Apparently they forgot to tell us beforehand, so they gave me and Hna. McDonald time to talk in Sacrament Meeting. I was pretty excited because i´m used to that sort of thing. Thanks to being the bishop´s daughter before the misión and now being a missionary, I´ve already played that game several times. But poor Hna. McDonald had never experienced it. But I´m happy to report that she did a fantastic job. She did her mother proud! She talked about the plan of salvation and our live on Earth. Everyone complimented her on her Spanish. And then I gave a talk on the Light of Christ and how we can do the small and simple things to see the miracles and bring about the salvation of many souls. (Mat 5:14-16 y Alma 37:6-7) I was kind of happy about it. I´ve decided that I kind of like giving talks in church, but only kind of…

Awkward Silence with Eli – We taught Eli this week and she´s still preparing for her baptism next week. She got a few doubts this week so we kneeled down and prayed. Afterwards, we just sat and waited. There was a silence for about two minutes and then the member that was with it couldn´t handle it anymore. So she tapped Eli and Eli was crying. She had seen the image of Christ after her prayer, and she had no doubts that she needed to be baptized. It was a pretty intense experience. I love the influence of the Spirit and how we really can know the truth of all things through the power of the Holy Ghost. That is a pretty powerful gift that the Lord gives us. I hope that i never take advantage of this great gift and privilege. I love the influence of the Spirit and the experiences that we have through it.

well, i love you all and keep following the Spirit and having fun!

les kiero,

hna. ellsworth

Dreams of White Dresses

Alright, I´m going to be completely honest and tell you that I have no idea what to write this week. It has been a long week and not a lot of interesting things have happened. The end. Ok, just kidding, but seriously it has been a pretty long week. We are in the triple digits in the temperature and I´m getting more tanned and blond. We have been struggling with finding people to teach because everyone goes off to vacations. It´s probably the worst thing to do to walk in the siesta when everybody is sleeping in their houses and it´s a 100 degrees outside. I´m not a fan! And we tried to knock doors and we actually had a naked guy come to the door. Awkward!!! But thankfully, we keep on going and find the blessings.

But we are teaching Eli and she´s pretty awesome. I can´t remember if I told you about her but she studied with the missionaries before but didn´t get baptized because she had a complication. Anyways, she asked us to pass by urgently and she wants to get baptized now. It was pretty much a miracle! Anyways, in our first charla we talked to her about prayer and how she needs to ask Heavenly Father if she needs to be baptized. And then we explained that she has to wait for the answer afterwards. Here´s the example I used… Sometimes we say our prayers and then end it with Amen and get up and go on with our day or go to bed. But really, if we were talking to a friend or family and we asked a question, we would wait and listen for the answer. It is the same with Heavenly Father. We always need to wait and listen after our prayers so that we can receive the answers. And it is always a good idea to have a paper and pen to write down the impressions that we receive. So we explained that and invited her to do that. So she does and you want to know what happened. She saw herself dressed in white and Jesus Christ with his arms open. If that´s not a direct and specific answer to a prayers, I don´t know what is. It was pretty amazing!

And the same thing happened to another lady that we are teaching, the familia Gutierrez. Actually she´s the one with the hellian kids, but we taught her and and we ended it with a prayer. She then asked us why she saw herself dressed in white while she was saying the prayer. Crazy, right!? Anyways, they are amazing but they just have to make it to church on their own. But we are trying to help them to get there. We also have another investigator that had studied with the missionaries before and asked us to pass by urgently and she asked us if she could get baptized! Adriana is pretty awesome but she left to go to vacations. But she has a testimony of everything and is excited for her baptism. But ya, we are just seeing a ton of miracles and blessings! The mission is great and I love you all! Keep all of the missionaries in your prayers and remember that every member is a missionary. Go and Do!!

Love ya!

Hna. Ellsworth

Email home on Jan. 17th: "Come What May and Love It"

Well this week has been way too much excitement for me. But I am so very happy to report that we received transfers and I will be staying with Hna. McDonald in Rosedal for another six weeks. Woot! Woot! The other hermanas have moved on to bigger and better things but I am very grateful for their work and help in these last couple of weeks. We have shared a lot of great moments together and I’m definitely grateful for their help in improving my gringa accent. Well this week was full of exciting and dramatic moments. But as always, I’ve tried to take the counsel of Elder Wirthlin - "Come what may and love it!"

Broken Toilet – So we started the week with a broken bathroom. Apparently the Argentinean toilet can not withstand four hermanas. Well, it broke on a Saturday night and we couldn’t get anyone to fix it until Monday. I’m glad that we sanctified the Sabbath day but let me tell you, I was not a happy camper about it. We ended up having to use the bathroom in the church, which is a thirty minute walk. Yep, another blessing that I have taken for granted. Well, not anymore.

Oops President, we lost one… Saturday was probably one of the most dramatic days of my entire mission. I was working with Hna. McDonald with the help of a member and we were in an amazing appointment with this beautiful family. Anyways, I had my phone off and when we left, I found six missed calls from the other hermanas. I called them back to find out that they had split up. The mini missionary was lost, alone, and crying in the street. So we had to run and find her and I had to call the zone leaders, and then talk to the assistants and mission president. Ya, it was pretty crazy. We finally found both of the hermanas and they just started sobbing in my arms. Anyways, to make a long story short, they’re both fine now and I learned the importance of patience and charity.

10 Hellions in the Church – Well the other companionship invited a couple of families to church that had a ton of kids. But there was a communicational error. They explained church to be a place where you get breakfast and you have a little party. So all the kids came alone and the parents stayed home to sleep. So we had a ton of kids asking for food and a party. We had to explain that we were in a house of the Lord and that they would be learning about Jesus Christ. I am sad to say, but they were a tad bit disappointed. They started teaching the other little primary kids (and the gringas) curse words and even started to find with a couple of them. They were out of control and the primary teachers were begging for our help. Anyways, we finally ended up searching for the parents and asked them to control their kids. They decided just to take their kids home. It was kind of a sad, but I think it’ll be fine. But we don have to go make cookies for all of the primary teachers now. At least it makes for a good story in the journal.

Anyways, I ran out of time to write but I’m excited for this new transfer with Hna. McDonald. We are going to baptize and work hard and be obedient and see all of the Miracles. I love being in the mission and learning all of these fun lessons. And having that fun reminder to come what may and love it!

Love ya,

"Do Your Best" and "Dance in the Rain"

Well the mission work continues in Rosedal. With doubling our forces, we have also doubled our efforts and results. We have twice as many investigators, baptism dates, church attendance, and everything. The Lord is truly blessing the hermanas in Rosedal. I have a had a lot of amazing experiences this week and I would like to share a couple of things that I have learned this week.

So I have been dubbed the first hermana district leader. I have to say that i´m a little proud of my title. (I know that pride is a sin. I´ll try to repent.) But I have learned a lot from the short calling and I´ve decided to be more grateful for all of my leaders in the mission and church. I´ve decided that it is not as easy as it looks. But I have learned a lot about patience and charity and all of those other great Christlike attributes. I absolutely love the other hermanas! It´s crazy because we all have our strengths and weaknesses. I might have more time in the mission than all of the other hermanas put together, but honestly I am learning more from them than I could ever teach them. I am so impressed with the other hermanas. One is a mini-missionary and the other has a week in Argentina. Neither of them know the area, investigators, members, ni nothing. But they went out on Sunday morning to search for investigators. They arrived late because they got lost, but they brought four of our investigators with them! It was AMAZING!!

The Lord honestly blesses when we do our best. Just always remember that´s the only thing that the Lord asks of us – our best. Whenever I have some hard times, I think of my grandpa´s counsel - ¨Do Your Best! Just work on getting better. Don´t become perfect or you might be translated.¨ I love that! I realized that I´m not perfect but I can do everything I can to do a little bit better and become more like Him. It´s a hard process but i actually have been studying the Christlike attributes a ton. And i have had a lot of revelation and understanding of charity and patience this week. I really can feel the stregnth and help of the Lord with me. It´s crazy! I really do feel like an instrument and the hands of the Lord. I love the mission and how it shapes me to be a better person. I still have a ton of imperfections and a long way ago but i´m grateful for the things that i´m learning.

Another quote that has helped this week was one I found in my journal from Liz (THANKS LIZ!!!! I love it!! And p.s. the grass hair is growing and I named her Macarena, nickname Maca!) Here we go - ¨Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it is about learning to dance in the rain.¨ I have applied this quote in my life literally. There has been a lot of rain and I remember one day in particular. We had a hard day with appointments not being there or not having time. We passed by an inactive and talked with her and then she kicked us out while it was raining. We left and then it started to rain harder. It was not one of my happier moments but then I remember this quote and I decided to apply it to my life. And you know what happened, I felt this overwhelming feeling of joy! That is what life is all about. We have trials and problems and challenges, but if we can just learn to smile and enjoy it, we can find the happiness and joy that only our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ can give us. I just want to testify that I know that Jesus Christ lives. I know that Heavenly Father loves me and knows me. Everyday I work on having a closer relationship with Him and I can see the blessings and tender mercies in my life. I love you all and I hope you too do your best and learn to dance in the rain.

Les amo,

Hna. Ellsworth